Club Meatballs, China Square Central

Armed with our trusty Entertainer App, Stef and I ventured to Club Meatballs for dinner with Jy. We had been trying (and failing) to drop by Club Meatballs because we were always waylaid or distracted by something else more attractive along the way. Club Meatballs is situated at the side of China Square facing Far East Square along the narrow road which divides both areas.

I was surprised to find that Club Meatballs serves a largely Caucasian clientele and we were the only locals until another group entered just when we were about to go. It was relatively empty when we arrived and there were many empty tables around. However, the waitress ushered us to a table tucked away at the back of the restaurant. Perhaps the other tables were occupied?

Pulled pork, chilli and purple slaw sliders ($13). If you ever need an example of "looks are deceiving", look no further. These are the epitome of that phrase. The pulled pork sliders looked perfect in pictures, with what looked like well-marinated pork overflowing from crispy buns. Sadly, the truth was far from it. The pulled pork was spicy but very very dry. There should be more sauce somewhere in that pulled pork slider.

We get to pick the type of balls, the sauce, and the accompanying dish ($19.50). We paired the Fish, Coriander and Chilli Balls, with Onion and Red Wine sauce and roasted vegetables. I confess that I like the supporting actress more than the main lead. The roasted vegetables with onion and red wine sauce were yummy! The "fish balls" were meh.

Free Range Chicken and Cumin Balls with Truffle Mushroom Sauce and Parmesan Risotto. This was much much better. I like the Truffle Mushroom Sauce which was incredibly thick and fragrant. The juicy mushrooms were fantastic too. Risotto was decent and the Chicken Balls were much better than the fish ones.

This left all of us feeling incredibly confused and calling for cups of water. Known as sobrassada and gorgonzola bruschetta ($10.50), this was supposed to be cured spicy sausage with cheese on bread. But somehow it tasted a lot like hae bee hiam (spicy dried prawns) with cheese on bread. It was SO SPICY that all of us called for cups of water immediately after ingesting this. The amazing thing is, all of us can take our spicy dishes very well so this was like way above in the league of spiciness.

The service staff was friendly but they appeared understaffed which resulted in patchy service. I had to get up and help myself to sharing plates because I could not seem to find anybody who could bring them to me. Then it took us a long while to find somebody to bring us water to save the hae bee hiam fire in our mouths. Would I be returning? Nah, I have far better things to eat in the area.

#01-35 China Square Central
20 Cross Street
Mon to Thurs, Sat: 17:00 to midnight
Fri: 17:00 - 1 am
62228660

Koji Sushi Bar, China Square

My cubicle mate recommended Koji Sushi Bar and raved about their chirashi don. I was so curious about it so I dropped by for dinner with Stef and W after work. If you are taking a bus to China Square, Koji is situated somewhere behind the bus stop, opposite Wang Dae Bak. 

I heard it gets really crowded during lunch thanks to the office crowd nearby but it was relatively empty and peaceful during dinner. Seats are arranged around the sushi counter just like in Wasabi Tei but place generally feels more roomy and less cramped. We were ushered to seats at the back of the shop and settled down happily.

The menu at Koji Sushi Bar below. 

I was torn between the Sashimi Rice Bowl (i.e. their Chirashi Don) or the Salmon and Roe Rice Bowl. Both were $17. Since I am such an ardent fan of salmon, I decided to go for the latter. Stef and W chose the Sashimi Rice Bowl.

Salad was served shortly after. Ah my healthy greens! I was so impressed with the light dressing in Japanese salads that I bought a bottle of yuzu salad dressing when I was in Tokyo. Totally looking forward to fixing my own yummy salads during the weekends. 

The Sashimi Rice Bowl looked delicious with a large variety of different types of sashimi. Stef and W commented that it tasted a lot like the Chirashi Don at Hanare. I should definitely find time to check out Hanare!

My Salmon and Roe Rice Bowl. Ahhhh this was heavenly. Fresh sweet chunks of salmon sashimi and juicy crunchy roe tossed evenly with sauce. Perfect!

We sat around a bit more, chatting away happily before we left for desserts at Club Street Social. The food at Koji was good but catching up over dinner was hard when three of us were seated right beside each other along the counter. Maybe that was the whole point of the counter seats - to ensure that everybody just eat and go without lingering unnecessarily. Anyhow, Koji is perfect for a quick sashimi fix!

3 Pickering Street

#01-42 Nankin Row

62256125

Bistro 1855, Suntec City

This post shall be short and sweet because I have nothing fantastic to say about Bistro 1855. It felt like a gastrobar that was trying to do everything but succeeding in nothing. They obviously wanted to catch the sporty crowd (hence the match screening), the clubbing crowd (hence the pounding clubbing tunes before 8 pm), and the soulful crowd (hence the live jazzy tunes after 8 pm). If the owners were not confused, I am. 

Drinks were all right. I went for happy hour lychee martini.

The food was such a disappointment! The 1855 Burger ($22) was, according to him, not as good as Carl's Junior. I tried the fries and can vouch that Macs does their fries a hundred times better than Bistro 1855 (and I pay a fraction of the price!)

My Barramundi ($24) was supposed to be pan-seared barramundi served with spinach and chilli ginger compote but I was so turned off by the stale barramundi that I only finished half. I did finish the vegetables and mash because they were so much better in comparison to the barramundi. Omg. 

I used the Entertainer App at Bistro 1855 and was super thankful that I could get a substantial discount because I am definitely not returning.

3 Temasek Boulevard
Suntec City, Tower 4 #01-643

Sat-thurs:
11am to 12am
Fri: 11am to 1am

Tel: 6836 5994 

The Boiler: so good that it deserves a second post!

I blogged about my first visit to the Boiler here. Back then, the place was rather empty on a weekday night and a reservation was not strictly necessary. Fast forward a couple of months and the Boiler is receiving a steady crowd even on weekday nights. Thank goodness I made a reservation for Stef's birthday feast! I would definitely recommend making a reservation if you intend to drop by Boiler.

It was an awesome feast. We had the Bombdiggity Bag with the Works sauce (just the right amount of spicy!). The bag came with Dungeness crab, prawns, mussels, clams, sausages, corn and bun. It was a lot of seafood and we worked our way through it happily with W. I also learnt that night that crabs had 8 legs and 2 pincers! After all these years of feasting on crabs, I was under this warped impression that crabs had 6 legs and 2 pincers oops.

We also had beeritas (beer with lemon slushie) and wings. So very happy to be celebrating this smart, funny, awesome girl's birthday! I bought her the most ridiculous gift ever and had a good laugh presenting it. I must remember to ask whether it was effective!

Tue to Thurs: 17:00 to 22:30

Fri to Sat: 17:00 to midnight

Sun: 17:00 to 22:30

Closed on Mondays

66351285

Tsukada Nojo, Chinatown

I was always curious about the long lines at Tsukada Nojo in Plaza Singapura so when a friend suggested the outlet at Chinatown Point for dinner one evening, I was thrilled! We joined the queue close to 7 pm and waited approximately 20 to 30 minutes for our table. Tsukada Nojo is famous for their Bijin Nabe ($25 per pax) so we were definitely going for that. We also ordered the Bacon Rice Rolls and Chicken Nanban.

Bijin Nabe is basically a hotpot with a combination of meat, vegetables, seafood, and mushrooms in chicken soup. The chicken soup is boiled for a long time and cooled to form puddings. These puddings are served in the hotpot to the customer and allowed to "melt" into a thick tasty broth. 

The soup base is definitely the highlight in this meal. Thick, creamy, chicken broth which was just so smooth and delicious. I hear it is also high in collagen, though I am not certain how far consuming collagen helps in fighting wrinkles. The ingredients were fresh and so delicious after they absorbed the wonderful soup base. 

The Chicken Nanban (Fried Chicken with tar tar sauce) was decent, with chunks of juicy fried chicken. 

The Bacon Rice Rolls were very interesting with thick slices of bacon wrapped around rice and grilled.

Jelly for each of us as desserts!

The soup base in Tsukada Nojo is truly unforgettable. I will not return for the side dishes, but I would definitely find some way (and some patience) to come back and join the queue again for the Bijin Nabe because I am such a sucker for good soup base!

#02-37 Chinatown Point

Bijin Nabe is served during dinner

I Want My Noodle, Shaw Centre

After being boarded up for a really long time, the new wing in Shaw Centre is finally up. The new wing looks glitzy, shiny, and exceedingly new as compared to the old Isetan wing but the toilets are just as disgusting. Shaw seriously needs a better cleaning company.

That said, there is seriously nothing much in the new wing. I spy some salons, spas, a handful of boutiques and a few eateries. Heard some good things about I Want My Noodle and their freshly made egg noodles so I brought the boyfriend there on Saturday. 

We started our meal with the meatball soup ($7.90). The meatballs were indeed special, not the usual run-of-the-mill grey meatballs. The meatballs were brown and slightly crispy on the outside, with a a good tasty mix of meat within. I really liked the broth too which was thick and delicious.

We both had My Noodle with Double Roast ($12.50). The noodles were springy and taut, the char siew was lean and well-marinated, and the roast pork was nice and crispy. The chilli packed a punch too and was so good!

Prices were very reasonable too, considering the fact that it is right smack in town. They were also very generous with the ingredients such that my noodles were covered with lots of char siew and roast pork. Not too crowded when we visited and I would definitely return if I was in the mood for more noodles!

1 Scotts Road

97583037

Their opening hours are quite a mystery to me. The Internet tells me that they are open from 10 am to 10 pm but when we came by at 5 pm, the lights were off and the staff was milling around preparing the food. We came back at 545 pm and all was in action again. 

Labour Day Weekend

[I prepared this draft over the weekend and am posting this belatedly (as usual). I am beat. This has been an exhausting, sick, and tiring week. Life is often out of our control and the only thing I have learnt to control over the years is my mind. But willpower and mental strength are in short supply when one is sick and I find myself tilting dangerously close to losing it so many times this week. There are some things that I just cannot make peace with and they just have to rear their ugly heads at times when I am weakest.

I stood at the Treasury's porch waiting for my boyfriend one night with a running nose, a bad throat, and an equally bad headache, searching through Google for meaningful posts about karma because I wanted so badly to let some things go. I wanted to believe that I am bigger than this, better than this, that these little nonsense doesn't matter. That eventually we all reap what we sow and we sow what we reap. It's a cycle and it never ends. But I could not. I fumed and got into a terribly rotten mood. I could not.

Thank goodness for supportive good friends and colleagues in the office. Thank you for the matcha latte when I needed the break, thank you for hearing me rant (almost endlessly), thank you for taking me out to lunch and giving me a yummy treat! Knowing that I have such good comrades around was definitely the highlight of the week.

So, we are nearing Friday and I have some pretty kickass medicine that is starting to work its magic. The medicine makes me groggy and I am definitely not in best form. But I look back at this draft post below with so much fond memories and I think... ah, this is life. There are ups and there are downs. The trick is to make the most of the ups, enjoy every wonderful moment of it, and lock it forever in your mind and your heart. When it comes to the downs, let's just sit tight and ride it out together.

Tough times don't last, but tough people do. Time for another dose of medicine!]

_________________________________________________________________________________

Perched on high chairs along the counter of The Sushi Bar, having salmon overdose, chatting about love, life, work, friends and everything close to our hearts. It was such a great night spent with a good old friend and I cannot wait to get my hands on Viking!

Coffee and waffles with berries at Wheeler's Yard before Avenger's at Shaw Balestier on Friday. I like sitting back at a cozy little cafe with the boyfriend, sipping a cup of coffee, enjoying warm fluffy waffles, and chatting about everything under the sun. Catching a movie at Shaw Balestier is awesome if you want to avoid the mad crowd in town. Plus we get to use the Safra card discount! I love Shaw Balestier very much <3 We succumbed to the mad crowd in town after the movie and had dinner at The Noodle Place!

Dimsum brunch at Imperial Treasure Crowne Plaza on Saturday. It has been a long time since we last did dimsum brunch and I'm pretty glad to see the girls. It hit me recently that we had known each other for a really long time and had progressed through different stages of life together. Probably many more exciting milestones ahead! :) 

Jurong East shopping with the boyfriend where we strolled through Jem, Westgate, and BigBox (omg I'm super awed by BigBox's supermarket. Everything looks jumbo-sized!). Skinny Pizza for dinner before we had our Starbucks fix at what has to be the coolest Starbucks ever. Thank you Zg for taking me here!

(It's at Rochester Park if you are keen to check it out)

It's Sunday as I am typing this and I am spending the day at home with my family. Mum's in the kitchen cooking up a storm (I inherited none of her culinary abilities unfortunately) while I am blogging. Watched Running Man this morning over a ban mian brunch and had a delicious guacamole sandwich for tea. It's been an awesome weekend! I only wish I didn't have to end Sunday night with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Honestly, why do I always catch the flu bug ugh.