Bincho - Where you can eat Cock's Comb

 The unassuming door to Bincho. In the morning it's a coffeeshop but it turns into a restaurant at night.

Since its a chicken speciality restaurant, it was a no brainer for us to select one of the chicken menus available. They also have a variety of other dishes, but since it was our first time there, we decided to stick to their sets.

I got the $65++ set, and 'shio' yakitori

 The assorted appetiser, which had this delicious chicken pate (see left bottom).

 Salad sticks and miso paste, as well as the "shio' platter with has chicken necks...

And a variety of chicken parts which also included the bishops nose (which is one of the things I don't eat), kidney etc.

The 'shime' of the day which was oyako don (chicken and egg on rice) - no complaints here - I really liked the chicken broth that came with the oyako don.

Dessert was a variety of jellies.

I added on 2 dishes to the above set :

 The Cock's Comb ($5) - which I was truly fascinated with. When I asked the waiter what this was - he said it was the red thing on top of the rooster (公雞) but just that it was not red after cooking anymore. No one else at my table wanted to try it. Surprisingly it tasted pretty good! It has the texture of chicken feet but not as soft, and slightly smoother.  I finished the whole plate myself :D In Mandarin it's called 雞冠

The grilled chicken hearts ($5) were also pretty awesome - I love the texture of the hearts and it doesn't have the gamey taste of the kidneys/liver. I thought that it went really well with the wholegrain mustard.

The rest tried the Chicken Hotpot ($150 for 2persons) but since I'm quite adverse to steamboat cos of all the double dipping and when people throw in raw stuff when I'm trying in vain to scoop out the cooked foods already. That's why my favourite steamboat is the Bijin Nabe from Tsukada Nojo (since they have tongs and cook everything for you).

The said hotpot - it's actually a portion for 4 people but since our table was too small they cooked it at the side for us.

 Fried chicken

 The yakitori from the hotpot set - no innards here - chicken neck, chicken wings etc

The delicious soup - it's similar to the soup I had with my oyako don. It was a really interesting dining experience - would definitely be back to try more of their yakitori dishes...

There's also a bar where you can get cocktails - about $20+ per drink

Since the 3 little pieces of dessert wasn't enough to satisfy, we trooped over to PS cafe for more desserts.


Bincho
78 Moh Guan Terrace 
#01-19 
Singapore 162078
Tel 64384567

Sin Lee Foods

Tucked away in the sleepy Bukit Ho Swee estate is Sin Lee Foods. Although the name sounds like a Tzechar restaurant (it actually retained the name of the coffeeshop that used to be there), it's actually a cafe serving really interesting cafe food. Since my food radar has been down for quite a while, I've completely missed this place. But thanks to  G who somehow found the place and booked it. This was the day that I also went to watch Jurassic World but then due to unforeseen circumstances (and bad planning on my part), didn't get to finish the show and I guess I never will :(

Salted Egg Sweet Potato Fries ($12)
Twice Fried sweet potato fries, house made salted duck's egg sauce, crispy curry leaves 

The salted egg sauce was one of the best I've tasted - great flavour and no skimping on the amount of duck eggs, and the aromatic curry leaves made it even more fragrant.
I somehow didn't really think that the sauce went particularly well with the sweet potato fries (though I also can't think of what would have gone better with the sauce). Sorry for the un-constructive criticism... I'll write it down when I finally think of what would go better with it...

Mentaiko Crab Mantou ($21)
Golden Fried Mantou, housemate mentaiko cream, season and breaded whole soft shell crab, papadum crisps 

Really interesting dish, though it's rolling in oil - fried papadums with orange sugar, crispy mantou (my favourite and most unhealthy carb), with deep fried soft shell crab. Unusual combination but really well executed. Would recommend this dish if you're not afraid of raising your cardiovascular risk.

The one and only Sin Lee's Fried Chicken and Waffles ($21.90)
Juicy boneless chicken leg, Iron waffle, house slaw and melted maple butter

I thought that out of all their other main courses, this sounded the most mainstream. It wasn't exactly mind-blowing. Sure, the chicken was done well, waffles fluffy, and the coleslaw reminded me of the homemade kind you get form the western food stores in the hawker centres (which I really like btw).

The texture of the waffle was good, but was a bit too light to hold up the weight of the chicken, and it became a soggy mess with the maple butter.

The Croissant and Butter Pudding ($14)
Butter croissant, vanilla beans, assorted fruits, vanilla ice cream and salted caramel sauce
Think of this as a level up from the usual bread and butter pudding. Worth a try.
Don't quote me but I think it's Kapiti ice cream that they use. Kapiti vanilla ice cream is the best! Especially since its the same ice cream that Marmalade Pantry uses.

We didn't manage to try the Aburi Broccoli salad ($12) which sounds really interesting, or the Macklemore ($20) which is spanish mackerel with corn and lap cheong relish, cos we were really really stuffed from the above dishes.

The restaurant seating area is REALLY tiny so do book in advance if you want to sit inside (i.e. aircon). The parking's also quite a pain.

I could feel plaques forming in my arteries after the meal. But it was really delicious and unique. Will definitely come back again since I'm nearby.

Sin Lee Foods
4 Jalan Bukit Ho Swee
Singapore 162004

Abe's Diner

I saw lots of good reviews online about Abe's Diner so I was really excited to try it. It was supposed to be a really authentic small and cosy Japanese restaurant with reasonable prices. Well, I don't know that other online sources mean by 'reasonable prices' but it looks like Abe's diner has been hit by inflation, cos I didn't think the meal was particularly cheap or exceptionally good in terms of quality of food, but then again, I might be biased cos of the crappy service.

There were a few dinner sets to choose from and we went with the cod and the chicken karaage sets, which cost around $60-$70.

 Green tea, which was charged quite a ridiculous sum (I'm pretty sure that it was >$2 for this)

Trio of appetisers - the boiled octopus was average, the spinach with sesame sauce good cos the sauce was thick and had a strong sesame aroma and taste, and some preserved vegetable thingy which was forgettable.

 Sashimi - which had absolutely no quality control - 3 of our plates came with sword fish and one with salmon. When we enquired about this, they just brushed us off and said that it depends on the chef??? What kind of retarded explanation is that?

 We also got an additional sashimi salad, which was not bad, but it wasn't very cheap either.

 Some cooked fish dish, which was average.

 Tempura - prawn, fish , and vegetables

 Chawanmushi

The main dish - which was grilled cod. The rice was good - short grained, glossy and sticky. Miso soup above average. The cod was rather small. I think this cost about $60-70 before taxes and before my ridiculously expensive green tea. 

The service here is really disappointing - instead of a nice homey diner that I was expecting, the service was so damn rushed that I felt that I was eating at Tim Ho Wan instead of a Japanese restaurant. Seriously, save yourself some money and go somewhere else. The food's average but the service is disgusting - they can't seem to wait for you to finish before clearing off the plates - and it was not like there was a queue outside. 

 Couldn't wait to get out of the restaurant, so we went over to Drips for desserts, which we could finally eat at our own leisurely pace. The chocolate banana tart is packed full of ripe bananas, with a super gao chocolate base

 We had the cherry tart and the almond tart - cherry tart is pretty good!

Sticky cinnamon roll - it isn't as good as Cinnabon, but since there's no Cinnabon here, this would suffice whenever I have a cinnamon roll craving.

Abe's Diner
42 Eng Hoon Street 
Singapore 169785

Drips Bakery Cafe
82 Tiong Poh Road
Singapore 160082
#01-05

The Orange Thimble

"Wear a thimble daily to protect yourself from the daily pricks in life"

Chicken Shepherd's pie - I think this was sub $10, not bad but I won't be going out of my way to get it again.

 The scone was better than expected - especially since it looked quite sad and plain when it first arrived at our table.

I can't for the life of me remember what this is called but it's hae bee hiam (spicy dried prawns) stuffed into a toasted, buttered bread. Pretty interesting but the portion is quite small.

Nice chillout place, and a good alternative to TBB (so crowded and noisy, despite it being only 9+ on a weekday morning.

The Orange Thimble
Blk 56 01-68 Eng Hoon Street
Tiong Baru
(just further down from Tiong Baru Bakery)