The Provision Shop

LF suddenly asked me if I wanna join her and SH for lunch one day. Considering I finished my breakfast at about 11am, her lunch invitation at 11.30am was a little early. But I decided that sure, I can tag along and see what small meal I can get.

It was a good 10-15 minutes walk from our lab to the Provision Shop. The cafe is a very small place, with limited seating capacity. So in a way it was good we went early before it became crowded. The menu is pretty small, with a few sandwiches, a few brunch food, and a few pastas. Both of them opted for Eggs Benedict with salmon. The bread, though what I would call 'square bread', was thick and crusty and seemed homemade. The eggs were poached beautifully, and smothered in the hollandaise sauce. And they were really generous with their salmon. All for a pretty affordable price.

Eggs Benedict with salmon

Because of my late breakfast, I was too full for a full lunch. So I opted for a Perogie. With ham, onions and cheese, what's there to not love about it? But it was really quite small, so I think I was hungry in about 2 hours. But that's my own fault for having a late breakfast.

Perogie

I was so happy with the meal that I mentioned it to E when I returned. And another fine afternoon, when we happened to be free for a longer than usual lunch, a bunch of us trooped over for lunch. This time, many of us went for their pastas, which are homemade! I love homemade pastas!!!

The lagsane was a little sadly small. But since it was HY who ordered it, it's ok, since she's not a huge eater. And that mountain of greens piled on the lasagne suits healthy her fine. The carbonara looked a little pale, in my opinion, and a little too watery. AF didn't comment much on it, so I wasn't sure if he liked it or not. I vaguely remember him saying it wasn't filling enough....

Lasagne

Carbonara

I actually liked my beef ragu pasta very much. The ragu tasted fabulous, and I loved the texture of the homemade pasta. And I guess with the beef chunks inside, this plate was a lot more filling than the watered down carbonara and the small lasagne, so I must say I was pretty satisfied.

Beef ragu pasta

If I return, it's most probably for the pasta. I'm such a sucker for the homemade stuff. But then, I'm such a sucker for so many things. Haha!! But do take note of the small capacity, and the fact that you will leave smelling like the cafe due to not so impressive ventilation.


The Provision Shop
Blk 3 Everton Park #01-79
Singapore
Tel: 6225 9931

Riccioti (Star Vista)

So it was Commencement Day! And because I've been allocated to the evening session, we decided to go Star Vista for dinner before the ceremony. Because the hubby is vegetarian, I decided on Riccioti. There's always vegetarian options in Italian joints.

Lynn and XP met us at the restaurant, because XP was graduating too! Because of time constraints, we decided on our orders pretty fast. In fact, I went ahead and ordered for XP even though he hadn't arrive yet. We've eaten together often enough that I know what he likes.

For starters, we went for mushroom bruschetta. Nice change from the usual tomato, served on crusty bread with slices of parmesan. We found out these aren't easy to bite into two, so we just shoved the entire thing into our mouths.

Funghi bruschetta

Lynn and I decided to share a pasta and a main course. So for pasta we chose Linguine al granchio. I liked it, alot! It was a mixture of cream and tomato based sauce. Richness from the cream, tartness from the tomato to balance out the rich, and voila, you have a delicious winner that doesn't overwhelm you with too much richness. And the shreds of crab meat inside the sauce was a winner too! I really liked this dish, as it appealed to my cream+pasta+crab craving all at one shot.

Linguine al granchio

For XP I ordered him a salmon pasta. Because he like fish in general. It was served in the same tomato+cream sauce, making it an equal winner. With flakes of salmon, he enjoyed it very much as well.

Tagliette salmone

The hubby got Spaghetti Pomodoro. Spaghetti in tomato based pasta sauce. No frills. It was in reality the best way to taste the original flavors of the sauces, although I tend to be swayed by frillier alternatives. He liked it fine, so I guess Riccioti's tomato sauce agrees with him.

Spaghetti Pomodoro

The main course that Lynn and I shared was the boneless grilled half chicken. I was amazed. It was really boneless except for the wings. The meat was tender, juicy and well seasoned. The lack of bones made for an exceptionally easy to eat meal, with little need to dissect anything. The dissection part is what turns me away from most roast or grilled chicken so Riccioti scored with their boneless verison. The mash potatoes, however, were a little on the dry side.

Boneless grilled half chicken

For a place I randomly picked off the mall directory, I was actually very pleased with the food. I really liked their pasta and their chicken, and I believe I will be back to try their pizza. They have another branch nearer to my workplace. I may very well end up there soon enough.

Riccioti

1, Vista Exchange Green,
#01-33 # 01-K2,
The Star Vista
Singapore 138617
Tel:(65) 6694 4101

Fax:(65) 6694 4102

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

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??

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

Poteato

Ok, so we've visited Forty Hands many times. Poteato is just next door, so of course we've seen it before. Then JP told us he preferred Poteato's food to Forty Hands, then we HAD to try it out. So on a night when J, XP and I were working late (ok, rarity for me but common for them), we decided that it was THE day to try it out. Moreover it was located nearer to the carpark for me. =P

Their menu isn't huge, but as the name suggests, they have a large variety of potatoes. So to start off, we had truffle fries and sweet potato fries. The truffle fries was alright. Not a whole lot of truffle flavor, but its there. Although we liked the sweet potato fries, it had a hint of something. A flavor that was so familiar, yet I couldn't place it. Until XP pointed out it tasted a little like curry puff, then it hit me. Curry powder. They flavored their sweet potato fries with curry powder. Surprising, but not unpleasant. And the way it was served in that paper bag is so rustic.

Lemon tea

Truffle fries

Sweet potato fries

Their menus came with a detailed picture of one dish per menu. So between the three of us, we had three pictures to look at. Other than that one picture, the menu is entirely in words. After some deliberation, we settled for Salmon with roast potato for me, herb grilled chicken with potato salad for J, and bangers and mash for XP. J was initially so interested in the bangers and mash, because in the detailed picture, there was caramelized onions on the plate, and she have a huge weakness for caramelized onions. And it wasn't just there on the picture, there were text pointing it out from the picture. She settled for the chicken in the end because she wasn't big on sausages, and XP assured her he will share the onions.

Turns out, there were no caramelized onions on the bangers and mash, much to her disappointment. Granted, no mention of caramelized onions on the description of the dish in the menu itself. Only in that one picture. But I think the restaurant should not have put that picture highlighting the caramelized onion if it's not going to be on your plate. But that aside, the sausages were juicy, in fact, too juicy. XP accidentally squirted the juices to the next table when he cut his sausage. Thankfully it didn't hit the lady, only the chair. The mashed potato was creamy and yummy.

I liked how the salmon was cooked, moist and flakey. But my complaint was that the roast potatoes were cold. I understand that roast potatoes have to be done ahead because it needs time, but really, they should have heated it up before serving it to me! J was happy with her chicken. Her potato salad, being a salad, is expected to be cold so it was fine.

Salmon with roast potatoes

Herb grilled chicken with potato salad

Bangers and mash

Overall we did enjoy ourselves. The restaurant is cosy, and we were seated next to an indoor window - part of the decor. It was a little weird that there's another table right at the other side of that wall at the window, so you're really sitting side by side with a stranger. I was so tempted to close that panelled window. Thankfully the restaurant wasn't crowded so that seat was vacated pretty fast. The food, though nice, didn't have a wow factor. Not something that I will remember and want very much to return for. 

Poteato

78, Yong Siak Street, 

#01-18, 

Singapore 163078

Tel: 6221 2488

Porky Pork

I needed to collect a free cabin baggage (complimentary from Citibank when I signed up for credit cards) from The Central, and since I didn't fancy lugging it around, I wanted to drive there to pick it up. The opportunity arose when J wanted to check out some serviced apartment at River Valley area. Since Central is along the way, we decided we could stop by The Central, eat lunch, pick up my free gift, then head to River Valley, before returning to office.

We had once spotted Porky Pork while waiting for our Gong Cha previously. So we decided that's where we would go for lunch. Between the five of us, we decided on sharing a Porky Pork platter for 4 pax, and an addition beef brisket. The platter comes with 4 buns or rice, and the brisket 1. We all opted for buns.

The platter consist of roasted pork belly, hungarian sausages, and pulled pork. The roasted pork belly was crispy, and sinfully yummy. The sausage is good as all sausages are. The pulled pork were nicely marinated, and goes really well with the buns. The sides were bland and boring.

Porky Pork Platter

Mac n cheese and mashed potatoes

The beef brisket was tender, but a little on a dry, apparent from the photo. Yet it was flavorful, and and doesn't have the typical overly beefy taste that briskets sometimes have.

Beef brisket

Buns

It wasn't too expensive, coming up to maybe about $10 each. However, sitting capacity in the cafe is pretty small. And upon my googling now, I discovered that they have closed down. This phenomenon is more common to restaurants that Lynn blog. She have a tendency to blog about restaurants that subsequently close down. I think as of now her 'curse rate' is about 20%. Even an unfortunate restaurant, which she intended to write badly about but never got around to, was at the mercy of her curse. Me, 2 out of about 100 posts. Not too bad at all...

Porky Pork