Tokyo Soba

Trying out something new during lunch with friends from the office! This little joint is literally a hole-in-the-wall soba place with a few small tables inside and one 4-seater table outside. When we arrived during lunchtime, all the tables inside were occupied. Thankfully, just as we were milling around outside trying to figure out what to do, the group seated outside got up and left so we have a table!

The menu was extensive and there was a wide variety of hot soba, cold soba and soba in dipping sauce. I went for the Mixed Vegetables Tempura Soba (Hot). Oh my it was really good! The soba was done just right, not soggy at all and not too chewy. The soup base was light and clear, and the mixed vegetables tempura was crispy and not too oily. The tempura was served separately so that it would not sit in the broth and turn soggy.

Really enjoy the soba here and will be back!

Tokyo Soba

12 Gopeng St #01-16 Icon Village

Singapore 078877

Aburi-En

My first time trying Aburi-En was at the Vivocity branch which had a snaking long queue. We waited a long while, watching the cook grill loads of beef and pork, and wondering when it would be our turn to be seated. Food was not bad although I don't remember thinking that it was worth the long queue.

My second time at Aburi-En was at the Suntec City branch. We wanted to go for the Salted Plum but it was crazy crowded so we decided to head to Aburi-En instead.

I always go for the Aburi Salmon Don ($13) since I don't take beef and I have reduced the amount of pork I eat these days too. It was nicely done, with just the right amount of torching. Not too burnt, still a little pink inside and shiny with abundant amount of fish oil released during the torching process.

I chose to add a salad with my Aburi Don which was an additional $1.50. ZG had the popular Buta Bara Don ($15) which was grilled pork belly and he said it was not bad. In addition to a salad, ZG also had an onsen egg which was another $1.50.

My views about Aburi-En remained the same after trying two branches. The food is decent, service is attentive but I will not wait in line for this. This is probably the sort of place you would drop by to have a quick meal in a shopping centre as opposed to a restaurant you would make a special trip to eat their food.

Vivocity #01-159

Suntec City #B1-121 (West Wing)

Opening hours 11 am to 10 pm daily

Uya Japanese Unagi Restaurant

Met Stef for lunch on a lazy Sunday in town for unagi! I've just tried Man Man Unagi at their new branch at Clarke Quay central and was rather excited to try Uya since both shops specialise in unagi!

Stef made a reservation and we were ushered to our table swiftly. They were open earlier than their usual opening hours and there were already folks sitting inside the restaurant. Wow such early birds.

After settling down we both ordered the Hitsumabushi. It took a while for our food to be served and I assume it's because the chefs are hard at work grilling our eels in the kitchen. I was constantly distracted by the chefs at work in the kitchen behind the glass windows.   

When our food arrived I was very pleased with the generous portions of eel sitting on a mound of fragrant rice! The Hitsumabushi came with a flask of dashi stock, nori and wasabi.

There were instructions as to how to eat the Hitsumabushi but after a while I simply alternated between eating the unagi with rice or scooping it into a separate bowl and poured dashi stock into the bowl. The dashi stock was refillable.

I lost the pic of the food alone so here's us with our Hitsumabushi! The eel was delicious. I figured that Uya was different from Man Man unagi in that their eel was super crispy. It was like eating eel crackers. So if you like your eel grilled to a crisp then Uya is for you.

Ended our lunch with some drinks at Starbucks and a good catch up. Thanks Stef for the birthday treat!

501 Orchard Road

#02-15/16 Wheelock Place

Singapore 238880

67321096

Monday to Sunday 12 to 230 pm, 6 pm to 930 pm (till 10 pm on Friday and Saturday)

Sushi Jin

Starting my food blog again and realised I have many draft posts from more than a year ago! So I shall get around to publishing them.

Zg and I joined Stef and King for lunch on a grey Saturday afternoon. Circled around to find parking because Sushi Jin's address seemed to suggest that it was housed in Farrer Park Hospital, and we were not sure whether that was really the case. After some deliberation (which involved calling Stef and asking the security guard), we were finally parked and settled for our lunch.

Ordered the truffle chawanmushi which was so delicious and full of ingredients!

Their set lunch was served with appetiser, soup and dessert. I chose Kaisen Don ($45). The price tag might be a little hefty, but woah it was definitely worth it. The sashimi in my Kaisen Don was so sweet and fresh. It came with two crab claws too!

Dessert was custard in mochi.

I would suggest you make a reservation if you are visiting Sushi Jin for lunch on a weekend. We were glad we did when we arrived to find the restaurant almost full. The place was quiet even though every table was filled, so it was still easy to chat and relax over lunch.

1 Farrer Park Station road, Owen Link, #01-11 Singapiore 217562

64433378

Monday to Sunday 12 to 230pm, 630 to 1030 pm

Haru Chazuke Grain Bowl

This is another really old post. Dinner with some old friends and I suggested Haru because I'm a huge fan of rice bowls and chazuke and Haru sounded like a good combination of both.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of the old Singapore Badminton Hall along Guillemard Road, Haru was quite empty when we arrived after work on a week day.

Our friends were late so I ordered a Iced Hojicha Milk Tea while waiting with Stef.

Eventually, they were so late that we decided to go ahead and order first, mostly because I was famished. I chose the popular Poached Lobster Chazuke. Air-flown bamboo lobster with gochujang dressing, hanjuku egg, pickles and nori. Was told to stir the ingredients in the grain bowl first and try some before pouring the bonito kelp broth inside. I love it with the bonito kelp broth! The broth was so light and refreshing, and went perfectly with the items in the grain bowl. 

I would really recommend their grain bowls because it is so warm and hearty!

100 Guillemard Road #01-06 Singapore 399718

12 to 3 pm, 6 pm to 10 pm (closed on Monday)

Nirai Kanai Okinawan Restaurant

The first time I visited Nirai Kanai was for lunch with friends from office and our interns. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Okinawan food was so different from the usual Japanese fare we were used to and tasted like a mix between Japanese and Chinese food. Kept saying that I wanted to take my parents here to try this so finally, I brought my parents here for dinner after work one day.

I think we over ordered. The waitress looked surprised when we placed our order and was even more surprised to see us finish everything. To me, the food was really good that night! But my parents felt that the food was a little salty and probably not the best for senior folks (I grudgingly agreed haha!).

One of my all-time favourite at Nirai Kanai. Onigiri! Super tasty rice balls with bits of seaweed and meat in them.

Eggplant with minced meat. This really tasted like Chinese food with braised eggplant and minced meat, except that the gravy tasted a lot like miso. 

Stir-fried bitter gourd with pork! One of the top few dishes in the ranking above. This also tasted like bitter gourd and egg which I would have at a Chinese food store and I loved it. The bitter gourd was crunchy and tasty and, surprisingly, not bitter at all. 

Noodles with dipping sauce and pork. It was all right but definitely not the best tsukemen I have tried before. Wouldn't order this again the next time I come by.

Seaweed tempura! 3rd place on the ranking above and I can totally see why. It was so yummy! So crispy. It was like eating a seaweed snack!

Okonomiyaki. Was also okay but I have also tasted better okonomiyaki elsewhere before so I will also pass on this the next time I come by.

Grilled Chicken Thigh with Yuzu. The chicken thigh was really tender and juicy, but the sauce was a little too salty. I assumed that was where the excess salt that my parents were talking about came from.  

The grilled squid was good but nothing fantastic.

This is a good place for dinner and drinks after work because it is quiet and you could sit around catching up for a long while without worrying about any queue outside. I would definitely come back again soon!

177 River Valley Road, #B1-01 Liang Court, 179030

11:30 am to 3 pm, 6 pm to 11 pm

6339 4811

Omakase at Bistro Du Le Pin

Made a reservation for dinner at Bistro Du Le Pin for an omakase dinner with Zg, Stef and King. It was our first time there and we were surprised to find that the place was tucked away in a quiet corner in Orchard Plaza. It was a very small and cozy restaurant, and we settled down into our seats along the counter.

Potato salad with mentaiko. 

Burrata cheese with tomato.

Crab cake. I really liked this dish because it was full of fresh crab meat.

Fresh oysters.

Cannot remember what this was so I guess it must have been rather forgettable (oops).

Parma ham carved off the leg sitting at the other end of the counter.

Asparagus, corn, scallop, uni and ikura. This was simple but really delicious.

Fish on a bed of greens.

Prawns in a thick creamy sauce. I had no idea what the sauce was, but it made me want to lick the bowl. 

Beef. Zg, Stef and King were very happy with the beef.

I had pork on the other hand and it was SUPERB. Just the right amount of juicy fats without being too oily. I also liked the sauteed mushrooms!

Vongole for 2 pax. Very generous with the clams and the pasta, but oh my goodness, this was definitely an overkill. We were so full from the earlier courses that we could hardly finish the pasta. 

A delicious omakase dinner with great company in a nice cozy restaurant. I think this is a place you would enjoy if you like a small, no frills restaurant serving wonderful food at affordable prices.

150 Orchard Road
Orchard Plaza
67345530

Tonkatsu Agedoki, Suntec City

This place is really jialat. I try not to slip into Singlish on my blog because, you know, keeping up the pretense of good English is necessary for running a blog. Or so I would like to think. But frankly, there is no English equivalent to what I would describe this place.

Apparently, Tonkatsu Agedoki is run by the same people behind the wildly popular Tendon Kohaku which is situated just next door. Tendon Kohaku is good, not worth the one hour queue, but worth a 20 minute queue kind of good. But omg, just how, how, could standards differ so greatly??

Granted, the first time I visited when they just opened, the tonkatsu was really good. I was so happy with my meal that I decided I would bring my family over one weekend. That was when disaster happened (to be elaborated below).

But first, some introduction.

Both times I ordered the Pork Loin Cutlet Set Meal ($21.50). 

This was taken the first time I visited Agedoki when the batter was crisp and light, the pork juicy and fresh. I was completely sold and told everybody who was willing to hear that omg, I found a fantastic tonkatsu place!

Good things must share right? So share I did with my family one Sunday evening. And WOW, look at this. What a huge difference a few weeks made! What is with that uneven clumps of batter? And that reddish seemingly uncooked pork inside? Not to mention some parts of the pork was really stringy.

What a huge disappointment. Bring back the chef who cooked the tonkatsu the first time I visited, please?

3 Temasek Boulevard, 

#03-311 Eat At Seven, 

Suntec City Mall Tower One, 

Singapore 038983

63334386

Tempura Kohaku, Suntec City

My current favourite place for tempura! Tempura Kohaku is beside Tokyo Sundubu and Menya Takechi in Suntec City. I find myself returning to this cluster of restaurants often because there is always something yummy to eat here and Suntec City is (thankfully) not as crowded as the other malls on a weekend. 

Be prepared to queue if you want to try Tempura Kohaku. The line at the door can be frightening and a great test of your patience if you arrive during the peak hours. I find that the lunch crowd is generally more manageable than the dinner crowd, and I queued for roughly 20 minutes for my lunch at Tempura Kohaku both times I visited. 

I realised that Tempura Kohaku was open on CNY Day 1 this year (thanks Stef!) so my family and I came down to have our dinner here. So happy because there was no queue at all! Perfect.

Look at the crispy batter! The generous ingredients! The light tempura sauce drizzled on the tendon! Ok, I need to calm down. They are really generous with the ingredients. Each bowl comes with 2 prawns, some vegetables, a mushroom, a crab meat stick, and a large piece of chicken. I loved the chicken. I kind of expected it to be a dry and bland slab of meat so I left it for the last. But omg, I was so pleasantly surprised! The batter was crispy, and the meat was so juicy and tasty within.

They serve only cold green tea which was not a problem for me, although I thought that a cup of hot green tea might have helped after a meal of fried food. 

7 Temasek Boulevard, Suntec Tower One, 038987

63334386

11:30 AM to 4 PM, 5 PM to 10 PM

Menya Takechi, Suntec City

It is not often that I come across a good ramen with chicken broth since the ramen shops generally serve pork bone broth, or shoyu or shio soup bases. Heard about Menya Takechi from a friend and came down with a friend during lunch!

The soup base is lighter than the one at Marutama and there are more ingredients as well. The bowl of ramen comes with two slices of seaweed, a flavoured runny egg and lots of chicken. The chicken in turn comes in different forms: balls, poached or grilled. I really enjoyed the chicken balls and grilled chicken slices!

Heard their tsukemen is really good so I headed back soon enough to try it with Zg. This was my first time trying tsukemen with a chicken broth so I was very excited! The excitement paid off because the chicken broth was good and dipping the noodles into the hot broth then slurping them up was superb. I still like the chicken balls and grilled chicken best.

This is a good ramen shop if you are up for chicken broth. However, since I am an ardent fan of pork bone broth, I would only return to Menya Takechi if I was craving for some good chicken broth.  Menya Takechi is situated in the cluster of Japanese restaurants called Eat at 7 on level 3 of Suntec City near True Fitness gym.

#03-313 Suntec City North Wing
3 Temasek Boulevard
62353386

Tokyo Sundubu, Suntec City and Raffles City

The first time I tried this was in Tokyo and I was rather amused that I went all the way to Tokyo only to have korean-japanese fusion soup. I remember the soup being very good though, and I really liked the taste of spicy miso.

Fast forward to 2016, and TT informed me that Tokyo Sundubu has arrived on our shores! At the time of writing, Tokyo Sundubu is probably already here for a long time and I have already gone so many times that I managed to redeem my loyalty card for a 50% off (note: Tokyo Sundubu no longer distributes such loyalty cards anymore. WHAT A BUMMER. No more incentive for the loyal folks like myself). 

Anyway, I always order the same item - Mushroom Sundubu, Miso soup, Japan standard. To summarise, you pick the ingredients you like (pork, chicken, beef, seafood etc), choose the soup base (either ginger or miso) and the level of spiciness. I always go with the Japan Standard which is not so spicy and super shiok!

I love the thick broth and the chunk of ingredients. The thick spicy soup goes super well with white rice!

Sometimes I would order the Singapore standard (more spicy version) if I feel like having some spicy soup. The Singapore standard is good on a cold rainy day!

Singapore standard:

Japan standard:

The soup here is rather addictive and I find myself returning all the time for more mushroom sundubu. Maybe I was motivated by the loyalty card which gave me some small perks each time I returned until I hit the final level which was a 50% discount. I used the 50% discount on the wonderful oyster sundubu which was so good! The oysters were huge and so very fresh.

I have visited both outlets and much prefer the Suntec City outlet. The staff at the Raffles City outlet was always rather odd so I try my best to visit the Suntec City outlet instead.

Suntec City 

3 Temasek Boulevard

#03-312

Raffles City
#B1-16

Sanpoutei, Shaw Centre

The boyfriend and I had been craving for good tsukemen since our return from Japan, the land of wonderful tsukemen. Heard that Sanpouttei does pretty good tsukemen so we dropped by for dinner one evening after shopping in Orchard. Or more accurately, window-shopping in Orchard since we usually just stroll around, check out new shops, but hardly ever buy anything. Shopping is best done online, unless there is a sale!

The thick broth was good, very robust with bits of sardine inside. The noodles were done al dente as well and was delicious when dipped into the broth. I was, however, really quite surprised that there was no char siew in this tsukemen. I guess I should have read the description in detail and stop assuming that tsukemen here will be served like its counterpart in Japan with thick slabs of marbly pork. But still, I was rather disappointed. Even though the bits of sardine in the broth was sweet, I missed having some marbly pork to go with my noodles.

Expectations! When can I finally learn that I am usually disappointed only because I have expectations which are not aligned with reality? That said, the broth here is really good. And I shouldn't be whining because I came back again a few weeks later to have the tsukemen again. Without the pork. ;)

Another time I dropped by Sanpoutei with Zg, I had the Maze Soba Aburi Chashu. This was good! Dry ramen tossed in sauce with a generous amount of aburi chashu on top. It tasted a lot like dry mee kia and was actually rather addictive. I really enjoyed my bowl of noodles, but the noodles could get a little oily, especially the strands sitting in the sauce at the bottom of the bowl.

Yet another trip saw me indulging in their miso ramen. The broth for this was thick and delicious, and the thick slab of chashu was so tender. I think I have found my favourite at Sanpoutei!

Shaw House

350 Orchard Road

#B1-04/05 

68364644

Fat Cow

Extremely belated post dug up from the deep dark corner of my draft folder...

Started the year right with the boyfriend, Stef and King indulging in my boyfriend's favourite food: BEEF! Fat Cow is a Japanese steak place, well-known for their good but pricey beef dishes. Thankfully their lunch sets were more affordable so we came during lunch on a rainy Saturday afternoon. The set lunch menu is below. 

Stef called to make a reservation but it was really quite empty when we came. The boyfriend and I were early because we wanted to take a walk in the area but I was lazy to explore in the rain, so I nudged us both into the restaurant and managed to get our table earlier. We kind of concluded that people probably abandoned their reservations due to the rain. In any case, do make a reservation before coming down! I think the place can get quite crowded. 

The set lunch came with a salad, miso soup, chawanmushi and dessert. I love the chawanmushi!

The boyfriend's happy bowl of Fat Cow Donburi with charcoal grilled wagyu beef and onsen egg ($39).

I don't take beef so I was the only one who opted for a non-beef dish in a Japanese steak place haha! My Negitoro Don ($35) was surprisingly fresh and sweet for a beef place.

We left when the restaurant was closing after their lunch shift and went down to the car park together. We separated, went to get our cars, but somehow wound up near each other again after the boyfriend and I decided to take a stroll to Tanglin Mall and stopped abruptly on our way out of the car park. So we all hopped out of our cars, took a short walk to Tanglin Mall, and walked around the quiet mall (there is really nothing there). Was a good Saturday afternoon! 

#01-01/02, Camden Medical Centre, 1 Orchard Boulevard, 248649

Daily: 12:00 - 15:00

Daily: 18:00 - 23:00

BAR opens Mon-Sun (17:00-00:00)

+65 68846884