Chums

Whenever my colleagues and I want to celebrate, we would always head on to Chums Steakhouse in Toa Payoh because it has the most value-for-money lunch in the area.

Available daily from 11.30am to 2.30pm, every order of a set lunch comes with a free flow All-You-Can-Eat Salad Bar!

Salad Bar

Variety of side dishes

Everything you need to make your favourite vegetable or fruit salad

3 different types of soup

The Salad Bar does not just serve salad but also different kinds of side dishes, soups and even soft serve ice-cream! *Yum*

If you love coffee or tea, you may also top-up $3.50 with your meal to get the All-You-Can-Drink Java Bar. If you're wondering about the quality of the coffee, rest assured, it is taste-certified by my coffee-addict work buddy.

Java bar

My favourite mains here is the beef steak (it is called a steakhouse, isn't it?) as it is succulent and goes well with the accompanying mushroom sauce.

Beef steak

And like I always say, no good meal is complete without dessert! You can choose between vanilla, chocolate or mixed soft serve ice-cream topped with rainbow or chocolate toppings.

Soft serve ice-cream corner

Yummy ice-cream

Yes, now you know why we like to have our lunch here indeed.. *grin*

Chums Steakhouseis located at 190 Lorong 6, Toa Payoh #02-516, Singapore 310190.
(Tel: +65 6358 2998)

Linking Up With:

   

What Are We, If Not For Our Mothers

My mum with her precious granddaughter

As the saying goes, you appreciate your mothers so much more when you've become a mother yourself. Thanks Ma for everything. Hope you like your gift =)

 Happy Mothers' Day! ^_^ 

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Our 4th Anniversary at Equinox

The hubby surprised me with a bouquet of flowers delivered to me at work to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary on the day after Labour Day. Thereafter he came to pick me up and brought me to Swissotel, The Stanford for our romantic dinner.

Equinox

Located at the 70th floor of Swissotel, Equinox Restaurant is the highest restaurant in Singapore boasting of amazing views of key iconic structures in Singapore such as the Esplanade, Singapore Flyer, Gardens by the Bay and Marina Bay Sands.

Fine dining at the highest restaurant in Singapore

The hubby told me that you had to top up $20 more just for a table next to the window but we both thought that it was fully worth it for the experience =)

Champagne for him and mocktail for me
(The bouquet was just too cute so it had to be in the background of everything! *laughs*)

Taking pictures of us together with the hubby's new S4 while waiting for the food

As the sun began to set and the sky turned dark (literally), our tasty appetiser finally arrived!

Appetiser: Quail meat roll with cabbage

Up next were our sides that went with our gigantic main dish of the best and most expensive beef steak we had ever tasted since our Kobe beef directly flown in from Kobe during our trip to Hokkaido last year.

Left to right: Black pepper sauce to drizzle on the steak, potato gratin with cheese, seasonal vegetable with mushrooms

Mains: Black angus beef sliced into 6 pieces, 3 for each of us

Despite its hefty price tag, the beef was one of the best we had ever tasted (and believe me, we have tasted a lot!). The meat was tender, juicy and literally melts in your mouth. Each bite oozes with so much flavour that even though we were so full (each piece was really thick), we kept eating as it was simply too delicious to stop!

After meal we ordered dessert and was pleasantly surprised with a complimentary cake from the restaurant to celebrate our anniversary! So sweet of them =)

Happy Anniversary cake

Dessert: Hazelnut parfait with cherries soaked in brandy

Both the cake and our dessert were equally delicious but tried as we might, we really couldn't finish them! Alcoholic fanatics like the hubby would probably prefer the parfait as it contained some brandy, which went really well with the chocolate and hazelnut.

All in all, although each dish took a while to serve to us as I suspect they made every dish from scratch upon ordering, the awesome food and beautiful views fully made up for it. The service was also very good as the waiter was very knowledgeable and responsive to our needs.

We had such an enjoyable dinner, definitely one that I will never forget =)

 Happy 4th Anniversary to Us!! 

With many more to come!

Seoul Day 7: Don't Want to Leave!

It's the last day of our 7-day stay in Seoul and we don't ever want to leave! *sob*

We packed up all our things and boarded the Airport Limousine Bus to Incheon International Airport.

Procession at Incheon Airport

"Nooooo, I don't want to leave!!!"

Boarding our plane back home

My Reflections
As usual, I had to write my first impressions as a first time visitor to Seoul, Korea. Having been on many overseas trips to various countries in the world, I have to say that Seoul was really among my top destinations to visit.

The shopping here is awesome as the clothes were cheap but the quality was good! A top can cost as low as 5,000 won (S$5) and skirts at 15,000 won.

Clockwise from left: Super pink 2-in-1 jacket at just 59,000 won;
Pink Hello Kitty boots at 15,000 won;
Full head to toe outfit at just 40,000 won (excluding the jacket & boots)

Koreans don't shy away from colour, not even the senior citizens who would gladly wear bright colours if they liked it. I totally loved all the colours! =)

As for food, Koreans really like spicy food so if you can't, it's better not to order anything spicy. Most Koreans also don't speak English very well so remember to include the Korean words of the places you are visiting so that you can show it to the cab drivers to read otherwise they may have no idea what you are talking about. However, if you speak slowly and gesture a lot, you can still communicate relatively well =)

We also observed that they are very good at making things more efficient and convenient. Luggage belts on stairs, inclined escalators and many travellators. The subway system here is also very convenient so you will find no problem finding your way around the city.

We loved Seoul so much we really didn't want to come back! We'll definitely be back again.. 2 years later! =)


<< Back to Seoul Day 6:  Gyeongbokgung Palace, Ginseng Chicken & More Shopping

P.S: Visit my travel page for more of our travel itineraries! =)

Seoul Day 6: Gyeongbokgung Palace, Ginseng Chicken & More Shopping

After breakfast at our hotel this morning (we were too tired to walk), we took the subway from Chungmuro Station to Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3), Exit 5, to visit the Gyeongbokgung Royal Palace.

One of the most famous palaces in Seoul, Gyeongbokgung means “Palace Greatly Blessed by Heaven” and has the longest and most storied history of any Korean palace. The new structures made up the massive complex with 5,792 rooms, taking up 4,414,000 square feet (410,000 square metres) of land.

National Palace Museum of Korea

Side entrance to the palace

Main entrance to the Palace

Phototaking with the guards, who take their jobs very seriously!

Although a ticket to the palace costs only 3,000 won (approximately S$3), the family wasn't too interested to go in and take a look. They were however excited for a good lunch so we made our way to Tosokchon Samgyetang (address: 85-1 Chebu-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul), which was recommended by my friend A as the best restaurant for ginseng chicken.

To get there, walk back to Gyeongbokgung Station and walk out via Exit 2. Walk straight for about 120 meters towards Hyoja-dong and look out for this house (see below) on your left.

Tosokchon Samgyetang

Traditional dining area with kimchi in a pot

They only sold ginseng chicken soup (the power of speciality is evident and very common in Korea and Japan) in 3 different grades so we ordered 3 of the regular grade and 1 of the premium grade ginseng chicken soup, which was supposedly for my mum but she later allowed me to finish it as she said it was good for nourishing my body since we were trying for a baby.

Regular ginseng chicken soup

Premium ginseng black chicken soup with added sprinkles of ginseng

My family was initially skeptical with regards to the quality of the soup here (they were like, "sure good or not?") but after taking a sip from the pot, they were sold! I personally preferred the premium ginseng black chicken to the regular soup and definitely highly recommend it! It was so good I finished every last drop!

So good!!

After a very fulfilling lunch, we decided to do some last minute shopping at our favourite shopping districts we've visited the days before. Starting with Dongdaemun, we took the subway from Gyeongbokgung Station (Line 3) to Jongno 3-ga Station and transferred to Line 1 to Dongdaemun Station.

Cheap, cheap socks!

Bought more socks for everyone as it's everywhere in Dongdaemun! It's the cheapest here so grab them as they are cheap and good! All my friends and colleagues love them =)

Of course you need to grab shoes to go with your socks and there are rows and rows of shops selling super cheap shoes here!

Tons and tons of shoes!

I bought a pair of super cute polka dot black, white and pink boots for myself, just couldn't resist them =)

Dongdaemun shopping district

And I thought this small river in the middle of Dongdaemun was unexpectedly beautiful as we don't see this in Singapore (we've only got smelly canals here!).

The next stop of our last minute shopping was Namdaemun Market (Hoehyeon Station, Line 3), where we bought more seaweed and other souvenirs. Finally we settled at our favourite restaurant near our hotel for one last BBQ dinner!

Final BBQ dinner

Yummy beef and pork

We said that since this was our "last supper" in Seoul, we weren't going to hold back on ordering whatever we liked! And we ended up being so full! =S

I can't believe 6 days went passed in a blink of an eye! Other than seeing my girl, I'm totally not looking forward to going home! =(


Continue to >> Seoul Day 7: Don't Want to Leave!
<< Back to Seoul Day 5: Lotte Duty Free, COEX Mall & Bampo Bridge

P.S: Visit my travel page for more of our travel itineraries! =)