Ippudo Tao @ Mohd Sultan Road

This place is located next to En Grill and Bar. Concept colour is red and black. Went on a Saturday evening. Had to wait a bit, probably 10 minutes before we got seats.

super blurry shot of the indoor dining area

We had ramen the previous time at Mandarin Gallery. Ippudo seems synonymous with ramen, so we ordered an Aka Ramen here as well. Had some skewered items such as tender beef, teriyaki chicken and enoki buta. To start off our meal, we ordered a potato salad and two beers. Sapporo beer is on draft here.

at Ippudo Tao!

beer to cool down *burp*

potato salad

The potato salad was a nice slow start of our meal. Tasty and with coarse bits of potatoes. The noodles came next. We had one bowl to share. Thin noodles that were still springy, spicy soup that tingles the tongue but not numbing it, a single piece of chashiu and added a flavoured egg.

Next, came our skewered items.

tender beef, done medium

teriyaki chicken

juicy and tender yums

enoki mushrooms wrapped in thin pork slices

There is a chef selection of 5 yakitori sticks at $21. The waitress told us that usually the items would include beef, and maybe pork, chicken and chicken skin. Hehehe, we were hungry and chicken skin is not going to fill us up, so we opted ala-carte. Actually wanted chicken wings but it was out of stock so we got the chicken teriyaki (@$10++ per skewer). We loved the teriyaki chicken. Was super tender, smooth, sweet savoury and yummy!

Had high hopes for the tender beef (@$7.80++ per stick). It came out looking beautiful (slightly more rare than medium) but unfortunately, it was still chewy. The grilled spring onion that came with it was nice. Skewered items price starts from ~$3.80++ and above.

With Japanese yakitori's, expect a higher price to pay. Bill came up to $88 for two pax.

Bacchus Bistro and Bar @ Robertson Quay

Been there two times. Same row as Bar Bar Black Sheep and next door to Merry Men. This place is usually not crowded during Fridays.

Tried their new generation wines (Germany) @ $39++ per bottle. Apparently, usual price is $49++. Hmm.. the prices must've went up quite a bit. Saw from their website that during February promotion, new generation wines were going for just $29++. Hmmm.

We ordered a bottle of white called Cheri (apparently made from a combination of varieties). Cheri is almost like a Moscato but with more rounded (blunt) taste. Sweet, ripe and very palatable. We also tried a bit of Novicius, which on the other hand, was still sweet but has a sharper edge. More acidic but still easy to drink.

Cheri

Seated by the riverside, we watched as the world goes by while we sipped our chilled wine. Warm breeze gently caressed our faces, and bit by bit, our worries fluttered away... Hahaha, we wished!

Very soon, our bottle was left empty. We ordered another one, and this time a new generation red, Beerus.

Beerus

I liked Beerus. Not tannic at all. First taste, first thought was, "Wow.. this tasted just like the white we had only this time round, it's a red!" Hahaha. Sweeet! The alcohol for this was just 7%, if not wrong. Cheri was 10%. Feeling peckish, and we had a friend who joined us later who has yet to take her dinner, so we called our friendly service staff for food. But alas, the kitchen had closed by then.

We tried to persuade him to help us find food 'coz our friend was really really hungry! He said he'll try. And true to his words, he came back with chicken wings! Woohoo!

chicken wings, the chili sauce rocks!

If you happen to be at Bacchus, do look for Lee (with tattoos around his neck). Friendly chap, always with a smile and goes the extra mile for his customers. Cool, bro!

Total bill for the night: $120. Good for 4 pax to chill. We stayed till 1.30am.

Arnold's @ City Plaza

Located at Level 2 of City Plaza, this place was sure packed. To enter the shop, one would have to get a queue number first. Its menu looked like any other regular fast food joint, but one can find certain local desserts like iced-kachang with ice-cream, here as well. I spied banana boat ice-cream...

For our Friday night dinner, we got the combo meal for 3 pax.

combo meal

For the sides, we had coleslaw, french fries and mashed potatoes. We got 3 pieces of chicken each and a fried bun. We had coke for as our drink. How sinful was that...

mashed potato

french fries

sweetish coleslaw

I was actually late for the dinner and my friends had already started. They were onto their second or third piece of chicken when I arrived. But surprisingly, the chicken were still hot! So, probably it's not a good idea to sink your teeth right into the meat once it's served. Caution.

deep fried and oily

thigh meat is the best!

The fried bun, for some unknown reason, had a 'hard' base. Maybe too compressed prior to frying. Not sure. The fried chicken was hot and nice, especially if it's thigh or drumstick meat. Its skin was thin and crispy and oily. Breast meat was difficult to finish as it was quite dry.

This meal costs us $13 per pax.

Medz @ Orchard Central

Located at B2 of Orchard Central. This place is considerably smaller than I thought. Went without a reservation on a weekday night and had to queue for about 10 minutes.

At the entrance, one would be presented with a small credit card sized electronic card to swipe for food and drinks purchases. Then, you'd be led to your table.

table setting

our table is in use

Went to the French station to get the duck confit. Hmm.. I think the price had went up a bit since opening, right? Thought duck confit was priced at $10 but now its at $12 instead. Anyhow, went ahead and ordered. Was given the electronic buzzer and it will light up and vibrate when the dish is ready to be collected.

electronic buzzer

The electronic buzzer went off while I was on 'guard' duty for my table. All my friends were away queueing for their food while the buzzer was lighted up and vibrating furiously! Hahaa. And, the lady at the French station wasn't too happy when I turned up to collect like 5 minutes later.

duck confit

crispy skin

tender meat

I think this was my first duck confit, ever. Heard about how salty it tends to be, and was rather relieved when I took a bite off the version here. Skin was nicely crisp and not too oily. The meat was fork tender and not too salty. Yums. Could do with a little more sauce though.

The rest of my friends went to get their food from the Mediterranean (Greece and Turkey) station.

grilled salmon

chicken kebab

rosti

rice (or was it barley) that came with the salmon

fish (sea bream) aglio olio

The rest of them got their fruit smoothies (@$4.90) and I had a taste of the strawberry version. Nice and thick. Quite yums.

Medz was having a DBS/POSB credit card promo where one can get 25% off the total bill (no minimum spend to enjoy this offer).

Thai Tanic @ Jalan Besar

Located at the ever busy Jalan Besar where cars zooms past every now and then. Lucky, is how you get to park your car nearby.

Went on a Friday night, and the place was full. The only seats available was outdoor and almost blocking the walkway. Numerous newspaper cuttings were pasted on its glass door.

front entrance (newpaper clippings on the left)

large menu of its best dishes displayed outside

thai iced tea and milk tea are actually same same

We were in a party of 5, so we ordered a couple of items to share. Previous reviews were almost always about its BBQ steamboat but majority didn't want to eat steamboat that night, so we decided to go ala-carte items. Pineapple fried rice, green curry, fish cakes, stir fried chicken with basil, stir fried kai lan with pork, oyster omelette, phad thai and for desserts, we ordered red ruby, coconut jelly and glutinous rice with mango. And for drinks, thai iced tea.

thai iced milk (aka milk tea)

For me, the epitome of a good Thai iced tea is that it must have a strong tea taste, milky and smooth (but usually tends to be quite sweet) and if use crushed ice, then all the better! Here, it tasted pretty much like a glass of very sweet milk tea. I'm still yearning for my Amari Watergate's cafe thai iced tea...

Anyway, our food soon arrived in quick succession and our tiny table couldn't accommodate so many plates! I think it was Raymond who noticed that, and offered to join another table next to us, as soon as the previous diners left. Thanks! A table for my so-called 'photoshoot' before the dish is devoured. Muahahaha!

pineapple rice

green curry

fish cake

stir fried chicken with basil

Liked the pineapple rice because the rice was not too soft, has ample ingredients like floss, cashew nuts, diced pineapples and raisins. Tasty and goes well with the green curry. Speaking of green curry, it was quickly polished off by us famished few. Milky and spicy, and served hot! A very agreeable taste and good as gravy for the rice. Hmm, found the fish cake and stir fried chicken with basil as so so only. The basil chicken was quite spicy as well.

stir fried kai lan with pork

oyster omelette

The stir fried vegetable looked innocent enough, but there was a few pieces of chili lurking inside. Everyone loved the oyster omelette. Quite a lot of oysters in this dish.

phad thai

condiments for the phad thai

However, one of our discerning makan kaki detected that the phad thai had an 'unusual' smell, which she described as "noodles that were kept for far too long inside a cupboard' kind of smell. Musty. Perhaps. So we sniffed and sniffed and all four concluded that yes, indeed, it had. So we sent it back to the kitchen and they offered to refry a new plate for us. Good service recovery.

coconut jelly (agar agar)

mango with glutinous rice

The coconut jelly was agar-agar like texture and only a hint of coconut taste. Nice, not too sweet. Liked the glutinous rice with mango. Glutinous rice was served warm, slightly sweet and saltish due to the coconut milk. Tasted very rich too. The sprinkle of sesame was nicely decorative. Mango was not very sweet and perhaps if it was chilled, then it will taste superb with the warm rice. Yums!

Next, was our mysterious bowl of red ruby. At first, we were served this:

wah.. such a big bowl of red ruby

But we were busy eating other stuffs, so didn't have time to deal with the red ruby yet. Then it was taken away from us. We heard something like need to change the bowl. Ok, we thought. So, it came back looking like this:

red ruby.... with more coconut milk and different bowl?

Hmmm.

red ruby which tasted rather nice and waterchestnutty crunchy

Unfortunately, there was an incident with regards to the red ruby dessert and again, we had to send it back to the chef but this time round, we did not have the mood to eat it anymore. The lady boss apologized and this item was struck off our bill.

So all in all, our meal costs about $80 in total for 5 pax. The service staff here are all very likeable and earnest. Perhaps we were just a tad unlucky in encountering two incidents in one meal.