&MADE By Bruno Ménard @ Pacific Plaza, Scotts Road

Curiouser, curiouser and that's what brought me there. The place was quiet on a Sunday afternoon, way past lunch time.

red napkin

It was no fun being a lone diner. The only table for two was smack right in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by tables meant for four and more...

casual diner

Anyway, tried the 'B' burger (@$19++) and had an iced tea (@$6++). Think my mind had a brief disconnect at that moment as I had mistakenly thought iced tea as iced lemon tea...ya, I know...I know...

The osmanthus sancha (sencha?) was a novelty, in terms of the way it was served. Osmanthus flavoured tea frozen in ice cubes and then dissolved with hot water to release the flavours. It has a sweet smell in the beginning but in terms of taste, it tasted like an extremely light green tea, or plain water. Should've just added $2++ to get a half pint of beer. *sobs*

iced tea (osmanthus sancha)

The burger looked quite manageable as it arrived on the table.

The 'B' Burger (served with garlic & vinegar fries)

shoestring fries

The fries tasted more of garlic than vinegar. In fact, hardly any vinegar taste at all.

dry aged beef patty, caramelized onions, comte cheese and garlic mayo

First time having comté cheese and thought it had melted quite nicely on the patty. According to wiki, comté cheese ought to have a certain grading for taste in order for it to be called as what it is, otherwise, it'll just be gruyère. Interesting.

thick patty

Quite liked the texture and the thickness of the beef patty. The overall flavours were surprisingly subtle, with just that hint of sweetness from caramelized onions, and that occasional whiff of garlic mayo and probably that bit of melted butter on the bun surface.

Felt rather stuffed by the end of the meal.

For the month of July, there's a sure-win lucky dip after one has settled the bill, and this is in conjunction with &Made's 1st Birthday Celebration. Apparently one might win a burger (a Rossini, perhaps?)

mini sundae redeemable before 15 August 2013 (terms & conditions apply)

Mado @ JEM

Located at Level 1 of JEM, and saw that they're having a Wednesday Special for $13.90 nett, and one can choose either roast lamb or salmon, served with soup of the day and a drink. Sounds reasonable so went in to try.

dessert menu

looks comfy

First up, the ice apple tea and soup of the day. Mushroom soup was pretty thin, and tasted somewhat like a watered down version of canned soup.

ice apple tea and mushroom soup

The main course was served right after the soup was finished. Liked the way it was plated. However, the fries was cold, and the meat was just lukewarm.

roast lamb rack

Thankfully, the lamb itself was tender and not too gamey. Just wished that it had more flavour and abit more charred on its outside.

lamb

Perhaps its desserts would fare better? Maybe ice-cream (and/or turkish desserts) plus italian coffee would be a better choice?

Service staff was generally friendly but further training would be beneficial to their operations.

Din Tai Fung @ JEM

Located at Level 2 of JEM, this eatery was always busily churning out steamers after steamers of xiao long bao or chinese pork dumplings.

full house

chefs at work

Visited on a Saturday for late lunch around 2.30pm and still needed to queue for another 15 minutes. For those rare first timers to this eatery, do take the queue number from the counter staff before waiting.

beancurd appetiser

Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing

The beancurd appetiser was nicely sweet and has good texture. Ordered a bowl of ramen soup with vegetable wanton to share, and we could portion out 5 tiny bowls with one wanton each.

vegetable wanton ramen soup

single portion

The ramen soup was rather bland and the tangy appetisers were partly to be blamed as well. Didn't like the vegetable wanton either.

stir fried spinach

pork chop fried rice

well fried pork chop

egg fried rice

Somehow, the fried rice here doesn't seem as tasty as other branches that I've tried. It's pretty toned down. But my sister likes the pork chop very much.

The star at Din Tai Fung, is still its xiao long bao (小笼包).

regular pork dumplings!

vinegar and ginger

Also tried specialty dumpling; Chili Crab Xiao Long Bao (4 pieces @$6.80++).

chili crab dumplings with one regular pork dumpling in the middle for size comparison

chili crab dumpling

The chili crab dumplings are touted as 40% larger than regular ones and it was flavourful, with its sweet and not quite spicy chili crab broth.

The restaurant was rather busy and hence, getting tea refills requires some patience.

The meal costs about $83 and fed a family of five adults.