The Hungry Bunny

September's L.A. Lunch was held at Kinki , a Japanese restaurant that doubles up as a bar come nightfall. Its brilliant location on the second floor of Customs House ensures an expansive view of the Marina Bay waterfront. While the quality of the food was generally fair, the prices made this place a no-go for future visits, especially since the portions of the ala carte dishes were quite miniscule. My tip is to only order the set meals as they are a lot more value-for-money. Or else, take a business associate there if an expense account is applicable. Lunch was kicked off with a Sashimi Platter , consisting Maguro ($24 for 5 pcs),  Kajiki ($20 for 5 pcs) and Sake  ($18 for 5 pcs) which is essentially tuna, swordfish and salmon respectively. I liked the freshness and natural sweetness of the thickly sliced fish, but thought $62 for the entire platter was shockingly pricey. The Tofu Steak Set Lunch ($18) comprised a grilled organic incredibly smooth tofu steak slathered 

It's been a while since we've double-dated with Beeps and her hubs. Now that there's 3 of them, with a baby boy in tow, it's harder to meet up with them. But it's nice that we still make time for each other. We were hankering for some cze char fare and revisited Fatty Weng , one of Beeps' favourite cze char places. This old-school eatery may look unassuming, and almost derelict due to its open-air roadside location, harsh florescent lighting, and makeshift plastic tables and chairs, but it's a firm favourite of many Chinese tow-kays. While the food is a mixture of hits and misses (more hits than misses), I thought the prices, in general, were a little upmarket for a place like this. Still, they do good, familiar cze char fare that tends towards Cantonese favourites. The Winter Melon Soup ($15), only available sporadically, but boy, is this good! A refreshingly delicate and clear broth is chunked up with diced carrots and meat in a hallowed out winter me

I like chilling out at hotel lobby lounges. You're almost always ensured a tranquil setting, impeccable service and a classy crowd. If given a choice, I'd prefer meeting up with my friends at a hotel lobby lounge than at a coffee joint, mostly because you're guaranteed not to be disturbed by rambunctious noisy teenagers, or studious teenagers that don't seem to be able to find any other place than a bustling coffee joint to study and invariably end up hogging the very crammed tiny coffee tables. Yes, I'm old. 10 years ago, and I'll be one of those annoying teens, but now that I'm old(er), I like my peace and quiet. The Intercontinental Singapore  is within walking distance from home, so naturally, it's my default chillout spot. The ambience is relaxed and soothing, partly due to its setup as a Peranakan living room, and partly due to the light jazz and easy-listening hits belted out by the in-house piano player. Although the menu consists of a limited

Peperoni Pizzeria is the casual Italian arm of the Les Amis Group. Like fellow Italian joints Valentino's and Rubato, Peperoni is designed to be a neighbourhood eatery hidden deep in posh residential enclaves. Since the first Peperoni opened in 2007 at the affluent Greenwood area, it's since spawned another 2 outlets, also situated deep in the equally upscale neighbourhoods of Binjai Park and Frankel Ave. The atmosphere here is convivial, laidback and very casual, tee-shirts, berms and sandals largely being the attire of choice here. The restaurant is catered to the immediate residential estate surrounding it because it's really quite hidden deep in the Binjal Park estate and out of the way from the main road. You really can't get in there unless you take a cab or drive, which brings on another set of problems...parking. My tip is to park anywhere you can slot your car into without blocking anyone's path and turn on the "Summons Auntie" app! While the

Copthorne King's Hotel may look like an unassuming, and somewhat run-down hotel in the midst of the 5-star accommodations that throng around our little island, but this is one hotel that really shines through its food. It's Chinese restaurant, Tien Court , serves exquisite delicacies, while its coffee house serves up one of the best Penang food around. It could be Singaporeans' never-ending love for buffets, as we were here on a Tuesday night and the entire buffet restaurant was full. But, I've long heard people rave about the Penang buffet here. While the selection may not be as varied as The Line at Shangri-La, or as luxurious as Greenhouse at the Ritz, the food here is authentic, hearty and comforting. That said, we weren't really in the mood for a buffet (we're both trying to stay trim for our wedding...hah!) though we were in the mood for some Penang cuisine, in ala carte portions. The Penang Chicken Curry ($16.80), a rich creamy and headily spicy non

We were craving some ribs, so we headed to Chili's for dinner. It's been a while since we've been here, and while there aren't anymore queues at this American grill spot, it was almost a full capacity on a Friday night. We wanted to see how it was keeping up, a year after it reopened on our shores, and was very pleased to find that they'd remained consistent in both their service and food. This is why they are still doing a roaring business every night and have opened a second outlet at Resorts World. Because their portions are so frikkin huge, we had 2 mains (and had to doggie bag a part of it) without any dessert or starters. The Grilled Baby Back Ribs , half rack with the triple-basted classic Chili's Original BBQ and the other half rack with a tangy and sweet Honey-Chipotle ($39 for a mix and match 2 half racks flavours). The ribs were meaty, tender and had a very nice caramelization over the mesquite smokiness. We got the Black Pepper Mashed Potatoes an

Beeps and I brought CC out for lunch at Noble House for his birthday. The last time any of us were here was for Beeps' birthday 2 years ago ! Time really flies, Beeps' is now a mother of an adorable little boy, and I'm getting married. And well, CC's still CC, he's totally the same guy! He's evergreen, like the classics.  We've never been the buy-a-birthday-cake-and-surprise-each-other-in-the-office type of people. And for as long as I've worked with CC and Beeps, we've always just bought each other meals for our birthdays. It's a lot more cosy, and we always have a hoot chatting over a long meal (as if we don't already talk A LOT to each other in the office...hah). Noble House is located at UIC Building, which is super convenient for us because it's just opposite our office building. According to CC, UIC Building is going to be torn down by the end of the year. I wonder what's gonna happen to this venerable restaurant. Hmm. W

Now that Beeps is back at work, I've got back my regular lunch buddy. She's the one person I can always count on as a regular lunch date. We had lunch at Lau Pa Sat , which isn't the best place to get local hawker food, but it'll do as a convenient (cos it's right next to my office building), and (relatively) cheap place to eat at in the CBD area. The Fishball Noodles ($3) had springy egg noodles, done al dente, with bouncy fresh fishballs and fishcakes, and tasty minced pork for texture. Stall 13, Blue Star Fishball Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle Stall I've noticed that most yong tau foo stalls are usually very popular with the lunch crowd. It's probably due to the fact that it's a healthy, calorie-light meal option, and its popularity ensures a daily turnover of the food, so the ingredients are always fresh. Beeps had the Yong Tau Foo ($4.50), in a yellow bean accented clear broth, plentiful fresh ingredients and soupy rice noodles to make it a