Birthday edition lunch: Shima

Lynn have gone to Shima several times with her family before. She's been wanting to bring me for ages, but their dinner ala carte menu is pretty pricey. She found out that they have a buffet lunch, and we've been talking about going, but never got around to it. Finally, I decided to take half day leave on her birthday to try it out.

Shima is essentially a teppanyaki restaurant. The lunch buffet runs from 12 noon to 2.30pm, and last order is at 2pm. Upon seating, without the need to order, they automatically serve you the entire lunch menu one time. From there, you can decide which ones you like best and reorder from there. I made reservations at 1pm, thinking that will give us ample time to eat. Alas, it was pouring that day, and the birthday girl couldn't get a cab. Although I reached earlier, it appeared that they were not going to start my teppanyaki until she arrives. But they did serve me the sushi and sashimi first. The sashimi was forgettable, but the kani maki was actually pretty good. The vinegar rice had just the right tinge of sourness, and the rice was fragrant.

The tempura arrived soon after the birthday girl did, which was a very late 1.40pm. That left us 20 minutes to try everything before last order! Only after she arrived did the chef bring out the food and start cooking. I don't know if it was intentional so that all parties get to eat food hot from the grill, or was it coincidence that the events occurred at the pace it did. The tempura prawn was nice, crispy and juicy. The shishamo was a tad oily, so I didn't enjoy it that much and we both knew it won't go into our second order.

The happiness started once our teppanyaki started being served. First up, prawns. It was soooo yummy! Cooked to perfection, it was crunchy from its freshness, no hint of the fake crunch from bicarbonate of soda treatment. It was juicy, and the sauces and flavoring perfect. I was in prawn heaven.

Next came the salmon. Cooked just right, it was soft and flaky and moist. The sauce it was sitting in completely complemented the fish.

Next came the oysters, which we were highly anticipating. Partly because we read in some blog that it was very good, and partly because we had been eyeing the plump juicy oysters on the grill. Oooooooh myyyyyyyy goooooooodnnesssss, it was A-MA-ZING. We were blown away by how the exterior was grilled to a crusty perfection, but the inside was still plump and juicy. No hint of fishiness, just the sublime briney flavor of the sea. This needed no sauce. It was perfect the way it was. I was almost tempted to ask them to fry eggs with the oysters ala oyster omelette style. But that idea came during our second round of food, so it was scraped pretty quickly, as I will explain later.

The vegetables was a nice precursor and balance to the meats that were to follow. They were done such that they were still crisp, but 'burnt' enough such that the sweetness of the vegetables came through. One of the sauces provided was for the vegetables, but I had absolutely no idea how to dip a bunch of loose veggies in the sesame sauce. Lynn used the sauce for her meats, anyway.

The garlic rice was a disappointment. Lynn say the standard dropped from her previous visit. I pointed out that since it's lunch buffet and by default everyone will be served one round inclusive of the garlic rice, maybe it's a mass production thing. It had that 'rice cooker fried rice' feel, ie, fried in a huge batch, and stored in a rice cooker and scooped as and when a new patron arrive.

Then came the meat. Our beef we asked for medium. I loved it. Like love love love it. Juicy cubes of beef, just the right amount of seasoning, perfect chew. I'm drooling now thinking about it. The chicken came soon after. Tender morsels of well-flavored chicken, with just the right amount of char. 

By the time all these were served, it was 2pm. So despite the fact that we hadn't finished our first round of food, we went ahead and ordered a second round of all the teppanyaki items. And we completely enjoyed the second round of seafood too. Unfortunately, by the time the meat and veggies were served, we were quite full. We did well though, and finished more than half of the veggies, the chicken and the beef, before we had to call it quits. We didn't even have space for ice cream, and needless to say, we were the last to leave the restaurant. So I learnt, when I come back, I WILL come earlier to more fully enjoy the food instead of eating in a rush. And I WILL be back. Definitely. Buffet priced at $49.90++ for weekday and $59.90++ for weekend.

Nabehide

I just got my new Amex card that came with the complimentary Palate Dining membership, so we were thrilled to try it out. Scanning through the list of places we can get 50% off, we found this Japanese Shabu joint at Anchorpoint. The picture used for the restaurant on the Palate website was a gorgeously marbled plate of beef. Call us weak if you will, we were tempted by the picture and ended up there for dinner.

The restaurant was actually pretty empty. And upon the server's explanation of what I have to order to qualify for the discount, I was a little miffed. On the Palate website, it was just stated that I have to order a minimum of 2 main course to qualify for the discount applicable for 2 pax. Only at the restaurant was I shown a separate menu from which I have to order a minimum of 2 items, afterwhich the discount will also apply to all other items I order off the ala carte menu. Lynn was a little late, running to Ikea before joining me to get the big bad wolf plushie she's been wanting for a long time. While waiting for her, I observed that per item on the Palate specific menu actually consist of 2 servings of meat plus one serving of veggie off the ala carte menu. So effectively, to use the discount, I was forced to order 4 servings of meat and 2 servings of veggies. Moreover, even after I qualify for the discount, the fine print was that the discount will not apply for item on the ala carte menu which cost less than $5. Almost all the side dishes costed $4.90. Highly annoying isn't it?

But anyway, the per serving of meat turned out to be pretty little, so even if we hadn't been forced to order 4 servings, we WOULD have ordered that much anyway. And we were tempted by their shabu salad, so we ordered that, thinking that it'll be nice to have something to munch on while our food cooks. The salad of shabu beef with sesame sauce was pretty nice. Perfectly cooked shabu beef slices on a bed of lettuce, drenched in sesame sauce and topped with crispy garlic slices. It hits the spot for our hungry bellies right away.

Shabu salad

When they came with the hot charcoals, we were initially excited. Charcoal steamboat, sound yummy. If I didn't remember wrongly, the soup base costed less than $5 too, and didn't qualify for the discount. Annoying. We went for Shoyu if I'm not wrong. And it seems like the charcoal wasn't quite hot enough. The server told us once the soup starts boiling, we can start adding our stuff. We waited and waited. The soup never reached a boil. It just steam more and more, but never boiled. We got tired of waiting, and started to put stuff in anyway. They do cook, just that we never see the rolling boil we usually see with hotpot.

Hot charcoal

The soup that never boils...

Greens

Potatoes asparagus and corn

Beef

Pork

The pictures shows the '2 servings' of each meat. Small servings isn't it? So we werent' quite satisfied and very quickly started flipping through the ala carte menu to see what extras we can get. And found the seafood mentaiko pasta. We both like mentaiko, so we went for it. Turned out to be a very creamy pasta, but it wasn't very 'roe-y'. So much for mentaiko. It was just a very rich creamy seafood pasta. Just so-so.

Seafood mentaiko pasta

We weren't super impressed by the food. Couldn't help comparing it to Shabuya. For similar prices, I get a whole lot more variety, wagyu beef and FREE-FLOW! I honestly think Shabuya have killed most shabu places for me. Spoilt the market. Lol...

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant

This post is a place highly recommended by JK. This post doesn't have a lot of pictures. Because this post is about Ikoi Japanese Restaurant, which was serving Japanese ala carte buffet. And it was 11 of us visiting. So, with 11 pax and an ala carte buffet, you can imagine the speed at which we were ordering and wolfing down our food. But I will do my best to describe some of the favorites from my memory.

Sashimi. Really, at $38++, free-flow sashimi is a deal. We started with three plates of mixed sashimi. That meant it came with Salmon, Tuna, Swordfish and a few others. The few others probably included octopus and mackerel, but because we didn't enjoy those as much, they didn't stick in my brain very well. THE SWORDFISH IS AMAZING!!!! Cold, juicy, sweet. I was inhaling swordfish like nobody's business. Even J, who usually don't take sashimi because she dislike the 'fishiness', could try and liked the swordfish. She did ask my opinion which sashimi she should try, and I told her very pointedly, only the swordfish. N, our Dutch intern, loves salmon and tuna. She said back in the Netherlands, Japanese buffet will never include sashimi, so she was going to town with the salmon and tuna. Somehow, all the sashimi lovers were seated at my end of the table. The other end had a few who don't do raw fish or don't do fish in general. So as one of those at the other end observed: "it was entertaining to see sashimi disappearing down your end of the table".

Our table some time in the middle of the meal

They also served a soup in a little tea pot. I'm actually not sure what soup that is, but it's a delicious soup. They also served chawanmushi in the cutest little cup. When placing order here, you pretty much don't need to worry about portions. Because one portion is for one. So for example, grilled salmon. We were expecting the usual restaurant size piece, so we ordered two portions to try. Ended up it was tiny two-mouths slices each. You get the gist.

Things we loved: grilled saba fish, grilled salmon, yakitori, shishamo, soft-shell crab handroll, sushis (that's what the colleagues said. They disappeared so fast I didn't even know we ordered them).

Things we didn't love: tempura were generally so so

We totally ignored the noodles and rice.

We loved this place, and returned with a huge food coma. Needless to say, it was a very unproductive afternoon that day.

Ikoi Japanese Restaurant

Hotel Miramar Singapore
401 Havelock Road
Singapore 169631

Lobby, Main Wing
Phone (65) 6887 3788

Sumiya

Lynn and I had to go to Orchard Central to collect our race pack for the Garfield Run. So after collection, we browsed through the mall directory to find a dinner place and decided to give Sumiya a shot.

Located on the top storey (or was it second top?), Sumiya is a Japanese restaurant serving mainly sumiyakis, ie Japanese BBQ skewers. It wasn't incredibly crowded and we got a table immediately. Their menu are presented as a rolled up newspaper, pretty cute. They have a very cute system for edamame. You pay a fixed amount of money for (drum roll.....) as much edamame you can grab with a single hand as you can. We didn't try that as we felt both of us didn't have very large hands. I'm not kidding with the drum roll, they really have someone beating the drums as you grab the edamame. We heard the commotion several times during our meal. As we browsed the menu, we were attracted to way too many items at one go. After a lot of contemplation, we settled for these:

Raw cabbage served with spicy miso paste. This is something I've had at Kazu, and liked. So we both thought it would be nice, and it was! Fresh cabbage, dipped in that lightly spicy miso, slightly juicy, slightly salty, totally yummy.

Cabbage with spicy miso

For sashimi, we discovered that their uni is going for only $15. Quite an affordable price for uni, so we ordered it, alongside salmon sashimi. The salmon was normal. The uni was creamy and fragrant. The seaweed served alongside the uni was a very nice complement. The portion wasn't huge, but with uni, too much is actually not a good thing as you will get sick of it. So I felt that the portion was just nice. Would have liked more seaweed though.

Uni (bottom) and salmon (middle) sashimi with nori

Then we had a snow crab tempura, which sounded very unique. Turned out it was actually quite normal. The crab legs weren't super sweet or anything, so we decided it was a can-be-passed dish, and that we won't order it again.

Snow crab tempura - spot the crab

Then we move on to the main dishes - sumiyakis. First off, wagyu beef and beef-wrapped foie gras. These were blissful. The wagyu beef skewer was tender and fragrant. The foie gras was oh-so-melt-in-the-mouth, and the buttery livery goodness was soooo blissful. It was leaving its fats everywhere we placed it, and we were happily trying to absorb it up with whatever we could.

Wagyu beef (left) and beef-wrapped foie gras (right)

The 6 piece omasake had chicken, pork, beef, prawn, sweet potato and mushroom. All three meats were tender, juicy and nice. The sweet potato was a little on the dry side but we were using it to absorb foie gras fats so that was ok. The mushroom was pretty normal, but grilled mushrooms are always nice anyway. The prawn. Oooooohhhhh. It was soooo nicely grilled, with just the perfect touch of char, then the flesh itself was juicy and sweet. We ordered a second set just for the prawn, because unfortunately, they don't have just prawns on the menu.

6 piece omasake

The garlic fried rice, we didn't care for. It tasted like what we call 'rice cooker fried rice'. As in, it felt like it was fried up as one huge batch, then kept in the rice cooker and scooped when someone order. Very similar to those birthday buffets fried rice. Very insincere, lukewarm fried rice. The taste was't very garlicky, the rice wasn't very sticky like the usual Japanese rice. It was just overall not impressive.

Garlic fried rice

The whole meal speaking, we liked it. It was pricey, for sure. But the skewers quality were impressive, and we were quite blown away. I will definitely return when I have a sumiyaki craving.

Sumiya
ORCHARD CENTRAL
#12-02, 181 Orchard Road,
Singapore 238896
(formerly known as Kuriya Penthouse)

Tel: +65 6509-9618
Fax: +65 6509-3886

Kuro Kin

This was one of those deals. We've actually reduced getting those now, since most of these deals tend to be mediocre. But this particular one screamed at us with it's promise of wagyu beef and Iberico pork. It was the the Grandstand (the old turf club), which required a bit of navigation to arrive at.

We started off the meal with our favourite swordfish sashimi. It was cut too thick, and wasn't very juicy. It had, however, a very nice milky taste to it. Wished it was cut thinner. Really, when it comes to sashimi, it isn't the thicker the better! There has to be the perfect thickness! Too thin, you don't enjoy the fish. Too thick, the texture gets thrown off balance.

Swordfish sashimi

The supposed star was the Kagoshima wagyu beef tenderloin, served very interestingly on a leaf over a mini grill with fire. The beef was kept warm, but not overly cooked. There's a small smear of miso somewhere on the leaf. The deal had an option for an additional 200g beef at a discounted price, and I believe we went for that. The beef was nice, but not super blissful. We ate it, didn't hate it, but wasn't all that impressed.

Kagoshima wagyu beef tenderloin

The Iberico pork tenderloin was served as a cutlet. It was a little on the dry side, and the crumbs not as light as some other cutlet joints'. The garlic rice was also pretty normal. It wasn't very garlicky, but was still a decent Japanese fried rice. The onigiri was an add-on order on our part, because we enjoyed the one at Yakinikutei-Aochan so much. But theirs was a little on the disappointing side.

Iberico pork tenderloin

Garlic rice

Onigiri

Overall, it was a disappointing meal since we went with such high expectations for the beef and the pork. And the inaccessible location doesn't help in encouraging a return visit.


Kuro Kin
200 Turf Club Road #01-27,

The Grandstand, 

Singapore 287994
Tel: 6462 1213

Tamoya (Chinatown Point)

It was one of those nights I had no dinner plans. So I asked XP if he's having dinner before going home. He said yes, and we're both done with our work, so we packed our bags and decided to go elsewhere for dinner. We are really bored of food near our workplace. Then I suggested Tamoya, because I've seen their posters a few times in Chinatown Point. I love udon but Lynn dislikes it - she's more of a soba girl, so she doesn't want to entertain me. So XP agreed to go with me.

Tamoya turns out to be an Ikea-type udon restaurant. In the sense that you place your order for udon, pick up a selection of sides if you wish, collect your food, make payment for your food and help yourself to the condiments and plain water. All self-serviced. The condiments available were the standard wakame, grated radish, green onions, fried garlic, tempura crumbs etc. All very Japanese. Then, in the midst of all these Japanese condiments, you see sliced chilli padi. I was super cracked up. Kept laughing. That's SO Singaporean and NOT Japanese at all!

We discovered the noodle portion for 'small' is really quite small, so for average to big eaters, you may consider the 'large' portion. I enjoyed my beef udon - tender beef, chewy udon in the flavorful broth. The broth is refillable if you find your noodles soaking up the liquid too fast.

Beef Udon

I found the tempura a little on the the greasy side, but still ok. Again the dipping sauce is refillable, but not like I'm going to drink dipping sauces so that wasn't an important point.

Mixed vegetable tempura (foreground), grilled asparagus (background)

I forgot to take photo of XP's curry udon until he had already mixed it, so pardon me for the messy photo. He liked it as well, but it look a tad dry to me.

Curry Udon

After eating, you then help clear the tables and put the trays at the tray return point. All very self-serviced. I actually quite liked it, only found the portion too small. Next time I may order the large noodle and pick a few more sides.

Tamoya

133 New bridge road
Chinatown point SC

B1#48-49

Ebisu-tei Japanese Restaurant

We're always curious about new lunch places. So when this Japanese restaurant popped up at Kampong Bahru Road, we were very curious and dropped in one day for lunch. They had lunch menu sets that were pretty affordable. There were set meals at two different pricing, and add-ons were at special prices too.

It took us awhile to decide, and then a very long while for the food to be served. It was apparently a one-chef restaurant. A single Japanese old chef preparing all the food. So we were chatting a very long time before we finally ate.

All the sets come with chawanmushi, miso soup and fresh fruit. Most of us got the full sets served up, but XP's set, which came last, had a missing chawanmushi. We were told that the kitchen ran out and his will be served later as soon as the next batch is cooked. Turned out his was the better one. Both batches had the same low volume (I guess they were trying to cut cost for set meals), which was roughly only about a quarter the cup full. Ours were not smooth, pathetic looking chawanmushi that had uneven surface and rough texture, and the mushrooms looked shrivelled. His turned out beautifully smooth and silky. Even the mushrooms looked brighter! Could it be ours were leftovers from the day before?

First batch chawanmushi

Batch two chawanmushi - so much better!

We ordered a set each and some random stuff to share. Teriyaki chicken set was a chicken chop served with teriyaki sauce, some lettuce on the side, and a bowl of white Japanese rice. The Bara Chirashi don was fresh assorted sashimi atop Japanese rice. Their sashimi were quite fresh and E totally enjoyed his lunch.

Teriyaki Chicken set

Close up of the chicken

Bara Chirashi set

I ordered Maguro and salmon belly negitoro. I was somewhat surprised because negitoro was supposed to be chopped up tuna belly. The bowl turned out to be tuna sliced sashimi, with chopped up salmon belly. For a moment I thought was my own misinterpretation of negitoro. So I just googled, and yes, toro is generally referred to tuna belly. And negi refers to spring onions! Which is sadly missing in this bowl! So the entire dish was named wrongly! It wasn't a big portion, but since salmon belly is quite fatty, this was a nice portion. I would really have loved some spring onions in the chopped up belly though. But still, I liked this dish in general.

Maguro and salmon belly negitoro don

Although we came away very happy with our lunch, the long wait is a huge deterrence for future visits. We saw many bottles of sake with customers names tagged to them, and a lot of them are Japanese names, so I'm guessing this place is quite popular for some drinking in the evening.


Ebisu-tei Japanese Restaurant
59 Kampong Bahru Road
#01-01
Singapore 169367
Tel: 68361039

Birthday Triology Edition 2: Octa Hotel

After our TaiTai shopping, we decided to rest our tired feet at Octa Hotel, Octa Hotel is not a Hotel, in fact its a a small cafe nest within Parco Marina Bay. It's interior was tasteful done up, very English styled with a hint of Japanese influence. It also has a small retail corner that sells small merchandises like stationery, bags and jewellery. 

As it's near dinnertime, we decided to share a hi-tea set that consists of  2 scones, creme brulee, baguette with egg and cherry tomato, wrap. Scones were warm and fluffy, perfect pairing with the cream and jam, after taking a mouthful and washing it down with some tea.. it reallys gives u the "Aaahhh... I am Tai Tai feel"... 

I like the Creme Brulee but Gracie felt that the sugar crust is kinda thick.. We both like the custard within, its light, creamy and has a hint of tea taste, not overly sweet.. Baguette with egg and cherry tomato is just your regular baguette, egg, tomato. Wrap is cold and not fantastic, so both of us can't really remember what meat is inside. LOLZ.. 

Hi-tea set

Warm scones with cream and jam

Overall experience was good, excellent spot to spend a lazy weekend afternoon or to rest your tired feet after some hardcore shopping. Service crew were friendly and helpful, yet they give you enough privacy for chit chat and gossips. Total spending is $15.90 after tax and service charge.

Octa Hotel

9 Raffles Boulevard
Parco Marina Bay
#P1-39
(S)039596
Tel: 63364614
Website: http://octahotel.com.sg/

Birthday triology edition 1: Saboten

It's Gracie's birthday again! Being a busy month for her, we finally got to do her belated birthday outing on a fine Saturday. I have cravings (as usual) for Saboten's pork cutlet and ONLY Saboten's pork cutlet, so she has no choice but to satisfy my cravings, we then decided on the Parco Marina Bay branch since its near to our dinner venue.

The mall is extremely quiet for a Saturday afternoon, when walking to Saboten, I saw the receptionist and masseur of a massage place sleeping in the store! Needless to say, we were the only ones in Saboten as well. Without much debate, we decided on the Twin Special set ($46) to share and with an additional order of curry sauce ($3). The Twin Special set consists of Breaded Pork Loin, Asparagus Cheese roll, Breaded Shrimps x2, Crab Cream Croquette x2, with pickles, dessert, free flow of miso soup, cabbage and rice.

Cabbage and Sesame

Sesame sauce and Ponzu sauce

Twin Special Set

Miso soup, Rice, Radish Ponzo Sauce

Although there isn't much crowd, food items are kept fresh, cabbage is crisp and cold, perfect for a Sunny day. I strongly recommend adding the sesame sauce, it's slightly sourish and adds a flavorful and refreshing taste to the cabbage.

The fried items tasted very nice on its own, especially the pork loin, the breaded crust was light and non-oily, locking in the natural juices of the pork loin. For those that prefer a sweeter taste, you can grate the sesame seed and add it to the tonkatsu dipping sauce for more fragrance and flavor. As for me, I prefer my meat to be more saltish so I'll dip it into the curry sauce. Freshly fried shrimps, with the light crust were just perfect, aparagus with cream cheese was good as well. Crab cream croquettes were creamy and warm and fluffy. We noticed that the "crab" was referring to crabstick meat and were greedily hoping for real crab meat. =)

Something worth mentioning is their rice which is pure heavenly! We had an additional serving of white rice, that's how marvelous it is, soft, shiny, bouncy and has a nice chew to it.. with a spoonful of curry sauce on it, hmmmmm.... 幸福！(this is happiness!)

Downside of Saboten, the set came with matcha ice cream that's pure mediocre, sweet and without green tea flavour and I found a short hair in my matcha ice cream and requested for a new serving, server was apologetic and quickly replaced a new one. However, being near the kitchen, I overheard some unhappiness with the kitchen staff replacing the ice cream. Well, I believe it could be a one off incident and most probably I will still be back for their Tonkatsu but there are certain much room for improvements for their service.

Saboten (Parco Marina Bay)

P3-01 

Tel: 63333432

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