The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

Another visit to The Prata Place for supper. The first post can be found here. As the name of the eatery suggests, The Prata Place specialises in serving delicious Prata and Indian Cuisines and is Halal certified!

The place was packed as usual. We sat outside as we did not want to be come out smelling of prata and curry. This will happen if you sit inside (enclosed air-conditioned area). 

Plain Kosong Prata $1 (each)

I ordered 2 Plain Kosong Pratas. This is something which I think they did fantastic in. Cooked upon ordered, the pratas arrived pipping hot and were simply delicious! The pratas were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The texture and flavour was wonderfully managed, it was a joy tearing the prata into smaller pieces and eating it without any sugar or curry.

Curry

Alternatively, the prata can be dipped into the curry gravy given. The curry gravy had a good balance of taste that is a good hallmark of a good curry gravy. Much better than those at other prata shops and not overly spicy or oily. My favourite! 

Egg Prata $1.70

The Egg Prata was huge! It was crispy but not as fluffy as the plain kosong prata. Nevertheless, it was delish and one of the better egg pratas around.

The Prata Place is still a good place to satisfy my prata cravings. I will certainly recommend this eatery as the calories gained here is absolutely worth it! Hope that the eatery continue to strive. Many more good years to come!

The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

1 Thong Soon Ave

Springleaf Garden

Tel: 6459 5670

Opening Hours:Daily 7am to 12am

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Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood 万隆华和海鲜菜馆 (Casuarina Road) - 2nd Post

Another visit back to Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood 万隆华和海鲜菜馆. We visited the Zi Char restaurant on a Saturday evening too. The place was packed and all the tables were occupied.

Huge crabs in tanks. This is essential as almost every table has crab dish on it!

Menu (a)

Menu (b)

Part of the menu. As this was our 2nd visit, we had a rough idea on what to order and what not too. The first post can be found here.

Hot Plate Beancurd $10

 The Hot Plate Beancurd was as deletable as before. The sauce is best paired with plain rice. 

Prawn Paste Chicken Wing $12

Prawn Paste Chicken Wings (Har Cheong Gai) was served pipping hot. The chicken wings were coated and marinated with prawn paste before being deep fried. On the exterior, it was crispy and fragrant. In the interior, the meat was fragrant, tender and full of natural juice.

Birthday Noodles (Mee Sua) $12

The Birthday Noodles which was essentially Mee Sua fried with prawns, squid, beansprouts, quail eggs and fish slices. An interesting dish that suits our palate.

Stirred Fried Baby Kai Lan $12

Their stirred fried vegetables here are surprisingly good.  The Baby Kai Lan was still crunchy. The dish as a whole was tasty and not overly salty. Simple and good.

La La Clams $10

At last, we get to try the La La Clams. This dish was excellent! The la la clams were bigger than what is normally served in the other restaurants and were very fresh and 'meaty'. (Why did we order only $10? We should have ordered more!).

Black Pepper Crab

Huge Black Pepper Crab which did not disappoint. I like the sauce as it was finger licking good as what I described in my last post. The crab was very fresh and meaty!  

Butter Crab

Butter Crab

Leaving the best for the last. The Butter Crab was amazingly delicious! It was not the usual creamy version that most restaurant serves. Instead it was deep fried. Each piece of crab was well-coated with the butter batter and fried till fragrant. Despite being deep fried, the crab was still incredibly tender, juicy and sweet. Adding on, the crab was huge, meaty and fresh. Amazingly, meat did not stuck to the shells (which is not the norm for a fried crab dish). There were lots of buttery fritters at the side. They were crispy and sinfully delicious. The unique buttery fragrant made the buttery fritters so addictive that once you start, you can't stop. A must try! (Bern from The Hungry Bunny mentioned that this is their best dish. Totally spot on! Thanks for the recommendation!) 

The  Butter Crab and Black Pepper Crab cost $86. Well worth the price.

The food here is real value for money. There are two dishes that are a must try over here. They are the Butter Crab and  La La Clams. This time round, the service experienced was not as smooth sailing as before. The lady taking the order was showing an attitude and was impatient. It was also hard to get the attention of the staff. Worth coming down more often for the food here despite the service? The answer is a resounding Yes!

Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood 万隆华和海鲜菜馆 (Casuarina Road)

122 Casuarina Road

Tel: 6452 2824

Opening Hours: Daily 5pm to 130am

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The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)

As its name suggest, The Prata Place specialises in serving Prata and Indian Cuisine such as Thosai and Murtabak. It is located along Upper Thomson Road and is Halal certified. The Prata Place is actually quite well known and is frequently packed especially at night.

Visited The Prata Place on a Saturday morning. Quite empty compared to the other time I came at night it was full house. Looks like it is better to come here in the morning!

Menu (a)

Menu (b)

Menu (Drinks)

Plain (Kosong) Prata $0.90

Curry

The Plain (Kosong) Prata was absolutely delicious! It arrived pipping hot. The Prata was crispy on the outside (including the edges) and fluffy on the inside. Moreover, it was not oily, they certainly managed the heat well. Dipping it into the curry will make the Prata taste even more heavenly. Although the price is a little steep compared to else where, its worth the money.

Mushroom with Egg Prata $2.80

Mushroom with Egg Prata $2.80 (Close up)

The Mushroom with Egg Prata was elongated rectangular in shape. It was simply a Egg Prata with stuffed with slices of button mushrooms. Personally, I prefer ordering the egg prata as the taste of the button mushroom did not mix well with the prata. Well its a matter of personal opinion.

Lots of variety of food at The Prata Place. Even looking at the menu for Prata itself, there are even Red Bean Prata, Floss Prata and Onion Chilli Prata available. This place is likely to be filled to the beam at night. Ironically, this place is air-conditioned..which is something that bothered me. Because your hair, shirt, basically your whole body will end up smelling of curry and prata. But the food (prata) is too good to resist!

The Prata Place (Upper Thomson Road)
1 Thong Soon Ave
Springleaf Garden
Tel: 6459 5670
Opening Hours:Daily 7am to 12am
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Salted Caramel (Upper Thomson Road)

Salted Caramel is situated along the row of shop houses where The Roti Prata House is. Salted Caramel specialising in producing ice cream using natural ingredients with no preservative or artificial sweeteners. Competition is quite keen now with so many other ice cream parlours such as Island Creamery, ICE CUBE, Sugalight Factory, Scoopz, Seventh Heaven Tom's Palette and Udders.

Flavours available displayed on the shop front.

Menu

As you can see from the Menu, besides ice cream, they have brownie and waffles too!

 Clockwise from Top Left: Earl Grey, Cookies & Cream, Horlicks Tim Tam (Triple Scoop $7)

Ironically, the Salted Caramel ice cream was so-so. My favourite is Earl Grey ice cream, intense fragrant of earl grey. It was not over sweet and was creamy yet refreshing. If you are a Earl Grey tea lover, this is strongly recommended. The Cookies and Cream ice cream was quite good too with generous chunks of cookies in it. 

The Horlicks Tim Tam had chunks of Tim Tam in it. One the first mouthful, the flavours of Horlicks and Tim Tam complemented each other quite well. However, after a few more mouthfuls, I felt that it was way too sweet.

During my visit, I noticed that the traffic flow is quite high. There was almost a constant flow of customers entering the shop. If you were to ask my honest opinion, well it is just another ice cream parlour. I will only come back here for it's Earl Grey ice cream if I happen to pass by.

Salted Caramel (Upper Thomson Road)
246G Upper Thomson Road
Thomson Garden Estate
Tel: 6753 1718
Opening Hours: Sun to Thu 12pm - 11pm
                         Fri to Sat 12pm - 2am
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Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood 万隆华和海鲜菜馆 (Casuarina Road)

We (a group of six) wanted to visit Melben Seafood at Ang Mo Kio for dinner on a Saturday. Knowing that Uncle Leong Seafood has moved out and anticipating a long queue, we decided to set off early. We reached Melben at 545pm, yet there was a long queue and it will be at least a 2 hour wait! We decided to try go else where to satisfy our craving for crabs as we did not want to wait for 2 hours.

We decided to visit Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood a Zi Char restaurant located at Casuarina Road along Upper Thomson Road. Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood has been around for close to two decades, specialises in serving local cuisine. As it was our first visit, we had no idea on what to order. Well, the best way is to walk around look at the dishes on the surround tables and also asking the staff for recommendation.

Look at how big the crabs are! 

Menu (a)

Menu (b)

Snap shot of part of the menu which includes Chef Recommendations, Crabs, Hot Plates, Claypot, Chicken and Vegetables.

Towel

Appetiser and chilli 

The chilli at the right has the right amount of spiciness. Although I like the chilli, I seldom dip my food into it as I prefer to savour the food in its original taste.

Now for the food! Presented in the same order it was served!

Prawn Paste Chicken Wings $12

 Twelve pieces of Prawn Paste Chicken Wings also known as Har Cheong Gai. Two for each of us. This was the first dish that arrived and it arrived pipping hot! Seasoned and coated with prawn paste, the chicken wings deep fried. The batter outside was crispy and inside, the meat was tender and moist!

Hot Plate Beancurd $10

The Hot Plate Beancurd totally different from the others I have tried before, was highly delectable. It came with prawns, beancurd and egg, topped with a slightly spicy sauce.

Stirred Fried Spinach $10

We ordered the Stirred Fried Spinach. The leaves and stems were well cooked. Leaves were not too soft and stems were not too hard. In addition, in terms of taste, it was not over salty. Taste just like a home-cook dish.

Birthday Noodles (Mee Sua ) $12

Birthday Noodles (Mee Sua), was a plate of Mee Sua fried with prawns, squids, eggs, bean sprouts, fish slices and quail eggs (interesting). Another unique dish that reminds me of Sembawang White Bee Hoon.

Man Tou / Buns $3.60

The fried Man Tou / Buns are big! Bigger than elsewhere. In fact, I felt that they were too big. Despite the size, it was good! Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Moreover, it was not oily. Sadly, the Chilli Crab gravy was not up to par (more on the gravy in the text below).

Chilli Crab 

The Chilli Crab is something that Singaporeans are familiar with. The chilli crab gravy was way below par. It was too sweet, too starchy and not spicy. Too much Ketchup was added and the egg used was too little. Luckily, the crab was huge, fresh and succulent! It was an easy task pulling out the chunks of crab meat from the shells! This is a big plus.

Black Pepper Crab

The Black Pepper Crab was huge too. Crab wise, it was similar as above! Black pepper sauce wise, it fared much better. Peppery and not overly salty, it was finger linking good! Had a delectable time savouring the black pepper sauce on the shells. 

The Chilli Crab and Black Pepper Crab cost $85.50

We ordered the La La Clams. However, the staff missed out that order. The staff was quite nice, apologising and telling us they will cooked it for us immediately. As we were already full, we decided to cancel the order.

I have seen many reviews stating the bad service this place has. Well, I beg to differ. The service here was good. The only glitch was that one of our order was missed out, they apologised and offer to cook it immediately. Understandable as the place was packed! Moreover, the food was good and it was certainly value for money. The total bill amount to $148.41 inclusive of the rice, drinks and towels. For 6 person...this is cheap! I am certain that I will come back here again. This time I will want to try the Butter Crab and also La La Clams !

Ban Leong Wah Hoe Seafood 万隆华和海鲜菜馆 (Casuarina Road)
122 Casuarina Road
Tel: 6452 2824
Opening Hours: Daily 5pm to 130am
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