Fratini's Restaurant @ Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

Located next to The Centrepoint Hotel in Gadong, Bandar Seri Begawan. Stayed at the Centrepoint Hotel during a recent business trip, so we went to Fratini's for a quick lunch before proceeding to our customer's site. The free wifi at the restaurant proved useful because The Centrepoint Hotel charges for wifi usage.

restaurant's interior

There were few people in the restaurant that day. Probably about 3 tables occupied. The service crew were courteous.

table setting and menu

We ordered stuffed mushroom for starters and two pizzas to share. The pizza size is about 12-13 inches in diameter, according to the staff. We had the mediterranean pizza (meatless, for our vegetarian colleague) and a seafood pizza.

stuffed mushroom

I actually thought the stuffed mushroom would be looking something like a good sized portobello. Imagine my surprise when it came out looking, a little bit tiny (see the above pic).

closer view of stuffed mushroom

I must say, the stuffed mushroom was rather yums. Its stuffing was just cheese and herbs. Tasty!

bite-sized stuffed mushroom

The grilled zuchini tasted good as well. We doused the accompanying salad leaves with lots of balsamic vinegar and seasoned olive oil.

balsamic vinegar and chili-infused olive oil

mediterranean pizza

seafood pizza

The pizza were thin crusted version with crispy edge. It doesn't have loads of toppings but when eaten with the infused-olive oil, it tasted good! The friendly service crew will come by and asked if you'd like some pepper to go with the pizza.

huge kickass pepper grinder

seafood pizza close-up

mediterranean pizza slice

The meal was shared by four pax and the total bill came up to about $34 because they were having a promotion for pizzas at 40% off if you pay by cash.

Tampopo @ Liang Court Part II

Revisited Tampopo recently and it was as crowded as before. Walk-in customers may have to wait between 10 to 15 minutes on a weekend dinner. Get a queue number and wait. There is no electronic signboard to flash the queue number, so customers need to be somewhere nearby when the staff called out in their loud voices.

For this recent dinner, we ordered a tokusen ramen (added an extra egg because the ramen doesn't come with one), salmon belly and swordfish sashimi, saba fish and maki.

salmon belly and swordfish sashimi

luxurious salmon belly

doesn't the mekajiki look like cuttle fish?

The sashimi was fresh and enjoyable, especially the oily salmon belly. Yums! My friend prefers her swordfish though. Next, we had the piping hot ramen. Nice to warm our tummies on a cool night.

tokusen cha shiu ramen

yummy, tender cha shiu

I had tried ramen at Tampopo before and it was salty then. But luckily for this order, the ramen soup was alright. Liked the cha shiu. Nicely tender but still flavourful. If your bowl of ramen doesn't come with the egg, I would suggest to order one to try. But was a little surprised that it came as a one whole egg instead of halved.

it came like this

used my chopstick to cut it into this

The yolk was nicely savoury and not too runny. Nice.

maki

it tasted of plum

saba fish

soft and oily

Ordered the maki to fill us up, and it did. Was quite stuffed after we devoured everything. The saba fish was not overcooked, so its flesh was still soft and oily.

This dinner for two costs about $72 in total.

IKEA Restaurant and Cafe @ Alexandra Road

My colleague likes IKEA for its meatballs and chicken wings, plus some minor shopping, so usually I'll just trudge along for lunch. Give me chicken wings anytime! And of course, refillable unlimited cups of coffee for just 50 cents, that is value for money!

At 12+ pm during weekdays, if you are lucky, can still find seats. It is not uncommon to find students sitting there, enjoying leisurely lunch while discussing their projects. Working adults, shoppers having lunch/brunch made up the rest of the population found in the restaurant. The food queue can get crazy long, so be prepared to wait around 20 minutes.

chicken wings for 2

yummy and oily

The chicken wings are to be ordered in multiples of two. So for us two girls, usually we'll just have 2 wings each.

swedish meatballs, with potatoes

meatballs!

The meatballs come in two sizes; 5 or 10 balls per plate. I've seen other tables of one lady and a man, having a plate of ten meatballs per pax and two wings each. I've also seen young girls (probably late teens or early twenties) having a salad, a main course (salmon), chicken wings and dessert. Wow.

The meatballs tend to dry up and harden a little if left in the open for too long. Definitely need to eat it with the sauce. The potatoes that day were slightly harder, which probably meant that it wasn't cooked as long as it should?

Sometimes, they might have a promo on desserts, and so on that particular Tuesday, they were giving free dessert for every plate of 10 meatballs.

invaded by green desserts (round one is $2 while the longish one is free)

Well, looks can be deceiving. I thought the longish looking dessert (which was the free item for the meatballs promo) was chocolate. Turned out to be something that was seriously sweet but blah. The round dessert which my colleague couldn't resist buying, was better. It was soft, with skin similar to the snowskin mooncake (but much sweeter), and its inside has cream and cake.

don't know its name, but not bad

I had two cups of coffee, and by the end of the meal, was feeling really full! The costs of the entire meal was about $12+.

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Imperial Treasure Noodle and Congee House @ ION Orchard

Located at B3-17 of ION Orchard. There was a waiting time of about 25 minutes on a weekday lunch. Get a queue number and wait patiently.  We were led to our table after about 15 minutes, only to find out that the table was still not cleared. So another few more minutes of waiting time. The place felt kind of small and narrow.

Ours is a booth seat with us facing the 'wall'. Hahaa, felt like a cramped 茶餐厅.

our table, facing the wall....repenting?

table settings

cold soya bean that wasn't really cold...

We ordered quite abit for two pax. My friend insisted on ordering the roasted meats (2 types: duck and pork for $16++), char siew bao and prawn dumpling salad. While I insisted on flowy custard bun, siew mai and for desserts; souffle egg puff with red bean paste and banana. For drinks, we had cold soya drink ($1.80++) which turned out to be slightly colder than room temperature. Hmmm....

prawn dumpling salad

I think the 'salad' in the prawn dumpling salad really referred to the mayonaise (沙拉酱?).

douse it with a little mayo

yup, nice crunchy prawn

This deep fried item tasted nice with mayonaise and all, but I found it a little pricey though. Next, came the roasted meat plate. The meat here is cut into smaller bite size.

roasted duck and pork

roasted duck

roasted pork

Having a basis for comparison due to the recent visit to Canton-I and having had similar dish, I would prefer the other version of the roasted pork as this one here, was somewhat smaller in size, and not as juicy. The roasted duck here has leaner meat but more crispy skin.

mustard and plum sauce for the meat

Next, came the char siew bao (3 in a basket).

char siew bao

yummy char siew bao

We liked the char siew bao (in fact it was one of the de-facto item that my friend MUST order to satisfy her dim sum cravings!). Soft fluffy bun that breaks easily with yummy moist fillings and most importantly, not much fatty meat inside. However, the sauce of the char siew bao was a little salty for me.

siew mai

chopped prawns in siew mai

The siew mai tasted much like steamed prawn dumplings, probably because much of its filling seemed to be just chopped prawn cubes. I liked it for its simplicity.
 

flowy custard bun (流沙包)

all that glitters.. golden custard

The looks of the custard bun was rather mundane and boring. Plain white small buns in a basket. How exciting can that be? Especially since I've encountered purple coloured custard bun elsewhere. BUT, the taste of the custard bun here was... divine. Its filling was thick, and you can really taste the salted egg. Savoury and sweet, it was pure indulgence! And value for money too.

At this point, both of us were clutching our tummy and complaining about how full we are. We both concluded that it could be the soya bean drink that done us in. Felt bloated already. But, there was still one more dessert to eat.

Hehehe, this was one meal that I had not just one, but two desserts! Well, the story went like this. Earlier, while we were still waiting to be seated, they had this screen at the shopfront that displayed pictures of selected items from their menu. There was one that caught my eye, so we ordered it to try. We waited quite a while for it to come though. It was delivered to our table only after we asked for it twice, and 10 minutes after we finished everything and our tables cleared.

So, was it worth the wait?

souffle egg with sugar dusting

red bean paste and banana fillings

The answer was, YES. Definitely worth the wait! Served piping hot, the souffle was sooooo soft. A bite of this sweet dessert and you can taste the eggy texture, mixed with the heady scent of red bean and banana. Yums! But, it was kind of oily though.. so probably hot chinese tea would be a better choice of drink as compared to soya bean. The soya bean tasted blah after having the souffle, as the souffle was super sweet (according to my definition, that is).

The meal costs $47 for two pax. Most of the dim sum items that we ordered had prices ranging from $3.30 ~ $4.50. If you are not using the wet towels, just simply indicate so prior to paying and check the bill to ensure that the towels are not charged. Service was adequate, and the wait staff were friendly. Just take note that it could take a while to get the bill settled during their peak hours.