J's Restaurant @ Purvis Street

If you're looking for some halal Mexican food with select few Spanish influenced ones, then J's the right place to be. Limited seating downstairs but I heard that they can fit 20 pax upstairs.

menu

Menu selection is somewhat limited, but it's good that they chose to focus on what they do best. At J's, one could expect nicely presented food, and of good portion size.

Started off the meal with Chef's Salad, which was served in a very elongated plate. Yes, very.

Chef's Salad @$18++

daily servings of greens

Though the long plate enabled easier sharing amongst two tables, it was a pity that the ingredients aren't evenly distributed. One end had all the smoked salmon, mozarella while the other end had some good eggs with soft yolk. Unless you need your greens and your main course doesn't have any, then go for this. Otherwise, skip this and go for other appetiser.

Soup of the day - mushroom @$8++

Mushroom soup was served very hot, and thus be warned. Tasted smooth and liked the enoki mushrooms in it.

For main course, our table had quesadillas, paella and sirloin beef.

Chicken Quesadillas - $22++

The quesadillas looked good, and bet it tasted good too.

yummy

Paella seemed like a perennial favourite amongst the patrons of the restaurant. Almost every table has it. But fajitas might well be the top favourite as I saw plates after hot plates being served.

Paella (single serve) - $28++

Paella (servings for 2) - $39++

The saffron paella looked appetising with its yellow hues but the proteins in it which consist of chicken, salmon and tilapia all tasted somewhat the same. Liked that the paella was done with extra moistness. How about a seafood version soon?

sirloin beef @$32++

grass-fed New Zealand beef - done medium rare

The beef was done up pretty good. Pink center and its sides charred appropriately. Good meaty chew, juicy at center parts and smokey char good at its outer sides. Loved the garlic mash. So yummy. Enoki appeared again and it was so good to be eaten with the garlic mash. Didn't fancy the carrot though.

Didn't have a chance to get desserts though as the churros were sold out by the time we finished our mains.

Expect to spend about $40 to $50 per pax. With the Entertainer App, you could enjoy savings when dining at participating restaurants. J's included as one of the Entertainer Singapore 2015 merchants.

Bali Thai @ Velocity Novena Square

Last visited a year ago in April 2014. Here's the link to previous visit. This time round to try the set lunch.

it's been a year

table setting

There was just about four choices for set lunch. Priced at $11.80++ for one noodle or rice dish and a drink.

seafood phad thai with dracula? hmm...!

Had a pot of tom yum seafood soup to share amongst 3 pax.

seafood tom yum soup @$14++ (good for 3 pax)

The tom yum soup was good. Not the most authentic, but nice. Sourish with a bite, spicy with a slight kick. Plenty of soup left for one more bowl to whet the appetite.

mussel, squid, prawn and mushroom

The basil leaves minced chicken came out pretty fast. The phad thai only arrived about 10 to 15 minutes later.

basil leaves minced chicen

The minced chicken had a good interesting bouncy bite, with sweetish savoury sauce and plenty of chopped crunchy french beans. Goes well with the rice. Felt really stuffed after eating this. Pretty filling.

The drink that was suppoed to come with this set was the Thai Iced Tea. Unfortunately, they ran out of it, so had it replaced with salty plum which was basically soda water with a mixture of salty plum to be stirred into the soda. Interesting drink, but hadn't figure out why the rim of the glass has salt when one was drinking from the straw...

salty plum

Singapore Food

Should the question on what food that best represents Singapore culture arises, then my answer would be...you'll need to try a lot of food in order to answer that! Singapore, alike with its neighbour Malaysia, is a melting pot with many cultures. As such, we get variety and distinctive flavours from each but collectively, these forms the rich flavours of Singapore.

Singapore food - variety of flavours

Personal favourites of mine? Currently, on weekends, I'd like to wake up to a bowl of steaming hot lor mee 卤面, with chockful of ingredients and all the dark gooeyness. But of course, the queue to get this bowl of goodness, is unfortunately included as well.

lor mee

On days that I have no idea what I'd like to eat, then chicken rice would be an option to take.

steamed chicken, with piquant spicy chili and free soup

Thanks Seth for the prompt to post. You might want to check out www.foodpanda.sg for your favourite food delivery.

Red Dot @ Dempsey

Was at Red Dot recently for a drink, and its current seasonal beer is an SG50 drink. Looks pretty with its nice reddish hue, it has a heavy yeast taste but fruity as well especially towards the middle. Dragonfruit beer, they say. Nice.

half pints of SG50 beer at Red Dot

For snacks, get the satay. One of my favourites. Beef usually is more chewy and sinewy, so this time round we got the chicken and pork satay. Not sure how they do it, but the chicken sticks were quite consistent every time that we're there. Tender, well marinated and very enjoyable. Pork was slightly tougher but with a good char from the grill.

chicken and pork satay @$20++

And of course, for even lighter bites one could get the silver fish. Come to think of it...actually, isn't it supposed to be called whitebait? Silverfish are those tiny stuffs that crawls out from old books, no? Yikes.

deep fried silver fish (whitebait) @$12++

Expect loud and noisy at this place. They had live-performance the day of visit. Spending wise, it's about $40 to $50 per pax, depends.

Mitsuba Japanese Restaurant @ The Central Clarke Quay

Looking for Japanese ala-carte buffet that's value for money? You might want to head on to Mitsuba Japanese Restaurant, conveniently located at Level 3 of The Central, Clarke Quay.

Chef Low Chee Hui helms the kitchen, and has been busy dishing out plates after plates of delicious food. Was recently invited to try the food there and here's an account of that experience.

いらっしゃいませ

Once inside, diners will likely be greeted by restaurant manager, John Chia. An amiable, friendly and polite guy who knows his sake.

booth seats

Booth seats offers more privacy while us plebeians dine at the open common area. Actually, didn't mind it at all since we got the window seats with a nice view to enjoy.

view from our table window

For non-buffet items, one could opt for the Haru Chirashi Sushi which comprises of sliced thick cut sashimi, rice, pickles, miso soup and fruits. Shioks to eat the thick slices of raw fish!

Haru Chirashi Sushi @$28++

Or for sharing, one could get the Unatama maki うなたままき. Crunchy tempura batter with savoury eel and fluffy egg roll at its center. Yums.

unatama maki @$16++

 
Fancy trying horse hair crab (or hairy crab) from Hokkaido? You can have one for $38++. For distribution, just need to peel off the center shell, break the crab into half and tear off its legs one by one.

ケガニ

attack!

There's plenty of options for sake here. Tried the Kuboto Senju from Niigata. Easy to drink, dry, mild tasting and with some sweetness.

乾杯!

The perfect accompaniment for the sake are foods such as the tasty savoury Ebi Mentaiyaki and Hotate Mentaiyaki.

Ebi mentaiyaki @$12++ (2 pieces) and hotate mentaiyaki @$12++ (3 pieces)

Sometimes we just want something hot to warm the tummy. Try the ikura chawanmushi. It was like an elevated chawanmushi with bursts of umami'ness.

ikura chawanmushi @$8++

Or, have the steaming hotpot of tara nabe with plenty of vegetables and chunks of cod fish swimming in a simple light soy based broth.

tara nabe (cod fish and vegetable hotpot) @$30++

If you prefer teriyaki cod, they have it here as well. Perfectly cooked, with a good oily mouthfeel. Nice to have it with a bowl of rice and miso soup. Most of the ala-carte items can be topped up with $6++ for a set, which means it can be served with rice or udon set which basically contains one carb, otoshi, miso soup (for rice set) and fruits.

gindara teriyaki @$22++

Mitsuba also offers ala-carte buffet at a reasonable price of $36.90++ (correct at the time of publishing, please check restaurant's website for updated info).

ready to rumble

As usual, let's start with a plate of sashimi moriawase. The thick slices brought a smile to everyone's face.

sashimi moriawase (salmon, hamachi, mekajiki, tai, maguro)

Of course, can't miss out on tempura items. Tasted crispy and fresh.

mixed tempura

Another must-try item would be the buta kakuni dish; Japanese braised pork belly. This was love at first bite. That sauce, by gosh... that sauce was a winner. Well marinated with flavours fully absorbed into the meat. Good.

buta kakuni 豚角煮

Plenty of light bites too. More sake perhaps? Yes, please!

takoyaki

gyoza

shisamo

The takoyaki and gyoza were both deep fried and quite crispy. Snacks, I called them. Grilled tebasaki (mid-wings) were only lightly salted but somehow, I liked that light flavours. Juicy meat was a plus point too.

grilled tebasaki

Not commonly available for buffet, but it is at Mitsuba, do remember to try the dobin mushi; traditional Japanese seafood broth served in a teapot.

dobin mushi 土瓶蒸し

no time to dilly dally

Ended on a sweet note with cream puffs and single scoop ice-cream.

cream puffs @$3++ (4 pieces)

yuzu ice-cream @$5++

matcha ice-cream @$4++

An enjoyable dinner with good company. Special thanks to Mitsuba for hosting and HGW for the invite.

Mitsuba Japanese Restaurant

Location: 6 Eu Tong Sen Street #03-88 The Central, Singapore 059817
Website: http://www.mitsuba.com.sg/
Telephone: (65) 6227 0388
Opening hours:
Lunch: 11:30 am to 03:00 pm
Dinner: 06:00 pm to 10:00 pm