Gangnam Garden Korean BBQ (City Square Mall)

After our truffle-blissfulness at Ember, we hunted down truffle salt at the supermarket at Ion Orchard. Since it was pretty pricey for a small container, we decided to share. The plan was for Lynn to bring it home, split half of it into a zip lock bag and pass that to me. And since I had some errands to run at Jalan Besar, we arranged to have dinner at the nearby City Square Mall.

Initially we had wanted to eat something that will go well with the truffle salt that she brought out for me. Aston's queue was quite long, and this branch was particularly small, so we passed. We then thought of Saizeriya, a Japanese-Italian restaurant. Not wanting to limit ourselves, however, we decided to take a walk around to see what else City Square had to offer. Chanced upon Korean BBQ quite by accident. It used to be BBQ Chicken restaurant, and part of the signboard wasn't removed yet. So there I was telling Lynn that BBQ Chicken isn't nice, when she noticed the Korean BBQ signboard at the other end of the restaurant. We also caught a whiff of the smokey BBQ aroma floating out of the restaurant. Upon closer inspection of the menu, we found that it only costs $25.88 for their buffet dinner. Pretty good selection of meats, and with the aroma tempting us, we gave in.

The buffet included a good 70 items you can choose from, drinks not included. Some items require top-ups. We went for a first round of pork belly and chicken chop platter, plus cold noodles with soup and kimchi soup. I actually ordered a bibimbap but that was forgotten. These were served alongside crisp lettuce and 6 appetizers of kimchi, cucumber salad, two kinds of beansprouts, macaroni salad and coleslaw. The cold noodles were springy, and the cold soup very refreshing. Definitely a must-have. The kimchi soup was very diluted and forgettable. The platter was served with some golden mushrooms and shitake mushrooms. The girl did a very meticulous job of cutting all our meats into bite-sized pieces. We took a small spoon of our truffle salt out onto a plate. While the mushrooms tasted fantastic with the salt, the marinate in the meats completely drowned the truffle. So we realized that the truffle salt may be wasted, unless maybe we order more mushrooms. The meats were cut so small that we needed multiple pieces to get a good 'chew' when we wrapped them in the lettuce. Although the platter was supposed to have pork belly and chicken in 3 different marinates, I felt all of them tasted pretty much the same. 

We then noticed the Korean family beside us having the Bulgogi platter, and it looked a lot better than the pork belly one. So round two was the Bulgogi platter, plus a plate of fresh pork belly (unmarinated). The girl again started off the initial cooking of the meats, but we found that she failed to separate the thin bulgogi meats properly, so they were clumps of meat that were uncooked in the centre. We had to cut them with the scissors provided to get the centre cooked. Again all the marinates tasted the same. The highlight of the evening was the fresh pork belly. Because it was unmarinated, it was incredibly enhanced by our truffle salt. Every bite was heavenly, we had those blissful pauses. I think the other tables must be wondering what in the world we were eating that we were so thoroughly enjoying. Think pausing everything and closing our eyes to savor the truffle-filled flavor of the pork belly. We went for a second serving of the fresh pork belly. It was THAT good with the salt!

We were contemplating whether to order another cold noodles but decided to keep the stomach space for dessert elsewhere. We also saw the Korean family eating the hot plate bibimbap which looked quite good but we were too full to try. If I'm not wrong, that's available with a $3 top-up.

Appetizers

Green green lettuce

Pork belly and chicken chop platter with mushrooms

Cold noodles with soup

Kimchi soup

Fresh pork belly on the left, bulgogi meats on the right

Frozen pork belly serving #2

I think for the price, the variety is pretty good. The ventilation is limited though, so we did come out smelling of BBQ. For two of us, we were given a four-seater, so we were able to sit at the non-BBQ side of the table to limit smoke in our faces. If there's 3 or 4, 1 or 2 person will have to get face splatters. Their set up is pretty interesting with a hole in the centre of the pan for oil to flow out and collect into a little metal bowl. Makes you feel a little better about not eating that amount of oil. Lol... The marinates were getting a little too sweet towards the end. Next time I'll bring my truffle salt again and just attack the fresh meat. =D

SteakHotel-Holycow!

Lynn came across this stall in Lucky Plaza's foodcourt (the one beside MacDonald's) selling Wagyu steaks at $28. She was so obsessed with it that she kept bugging me to go there to eat, since I'm her one friend who appreciates beef the best. Ok, she has other friends, but I'm the only solo one without an additional half who have to tag along for the beef-fest, since my hubby's vegetarian.

So we finally made our way down on Friday. Their steaks prices are ok. $28 for Wagyu ribeye and sirloin. I think there was an ongoing promotion for Wagyu rump steak at $10. The non-wagyu steaks were going at average of $15 I think. We ordered a Wagyu ribeye and sirloin to share, medium rare (in case medium is too cooked), with the option of black pepper sauce. We were given a number tag and told to return in about 10 minutes time to collect. So we made use of the 10 minutes to hunt for a seat in the crowded foodcourt. Managed to snag one near the stall just before our number was called.

The stall provides pepper grinder which we were more than happy to help ourselves to. Sorry I divided our steaks before I remembered the camera. The steaks were tender, so definitely better than the steaks from your chain steak houses. I had preferred the sirloin than the ribeye, because I found the fats at the edges of the sirloin more aromatic than those in the ribeye. Lynn preferred the ribeye as she found it more tender. Of course, the meat can't compare to those of the high-end steak places, but at $28, who's complaining?

Their pepper sauce was a little too sweet for my liking. We did enjoy the thick-cut fries though. Both of us barely touched their sauteed spinach, which was completely bland. I think there wasn't even a grain of salt in there.

Wagyu steaks - sirloin on the left, ribeye on the right

We probably won't come back, since we are the kind who don't mind paying more for good food (steaks in this case), so we'll rather spend our stomach space at those places that we previously blogged about. That said, SteakHotel did manage to satisfy our unsatisfied steak craving rolled over from the unbeefy Restaurant Ember. For those who also like steaks, but aren't keen to spend too much on it, I think SteakHotel serves decent enough steaks at affordable prices. The servings aren't considered small, definitely bigger than the regular foodcourt-style steaks. I really do think $28 for a Wagyu ribeye steak is a steal. Oh, and its Halal, so muslim friends can enjoy too! Oh oh, and you can redeem a free steak on your birthday!!!!

Togi Korean Restaurant

I was introduced to this restaurant at Mosque St by HY when us colleagues were looking for a place to go for a lab dinner. Liked it enough to bring Lynn back, but that was before we started blogging and no pictures were taken. Recently met up some old friends for dinner, and they chose that restaurant without my input. I guess good food speaks for itself.

From what I gathered through A, Togi is opened by a Korean lady boss who married an African-American who speaks fluent Korean. Not that I'll ever find out if its true, I was surprise he even knew this fact. I never dig around information about who open the places I dine at. The other Korean guy who help in running the place is the lady boss's brother.

Togi serves up pretty good Korean food. I love their bibimbap, ginseng chicken soup, fried rice cake, kimchi pancake, kimchi soup etc... The six side dishes are free flow - kimchi, braised potato, fried ikan bilis, some cold noodle thingy, cucumber salad and sauteed chives (I think). All are pretty good. I especially love the kimchi and the potato. This time round we ordered quite a few of my favorites: Chicken bibimbap, ginseng chicken soup and fried rice cake. Additionally we ordered fried dumplings and BBQ pork, which I have yet to try. I also ordered their citron hot tea, which is very similar to the Japanese Yuzu tea. It contains pomelo pieces I think. Very refreshing. I like. Next time I'll go for the cold one though.

The soup is full flavored with ginseng goodness, and a very good portion of chicken. It took a few bowls each for the 4 of us to finish the chicken. Nice thing about Togi is chicken soup top up is free. Of course we went for the top up! Their fried rice cake is pretty spicy, and I really liked the chewy rice cakes. It comes fried with a variety of vegetables, some dumplings, some other chewy thing I can't place, and half a hard boiled egg. The dumplings were normal, and pity the Koreans don't do vinegar with their dumplings the way us Chinese do. The bibimbap is a little different from the usual one where you have to pour some sauce over before you mix. Theirs comes with the sauce already in it, so you just have to mix. I like the flavor of their sauce, and the vegetables variety is pretty good. The BBQ pork is served with lettuce. So you pack the pork in a leaf of lettuce, add whatever you want (such as garlic, miso chilli sauce etc), and eat it 'popiah' style.

The six free flow side dishes

Fried rice cakes

Dumplings

Bibimbap. I forgot to take a photo before mixing.

Ginseng chicken soup

I can't comment on the authenticity of the food here, since my experience with real Korean food revolves around the whole week of BBQ food I had when I was there. If kimchi is any indication, I'll say their food is pretty authentic. Do see a fair number of Koreans here, so it's good enough. I'm missing the bibimbap as we speak... Lynn and others, however, had commented that there's another Korean place at West Coast area that's better. But location-wise, Togi gets the hands up from me.

Restaurant Ember

After I discovered my love for foie gras, Lynn said I HAVE to try out Ember's. Their's was the best she ever had. So we arranged for a dinner there last Friday.

I must say the service here was impeccable. I arrived earlier than Lynn, and upon being seated, was asked politely what drink I want - sparkling, still or regular. Considering many lower end places don't serve regular water, I was kind of surprise at the option at a expensive place like that. Their regular water comes with slices of apple skin - I believe leftovers from skinning their apples for the apple pie or something. It did add a touch of freshness to the water, though I would have preferred lemon slices. What the waitress did next completely surprised me. She brought me a magazine to flip while waiting for my friend! How many times have I sat in restaurants waiting for friends, flipping aimlessly through the menu and getting incredibly hungry in the process. I was touched!

Lynn arrived soon after I flipped through a couple of pages. We proceeded to pour over the menu. There was a 4-course set dinner option available. Two appetizers (from two lists of 5 options), one main course, and a dessert for $85++. No sharing of set meal allowed (that's what it said on the menu). We thought it sounded ok, but weren't sure if we could handle 4 appetizers. I did a quick calculation for ordering 2 appetizers and 2 main course off the ala carte menu and found it costs less. The waitress subsequently told us its ok to order just one set meal, provided we order an additional appetizer and main course. I did another quick calculation and found that this will cost the same as 2 appetizers, 2 main course and 1 dessert off the ala carte menu, but we'll get one appetizer more. Sounded ok, and the waitress assured us the French cuisine has very small servings so 3 appetizers between the two of us isn't too much.

So our final decisions were: Pan-roasted foie gras with poached egg and truffle, crab cakes, scallop with Parma ham, 36 hours cooked Duck Confit, Tenderloin with Merlot reduce, and Valrhona chocolate cake with French vanilla ice cream. We munched on two servings delicious crunchy bread while we waited. I was famished cos I had skipped lunch, though not for the dinner, just that I wasn't hungry at lunchtime.

The crab cakes and scallops arrived together. The waitress weren't joking about small servings. The crab cakes were great, full of shreds of crab meat, soft and very yummy. I think one crab cake each was a good idea. More would have been too rich on the palate. The scallop looked undercooked but tastes perfectly fine. Although we both weren't big on Parma ham, and both felt that bacon would have been better. It was still very good though, and the salad that came with them was good too. The foie gras came next. We were instructed to break the poached egg, mixed thoroughly, and eat it with the crispy Parma ham served on the side. We did break the egg, found that it went fantastically with the truffle, but did not mash up the foie gras. Instead, we enjoyed the foie gras bit by bit. Lynn was right about the foie gras here, it was slightly crispy on the outside, but blissfully soft inside, melting in the mouth immediately to release all its goodness. The truffle added a new dimension to it, and the whole experience was simply mind blowing. Pity the serving was quite small. She felt that it was bigger the previous time she came, and I suspected that you get smaller servings with the set meal. The Parma ham, well, let's just say the foie gras stole the limelight.

Our mains come up next. The duck confit was incredible! The 36 hour cooking process had resulted in incredibly tender meat, and I don't know what the last part of the process was, but the skin was crispy and oh-so-yummy! The fats under the skin was soft, and melts in the mouth. I never knew that duck fats can taste so good, the same way the fats in a ribeye steak does! I definitely do not enjoy the fats of regular kopitiam roasted duck... haha... The potatoes served under it was soft and delicious. The tenderloin was quite small, served with mashed sweet potato and surprise surprise - truffle salt. The salt turned out to be the highlight of the evening. We were rationing it out so as to have enough for the two mains. The tenderloin was so-so. I mean, if you compare it to the chain steakhouses, it was a good piece of meat. Yet, if you compare it to the steakhouses boasting high quality cuts such as The Steakhouse or Morton's or Les Bouschons, it paled miserably in comparison. The reduced Merlot it was served in somehow reminded me of chicken essence. Too much of it and I found it quite sickening... Thankfully the steak wasn't too big. First time we went for a steak dinner and found the non-steak main much better. Oh well, of all the choices we made, this was the only one the waitress actually didn't make a recommendation. I guess high class French cuisine's focus is not on the steaks. The truffle salt however, was heavenly. I think I'm gonna hunt down where to buy some, and maybe throw a dash of it in whatever I cook in future. It was sooooo aromatic and flavorful! The mashed sweet potato tasted like yam paste, much to our amusement. Lol...

We were served coffee/tea as part of the set dinner. We assumed that since we only ordered one set, we were entitled to only one. I was actually given a good selection of teas, not just the usual English breakfast. I chose Earl Grey, but was somehow given Chamomile, which was also okay with me. Tea was served in a tea pot, with a strainer at the side, warm milk and a cute little dish of sugar. I thought it was weird to have chamomile with milk but I gave it a chance and tried a little tea with milk on a spoon. Tasted really weird. So no milk in my cup. The pot had enough for more than a cup. So Lynn had the second cup. Good thing we only ordered one. We were then served hibiscus juice, two cute bottles of them. I was again surprised, since we only had one set meal, it was nice of them to give us two servings of that. Finally came our chocolate cake. Hot molten chocolate oozed out of it when we sink our forks into it. Thankfully not salty like Brawn's. The small single serving was good for both of us to enjoy but not overly cloying.

Crusty bread with butter

Scallop with Parma ham

Crab cakes

Zoom in of the crab cake. That piece at the side is a piece of bread.

Foie gras with the Parma ham served on the side

Soft foie gras, runny poached egg and heavenly truffles.

36 hours cooked duck confit served on potatoes and mushrooms

Tenderloin with truffle salt (that little hill on the left) and mashed sweet potato (the mustard-like thing on the right)

Prettily served Chamomile tea

Hibiscus juice

Valrhona chocolate cake

This was also the first time we actually did not overeat. The portions were comfortable and we weren't stuffed to the brim when we're done. Guess for French cuisine the focus is not on the portion but on the work that goes into each dish. The sauces were rich and well prepared, and we could appreciate how each dish is the result of a lot of effort. However, I would definitely love to have a bigger portion of foie gras. That was too little for 2 persons! (ok, it was meant for one... we're being stingy here...) And we actually like eating our appetizers alongside our mains, so the French style of serving a course at the time was a little slow for us... haha...

We will come back some day, I'm sure, when the craving for good foie gras and truffle-goodness hits us. We learn not to order the steak though. This meal was great for the truffle overload - we both found a new favorite, on top of our already long list of favorites. It did fail, however, to satisfy both our steak cravings...

The Uncle Sam's Claypot

I happened to be alone in City Square mall looking for dinner, and this restaurant crossed my mind. I had passed by a few months ago when I went there with hubby, and thought it looked promising.

This time round it's no different. I walked up to the entrance and my nose caught a whiff of a burnt smell, suggesting that the rice were authentically cooked in the claypot (as opposed to heaping cooked rice into the heated claypot). There was a set meal promotion too - choice of a claypot rice/noodle, a soup and a drink at $10.80++. Sounded ok, so in I went.

I chose chicken claypot rice, watercress pork rib soup and soy bean milk. The soy bean milk disappointed me with it's packet drink flavor. Belacan chilli was brought up to me while I waited for my food, and it smelled pretty good.

My food arrived after a good 15 minutes wait. Look at the photo and you will notice something is wrong. The chicken and other stuff are piled ON the rice. This means that they weren't cooked together with the rice. As a result, the rice was completely bland. And I was halfway through the bowl before I had a bite of salted fish - it turned out to be the only bite. When I reached the end, I did see enough charred rice at the bottom to make me believe the rice were indeed cooked in the claypot. Pity the sauce and chicken just wasn't flavorful enough. The chilli turned out to be pretty average too. The soup was ok, in a very normal way. Think the soup you get from a coffeeshop chicken rice stall.

Verdict: not worth the time, money, and stomach space. The claypot rice at Ang Mo Kio is much better, and cheaper too. I asked for it didn't I? Going to a fancy place for a coffeeshop food.

Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant (UOB plaza)

It's my brother's birthday and he heard good reviews about this restaurant from a friend, so decided to have dinner here. We went to the one at UOB plaza. It takes 3 elevator and 1 escalator changes to get the the restaurant at the 60th floor.

We went for the ala carte buffet, which has a good 60 choices for us to choose from. Moreover, UOB had a promotion where 4 dine for the price of 3. The decor of the restaurant was pretty nice, and we were given a round booth table with cushion seat for half of it. Our booth actually had the option of drawing a translucent curtain if we wanted more privacy but we passed.

The tea here is served by a tea master, the kind who pour tea from a teapot with a super long sprout. In this case, they pour hot water into our cups containing tea leaves. Honestly, there wasn't much of a tea flavor so I felt I was just drinking very fancy hot water. But the tea masters were indeed masters. They could pour tea even for those sitting at the inner seats of our cushioned round table booth. Minimum spillage, but lots of splashes due to the high pressure of the water flow. Bro was joking that they are probably the highest paid people in the area since there are bankers and accountants everywhere readily available, but these are probably the only two persons in Raffles Place with this skill.

Now to the food. Since it's an ala carte buffet, we ordered a lot more food than I cared to snap. Let's see what I got...

We ordered some common Chinese food such as sharks fin soup (with negligible sharks fin of course, it's a buffet...), soon hock fish and crispy chicken with Thai sauce. The soup was ok, fish was nice, and chicken I find too sweet because of the plum sauce they used. The Sze Chuan specialties we got included: 口水鸡 (direct translation is saliva chicken), a chicken dish with spicy beanpaste. There was a kind of spice in it I didn't care for, but bro liked it. 锅巴豆腐 (direct translation is rice crust tofu), a tofu dish served over rice crispies. I would have preferred they didn't pour the tofu over the rice crispies upon serving cos by the time I got to it, I was eating soggy rice bubbles. 担担面 (Dan Dan noodles), a classic Sze Chuan noodle dish served with spicy mince pork, they managed to serve a tiny portion so that I didn't get too full. And of course, sour and spicy soup, which was too spicy for my dad. With the Dan Dan noodle served at the same time, he wad drinking tea (water) like nobody's business. I found it alright.

Dessert list surprisingly only had one version of sweet beancurd (Dou Hua), considering it's the namesake of the restaurant. We ordered the red bean pancake cos it's V's favorite and it's hard to find good ones around. Theirs was pretty good. Crispy on the outside, rich, creamy red bean paste inside... Yummy!! We also ordered mango pudding which was so so.

Hubby had two vegetarian set menus to choose from, which made him a little happier compared to JuChunYuan. He said the vegetarian food here was nicer too. His set was served with the sweet beancurd, which he gave my bro, cos he wasn't keen on beancurd with wolfberries, which is the only version they had.

Soon Hock fish

Shark's fin soup

Thai style crispy chicken

口水鸡 - saliva chicken

锅巴豆腐 - rice crust tofu

Mini 担担面 - Dan Dan noodles

Mango pudding

Red bean pancake

All in all a restaurant with pretty good food and nice ambience. The UOB deal makes it quite worth it too, especially if there are big appetites among your group.