Ice-Cold Beer @ No. 9 Emerald Hill

Finally visited this place one fine evening. It rained and hence, the outdoor tables were scarce. Risked waiting for about 15 minutes, just to see if the sky clears and the staff would open up the outdoor area.

entrance

Last order for Happy Hour was 845pm. Got ourselves draft beer (half pint) for $6++ each.

bold Stella and shy Hoegaarden

Of course, the must-order of chicken wings. Had the half portion.

deep fried prawn paste chicken wings

closer view

The prawn paste wings tasted milder than I'd thought. Only a hint of prawn paste. Glad that the drumlets weren't anorexic though. Succulent but also just barely cooked. Had potato wedges as well. Regular ones served with mayo. Good portion for sharing. Thought the potatoes could do with another minute in the fryer as some pieces weren't that cooked.

Spent $35 for the above. The style here is pay as soon as the food/drinks arrives. Note that the outdoor area closes pretty early at 11pm.

Wan Chai Hong Kong Tea Room 湾仔香港奶茶店 @ Lot One

Located at basement of Lot One. Semi self-servicing joint, where one orders and pays at the counter, and get the drinks first. The food will be served to your table.

menu

view from our table

For drinks, we had 'Black Cow' (root beer float), chin chow and soya milk (仙草豆浆) and chinese tea (tea bag in hot water). Drink prices ranged from $1.30+ to $3+.

Root beer float

chin chow in soya milk

The food orders came in their own timings. The interval between could be anything from 5 minutes to 20 minutes apart, although the orders were placed together at the same time. The aunty waitress who brought us our orders was quite sullen that night and she'd dumped the food quite grouchily on the table.

steamed rice with chinese sausages and mushroom 腊味香滑鸡饭 (@$6.50+)

loaded with dry chicken breast, two slices of sausage and one piece of mushroom

 dumpling noodles 鲜虾水饺面 (@$5.80+)

plump looking dumplings

Signature fried rice 湾仔招牌炒饭 (@$6.80+)

Cheese baked chicken rice (@$8.50+)

beef brisket noodle 牛腩面 (@$7+)

closer view of thin yellow noodles

deep fried pork ribs in orange sauce 酥炸香橙骨 (@$8.50+)

Alot of the dishes that we ordered, were disappointing. Chicken breast was too dry, and hardly fragrant, the deep fried pork ribs were too hard and tough (tasty sauce though), and if their Signature fried rice looked like that, well...

Spent a total of about $54.

Ichiban Sushi @ IMM Building, Jurong East

Located at Level 2 of IMM Building. Took the shuttle bus from JCube (outside of McDonalds). Business seemed not bad at this outlet. Perhaps slightly more activity here as compared to JCube's restaurants.

ocha (@$1.10++)

Dinner with family so we ordered Sashimi Wazen, Ichiban Bento Wazen, Hotate Nabe Wazen, Tendon and Chicken Katsudon.

Tendon (@$12.90++)

Chicken Katsudon (@$9.90++)

If you're feeling like you could eat alot of rice, then the Tendon and Katsudon would be good. Plenty of rice! Only for the hungries. The chicken cutlet were pretty huge but the sauce was a tad too sweet for me. Unfortunately, the rice here wasn't sticky enough.

Ichiban Bento Wazen (@$15.90++)

The Ichiban Bento Wazen would be best value for money. It has slices of salmon sashimi, a small piece of saba fish, some tempura and a chawanmushi plus miso soup and fruits.

Didn't manage to take a picture of the Hotate Nabe Wazen ( @$15.90++ and served with chawanmushi, miso soup, mini teriyaki chicken don and fruits) but managed to try the soup. Nice and soothing for the tummy. The soup tasted like a combi of miso and sukiyaki. Mildly sweet and quite enjoyable.

Sashimi Wazen (@$14.90++)

The Sashimi Wazen was served with rice, miso soup and fruits. Why no chawanmushi? =(

closer look at the sashimi (salmon, akami, hamachi and mekajiki)

It has been quite a while since I last visited Ichiban. The rice, could be further improved. Overall, not bad and one could get quite a good meal for under $20.

No credit card promotion but for every $20 spent, one could get a chop on its rewards card. At certain milestones, one could get free items or exchange the card for vouchers.

rewards card

We spent about $89 for this meal for a family of 5 pax.

KungFu Paradise @ JCube Jurong East

Located at Level 1 of JCube. This restaurant is also under the Paradise Group, hence, membership can be used here to get points, redeemable on next visit.

menu

breakfast menu

opens till 4am

There was a time-limited offer for one dish; Japanese Black Pepper Curry Chicken Rice for $6.90++ (usual price is $10.90++). Sounds like a good deal, so we tried that. Also ordered the Prawn Paste Chicken, Chicken Cutlet Curry Rice and Lava Custard Bun.

honey lemon and water chestnut

KungFu Stylo Coffee

Japanese Black Pepper Curry Chicken Rice, served with some greens and half a lava egg

The time-limited offer dish does have an impact, visually, with its larger than life looking whole chicken thigh! However, the Japanese curry tasted somewhat like the curry for roti prata. There's quite some heat coming from the black pepper in the curry! It was also unfortunate that the thigh was overcooked.

The chicken cutlet curry rice fared better and the curry here was similar to the other dish.

Japanese Curry Chicken Cutlet Rice

served with sunny side up

The side dish of Prawn Paste Chicken (@$6.90++) was quite good albeit pricey for just 5 mid-wings. Well marinated, very tasty with still moist chicken and smells great. Just a tad too oily though.

Prawn Paste Chicken (5 mid-wings)

yums

how can we not try?

Lava Custard Bun (salted egg yolk bun) 流沙包 (@$3.90++)

salty goodness

The custard bun was pretty smallish, yet packed with all the right flavours, as expected from a good 流沙包.

Expect to pay around $15 per pax for a main course and a drink.

Paradise Dynasty @ Lot 1 Choa Chu Kang

Located at Level 3 of Lot 1 Choa Chu Kang. Visited on a Saturday late-noon and we could get a table within 5 minutes.

default setup

By default, there are saucer plates of ginger strips already on the table. Probably assuming majority of customers are there for the xlb (xiao long bao)?

menu

table

Ok, ordered a basket of original xiao long bao's (Shanghai pork dumplings) to try.

Shanghai pork dumplings aka xiao long bao (original flavour) @$9.80++ for 10 pieces

The pork dumpling (小笼包) was alright. The broth was tasty yet not overpowering. The waitress was actually more concerned when we didn't eat it right away, or when someone accidentally broke the dumpling skin and wasted the broth...

Also had the "La Mian" in vegetable pork  (菜肉云吞拉面). Served in a rather large bowl.

vegetable pork dumplings la mian (@$8.80++)

thin strand noodles

The la mian was mild tasting. Good if you want something soothing and not oily.

interesting bowl

"Yang Zhou" fried rice (@$10.80++)

The "Yang Zhou" fried rice (扬州炒饭) came loaded with ingredients. Chicken bits, prawns, char siew, diced vege and stir fried egg bits. However, still find the taste somewhat lacking. Probably the lack of 'wok hei'.

a dash of chili for added fragrance

One must have some vegetables. Chose one from the appetiser menu instead. Quite yums, although it looked somewhat different from the picture in the menu.

marinated mixed vegetables (@$4.20++)

Sis wanted to try the buns. So got some Shanghai panfried pork buns.

pan fried Shanghai pork bun 生煎包 (@$4.20++)

looks like xlb fillings to me~

Looks like we're on a 'porky' theme that day! Next, was the Slice Pork in Minced Garlic sauce (香辣蒜泥白肉), appetiser dish as well.

slice pork in minced garlic sauce (@$7.80++)

This was another dish that looked different from the menu picture. (Too) Generously slathered with salty minced garlic bean paste sauce but it was actually quite enjoyable. However the pork slice was too thinly sliced till the meat taste was somewhat lost.

For desserts, we had the Souffle Egg White Balls with red bean paste. Looked like a small round doughnut. Tasted eggy, but souffle was not as light as expected. My brother didn't like it.

Souffle Egg White Balls with Red Bean Paste (@$4.80++)

Members enjoy 20% points during their birthday months and can be used/redeemed on their next visit.

The food above fed a family of five, comfortably. Oh ya, the default tea is charged per head @$1++.

default tea (refillable)

Service was good and generally friendly.