Arashi Yakiniku

This was a Groupon deal we came across. Free flow wagyu beef on a charcoal grill sounded great. So we bought it, and went for it. The original cost of the buffet is $78++. With our Groupon, it was $50 or so, so much more manageable.

The charcoals were HOT! I reached the restaurant after a pretty brisk walk and was hoping to cool off in the air conditioned restaurant but fat chance. The heat radiating from the charcoal grill had be hiding at one corner of the table trying to be as far away from the heat as possible. They had some side dishes of marinated cold veggies and mushrooms, which I liked and finished. Lynn did not notice or touch them at all.

Super hot charcoals

Side dishes

It's nice that everyone will have their own tongs for raw meats, so that you can reserve your chopsticks and spoons for the cooked food. Each setting came with a wedge of lemon, soya sauce as well as a sesame dip. I love sesame sauces!!

Table setting

The buffet includes sashimi, so here we are spamming salmon and swordfish sashimi. I actually cannot remember them, so I can't comment whether they were good or bad.

Sashimi

We ordered mushrooms and salmon for grilling, and these came in little aluminium trays with sauces, and we just pop the trays onto the grill. It's fantastic because the food could cook in the delicious sauces and were well flavored. We liked the salmon, and ordered more of it. The mushrooms were yummy too. And the best part is, we kept the trays for cooking our subsequent orders of seafood such as squids, so that we don't drop our squid pieces down the grill. =D

Mushroom and salmon

They had a good variety of veggies too, so I ordered pumpkin, asparagus and capsicums to neutralise the meat we know we will be overdoing.

Veggies

The works. We ordered a huge variety of meats. Pork belly, chicken slices, beef slices, sausages etc. As well as prawns and squids. The pork and the beef were DELICIOUS!! Very fatty (ok, maybe too fatty), we were having a lot of fire start ups. Thankfully the first round was very kindly cooked by the waitress, who showed us how we should hide the fatty meats at the side of the grill, so that less oil drip into the hot charcoals and less fire gets started up. Still, we had a lot of "fireworks" going on.

The works

We actually really enjoyed the meats. The marinates were good, the meats juicy and yummy. Only downside is, they are so fat (hence the juicy), we got very gelat (cloying) very fast. So I guess that's how they limit the food you order. The seafood were nice too. But we got sooo sick of the meat fats, somewhere along the way Lynn started ordering watermelon to eat in the middle of the meal to balance off the fattiness with the refreshing, sweet and cold fruit.

We did like the place, just found the original cost way too hefty. No chance we will come back without a Groupon, but hey, I'll keep a lookout for deals from this restaurant.

Arashi Yaniniku

No. 48 Boatquay

Singapore 049837
Tel: 65352841

Cafe 2000 Seafood and Barbecue Buffet

I love barbecues. Like really really love barbecues. As a teen I was always trying to connive my friends to go chalets because I want to eat barbecues. Or drag them to the now-defunk Marina Bay steamboat barbecues for my birthday dinners. Now, I resort to Korean and Japanese table barbecue restaurants. So when I walked pass this place and smelled the grilling meats, I was besotted. I had to go there. What's nicer than barbecuing your own food? Having others grill it for you and delivered to your table! In unlimited quantities!

So Lynn, her mom and I went for our little tai tai dinner one Friday night. The BBQ buffet is only available on Friday and Saturdays. I made reservation and hung up, didn't even remember to ask about the pricing. Thank goodness it wasn't too unaffordable. The spread was decent. Not a huge variety, but decent. We didn't like the server though. A very snobby guy, who gave us instructions in a very talk-down manner, as if we are stupid. All because Lynn innocently asked if the food outside is the same. We really thought that the BBQ happens outside the restaurant.

So let me try to go through in a more course-sequence correct manner (we took our food in a haphazard sequence actually). Cold dishes first. The cold food section was fresh, served on beds of ice. Prawns, mussels, oysters, Hokkaido crab claws, scallops and crab halves. The prawns were fresh and sweet. I usually dislike oysters that are too fishy, but theirs was fine. The Hokkaido crab claws were sweet, but too troublesome so we didn't go for seconds.

Cold food section

Now the BBQ section. Their system is pretty cute. We were given clips with our table number. So we basically go to the raw food section, take whatever we want, clip the number to the plate, and pass it to the grill staff. They will grill our food, and deliver it to our table. The BBQ food variety was pretty good. Crayfish, prawn, salmon, otah, squid, lamb, beef, chicken, pork etc. It was only during our second round that I notice that what we initially took to be 'decorations' on the ice around the bowls of raw food, were actually real corn and gong gong. So I started picking the 'decorations' to be grilled. And true enough, they were cooked and delivered to us. Gong gong are not often seen, so I was going crazy with picking the decorations. Haaaa. Sorry they aren't very apparent in the photos. I took this photos after a few rounds of picking. =D

Raw seafood to be grilled

Squid and otah (spot the gong gong)

Poultry (spot the gong gong)

The clips with our table number

And tadaa.... our cooked food. I stole the sticks from the chocolate fountain to use to dig my gong gong flesh out. Haaa

Grilled lamb, gong gong and scallops

Now the cooked food. They have a decent spread, and seems to be having some crayfish special. There's crayfish in the cold food, in the BBQ, in the cooked food, and in the yong tau foo section. We found the roast section one of our favorite. We spammed the sausages quite a few times, as well as the ribeye. The guy at the roast section isn't very generous, and only gave us one sausage at the time. So we had to go back a few times.

The other cooked food was quite passable. Lynn's mom love crayfish, so we hung around the crayfish tray until the salted egg crayfish appeared.

Ribeye

Ribs and sausages

Fried fish in sweet and spicy sauce

Pizza and satays

Cereal prawn and roast pork

Salted egg cray fish and crackers

Their noodle section is seafood yong tau foo. You choose your own ingredients, and the type of noodles, and the type of soup. The chef then prepares it your way. I opted for Laksa gravy. Skipped the crayfish though, because I think I had a crayfish overdose.

Seafood yong tau foo

Laksa yong tau foo

Their array of desserts was pretty impressive. But I was too full to explore too much of it. Lynn's mom loved the durian mousse. We tried some of the chocolate fountain. It's... chocolate fountain lor.

Durian mousse

Overall it was a very good meal. We ate til we were stuffed. Lynn feels that she would never be back. It didn't impress her so much that she would want to return. I felt it was ok, and may consider bringing my family back just to try. And for the gong gong. Lol...

Cafe 2000
81 Anson RoadSingapore, 079908+65 6500 6112

Yakinikutei Ao-Chan

ML and me always get a combined birthday meal, since our birthdays are only 11 days apart. This time round she chose the location, and she stated she wanted Yakinikutei. So the girls made the reservations, and there we are for dinner. Japanese table barbecue. The idea already sounds delicious. And ML's boyfriend seems to know all these hidden small authentic Japanese places. Yakinikutei is run by a Japanese lady boss. Their clientele consists of a lot of Japanese, so it goes to show the authenticity of this joint.

The one thing I minded about here? The tiny saucer we get as a side plate. Each table setting have two saucers, one will be filled with a sauce, the other apparently there for me to eat from. Like really, why can't give me a bigger plate to hold more food? But it's beside the point, since the food are so nice that they don't really spend a whole lot of time on my plate.

As Yakiniku simply translates to grilled meats, you can expect a good selection of meats for you to choose from. They also have a good selection of veggies to go with the meats, and some interesting side dishes, many of which I didn't try.

If you order their sets (beef course or non-beef course), it comes with some small side dishes such as kimunchi and salad. Nothing out of the world, but a good way to kickstart your appetite. We ordered the garlic fried rice to share, and loved it. Fragrant Japanese rice, fried with lots of eggs and garlic. Akin to Din Tai Fung's egg fried rice with extra garlic. If you order their deep fried garlic (no photo, but its a MUST TRY!) alongside, you get double the garlic flavor. Yum! It turned out to be a fantastic vehicle for soaking up all the meat juices left on our dishes, so no wastage!

Kimunchi

Salad

Garlic fried rice

Now to the meats. Yakinikutei have a huge variety of beef, ranging from premium to regular to Australian wagyu to Japanese wagyu. The Japanese wagyu is pricey, and we didn't try them. We tried an order of the Australian wagyu slices. Subsequently on another visit I tried the Australian wagyu kaburi. I prefer the kaburi. Tender beef, mildly marinated, full of the wonderful wagyu flavor. WOW!

Wagyu beef slices

But to me, the star MUST-ORDER item in this joint? The premium beef belly cubes. Oh My God. They are succulent. Even when slightly overcooked, the interior of these cubes remain juicy. Sooooo juicy. You can feel the juice running down your chin as you bite into it. Bliss. A lot of bliss. The kind of bliss that makes you stop talking and close your eyes to enjoy the beef juices and flavors exploding in your mouth.

Premium belly cube

Ok, so on to the pork. We had the ton set, which came with both Iberian and regular ton toro. The Iberian ton toro was soooo well marbled. They look pale pink, with no signs of white streaks. So innocently 'fat free'. Then when you grill them, the fats melt and cause little combustions happening on the grill. And then when you bite into them, your mouth is filled with a mouthful of lard. Lard is flavor, don't you know? Extremely juicy, extremely sinful, but oh so worth it.

Ton set - Iberian and regular ton toro

They have a decent variety of offals too, if it's up your alley. I've tried ox tongue, tripe and liver from two separate visits. I think I'll stick to the meats. Haha! The problem probably lies with us, as we don't really know how well these needs to be cooked. The results were very overcooked offals that were too tough to eat. ML loved their ox-tongue. I didn't really feel a lot of love for them.

Liver and tripe

Ox tongue

The cutest food we ordered was the rice ball. A triangle of rice, which I meticulously grill at a corner, flipping infrequently to make sure every side is charred. Then I brushed on the given sauce, and you there you have a yummy snack. Crunchy outside, salty from the sauce, fluffy and fragrant inside. It's like a savoury rice crispy dumpling.

Rice ball

I've been here 3 times now. And left feeling happy every single time. The lady boss is such a nice lady. On my second visit, I brough Lynn here. We were given a big table for 2 pax reservations. While Lynn was waiting for me, a big group came in and they asked her if it's possible to shift to a smaller table to make way for the big group. Since she haven't started anything, Lynn was ok to shift. The lady boss was so grateful that she thanked Lynn repeatedly and promised our table free drinks. And yes, we did get the free drinks. And even a free upgrade from shiso rice to garlic rice for our set. I had intended to pay for the upgrade but the lady boss generously absorbed the cost. If there's anything I like more than good food, is the 人情味 (human touch) that comes with it. And did I mention they're open til 11pm? Last order is at 10.30pm. How cool is that?! Reservations recommended.

Yakinikutei Ao-Chan
Concorde Hotel Shopping Mall
100 Orchard Road
#02-22/26 (Ground floor)
Tel: 67356457 

Shiu Yakiniku

My parents saw the advertisement for this restaurant on TV, and wanted to try it out. However, they weren't able to give me the restaurant name, just that it's a Japanese BBQ restaurant located at the former Crocodile Farm. A ton of googling later, I found the name. It's Shiu Yakiniku, located at The Village, opposite Jurong Bird Park, at the old Crocodile Farm site.

They boast of a smoke-free BBQ. I was initially doubtful, but made reservations nonetheless, because the parents said so. Turned out that it wasn't quite necessary on a Monday night. The place is so inaccessible by public transport, that there was only two other tables in the restaurant while we were there.

The buffet was going at $29++ for the basic menu, with options to top-up the price for more premium menus. Wagyu beef was at the premium menu, but I'm the only beef eater in the family, and they don't allow single person top-up. So I just went with the regular menu. First round we let them bring us a mixed selection of meats. These were arranged prettily in the shape of a palm tree, with chicken as the 'trunk', and thin slices of pork belly as the leaves. The ventilation vents are located at the side of the grill, the entire circumference of it. The result is smoke being vented off before it actually reached the table surface. And guess what? I didn't smell of BBQ at all. The hubby can vouch for me. His vegetarian nose usually dislike the BBQ smell I carry into the car after my dinners. He totally didn't detect any this time round.

Smokeless BBQ pit

We liked the pork belly. They were marinated nicely, and the thinness resulted in chewy pieces of not overly tough meats. The chicken were marinated well too. The marinates were generally not to sweet. The squid was actually pretty fresh and sweet. However, I can't remember how the prawns were, so I shall not comment on it.

Palm shaped arrangement of meats, trunk already half gone

I actually liked their beef, even though it wasn't wagyu. They had two varieties on the menu. One of it was a pretty decently thick slab of meat, about 1cm thick. Which means if I'm careful with my timing, I can actually get it medium. And I did, and I was happy. The tenderloin was thinner, but still tender after being cooked through. The mutton were sliced thinly, but marinated well enough that you know it's mutton, but the muttony smell wasn't overpowering. This restaurant also brings out the meat only when you order, so I feel less inclined to think that they were surrounded by flies before I get them.

The beef

My mess of cooked meats

The side dishes had hits and misses. The sushi were terrible - they had a mushy feel and not-so-fresh taste to them. The kimchi soup was so so, the ginseng chicken soup (it was really only soup) was pretty nice. The kimchi were yummy (why is there these Korean dishes in a Japanese restaurants?), but the other cold side dishes weren't so good. The fried chicken was good, but fried fish absolutely bland.

Overall, I enjoyed myself. Mainly because of the beef I think. And the smoke-less-ness. I think I'll bring people back. But location is really sucky, because you either have to take a cab or drive. I think there's a bus going there, but you'll probably have to take MRT and change at Boon Lay.

食客 Ssikkek Korean Grill BBQ (Oriental Plaza)

Had seen this Korean BBQ place at Chinatown when my bus went pass before. Noted that This Fashion had finally closed down and seems to be replaced by something more useful. And then I walked pass it once and smelled the grilling meats. So did Lynn on a separate occasion. This aroma prompted us to arrange for a dinner there.

It's a buffet only restaurant. We reached pretty early about 6.30pm, before the crowd started. Our table was set up, and we headed for the buffet table. I picked up a full plate of meat - various parts and marinates of chicken, pork and beef. Also got lots and lots of lettuce. And kimchi. And some kind of braised chicken and fried Korean vermicelli to stave our hunger while our meats cooked.

Lettuce and kimchi

The meats

Meat cooking... woo hoo!!

We were so stuffing ourselves with the pork belly. And some random parts of beef. I couldn't quite remember which is which by the time I got back to the table. Because the meats were just left out at the buffet table, we didn't feel too good about not cooking the beef through. This resulted in many pieces of tough beef. Pork and chicken were doing much better. And I think we were too hungry and just kept putting things on the grill. Ended up accumulating a big plate of cooked food. Because we didn't eat as fast as we cooked, some got cold and became tougher...

Cooked meats

Subsequently a cooked food counter started, and we got ourselves a wrap. Don't ask me what this is doing in a Korean BBQ restaurant. All I can say is its actually quite yummy.

Beef wrap

The buffet also includes free-flow white rice (which we obviously skipped), and two kinds of soup. A seaweed clear soup, as well as a kimchi soup. I really liked the seaweed one and had two bowls. It was very light, and nicely counters the meat overdose I was doing to myself. Forgot to take pictures of those. Later part of the evening, fried rice cakes also appeared on the cooked food section. Since we were getting full, we only took one each to sample. Yummy.

Drinks were free flow, and this area had iced water, an overly sweet lemonade we diluted with water, and a selection of soft drinks. There's also a variety of salads and sides and some fruits available.

Overall I think the spread is pretty good, for the price ($26 ish maybe?). The place did get quite crowded later part, so better to go early if possible. Lynn's comment was that the Kpop songs playing in the background was quite mismatched with the Kpop concerts showing on the TVs. Think a fast song playing while the person on TV obviously looked like he is serenading to a love song....

The food is actually quite nice, but we prefer the Korean BBQ at City Square. Mainly because there's that really nice cold noodles available there, and that the meats there are brought out from the fridge only when you order them. Gives you a fresher, less fly-fed feel. But this one may be more value-for-money to some, since drinks is included. We are fine with iced water so that's not an issue to us. In both cases, you leave the restaurant really really smelling like BBQ... They really need to do something about the ventilation...

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