PappaMia @ River Valley Road

Located at 429 River Valley Road, it's a corner shop with huge signboard so it's easy to spot.

from across the street

It serves local food such as Ipoh kway teow soup, char kway teow, laksa, toast bread, soft boiled egg etc in a cafe setting. It also has western fares such as burgers, sausages, steaks, chicken chops etc from Botak's. For drinks, expect the usual hainan kopi, teh, beers, to the unusual cucumber drink.

bar @ Level 2

It's a pretty laid back shop, with outdoor and indoor seatings.

menu

lunch deals

For draught beer, Stella Artois goes  for $10 nett per pint or $8 nett for half pint.

Service was pretty nonchalant as well. Items that they no longer serve such as sandwiches were still in the menu. Ended up ordering fish otah with toast bread, and cheese fries to munch. For drinks, we had ice lemon tea and honey lemon.

ice-lemon tea ($2.80++)

lemon honey ($3.50++)

cheese fries ($7++), fish otah with hainan toast bread ($5.90++)

chunky cheese fries

hmm, wrong cheese?

First time having cheese fries with non oozy cheese, and it costs $7++ for that. Should just skip this. The otah on the other hand, was not bad.

fish otah, steamed

crunchy toasted bread

Ate the otah like a bruschetta. Break a small piece of the toast and spread some otah on it before popping the tasty morsel into the mouth. Nice.

Here's the link to second visit.

La Villa @ River Valley Road (Part II)

Was there on a rainy weekend afternoon. Decided to pop in for lunch since the rain was too heavy for anyone to go anywhere else on foot without getting wet.

rainy day

Having tasted their excellent Angel hair Pasta with Lobster Ragout ‘Sardinia’ style before, so decided to have pasta again this time round. Ordered the Spaghetti Pasta with mixed Seafood in Squid-ink sauce.

Was actually pleasantly surprised when they brought out three different types of bread even when I'm lunching alone. Liked the white bread the most. Its inside was soft and fluffy when warm. The brown bread tasted fragrant with nutty flavours.

warm breads

favourite bread

The spaghetti was ready in just minutes after I've munched on some breads. Opted for the small portion.

seafood spaghetti in squid ink

chockful of ingredients

closer view

The sauce was nicely thick and not too salty. Many small bits of seafood inside including mussels, clams, prawns, crab meat and squid. The sauce was also tangy (from the tomatoes?) and full of flavours from the sea. However, a not so fresh seafood was detected amongst all the gems in the plate marred the experience a little. Otherwise, this could potentially be the second favourite pasta dish, right behind the Capelini with Lobster Ragout. Unfortunate, indeed.

Though it was a cold day, the good service received from staff really warmed the heart. Was welcomed by the each staff that happened to have eye contact with both upon entrance and also when leaving. While eating, there was an irritating fly that was buzzing around so one attentive staff came over to place a tealight on the table and then he also tried to chase the offending creature away. Hehe.

There's carpark rebate if you're driving. There's also a 15% discount if you're paying via Standard Chartered credit card.

Here's a link to first visit.

Kuru Kuru Japanese Restaurant @ Valley Point (Part II)

Second visit, and this time round during dinner. No difference in menu for both lunch and dinner. The only difference?  Dinner is priced slightly higher than lunch. Dinner surcharge? Also, do note that unagi items seemed to be perpetually unavailable, hence they should just remove it from the menu altogether.

Ordered the usual suspects; sashimi moriawase, shishamo, mushrooms, tebasaki (chicken wings),  beef with special sauce, chawanmushi, fried beansprouts, squid tentacles, tori karaage, makimono, ebi tempura and grilled mackerel with salt.


Shared a plate of  spaghetti with cod roe sauce from the Yoshoku (Japanese-styled western dishes ) section. Taste somewhat similar to fried noodles and strangely addictive. Likeable so we had it twice.

spaghetti with cod roe sauce

close up view of mentaiko pasta

Ordered the tori karaage with wasabi mayo from the agemono (deep fried) section. Well-fried with crispy skin and tender meat. There's crunch with each bite. Yums.

tori karaage with wasabi mayo

yummy bite-sized chicken

Mekajiki or swordfish is not available as sashimi. Only available in nigiri sushi form. The taste was alright, just not as juicy since it's quite thinly sliced.

swordfish sushi

thin slice of swordfish

My friends had the agedashi tofu. Didn't try it but it looked pretty alright with wobbly tofu.

agedashi tofu (with bonito sauce)

Also had the soft-shell crab with wasabi mayo makimono. As nice as previous visit.

soft-shell crab with wasabi mayo makimono (matt-rolled rice)

For sashimi, this was our second round. The first round of salmon and yellow tail weren't as good as the second ones. But the tuna was chewy due to tendons in between of its meat. The yellow tail was fattier in the second round. Nice!

tuna, salmon and yellow tail

looking pretty

For buffet, only hot/cold green tea is free. Any other drinks are chargeable. Expect to pay slightly more than $35 per person for buffet dinner.

We were there to celebrate our friends' birthday (July babies!), so brought a cake from The Patissier.

Happy Birthday, girls!

strawberry shortcake

The cake can be ordered online, so that was pretty convenient. Looked gorgeous but its base was very very hard to cut through. Lots of cream, soft moist cake and lots of strawberry bits in between.Sweet.

Here's a link to first visit.

Marukin Ramen @ Scotts Square

Was recently invited to a tasting session at Marukin Ramen Tokyo located at B1 of Scotts Square. First outlet in Singapore, and Marukin Ramen here favours the chicken broth for its ramen soup over the more typical pork-based ones. Not only that, there are four variations of chicken broth (Shoyu Chicken White Soup, Shio Chicken White Soup, Miso ChickenWhite Soup and the Shoyu Chicken Clear Soup) available for diners to choose from.

shop front

typical table setting

noodles menu

side dish menu

Started the night with a sampling of side-dishes. Hiyayakko, a plate of refreshingly chilled tofu with a hint of mild spicyness (from ginger flakes as well as chilli soy sauce). A light and healthy starter.

Hiyayakko (chilled tofu witth chilli soy sauce)

Then we had the Marukin Potato Salad, which I thought it looked rather cute.

Marukin Potato Salad

doesn't this resemble something cute? (imagine broad beans for its ears and cherry tomato for its nose)

The potato salad is a mixture of texture of mashed and potato cubes. This is a pretty light tasting potato salad.

Then we had the deep fried vegetables in dashi broth. Colourful dish. It has tomatoes, baby potatoes, brinjal, and bell pepper and pumpkin slices.

deep fried vegetables in dashi broth

The bell peppers were soft and absorbed much of the yummy dashi. But the pumpkin slices weren't as soft as I thought it would be.

Another deep fried item was the tori karaage. Small chunks of deep fried chicken, I like! The meat was really juicy and tender.

karaage

juicy chicken karaage

Also sampled the Marukin Gyoza. Small parcels of minced chicken meat wrapped in chewy skin.

Marukin Gyoza

small filling of minced chicken meat

How about the ramen? The chicken broth? First ramen to land on our table (and subsequently in our tummies), was the Tsukemen or dipping noodles.

Tsukemen

closer view of the chicken chashu, nitamago and kikurage mushrooms

thick noodles, chewy that's cooked just right

Tsukemen in tasting portion

Eating the tsukemen was rather fun. The warm collageny dipping broth was thick and coats the noodles with a luscious sheen. The dipping broth really made an impression with its strong rich flavours that reminds you of chicken drippings. Tasty. A few chews of the noodles and off it slids down the throat, almost effortlessly. But beware of the broth flying off in all directions as you slurped it up!

Next, the dish is what most will call the 'what-also-have' dish; the spicy ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen which we sampled in shoyu white based soup. It was nice to have the chilies served separately, so diners could have the option to control the spicyness level of their own bowl. So thoughtful.

Shoyu ISSAI-GASSAI Ramen, served with a separate side of chilies

closer look of chilies

Nitamago, chicken meatballs, shrimp wanton, chicken wing, chicken chashu, kikurage mushrooms, seaweed

thick noodles

Shoyu Chicken White soup was generally soothing and does not overpowers the taste of the rest of the items in this dish.

Next, was the Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen that has generous portions of seaweed, corn, kikurage mushrooms and green onions. Was pretty amazed by the very thin strands of ramen noodles. These ultrafine ramen noodles are produced by Marukin's in-house Soul-Men (somen) Restaurant and noodle factory in Japan.

Shio White Wakame & Corn Ramen, with thin ramen

closer view

For the finale, we sampled the (Spicy) Negi-Negi Miso Ramen but somehow that plate of chili was missing, so the only 'spiciness' for this dish came from the onions instead. Liked the comforting taste of miso.

Negi-Negi Miso Ramen

close-up

nice thick noodles with a bite

Thanks to Head Chef Tetsuya Tsuyuki (Marukin Ramen Singapore) who crafted all these wonderful flavours.

Personally, I liked the Tsukemen, thick noodles with egg and miso chicken white soup. For sides, the karaage if you're a meat lover and the deep fried vegetables in dashi for novelty.

On a side note, the Tsukemen's dipping broth has very strong flavours so you may wish to have it last if the intention is to share two bowls of ramen; say for example the Miso ISSAI-GASSAI and the Tsukemen in the same sitting. But of course, it's up to your personal preferrence.Gosh, I do sound naggy!

And since you, my dear reader has managed to sit through this lengthy post, here's a bit of a good news courtesy of Marukin Ramen. For the month of August 2012, just say "Marukin Ramen! OISHII!" when you order a main and you'll get a FREE side of the Deep Fried Vegetables in Dashi Broth! Hurry!

For other promotions, you may wish to visit their website.

Thank you Athena and Ashley for the invites.