mycc

We were stunned for a while as they served this, with an appalling decrease in portioning. Unlike our previous visits with at least medium-sized slabs of pork chops filling the plate, this was sparsely filled with small cubes.

Taste-wise, the strong buttery aroma was gone, leaving only a light whiff of it with every spoonful of the powder. Pork chops were also over fried, hard and dry inside covered with much crust instead of the juicy pieces previously.

While searching for a place to satisfy my friend’s tze char cravings and looking for a somewhat central location, we decided to settle here with their infamous Chao Ta Bee Hoon. Imagine my quizzical look when I was told that burnt food was actually famous, my first thought was that this was probably an accidental dish. A small coffee shop few streets down from Swee Choon, it’s easy to miss them especially with the many turns and road works happening in the area.

Famished by the time we reached, we chanced upon this while on the search for a place hoping to avoid the snaking long queues everywhere in Vivo City. Located in a quieter corner just outside Daiso, we decided to give it a shot since I've had quite a good impression of Imperial's Peking Duck concept earlier.

A quick research while doing up this post then uncovered that it isn't part of the Imperial Treasure Group, and is in fact a standalone establishment that used to be at Metropole Hotel, starting the only restaurant to give health diagnosis by their in-house Chinese physicians. It is thus no wonder that you see them selling several herbal products, a menu page on herbal benefits and even have a stand that resembles that of a Chinese medical hall.

Stepping into the restaurant, I must say it's quite a nightmare for interior designers, irking even the laymen like us quite a fair bit with the super mismatched designs and decor. Greeted by a splash of vibrant colours on its 'ok-handsigned' sofa chairs that seemed like a kiddish cafe, there was also a bar top at the side and further in, there was a proper Chinese restaurant setting with round tables covered with white table-clothes and a formal dining dresscode by its service staff. It felt like a total mis-match for us and it took a while before we could finally get over it and focus on its food.

This place reminds me of Two Blur Guys, with the way its name has been derived from. A rather known place for tzechar, I was quite surprised that this name kept popping up whenever I speak of tzechar cravings.

For the not-so-Singaporeans, Tzechar is typically in a coffee shop setting, with most dishes involving frying - hence the name of 煮炒 in Chinese. As most coffee shops would have a tzechar stall, it was pretty rare to hear of any special outstanding one, except perhaps the popular XO Beehoon or the Hong Kong Street ones.

Hidden in quite an inaccessible area away from the train station, it was quite surprising to see the place packed with people even at about 8pm.