Mayy's Warning #1

The quest to find good food will sometimes be thwarted. This post is about one of those times. My new blog segment will be my warning to myself to stay on the good life path for anything at all, from food to clothes to who knows what.

Recently, I met up with my PW group from JC. We still hang out and I am thankful that I had them as my groupmates and we continue to grow together in life. Daniel, Shiyu, Jin Hui and Jane =) All 5 of us are foodies and we always center our outings around food. We meet up to catch up and to try new good food. This time, however, we weren't as lucky but because we didn't do our research beforehand. We were all hungry and decided on Xi Men Ding Cafe in Vivocity where we met. The pictures of this taiwanese cuisine looked good anyway. But we all know how looks can be deceiving...

Above photo shows all that we ordered: Salt and pepper fried beancurd, baby clams in light soy sauce, 3 bowls of noodles and a yam paste. Daniel wasn't hungry as he had roti prata before he met us. Zzzzzzzzzz. But he turned out to be the lucky one. Haha.

The entrees were not that wonderful. Baby clams were sweet but the sauce too salty. The meat inside the shells was not well proportionate. Not very meaty and difficult to peel off. The tofu was bland and not crispy at all. Very disappointing. Without the chilli sauce and salt dip, it would have been a real disaster.

This is my noodles order for my main course. I really like 'mei cai kou rou' so I was actually really happy when I saw it on the menu. To have pretty high expectations let down, well, it can be concluded Mayy is not the happiest person around and can be a harsher critic now! The pork belly had not much taste and was pretty tough. It is not difficult to get preserved vegetables wrong. The noodles were NOT springy and quite tough. I need not say more.

Shiyu ordered this. Noodles were the same, terrible. I like her toppings better than mine. The meat were quite peanutty and the fresh vegetables can never go wrong. Unless they are not fresh. But luckily, these were.

Photos credits: mayydiaries.blogspot.com

The noodles continue to be a letdown. It is a worse issue as the noodles are a big part of the dishes we ordered. Imagine having undercooked rice. Bleagh. Jin Hui our skinny but eats alot guy didn't like this braised beef noodles much. So I really needn't go on. Daniel's yam paste was alright, but the small bowl did not justify the price tag. Besides, orh nee would have been better, anyday.

All in all, I wouldn't be going back there. With the amateur staff and service to go with the substandard food, I really don't understand why the cafe restaurant was pretty packed. Tsk. When in Vivo, choose something else. If nothing else, go to McDonald's for a McSpicy then. Lucky for us, we went for a chocolatey dessert which left us on a sugar high after. But that's a story for another day...

Till my next warning, Mayy xo