Saturday, 25 October 2014

2014 Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice World Top 25 Restaurants

The results are out! Here are the World Top 25 most favourite restaurants:

  1. El Celler de Can Roca - Girona, Spain
  2. Midsummer House - Cambridge, United Kingdom
  3. Maison Lameloise - Chagny, France
  4. The French Cafe - Auckland, New Zealand
  5. Alinea - Chicago, Illinois
  6. El Club Allard - Madrid, Spain
  7. Epicure - Paris, France
  8. Le Manoir Aux Quat' Saisons - Great Milton, United Kingdom
  9. Le Gavroche - London, United Kingdom
  10. Martin Berasategui - San Sebastian - Donostia, Spain
  11. Europea - Montreal, Quebec
  12. I Latina - Buenos Aires, Argentina
  13. Voila Bistrot - Paraty, Brazil
  14. Geranium - Copenhagen, Denmark
  15. Diverxo - Madrid, Spain
  16. Kokkeriet - Copenhagen, Denmark
  17. Restaurant Guy Savoy - Paris, France
  18. Eleven Madison Park - New York City, New York
  19. Funky Gourmet - Athens, Greece
  20. The Test Kitchen - Cape Town Central, South Africa
  21. TRB - Beijing, China
  22. Arambru - Buenos Aires, Argentina
  23. Restaurant Gary Danko - San Francisco, California
  24. Vue de monde - Melbourne, Australia
  25. Costes - Budapest, Hungary

More than half of these top 25 restaurants come from Europe, with Spain leading (4). However, the results are overall quite spread out across the global, given 14 countries making into the list.

Have you tried any of these?

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

HongKong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle - Chinatown


Looking at the length of the queue, this stall needs no further publicity. Crowds flock here to enjoy the tasty and yet very affordable priced soya sauce chicken.

WHAT TO ORDER: 
Go for the Soya Sauce Chicken noodles ($2.50). Buying of the whole chicken ($14) is also very common here. You may also consider adding char siew and/or roasted meat to your order

WHAT SO GOOD:
The chickens are stewed with sweetish soya sauce-based marinade, which permeates through the skin into the tender and juicy meat. The serving of the chicken meat is generous, considering the relatively low price

NOT SO GOOD:
It is no surprise that cheap + good = long queue. Also I find the sauce of the noodles is slightly on the salty side, but having said that, I still like it a lot.

MY RATING:
8.5 / 10



Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle - Lavender


Best in Singapore or not, it is highly debatable, but Tai Hwa certainly sets the golden standard for Bak Chor Mee.

WHAT TO ORDER: 
Minced meat noodles; dry; choices of $5, 6, 8 or 10

WHAT SO GOOD:
Al dente and springy noodles, tasty sauce rich in vinegar but not overwhelming, liver cooked to perfect timing and the accompanying robust soup (often neglected elsewhere) full of pork flavours

NOT SO GOOD:
Be prepared to queue, but definitely worth the wait... and this makes you more hungry!

MY RATING:
9 / 10

Great partnership; both know exactly their respective roles
Photo from 1980!