Bosses (黑社会) @ Vivocity

This Chinese restaurant at Vivocity has a unique name, 黑社会. In English, it translates directly to Secret Society. As with the name, the entire restaurant is painted in black, giving it a very posh and somewhat fearsome exterior. I had passed by the restaurant umpteen times but never once did I made it inside. Recently, a colleague informed me that she was there for lunch and that the Chinese ramen is quite reasonably priced at ~$7. With this information, I decided to give it a go.

On a Friday afternoon, this was the few restaurant without any queue. We were shown straight to a round table and there wasn’t many customers inside either. We were served with a very interesting appetizer – deep fried fish skin. It was coated with dashes of salt, extremely crunchy to the bite, not oily at all but can be a little fishy on the taste bud. But when accompanied with the chili, it sort of masks the fishy taste. A plate of this appetizer is priced at $3.80.
A quick glance at the menu revealed that the more affordable dishes were indeed the ramen – starting from $7 onwards for plain vegetable ramen. I ordered the fried chicken ramen which consisted of a huge bowl of plain soup ramen and a small plate of deep fried chicken. Definitely low rating for presentation. Taste-wise, the soup was plain, noodles tastes like instant noodles and the fried chicken has no surprises either. Priced at $8.50, you can definitely give it a miss.
Three colleagues ordered the minced meat ramen (炸酱面) priced at $8 and was full of praises towards the end as they were busy slurping up the noodles.

The crowd in the restaurant only began to grow at about 1pm and it was not hard to notice that quite a few tables ordered dim sum which looks really good. I’ll surely be back again to try both the minced meat ramen and the dim sum. So, till then…

Forest (森) by Sam Leong @ Equarius Hotel, Resort World Sentosa

The Forest (森) restaurant, located at the newly opened Equarius Hotel at Resort World Sentosa (RWS), is co-owned by celebrity chef Sam Leong. The interesting thing about this restaurant is that the entrance to the restaurant is ‘hidden’ behind pebbles decorated, handle-less doors. It was only when I saw hotel staffs exiting from the restaurant did I realized that the restaurant was located within!

On our first morning in the hotel, we decided to give the breakfast buffet a try. There were two sections dedicated to Chinese and Western cuisines. And even so, the selection from each section was pretty much limited. The Chinese section consisted of dim sum (siew mai and steamed pork bun), porridge and wanton noodles. The Western counterpart consisted of bread loaves, pastries, spread selections (assortment of marmalades and cheese spread), yoghurt, fruit platters, fresh juices and milk.

It was only after my second helping that the waitressing staff approached us with more ‘options’ consisting of the ala carte menu and snack-sized varieties that were not available at the buffet table. The ala carte menu offered mainly egg dishes in the likes of egg omelette and egg benedict amongst three to four other offerings. I ordered the former which had mushroom wrapped in omelette and accompanied by two chicken sausages. As for the snack-sized varieties, they came in the form of mini-pancakes, french toast, waffles and chawamushi.
Overall, the food tasted only so-so. However, I did thought of getting a second helping of the chawamushi. Priced at $40 per pax before service charge and GST, you can definitely give this breakfast buffet a miss. I’m sure the Forum at RWS offers better breakfast selections or probably even the other four more established hotels in the vicinity can do better in this aspect.

Malaysian Food Street @ Resort World Sentosa

The Malaysian food street located within the Resort World Sentosa is actually a Malaysia-themed food court.

I’m not sure if it’s representative of the real stuff sold in Malaysia but it sure is so much pricier than the real deal.

Having only heard of the chicken rice ball but never tasted one before, the Supportive Spouse got me a plate of 5 balls accompanied by deboned chicken.
The portion was really small and I didn’t even bother asking the Supportive Spouse the amount he paid.

It tasted….like how chicken rice is supposed to taste. Nothing special really.

I think I’ll rather pay more to dine in the restaurants at Resort World Sentosa.