Suonmoi Chinese Restaurant (Pune, India)

Have you ever been in a similar situation as me? Whenever you are in India, Pune for work and wants to have Chinese food. Where do you go? For those who go there frequently or stay there for years, you might have already know of such a place. For those who have not, you might find this useful.

Suonmoi Chinese Restaurant is a restaurant that serves Chinese Cuisine located in Pune. Where exactly is it? Well, I really have no idea as a Singaporean who has been there for 1 year drove us there. By car it is about 20 minutes away from Taj Blue Diamond during peak hours. 

FYI: Suonmoi Chinese Restaurant is opened by an India man whose wife is a Chinese, from China. All the waiters are Indian. 

Suonmoi Chinese Restaurant

The restaurant was not very crowded as it was only 730pm. In India, the locals normal eat only at 830pm. Hence, most restaurants only open from 7pm onwards for dinner. 

Menu (cover)

Menu

A very welcome feeling emerged after seeing a picture of these dishes. 

Part of the menu

Part of the menu. Did not managed to take pictures of the rest of the menu. We ordered and despite the few people in the restaurant, we waited over 15 minutes before the food got served. Not too bad, at least it means they start cooking the dishes after we ordered, not before and just warm them up.

A picture of the utensils. The spoon is exactly the same as what Honeymoon Dessert uses. 

Wanton Soup

How can anyone not order this after having Indian food for the past few meals! In this picture, the waiter has already served us. Hence it was half-full. The Wanton Soup was salty. The wanton was totally lousy. The meat seems to have some weird taste. But despite this, we still polish this up. 

Mee Foon Soup Prawn

Mee Foon Soup Prawn (exactly as stated in menu). This dish consist of vermicelli/beehoon, prawns, mushrooms, spring onions and carrots. It was surprisingly delicious! Had several helpings of this. The downside was that it was slightly salty.

Vegetable dish

Well, sorry, do not have the name of this dish. It was a vegetable dish with different ingredients in it and stirred fried. How was it? Good! As it is hard to find chinese food in India. Of course, when you compare to Singapore, it will be a different thing all together. 

Prawn

Again, apologies, do not have the name of this dish. It is similar to fried breaded prawn. In the picture above, the waiter has already served us. In total, there's 7 prawns in this dish. It was very good. Prawns were fresh and the layer of flour on it was delicious. I am sure they had mixed the flour with spring onions and some other ingredients! This dish alone can give Chinese restaurants in Singapore a good fight. 

Namecard

Quite a good restaurant to come to. If you are coming here, you may want to skip ordering the wanton. Instead, order the prawn dish and Mee Foon Soup Prawn. Service wise is very good! The staff will serve you without being asked to. Moreover, the owner will come and check if the food was up to standard. This restaurant certainty makes me feel at home, just like I am back in Singapore.

ps: if you know of any good (Indian, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian) restaurants to eat in Pune or India do post it in comments to share with everyone. Thank you. 

Suonmoi Chinese Restaurant (Pune, India)

11 Century Arcade

Narangi Bang Road

Off. Boat Club Road

Pune, Maharashtra 411001

Tel: 020 30581110 / 9890111388
Opening Hours: Daily 12pm to 1130pm
Location

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McDonald's Open Door Kitchen Tour

Went for McDonald's Open Door Kitchen Tour today at the McDonald located at Sun Plaza, Sembawang. You can register for the Open Door Kitchen Tour here. There are limited slots for the tours as each tour is limited to 20 person and is held only once a month, on the 3rd Sunday of the month.

No photography was allowed. Hence, I am unable to have any photos of the kitchen

The Open Door Ambassador (ODA) was the one who conducted the tour, showing us the storage area, crew room and kitchen. He also explained to us how burgers and fries were cooked. Automation seems to play a big role in today's kitchen operations. Even the fries that are dispensed are automated. The duration to cook food, be it fries, patties or even burger bread are automated having a count down timer.The ODA kept emphasizing on hygiene, food safety, quality standard, freshness and best quality ingredients. I am very impressed with the ODA. He certainty did a good job in driving these messages during the tour and did well to engage us.

After the tour, this was given.

Again, it drives the key messages that McDonald wants to send to consumers. Whoever though of this Open Door Kitchen Tour is a genius! What a way to promote their key message and counter 'Super Size Me' without being seen as defensive. Or well, maybe I thought too much, this is not meant to counter the documentary. =)

Food for thought:

1) There are two different stoves. One for cooking only the beef patties, the other for chicken patties. This is to respect those who do not eat beef

2) The stoves for cooking the beef and chicken patties are automated.

3) The beef patties are kept for a maximum of 15 minutes before it is thrown away. This is to ensure that customers get juicy beef patty which are not dry or overcooked.

4) There are 2 sets of gloves. Blue ones for frozen/uncooked food. White ones for cooked food. This is to ensure high hygiene standards.

Conclusion:

I always wonder how McDonald's keep their food standards similar with their high turnover rate in the kitchen and with hiring of youngsters. Now I get it! The answer is due to automation in the kitchen and having count down timers for cooking duration. Moreover, kudos to their training and also supply chain operation which played an important role.

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Song Huat Bak Kut Teh (Rochor)

Song Huat Bak Kut Teh is located at Rochor Centre. Rochor Centre is slated for redevelopment in the next few years to make way for the new North-South Expressway. If you want to try the stalls in Rocher, try it fast before it is gone.

Needless to say, Song Huat Bak Kut Teh specialise in dishing out Bak Kut Teh.

Menu (sorry for unclear picture)

Bak Kut Teh ($5), You Tiao(油条) ($1), Rice ($0.50)

You Tiao(油条) ($1)

The You Tiao (油条) (also known as Dough Fritter) is basically fried dough. It was not crispy, however I like to dip it into the Bak Kut Teh Soup so that it absord the soup. Shiok!

Bak Kut Teh ($5)

The Bak Kut Teh comes with 4 big and long pieces of soft and tender pork rib. I was surprise at how tender the meat was and it was easy to separate the meat from the bone. Perfectly cooked pork ribs. The soup was full of flavour from the spices, garlic, pepper and pork meat. Not too peppery too. Quite a nice, decent bowl of bak kut teh. I was tempted to take my empty bowl and ask for more soup.

If you pass by Bugis, this stall is worth a try before it moves away. I will definitely be back after all it is so near my office.

Song Huat Bak Kut Teh (Rochor)
1 Rochor Road
#01-506 Rochor Centre
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 8am - 10pm
                         Closed: Every Mon (Except Public Holiday)

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