Monday, November 14, 2011

Marutama Ramen @ The Central, Clarke Quay

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Located at Level 3, this was my first visit. Small shop, and since I was alone, was seated at the counter. No queue during day of visit, probably because it was almost half past one. Very simple menu, only two types of ramen; spicy (Aka Ramen) or non-spicy. Then there are various toppings to be added for example, Ajituke Tamago (seasoned soft-boiled egg), char siu, stewed pork belly, gyoza, seaweed etc.

menu board (don't worry, they have the English menu on the table)

Enquired about the default items that comes with the ramen ($12++) and the friendly waitress said, just 1 piece of char siu. So, decided to add one seasoned egg ($1++) and char siu ($4++) to spruce up the plain noodles.


non spicy ramen with additional egg and char siu

The soup was silky and luscious. First time trying ramen with chicken broth for its soup base. The noodles is reminiscence of wantan mee noodles, and it was slightly al-dente. Liked the green seaweed that looked like spring onions in the soup. Yeah, had actually thought it was spring onions initially! Flavourful and yums when eaten with the noodles.

springy thin noodles

Was somewhat disappointed with the egg. The yolk was overcooked!

Ajituke tamago
thinly sliced char siu that melts in your mouth

The char siu was nicely tender and has enough fats to melt in your mouth. Thought that it would be more char'ed though...perhaps ordered the wrong one?


gochisosama deshita
Iced-water is placed in plastic containers at the counter, so feel free to take as much as you need. On hindsight,  probably wouldn't recommend to finish all the soup, because I felt quite thirsty for sometime after the meal. Maybe that's why guys will eat the ramen with beer instead? Hmmm....

Total costs was $20 for the meal.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Figos Grail @ Tanjong Katong Road

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Located at 308 Tanjong Katong Road, accessible by bus #197 (that was how I got there, all the way from Jln Bukit Merah). Managed to alight at the nearest bus stop which was just 2 minutes walk away from the eatery. Its big and bright signboard is very noticeable from across the street.

shopfront


Mention Figos Grail, one would think of Dennis Chew (Y.E.S 93.3FM deejay). Nope, he wasn't there when we visited. My friends reached the place earlier at about 7.10pm and they were the first few early birds. By 830pm, the restaurant was running at full house. Reservation is recommended.

menu
interior and wall


I had arrived slightly later and my friends were already enjoying the mushroom soup and Hawaii seafood cake.

Don't be alarmed if you had ordered mushroom soup and the service crew serves you with an almost empty plate save for a few pieces of musroom and a slice of bread at the side of the plate. Where is the soup? You might ask. No worries, they will soon pour it for you from a steel container. Gimmicky, yes.

Hahaa, but fun I guess. At least something different when presenting the food. Probably the impressiveness level will go up a few notches if something else happened when the soup is poured out onto the plate, like the colour of the soup changes as soon as it touches the base of the plate or something like that.


Hawaii seafood cake with mango salsa
slightly dry on the inside

The mushroom soup tasted just fine. Nice and soothing. The hawaii cake was quite mini sized and there were 4 pieces per plate. Nice mango salsa but the cake itself was slightly dry.

For the mains, we ordered Chong Qing fried brown rice, fish and chips, and Figos Cajun chicken chop to share. Noted that the fried brown rice is $2 more than its online menu, while the fish and chips and the chicken chop is $1 more each. For drinks, we ordered 'Check-in Freeze' a white coloured mocktail drink, cranberry juice and orange juice.

orange juice


First main dish to arrive was the Chong Qing Fried Brown Rice with Chicken and Shrimp.

fried brown rice

yummy and tasty!

The fried rice was very likeable. Sweet, nicely oiled, slightly chewy grains with tiny tiny specks of saltiness (not sure if it was from chinese sausages aka lap cheong or from salted fish...too tiny to be able to decipher!). The chicken bits were scarce and just two shrimps. The shrimp was still slightly translucent which means that it was cooked just nice. Yummy!

Next, came the Figos Cajun chicken chop, the '招牌菜' (signature dish).

Figos Cajun Chicken Chop
glistening and beckoning us to bite into its juiciness

tender chicken thigh

The chicken chop was served simply with a small patch of greens, coleslaw and a small mound of mashed potatoes with shallots. Liked that the pepper sauce is not drizzled over the chicken, so diners can have the option to have it with or without the sauce.

The chicken chop was well-marinated, flavourful, tender and juicy. Good enough to eat on its own without any sauce. Slather some of the mashed potato onto the chicken meat before popping it into the mouth, and you'll be able to enjoy another dimension in taste from this tasty morsel. Yums.

Not sure what happened, but our third main course; the fish and chips only managed to arrive at our table some 25 minutes after the chicken chop was served.


Aussie fish and chips

spied some french fries hiding in there....

thick batter

Fish and chips arrived piping hot, but found that the batter was a little too thick and the fish meat disintegrated too easily when our fork made contact with it. Coleslaw was nicely tangy and sweet. The sweet mayonaise was this dish life-saver.

For desserts, we chose the Molten Chocolate cake.


on your mark... get set...
a blueberry and a quarter of strawberry (at the back), a scoop of ice-cream (was it rum flavour?) and molten choco cake
it's oooozing amazing!
erupted

I adored the molten chocolate cake. Loved it. It was sweet but not overbearing. But the ice-cream, perhaps a more adult version where the alcohol flavour is stronger (because we detected hint of rum, but not sure) or just plain vanilla ice-cream (preferably with vanilla pod) for a more family friendly version will be nice as well.

The service crew were friendly and functional. Special mention of Mr Alex Lim, who was the only one who noticed that I wasn't served any iced water when all my companions had their glasses. Thank you for your attentiveness.

Another pleasant surprise was when 10% was automatically deducted off our bill. We guessed it was because of the long waiting time for the fish and chips. Not sure too because we didn't ask for details and neither did the waitress give us any further explanation.

The total bill amounted to $91 (after 10% discount) and there was no GST charge.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Thai The Dine-In @ Sembawang Road

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Located near Chong Pang, Yishun. A newly opened Thai makan place. Visited on a Saturday evening, and business was relaxed.

The place is bright and cheery. Spacious and well-airconditioned.

interior

menu
cooked by native Thai chef
they have a delivery outfit as well


We ordered items to share. For starters, we have stuffed chicken wings, prawn cakes, curry soft-shell crabs and green mango salad. For mains, we ordered green curry (chicken), phad thai (seafood), glass noodles (seafood) and pineapple rice.  For drinks, we had Thai iced-tea, lemongrass and coconut.

water
Thai iced-tea
coconut

The food did take some time to arrive, as all items in our order were served together.

green curry and prawn cakes
prawn cakes that look like donuts!
closer view of prawn cake

The prawn cakes were cute and likely made to order as it had irregular sizes, had a dense texture but was a bit dry. Eat it with the chili sauce for more oomph.

green mango salad

closer view

The green mango salad was refreshing. Served with dried shrimps for that extra saltiness.



curry soft-shell crabs

closer view
stuffed chicken wings

closer view

The soft-shell crab was rather salty, probably due to the curry sauce. Stuffed chicken wings was alright, nicely fried and with adequate fillings. Unfortunately, the fillings were a tad dry. This can be quickly fixed by dipping it into the chili sauce.

Now for the mains.

seafood phad thai

closer view

Everyone loved the seafood phad thai. Sweet, savoury and not too oily. Yums! The squids were bouncy and fresh too!

pineapple rice
closer view

Wasn't excited by the pineapple rice. Pretty run of the mill item.

green curry (chicken)

The green curry was quite 'rich'. It has the 'lemak' feel due to the coconut milk. A bit too salty for my liking but I imagined it would be nice with hot white rice. Lots of chicken pieces in it.


seafood glass noodles

closer view

The seafood fried glass noodles was flavourful and yummy but phad thai still rocks!

To end our meal, we had desserts. Ordered the mango sticky rice, red ruby and tago something (sorry, can't remember the name for this one!)

trio of desserts
mango sticky rice

what's the name of this dessert?

water-chestnuts inside


If you can have only one dessert, just get the mango sticky rice. The glutinous rice was cooked right, served warm with the right amount of santan (coconut milk) drizzled ontop and the mango was sweet~ If the mango is more chilled, then it would've been perfect.

We paid about $12+ per pax for all the above. Note that the noodles and rice dishes are all per pax portion, so we shared it amongst the 6 of us. Not very filling, but will do. All the rest of the starters, we had a piece each. Considered our sampler meal.

Address:

369 Sembawang Road #01-05,
Sembawang Cottage,
Singapore 758382
 
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