Ambience: 4/10 (We were seated near the toilet, had to borrow chairs from other tables and help clean up the table ourselves, the restaurant was busy and noisy the entire evening and servers was not friendly at all.. THAT SAID, dining at Long Ji was still worth it because the food was really good!)

Taste: 9/10 (I am not a crab fanatic like most of my family members are but wow this crab beehoon tasted really amazing. The wokhey from the beehoon that was stir fried with a copious amount of garlic, and the thick, flavourful broth are perfect when combined. SO GOOD. Other dishes worth ordering include the drunken prawns in claypot, stir fried meesua, coffee pork ribs and green dragon vegetable stir fried with garlic!!! 😍)

Taste: 4/10 (The char siew was dry and the roasted pork, tough and not crispy at all.. We used to rush over to Alex’s for lunch all the way from Tanjong Pagar when I was clocking my internship.. and I remember the meats to be much tastier. Meats aside, the legendary dark sauce was also lacking in flavour, just plain sweet.. Will opt for Fatty Cheong over this any day!)

Price: 8/10 (We paid $8-10 per pax for 2 plates of rice with an assortment of meat and a bowl of salted vegetable soup.. Food here is very reasonably priced considering the rental cost)

Deep fried fermented bean paste pork belly - crispy on the outside; firm yet tender on the inside.. This dish was SO SO SO DELICIOUS, my family went back for a second round the next weekend! Taste: 10/10 🌟

Price: 7/10 (Compared to other zichar establishments, food at JB Ah Meng is slightly more expensive but IMO well worth the heftier price tag.. We paid $24 for the large portion, but prices start from $12 for this dish)

I have tried a couple of dishes at Fuel Plus+ and all have been pretty good! 😛 This time, we ordered the carbonara farfalle ($15) and tomyam seafood pasta ($16). After using our BB deal, we paid about $22 in total.

Taste: 7/10 (My tomyam pasta was flavourful but not overly rich.. very balanced dish. The mussels, prawn and clams were also very fresh. I’ve tried 5 pastas off their menu offering 9 to 10 types. My personal favourite is the truffle bacon mushroom farfalle! Please give it a try if you do visit)

Ambience: 8/10 (Located along Morse Road, this cafe is not the most accessible.. but the location also lends it a very laidback, chill vibe which is sometimes not easy to find in cafes located in central parts of the island)

Price: 9/10 (Extremely affordable if you have subscribe to Burpple Beyond)

Brought my mum out for afternoon tea while I was off from work!!!

Taste: 7/10 (This TWG pink flamingo tea - blend of green tea with crimson hibiscus blossoms - was so tart and refreshing!)

Ambience: 7/10 (The servers were extremely friendly, but as the lounge started to fill up with diners, it became much harder to get help from any of the servers)

Price: 8/10 (Afternoon tea set became extremely affordable after making use of the Burpple Beyond deal! Paid approximately $39 for 2)

I have never been a fan of Shi Li Fang because quality soup base is what I live for, and this Taiwanese hotpot chain is undeniably lacking in this area.

That said, their meat dishes (which are perpetually on 50% discount) deliver extremely great value for money. We ordered a full portion of Japanese wagyu beef which cost us $25.50 before GST. I think that’s very good value for money (Can’t afford to splurge at Beauty In The Pot and Haidilao all the time). Personally, I enjoyed the Kurobuta pork (only $14.10 for a full portion!!!) more than the wagyu slices.

Taste: 7/10 (Definitely cannot be compared to the mian cheng kuehs from Tanglin Halt Original Peanut Pancake, but this is a pretty good substitute if you are in the hood and want some freshly prepared kueh. Plus points for the very generous fillings 👍🏽)

Price: 10/10 (A huge slice of pancake going for $0.80-$1 is very good value for money, I feel!)

I have always wanted to try out the different flavours at this cosy little ice cream parlour located near Arab Street. I got the lingonberry swirl which turned out to be too sweet for my liking. The pieces of cookie/biscuit rolled into the ice cream tasted like they have been left out for a little too long (in local terms, “lao hong already leh..”)

Paid around $6-7 for a single scoop with cone.

Ordered the tteokbokki (떡볶이) to share. Checked with the server if the dish includes ramyeon cause there was ramyeon in the image on the menu, but there was also a “add noodle for $3.50” option. He confirmed that the dish included noodles - technically making it a 라볶이. 15 minutes later, the spicy rice cake was served, without the promised instant noodles! When asked, the server dismissed our concerns by saying that he must have misunderstood - no apologies were given! We paid $18 before GST for a dish that contained maybe 15-20 pieces of rice cake? Taste was average and food was unfortunately served lukewarm..

Taste: 8/10 (I love the taste of garlic, and the generous sprinkle of deep fried garlic on this dish was definitely a huge plus point for me! I usually avoid aglio olio because the chances of me being served a plate of limp noodles soaked in slightly heated olive oil is extremely high. This rendition definitely exceeded my expectations. The prawns were large and really fresh; the pasta was al dente and well flavoured from the oil used to pan fry the prawns!!! VERY YUMMY..)

Price: 8/10 ($18 for a plate of pasta at a drinking joint is very reasonable IMO. But other food options were not so affordably priced based on my recollection..)

Ambience: 10/10 (Dining at this bar/restaurant was so relaxing - the servers were friendly and gave plenty of “space”, the music was soft and soothing, the crowd was slightly older so it was not rowdy or excessively loud inside the restaurant, and the sofa seats were so comfortable..)

Taste: 8/10 (I am not usually a fan of Korean pancakes because most restaurants serve renditions that are too limp and carby for my liking.. When my friend told me that Dal In does this dish perfectly, I was honestly quite skeptical. Turns out, their pancake was so well done, I ate a good half of the dish. The batter was pan fried to a crisp; the inside remained soft and moist with a slight bit of chewiness. There was plenty of fresh seafood in every piece and the soy sauce was so so good!!!)

Price: 7/10 (This seafood scallion pancake cost us $30++.. Considering this was just a side we shared, we paid about $50 each for the meal.)

This is definitely on my list of no fail desserts. What’s not to like about crispy, chewy and decadently sweet fried glutinous rice cakes?

Taste: 9/10 (The nutty and subtly sweet flavour of black sesame pairs very well with the smoky taste of brown sugar syrup! I also love that the rice cakes remains so pleasantly soft and moist on the inside. That said, this dish should definitely be shared because it gets pretty jerlat after a few bites - one piece per pax would be the perfect serving size!)

Price: 7/10 (Going for $7.80 a plate, each piece of this deep fried goodness will cost you $1.50 before GST - not the cheapest snack/dessert (but worth it IMO 😂))