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.