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...

The Wine Company (Sentosa Boardwalk)

I've spotted this joint a few times walking in and out of Sentosa from Vivocity. It faces the sea, and looked like a nice place to chill with the hubby during sunset. So one fine day, we decided we'll go 'pak tor' there. Unfortunately, we chose a slightly overcast day and the hubby decided that sitting outdoor was risky. Moreover it was one of those incredibly humid August evening and the indoor air-conditioning was welcomed.

First up, truffle fries. I like that theirs were slightly more thick cut than the usual shoe string fries. I like my fries thick and fluffy, which was how theirs was. However, theirs were a little oily, and there wasn't a lot of truffle flavor.

Truffle fries

Lynn told me their chicken liver pate was very good. I could find it nowhere in the menu, except as one of the options for the bruschetta. So we ordered the tomato and the mushroom for the hubby, while I get the chicken liver pate. Indeed, their pate was creamy, livery and yummy. I just wished that it was a dish by itself.

Bruschetta - roma tomatoes, mushroom and brie, chicken liver pate

Remembering the fabulous crab pasta from Riccioti, I ordered the crab spaghetti and was sorely disappointed. The pasta was too undercooked (mind you, I know al-dente. Theirs' was definitely undercooked) and the tomato sauce waaaaay too tangy. That said, they were very generous with the sweet crab meat. In the end I picked through to get all the crab, and gave up on the pasta and sauce.

Crab spaghetti

Hubby got the mushroom risotto. As he is usually not big on rich dishes, he enjoyed maybe the first three mouthfuls? Then he got sick and finished the rest without much comments. But risotto are always like that, very rich. So he typically never liked them.

Mushroom risotto

We didn't get any wine despite being in a Wine Company. Hubby wasn't in the mood for it. We also weren't impressed by the food. And being 1 of the only 2 tables in the restaurant was pretty awkward. I'm pretty sure we won't be back in the recent future. 

PS Cafe Petit (Tiong Bahru)

The plus point of working near Tiong Bahru is the access to all the little cafes that have sprung up in this recently hipster neighborhood. So for SH's farewell lunch, we thought we'll go to PS Cafe.

The Tiong Bahru branch of PS Cafe is the Petit version - meaning it only carries the takeaway menu. Nonetheless, we managed to secure ourselves a table. I've actually never tried any of the PS Cafe, but I've been told that their truffle fries are to-die-for. So, I ABSOLUTELY have to try the truffle fries! It was served in a nice little paper cone, and sprinkled generously with parmesan. The truffle flavor was strong without being overpowering (wait a minute, can truffle ever overpower? haaa). The fries were piping hot and crisp, the perfect vehicles for carrying the truffle goodness to my mouth.

Truffle fries

SH went for the All-day breakfast panini. Bacon, eggs and cheese sandwiched between beautifully toasted bread. Look at the cheeeese....

All-day breakfast panini

The beef bolognaise was quite normal. It was a good pasta, don't get me wrong. It just wasn't impressive. And somehow the takeaway format seems to take something away from it. But I've already known it's a takeaway menu so I can't complain.

Beef bolognaise

Given the small takeaway menu here, I don't think I'm in a position to judge the food. The fries were good, that's for sure. The other food were simple, mainly because they were meant to be eaten on the go. I think to be fair to PS Cafe, I need to go to a full-fledge restaurant before I can cast my judgement.

PS Cafe

No.41 Blk 78. Guan Chaun St, S 160078
Telephone / SMS: (+65) 9226 7088 for takeaway orders

Pappasan

We spotted this deal from Deals.com, for Pappasan at Dorsett. Since Dorsett is within walking distance from our workplace, we decided its a nice idea to have a good lunch. So after asking around for the total number of interested parties, I bought the deals.

The deal was straightforward: A 4-course set lunch at a discounted price ($19.90) from their usual price ($35++). When we were seated we were served by an annoyingly clueless waitress. Her face was blank when we asked anything at all, and the responses she gave suggests she either wasn't listening, or couldn't understand what I was saying. It took me a while to realise that language seemed to be a barrier and I switched to ordering in Mandarin. It got a little less annoying after that. But, it's after all a hotel, so I expect that staff should be well-versed in English for the international guests, so I daresay I'm pretty disappointed in this aspect.

Menu

The soup of the day was pumpkin soup. It was warm and creamy and actually pretty nice. Pity it was only half a bowl. This was followed by a Caesar salad. With it's slices of parmesan and crusty croutons, it was a pretty standard Caesar salad. Blame my laziness to blog nowadays, I can't remember much about the shrimp in the salad.

Pumpkin soup

Shrimp Caesar salad

We were given 4 options of main course. I opted for the grilled salmon because I was too lazy to deal with a half-chicken, and didn't trust their steak. Crispy skin, flakey meat. Actually very nice salmon. The fried angel hair pasta served with the fish is reminiscent of our local fried bee hoon. That single leave of bok chay didn't help. Somehow the very asian 'fried bee hoon' and bok chay didn't match with the very western grilled fish and tomato sauce. Still, I finished them anyway, although separately so that the clash wasn't quite so obvious.

Grilled Salmon

Many of the others went for the ribeye steak or roast half-chicken. I tried a little of each. The chicken was ok. Not dry, well-seasoned. Not bad at all. The steak was pretty average. It wasn't amazing, yet it wasn't horrible. I was in a way glad I didn't opt for it because I think it would have triggered a craving for very good steak. Both the chicken and steak came with little 'fryer meshes' of fries. So for my table of six (we were split into two tables of six), we had four meshes, and 4 not-so-fries people. So despite my salmon didn't come with fries, I think I polished off almost 2 meshes alone. Thank goodness N was there with us and she LOVE fries, so she help polish off the other two. Few places can make BAD fries so it's usually safe to say they are decent.

Roast half chicken

Ribeye steak

The meal comes with two options for desserts. Fruits, or brownie with ice cream. Ever since I start baking regularly, I tend to eschew desserts that are potentially 'instant-mix'. Set lunch brownies falls under that category so I opted for fruit. Turns out it was a good choice, because the brownie was too sweet for my palate. My own fault probably, since I tend to cut ALOT of sugar in my baking, I was getting used to my low levels of sweetness. But sugar level aside, the brownie was a pretty nice textured, not-quite-instant-mix brownie.

Fruits

Brownie with ice cream

The set came with free-flow coffee and tea, so we were all pretty alert after the meal, with little or no food coma. Haaa. But we probably won't be back, because the original price isn't quite so worth it. And the waitress was really annoyingly stupid. I never felt so much urge to knock a server on the head before. And extremely unhelpful. When I asked her for a spoon, she told me to go to the coffee counter to get it myself. Whatever happened to a 4-star hotel service??

GRUB

So it was my birthday. My in-laws wanted to celebrate with me and I suggested GRUB. A friend mentioned it before but because its in Bishan park, none of my other friends are willing to entertain the distance. Since the in-laws all stay in the north, it's very convenient for us. Moreover they had some vegetarian options for my hubby.

If you order their GRUB breakfast set, it comes with a coffee or tea. So here's the latte that was served before the food arrives.

Latte

For sharing, we ordered a Chilli con carne to share. The hubby ate the chips plain. We also ordered fries and that one he could enjoy. He got the rocket salad as his main dish, with tomato slices and feta cheese. I can't seem to find that on their online menu now, so I guess this item has been removed.

Chilli con carne

Fries

Rocket salad

CM got their roasted portobello. Big portobello mushroom caps roasted to juiciness, complemented by a salsa and rocket leaves. My hubby totally can eat this actually, but he doesn't like portobello mushrooms in general.

Roasted portobello

W got the French toast. Beautifully browned French toast, served with garlic thyme pork sausage, strawberries, sour cream and maple syrup, and finally dusted with some iceing sugar. Sweet and savory on one plate. She liked it.

French toast

I had the egg cocotte, because frankly, I cannot resist truffled anything. The parma ham is small and forgettable. The eggs a little too soft for my liking. The foccacia were good vehicles for dipping into the egg. Truffle wise, it wasn't very strong. I very much preferred Forty Hand's version.

Truffled egg cocotte

G's breakfast set comes as a pretty small portion, despite the variety. I expected a much fuller plate for a breakfast set. I mean, I always get food coma from breakfast sets elsewhere so this was a little disappointing.

GRUB breakfast set

The cafe had a nice alfresco area, which is pretty pleasant on a not-too-hot day. Location wise it's pretty inaccessible by public transport. That said, the food quality and portion size actually don't make any intentional trip here especially worth it. But to be fair, the prices aren't exorbitant either. I doubt I'll be back though. It wasn't impressive enough to stick in my mind (and my stomach), so much so that I forgot about blogging it altogether. Note that they don't entertain reservations, and it gets pretty busy on weekend mornings.


GRUB
510, Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 (Bishan Park 1)
Singapore 569983
Tel: +65 64595743

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

Doodle and switch (Millenia Walk)

It was a planned dinner date with the hubs and his siblings, and we had initially wanted to go to Loving Hut at Suntec City for vegetarian food. Turned out Suntec was in the midst of renovations at that wing, so we had to change dinner location last minute. Because I'm such an idiotic driver, I had decided to park at Millenia Walk thinking it'll be less crowded than Suntec City and hence less stressful. I was right, and since I was there, I snooped around for potential dinner places and found this little pasta shop called Doodle and Switch. It had vegetarian options, so I suggested to the rest, who said ok and I got us a table.

Doodle and Switch is a pretty self-serviced joint, where you place order at the counter, grab your drinks, sides and soups yourself. The pasta is then served to you when ready. What's cool is that on top of their interestingly named pastas (or should I say hilariously named), you have the option to DIY your own pasta choosing your pasta type, sauce and condiments.

For sides they have a small variety and we settled for citrus glazed chicken wings and truffle fries. For a small top-up you get a set meal with the soup of the day and a drink. The fries had no truffle taste at all, and the chicken wasn't fabulous. Soup was had a very canned and instant feel to it.

Truffle fries

Citrus glazed wings

Soup of the day

Pasta-wise, I think the customization is a nice option. Look at the amount of rocket that W had piled on her aglio olio. She loves rockets. The western flavors were pretty ok. Not something I will intentionally go back for, but ok. The laksa was interesting. Cream based laksa flavor, in a thicker pasta sauce setting. G liked it enough.

DIY Aglio Olio

Laksa Lips

Carbonara

Prawn Star

Streets of Galbratar

DIY Tom Yam

Given the limited vegetarian options in Millenia Walk, I guess Doodle and Switch works when you just need a quick bite to fill your tummy. Don't expect top-notch service though, they are pretty much self service. The boy roaming the tables had a very blur look to him.


Doodle and Switch
9 Raffles Boulevard

#01-88/89 

Singapore 039596
Tel: 6336 5606

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