Arnold's Fried Chicken (Yishun 10 Cinema Cineplex)

I was thrilled when I heard that Arnold's Fried Chicken was opening an outlet in Yishun. The last time I last ate Arnold's Fried Chicken was in early 2012 at City Plaza. With this new outlet, it will be so much more convenient. Arnold's Fried Chicken specialises in serving fried chicken, has been around for more than 25 years and is one of the first Singapore fast food joint to be certified Halal.

Arnold's Fried Chicken in Yishun is located at Yishun 10 Cinema Cineplex (just next to North Point), 5 minutes away from Yishun MRT station. We visited on a Friday evening and there was a queue (around 20 persons) outside which stretched to Wendy's. Nevertheless, we decided to queue after all there was just 20 persons in front of us. Guess how long we queue? You would not believe it... Read on to find out the answer. 

Menu

The menu which looked so much more colourful and appetising compared to their old menu! Easy to read too. Good job! 

The answer to how long we queue: we waited for a total of 1hr 20mins from the point we started queuing to the point we received our food. There was virtually 3 queues in total. 

The first queue was to queue to get a chance to reach the counter to order the food (without making payment). Once you manage to order, you will be given a queue number where you would be placed in a second queue; to wait for a table. When your queue number is called, you would make payment and then be give a buzzer which would activate (shake) to inform customers that their orders were ready. This was third queue. 

2 Piece Meal $6.60

Good news for those who prefer the 2 Piece Meal. It cost only $6.60, a 20 cents (3%) increase compared to 2012.

2 Piece Meal $6.60

The 2 Piece Meal consisted of 2 pieces of crispy fried chicken served with mashed potatoes (normally comes with fries, but we switched to mashed potato) and coleslaw. 

Half Spring Chicken Set $7.10 and a Root Beer (Reg) $2.10

I ordered the Half Spring Chicken Set $7.10 and a Root Beer (Reg) $2.10. The price of the Half Spring Chicken Set has increased by $1.20 (20%) compared to 2012. I am not sure why there was such a huge disparity in increase in prices for the two sets. I should have just ordered the 2 Piece Meal. 

Half Spring Chicken Set $7.10 

Half Spring Chicken Set comprised of a 1/2 deep fried spring chicken served with potato fries and mashed potato (normally comes with coleslaw, but I switched to mashed potato).

Half Spring Chicken Set $7.10 

The freshly fried chicken was still pipping hot when it was served. It was crisp on the outside and the seasoning of spices and herbs made the skin so sinfully addictive! The meat inside was succulent and well marinated. As seen in the above photo, it was still moist, not dry!

I hope they would review the queue system soon. I want visit Arnold's Fried Chicken again as the chicken was delicious. But the thought of the queue system along with a possible 1 hour 20 minutes wait are the deterrence. If you really want to visit, my suggest is to go during non-peak hour or to just order as takeaway (please note, there is a takeaway counter with a way shorter queue. I believe the waiting time is way shorter as there's only 1 queue). Another area of improvement would be the service - clearing and cleaning of the tables so that the turnover would be faster. On several occasions, we noted that when customers have eaten finish and left the table, the staff tasked with cleaning the tables were chatting away and only started cleaning the tables when instructed by another senior staff who was manning the counter. 

Arnold's Fried Chicken (Yishun 10 Cinema Cineplex)

51 Yishun Central 1 

#01-04 Yishun 10 Cinema Cineplex 

Singapore 768794 

Tel: 6757 7732

Delivery Hotline: 6276 6537

Opening Hours: Daily 1130am to 10pm (last order: 945pm)

Website

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Arnold's Fried Chicken (City Plaza)

810 Geylang Road 

#02-99 City Plaza  

Tel: 6746 2372 

Opening Hours: Daily 1130am to 10pm (last order: 945pm)

Arnold's Fried Chicken (Hougang) 

21 Hougang Street 51 

#01-49 Hougang Green Shopping Mall 

Tel: 6386 9015 

Opening Hours: Daily 1130am to 10pm (last order: 945pm)

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Buddy Hoagies at Nee Soon South Community Club (Yishun)

Buddy Hoagies is a restaurant cafe specialising in western cuisine. I did not call it a restaurant became it has a friendly and relaxed ambience which is child friendly too. Moreover, the photo frames of English oldies singers and environment gave a unique warm comfort country feel. I visited Buddy Hoagies on a weekday evening for dinner at Yishun. They have two other outlets at Bukit Timah and Downtown East.

During my visit, I noticed that there were quite a number of children in the cafe. After walking around, I knew the reasons. Buddy Hoagies was a children friendly cafe! They had plastic utensils (spoon, forks, plates) for kids (not those disposable ones) and a corner filled toys for children to play. Some children even brought the toys to their tables where they could play while waiting for the food to be served. Not bad, I did not notice any children playing with ipad or any mobile devices! 

There was an option to upgrade the main course to a Buddy's Set Meal for $4.50 which would include soup & garlic toast, coffee/tea/ ice tea and ice cream.

We ordered a Fish and Chips and upgraded it to a Set Meal ($13.40), followed by a Western BBQ Chicken ($8.90) and Cheese Fries ($3.50). 

Tea

Cream of Mushroom & Garlic Toast

The Cream of Mushroom was average. It was too thick for my liking while the Garlic Toast was a tad too hard. 

Cheese Fries $3.50

The Cheese Fries $3.50 tasted quite good when it was still warm. When it cooled down, the cheese became hard and the fries at the bottom were soggy. 

Fish and Chips

The Fish and Chips $8.90 served with fries fared better. Though they could be more generous with their servings, both items were not overly oily. In addition, the fish was slight moist in the interior (not hard and dry). In fact, I like this fries better compared to the cheese fries. 

Western BBQ Chicken $8.90

The Western BBQ Chicken $8.90 was essentially grilled chicken in barbecue sauce with vegetables and baked potato. Initially, I thought that the portion was very little. But come to think of it, for the ambience and price, I really should not fault it too much as the operating cost of the F&B industry have gone up.

The chicken was nicely grilled and the interior was juicy and tender. There was a slight hint of smoky flavour. If the smoky flavour could be intensified, this would have been wonderful. There was a big chunk of butter in the baked potato. Needless to say, I took out most of the butter before they had the opportunity to melt. This main course was not bad and quite value for money. 

Ice Cream

The vanilla ice cream was well, simple and ordinary.

There were hits and misses at Buddy Hoagies. But generally, their main course seemed to fared better. They did quite well in creating a warm cozy ambience with a children friendly environment.

Buddy Hoagies at Nee Soon South Community Club (Yishun)
Nee Soon South Community Club
30 Yishun Street 81
Singapore 768455
Tel: 6752 8722
Opening Hours: 10am to 10pm daily
Website

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QQ Rice: Crazy Sales Promotion At CCK MRT Outlet (21 to 24 Mar 2014)

Source: QQ Rice

QQ Rice: Crazy Sales Promotion At CCK MRT Outlet (till 24 Mar 2014)
With every purchase of a rice roll, enjoy: 
Free Rice Roll - 1st 50th customers
Free Snack Roll (L) - 51st - 100th customers
Free Snack Roll (M) - 101st - 150th customers
Free Roselle Tea - 151st - 200th customers
Free Mulberry - 201st - 250th customers
Free Chocolate Oatmeal - 251st - 400th customers
Subsequent 400 customers onwards- 10% off Rice Roll / Snack Roll and up to 50% discount coupon for Rice Roll / Snack Roll 

- Valid from 21 to 24 Mar 2014
- Valid at  #01-24 Chua Chu Kang MRT