St James Power Station

I've gone to St. James Power Station! Just to look-see look-see...

Anyway, its just opposite from Vivocity as I'm sure you all know. When we first walked up to the building, we had no idea where anything was (there are 9 establishments there excluding the restaurants). Here's a short review on each of them:

Movida
Movida means 'party' in Cuban street slang, and its supposed to play world music. When we went there their band from Parauay was playing and singing, and though they were good it was deafening. Too loud. Heineken costs $9.

Bellini Room (2nd floor)
Like this the best because its a chill-out kinda place. Supposed to have performances too but there weren't any going on when we there. They serve really addictive tapioca chips and the Bellini ($20) tastes really good! Recommended.

Gallery Bar (2nd floor)
This can be accessed via Bellini Room or via its own entrance on the first floor (a bit hard to find). Anyway, its named as such because it provides a good view of Powerhouse, Movida and Dragonfly. Good for taking a look at what's going on down below. Friendly staff.

Dragonfly
This place gets super super crowded. Think squeezing through a crush of bodies, and people with leery eyes. Haha. Was very smoky. Couldn't see anything so we cleared out quick. But its draw is the live band and dancers who perform Chinese pop songs.

Powerhouse (1st floor)
Club with big dance floor. This place was really entertaining. The waiter at the Gallery Bar told us its for "youths" and "yuppies" but when we went there we found lots of old people. Think 30s to 40s (and above?)!!! Some of them were actually dancing on a raised platform. When I say dancing, I mean clapping and bad gyrating movements. There was also an old guy wearing sunglasses and dancing with an old lady. Not for the faint-hearted.

Mono
Not to be overly scientific, but doesn't this make you think of infectious mononucleosis aka kissing disease? Or, er, people singing in a monotone? Ok, the correct interpretation is that the place is designed to a monocromatic theme. Who would've known...This is on the 3rd floor and can be accessed by climbing a staircase inside Dragonfly or by taking the elevator from outside. Horrifying singing can be heard here (the main area is like one of those big karaoke areas, meaning you subject your ears to possible aural torture). There are private rooms also but I think this might not be the best place for karaoke :p Forgot to check out the prices. The singing kinda scared us away.

Peppermint Park
Doesn't look exciting, its an outdoor bar with swings and hammocks. But wear nice nice how to sit in hammock?

The Lobby
Saddest of all, there's no signboard and we could barely locate the place. Nobody there.

The Boiler Room
Not open yet but going to be open very soon!

If you're intending to go, remember to get a stamp on your hand at the first place you go to because it can be used to enter all the other 8 places, no matter what they are. Especially useful for Dragonfly because the queue gets really long... but of course it was a Saturday night which I'd assume means a bigger crowd.

Lastly, we had supper at the Station Kitchen. This comprises of a japanese Charcoal barbecue restaurant, What You Do Prata (not typo, dunno how they name one) and Din Tai Fung noodle bar. The charcoal place looked really pretty good and we were expecting prices to be sky high (think japanese style restaurant with the low tables and wagyu beef) but it was quite reasonable. Beef/Alaskan Crab was about/slightly over $10 each. They bring this pail with charcoal to your table and place it under your own smoke-sucking hob. Hehe. Beef was very good. Alaskan crab was good but of course it tastes better in Alaska!

Point to note: the staff in the restaurant can be quite sticky. Of course being a japanese resturant they shout "Irrashaimase!" and "Arigatou gozaimashita!" in a deafening chorus, but that's only the beginning. While we were there, there were quite few people so we had like 4 people milling around our super small 2 person table. And this other guy kept hanging around! Kept asking me to try beef tongue, and when I grudgingly agreed, I asked "are you gonna stand here and wait for me to eat?" So he moved like 5 steps away and flew right back once I had eaten the thing to ask how it was. When I asked where the toilet was he insisted on walking me there and asked "Should I wait for you here?" Haha I was so freaked out...

But all in all, the food is good and value for money. Try it out ok? And if anyone wants to go listen to some jazz and have a Berllini I want to go again! Haiyoh really heading for bankruptcy...