Cafe&Meal Muji, Singapore

Cafe & Meal Muji Singapore opened their first flagship in Singapore almost 1 year ago but I only got the chance to visit them lately. I vaguely recalled that when they first opened, there was perpetual queue so I gave up.

Nowadays there is still a queue and sometimes we still struggle to find chope a seat before going to order our food.

The set meal option starts with minimum 2 Deli Set consists of 1 Hot Deli and 1 Cold Deli and extends up to 4 Deli Set for bigger eaters. Essentially it’s like high-class mixed vegetable rice stall.

After a few visits, I’ve established a few of my personal favourites: Prawn Couscous Salad with Yuzu-sesame Dressing, Triple Nut Roasted Pumpkin & Capsicum Salad, Orecchiette Pasta and Mushroom Salad in Truffle Ranch Dressing. There are also seasonal dishes introduced occasionally.

If you like the mixed grain rice, they also sells the mixed grain packets for addition into plain rice for home-cooking as well.

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Tokachi Tontaro, Singapore

I first came across Tokachi Tontaro at their Downtown Gallery outlet but they had closed for the day and we ended up at Sama Curry & Cafe. Little did I know that the two concepts are under the same company and they now offer both cuisines under 1 roof at their Plaza Singapura outlet.

The discovery of Tokachi Tontaro was a blessing for me as I couldn’t find an alternative offering Buta Don since the closure of Butahage at Liang Court. Before I introduce the main dish, I must highlight the Hokkaido Imomochi Cheese side dish that I fell in love with at first bite!  The mochi made of potato with cheese filling was fried to a nice light golden skin and the inside remains chewy like mochi (sticky rice cake) with flowy cheese filling. Somehow I didn’t get to eat this dish when I visited Hokkaido.

Now for the Buta Don – Grilled Pork Rice Bowl. All rice bowl comes with Miso Soup and Pickles but can also top-up for a full set that includes Onsen Egg, Tofu Salad, Fruits and Tea.

We ordered a Premium Butadon (uses Japanese Kagoshima Pork) and a Regular Butadon (US Pork) to taste the difference between the two. Sad to say the difference isn’t that noticeable and for my subsequent visits I just went with the Regular Butadon.

I felt that the US Pork was not as well-handled as the ones I had previously at Butahage. The regular one was perhaps not as char-grilled as I would like it to be but is a pretty decent effort. Given that we don’t have much eateries offering Butadon in Singapore, this is quite acceptable to me. The Jap rice underneath the grilled pork gets slightly flavoured with the mildly sweet sauce mixed with a tiny bit of oil from the pork slices, but rest assured that it doesn’t make the dish feel overly greasy.

This has become my go-to place when I have craving for affordable Japanese don. I would rather have this over the supposedly famous Y-name Japanese gyūdon chain whose standard has sadly gone downhill over the years.

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Akimitsu 秋光, Singapore

For my jie-meis lunching with me, they would know that I seldom eat fast-food. Somehow on this particular day, I had a craving for Ten-don and we ended up at Akimitsu (Singapore) – an award-winning Tempura and Tendon restaurant which originated from Asakusa in Tokyo, Japan.

The Signature Tendon with Prawn, Fish, Egg, Seaweed, Assorted Vegetables, comes with Chawamushi and Miso Soup. Although the portion looks reasonable, after eating only half the portion, we started to feel jelak. Despite trying to break the oiliness with the free flow pickled sides, none of us ladies managed to finish the bowl.

After the meal, we left with the guilt of eating a fat and carbohydrates loaded meal yet feeling unfulfilled… I guess I shall reserve my occasional calorie indulgence at my regular tried-and-tested Tendon place instead.

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SAMA Curry & Café

Hokkaido is often cited as the birthplace of Soup Curry. I first tried the Soup Curry in Sapporo, Japan last year (see post, Garaku). Happy to know that SAMA Curry & Cafe has brought the dish to Singapore.

We visited the outlet at OUE Downtown Gallery to reminisce about our winter holiday in Japan.  In order to savour the Soup Curry in Sapporo, we visited the shop twice, we were turned away during lunch service as they were sold out. We returned in the evening and queued for 1 hour before we get to try it. Turned out to be a wonderful experience trying out this lesser known dish (to Singaporeans at least) in Sapporo, other than ramen and snow crab.

As we arrived at 8.30pm at Downtown Gallery, the area was pretty much empty as most office folks have gone home. SAMA Curry offers 10 types of customisable curry for diners to choose from. From there, diners can then choose the spicy level (from 0-30), soup base (tomato, coconut, shrimp or japanese) and extra toppings if they so prefer.

Pictured above was the Moo Moo Hamburg Juicy Sapporo style hamburger patty floating amongst SAMA’s selected choice of assorted vegetables in our choice of Japanese (chicken) soup base. The hamburger patty was really juicy and tender, paired well with the soup base. For normal standard spice eater, level 10 is pretty much a piece of cake. You can taste a slight peppery taste in addition to the savoury soup curry.

Another bowl was Ocean Trophy Prawn, squid, fish and blue mussels swimming in SAMA selected choice of assorted vegetables in our choice of Shrimp soup base. For this one, the shrimp flavour in the soup base made it looked more orangy. It somewhat reminds me of the shrimp based ramen soup but with a tinge of curry.

Comparatively I preferred the Japanese (chicken) soup base as well as the more filling beef patty.

I was letdown by the quality of the rice offered as it tasted like ready-cooked rice, although we saw a huge rice cooker in the kitchen. At the time of writing this post, I also visited the outlet at Plaza Singapura, which had similar issue with the rice.

Tried the Oink Oink Delicious oinking pork, lazing about in SAMA’s selected choice of assorted vegetables. The pork was extremely tender and almost melts in the mouth!

While I personally enjoyed Soup Curry, it seems like this dish is still new to many Singaporeans. I hope that over time, more people would get to know this underrated dish. P.S Best enjoyed on a cold day as the soup curry helps to warm up the body~

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Typhoon Taiwanese Cafe

One of my usual go-to place for mid-price Taiwanese cuisine was XiMenDing by Creative Eateries. After they closed the outlet in Vivo, there wasn’t any eatery to fill the void. Until I saw Typhoon Taiwanese Cafe – also by Creative Eateries.

For a start, we were attracted to the Majestic Mango Peach fresh peach with honey mango cubes in jasmine tea. Although the portioning was larger than normal, sufficient to share between two person – it seems kinda pricey at $8.50++ for this?

I was happy to see the return of iconic dishes such as Lu Rou Fan and  San Bei Chicken in their menu. Hence my first choice was the San Bei Chicken with Sweet Basil served with egg noodles set. Also ordered a side dish of Taiwanese Sausage Stuffed Chicken Wings.

The noodles set seems pretty value-for-money at $12.90++ with a small appetizer, soup and a portion of fresh greens. Sadly I was disappointed with the rather tough chicken meat.

The stuffed chicken wing tasted slightly better but didn’t weigh up in terms of pricing because each wing worked out to be around $3.60+ per piece… I think I’m better off buying BBQ wings from food court…

Also tried the Taiwan Lu Rou Fan pork belly stew & braised egg served with rice. This was the more palatable dish compared to the chicken.  I would consider trying this again.

Lastly we round up our meal with dessert of Snickers Cake milk chocolate cream, italian meringue, brown butter caramel, salted peanut and mushroom meringue.  The dessert was nicely plated and I enjoyed the sweet-savoury combination.

Considering pricing and quality, I would probably trying them as a cafe for light snacks and desserts, rather than full meal. If I need to pay $8++ for a tea, I would make sure that I can sit there longer for a chit-chat session with my jie-meis to make my money well spent.

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Eggs n’ Things, Singapore

Eggs ‘n Things sounded very familiar to me when I spotted them in Plaza Singapura. It dawned on me that I came across this shop while I was searching for brunch places in Japan. It is a restaurant chain famous for their pancakes, omelettes etc. with a distinctly Hawaiian theme. They originated from Oahu, USA but grew in popularity amongst the Japanese visitors. So much so that they started expanding in Japan. The outlet in Singapore is their first outside of Hawaii and Japan.

Not wanting to have pancake for lunch, I tried their Smoked Salmon and Avocado Eggs Benedict. With a side of home fried potatoes, the eggs benedict was filling enough for me.

The poached eggs were runny and the hollandaise sauce was well-prepared. My key gripe was in terms of pricing, they seemed to be slightly higher than other cafes. Given the many food options within Plaza Singapura, I can easily find more value-for money eateries.

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Patbingsoo Korean Dining House

Located in Plaza Singapura, situated right next to the escalator in B2. The rather open and awkward open-top location where Patbingsoo Korean Dining House occupies often had me wondering “what if someone dropped something from the escalator or the level above into my food?!“. Nonetheless this seems to be the least of other diners’ concern as there is often a long queue to dine at the eatery.

Although I’ve seen many instagram photos of the signature dish – Rolling Cheese Pork Ribs, we didn’t try that dish as we were trying to save stomach space for the dessert – the dish that lured me here. So we went for the simple dish of Tteokbokki and Ramyeon.

 

The tteokbokki was served on a hotplate which made it taste even spicier than it already was. However I thought the gravy was a tad too watery.

The ramyeon was served in a aluminium pot placed over a mini food warmer rack. The fun presentation not only made it look appealing but served practical purpose as the soup was kept hot throughout our meal.

Last but not least, the key highlight of my meal was the Sinsa Patbingsoo Rock Melon, Pat (red bean paste), Cornflakes, NataCoco, Vanilla Ice Cream.  This was certainly a dessert meant for sharing as it was too huge to be finished by one person. I loved sweet rock melon and the crunchy cornflakes created a rich texture in addition to the smooth and creamy vanilla ice cream. As one digs in further, you’ll find more generous ingredients hidden underneath. I certainly appreciate this type of bingsoo more than the usual ones typically filled with mostly iced shavings.

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Lokkee [Closed]

Lokkee is the latest addition to Tung Lok Group’s restaurants. It’s menu is inspired by Chinese take-out food often found in Chinatowns across cosmopolitan cities – in short its “Western-Chinese” food. On display was the typical American Chinese take-out boxes printed with Singapore icons.

A fun wet tissue which is a sure conversation starter. Within minutes after sitting, I found the chairs too high and table too low for comfort.

Tried the Orange Chicken Deep-fried chicken balls served with an orange zest chicken stock, blended with soy sauce – an American Chinese dish of Hunan origin. This dish is sweet and tangy, nice comfort food. Also had the 5-Spice Crispy Pork Belly Pork belly marinated with 5 spice and roasted to a crisp which was nicely presented but taste ordinary (as in no Wow factor).

Ended our meal with Custard Buns which came disguised as freshly plucked mushrooms and nicely plated on a sieve with “peanuts” soil~ Unfortunately the custard fillings wasn’t as flowy as I wished, although the presentation itself deserves 100 points =)

On a side note, for folks who hadn’t got the chance to try the colour changing Butterfly Pea drink in Thailand, you can try the Ultraviolet Oolong Tea here. Although named as Oolong, it’s base is actually Butterfly Pea tea which explains the colour changing after adding the lemon juice.

[Updates on 17th Nov 15]

Back to try 2 new dishes other than my favorite Orange Chicken. For starters we tried the Chilli Crab Cake and boy it was much larger than I expected. It has a generous layer of crispy bread crumbs coating the crab meat inside and goes well with the nice chilli dip.

The Honey Walnut Shrimp could possibly replace Orange Chicken as my favorite dish here due to its large & juicy prawns, paired with the nutty walnut and the sweet honey coating on the batter.

[Updates on 24th Dec 15]

Finally get to try the Flaming Pineapple Beef, frankly I don’t think the fire has got any flavouring effect on the beef cubes which were housed in the hollowed pinapple crust. The beef cubes were pretty soft and I quite enjoy the sweet and sour gravy used for this dish.

The Poke Salad with Diced salmon and tuna sashimi was a great starter.

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Hong Kong Wonton Noodle

Although the famous wonton noodle from Hong Kong set up an outlet earlier in Centrepoint, I haven’t got the opportunity to visit them. By chance I happened to be in Plaza Singapura when I passed by the recently opened Hong Kong Wonton Noodle  (by the group that manages Itacho Sushi).

After a 15mins queuing time, we finally got a booth table in the rather compact sized eatery. I ordered the Prawn Dumpling Noodle Soup and we shared a side dish of Deep Fried Squid Cake.

For a modest $7.80 the portion was pretty reasonable, with at least 5 dumplings (i think). The noodles was fine and al-dente but the stock seemed a bit too flavoursome. The dumpling was rightly sized but there was an ingredient with a distinct taste used in the minced meat which lingers in my mouth that I didn’t like. Wondering if its dried fish cos of it’s umami. The deep fried squid cake was unique and had a great chewy texture.

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Arteastiq

Not sure whether my gut feel is accurate but somehow I think my lunch khakis and I tend to indulge ourselves in a better lunch on Mondays compared to other work days.

Visited Arteastiq in Plaza Singapura for lunch, though the cafe is more known for its Art Jamming sessions. While I haven’t got the chance to visit their Mandarin Gallery branch, having seen some of its pretty photos of the outlet, I was less impressed with the ambience and decor at Plaza Singapura. Seems less chi-chi.

Ordered their lunch set which comprised of a main (from a selection of 10 mains) and a drink. Had a tough time selecting which drink to order as they have a wide selection in their menu. The drinks were categorised into fruit teas, ginger teas, english & floral teas, chinese & japanese teas, blency, blencelato, dessert teas, coffee and tea lattes. I decided to have the Red Date Oolong Tea cos I recently read an article that says consuming oolong tea will help burn more fats than drinking green tea and it has less caffeine content. 

For main I had the Louisiana Love – Chicken & Waffles Panfried dredged buttermilk chicken tossed with thai mango, rockets, red unions, and cashew nuts, served on whole-wheat waffles, maple butter, and red vegetable slaw. Although this dish is named “Louisiana”, alluding to the famous buttermilk fried chicken, they had used panfried chicken instead. The whole-wheat waffles was dense and thick which made the dish pretty filling. I did a double-take when I tasted the sweet maple butter as it played some tricks on my palate. Overall I enjoyed the red veg slaw and wild rockets more than the proteins.

While we were there, we saw a group of Japanese tai-tai with their kids in tow and having their brunch. This outlet might be a good gathering place for the tai-tais from the nearby Japanese community to enjoy afternoon tea.

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