Gardens by the Bay, Singapore (a place to get a break from the city)

It’s needless to repeat it all the time, but one more time: I really love Singapore. Even if the city itself is not as noisy and busy as some cities like Beijing or New York, one may still need a break from the city.

 

Only a short distance from the world-famous Marina Bay Hotel, are the Gardens at the Bay, which is an answer for the ones looking for a getaway from the city noise. It’s truly an amazing and extremely well maintained park filled with beautiful plants, trees and modern art. It’s actually the fact that the gardens and the art were combined in such a seamless way that it impressed me a lot. 

So next time you’re in Singapore, head for the beautiful Helix Bridge and take left after the bridge. You won’t be disappointed.

 

 

The Great: Jin Jin Eating House, Singapore

 

I prefer street food over fine dining since I think that I get better vibes from street food and of course the price is also lower which is always a good thing when you eat 100+ times a year in a Restaurant.

If you love street food too, Singapore is a GREAT place! It’s filled with especially local/Chinese/Malaysian food courts or Hawker Centers as they are also called. Since it’s generally pretty expensive to eat in SG, food courts are an affordable option to the expensive food served in most restaurants (well you can also find cheaper restaurants especially from China Town but that’s a different story…)

I wanted to show you one food court. It’s definitely not the only one, maybe not even the best and it’s one of the smallest for sure.

But the most important thing to consider is the food… I got the very best noodle soup from there. Ever. Period.

 

 

 

So here it comes: Let me introduce you the Jin Jin Eating House (no website and it’s NOT Chin Chin Eating House)

It’s situated in the crossing of North Bridge Road and Liang Seah Street near the center of Singapore (Raffles and others) and there is only one thing to say about it: I recommend.

The pricing could be described being reasonable. Noodle soups cost about 4,5 SGD per portion so with the price of food and drinks in an average restaurant you eat here probably at least 10 times. So next time you’re starving in SG, I really advise you to try it.

 

 

Jin Jin Eating House
My tasty noodles

 

NamNam Noodle Bar Sub-type Sandwich, Singapore.

 

NamNam Store Front

 I have been a heavy Subway-customer for years now and this time I wanted to try something new in Singapore. I have been looking for an alternative to Subway since the menu in most countries is already too familiar to me.

I once saw that NamNam Noodle Bar is serving Subway -type subs and I decided to give them a try!

This review has nothing to do with NamNam Noodle Bar (NNNB) noodles or anything else than their filled sandwiches.

I had a choice of  six different ingredients for the bread and only one bread type (unlike Subway where you can choose between tens of ingredients and many bread types). Pricing was quite about the same. I ended up ordering a Chili Lemongrass Chicken, Egg Omelette, Chicken Floss sandwich.

I was a bit disappointed about the bread itself since I feel that bread in Asia is almost always inferior to the bread you can get from Europe. With the ingredients it was a completely different story…

sandwitch

…because I really enjoyed what I tasted. The fillings were of a good quality (fresh and tasty) and the taste was genuinely Vietnamese and that was what I wanted, so I can recommend this one.

It would be nice to have this kind of concept in Europe (currently the restaurant chain only runs restaurants in SG, Indonesia and Philippines). For a fast food and an almost-healthy Suway replacement NNNB is a good choice. Once again, a definite TRY but don’t wait too much for the bread itself.

 

 

World’s cheapest Michelin Star restaurant (Singapore)

When I found out that Tim Ho Wan (in Hong Kong) is no longer the World’s cheapest Michelin star restaurant and the new restaurant is in Singapore, I decided to search for the name of the place and visit it the next time I go to SG.

So here it is, the review of Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice & Noodle (78 Smith Street, Chinatown, SG)  I’d say the name couldn’t be more informative. That really is what you get.

According to numerous sources, the restaurant used to be a street food stall typical to Singapore street food genre. As the popularity has grown a lot, a proper restaurant was founded and it could be classified as a small-medium-sized fast food restaurant. According to Straits Times, the old food stall also exists.

The menu includes chicken and pork with either side rice or one of two types of noodles. The menu also includes some side dishes such as cooked sprouts.

The pricing is cheap. Amazingly cheap. The chicken + noodle meal with side sprouts and a beer costs barely 10 SGD… And it really is worth the money spent. The food is tasty and I can recommend it but I don’t know what’s the real difference with the place compared with its peers. As the old food stall, the restaurant is also very busy but you get your meal in a decent time. Actually the food ordering process is similar to many fast food restaurants where you pay and get a queue number. You can then find a table and pick up your food when you see your number from the screen.

When you go to Singapore, I recommend you to spend at least a dinner/lunch or two in one of the SG food courts. HKSSCRN is now a restaurant, a definite GO, but you should also try the others, I personally love Makansutra Gluttons Bay (8 Raffles Avenue, SG).