Curry House CoCo ICHIBANYA 壱番屋 @ Star Vista

This top curry rice restaurant chain from Ichinomiya, Aichi (Nagoya) Japan, is also known as CoCo Ichiban or CoCo Ichi. According to wiki, カレ (karē) is one of the most popular dish in Japan and カレーライス (karē raisu) is a ubiquitous dish in Japanese household. It is quite amazing that CoCo Ichi has a thousand over branches in Japan alone, and another thousand over more worldwide!

restaurant

Such popularity! Makes one even more curious to try it. The chance came, in the form of an invited tasting session, much thanks to the good people from Imagine Consultancy and CoCo ICHIBANYA.

good curry, good taste

The restaurant was moderately busy on a mid-week evening. I do like Japanese curry rice, especially beef curry. But I've never had omelette curry rice before, and CoCo Ichi has it, so right from the start, I knew what I wanted. Target locked.

show me the curry!

Food tasting and curry rice. Hmm. Overload of carbs? No worries. For small eaters, the menu here is pretty customizable. Prefers less or more rice? Yes, you can. Choose level of spiciness? Yes, you can. Add toppings? Yes, you can.

more or less

Started off with mini-salad. Nicely refreshing with crisp greens.

mini salad (available as part of Set Menu top-up @$3.50++ for 2 items of either a drink or dessert)

dig in!

Omelet Hashed Beef Rice (non-spicy @$14++)

Hashed beef rice is also known as Hayashi rice. Western-styled and its sauce is a demi-glace with tomatoes. Non-spicy and some sweetness. Not too thick and quite yummy. Prefers slightly fattier beef slices though.

fluffy omelet and sticky japanese rice

Next, pork curry rice with Level 1 spiciness. Very very mild, slightly thick curry and enjoyable. This one would be the Indian-influenced curry.

pork curry rice

Ordered Pork Cutlet Omelet Curry Rice with a Level 3 spiciness for comparison, and the verdict? Had some heat but still manageable. In fact, it was not easy to break out a sweat. My bro preferred Level 1, while I thought Level 2 and 3 were pretty similar. Unfortunately, the pork cutlet was rather lean and slightly tough that day.

pork cutlet omelet curry rice

If your tongue starts to tingle from too much heat, then perhaps a smoothie to cool it down? Mango flavour was definitely much stronger than orange! Nicely cold.

mango orange smoothie

The chicken karaage omelet curry rice had very good karaage. Tender bite sized chunks, freshly fried but limited edition with only 6 pieces!

karaage omelet curry rice

How about some desserts? Ice-cream and cheesecake!

vanilla and strawberry ice-cream

green tea cheesecake

The green tea cheesecake has three layers; cheese, red bean and green tea base. Most prominent was the slightly bitter green tea base. Most surprising was that there wasn't any cheese taste in this dessert. More like tofu pudding with dense green tea base. The red bean layer was useful to offset the bitterness by having some sweetness to it.

Special thanks to Glenn, Taisong and CoCo ICHIBANYA for the invite.

CoCo ICHIBANYA

Address: #02-06, Star Vista, Buona Vista
Tel:  (65) 6570 2457
Website: www.cocothailand.com , or 
http://www.ichibanya.co.jp/english/index.html

Fish & Co @ Novena Square

Located at Level 3 of Novena Square. Visited on a weekday for lunch and it wasn't crowded.

signature tabletop accessory

ample seats

It must've been awhile since I last visited Fish & Co (any branch). Just realized that they've implemented iPad ordering system. But no, they didn't do away with service charge.

order here

For students, one could get the Student Specials of a Fish & Chips and a drink for just $9.50. Need to show the student pass for verification.

whitebait (@$5.95++)

prawn fritters (@$5.95++)

The whitebait portion was quite small. Preferred the prawn fritters. No doubt it was quite oily, but the batter was crisp and the prawn wasn't that tiny. The chili dip was nicely refreshing.

Seafood Platter for 2 (@$40.95++)

The platter was good, lots of chips and we had taken a liking to the sauce that coated the mussels.

black pepper cod (fingerlings portion) @$9.95++

If you happen to see 'fingerling' mentioned in the menu, it means a smaller portion. Was quite dissappointed by the grilled cod fingerling. The fish was tough and tasteless. One wouldn't have expected this from a 'cod' fish.


Payment via Citibank card would get 10% off on ala-carte items.

NeNe Chicken @ Star Vista

Located at Level 1 of The Star, 1 Vista Exchange Green otherwise known as Star Vista at Buona Vista. Small small shop, and rather warm inside. Visited on a Friday evening, and its diners composition was made up of small group of friends, couples and single diner. Takeaway waiting time is 15-20 minutes.

Service staff that night were young teenagers. Service was alright.

takeaway

attractive looking box

Green Onion Chicken Tender Meal with extra freaking hot sauce (@$10.90)

Hmm. The chicken tenders and buffalo sticks (fries) looked rather sad, don't they?

tasty but limp as limp can be

breast meat

The chicken pieces were quite small, and could be finished in two bites each. It was cold, and as it was breast meat, it was rather dry too. Best to reheat the cold chicken.

green onion sauce and freaking hot sauce (red)

Its original green onion sauce (tasted like a mix of soy and wasabi) was quite nice. Loved the freaking hot sauce. No worries, its heat was bearable and likeable. Mix these two sauce together for better effect. Nice.

The small radish cubes were good too, but only if you like pickles in the first place. Just found it abit too sweet.

chicken pieces coated with sauce

Perhaps, wings or chicken pieces with bones would be a better choice as compared to chicken tenders?

Mel's Drive In @ Universal Studios Singapore

Located at Resorts World Sentosa Universal Studios. Pretty near the entrance. Visited on a Friday, during lunch hour, around 1-ish.

lunching in

plenty of photo opportunities with the retro cars

best burger in town?

The air-conditioning inside the diner wasn't very strong, but any cool air is better than the scorching hot sun outside.

Its interior reminds me of the show 'Happy Days'. Think neon lights, think juke box.

order and pay at this counter

interior

It claims to have the best burger in town, hence ordered a double cheeseburger (@$12+) to try. The burger comes with fries, and without drinks. Had a bottle of apple juice (@$3.80+). Payment via Mastercard to get a 10% discount.

double cheese burger (beef), served with fries and a bottle of apple juice

Such a small bottle of apple juice. For about the same price, one could get a large carbonated drink or ice-lemon tea.

double cheese burger with lettuce, onions and tomato, smothered with thousand island

The beef patty actually had very little taste. Most of the flavour came from the sauce and cheese. The fries were rather limp.

time for more rides

A meal here would costs about $15.

Ichiban Boshi @ Causeway Point, Woodlands

Located at Level 5 of Causeway Point. Visited on a mid-week evening, the restaurant had quite a few empty tables but no one to show the people in the queue to their tables. Hmm.

menu

Anyway, eventually we got our seats. Tried their bestseller sake, the Hana Awaka Sparkling Sake (@$15.90++).

Ozeki Hana Awaka 7% alcohol, -60 250ml

junmai sparkling - light, fizzy and sweet

Light and refreshing, and feels quite pristine. The fizz came in the form of tiny bubbles. Doesn't feel like one is drinking alcohol. Taste wise, pretty similar to makgeolli (korean rice wine) but minus the cloudy bits, and has a more refined taste.

Asahi sashimi (@$19.90++)

Was hankering for some fresh sashimi. Scallop was tiny and sweet. Liked the crunchy akagai (I think?) sashimi.

Hanasaki Ika Tempura (@$7.90++)

Worse order of the night was the ika tempura. Mostly flour bits. Very very little squid. Lots and lots of fried batter.

Tea refill was upon request. Service can be further improved.