8 years ago
Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice
Famous Chicken Rice from Tian Tian in their Maxwell Food Court (Chinatown) location. Long lines, but move pretty quickly. Way more organized than most others hawker stalls - two windows, one for placing order and paying, next one for picking up food. Ran out of trays and actual cutlery before we got out food, so plastic it was. Chicken and rice are very good. Both very tasteful and certainly worth a try. Medium portion is SG$5, smaller and larger is available. But there are many other good chicken rice places, and in fact many other good hawker stalls, that offer cheaper food of at least the same taste and quality. It's a one time must, but not a several times must.
8 years ago
NUS The Spread Cafe - English Breakfast
Well it wasn't an English breakfast. The eggs were fine. Two of them, cooked in any form requested, no problem with that. Hashbrown was ok too, but only one on the plate. Tomato ok too. Beans acceptable. And that's where the fun stops. Bread is some overly sweet toast imposter. Ham tastes like fake salami. No bacon. No mushrooms. No sausage. No tea or coffee included. And all of that for SG$7.50, the price of almost two complete meals in any hawker court. Not worth it.
8 years ago
Jetstar Short Haul Review - SIN to PEN
Review for Jetstar 3K677 Singapore to Penang and 3K678 Penang to Singapore.
Flights booked within a week of travel on Jetstar's Friday Sale, cost around 80 Singapore dollars per person (more on that later).
The Good:
- Singapore's Terminal 1, i.e. the JetStar terminal, is the one with the pool
- Security procedure extremely hassle free as it's done at the gate, not right after passport control
- Possibility to collect miles on low cost flight
- Large availability of food, at reasonable cost
- Nice cabin crew
- Legroom pretty good, definitely comparable to Norwegian B737
- Seats recline a little bit (rare in low cost)
- Flights very punctual
- Upgrades such as extra baggage and early seat selection at fair prices
- Very easy booking experience
The Neutral:
- Online check in easy, but no electronic boarding passes issued, not even in the app
- App works for all functions (purchase, changes, checkin, etc.) but is extremely slow
- Plane nice, neutral look from the inside, but pretty ugly outside livery
- One seat had seat pocket large enough for laptop, but newer aircraft seemed to have removed them and exchanged them by one of those useless headrests pockets that don't fit anything
- Tray tables large and slide, but definitely not clean
The Bad:
- Booking fees absolutely ridiculous. SG$10 per person, per flight to book with credit card. Debit card and PayPal not much better. Turned out to be cheaper to book through the second cheapest option on Skyscanner that included fees
- No safety video
- Jetstar does strange visa checks in Singapore, so even if checkin in online can't proceed directly to gate. Apparently you only have to do this once
Overall no problems. Flight was short, and everything was punctual and fairly cheap. AirAsia only a few dollars cheaper and flying at much worse times.
8 years ago
Singapore McDonalds
The McDonalds in West Coast Park is open 24/7, has a drive through, and, in addition to a familiarly freezing indoor space, a large, sheltered, outdoor seating area.
Prices are high. SG$10 for one of the better burger meals is normal. Fries can only be substituted for a salad against a fee. Drink choices are relatively limited.
The BBQ pulled chicken out of the limited Signature Edition is pretty good. Bun is not the typical McDonalds plastic brick, theres quite a lot of salad and coleslaw, and plenty of sauce. But it's pretty small. And too pricey for that.
Ambience is fulfilled by an employee constantly chasing squirrels with a water bottle to deter them from eating leftovers. This is mostly unsuccessful.
Since 24/7 food outlets in the area are rare there is a reason to come back, but the opening hours and the upcoming Chinese New Years speciality burgers are really the only reasons.
8 years ago
8 years ago
Etihad Long Haul Review - MUC to SIN via AUH
Review for Etihad EY6 from Munich to Abu Dhabi (Boeing 777-300) and EY470 from Abu Dhabi to Singapore (Airbus A330-343).
The Good:
- Cheaper price than other Middle Eastern carriers, and still plenty of availability only a few weeks before departure
- Also Etihad do not drastically increase prices if choosing a one way flight which is rare on most flag carriers
- Even though not Star Alliance, uses Terminal 2 in Munich (i.e. the good one)
- Bag Drop (after online check-in) took less than 60 seconds
- Boarding started over an hour before departure, and hence wasn't rushed or separated into many booking classes
- Leg Room pretty good (although window seat roomier on the 777, but not a lot Etihad can do about the shape of the fuselage)
- Seat fully wired - USB, full power outlet, and ethernet
- Second small seat pocket to place phone while charging
The Neutral:
- Booking via website easy, but flight selection pages look outdated
- Good app with (very) early gate information, but boarding cards downloaded to Apple wallet cannot be displayed in lock screen a few hours earlier as with every other airline
- Good Check in Baggage allowance (at least 2x23kg in every class), but extra baggage very expensive and carry on policy very stringent (the second "personal" item is very narrowly defined)
- Boring safety video, nothing like the BA one
- No amenities kit in seat pocket - has to be requested
- Entertainment system has good content (maps, live tv, etc.), but touchscreen completely unresponsive - have to use remote control
- Onboard WiFi and Cellular at ok prices, but limited by data quantity and not by time
- Crew ok, but nothing special
The Bad:
- Food service. Poor basic choices (pasta or chicken), nothing local, on one flight ran out of 2/3 of choices almost immediately (a lot of people seem to prebook food, maybe that's the secret)
- Food push carts stocked poorly with drinks, constantly have to run back and forth, meal service takes forever
- Highlight was a stewardess going to the bathroom while cleaning up trays and leaving the cart in the isle
- Everything wrapped in plastic in plastic (cutlery, bread, water) - Cathay provides separate (warm) bread and dessert
- No printed menu (probably to hide the fact that there is no choice anyways
- Even on a night flight crew constantly turned on and off full cabin lighting
- Abu Dhabi a terrible connection airport - small, old, ugly, not enough seating opportunities, no signage at gates, all news TVs only in Arabic, no real shopping or restaurants (new terminal is supposed to solve this soon)
Also interesting were the inconsistencies between both flights. They were roughly the same length (6-7 hours), and air craft had the same age (4-5 years), yes both aircraft had different entertainment systems with the same content, but different layouts. Lounges in Abu Dhabi can be accessed for 50USD and 100USD for Business and First Class, respectively. Etihad's Dreamliners and A380s apparently are nicer from the inside, but this wasn't really a problem on these planes and a newer plane doesn't account for the subpar service and low quality transfer hub. Qatar definitely the better choice. Also Singapore Airlines direct flights on A350 were not much more expensive, but were mostly booked out and don't allow for (economical) one way booking.
In the end, like most flights, it got there (sort of) on time and all baggage was checked through properly, but there simply are better alternatives.
No more posts to show
