Osaka Ohsho

I have heard good reviews about this gyoza eatery in Raffles City, so we decided to try it out one day.

Fuwatoro Tenshin Han Set ($12.90++)

The perfect-looking Fuwatoro Tenshin Han

I was so attracted by the intriguing Fuwatoro Tenshin Han which looks so perfectly wrapped and dipped in gravy. It has a soft and fluffy omelette wrapped outside the Japanese rice and the gravy added to the flavour of it which tasted kinda like mui-fan. The whole Fuwatoro Tenshin Han is a huge portion and is quite plain to  finish the whole thing just by myself.

Pork Ginger & Fried Chicken Set ($13.90++)

As for the goyza, I find the dumpling skin thin and soft and the meat filling quite fresh. But it is not really exceptionally good that I would crave for it. The pork ginger and fried chicken which came with the other set meal tasted average.


Osaka Ohsho Review
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road,
#B1-75, Singapore 179103
Tel: 6338 5584
http://www.osakaohsho.com.sg/

Kabe no Ana Pasta

We spotted this Japanese pasta restaurant amidst several Japanese restaurants in Shokutsu 10 – a Japanese indoor food street at the at nex mall in Serangoon.

The Onsen Tamago Meat Sauce & Salmon Ebi Cream set ($15.90++) comes with 2 smaller portions of the pastas and a salad with soup of the day.

Salad & Soup of the Day

Onsen Tamago Meat Sauce

Salmon Ebi Cream

The Meat sauce for the Onsen Tamago was well flavoured and crowned with a poached egg. On the other hand, the creamed based Salmon Ebi tasted a little too fishy.

Mentai Cream Sauce ($13.90++)

The Mentai Cream Sauce got to be our favourite. Scallop and shimeji mushroom with cod roe carbonara sauce were wonderful blend.

Also read our review on another Japanese Pasta Restaurant - Yomenya Goemon here.

Total bill: $35.07

Kabe no Ana Pasta
23 Serangoon Central
#B1-80 nex
Singapore 556083
Tel: 66348024
http://www.kabenoana.com.sg/

Kuriya Fish Market

Salmon Teriyaki ($9.50)

I would say this is a more special Salmon Teriyaki Bento which I had before. The set came with multi grains rice which tasted more bland than normal rice, but definitely tasty in a way that made me did not feel sick of finishing it. The salmon teriyaki comes in quite a big piece which was nicely cooked, coupled with sweet soy sauce. The great disappointment were the potato croquette and dumpling, as they tasted rather cold.

Wadori Set B ($5.80)

Wadori Set B consists of yakitori (chicken), tsukune (chicken ball), pork belly, tori karaage (deep-fried chicken). The set tasted very average. 

Do also read our yakitori review of TORI-Q here. 

Total bill: $15.30

Kuriya Fish Market

#B1-17 Causeway Point

1 Woodlands Square

Singapore 738099

Tel: 6893 3231

Open daily: 11.00am – 10.00pm

Ichiban Boshi

Chirashi Jyu ($14.90++)

Unagi Kamameshi ($13.90++)

Chirashi Jyu is a ricebox with a variety of sashimi, like salmon, tuna etc topped with tobiko. We requested to remove the spring onions and the chef actually decorated the dish with diced cucumbers instead. The sashimi went well with the Japanese rice. I had it with some wasabi and soya sauce to cover-up the rawness and flavoured the dish a little.

The eel taste good and they really give a deep portion of the rice, but it may be a tad bland for people who prefer flavourful food. Overall the Centrepoint branch serves reasonably good food with a nice ambiance.

Total bill: $35.31

The Centrepoint #01-49/52
176, Orchard Road
Tel: 6737 72 32
Mon-Fri: 11:30am-10:00pm
(Last order: 9.30pm)
Sat: 11:00am-10:30pm
(Last order: 10.00pm)
Sun: 11:00am-10:00pm
(Last order: 9.30pm)

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin, ION Orchard

Special Black Pig Katsudon ($17.66+)

The maid complained that it was salty. Well this is supposed to be black pig but it taste just like normal pork to me.

Curry Tonkotsu Ramen ($12.52+)

Totally disgusting. I bet they just used maggie mee bought from the nearby supermarket and threw in a few stalks of green vege(very similar to what I would have cooked for lunch home alone). I had expected to be served thick Japanese curry but what came was just watery, bad-tasting curry.

Whats worse is the egg. Although the outside was warm, because of the soup, the inside was cold, ICE cold. I called the waitress and asked whether its supposed to be cold.

Me: Is this egg supposed to be cold?
Waitress: No. Its hot.
Me: But mine is cold, ICE-COLD.
Waitress: Really? Let me ask the kitchen.

off she goes to the kitchen...

Waitress: Our chef says that it is because they put the egg into the fridge after they marinated it.
Me: Are you sure its supposed to be cold?
Waitress: We can change a new egg for you. BUT it will still be COLD.

I wonder why they need to put the egg into the fridge to keep it when we clearly wasnt the last customer of the day as seen from the crowd queuing outside. It does not make sense to keep the eggs nor serve cold eggs in a bowl of hot curry(watery) ramen.

Dear readers, please do yourselves a favour, don't patronize them and become as pissed as I was.


Total bill: $32.30
(No Service Charge)

Tonkatsu Ginza Bairin
 #B4-39/40/41/42
2 Orchard Turn
ION Orchard
Singapore 238801

Tel: 65-6509 8101
Operating Hours: 11:00 to 22:30

http://www.ginzabairin.com/

Sumo House Japanese Restaurant

Update 9 Apr 2013: This restaurant has already closed down. 

The Sumo House Japanese Restaurant is located beside the NTUC Fairprice in Ang Mo Kio Central. Prince and I walked pass the restaurant and saw that the place is packed with a well crowd of youngsters and family, hence we decided to give it a try. 

Baby Octopus

Tempura Udon Set

Curry Chicken Udon

The baby octopuses were alright. You can't quite go wrong for this dish. The prawn tempura was good, but the other fried vegetables that came with it weren't fantastic. The Curry Chicken Udon was average but too salty to my liking.

Mango Pudding

Mango pudding looked good on the outside, but sadly didn't tasted as good as how the outlook appeared to be. I guess any packet pudding from NTUC inside maybe better. 

Sumo House Japanese Restaurant

Block 712 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6

#01-4056, S(561712)

Inside NTUC Fairprice

http://www.sumohouse.com/

Kinsahi Japanese Restaurant, KSL City Mall, JB

The Kinsahi Restaurant has a very posh and grand outlook. The lighting of the restaurant was rather dark. We got a cubicle sofa seat which gave a private feel. In general, I think the food were pricey and tasted average, which make the grand feel of the restaurant rather empty.

Kinsahi Japanese Restaurant
KSL City Lot LG-01

33, Jalan Seladang, Taman Abad

80250 Johor Bahru, Malaysia

http://www.kinsahi.com.my/

Ramen Champion, Bugis+

He brought me to this very cool place - Ramen Champion at Bugis+. It's a restaurant consisting of several ramen stalls which are battling amongst one another to serve the best Japanese ramen! You will be spoilt for choices by the ramens there. 

Special Tonkotsu Ramen - Ayama ($15+)

Since I was so spoilt for choices, I couldn't quite decide on which ramen to get actually. I picked the Ayama stall after seeing the long queue there and ordered the Special Tonkotsu Ramen which was the stall's 人气 No.1 (Most popular choice). The soup based was thick but yet didn't make me feel sick of it after finishing the whole bowl. The noodles were chewy. The cha shu and egg were not superb. Despite our bad review on Ippudo, I felt that Ippudo's egg and cha shu were more fragrant actually.

White Negitama Rama - Toyama ($14.95+)

On the other hand, he had the White Negitama Rame from Toyama Stall. Instead of the usual shoyu ramen, it is the Chicken White Collagen Ramen which tasted like chicken-based soup broth with collagen. Delicious!

Total bill: $32.05 (No Service Charge, only GST)

Ramen Champion
Bugis+
201 Victoria Street
#04 - 10
Singapore 188607
TEL: +65 6238 1011
http://www.ramenchampion.com.sg/

Operating Hours: Daily11:30 am to 10:30 pm

Ippudo

Shiromaru Chashu ($19++)

The chashu, as expected is heavenly. Soup is really thick and gao gao (concentrated), but it makes you really thirsty after eating this. The big question here is that would you queue for 45 mins and pay $19++ for this bowl of ramen which you can get from other reputable ramen restaurants at a cheaper price?
I wouldn't for sure as its a once off for us.

Miso Tonkotsu ($17++)

Ippudo Original Gyoza ($7.50++)

Okay both of us thought that this dish is over rated and also over priced. Basically its what you can buy from ntuc, those frozen ones and just pan-fry it, nothing worth shouting about.

Total bill: $51.20

Ippudo @ Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road
#04-02/03/04
Singapore 238867
Tel: 6235-2797
http://www.ippudo.com.sg/

Opening Hours
Mondays to Saturdays
11am-11pm
Last order at 10pm

Sundays
11am-10pm
(Last order at 9pm )

TORI-Q

A rather flavourful bento. The meat were well cooked and chewy, while the sauce over the skewers were flavourful. The Japanese rice is good!

TORI-Q
9 Bishan Place
#B1-25
Junction 8 Shopping Center
Singapore 579837
Operating Hours: 11am to 9.30pm
http://www.tori-q.com/

Yomenya Goemon

Smoked Chicken & Four Cheeses ($13.50++)

Tara Asari ($13.50++)

Yomenya Goemon serves Japanese and Western style pastas. Their pastas come in generous portions of spaghetti an flavourful ingredients.

Smoked Chicken & Four Cheeses is a creamy based pasta slathered with cheese. A good choice for cream and cheese lover. The spinach did also naturalised the dose of cream and cheese. On the other hand, Tara Asari is the Japanese style pasta with delicious clams with seafood and garlic flavouring.

Pasta lovers should give it a go!

Total bill: $31.78

Yomenya Goemon @ Changi City Point
5 Changi Business Park Central 1,
#01-28 Changi City Point (the Centre),
Singapore 486038
http://www.n-rs.com.sg/


Operating hours:
Mon - Thu & Sun 11.30am - 9pm last orders.
Fri, Sat and Eve of PH 11.30-9.30pm

Yayoiken Restaurant

We were at the Yayoiken Restaurant at Bugis+ at about 6 plus-ish and got our seats after queuing for awhile, and the queue just never ended.

Upon ordering our meals, they served our food very promptly and refilled our water quite frequently throughout our stay. Thumbs up!

Tonkatsu Set ($13.90++)

I had the Tonkatsu set, while Prince had the Chicken Namban Set. The tonkatsu was bad. I was a little disappointed went I first saw the colour of the tonkatsu, as it didn't look crispy brown as what I thought it should be. When I tasted it, it was quite hard to chew on. Probably, it was not fried thoroughly. I would prefer the tonkatsu I had at Tampopo. The salad, toufu and soup was decent. The Japan rice was good. It is free-flow, so you can refill your rice bowl at their rice-cooker corner.

Chicken Namban Set ($12.90++)

The special tartar sauce which they used for the chicken really goes well with it. The meat is soft and tender and flavorful and makes this a good choice for a meal. Recommended for those who are planning to give Yayoiken a go.

Total bill: $31.50

Yayoiken Restaurant

Bugis+
201 Victoria Street,
#01-02 Singapore 188067
Opening hours : 10:00 - 22:00
http://www.yayoiken.sg/

Kazokutei

Mini Katsu Don Set ($4++)

Curry Udon ($6.90++)

Toji Nabe

Katsu Don + Toji Nabe (pic above) = $12.90++

These dishes are from kazokutei's branch in Bugis Junction. The maid concluded that they like to create set meals that are smaller in portion but consists of both rice and noodle so that we have a greater variety which is good to the diner. However the bowl used for the curry udon was just too big and it made the udon pale in comparison when placed inside it.

Upon the maid's request, we went to Everything with Fries specially for their nutella tart. This outlet in Bugis is different from those fast-food style concept from EwF. The tart was really sweet and I'd recommend this to be shared among 4 people as you will get sick of the sweetness and chocolatey taste. Remember to top it off with a scoop of ice cream or else it would be boring.

Melaka, JB - Day 3

We ended up at this PHD (pizza hut delivery) outlet again, exact same one we visited during our last trip. The soup was placed in styrofoam bowls because they do not offer dine-in. However they do have tables for people to sit in their restaurant to eat.

Soup was quite bland but for take-away standards, it is considered acceptable. The garlic bread was fragrant and tasted good even when eaten without the soup.

PHD Bukit Beruang
No 19 Ground Floor,
Jln Bkt Beruang Utama 2,
Tmn Bkt Beruang Utama,
75450 Melaka

Tempura Udon

We went to this Japanese restaurant call Ichiban Ramen at AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre. The menu didn't look appealing, but surprisingly,  they served pretty decent Japanese food as above seen.

AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre
No 1, Jalan Desa Tebrau Taman
Desa Tebrau 81100 Johor Bahru Johor

Blackball Signature (RM6.90)

Blackball at KSL City Mall. I love this dish! It contains Grass Jelly Ice (hidden below Grass Jelly), Grass Jelly, Taro Balls, Taro Q, Pearl & Red Bean. The taro balls were so chewy and yummy.

BlackBall - Original Taiwanese Tea & Dessert
KSL City, L2-132

No33, Jalan Seladang, Taman Abad, 

80250 Johor Bahru 

CoCo Ichibanya Curry House

We were there at the opening day of this outlet last year and joined the attemptable queue. But in the end we gave up after realising that the queue wasn't really moving.

WE saw CoCo once again during out bangkok trip. So strictly speaking our first encounter with CoCo Ichibanya was in BKK where we ate a plate of curry there.

Pork Cutlet Curry

Curry taste was good and refreshing. They allowed customers to choose the spiciness level for this so its great for people like me who cant take spicy food well. The pork cutlet was nicely fried, not too tough and still retaining its flavours, will recommend this dish.


Omelette Hashed Beef Curry

The Omelette Hashed Beef Curry used sweet curry to go with the rice omelette and thin sliced beef. Tasted not bad, but I got a bit sick of the taste after eating more, guess I still prefer the savoury taste.

Coco Ichibanya Curry House
313 @ Somerset
313 Orchard Road
#B3-25/26/27
Singapore 238895
10am – 10pm (Mon–Fri),
10am – 11pm (Sat–Sun & PH)

Tampopo Japanese Restaurant

Hakotate Ramen ($14.80++)

The black piece of BBQ meat was indeed very unique. The maid liked the chao ta taste of the BBQ meat and it was really soft and chewy, good to go with the noodles. Well other than that piece of meat, there wasn't and other ingredients for you to eat the ramen with. To make matters worse, the ramen was quite hard and tasteless, making you sick of it after a few mouths.

Tonkatsu Ramen ($16.80++)

Spicy soup based ramen. The noodles was much better and the meat again was well fried and went well with their tonkatsu sauce. Same thing, there was no other ingredients except for the shredded cucumber.

Tampopo Japanese Restaurant
319 Orchard Road
B2-33 Takashimaya Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6235 2318

Upper Thomson Road

(Update: Sangokai Japanese Restaurant is now closed)

Last Saturday, we went to Upper Thomson Road for our late dinner and decided to have Japanese Cuisine at Sangokai Japanese Restaurant among the few restaurants which were still opened along the Road.

Cheese Curry Rice - $11.80++

Katsu Don - $7.80++

The Cheese Curry Rice was not bad, but Maid felt that it was a bit too salty to finish the whole portion. While the Katsu Don was like any other normal Katsu Don which you can get outside. An average decent dining place as a whole.

After the meal, we followed the smell of waffles to Wafflelicious that was located along the same stretch...

We ordered banana waffles with raspberry & dark chocolate gelato ice cream for a total of $10.30. In whole, it was quite a nice ice cream waffles treat. The gelato ice creams were pretty good. The waffles were not really awesome, but not bad still.

Merry merry xmas! :)