Finally, a public holiday! A day to go for lunch buffets which are always priced cheaper! Was looking for a Japanese buffet place at Tiong Bahru for lunch with a friend, when i came across Akira Japanese Restuarant located at Link Hotel. With a pretty moderate pricing and no proior reviews done, we went there without much expectations and was just hoping it doesnt disappoint.

Their ala-carte buffet consists of the usual sections like appetisers/side dishes, sashimi, sushi, teppanyaki, tempura, yakimono (grilled items), fried items, noodles, rice and soup. For $25++, the number of selections are pretty reasonable.

Chawanmushi - egg was silky smooth, but there isnt much ingredients inside. Good for egg-lovers.

Fried Beancurd - didnt try this

Chilled tomato - dressing was pretty nice, tastes like ceasar dressing+mustard+sesame seeds+honey/mirin, but it would be much better if they were to use momotaro tomatoes from Japan (but given the price they charge, oh well)

Vinegar-seasoned octopus - quite nice too, imagine the usual seasoned octopus you get in sushi places + a slightly tangy tomato sauce, not too bad as an appetiser

Smoked duck salad - dressing is the same as that in the chilled tomato, but duck slices were a little too tough

Chilled spinach - didnt try this

Sashimi (tuna+yellowtail+salmon+swordfish+small prawns) - standard was pretty acceptable, but can be better. Ordered many rounds of this.

California maki - didnt try this

Mushroom & eggplant tempura - batter was rather light and it came piping hot, a sign that it was freshly prepared. Worth a try.

Teppanyaki scallops - looked very different from the pic on the menu, but tasted not too bad.

Pork katsu - didnt try this

Fried oysters, scallops & prawns - fried items were not too oily and portions were pretty sizeable, just that it would be better if the seafood had more sweetness of their own

Chilled soba - noodles were done just the way i like it, springy and chewy, sauce was not too salty too

Beancurd skin soba - didnt try this

Kami Nabe - soup was flavourful, but abit too salty. Vegetables could have been blanched before serving, as by the time the fire blown out, some of the vegetables were still not cooked.

Of course, there were many more items on the menu which we didnt try, as we were too occupied going for rounds of sashimi. Overall, it is a reasonable place to go for a lunch buffet, as most of the items are pretty acceptable in terms of standard. I also lliked that they serve the items according to the number of people dining, so each person can taste each dish and have more room for ordering more dishes.

Akira Japanese Restaurant

1st floor, Link Hotel

Restaurant Week - Fremantle Seafood market

This is the 2nd time i am visiting Fremantle, the 1st time being an experimental visit when they first opened. However, as the prices were a little high and the food isnt exactly phenomenal, i didnt bother coming back again. This session of Restaurant Week was so popular, especially with the higher end restaurants, that even having the privilege of 2 days priority booking before the general public, i still couldnt manage to get a place in the restaurants i was aiming for. However, not wanting to miss out on this event, ended up giving Fremantle 1 more chance, as the menu they were offering is pretty worth it for the price they were charging. 

Restaurant Week dinner menu at $35++

Sashimi platter (salmon, hamachi, tuna) - pretty fresh and thickness of the portion is just nice

Crab cakes - quite a disappointment, crab taste wasn't evident, it just tasted like fried begedil without the potato

Dry Aged Beef steak - Nicely done medium-rare, the meat was pretty tender and there wasn't much fat or veins in this cut. Went quite well with the capers on the side, but the stone salt was abit too salty for the meat. Asparagus mushroom ragout was creamy and a nice compliment to the meat. Bone marrow was forgettable.

Teriyaki Salmon Trout - fish was very nicely done, retaining its moisture in the meat. Even for a person that avoids cooked salmon like me, it is really good, even without the teriyaki sauce. Didnt try the fried oyster on the side, so cant comment. Just for information, the little brown pastry next to the fish is called Gougeres, which is a french cheese pastry, not too bad tasting.

Almond paraline cheesecake with caramel sauce and almond ice cream - not too bad too, the cheesecake was not cloying-ly sweet or rich, and goes well with the cold almond ice cream which is something special (imagine almond cream dessert frozen into an ice cream). The caramel sauce kinda pales in comparison.

Overall, not too bad for the price we pay, comparing to their usual menu prices. One glitch is that we got "cheated" into ordering a drink because i remember the waitress telling me that drinks are included in the set (which i dun remember so for other restuarants which i tried in the past), and so we ordered a drink each and end up having to pay for it. Oh well, a lesson learnt.

Stay tuned for the next Restaurant week a few months later!

Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Hor Fun

I cant remember how i got to know about this place, but it happened to be 1 of the places in my food list which i started compiling from eons ago, so decided to give it a try for today's dinner. Apparently it has a pretty long history selling Ipoh hor fun (think smooth thin hor fun strips parboiled before having a thick sauce lathered over them) and tends to steer towards the Cantonese style of cuisine for their other dishes.

Lee Tong Kee special lime juice and barley

Pardon me, but i cant find the "special" part of the lime juice?!

Lee Tong Kee Special Hor Fun ($4.80)

They have various types of hor fun, ranging from the normal chicken/prawn to KL style and Tanjong Pagar style hor fun (dun ask me when did Tanjong Pagar have its own style of hor fun) and i decided to try their House Special instead, which consists of prawn, chicken and vegetables. Well, I won't deny that their hor fun is pretty smooth and glides down your throat easily, but the sauce is abit too thick to comfortably coat all the hor fun strips, and there is a lack of wok hei which you normally expect in Cantonese style dishes. In addition, its not exactly considered cheap when you can get a slightly bigger portion at less than $4 in hawker centres and food courts.

Claypot ginger duck ($10)

We were deciding between trying their homemade soups or hot dishes, before deciding on this claypot dish. However, I was pretty disappointed. The portion is pretty small for the price and most of the duck pieces were bony ones with very few meat on them. In addition, it pretty much tastes like a normal braised duck. Will never order this dish again.

HK steamed egg with ginger ($3)

This is the 1st time i tried this dessert as i rarely order things with ginger in them, and although i find the ginger taste pretty prominent, the sweetness of the steamed egg helped to balance out some of the spicy ginger., and the egg custard is pretty smooth too. After the disappointing duck, this dessert is not too bad at all. 

I dunno if i would go back again as i feel that the dishes are a little over priced (granted, you pay for the aircon and service), especially since there are much more good food in nearby Chinatown.

Lee Tong Kee Ipoh Hor Fun

278 South Bridge Road

http://www.ipohhorfun.com/

2 Fat Men

As with many other people my age, i fell prey to the recent craze of buying online vouchers from Groupon, Deal.com, etc, which is how i got to know about this place. A small pub/cafe nestled along East Coast road, 2 Fat Men is literally a watering-hole which serves Thai & Western grub to go with your beers or cocktails. So since i already bought the voucher and it is expiring soon (because i kinda forgot that it existed), i decided to ask a couple of friends to join me for dinner there, as i had read from a couple of food blogs that their Thai street food and burgers were not too bad.

Big Apple mocktail (apple juice+lemon juice+mint) ($4)

Yum Ma Ma salad (or somthing like that) ($5)

As i was still sick that night, i couldn't take much of spicy food, so this salad was one of the very few choices i had. A typical thai salad consisting mainly of tang hoon & seafood (in which i only saw 2 miserable prawns) in a tangy dressing made up of lemon juice, chillis and onions, it is not too bad as an appetiser as the sour factor is pretty prominent, and helps to work an appetite for your meal.

Basil chicken fried rice (approx $6.90)

One of the recommended dishes from food bloggers, i was a little disappointed as i felt that it tastes like a normal fried rice which you get at cze char stalls and does not have as much wok hei as i expected and slightly oily. But generally, a better alternative than plain rice, which i don't think they have.

Grilled pork collar with tamarind sauce (approx $8.90)

Another winner with food reviews, this dish tastes pretty good with a slight charred taste, and since it is not as sweet as char siew, you get a more porky flavour, something like a cross between char siew and roast pork. Quite nice to go with beer.

Tom Yum seafood soup (approx $5.90)

I didnt taste this as i had to stay away from overly spicy food, but my friends felt it tastes different from the rest of the tom yum soups they had and it is not too bad.

Steamed seabass fillet with garlic and chilli ($11.90)

I am not exactly a fish person, especially if there are bones in it, but the fish is relatively fresh and the spicy and tangy sauce gives it an interesting kick (although i don't really like garlic). But we felt the portion is abit too small for the price.

Grilled squid with thai chilli sauce ($10.90)

The worst and most overpriced dish of the lot, the grilled squid came in a few over-burnt pieces scattered around the plate and every bite came with a slightly bitter burnt taste. Needless to say, it was the dish that no one really wanted to finish.



There are very few parking lots there and the only place you can park around there is along the road at parallel parking lots. That being said, i don't mind going back there again to try their fruit ciders and their western bar grub. Worth a trip only if you stay around that area or in the east.

2 Fat Men

376 East Coast Road

After a lonnggg period of absence due to the horrendous amount of work piling up on me, i finally can squeeze in sometime to post something again. I only got to know about this place when i bought a voucher from Groupon (which is probably very famous these days) which allows me to purchase a Kurobuta Shabu Shabu set (which is supposed to feed 2 people) for half price. Located amidst a short row of shophouses next to a condominium walking distance from Paragon Shopping Centre, its actually relatively convenient if you know how to go there, just that the nearest parking space is in Paragon, because there isnt any parking lots near there.

While waiting for the shabu shabu to arrive, we decided to try their salmon sashimi, which we felt its not too bad, just a little pricey ($10 for 5 slices). However, the meat is fresh and soft, so no complaints.

Kurobuta...

Shabu shabu!

When the Shabu Shabu set came, i wasnt too impressed with it as the portions do not look very sufficient for 2 hungry eaters, and rice is not provided in the set (bearing in mind that 1 set costs $40+?). But honestly speaking, the pork slices were not too bad, with some having more fat, some less fat and some just the right proportion of fat. Maybe because it is very thinly sliced, the meat is pretty tender. The soup however, is pretty tasteless. The standard broth is seaweed broth, but if you want to change it to a more flavourful one like tonkotsu or kimchi broth, you have to pay an additional $10, which we didnt want to. That aside, they do provide a variety of condiments like shoyu, vinegar and a vinegar-based concoction with ginger & sesame for you to add into your food. Overall, a very healthy pot, but i will not pay that price for that portion. (On a side note, i saw another table eating the ramen which looks not too bad and it is moderately priced, hmmz..)

Just when we were about to finish our meal, it started pouring very heavily. So in order to wait for the rain to subside, we decided to finish our dinner the Jap way, beer and fried food! They only have 2 kinds of beer, Asahi & Tiger, so my choice is obvious. They do have a range of other alcoholic drinks like sake, umeshu, cocktails, wines, etc, and pricing is reasonable.

Some fried grub to go with beer - Vegetable tempura (the sauce is delicious!)

and chicken kaarage

Both dishes were average tasting, but they are only paying a supporting role to my beer, so am not too bothered by them. Overall, its worth a try only if you are either looking for a new Jap place to have ramen or don, or to have some drinks, grub and relax the Japanese Izakaya way.

Eno-Oka Japanese Restaurant

56 Cairnhill Road

6887 5527

Hawker Food Trail

To celebrate the end of my previous job and make full use of the short 4-days break before the new job which i had to fight for, i decided to "drag" 2 of my friends (who are fortunately, bigger eaters than i am) for a full day hawker food trail around the east & central regions of Singapore. As there are a substantial number of stalls featured, i shall keep my comments brief and to the point. Afterall, at the end of the day, taste is very much subjective, so go try them for yourself if you are interested.

The only carrot cake stall i heard of in SG which cooks their carrot cake with ikan bilis

Medium portion carrot cake - crispy, but a little too oily for my liking, especially if you are having this for breakfast. The chye poh which is fried with it is too little to be noticed. Ikan bilis is crispy, but kinda salty when eaten on its own. The carrot cake is chopped up into small pieces, but i personally like mine in slightly bigger bite-sized chunks for easy picking up with chopsticks.

The pau stall is just next to the coffeeshop which we had the carrot cake, and there was a short but never-ending queue for it.

Vegetable pau (60 cents) - a little too small for the price, but the pau skin was pretty nice. The filling was a little salty, and had too little turnip for my liking (yes, i like mine stuffed with turnip strips ONLY).

Lo mai gai ($1.40) - i seldom eat this chicken glutinous dish so cant really be a good judge of it, but my friends felt it was not too bad. Flavourful, and not too oily.

Seng Kee Bak Chor Mee just down the road from the 1st 2 places

The China Apple bottled drink which got us all very fascinated, as we have only seen this drink in cans till now!

Bak Chor Mee - i felt that the noodles were chewy, but dangerously bordering on hard. Alot of ingredients in the plate, but sauce was forgettable.

Fish maw soup with pig tendons ($12) - soup although flavourful, tasted like those free soup which normally comes with a bowl of dry bak chor mee, we expected something better. Fish maw and the tendons were pretty nice, as they soaked up all the flavours of the soup, and released those flavours into your mouth with every bite. But a little too pricey in my opinion.

The famous bak kut teh place which my friend was looking forward to

Claypot bak kut teh (prime ribs - $8) - not enough herbal taste, mainly tasted of soy sauce and pork rib soup. Ribs were soft enough (duh, its prime ribs!) and relatively meaty.

Claypot pig trotters ($6) - too much fat, skin and bones which we didnt like, and we had to keep separating the meat from the rest of the stuff. Meat was rather tough too. Sauce was a llittle oily and lacking of the "oomph" flavour.

Moving on to something light and healthy

Hakka Yong Tau Foo ($3.20 for 8 items) - As the main selling point is supposed to be the soup, i gotta admit that the soup is pretty flavourful. I believe it is boiled from fish and pork bones, yellow beans and maybe a little MSG to help bring the flavour out faster. The yong tau foo items were nothing very special to comment on.

The extra mee rebus dish that my friends had and wanted me to take a picture of. They felt it was not bad though. The stall is next to the yong tau foo stall above.

A dessert stall specialising in something that i have never ordered before in my life.

Peanut Ice kachang ($2) - to be honest, for someone who doesnt like peanut and red beans and don't really fancy ice kachang, this is pretty good. The peanuts are freshly roasted by the owner in the stall, so they releases a slight fragrance in your mouth, even when eaten with ice, sauces and all. The red bean puree is smooth, with pieces of soft but un-mashed red beans in the puree to provide some texture in your mouth. The ice is very finely shaved, so you don't have to crush coarse ice between your teeth, and melts off the minute it enters your mouth. 

The Beef House (大埔牛肉之家)

Beef ball soup ($4) - i kinda like the big and bouncy beef balls, but it still can't beat the ones i had in HK. The soup was nothing much to rave about anyway.

The first vegetarian fast food restaurant in SG

Hawaiian Pineapple burger meal ($10.85 - comes with seaweed fries and a drink) - An interesting alternative to Mos Burger for vegetarians, the sweetness of the pineapple complements the soy patty and the organic ciabatta bun. The seaweed fries are crispy, not oily and resembles Mos Burger fries which i quite like. Their fruit juices (which you can select as part of the meal) are 100% freshly squeezed, with no preservatives. 

Tofu sausage franks ($3.80) - from the 1st look at it, to the last bite i took, if i didnt know beforehand, i would NEVER have thought that this was made from tofu, because it tastes and looks alot like meaty sausage franks! A very interesting snack to pair with a portion of seaweed fries and a fruit juice for a light noon snack.

1) Golden City carrot cake - 1 Telok Kurau road

2) hong Ho Phong HK Pau - Junction of Telok Kurau Road & Changi Road

3) Seng Kee Bak Chor Mee - 316 Changi Road

4) Sin Heng Bak Koot Teh - 439 Joo Chiat Road

5) Rong Xing Yong Tau Foo - #02-01 Tanjong Pagar Plaza Food Centre

6) Annie's Peanut Ice Kachang - #02-36 Tanjong Pagar Plaza Food Centre

7) The Beef House - 217 Syed Alwi Road, Gar Lok Eating House

8) Veganburg - 44 Jalan Eunos