Tong Shui Cafe, Aji-Tei Japanese Cuisine and dessert house

It's been some time since the last foodie post, so here are two for good measure! Before I begin, though, here's a shoutout to celebrate my colleague Melvin's recent 'tagging'! Ok, now, onto the food!!!

First up, Tong Shui Cafe, which serves Hong Kong themed food. The first thing you notice about this restaurant is its overwhelmingly red decor. From the door to the menus, just about everything's clad in CNY-red and mahogany. Add in the re-runs of old hk film classics like The God Of Gamble (not a spelling error) and assorted Jiang Shi (Chinese Vampire) shows, and you've got an interesting theme for a cafe.

Then again, ambience is but one of the criteria here, so on to the food...

Hong Kong Iced Milk Tea ($1 something)

MSG-laden noodles

Wah. They sure were liberal with the MSG here. No attempt at stock or alternative natural flavouring. Just pour the bee cheng only. Yuck. Had to keep drinking water after half a bowl of this.

Wolfberry tea ($3)

Thick toast with peanut butter and condensed milk ($2.88)

In most mid-priced cafes here, there is usually one killer dish that keeps me going back for more. St Louis pork ribs at Cafe Cartel, New York Pizza at The Pizza Place, etc. This, my friends, is it: Thick toast generously slabbed with smooth PB and drizzled with condensed milk.

The toast is crisp on the outside and oh-so-soft on the inside. And it's as thick as it looks; you have to literally work your knife. At close to $3 it's not the most value for money snack you can buy, but boy, is it worth it. Awesomely sinful.

We found out later that toast is one-for-one on Tuesdays all day. -.-

Tong Shui Cafe
Liang Seah Street, next to Ah Chew Desserts
Taste: 1/5 (The PB toast on it's own is 4/5, so technically the rest of the food is -3/5, haha)
Value: 2.5/5
Ambience: 3/5

Update: The 1-for-1 toast is CHEAT one!! They will only give you a voucher for your next visit to claim 1-for-1 toast. Blardy cheats. - ireallylovedanny

For dinner, we had intended to go to our usual pasta place at Taka basement, where they make really good Aglio Olio, but they were really crowded and we couldn't wait, so we headed for this promisingly-named restaurant...

Haha, lit words look funny...

Salmon Dragon Maki ($5.80)

Agedashi Tofu ($3.80)

Lotus Chips ($2.80)

Wow, I must relate this incident man. After taking our orders, the waitress then repeated them back to us.

Waitress: In accented English "One Griwl Saba Shio, One Loti Cheese..."

Me: "Huh, what's that again?"

Waitress: "One griwl Saba Shio..." *blank look*

Me: "After that"

Waitress: "Loti Cheese"

- Long Pause -

Waitress takes menu and flips to page with lotus chips and points to it and says very confidently in an I-told-you-how-many-times-already-you-dumb-prick look: "Loti Cheese. Yes?"

Me: Stunned silence. Nods.

Afterwards, when she placed the bowl of chips in front of us she also said somewhat smugly "Loti Cheese". Gah.

Chilled tofu with nutty dressing (Came with the bento)

Loti Cheese aside, the chilled tofu was pretty good, the best thing, in fact, of the whole bento. It's texture reminds you of cream cheese and the peanut/salad dressing complements it perfectly. Nothing else to distract from the fusion of both tastes, which is just as well, because anything else would've sullied the experience.

I'm really not one for fusion food, but this is an exception. Surely the dressing is west-inspired, the salad sauce tastes somewhat like thousand island. I'm not kidding you though, it really is good.

Oh, another thing, we realised after the meal that it's part of the Ajisen Ramen chain! Oh well.
Oh, oh, and we didn't have dessert because no room for it. :)

Aji-Tei Japanese Cuisine and Dessert House
Takashimaya Basement 1
Taste: 3.5/5 (hits and misses)
Value: 3/5 (total bill came up to $43)
Ambience: 4/5

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Note: Please ignore the recent comments on the tagboard, they were made on the back of a rough day and weren't intended to mean anything other than me letting off some steam.