Z'en - UE Square

Hello again! (:  How was your Halloween weekend? My mum's birthday falls on Halloween, so we went to dinner at a Japanese restaurant to celebrate her birthday!

My dad brought us to Z'en - A Japanese restaurant at UE Square, for a Shabu Shabu buffet, and I LOVED IT!!!! (Can't wait to introduce it to you!) 

But first, here are some photos of the restaurant!

I didn't manage to take more photos of the interior of the restaurant, but I assure you that it's bigger than what you see in the photos. There is also some seating on the second and third level. However, I suggest you make a reservation before heading down to Z'en because it can get quite packed.

They also have an alfresco area, which is very nice, but I feel that it's not ideal for Shabu Shabu because you will feel damn warm!

We were all famished by the time we arrived at Z'en, so we started to order start away! First, I will explain how the buffet works:

What you see here is the buffet menu. So basically, you can order anything you want within this menu as everything in this menu is included in the buffet. Once you've decided what you want, just place your orders with the waiter and they will serve you your food! (Awesome!)

Drinks cost $5 but it's free flow. You can choose between regular soft drinks, green tea, juice, and calpis! 

Btw, more than the hot green tea comes in a pot, and multiple cups can be issued with 1 pot of green tea. So if you want to make you money worth, you can just order 1 pot of green tea and share it among 5 people or something! haha!

The buffet costs $52++ for adults on weekdays and $18 for children aged 6-12. Now check this out: On weekends, adults only have to pay $42++ for the buffet! (:

Alright, so here's the food!

Tempura Veg and Prawn! I love Tempura! 

Beef and Mushroom Roll - Very delicious because I love golden mushroom!

The must-have Salmon Sashimi! I'm actually not a sashimi eater, but GD and my dad's friends enjoyed it! 

Soft Shell Crab Maki! A must have for me whenever I have sushi! I just love soft shell crab in/with anything!

You MUST MUST MUST order this Sirloin Steak - It's DELICIOUS!!!

It's soft, tender and juicy!

Totally melts in your mouth!

We order multiple portions of this (getting hungry thinking about it now!)

Mmmmmm....

Grilled Squid - My mum loves this! It's really good - the sauce is flavourful, and the squid is nice and tender.

Perfect!

Baked Pumpkin with Butter - A light and simple dish, but very yummy at the same time!

Fried Osyters 

Garlic Fried Rice - love love love love love!

And now the Beef for Shabu Shabu - It was so good, I ate so much until I was so full! 

The beef made the soup taste so flavourful as well!

The Veg for the shabu shabu!

(:

After that we ordered desserts (included in the buffet)

This is the Tofu Cheesecake! It's sooooooooo light and soft! 

Initially, I was skeptical about a Tofu cheesecake but I was pleasantly surprised after I tried it!

Coconut Creme Brulee - 2 thumbs up! My dad ate 2 and a half bowls of this.

After dinner, I felt so full until I couldn't move!

Alright, that's all for the food, I hope you had fun looking at them! (:

Here's a photo of GD and I, just for fun! LOL!

Price:

Weekdays: Adults $52++, Children: $18++

Weekends: Adults $42++, Children $18++

*I think its very worth it for the quality of food they serve!

The Meal:

Absolutely delightful! Try it, I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed! 

The Ambience:

Very nice place, we sat on the second level which had quite some privacy, and privacy is always a good thing! (:

The Service:

The staff was quite helpful but service was pretty slow. We had to wait quite long for our food to be served. GD said that it's their tactic to discourage us from eating too much! haha

Overall:

FOUR DONUTS because the food is good and absolutely value for money! 

I'm so glad that I'm able to share this fantastic place with you guys, so please visit Zen and try their shabu shabu buffet!

If you are not in the mood for buffet, you can always order from the ala carte menu! 

Address:

205 River Valley Road, #01-75 UE Square 

Singapore 235275

Telephone:

6732 3110

Opening Hours:

Monday-Friday: 12pm to 2.30pm, 6pm to 12am

Saturday, Sunday and Public Holidays: 6pm to 12am

Website:

http://www.endiningbars.com/zen/contact/

That's all for Zen, have a good week ahead! (:

Lots of Love,

Huiyi

La Galette de France

Hey everyone!!!

Another post from another eatery in Perth :) 

This post is going to be special because I'm going to combine a few different visits into one overall review! 

This post is about one of my favourite small little cafes that I keep going back to time and time again...cos I LOVE IT! woohoo! 

La Galette de France is a quaint little cafe that is situated in Nedlands and is really near to the University of Western Australia. They also have other branches at Subiaco Station Street Market, South Perth and Kalamunda. 

 Inside the cafe! (Nedlands) 

The cafe specializes in a variety of delicious pastries and yummy pies! 

These are some of the fruit tarts (AUD$4) that we ordered.

A yummy chocolate eclair (AUD$4) ! So deliciousss...!! 

One cute little macaroon that Cass ordered! Haha. Can't remember which flavour this was though! 

This was the time when I came with Cass for a nice afternoon tea :):):)

Another great thing about La Galette de France is their yummy coffees that always are accompanied by a little  biscuit thingy at the side?? haha. Not too sure what it's called but they also sell them at their store! But Huiyi doesn't like eating them..so I always get 2...yay! haha. 

Huiyi and I when she was still here in Perth with me to always try new places!!! :( 

That was us ready to tuck into our pies! 

They have a variety of pies that include beef, chicken, mince, lamb curry and ratatouille (vegetarian)

Beef mince pie (AUD$5)

This was yet another visit to La Galette de France with my friends Dallas and Roy who were visiting me from Singapore! 

Quiche Lorraine that has ham and cheese inside! 

(AUD$4.50)

Vanilla slice (AUD$4.80)

The vanilla slice has a delicious custard that is filled between layers of filo pastry! YUMS! 

Almond Croissant (AUD$4.50)

This is DEFINITELY my favourite favourite favourite item from the cafe/bakery! The croissant is extremely tasty and fluffy and light and delicious...and the list goes on forever! I really love it! And there's also the same yummy cream from the vanilla slice! 

All our items! The Almond croissant is so good that we had to order one each! 

And this was us at the cafe, the picture was taken by the lovely French waitress! 

Price:

Most of the items are about $4-$5

The Meal:

The food is always delicious and very consistent! 

The Ambience

The cafe is between residential houses in the heart of Nedlands and has a cute French(y) feel to it! It's pretty small and cosy and has both indoor and outdoor seating. I love sitting outside though! 

The Service:

The service is pretty ok...you have to order at the counter and the food will be delivered to the table. Most of the wait staff are usually French (I think?) and most of them are pretty friendly and nice! 

Overall:

All in all, La Galette de France definitely ticks all my boxes, which is why I always go back!! :) Its' convenient location makes it such a great place for UWA students to go to, so if you are from UWA and you haven't been here, it's time for you to do so! 

Address/Opening Hours:

Nedlands branch:

125B Broadway, Nedlands WA 6009

Mon-Sat: 6.30am-4pm

Sun: 7.30am-2pm

South Perth: 3/35 Mends Street, South Perth WA 6151

Mon-Fri: 6.30am-3.30pm

Sat: 6.30am-5pm

Sun: 7am-4pm

Kalamunda: 22 Haynes Street, Kalamunda WA 6076

Tue-Sun: 7am-4pm

Subiaco: Subiaco Station Street Markets, Subiaco WA 6008

Fri-Sun: 7am-5.30pm

Website:

http://lagalettedefrance.com.au/

Have a great week ahead guys! :)

Love, 

Tiff 

Rendezvous Restaurant Hock Lock Kee- Central

Hello friends! How was your Deepavali? I hope you guys had fun, or had some well needed rest! 

I spent my Deepavali celebrating my Grand Dad's 81st birthday, and it was alot of fun!

Upon my Grand Dad's request, we made a reservation at Rendezvous Restaurant for some authentic Nasi Padang! I've always thought that Rendezvous was a weird name for a Nasi Padang Restaurant!!! I think the restaurant was originally called Hock Lock Kee, but because it used to be situated at Hotel Rendezvous, hence the name Rendezvous Restaurant? Am I right? 

So anyway, my whole family (or at least those that are still left in Singapore) headed down to Central (hate the Central layout btw) for lunch!

Here are some shots of the restaurant:

I suppose this was their first building, because it says Hock Lock Kee in front.

Argh, why was standing in such an unladylike manner!?

Our table, 12!

Cool, old school tiles line the walls of the restaurant. 

All the information you need to know before ordering!

Mmmm, looks good!

While waiting for food....

Max, GD and Ben!

Cute grandparents! (:

My Dad and Grand Dad!

Ben and Mallorie playing "scissors paper stone"

Okay! Our food has finally arrived! (:

I didn't know what this is called, so I googled and its Begedil! I've always loved these potato patties and I was really looking forward to having it, but I was slightly disappointed because it wasn't as tasty as I remembered it to be (when the restaurant was still at Hotel Rendezvous). It was still nice but it tasted much better last time!

Curry Chicken - Crap! I forgot to try this yesterday!

Sambal Brinjal - My grand dad's personal favourite! Not my kind of thing though. When I asked him how it was, he said that it used to be better as well. SIGH. 

But if any of you love Brinjals you can try it. I suppose the sambal's not very spicy, because my grand dad doesn't really take chilli but he still eats this.

Cabbage - I like! It was not spicy so I like to eat it with some curry sauce.

Chicken Rendang - I ate this and it was good!

Fish Sambal - I really really like this one because it was spicy and I love fish! (:

Curry Veg - Lots of ladyfingers! Awesome curry, I ate my cabbage with this curry! YUM!

Beef Rendang - Very popular with my family, we had to order an additional portion of it because it was gone SO FAST.

Sambal Sotong! Nice nice! It wasn't too hard so it was easy to eat. 

Sorry I forgot what this is called, or rather, I never did know what this is called. Some veg and tau hu thing I think! I didn't eat it because I don't like tau hu. Hehe

Assam Fish! It was quite nice, but I would have preferred curry fish head or smth! That's my personal taste because I'm not really into sour food, so I'm not that big of an assam fan.

Digging in already, but rice has not been served yet!

And so we ate... and ate.... and ate....

... till the food was all gone!

After lunch we hung around at Central, and bought some bread from Barcook Bakery, bubble tea from Gong Cha, and candies from Sticky. Then we headed home to this! :

Lana Cake! It's our family's favourite cake! I've had it for my birthday since I was 1 (:

It's delicious! I love how light and fluffy the sponge cake is and how the chocolate frosting is also light and not too sweet! I'm sad that it's standard has dropped as well because I remember it being more moist last time. But I still love it no matter what!

Family photo! 

My grandparents are so cute!!!

♥

Price:

Meat/Poultry/Fish: $4.20 - $9.20 depending on type/parts etc

Side dishes: $3.60 - $12.60 depending on size

The Meal:

All I can say is that although the meal was nice, the standard of the food has dropped from what it was a few years ago. 

The Ambience:

Large, spacious and well-lit, good for big gatherings. I would have preferred a round table instead of a long table so that everyone can see each other and talk to one another without having to shout from one end of the table to another. But I suppose the long table is very Peranakan. When I watched "Little Nonya", I saw that they always had those 'Long table dinners' or something similar to that, so I guess it's part of their culture!

The Service:

Average service. The boss was there, and he was quite smiley and friendly!

Overall:

I feel that it's such a pity that the standard dropped! I know my grandparents were quite disappointed with it because they remembered it to be soooo amazing, and my grand dad was so excited to go there for lunch! But all in all, they still serve good food, and I would go back for selected dishes.

Address:

6 Eu Tong Sen Street, #02-72 to 75/77/92

The Central

Singapore 059817

Telephone:

+65 6339 7508

Website:

http://www.rendezvous-hlk.com.sg/

Opening Hours:

11am-9pm daily!

That's all for today! Hope you had fun reading this post!

P.S. The weekend is almost here, so hang in there!!! (:

Lots of love,

Huiyi