IKYU [Closed]

Was in Tiong Bahru area and had craving for Japanese food…can’t wait for my impending Japan trip in 1 weeks’ time~!

Dropped by IKYU at Yong Siak Street. Thou the place serves Japanese food, the decor is like a modern bar. It has a sushi counter at the front of the shop and seats along the length of the wall and a small drinking bar at the far end.

We started our dinner with cocktails (1-for-1 during Happy Hour): Sexy IKYU – Red wine, sochu, cranberry juice and fresh passion fruit. Tinkerbell – White wine, shochu, passion fruit sake, fresh passion fruit. Can’t go without Edamame~

For meal, I ordered omakase since I can’t decide what to eat from their range of food. The omakase comprises of 1 dish each: Appetizer, Sashimi, Steamed, Grilled, Fried, Nigiri and Dessert.

Complimentary starter was Sea Cucumber. Perhaps we are used to eating well-cooked soft sea cucumber, I was abit surprised when this sea cucumber was chewy and in fact abit hard.

Appetizer was Chilled Japanese Oyster with PONZU. Oyster was reasonably fresh. =) Followed by assorted Sashimi comprises of Salmon, Tuna and Scallop. Althou all were small pieces, can still taste that it was pretty fresh.

Steamed item was Silver Cod marinated in SAIKYO MISO. Fish was fresh and tender. I quite liked the gravy which was lightly salted.

Grilled item was Wagyu Beef which was nicely cooked thou its not exactly melt-in-your-mouth type.

Fried item was Crispy Jumbo Shrimp Tempura and Mushroom Tempura. Lightly battered and fried to a nice crisp.

We added on 1 ala carte item of Grilled Asparagus with Pork, before our Nigiri and Grilled Rice Ball. The pork wrapped around the asparagus tasted slightly dry, not as juicy as I expected. I really enjoyed the Sushi nigiri spread~! Generously sliced and fresh sashimi used. There were Mirugai, Kinmedai, 2 types of tuna and Kanpachi.

Didn’t quite able to stomach the grilled rice ball after my yummy sushi nigiri…so only had a few bites. The clear broth was only slightly flavoured so I could still taste the grilled aroma of the rice ball.

Dessert was cheesecake.

Enjoyed my meal at IKYU and we found out that they are also open for lunch. Other than ala carte items, they offer set lunch at more pocket friendly price.

I enjoyed the ambience which wasn’t too noisy (clientele was mainly business associates)and I was able to satisfy my craving for Jap food since the coming week will be filled with typical chinese CNY reunion dinner meals…

Saveur

Having heard raving reviews about the affordable French Cuisine at Saveur, I finally made my way to visit them today. Arrived at 8pm and was told that they are full and wrote down our name in the waiting list (waiting period of 30mins) will call us when there is available table.

By 8.30pm we received the call and were given a seat near the open-kitchen area.

We ordered a few of their signature dishes:

• FOIE GRAS  Pan-seared duck liver served with creamy lentils, & pickled pearl onion – The portion was much smaller than I expected, but for the price, it’s affordable for diners who want to try Foie Gras.
• SAVEUR’S PASTA  A signature of Saveur’s, pasta tossed with chili oil, fine-chopped Japanese konbu  & sakura ebi with minced pork sauce – its touted to be as good as those in fine dining restaurants, which garnered much anticipation from me. However this dish didn’t live up to my expectation. Its good (for the price) but still far from those in fine dining restaurants… I happen to try the Iggy’s version before and it was mind-blowing! (Read here).
• SPECIALS Cod with Bradade Potato & Green Pea Veloute – Best dish of the night. The cod was well cooked, potato was soft.
• CHOCOLATE & HAZELNUT Chocolate mousse with crushed hazelnuts, broken raspberries,  roasted rice puffs, chocolate tuile & praline – The portion of this dish was quite generous. Enough for 2 pax to share. It was quite creamy and gelard..

Originally we wanted to try the Duck Confit but was sold out. So we replaced it with the Cod dish.

We felt a bit out of place cos most diners are teenagers (luckily we went during a weekend in casual clothes…if we went during weekday in office wear, we would probably be sticking out like sore thumb…). The service staff looked mostly like poly students age…P.S Do not wear white tee-shirt with jeans to this place as you’ll be mistaken for their staff…

To conclude, this is a no-frills entry level eatery which serves French food.  I can’t relate it to French bistro as the noise level was way too high for one to enjoy the meal like in a proper bistro…

[Updates on 18th Jun 16]

So happy to be able to enjoy a good duck confit at home thanks to UberEats. Sadly the Half oven roasted chicken buttery savoy cabbage, natural jus was pretty dry and tough.

Osaka Ohsho, Singapore

Osaka Ohsho is another restaurant by the Bachmann Japanese Restaurant which brought us many other Japanese eateries such as Yonehachi, Menya Musashi Ramen, Fruit Paradise and AOBA Ramen etc.

Osaka Ohsho is essentially a gyoza specialist, the gyoza are available as ala carte items and in set meal served with Japanese dishes and rice.

I tried their Fuwatoro Tenshin Han Set. The Tenshin Han is Japanese rice topped off with soft and fluffy egg, filled with a light gravy. Liked the egg~ The Gyoza skin was thin and crispy, filling was juicy. It was not too oily. Best eaten with their special dumpling sauce~ The set is really filling as the Tenshin Han was quite huge portion.

Tofu Hamburger Stew Set only came with 3 gyozas instead of 6 but the set was also very filling. The hamburger stew gravy was flavoursome and goes very well with the rice.

The set only came with soup so we top-up with Mango and Peach soda for $3 each.

I like that the gyozas and rice are also available for takeaways. If you really like the special dumpling sauce, you can also buy 1 bottle back home!

 

 

Oversea Restaurant (Singapore Branch) [Closed]

Was in Suntec area when we saw Oversea Restaurant at Beach Road and decided to go and try the Char Siew again, hoping that its equally good as their original outlet in KL (see my earlier post).

We ordered a “Soup of the Day”, which was some Chicken Soup. It wasn’t too oily and soup was light yet flavoursome.

Sadly, the Char Siew was not as soft as I expected it to be, thou its still different from the normal restaurants’ style. It still has the caramel gravy over the char siew but doesn’t seem to have the “charcoal” flavour.

The Tofu was quite normal, the silky tofu was soft and well-braised.

Seems like in order to taste the wonderful Char Siew, we still need to visit KL…

Imperial Treasure Noodle and Congee House [Closed]

No doubt there are many other Imperial Treasure Group of Restaurant outlets around in Singapore, but this is the first time I visited the more formal setting restaurant (this outlet specialise in Noodles & Congee). I visited their HK cafe style outlet in 111 Somerset sometime ago.

Perhaps being the only Chinese restaurant in 100AM helps…plus I do not know of  other restaurants around Tanjong Pagar serving Dim Sum. And it certainly is fast becoming one of my frequently visited place in 100AM.

The restaurant setting was unlike some of their other outlets which had clear glass partition whereby outside guests can look into the restuarant.  This outlet provided much privacy, high back seats inside looks more like a Japanese restaurant.

During our first visit, we ordered the typical Dim Sum dishes – Steamed Pork Dumpling (Siew Mai), Steamed Prawn Dumpling (Har Gao), Steamed Pork Rib with Black Bean Sauce, Steamed Rice Roll with Shrimp, Deep fried Beancurd Skin Roll with Shrimp and a Sliced Abalone & Fish Congee.

The dim sum were all served piping hot and ingredients used were fresh. The deep fried item was crispy and not too oily. I liked the smooth texture of the congee, it was the traditional Cantonese congee whereby all the rice were cooked to a gluey state, you do not see any rice grains inside.

On our second visit (just 2 days later after the 1st visit), we tried their Noodles with Roast Duck and Prawn Dumplings Soup. Both items were pretty satisfying as well. Noodles was fine, roast duck was juicy and soft with crispy skin. Flavoursome soup base with fresh dumplings.

We ordered Chinese tea for our meal and we were provided with a whole pot of the tea (you can choose the tea leaves as well) and served in tea cups. This is unlike one of their competitor restaurant which serves tea from a common flask and are poured into the clear glasses.  Service was attentive and prompt. Its such little touches which improves the overall dining experience at this outlet.

They have a Bakery and Cafe at Level 1 as well. Bought some of their bakery items home but nothing special. The Cafe serves western sandwiches as well but I haven’t got the chance to try it yet.

100AM
#02-10/11

[Update in 2018]

Imperial Treasure at 100AM Noodle and Congee House has closed and they opened a new restaurant – Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine at Tanjong Pagar Centre instead.

Other related posts:

• Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant
• Ten The Oyster & Crab Restaurant
• Tsujiri Tea House, Singapore
• Tori King Ramen Keisuke

Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant

I’m not exactly sure whether this is the first time I’m eating at Yayoiken Japanese Restaurant cos their first outlet is in Liang Court (near my old office and we used to pop by at Liang Court for lunch quite frequently)…Anyway since there’s perpetual long queue over at Tori King at 100AM during dining hours, we gave Yayoiken (3rd outlet in Singapore) at try.

We ordered a Buta Shogayaki Set Stir-fried Sliced Pork with Ginger Set and a Oyako Don Chicken & Scrambled Egg Rice Bowl.

The waiting time for the food was shorter than I expected, which was pretty good. The stir-fried sliced pork was tender and not too oily. The Oyako Don chicken wasn’t as tender as the sliced pork but overall was still nice.

Yayoiken seems to me like a place that offer decent Jap food at friendly pricing. Should be a good food option for the OLs nearby at Tanjong Pagar area~

Other related posts:

• Ten The Oyster & Crab Restaurant
• House of Dimpas
• Tsujiri Tea House, Singapore
• Tori King Ramen Keisuke

O Batignolles Wine Bar & French Bistrot [Closed]

Have first passed by O Batignolles when I visited Luke’s Oyster Bar & Chop House last year. Thought of this place again when we wanted to have some wine to relax and this place offers wine by glass.

Its a small cozy bistro offering simple French fare though sadly the food option wasn’t what I would enjoy. Mostly comprised of cheese, cold cuts, toasts etc.

We ordered the “La Planchette du pecheur” Nicose-style toast, French Cheese with Tuna Toast and Smoked Salmon Toast accompanied with Shrimp and Avocado <<Verrine>>.

We also had a glass of Cotes du Rhone AOC 2011 Chateau Mont Redon, Rhone Valley, Granache & Syrah and a glass of Sancerre AOC 2009 Cave des Vins de Sancerre, Loire Valley, Pinot Noir. Cost $9-$10 per glass.

I didn’t quite enjoy both wines as they tasted young even after we attempt to let them “breathe” for longer time. The smaller wine glasses made it worse.

This is by far one of the more disappointing wine by glass place I’ve visited both in terms of food and wine.

Other related posts:

• Caveau Wines and Bar
• Praelum Wine Bistro
• Verre Wine Bar