O'Coffee Club @ Paragon

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.

Uma Uma Ramen @ The Forum Shopping Mall, Orchard

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.

龙星光酒楼 @ Jiuxianqiao Lu, Beijing

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.

Fish Mart Sakuraya @ West Coast Plaza

Located at B1 of West Coast Plaza. Just walk straight from the entrance near the taxi area and one can see the shop already.

Shop entrance is via the fish mart. Visited on a weekday for dinner and there were plenty of seats available.

menu

small plates

If you're looking for bento sets during dinner time, then you won't be able to find one here. Sushi don is available though.

hitachino nest white ale (@$8.50)

Happy to see craft beer available here. Hitachino Nest White Ale was yum on a warm night. Taste was light and fruitty.

golden fruitty flavour

For mains, my colleague had the salmon don while mine was the chirashi don.

Chirashi Don (@$14)

thin slice of salmon

consistently thin slices

Chirashi Don has three types of fish, all consistently sliced. Rather thin. Ginger was well pickled but the rice felt somewhat lacking.

asari miso soup (@$5), chuka wakame (@$3) and tori karaage (@$6)

must have some greens

Asari miso soup tasted more of miso than clams. The tori karaage was pleasant and tasty. The thigh meat was firm but not dried out. Hint of ginger.

Service was adequate. Requests for an empty bowl, or an extra glass were acceded to. The only difference was, one was delivered with a smile while the other was done with a doesn't-give-a-hoot look. O..k...

Pay at the cashier when you're done. If not using the towels, then just return it to the cashier.

Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House @ ION Orchard (Part II)

Didn't realize that it has been a year since the last visit. Wow. Ok, was there on a weekend and boy, there was already a queue at 1130am.

ready to order

Ordered some dim sum items and friend wanted the pig trotters pot. Pig trotters for brunch? Hmm, what kind of combo is that??

chinese tea (香片@$2++)

One year has passed, and yes, the patrons are all still seated pretty near each other. Quite a few Japanese diners too.

My must-haves for Hong Kong dim sums are siew mai, beef balls and custard bun. Couldn't find the panfried carrot cake on the menu so opted for steamed yam cake. Keke, ok ok. I admit. It was the lap cheong that made me do it! Turns out to be not bad, with enough lap cheong to carry the taste although panfried carrot cake would've been a much preferred choice.

Beef balls were bouncy and tender, and doesn't have too much of the dried tangerine peel (陈皮). In fact, almost none was detected.

steamed siew mai (@$4.80++)

steamed beef balls with vege (@$3.60++)

steamed yam cake (@$3.60++)

steamed custard bun (@$4.20++)

salty sweet lavalicious~

And my friend ordered his exotic combo. These:

beef brisket rice roll (@$6++)

pig trotters pot (@$14++)

If only the beef brisket was more tender....if only the cheong fun was wrapping tender stewed brisket instead of it being 'kosong' and rolled-up...sighs.

The pig trotters were quite soft and collageney (mostly skins). Had a hint of herb flavours. I seriously feel that no one would order this with their dim sum.

The meal costs about $23 per pax. The rice rolls did a pretty good job of filling us up.

Here's a link to first visit.