Cliff(y) Goes Dining

Heavenly fried calamari with butter sauce! Ah Loy Thai has been known as an eatery which serves authentic cuisine of the Land of White Elephant at affordable prices. I've only been to Shaw Towers a few times thus far, and it was only on my last visit that I decided to step into the eatery.

Singapore's first and only customisable sushi and salad! Fancy customising your hand-rolled sushi  and/or salad? Here at Maki San, you can do that simply by grabbing a form and ticking the ingredients that you'd like to have for your meal. Currently available at The Cathay @ Dhoby Ghaut and The Arcade @ Raffles Place, the branch that I went to was the latter.

Hamburg steak has become smaller? I used to frequent Pepper Lunch during my secondary school days. After a long period of hiatus, I decided to give it another go, patronising the relatively new branch at Cathay Cineleisure Orchard. Do you know that the logo is shaped in the form of a palette to symbolise the dream of its founder, Mr. Kunio Ichinose? It's said that "he sees the world as a white canvas where he wishes to add colours with his restaurants to make people happy."

Nasi lemak ice cream!? Initially known for its extraordinary ice cream, Swensen's was founded in San Francisco, the USA in 1948. Today, it has grown to about 300 outlets worldwide. Upon knowing that the restaurants in Singapore are now serving a peculiar-flavoured ice cream variant, I immediately patronised the branch at Plaza Singapura.

"Even the Godfather loves it!" Be natural, nice and excellent. These are the three principles that have been guiding Marco Alfero, the owner who first opened his café at Marina Square in September 2011. I chanced upon one of the branches while I was wandering inside Orchard Gateway, one of the latest additions to the vibrancy of Singapore's shopping paradise.

Juicy mixed kushiyaki grilled with imported charcoal! Being a Japanese restaurant that specialises in kushiyaki (Japanese grilled skewered items), Shin Kushi-Ya is proud to present an enormous selection of mouth-watering skewered meat and vegetables. It also boasts the use of imported bincho charcoal which is said to "[enable] a crisp exterior whilst sealing the natural flavours [and] juice within" the skewered items.

So-so beef noodles, but good chicken chop noodles! The Paradise Group, which manages restaurants such as Paradise Dynasty , has recently come up with a casual, no-frills eatery that focuses mainly on Taiwanese beef noodles. At the point of writing, you can find Le Nu at VivoCity and Bugis Junction, the former being the place that I'm going to write a review on.

Two delightful chicken dishes done Indonesian style! UPDATE (04/12/2015):  The restaurant has closed down. The Moluccas Room was born in an attempt to elevate Indonesian cuisine to the level of fine dining, adding yet another chic restaurant in The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands. The name Moluccas refers to the Maluku Islands, which are also informally known as the Spice Islands due to its historical significance as a hub of trading of the said goods.

Crispy chicken wings with Thai chili sauce! I've recently had the chance to visit the Singapore Zoo again after 10 years. While walking through the replicas of habitats all over the world did bring back fond memories, it was dining at Bongo Burgers again that I was anticipating at the end of the day, despite the fact that I didn't enter the Night Safari afterwards.

Rice ladled with flavourful soy sauce! Central Hong Kong Café claims itself to be the first HK style café chain in Singapore which has been in operation since 2004. Well, the Central District of HK has always hold a place in my heart, more so after the student exchange programme in 2012.

Serving juicy beef burgers since 1928 in Canada! Hailing from Vancouver, Canada even before even before the Golden Arches came into the fast food scene, Triple O's has had a total of more than 60 outlets to date throughout the maple country and Asia. Boasting its 100% Canadian beef patties with secret sauce, thick-cut fries and hand-scooped milkshakes, the outlet at Orchard Road is probably one of the few in Singapore to offer poutine (Canadian fries served with brown sauce and cheese curds).