Lai Lai Family Restaurant

Last visited: 28 April 2007

I like beef as you don't feel the fattening taste that you would get from eating the pork or chicken. It always makes me feel slim with his lean read meat. And I like Taiwanese food as they come with lots of new, unusual unique variety, changing the traditional Chinese cuisines in a modern yet fun way.

Location

Lai Lai Family Restaurant

20 Liang Seah Street

Singapore 189041

Tel: 68371556

Last order at 10.30 pm everyday except Sunday which closes at 3pm.

Lai Lai Stewed Beef Noodles

As seen on its menu and even its signboard along the street, you can tell that the shop is promoting its signature stewed beef noodles. Thus, why would I want to miss it? :P

Comments: The soup is strong with its beef and herbal taste and the noodles are just right and not soggy at all. However, the whole beef noodles overall is super spicy. Maybe I someone who is oversensitive with chilli and I cannot take spicy food at all, I could understand why such a normal beef noodle soup can become so spicy (with probably just one slice of red chilli as shown in the picture).

Well, that's not until I found a Szechuan pepper inside my soup. I recognise this pepper as the special ones from Szechuan because I have seen it on the herbal chocolate at Vivo before (Read my previous entries). Those pepper are really spicy and hence make the soup untolerable for me. However, for those spicy and chilli lovers, I bet you guys are excited and smiling away at the thought of this beef noodles by now...hahaha...lol

Ratings (Total of 5 points)

Taste: 4.5

Tenderness: 3.5

Quality: 3.5

Presentation: 4.0
Price: $$$ (S$12.20 nett for a meal of noodles, drink, and one side order; S$7.90 for alar carte)

OVERALL: 4.0

Chicken Cutlet with Rice

It looks kinda like a Western Chicken Chop Rice to me when the waitress serve it in front of me, except it looks nicer with the black sesame on top of the rice. :)

Comments: I quite like the crispy chicken as it remains me of the famous Taiwanese deep-fried salted chicken pieces (盐酥鸡). The skin is really very crispy but slightly thick with the corn flour used. You might want to order a drink to go along with this rice dish as your mouth may go dry eating it.

Ratings

Taste: 4.0
Ingredients: 3.5
Quality: 4.0
Presentation: 4.0

Price: $$$ (S$6.90)
OVERALL: 4.0

Lychee Freeze

Their menu seems to be promoting their freezes as well. Looks like the stall owner has total confidence in their freezes...do you wanna get one? :D

Comments: The Lychee Freeze is marked as a recommended drink in their menu. Placed on top of the drink is one big lychee meat and a few colourful chewy jelly pieces. The lychee blended ice is very fresh and has a strong lychee fruit smell and taste. The presence of the jelly and the fruit enhances the chewing sensation. I really appreciate this drink. They have lots of other fruit freezes like pineapple, peach, kiwi. Maybe I will try them some other day ba...lol

Ratings

Taste: 4.5

Ingredients: 3.5

Freshness: 3.5

Presentation: 4.0

Price: $$ (S$3.80)

OVERALL: 4.0

Fried Beancurd

Beancurd is good as it is a healthy food with low calories. Hence, for any ladies who are on diet, you won't have to worry to eat lots of beancurds.

Comments: The fried beancurd taste just like many other stalls selling this dish as well because you can't really change the natural taste of the beancurd. So the key thing to look out for here is their sauce for dipping the beancurd, as well as the tenderness and freshness of the beancurd used.

Their sauce was pretty average to me but it has a unique taste. The beancurd used are soft, and the crispy skin on the outside makes it firm overall so you won't have a hard time picking it up using your chopstick. However, for me, I would still prefer the Japanese fried tofu (at Sakae) the most. This one is good if you want to have a healthier meal or if you just simply love beancurd.

Ratings

Taste: 4.0

Tenderness: 4.0
Quality: 4.5
Presentation: 4.0
Price: $$ (Less than S$5)

OVERALL: 4.0

Fried Squid

I would simply named this side order as "Chinese style calamari". So I guess everything is simply well-said and direct? :P

Comments: My friend recommend me to try the fried squid without the special tomato sauce given. It tastes great even without the sauce! The sauce, when dipped, will provide you with a little sour taste so that you won't have the usual oily feeling after eating all the deep-fried food. The squid used is very tender, soft and chewy too. It is a very good hot snack if you intend to just sit down with your friends for a chat...and probably over some fruit freezes as well...hahaha...lol

Ratings

Taste: 5.0

Tenderness: 4.0

Quality: 4.5
Presentation: 4.5
Price: $$
OVERALL: 4.5

Braised Three Pork Slices

It is the usual 3 layers of the pork that is most popular among the Chinese. Yet because they contains lots of fats, some people would reject this dish for healthy reasons. Our mums would probably always cooked it once in a while, so sometimes I actually wonder if I should try something less common instead. But then, if they can't even make a simply dish tastes good, then what else can they cook better as a restaurant standard?!

Comments: I like their sticky sauce on top of the pork slices. Maybe the chef cut the pork meat into really very thin layers, you don't feel that fattening even if you eat the fats on the meat as well. The pork meat is firm and their bone is so soft that I am actually able to crush it into tiny pieces with my teeth and swallow it down. Worth ordering! :D

Ratings

Taste: 4.5
Tenderness: 4.5

Quality: 4.5
Presentation: 4.0
Price: $$
OVERALL: 4.5

Grilled Eel

It is just like the unagi you get at other Japanese restaurant. Even the sauce used is the same!

Comments: Well, nothing much to say about it if you have tried the unagi dishes at the Japanese restaurants. They are really all the same to me. Even the sauce they used are pretty identical. The only thing I guess that people still ordered this Grilled Eel is that we just LOVE eating unagi! :D Especially when you go with rice, it makes the taste even more stand out. Hahaha...lol

Ratings

Taste: 3.5

Tenderness: 4.0

Quality: 3.5

Presentation: 3.5

Price: $$

OVERALL: 3.5

Other remarks: It is a 2-level restaurant and so there should be quite sufficient of seats around. Their meals are quite good bargains with a maincourse, a side order and a drink at $12.20 nett. I mean, if you dine out at other restaurants, the price may probably come higher with all the service and GST charges. :)) Liang Seah Street is a street that I really love manz...lol