Porridge Buffet at The Rajah Inn

Another good recommendation from Picky Girlfriend's colleagues who brought her to a porridge buffet for one!  Picky Girlfriend is considered a fan of teochew porridge due to the variety of dishes available but sometimes did not go ahead with the purchase since it's quite limited how much 1 person can order in the usual stall. So a porridge buffet was definitely a welcome since there are lots of dishes available and you can get to try a bit of everything!

Futhermore we have not blogged about porridge buffet since the last one at Suntec, but it's already closed since the place has gone through major renovation.

And the most attractive thing about the buffet...... was the price! At only $6.90++ per adult, it's like a true gem found. So this time Picky Girlfriend brought Fussy Boyfriend along, who is an avid fan of teochew style porridge too. Rajah inn offers a indo-chinese style, porridge buffet which suits our tastebuds too!

Serving is based on self service, and dishes are served in buffet lines. Here are some of then items we tried!



















Chinese sausage

 

















Braised peanuts


 

















Steamed egg

 

















Minced meat

And Picky Girlfriend's favourite are the following:

 

















Braised Pork belly! Super sinful but once popped, it melts in the mouth. Very very heavenly!


 

















Bean paste bittergourd, which is very very good too! We know that alot of people aren't fans of bittergourd, but this dish is so well cooked! A must to complement porridge, otherwise might seem a little salty to eat on its own. 

 

















And fried fish fillet! Seldom a dish to go with porridge, but this fried fish fillet taste good even on its own with light seasonings on the batter. Head towards the cashier counter to get yourself some mayonnaise to go with it!

And finally Picky Girlfriend presents.... The porridge collage! Realised too few photos were taken due to famished us who cleared the dishes before our camera were dished out. We definitely tried alot more different dishes! :)


























Very affordable porridge buffet with lots of variety and good service. Definitely one that is hard to come by. Will be back for lunch anytime soon and also perhaps to try out what they offer for steamboat too!


Both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend rating for Porridge buffet: 4.25/5 

The Rajah Inn
302 Tiong Bahru Road #02-13/14/15
Tiong Bahru Plaza
Opens daily: 11:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m (note porridge buffet is only for lunch hours 11.30am - 2.30pm)

Seafood Trail by the Sea @Barnacles

And yes Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend are back in action! With the festive season coming up, we thought it will be good to recommend more atas places for dinner!

Picky Girlfriend was lucky enough to win a contest which entitles us to dine at Barnacles! As the name suggests, we are in for a treat for SEAFOOOOOOOD buffet! We have so many yummy pictures to share so let the pictures do the talking!

The restaurant is not big, but selection is available indoors (for appetizers, desserts and cold dishes) and outdoors (for soups and BBQ food).

So we started off with the appetizers and cold dishes.

Cold prawns and Alaskan Cold crabs! Picky Girlfriend's favourite is to dip the prawns in thousand island sauce! Yummms.

 

 Quail egg with roes

 

And freshly opened oysters. Fussy Boyfriend tried a few and commented it was fresh and sweet! Picky Girlfriend gave it a miss as it was too raw and slimey for her liking!

 

Big succulent salad prawns with Thai sauce. Definitely love prawns which are fresh, big and crunchy! And more importantly since they are already peeled, it saves us the trouble of peeling the prawns! ;)  

Other cold dishes include salad, sushi, sashimi etc!

Next we proceeded to the hot food section.

Seafood soup which tasted not bad! Fussy Boyfriend actually had 2 servings of this!

And Picky Girlfriend had 2 servings of unagi! Sweet and very yummy!

And the highlight is probably the BBQ section! 

Grilled squid and softshell Crab! The former was too chewy for both our liking, but the latter was crispy.

 If you are also in the mood for some local delight, you can find sambal stingray too!

The seafood we ate most was the chunky fish pieces, topped with lemon butter sauce! You know how usually fish can be too dry after BBQ-ing them, but the sauce works perfectly on them! Such a good blend that we actually use the sauce as dipping sauce for other items too :)

 

 

And this is not to be missed - BBQ Crayfish! Gets wiped out pretty fast and we love that the fact that the fleshy crayfish has a tinge of smokey taste. Big, juicy and yummy! We lost count of the number of times we ate this ;)

This was recommended by the chef while Fussy Boyfriend was hovering around the stations deciding what to eat next. Apparently, they thought he is a tourist so they explained everything to him in mandarin on what's available. hurhur, so Fussy Boyfriend played along. HA!

 Garoupa fish! So lightly seasoned you can simply taste the freshness of the fish! Thumbs up!

 Grilled tiger prawns!

And of course to add a balance to the super intense seafood meal, we got the chefs to dish up some vegetables for us too!

The mushroom is very very yummy. Consist of about 2-3 different types of mushroom and cooked simply with garlic.

Can't resist sambal kang kong too! So so so yummy and local that Picky Girlfriend can't resist and scoop some white rice to go with it ;)

And again the chef thought we were tourists, so actually told us this dish could be quite spicy! Bring it on! ha

.

And like the famous saying - always save some space for desserts! The choice of desserts is not very extensive, but well, the focus is on the seafood, so desserts is already secondary (in our opinion!). Despite the limitations, we still managed to try some desserts which is not too bad!

Fussy Boyfriend loves the jackfruit cake (top right) and the yam mousse on (middle left), while Picky Girlfriend thought the Strawberry Crumble (middle right) tasted interesting and a nice twist comparing to the conventional apple crumble.

Worth the money and has good ambiance facing the sea (though can't see much at night). BBQ section a must try. Feeling hungry while looking at the photos we took!

Both Picky girlfriend & Fussy Boyfriend rating for seafood buffet : 4.25/5

Seafood Trail by the Sea @Barnacles

Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa

101 Siloso Road, Sentosa

Seafood Trail available every Thursday, until 16 December 2012
6pm to 8.30pm / 8.30pm to 10pm
SGD68++ per adult / SGD25++ per child (6 to 12 years)

Tom Yam Goong Thai Food

Still on the coupon frenzy, Picky Girlfriend bought another set of coupons for a Thai buffet meal! Thai food always never fails to attract, the spicy tom yam, tangy mango salad, flavoursome green curry are Picky Girlfriend's weakness!

Sometimes coupon website like this really offers quite alot of choices and so it's a good time to try things we have not tried before and at a discounted rate! Sale of coupon is always limited so do look out for yummy food deals here.







































Sawat-Dee krup!

At first impression, the buffet spread offered was very similar to the Suan Thai buffet we have tried previously. A total of 26 items are available, with some items as a one time order at $18 is really quite a steal.




















It was already quite late when we reached the restaurant for dinner (Probably close to 8.30pm) and the place was really crowded so it was lucky that we made prior reservation.



































Under the buffet menu, ice lemon tea is also served free flow, and both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend really love this drink as it is very refreshing! And of course the "fire-saving" alternative for Fussy Boyfriend when he finds any of the food items too spicy ;)

Probably due to the crowd, it took a while before our orders were served and in between some orders were missed. But luckily the-very-shiok tom yam soup made up for it!




















Dont be judged by the clear tom yam soup colour, it can be quite spicy! Definitely gives you the kick and drink it while it's hot! We also love the fact that all the prawns' intentines are cleaned up and are super crunchy!

Picky Girlfriend can't help but ordered another serving of tom yam soup! (tom yam prawn is a one time order, or you can still order tom yam soup with chicken - which taste the same with just a chance of the main ingredient).















This is another multiple orders which we had - Fish Fillet in 3 flavour sauce. A little sour, sweet and crispy, all the right combination which made the fish taste yummy!

Papaya salad we tried out of curiosity as this is really not the usual kind of dish we will order, and it was surprisingly good! Crunchy, sourish with a tinge of spicyness by the chilli padi really increased the appetite!




















Other items we tried! Must try include green curry and pineapple rice. Raisins can be found in the pineapple rice which made it tastier! The pomelo salad was quite refreshing too.





















There are actually more dishes we didnt manage to try since we weren't too hungry. For beef lovers, there are really quite a few options (can't rate the beef dishes cos both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend do not eat beef, so let us know if you have a chance to try it!). Full buffet list can be found here.

And more importantly it is Halal certified which gives another option for our Muslim friends! What other buffets do you know of that is Halal certified, let us know! :)

Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend's rating for Thai buffet: 3.5/5
(Price of all day buffet - $18 nett!)

Tom Yam Goong Thai Food
351 Bedok Road
Simpang Bedok

Opening Hours : Mon - Thurs (11.30am - 3pm, 5pm-10pm), Fri - Sun (11.30 - 10pm)
How to get there:
Bus Service 2, 9 and 10

Tian Fu Hong Kong Style Steamboat 天府港式火锅小厨

If you are looking for a place for friends / family gathering, this is the place that Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend will recommend. A place that is also suitable for piping hot food on a rainy day...

Our first choice will be....Steamboat!















We will always come for the ala-carte buffet with twin soup base (yuan-yang pot) of Tom Yam and chicken soup base (Fish soup and spicy soup is also FOC). For those who want something special, you may want to try their specialty satay soup base or other soups at separate charge.





















The soup base is really shiok, especially the Tom yam! Super suitable on a rainy day! Having yuan yang pot allows you to have 2 distinct flavours to go with the steamboat items and also to cater to different preference (like how Picky Girlfriend loves spicy food whereas Fussy Boyfriend prefers a lighter soup base).






















Before and after order

And interestingly, there is also a chart that shows you the top 3 items ordered for the month with the number of plates ordered indicated.





















Just check out our orders :)





















And this was just Round 1 ;)

Ok we made it sound alot, but we really only order 2 rounds! Previously there was a period where we ate alot and it was easily 3 rounds! (gasps!). Have to control to make sure we are not over-eating especially when there are so much yummy food to explore and blog about them!





















Put all the ingredients into the pot and wait for it to boil to dig in!

You know how sometimes when you are at a new place and unsure of what to order? Picky Girlfriend's tip is to order those with Chef's recommendation that really is one of the safest choice. And since we have been here several times, we could easily know what items we wanted to order! The must orders we will have every time we are there include:





















3-layer pork














Wantons






















And also the fish paste, we created a "Fish-paste" collage to show you how to cook this :) Very fresh, "Q" and yummy! we ordered 3 servings of this :)















This was taken at almost 11pm and still packed with people. So remember to make a reservation before you head down for this steamboat!

Both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend's overall rating for steamboat 4.25/5

Tian Fu Hong Kong Style Steamboat 天府港式火锅小厨
214 Tanjong Katong Road
Singapore 437007
Opening hours 11am – 3pm, 5pm – 2am

How to get there:
Bus no. 10, 31, 32, 40, 43, 76, 76A, 135, 135A, 197

Yum Cha Ala-carte Dim Sum Buffet

This is probably the place that both Picky Girl and Fussy Boyfriend will think of when we are craving for dim sum buffet. There are quite limited places available that provide dim sum buffet at affordable rates and quality food.

Previously there were still River City Restaurant or Dragon Gate restaurant but they are all closed already. So Yum Cha is probably one of the better affordable ones remaining :)

There were quite alot of variety and every now and then the staff will be pushing the cart so you can choose the available food that are freshly prepared by kitchen. If you didn't manage to see what you want, just order from the staff.

If you have been following our blog, you would know we can't resist these!

Lots of siew mai and har gaos!







































The Siew mais here tasted better than the har gaos so we ordered that twice!

And this is something that you would need to order more the moment you reach! Order more as it seems to run out fairly quickly.














Mini egg tarts

We like the fact that the egg is softer and the tart has a slight crisp to it. And it's mini so you can pop it in in 1 bite! :)

And this is another interesting dim sum - Prawn and mango roll! Seafood and mango makes a good combination by giving a slight fruity twist to the usual fried dim sum where you may get sick of eating them easily.




















And also chee cheong fan with char siew filling. Nothing much to rave about but good enough to fix that craving.




















And there were so many others that we tried. Yes just the 2 of us and we ordered so much! Leaving no other space for dinner which is the usual case after any high tea buffet!


































Are you craving for some dim sum already? :)

Both Picky Girlfriend and Fussy Boyfriend's overall rating for Dim Sum buffet: 3.5/5

Tips:

• $19.80++ for High tea dim sum buffet
  
• High tea buffet is only available on weekdays 3pm-6pm so if you have working commitments, you may have to take the afternoon off just to enjoy this!
• Many of the dim sum comes in 3-4 servings, so would be good to have 3 person eating together :)
  

PS: We only know of a few places that serves dim sum at affordable rates, so if you happen to know any others, tip us off so we can have another dim sum food hunt again! :)


Yum Cha (Chinatown)
20 Trengganu Street
#02-01
Opening hours 11am - 11pm
(Note: High tea Dim Sum Buffet only available weekdays 3pm-6pm)