Friday, June 28, 2013

Shabuya @ Vivocity

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Located at Level 1 of Vivocity, and its just beside Tajimaya. Been to Tajimaya numerous times for the BBQ beef lunch set and yesterday, was the first time we ventured next door to Shabuya for Japanese hot-pot. I've always viewed both as the same, just that one is done BBQ style while the other is done shabu-shabu style.

ala-carte menu
lunch sets

Just one glance and all three of us, went for the Wagyu Set (@$25.90++). Under this 'Heart Warming' Lunch Set promo where two same sets are ordered, the first person pays the full price and the second person will be charged just $9.90++. So, do come in pairs to enjoy this heartwarming lunch sets! Savings is about $5+ per pax, assuming wagyu sets were ordered for both parties.

large pot, one half sukiyaki the other half shabu-shabu
flaming and ready to boil

Other tables were cooking via the induction but ours were on the small gas stove. Hmm, probably the induction on our table was faulty...


Wagyu Set /Set D (@$25.90++)

utensils for 'cooking' and eating
nice marbling
thinly sliced chicken
xiao bai cai, chinese cabbage, corn, shitake mushrooms, golden mushroom (enoki), tofu and leek

The waitress who brought the plates of raw food to our table, had accidentally dropped one mushroom onto the floor. Not a big deal, but decided to tease her abit by saying that we now had one mushroom less to eat. She said she'll replace it and true enough, she returned with not just 1 mushroom but a small bowl of it. Haha!

いただきあす~ let's start!

The small bowls of salad appeared when we were already 15 minutes into the meal. Nobody remembers because we were too busy enjoying the hot-pot!

salad of the day
steaming hot

ready-to eat

The shabu-shabu soup wasn't bland to start with, so it became even better with all the ingredients added and simmered for awhile. The rest of the table preferred the sukiyaki for it's stronger and more flavourful taste. Shabu soup was milder and more subtle.

A mere few seconds of dipping and 'dragging back and forth' the beef in the boiling broth was enough, leaving parts of the beef slightly pink.

tangy dip

The dipping sauce was tangy and not too salty, with a hint of lemon. We were almost like more than half-way through our meal and then I remembered, "Where's the chili sauce?" So, made a request and the service staff took quite a while to bring it to us.

must-have chilies

Seriously, do remember the chilies. Tasted somewhat like chicken rice chilies but minus the oil. Yums. And, powerful enough to give a kick (but doesn't lingers). If the heat gets too much, just cool it down with ice green tea.

thirsty?


Didn't have much expectations on the udon as it wasn't much of a looker. Hahaha, ok. Sometimes, we humans can be superficial, yes? But after cooking it, the udon was smooth and chewy. Even if it was left abit longer in the pot, it was still nicely chewy. Good stuffs.

looks as if it was just awaken from chilled slumber
after cooking


All of us enjoyed the lunch set and left with a satisfied stomach.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

O'Coffee Club @ Paragon

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Was at Paragon on a Saturday and wanted to eat at either of the Japanese restaurants. However, the queue was daunting. Almost every other place has queues to rival Hello Kitty's. Ok. That is probably an exaggeration but queues everywhere!

One of those few places that one need not queue, was Coffee Club. It's been ages since I last drank or ate anything from Coffee Club.


shop front

They're having a limited-edition GSS menu till 28 July 2013, where if one is paying via UOB credit card, then for every 2 purchase of pasta from GSS menu, diners will get complimentary soup of the day and a soda drink (from 3 choices).

GSS menu

There's only 4 choices of pasta to choose from this menu, so we had Chilli Crab Linguini, Mad Seafood Pasta and Trailblazing Teriyaki Chicken Pasta. All of the pasta are priced at $18.50++ except for the teriyaki chicken which was a dollar less.

For soup of the day, we had a choice between mushroom or broccoli.

broccoli soup


For drinks, we chose Mojito Apple soda and Strawberry soda. The Mojito Apple soda was refreshing and not too sweet but it could definitely do better with more mint!

Apple Mojito
essence of apple?

The pasta was served piping hot.


Chilli Crab Linguini pasta
Mad Seafood Pasta
Trailblazing Teriyaki Chicken pasta
yummy chicken


The first thing that struck me about the teriyaki chicken pasta? The sweet sauce. Spaghetti in sweet sauce. Hmm. But the chicken was quite enjoyable. Tender and well marinated. The seafood pasta came loaded with ingredients but was really oily. Best flavour goes to Chili Crab Linguini. All plates have one thing in common though. The huge amount of noodles served. Hahaa! Good if you're really hungry.

Service was generally friendly.

Spent about $22 per pax for the meal.

Friday, June 21, 2013

Uma Uma Ramen @ The Forum Shopping Mall, Orchard

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Located at Level 1 of Forum Shopping Mall, near Coffee Bean and Tea Leaves. Its entrance is at the outer-side, facing the road.

menu

Uma Uma specializes in Hakata Ramen, characterized with thin straight noodles. There's just those few choices in the menu so we didn't take very long to decide.

Friend ordered the Spicy Chasiu Ramen (@$16++) and added tamago (@$1.50++), while I had the Chasiu Rice (@$5++).

Ordered the Asahi Jukusen (@$8++ HH price, $12++ otherwise) since green tea already costs $3++. The Suntory Kaku Highball, which is whisky with soda water, was sold out by then.

cheers~
Asahi Jukusen premium beer
golden hue, hoppy, full bodied and smooth

Beer served in chilled glasses was enjoyable. Oh, and for two bottles of beer ordered, diners will get a complimentary tori karaage side dish. Keke.

tori karaage

We got our food pretty fast.

Spicy Chasiu Ramen with extra order of tamago
closer view


Tried a little of the ramen. It's done al-dente, and the noodles were still pretty hard. I've always preferred the noodles to be cooked slightly longer. Am not sure whether the customer can choose the hardness of the noodles according to one's likings here or not, since the waiter didn't ask us when the order was taken.

sampling chasiu ramen

The soup was leaning towards the saltier side, and it wasn't really spicy.

chasiu rice
closer view

The Chasiu Rice was a mini don. Small bowl and the portion was just right for someone who's not that hungry. Liberally slathered in sauce and topped with chopped spring onions. The sauce was also quite salty.

On average, expect to pay about $30 for a bowl of ramen and a beer.


Wednesday, June 19, 2013

龙星光酒楼 @ Jiuxianqiao Lu, Beijing

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Located at 21 Jiuxianqiao Lu, Chaoyang District. Here's the address:  朝阳区酒仙桥路21号(兆维大厦对面).

Was there because some of our colleagues were staying at the Ambassador Hotel, so was looking for a place to have our dinner. One of our colleague had earlier suggested to have noodles but my manager just took one look at the noodles place and refused to enter as it looked pretty dingy. At least this restaurant was bigger and looked more comfy.


retro, or not?
dim sum menu
alcohol, anyone?

Didn't try any mao tai (茅台). Instead, we got our usual suan mei tang (plum juice).

two flask of suan mei tang

As usual, we ordered dishes to go with steamed rice.

roast pork and char siew

The char siew and roasted pork dish was served with sugar dip. Not bad.

beef hotplate
stir fried vege
claypot chicken

The vege was very similar tasting to the 帝皇苗, where it is slightly slimy. Beef as usual was tender and tasty. The chicken claypot has tiny tiny pieces of chicken (with bones) but very flavourful.

mountain of rice
claypot tofu with roast pork
oyster egg
claypot pig trotters with lotus root

All the claypot dishes goes well with the rice. But it didn't taste very Cantonese though.

This meal costs less than ¥500 and the portion was more than enough to feed 7 adults.
 
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