Pho House @ Suntec City

Located at Level 3 near Toy's R Us Suntec. It's where a small colony of restaurants exist close to one another.

shop front

It was an impromptu decision to have Vietnamese food that night. We were there at about 8pm on a Saturday. Their menu board displayed the set meal combinations available. If not wrong, there were a total of 17 sets to choose from. The formula was pretty simple. Have a set meal at $13++, and you can choose 1 appetiser (either spring roll or rice roll), 1 main course (either noodles or rice) and 1 drink (either ice-lemon tea or Vietnamese drip coffee).

Once decided to eat there, we were led to our table very quickly and I think it's because there weren't many customers, they gave 2 tables for us 2 pax. Haha, spacious. My friend ordered a satay chicken rice set while I chose pho bo. Both of us ordered prawn rice roll as appetiser. For drinks I had ice-lemon tea, while my friend chose a Vietnamese drip coffee.

hoi-sin sauce at the bottom left, and vietnamese fish sauce with chili at the top

prawn rice roll (goi cuon)

The fresh spring roll was nice. Light and refreshing. I liked it dipped in the chili fish sauce. Mildly sweet and not salty at all. Basil leaves in the spring roll gave it that extra oomph. Fragrant.

satay chicken rice

salad with chicken strips

satay chicken

Tasted a little of the satay chicken, and it was quite salty. Probably need to eat it together with the rice.

pho bo

beef balls, beef 'steak' and beef brisket

dipping sauce, basil and taugeh

noodles

The Pho Bo, I like! Tasty broth that was light yet flavorful and served hot. Yums! The beef brisket was tender and breaks easily when chewed. The beef balls were heavenly. Soft and tasted like it was handmade. However, the beef 'steak' was tougher and if you like chewy meat, then this one is for you. For me, I'll just go with the beef balls and beef brisket. Actually the waitress will ask which combination of ingredients you want to be in the pho bo. Either just beef balls, or beef balls and steak or everything. Maybe can ask for just beef balls and brisket? ;)

Vietnamese drip coffee

with condensed milk

My friend commented that the Vietnamese coffee served here is not strong enough. I didn't try it, so guess my dear readers have to gauge it for yourself. Mine was ice-lemon tea and it was pretty thin. But I'm not complaining as it was cooling on a warm night. When my glass had just a bit of the ice tea left, the uncle (who is a service staff there) came around and asked if I wanted a refill. Hmmm, I didn't know whether it was chargeable or not, so I declined. I was chit-chatting with my friend after dinner, and we sat there for about another 10 minutes or so. This time I had drunk all of the ice tea. The uncle came around again with the ice tea plastic jug, and offered to refill some. So I said ok. Conclusion is, the refill was free. Hahaa!

A meal here for two pax should costs under $30. Good comfort food, and friendly staff. Not the best in terms of quality, but good enough to warm the stomach and heart.

Long Xia Zhou Shi Jia @ Orchard Central

It sounded decadent. Loster porridge. Located at Level 8 of Orchard Central. We walked in without any reservation on a Saturday afternoon at about 130pm. The friendly waitstaff attended to us immediately and led us to our table by the window.

view from our table

interior of the restaurant

table setting

We enquired about the promotions that they had, such as the DBS promo of lobster porridge 1-for-1 @$29.90, as well as the hungrygowhere promo of $1 kurobuto pork for each lobster porridge order. The waitress clarified that the hungrygowhere promo is only valid for normal priced lobster porridge ($30 per pax).

Since we haven't sample their dishes before hence the 1-for-1 offer did sound more realistic for my friend and I, so we ordered that. My friend wanted to order a mutton item, but the waitress kept promoting the other meat dishes such as signature chicken, pork ribs, crocodile soup etc etc, except the mutton. My friend really wanted to eat mutton, so he insisted on ordering it. Finally the waitress said, "Today there are no mutton available unfortunately. Sorry." Hmm....

tasty pickles

The pickles (chargeable) served was quite nice. Looking at our bill, it was stated as $2 per plate. Not sure if they go by per head or per plate. Napkin is at $1 per piece.

lobster porridge (for 1 pax)

rice

I was worried about whether the portion of the lobster porridge would be too much for 1 pax to handle. In actual fact, the bowl was big, but the amount of rice inside is just nice for 1 person. So no worries ladies, you can surely finish this with some room left to savor side dishes. There was half a lobster inside there. The soup was very tasty and heavily peppered. Lobster porridge is more like those teochew fish porridge, where it is actually rice + soup served in the same bowl.

firm succulent lobster meat

It was raining slightly that afternoon, so it felt nice eating a nice warm bowl of lobster porridge. The lobster meat itself was firm to bite, but it did require a little bit coaxing to get if off the shell.

Besides the porridge, we ordered a deep fried pork ribs with glazed sauce.

deep fried pork (small)

close up view

The pork ribs looked good but it was a little too tough for my liking. Only on those pieces that had a little fat, then the meat was tender. We ordered this to provide contrast to our porridge.

We didn't order any drinks, and seeing that our airconditioner was not very strong over at our section, one waitress offered to get us ice-water. All in all, our meal of the DBS promo plus pork ribs came up to around $55. The 1-for-1 promo would probably entice people like me, someone who haven't try lobster porridge before.

Tomi Sushi @ Parco Millenia Walk

Tomi Sushi is located at Level 3 of Parco Millenia Walk. Parco Millenia seemed pretty deserted on most days that I visited, which was weekday after 7pm. It was practically empty. However, it was a different story at some of the restaurants at Level 3. There was actually a queue for one of the ramen store when we visited on a Friday evening. Making a reservation at Tomi Sushi was fairly simple and fast.

As you walk in, the wait staff will attend to you almost immediately. The place seemed to be compartmentalised into various section and each of the section seemed to enjoy some form of privacy. If not wrong, there are also private dining rooms.

wall deco

our booth seat

I liked it that they serve the customer hot green tea (free) while the customer takes his/her time to browse through the menu. We ordered ala-carte items such as anago (eel) tempura, sashimi (mekajiki and salmon), yosenabe, seafood salad, tempura set and gindara (cod fish) set.

sashimi

look at the thick slices

The seafood was nicely firm and fresh, and served with grated wasabi plus two shiso leaves for decoration. It's nice to wrap the sashimi slice (dabbed with a little sauce) and eat it with the leave. Fragrant.

seafood salad

The seafood salad consist of a nondescript looking plate of greens (tomato, cucumber, capsicum, salad leaves) and some slices of seafood such as maguro, ika, hotate and a maybe tai. But it really goes well with the rice. I realised now that I forgot to take a picture of the rice. The Niigata Koshihikari rice was really nice. Slightly glossy appearance, right level of stickiness and cooked to a level of softness that's neither too soft nor too hard.

sweet scallop!

tempura (part of a set)

Set meals comes with chawan mushi, miso soup, pickles and 2 slices of fruits. The tempura set should be eaten while it's hot. Otherwise, it'll lose its crisps.

chawan mushi

pickles

fruits

anago tempura with sea salt

The anago tempura was interesting. To me, it tasted a bit like sweet potato. The sea salt actually brings out the sweetness of the fish.

close up view of anago tempura

from the yosenabe (fish head, golden mushroom, some vege and oyster)

The soup from the yosenabe is sweet and light. But do be careful of the odd bones that came off from the fish head.

gindara set

The cod fish was fatty and tender. Melts in your mouth! I think it is really good value to order the gindara set.

Overall, the service was friendly and efficient. Tea cups refilled frequently, and plates cleared every now and then (when necessary, for example when the plate was cluttered with bones etc). The price tend to be on the high side, but the set meals are worth it.