Monday, May 19, 2008

Spagetti Too . . and Swensen's Gelato

Had our Sounds Easy choir practice today and thats 3 days in a row... not that I minded but we played Wii yesterday till 5am (5am~~!) ... ok well, not me but the other 3 people, I fell asleep at 2am... People say older people needed less sleep but as I got older, I seem to be needing more and more sleep Sleep


Feeling quite lethargic and that showed out in our singing, tired and flat voices *sweatz*. June of course noticed it and hence we were banned from playing Wii until the end of the June 14th performance ... (ok? Jianfa. . . )


A few days in the row and we ran out of ideas of where to eat for lunch... since we were discussing about food and desserts (at Yebber review) during rests in the practice, I suggested going to Spaghetti Too which received a rather good review from Rinaz...

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Situated in a corner of IMM amongst those small stalls of tidbits like Taiwan Shilin Snacks and Sweet Talk, we had to search for the place and its not that easy to find without knowing the unit number.


Sitting down, the place looked quite clean and well-organized. Menu was clear and well designed. The system of ordering food was similar to Pasta Mania, you have to go to the counter to order the food.

While we were looking at the menu, the waitress came over on her own initiative and explain to us that there are some items of the menu that were not available. Polite, friendly, fast and have initiative. Thats good service attitude! ;D So we were not very concern about items being not available.


We chose our food and Dar went to order. Negative point was, no Nets payment available, we had to pay by cash. Thats alright since we do have cash on hand however, signs should be put up at the tables regarding this as some people don't like to bring a lot of cash with them.


While waiting, we were distracted by the chinese restaurant beside Spaghetti Too as the chef there was making something using dough and he was preparing the dough, making a lot of noises in the process.


Dar's Beef Pie came first with the drinks. Too much butter used on the outer crust, hence the taste was overpowering. The pie was more suitable for people who likes strong taste. For me, the beef was way way too salty....



Next came the Garlic Bread with Cheese and this will be what I highly recommend to people. Bread crust being baked to absolute crispiness while the center portion was soft. Cheese added to the chewiness at just the right amount. Not too cheesy or salty. Best eaten hot however, as the texture changes when left cold.


Next came the main courses, Dar and I ordered the Sirloin Steak promotion meal at S$7.90 including a drink. After the delicious garlic bread, we had high expectation of the upcoming meals. However, we were quite disappointed. Although the beef was cooked at medium well done and very tender to eat, the taste of the beef was covered by the sauce. Sauce was too much and too salty. Vegetables were average though a bit overcooked while the mashed potato was not smooth enough. On the whole, the dish can be said to be a bit above average. I will give around 7/10 as taste can be quite subjective depending on the person eating.



Claire ordered Grilled Salmon hot plate Spaghetti. Dish was below average with the salmon being not fresh enough and Spaghetti overcooked. As Claire put it : "I can only taste tomatoes in it with one clump of spaghetti..."


Ordered some desserts as well. Brownie, ordered by Dar, was too sweet and had to be eaten together with the ice-cream to taste nice. Portion was real big comparative to its price of S$2.50.



Claire ordered the Apple Cobbler . Like the brownie, it tasted good when eaten together with the ice-cream, otherwise, its just a sweet dessert. Perhaps thats why they were served with the ice-cream placed on top? It would be better if the Apple Cobbler was packed more tightly as it was practically crumbling apart while we ate it.


Best dessert of the day and highly recommended by me will be the Italian Chocolate cake. Warmed and served with ice-cream by the side, the texture was thick and I expected it to be too sweet. However, as I put it into my mouth, the cake was chewy, full of "chocoty" flavor and not too sweet. Tasted great with or without ice-cream.

Altogether, we ordered 2 Sirloin Steak promo meals, 1 Salmon Spaghetti Promo meal, 2 portions Garlic bread, 1 Beef pie, 2 extra drinks and 3 desserts and we spent $39.80! No doubt the main courses were not that great but they were above average. Side dishes, desserts as well as the service quality were of satisfactory level. Hence conclusion, Value for Money!

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Back track to Saturday, we met up with my parents-in-law for a dinner at Foster's at Holland Village. After dinner while strolling to go home, we came across the newly opened Swensen's Gelato Parlor. Having some vouchers gotten when we went to eat at Swensen's, we decided to get some ice-cream for the Wii session on Sunday. Wii-tastic


Deco at the Parlor like typical ice-cream specialty shops like Gelare, Andersen's and Scoopz. When we went in, the manager explained to us their system for take aways. Take aways come in tubs of 500ml (2 flavors @ $9.30) and 1000ml (3 flavors @$16.30). We decided to get a tub 500ml and a tub 1000ml while my parents-in-law got themselves small cups of ice-cream (free since we have got vouchers but the original price was $3.30).


Service quality of the Parlor was very good, polite, friendly and not stingy on the portion of ice-cream even for the free cups my parents received. I will give 9/10 for them. Insulating job for the ice-cream tubs were well done too, using foiled paper bags and scotch tapes to secure the tubs.



Altogether, we bought Mango, Hazelnut, Passionfruit, Super Lemon and Soursop flavors and I must say, the selection available was quite limited. Other flavors we did not buy were Green tea, Blueberry, Durian, Raspberry and Pistachio. 2 other flavors I forgot however, it would be better if the variety increase.



The ice-cream flavors on the average, were on the sweet side with little fruits in them. Flavor weren't as full as I'll like them. Scoopz still remained as my favorite brand of ice-cream. Better flavors of the 5 we bought were Mango and Soursop but mostly because both fruits produce fuller flavor though I don't like the after taste of the the Mango.

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