Sweet Obsession Restaurant, Gurgaon

Sweet Obsession

DLF Shopping Mall, Shop #b 143,
Arjonda Marg, Near New Delhi Public School,
Gurgaon, Delhi – 122001
Phone : 0124-4061615
Average Price : Rs. 500 (per person - yes they are not cheap!)

This is one of my favourite restaurants in Gurgaon/Delhi. Not that I have lived there long or been to many restaurants around there but back in the day when I used to shuttle a lot between Hyderabad and Gurgaon for work, I invariably went here for a meal during each trip. Suhel has always given me company and this time it was double the fun because we had our spouses other halves partners ermmm you-get-the-picture, along.

Their menu is extremely vegetarian-friendly. In fact, most of the items have one chicken variation and a few vegetarian variations. Amazing for folks like TH who find maximum one or two options in a Singaporean menu.

Macho Nachos to start off the meal. Yummy nachos with some shredded vegetables, olives, and lots of cheese. Served with sour cream and tomato salsa.

Veni's grilled chicken with mustard sauce, mashed potatoes and stir fried vegetables. I didn't try this because I was way too full after my main course. The sauce did look delicious though.

Suhel's Chicken Chimichanga. Didn't try this either but he seemed quite happy with his order. TH ordered Vegetable Chimichanga so it looked exactly same from the outside. I will spare you the picture.

My Chicken Fajita that comes with flavoured rice, mashed red beans, assorted vegetables and warm tortilla. It was delicious and really a lot of food for one person. I'd suggest buying this to share so that you can also try some of their gorgeous desserts.

For dessert, some chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce and creamy vanilla ice cream. They make their own ice cream and this is the same fudge cake used in their famous Death by Chocolate so its divine. We ordered this because we really didn't have enough room to even share a Death by Chocolate among the four of us.

I had some pictures from an old trip so I am posting those here. We didn't order any of those this time, actually. The quality won't be great because it was taken using my first camera, a Nikon L10.

Now, when a dessert parlour says death my chocolate, they mean a dish with loads of chocolate, chocolate ice cream, pastry, sauce and the works, right. But when Sweet Obsessions says Death by Chocolate, they mean Death.by.Chocolate. It comes in a bowl made of chocolate, with vanilla ice cream and chocolate fudge inside. The fudge is warm and has a heavenly contrast to the cold ice-cream. I did die and go to heaven!

I remember the chocolate truffle pastry tasting delicious too! 

Some other dishes we tried the first few times:

Vegetable Lasagne

Chicken Quesedilla

The food is pretty amazing and the ingredients are very fresh. They had a nice informal ambience initially but have since done some redecorating. Still, the food is the same so it doesn't matter. Definitely drop by if you have some time to kill in Gurgaon and have some space in your stomach. 

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant, Singapore

To be fair, Singapore does have its own share of vegetarian food and restaurants. It may not be easily available in regular food courts but there are tons of restaurants that will cater to vegetarians, especially Indian.

Whole earth is one of those out-of-the-box restaurants that serve good, flavourful vegetarian food. Their monkey head mushrooms are most popular although we didn't order it during this trip.



I've been to this restaurant near work a bunch of times but thanks to my Project 365, I had my 'good' camera handy last week when we went there for dinner.



They serve peanuts that are just rightly salted, a sweet-ish pickled fruit/vegetable which I think is pear, and vegetarian sambal with calamansi. The sambal is very strong and spicy. Awesome to munch on while you wait for the food.

They have a bunch of healthy drinks to pick from. This is Owen's orange soursop juice. Note: they don't serve soft drinks. How's that for a message?

Olive brown rice. Wonderfully flavourful and a must-have if you visit this place.




Tom Yam fried rice. I love this too. Its mildly spicy and has a lovely note of lemongrass in it.



Hong Kong fried noodles. Was okay, quite passable.



Assam Pedas or Mock fish curry. The mock fish in it looks remarkably like fish and the gravy is really unexplainable. It has a pretty strong flavour so all may not like it.



Thai Battered Oyster Mushroom - sin on a plate. Its deep fried, its super crisp and the sauce is wonderfully orange-y. I love it!



Eggplant with sataw or stinky beans. The beans are definitely 'stinky' and quite bitter so order this dish if you really like eggplant and sambal and don't mind experimenting.



Yam ring. This is another deep fried dish that's super crispy outside but the yam is very creamy and yummy. Every table in the restaurant had one order of this so a must-try, definitely.



Mushroom Rendang curry. I love rendang! It has wonderful notes of Kerala cuisine so I never pass by an opportunity to eat it. This was my favourite dish of them all. The mushroom had a texture very similar to chicken but the flavour definitely won't put off a vegetarian. An absolute must must MUST try!

Whole Earth Peranakan Thai Vegetarian Restaurant
Website
*No added MSG

Average cost per person will be between SGD 25 to SGD 35 depending on what you order. 

Hurricane's Grill Darling Harbour, Sydney - Restaurant Review

**Vegetarians may find this post offensive, gross or otherwise a bit over the top so proceed at your own risk and whatever you do, don't look at the second last picture in this post. Thanks**

So, I am in Sydney this week. Although I asked around a fair bit, authentic Australian food is pretty much just steak and burgers and an odd bit of kangaroo meat thrown in here and there. I am not sure if I can try kangaroo meat so me and a 2 colleagues decided to play it safe and try the immensely popular meat and seafood place -  Hurricane's Grill in Darling Harbour, very close to work and our hotel.

We got bread for the table. A herb roll with oodles of butter thrown in the centre of the slices. It was delicious - easily the best toasted bread I have ever eaten. Damn, TH would have loved this.



You should know I detest shoving blurry pics to your face but this is the only picture I took of the amazing garlic mushrooms we got as starters. They were mild yet had a peppery kick. There's a whole bed of olive oil and garlic under those babies that practically made them ooze yumminess (and cholesterol maybe but who cares)



This my friends, is the star of the evening. Grilled Pork Ribs, Hurricane's signature dish. Every single table had a portion of it and my two friends definitely wanted to try it. I had stopped eating pork when I was in my teens and so just ventured to try a small piece of it (only because they oohed and aahed so much). It was definitely awesome, I can tell you that much.



This was my order. Tiger prawns in garlic butter, served on a bed of rice with a side salad. I ignored the rice, ignored the salad (but of course) and dug right in. Although the exposed head and eyes did make me a bit uncomfortable, it was too delicious for me to care too much.

The sauces that went with the prawns made it extra delicious. The green stuff is something like pesto but swimming in oil and the gravy in the steel bowl was mind blowing. The red chilli paste was potent and gave the dish a nice kick.



Finally, the carnage. I did warn you!



We polished off everything except this last piece of pork rib.



I kept thinking what a lovely time my bro and sis would've had at this place. Both love pork, and both would have licked their plates and fingers clean. I can never eat good food outside where I live without thinking of family.

Ok so Hurricane's Grill. If you are ever in Sydney and want a good meal, head down there, they definitely won't disappoint.

Website

We got drinks along with the food (we got 2 of that tiger prawns dish, btw) that you see above and the total amount was AUD 141. Considering that outside food in Sydney is not really cheap anywhere, this was just fine for us.

Check our their Bondi beach branch if you are in that area. Darling Harbour is in the CBD area if you don't drop by here, fret not. Bondi beach is the main deal and I hear there are hour-long queues to get in. I would highly recommend booking a table or going at 6:30pm like we did (we still had to wait 15 mins)

Pasta Brava Restaurant Review Singapore

If you are looking for vegetarian-friendly Italian restaurants in Singapore, then Pasta Brava is definitely for you. We went there for my b'day (way back in August) so this review is a bit late in coming.



The ambience is just as the website promises. Its cosy with dim lights and perfect for a relaxed dinner after work (its very close to my office, located in Tanjong Pagar).

In true Italian fashion, a small, warm loaf of home made bread was served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar first. We had to rush through it a bit because the crust got super hard and rubbery as it cooled down (testament to the homemadeness I guess)

While you wait for your food, you can use scribble on the "table cloth" which is actually a thick sheet of white paper. A very nice touch although I am not sure if it matches with the ambience of the place which seems more fine-dining-ey.

I scribbled quite a bit though ;)



Our Minestrone. It was light, the flavours were perfect and it tasted like how it would have if my mom made it (not that she ever made Minestrone but you know what I mean)



I know it looks like something else but this is our starter - portobello mushroom slices sauteed in olive oil, garlic and parsley. Although it looks intense, no flavour was overpowering, except that of the mushrooms of course.

Confession: we kinda fought over the last pieces.

Pasta Brava boasts a lot of home-made ravioli dishes and you have quite a few vegetarian options too. We got the Spinach Ravioli filled with Ricotta and Sun Dried Tomatoes served with Tomato Sauce and Basil. Needless to say, it was quite delicious! We did get extra sprinkling of parmesan on top, btw.



Since we wanted to go to NYDC for dessert, we reluctantly passed on their Tiramisu and Panna Cotta but definitely plan to go back soon

Pasta Brava, all in all a thumbs up from me.

Website

Address: 
11 Craig Road
Tanjong Pagar
Singapore - 6227 7550

We shared all the dishes and it costs us about SGD 50 for the two of us. I would highly recommend booking a table because we went on a Wednesday evening after booking and still got a table wedged between two others. The place was packed.

**All pics taken with my phone camera with no edits done. Pardon the quality.

Indian Curry House - Restaurant Review Singapore

These pictures have been in my drafts for ages now. We went to Indian Curry House on East Coast Road for our second anniversary lunch. Yeah, I was super lazy so we had both lunch and dinner outside ;)

It was surprisingly easy to find with a little help from Google Maps.

We munched on the pepper papadoms and waited for our orders. Sadly, we weren't to hungry so the order was not big but we have gone back to this place several times and can certainly vouch for their food. 

There's one thing you may not know about me. If I am in a restaurant in Singapore and they have Gobi Manchurian on the menu, I order it. Its a no-exception rule. What this means is, I know where they have the best Gobi Manchurians in the city and where they suck. You gotta love some of my obsessions, eh?

Indian Curry House makes a mean Gobi Manchurian. Its not the best but it definitely falls in the 75th percentile (hey! my mom paid a lot of money for my education and I did statistics for 3 years in my life, is got to count for something!)

Peas Pulao. Easily one of the best pulao I've had in Singapore. Unfortunately, I don't order pulao in every Indian restaurant I go to so my frame of reference is not as broad as it is for Gobi Manchurian but still, this was one good pulao. Cooked and spiced just right with the right amount of ghee. 

Stuffed onion and paneer kulchas. Soft, spongy and really quite good. I wish they had added a bit more salt to the dough though. 

This is TH's onion raita. He can be incredibly tam brahm at times. I mean, who orders raita in a restaurant? Seriously!

Both TH and I were pleasantly surprised with the food actually. We have gone back a few times and ordered different things (except the Gobi Manchurian - that stays on the list!), and have really liked it. The restaurant is also priced very reasonably. 

Avg cost for 2: SGD 25-30

More details:

Indian Curry House

27 Upper East Coast Road

Crescendo Building

Singapore

Ph: +65 6442 09

They also have a restaurant in Singapore Expo, in front of Hall 4. Please note that the food is more expensive in the Expo branch and the biryani is too spicy. Thanks much.

Kailash Parbat, Serangoon Road, Singapore

I don't know how many of you have heard of Kailash Parbat before this. I did for the first time earlier this week and learnt its a pretty popular vegetarian chain in India, specialising in Sindhi food.. Since we have a formidable number of desis in the Singapore office now, and because Kailash Parbat newly opened in Singapore, all the desi Googlers decided to head there.

The address says: Kailash Parbat, 3 Belilios Road, Singapore but its actually on the main road itself - which is Serangoon Road, next to the Sri Veerammakaliamman kovil (opposite Khansama restaurant, which has amazing tandoori food, btw).



The menu is quite extensive and since they are known for their chaat, we decided to start with that.



The Aloo Tikki Chaat. It was okay, I wouldn't rave about it.

The pani puri was quite good. It came in a pretty platter and the sweet chutney and paani came separate. There are 8 puris in a platter and was quite good for sharing.

*Excuse the dirty table, that's what happens when 18 Indians see pani puri after weeks and one of them wants to take a picture. Note that 2 puris are missing!)

This is what everyone loved! The Ragdi Patties. They were heart-shaped, very cute, just the right consistency and came with channa gravy. This plate was fought over and lots more ordered during the course of lunch.



My order: The Ragda Sev Puri - wasn't half as good as the ragda patties, but ok. The sev was fresh, got to admit.



Pav Bhaji. I didn't try this but those who did, said its quite good as far as 'too clean' chaat goes.



The samosa chaat was surprisingly good. More aloo, more power!



The Aloo Mutter with literally 3 pieces of aloo (potatoes). The gravy was very good though. I heard nan was ordered but didn't get a chance to see any since I took 2 mins out to click this picture.



Sindhi Aloo Took (Tuk). It looked crispy but was soft and spiced just right. They was also rice and khadi but I didn't even see it, let alone take pics ;)

A lot of people ordered the channa batoora and said it was so-so. I tried the pindi channa but it wasn't up to the mark.



I was pretty kicked that they have kulfi but it was disappointing. Not sweet at all. Meh.



The rabdi was better. Not great, but better. We poured some over the kulfi to make it more edible.

Overall, I would go there for the chaat, the lassi (which was very nice) and usual Indian fare like nan and subzi (curry - side dish). They had a good variety of Sindi food which I'd love to try.

Stay away from the corn chaat, masala tea, channa batoora, and kulfi.

We were 18 people in all and the bill came to SGD 23 per person.

Kailash Parbat
3 Belilios Road
Opp. Khansama Restaurant (Serangoon Road)
Singapore