Max Sandwich Grill And Creamery

Tampines 1 has been in operation for quite some time now and there has been many food stalls and shops supporting this new venue. One of these is Max Sandwich Grill and Creamery which takes the center portion of the basement in Tampines one.

Address: 10 Tampines Central 1 #B1-K1 Tampines 1 Singapore 520530

Price Range: $6-10 per head

The outlet itself is immediately noticeable. Big catchy sign and the fact that it occupies a centralised location makes it pretty difficult to miss. The set up itself is rather simple, its a coffee and bread specialization food joint. The seats are semi comfortable but not a place you'll want to stay for long stretches of time.

The Egghead (Beef and eggs with cheese) $6.50

I ordered the egghead which is simply bread with mashed beef mixed in with cheese and scrambled eggs. The size was noticeably small for its price and it didn't help that such a simple item required me to wait a good 10 minutes before being called to the counter to pick up my own food. The system here is definitely flawed.
Taste wise, its too salty for my liking and there really isn't much else to say. The bread is quite nice. Crunchy and breaks apart well but otherwise, nothing special.

Monsieur (Ham, cheese, spicy onions and lettuce) $6.80

The monsieur (literally "My Lord" in french) wasn't really worthy of its name. I liked it better then mine because it wasn't as salty, had a slightly spicy aftertaste and had more meat then mine but its nothing to shout about in the taste department otherwise.

Bill

The bill for this unfulfilling lunch turned out to be $13.30.

Overall Score: 4/10

Last Word:

Improvement points:
1: Improve the system of ordering, shouting customers order number for a pick up isn't the best choice.
2: Cut down on unnecessary staff. Too many staff were seen simply standing around and not doing anything.
3: Retrieval and clearing of tables is important if you want the customers to continue flowing inwards.
4: Waiting time has got to be reduced. I myself can't understand why heating a piece of bread takes such a long time, and worse, the bread was prepared way before and packed already. Waiting 10 minutes is not acceptable in this regard.
Perhaps their coffee is where their strength is but unfortunately, i have not had the chance to revisit.

Sage The Restaurant Part 2

Having had an excellent meal at Sage's previously, my gf has kindly agreed to bring me back to celebrate my birthday this year. Now, i missed this place tremendously after my last and first visit and was all pumped up to have another excellent meal here. However, this time, we chose lunch so that we could have a more budget experience. Also, another update on this place is that they've moved to a different address as below:

Address: No. 7 Mohamed Sultan Road Singapore 238957

Contact: 6333 8726

Website: http://www.sagerestaurants.com.sg/index.php

Price Range: $70-80 per head

Brighter Interiors

Complimentary Bread

Another look

Yan Palace

Yan palace had its first outlet in Outram Park specialising in providing authentic cantonese cuisine for weddings and special occasions. I've since visited this place twice, once for dim sum with Max and another for a friend's wedding. In this post, i'll talk about the dim sum experience and touch a little on the experience for the wedding dinner.

Location: Blk 531 Upper Cross Street #01-49 Singapore 050531 Hong Lim Complex

Contact: 62222516

Website: http://www.yanpalace.com.sg

Price Range: $20-30 per head

Yan Palace

Interior

The interior is nothing to shout about, its the usual Chinese restaurant set up with a small stage set in the middle for wedding couples and foundation pillars seperating tables along the way. The walkway is rather spacious during lunch but becomes more crowded and narrow when i was there for the wedding.

Dim Sum: The shrimp dumplings, siew mai, and rice dumplings are mostly forgettable items since there's nothing special to talk about. They are decent though.
What is interesting is the banana fritters which had a really nice thin yet cripy dough. Despite it being oily, the sweetness manages to balance the taste somewhat. Its interesting to me because i've never seen banana fritters in a dim sum menu before.
The second item i found interesting was the fried mango wrapped in lychee. It was such a weird combination that its difficult to forget. The funny thing was, it actually worked. A somewhat saltish dough envelopes the sweet tasting treat which is once again a weird item in a dim sum menu. Pretty good as well but is overwhelming after 2 pieces.
Shark's fin with prawn paste is another item we tried but its quite a disappointment. The only discernable taste is that of the shrimp.

Overall Score: 6/10

Wedding dinner: The wedding dinner was serviceable. However, there is major rooms for improvement as our table experienced some issues with the food. For starters, we were served very slowly and usually last to receive our food. However, the real issue lies in the 2nd last dish which was the Longevity noodles, it was obviously spoilt. From my understanding, it wasn't only our table that got the spoilt noodles but we promptly refused the dish and informed the newly wed couple as well.

Overall Score: 5.5/10

Last word:
In the end, its alright to pop by for some interesting dim sum but be warned, its quite packed and reservations are recommended. For weddings, however, make sure you check using my experience, if such an issue occurs, can the couple get a further discount from the lapse of service. Better be safe then sorry here.

MOF (Marina Square Branch)

MOF is a home grown Japanese cuisine restaurant incorporated on May 5th, 2006. It has since gone on to open multiple outlets within Singapore and has begun branching out to Chinese cuisine and European cuisine in recent times.

Location: 6 Raffles Boulevard #02-138E Marina Square Singapore 039594

Contact: 63342202

Website: http://www.ministryoffood.com.sg

Price Range: $20-35 per head

To be honest, i've ate at MOF more times then i can count so this is more or less a catch up post to bring things up to speed.

Chawanmushi ($3.20)

MOF's chawanmushi is decently smooth and milky with a moderated eggish taste. Ingredients are generous but it never surpasses the chawanmushi quality to be had in Wasabi Tei. (Wasabi Tei has since changed owners and quality of food there is undetermined at this point.)

Complimentary Coffee

For what its worth, i take my coffee black without sugar, so i like them thick with just a hint of sour. MOF's cup hits the spot for me in this regard.

Unagi Bento ($9.80)

The Unagi itself seems to skew towards the leaner end and this has been verified since this has been ordered upwards of 4 times by myself and my gf and it has always remained around the same thickness. The sauce is the best part about the dish and i would have liked more of the sauce in the rice to keep my palate satisfied.

Chicken Char Siew Bento ($7.80)

Has a small taste and found the chicken nicely tender with the good but wierd taste of char siew on it. Worth a try.

Soft Shell Crab Handroll ($3.80)

Shabu Shabu Set ($17.50)

This is my order for the day and suffice to say, i enjoyed it to a certain extent. I enjoyed the freshness of the salad and the delectable apple sauce but didn't take to the beef in particular. Essentially, the broth for cooking and swiping the beef turned out to be plain water which i find a lacklustre, the beef, in turn was tasteless until it was paired with the apple sauce. It didn't help that there were only 6 thin slices of beef on offer as well.

Katsu Toji Set ($18.80)

Didn't try this much but it sure looks more worth it as opposed to my shabu shabu set.

Unagi Rice Top Up ($5)

I enjoyed this very much indeed. This is pretty much how the Unagi bento set should have been with a bigger slice of Unagi. Little bits of yam and plenty of sauce helped enhance the experience.

Shishamo ($4.80)

Thats right, for the price, you get 3 measly little guys you see here. Taste wise, it was not too oily and the eggs were springy but honestly, 3? I'll pass.

Seafood Toji Set With Unagi Rice ($19.80 +$5)

Another set that seems worth the dough to order. I like how generous the portion size looks here.

Cookies and Cream Shake ($6.80)

Mango Kakigori ($3.30)

Macha Kakigori ($3.30)

Dessert time came with our favorite Kakigoris. The hokkaido bean version is much better and has a more balanced taste compared to the horribly sourish mango. Then again, i prefer sweet stuff so if you like sour food, you might like the mango version. Vanilla ice cream tops of the package and i love vanilla so either way, this dessert works for me. I'm easily satisfied when it comes to desserts.

Bill

The final bill turned up at $180.28 for 7 people which works out about $25 per head.

Final Score: 6.5/10

Last word:

I'm giving this outlet 6.5 because of the service and the terrible seats they had. The marina outlet simply did not have good seats for 7 people. Its cramped and had minimal space to move around unlike its cousins in Bugis and Suntec. Food wise, its pretty close in quality. Service wise, it needs improvement the last time i checked but there were a few good staff in the outlet as well. Overall, still worth a visit.