Shabuya

I had some errands to run at VivoCity, and thus, Lynn suggested we go for Shabuya's eat-all-you-can shabu shabu buffet. Unfortunately, the buffet is only valid for weekend brunch. Since we were already primed for shabu shabu, we went ahead and order off the menu.

We ordered the set meal for 2, and added an additional plate of mixed sashimi. Lynn doesn't like tuna sashimi (ironically, she enjoyed the tuna belly as much as I did at Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant), so I agreed to finish them for her, and she can have more of something else.

The food all arrived at the same time. We finished the crisp salad quickly, in order to make space for our meats. Lynn didn't care for the Japanese cucumbers, which I finished. The sashimi was cleared quickly too. The scallop sashimi was very sweet, and we both enjoyed it very much. Lynn gave half a slice of tuna a chance, and then pushed the rest to me. I found it ok. We thought it was funny that a two persons' serving of sashimi had 3 slices of each variety of fish. But since all the tuna came to me, Lynn had more of the others.

Our full table

Salad

Mixed sashimi

With the cold food out of the way, we attacked the steamboat with gusto. We ordered two soups - shabu shabu, and regular chicken stock. I was responsible for putting the vegetables in, while Lynn's duty was the meats. Our set comes with fish paste, chicken, pork and wagyu beef. The thinly sliced meats cooked within seconds, and it was so comforting to be swallowing those nice, hot slices of meat. Needless to say, the beef was the best. But the other meats were great too. The shabu shabu soup here is better than Restaurant Hoshigaoka's, less cloying sweet so that we don't get sick of it. By the end of the meal, the soup had became a nice, rich meat stock. We couldn't get enough of it, slurping the soup til we were bloated. The chicken soup was quite normal, I used it more for the vegetables.

The fish paste was interesting. I come from a family of fishball makers - my grandparents operated a fishball stall in the market and my mom and her siblings helped out and picked up the skills. This had resulted in me acquiring an attention to the textures of fishballs and fishcakes. This fish paste had a soft consistency, as if it was mixed with flour. However, the bounciness of the fish paste matched that of a fishball made completely of fish. Wonder if they mixed different kinds of fish to get that texture?

We were given choice of noodles or rice, and we both opted for udon noodles. The noodles went in last, cooking in the rich meat broth at the end. The result was well flavored noodles that had absorbed all the essence of the soup. We really loved it! The meal was ended with a nice cold chocolate mochi.

Three kinds of meats and fish paste

Vegetables, and udon noodles in the background

Mochi

Shabuya's weekend brunch is a much better deal. $39.80 for free flow meats. Lynn have been there and said that the resultant soup is almost too rich to drink. Too bad weekend mornings I'm usually occupied, but will definitely find a chance to go. Til then, I think the weekday set meal works for me.


Update:

We've been back twice for the weekend brunch now, 'brunch' happening at about 2pm and finishing about 4. You get to order food within 100 minutes, but they don't shoo you out after the time is over. So you can order some more at the end of your 100 minutes and take your time to finish. Do take note that there are pretty hefty charges for leftover meats, so don't be greedy.

Sashimi choices were salmon and tuna. Since Lynn don't do tuna, we attacked the sashimi with a gusto. The buffet selection for meat include wagyu beef ribs, premium black angus tenderloin, kurobuta pork belly/loin/collar, and chicken. All are thinly sliced and cooks to perfection very quickly. We love love love the wagyu - fragrant and oh-so-delicious. Black angus was leaner and less satisfying, but still delicious in a different kind of way. We only ordered pork belly and they were droolicious. Chicken was a hit and miss. One time it had the frozen chicken taste, the second time it didn't. Seafood selection includes tiger prawns, squids, dory fish slices, salmon fish slices, fish balls, sotong balls, cheese fish cakes and clams. The balls were normal, but the prawn and fishes were fresh. The cheese fishcake was surprisingly good, but not fantastic. Clams and squids we didn't order.

Vegetables available were chinese white cabbage, xiao bai cai, white radish, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms and pumpkins. Vegetables are usually quite normal, and Lynn isn't quite a fan of chinese cabbage stems and she don't like enoki mushrooms. But we both enjoyed the pumpkin slices, and I went absolutely gaga over the white radish. Cooked long enough, these little gems soak up all the beef flavors from the broth, yet retained their own sweetness. I was gorging myself with these.

Suffice to say we did not stop at one serving of each meat. We were crazy with the sashimi (some 4 servings of three slices each?), had at least 5 servings of wagyu, and I think 4 of the pork belly, and 2 of the remaining meats. Seafood we only had one serving of each. Vegetables we skipped a lot of them, although I did have two servings of radish all by myself. Lynn wasn't keen. Only one serving of udon that we could barely finish. The meal was finished off with a scoop of green tea ice cream each.

Love it so much that we went back again after one try. Second time coincided with the advertisement on Yahoo the day before. The result was a longer wait in line, but for some reason, the restaurant wasn't even full. But maybe because of the expected big crowd and the wish to impress, the meats and seafood was fresher than before. We were stuffed to the brim, and will be back again some day to get stuffed again, when the shabu craving hits.

The Tastings Room

Finally got around to posting this entry. Despite being dated a while back, the opinions are still clearly imprinted in my mind. Here's why...

This restaurant was highlighted to us through a Groupon. Seeing the description sounded like a French fine dining restaurant, and the deal was going at $36 for a 4 course meal, we thought, why not? So we got two vouchers, and Lynn and me decided to try it out. We made reservation for the Friday before CNY, thinking it could be our own little reunion dinner. The reservation was made one week in advance, because I was worried that many who bought the Groupon might have the same idea.

Nevermind that the restaurant didn't call me to remind me. Not all restaurants do that so it didn't bother me at all. What bothered me, ALOT, was when we reached there. My name was no where on the small piece of paper carrying the names of the reservations. It didn't help that the pokerface waitress had a similar poker attitude. She went through the list several times, asking me for my name several times as well. Despite my 5th repetition of 'My name is Gracie', she kept asking me "Is it Nancy? Is it xxx? Is it yyy?" etc. It was beginning to become difficult to hold my annoyance. She finally went to a big notebook beside the phone, and finally found my name and contact number on that book. Apparently the name never got transferred to the 'reservation of the day' slip of paper. After consulting her manager, she came back, still pokerfaced, saying that the only available seats are outdoor. I got mad, and rejected the outdoor seat. We ended up at Hippopotamus for a much happier dinner instead.

However, since I've already paid for the Groupon, we have to return for our meal eventually. So a few days later, I called up, made a feeble complain (chicken-hearted me was afraid that if I kick up too big a fuss, I may end up never getting a reservation and let my voucher go wasted) and remade a reservation for a week later. Turned out Lynn had to go to Malaysia to visit her sick grandma. So I called up and postponed the reservation by another week.

On the day itself, Lynn reached 3 minutes before I did. As I was walking over, I called her and found that my name isn't on the stupid list again. I reached there in a fuming mood, and didn't hide my irritation from the waitress. But this time it's a nice lady, no longer Miss Pokerface. She was more helpful, found my name in the book again, and was able to get us an indoor seat. But it didn't quench my irritation at the management. Come on, what are the odds of losing my name TWICE!!!

The Groupon deal had 2 options per course. Since there were two of us, we told them we want one each of everthing. After flipping through the menu, we also excitedly ordered an additional House Fries, which was described as 'truffle fries served with truffle mayonnaise'.

The appetizers were Tomato Bruschetta with Mozzarella Gratin, and Pan Seared Scallop with Salmon Roe. The scallop paled in comparison to Ember's, but it was still nice. We couldn't figure out what the sauce actually is. The salmon roe was a little on the salty side. The bruschetta had slipped my memory already so I guess nothing to rave about. We did enjoy the wild rocket leaves and balsaemic dressing. The soups were Seafood Smoked Vine Tomato soup, and truffle mushroom puree soup. We preferred the mushroom soup, but I really don't remember any truffle taste or aroma in it. The tomato soup was more like a puree - I felt that it would have made a good pasta sauce. It was nonetheless better than the burnt tomato paste we had in Bedrock's (I'm sorry, I know it was a signature dish, but it really turned both of us off tomato soup for a very long time...). There was a few small pieces of prawn, squid and fish. Thankfully no crabstick that many places like to classify as 'seafood'.

Pan-seared scallop with Salmon Roe

Tomato bruschetta with mozzarella gratin

Truffle mushroom puree soup

Seafood smoked vine tomato soup

Our fries was another joke. A waiter came with a sauce, and told us it was the dip for the house fries. I looked at it, and felt that it looked like Tartar sauce. I tasted it, and told Lynn it tasted like McDonald's tartar sauce. She tried it and agreed. So we flagged down a passing waitress, and asked her if that was supposed to be the 'truffle mayonnaise', cause it really look and taste like a tartar sauce. She said she think her colleague made a mistake, apologized, and took the sauce away. The first waiter then came back with our fries. When we pointed out that our 'truffle mayonnaise' haven't been brought, he looked surprised, and asked us where was the sauce he brought us. I told him that was tartar sauce, and his colleague had brought it back to change. He subsequently returned with a dish of mayonnaise, said that what he brought me earlier was the correct dip, but since we didn't like it (I never said that I didn't like anything), he brought us regular mayonnaise instead. Lynn sarcastically told me she didn't know truffle mayonnaise comes from Mcdonald's, and I even more sarcastically added "的 filet o' fish". The fries are actually pretty decent thick cut fries. If they had called it 'US fries' or something, it will fit the description nicely. However, we could only taste faint wisp of truffle every 5 fries or something. And to have that with tartar sauce, well....... It really doesn't live up to the 'Truffle fries' name.

Truffle fries

The mains are the biggest disappointments. Pesto Cream Fettucine with 'Sous Vide' Chicken Breast, and Squid Ink Linguine with Fresh Calamari. The pesto cream was actually quite nice, and we did finish up the fettucine. I just googled and found that 'Sous Vide' is a method of cooking food sealed in a water-tight plastic bag dunked in less than usual cooking temperature (typically about 60 degrees celsius) for extended period of time. It's supposed to give more evenly cooked food with correct doneness throughout. But I thought the chicken slices tasted medium well or something. It was still a little pink. Not being comfortable with eating uncooked chicken, we left those aside. The squid ink pasta was the worst of all the dishes. I have no problem with squid ink. I grew up eating my mom's recipe of squid cooked in its own ink, and I love it. But this squid ink pasta tasted like plastic. I gave up after 1 mouth. Lynn actually managed a few more mouths before she too gave up. The calamari were quite tasteless. First time in a very long time that I returned an almost full plate of food. The waitress either didn't notice, or didn't care to ask why. That had to be the worst pasta I've ever eaten in my entire life.

Squid ink linguine with fresh calamari

Pesto cream fettucine with sous vide chicken breast

The desserts were Earl Grey Creme Brulee, and Warm Banana Cake with Ice Cream. This was the only part that made an impression. The earl grey creme brulee was very nice. Creamy creme brulee with a good, strong, but not overpowering flavor of earl grey tea. We liked it. The banana cake must have been passable because I don't have any recollection of it at all. Oh, I vaguely remember something about it being too sweet.

Earl grey creme brulee

Warm banana cake with ice cream

Given the bad service I received even before I dined there, I already knew that the food have to be super fantastic in order to convince me to return. Of course, the food failed. The only thing we found that could differentiate it from other restaurants was the earl grey creme brulee. Not likely we'll return just for desserts. Even at $36, I didn't think it was worth the money. I definitely will not pay the original $72 for that quality of food. I noticed that they have put up a Groupon again. Warning to those interested - do not take it up!

Restaurant Hoshigaoka (Shaw House)

I was on the way home when Lynn called me for dinner. Since I had no dinner plans, we decided to have dinner together. My bus goes through Orchard, and she had some errands to run there. So we arranged to meet at Isetan Scotts. After roaming around a little, we decided to have dinner at Restaurant Hosihgaoka because there was an ongoing promotion for Hokkaido Wagyu beef.

We were both hungry and tired and ordered pretty quickly. Salmon belly sashimi, Wagyu shabu shabu, BBQ Wagyu slices, mixed tempura, Cha Soba for her, and Katsu Don for me. Our table was almost too small the the numerous things ordered by two seemingly harmless girls. I think the servers must have been shocked at the amount of food we ordered.

The sashimi was quite fresh and we enjoyed it. The tempura wasn't too oily, but we couldn't help comparing it to Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant. We liked the Hokkaido's one better. The shabu shabu was pretty ok, but the soup got too cloyingly sweet towards the end. The BBQ Wagyu was better between the two. She liked her cha soba, I found the katsu don pretty normal. 

Salmon sashimi

Mixed tempura

Wagyu shabu shabu

The Wagyu slices

BBQ wagyu set

Cha Soba

Katsu Don

Much better Japanese food than the usual chain stores such as Sakae, but of course, more painful on the pocket. Seeing there's better shabu shabu elsewhere, and the other things were okay, it's quite unlikely we'll intentionally return here. But if we are in the area and looking for dinner, sure, it's a nice place to dine in.

Coffee Stars by Dao (Wisma Atria)

Lynn and me met up for a ranting session on my part, because I needed to let out some steam. After comfort food at Din Tai Fung, we were roaming around Wisma Atria for desserts. Came across the pretty display of cakes at Coffee Stars. They have interesting flavors such as taro fresh cream cake, coconut pandan roll and horlick cake. We were tempted, and so decided to try.

After pouring over their menu, we settled for a taro fresh cream cake as well as a cappuccino cake. Lynn ordered a Mango Lassi, while I forgot what drink I ordered. We noticed that their cooked food selection seems not bad. They even have an entire page of vegetarian options!

Our cakes arrived shortly with our drinks. We really liked the taro cake, with its mashed yam frosting. The frosting tastes exactly like the yam paste dessert you eat at chinese restaurants. It's a must have for yam paste lovers! The cappuccino cake was more forgettable. I think we liked it, but it didn't make as big an impression as the taro cake. Lynn even packed a slice back for her mom. I think my mom will love it too, being the yam lover she is. Too bad I'm not staying with her now. It's now a mental note to get this for her birthday. I remember Lynn didn't enjoy her drink too much, while I was ok with mine (whatever it was). I really should complete catching up with my entries so that I'm not digging so far back into my memories...

Taro fresh cream cake

Cappucino cake

Mango Lassi and ???

I really liked the yam cake and will buy one for my mom's birthday. They supposedly serves a Thai and International cuisine. I believe Lynn returned for the mains, not sure if she'll remember to blog about it... Will probably bring hubs back one day to try their mains.

Original Sin

It was our program's White Coat Ceremony day but XP and me didn't want to join the rest of the students (whom we don't know) for the ceremony. So we decided to have our own little white coat ceremony. Since we were in NUS, he suggested Holland Village. After a throwing out a few names, we ended up at Original Sin. I had previously mentioned to him that the vegetarian food here is pretty good, so I guess he wanted to try.

Original Sin is sort of a vegetarian fine dining restaurant - something quite uncommon in Singapore. We were pretty early, and it being a Monday night, the place was empty. We were seated indoor and had our orders taken in no time.

We ordered a Magic Mushroom to share - portobello mushroom with spinach, ricotta cheese, pesto, a tomato basil sauce, and topped with mozzarella cheese. Rich stuff. He ordered Vegetable Tandoori for his main, while I ordered Porcini (egg flat pasta with mushroom and cream sauce).

Magic Mushroom

Vegetable Tandoori

Porcini

Not too sure if XP enjoyed himself. He didn't comment on the food. I liked the magic mushroom for its richness, and liked my pasta because it wasn't overly rich. So contradicting, I know. I do like Original Sin, mainly because good western vegetarian food are hard to come by in Singapore, and hubby is a vegetarian, so nice to have a change from the usual Chinese or Indian vegetarian food occasionally.

House of Steamboat (Tan Quee Lan Street)

Us little people of the lab decided to do a reunion lunch. It also served as a good catch-up time with V, who had since moved on to greener pastures. Since its a CNY reunion, we were aiming for Chinese food. And since Y and X needed to print their posters for a symposium, Bugis area will be ideal as it's near the printshops. So a search for 'Chinese' and 'Bugis' on HungryGoWhere found us a list of steamboat places. Of these, we picked the House of Steamboat based on reviews.

Upon arrival, we were greeted with something we did not expect. The smell. The interior of the restaurant smelled quite funky from all the raw food piled up at the open fridge at the end. But it was too hot to have steamboat outdoors. A little exploration found that one side of the restaurant smelled less badly than the other, for some unknown reasons. We requested seats in that area and were parked under the air conditioner - a plus point because the blasts of cold air helps to blow the stinkiness away.

We were given a good selection of soups to choose from, several of them herbal in nature. Surprising as it wasn't the usual chicken broth and stuff. There was also a pretty good list of thinly sliced fresh meats and seafood we can order from the server free flow. They even have crabs, which we were too lazy to try. Nice to know such foods aren't left on the open fridge exposed to the environment. Other food stuff such as veggies, noodles and processed food such as fish cakes, hotdogs etc are available at the self service open fridge. A few choices of soft drinks were available free flow too. We chose a spicy soup and a herbal chicken soup.

We were then served some cooked food to start off before we start cooking. I personally think it's their way of filling our stomachs before we eat too much of the 'expensive' stuff. These weren't fantastic and we didn't finish them. The chicken wings were too salty, and the buns forgettable.

Fried buns with some kind of glaze

Fried chicken wings

We ordered almost every meat on their menu except for pork and beef for S's benefit. I did order a dish of beef in the end with her permission, and happily finished all of it myself. The rest were too full to help.

Fish and squid

Chicken and mutton

Processed food

A warm reunion

The food was so so, but the company was great. We yakked a good 4 hours there. I believe there was hardly any eating towards the last 2.5 hours, but it wasn't crowded, and we weren't shooed. Somehow, my take home memory of the food is that last dish of thinly sliced beef.... I wonder why... hehehe =)

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier

After our dinner at Epicurious, we headed here for desserts upon M's recommendation. A flip through the menu revealed that this place serves a pretty large variety of soufflés, comparing to the usual 3 flavors or so that most places carry. And they also serve a large variety of other desserts. This is a must-go place for sweet-tooths.

After much consideration, we agreed on Lemon soufflé, After-eight soufflé (because I like those mints so much), creme brulee and chocolate profiteroles. Turns out after-eight soufflé was out of stock, so we opted for their chocolate soufflé instead. Profiteroles were out too, so we just skipped that. I ordered some citrusy drink of passionfruit, lemon, lime, orange and grapefruit juice. S ordered a shake, but I forgot the flavor. I just remembered it was nice.

The lemon soufflé was oh-so-nice. Light and refreshing, I think it's my most remembered soufflé of all time. The chocolate soufflé was served with a rasberry sorbet that M really enjoyed. The creme brulee was pretty good too, creamy with a good crusty caramel topping. My drink was oh-so-sour but I loved it. Looking at all the ingredients, I think you can have a sense of the level of sourness. But I so enjoy that kick, especially after eating desserts.

Lemon Soufflé

Chocolate Soufflé

Creme Brulee

My citrusy drink

S's milkshake

 I enjoyed the lemon soufflé so much that I'll definitely want to come back for it. Absolutely have to bring Lynn here. Lol...

Epicurious (Singapore River)

It's a belated birthday celebration for S and we had initially thought of doing a high-tea type of gathering. Turns out E had very absentmindedly arranged for high tea with another bunch of people on the same day (nothing new for her to be this blur actually). So we had to push it to evening as a dinner instead.

When we first mentioned high-tea, S had suggested Epicurious because she wanted to try their all day breakfast. However, breakfast is served only up to 4pm. So by the time we went, no more breakfast menu. I reached early (actually, I was on time. They were late.), and started off my evening drinks alone.

Kidding. It was just plain water in that vodka bottle. I'm not an alcoholic who guzz Vodka before having my dinner. I was pretty famished, and so ordered a mushroom soup while waiting for them. The soup turned out great - chopped mushrooms in every creamy spoon. The kind I like.

Mushroom soup served in a cup

The rest arrived when I was midway through my soup. We took a while to decide on our mains. Because E came from a high-tea, she settled for just soup. S ordered some chicken with cheese thingy (it's name wasn't in English and my languages really ain't strong, t just couldn't stick). M and me ordered grilled tenderloins. We ordered an asian salad which sounded interesting with smoked salmon and yuzu dressing.

My medium rare steak appeared to be misheard as rare. I got a really bloody steak that wasn't quite something I liked. M's came ok. But on the scale of 10, their steak scored maybe 4 or 5? I sort of asked for it right, ordering steak from a place known more for their breakfast. S found her chicken not as good as she wished. We did enjoy the salad though, smoked salad in refreshing dressing plus generous sprinkling of nori pieces.

Grilled tenderloin - looks decent

Chicken with cheese something

Salad

We were actually a little disappointed by the mains, and so decided to get our desserts elsewhere. But if anything, this restaurant scores for their service. We were hardly neglected. And one of the guys was sweet enough to stand by the restaurant door waiting for me when I called up for directions while looking for the restaurant.