天晴 Appare Udon & Tempura Japanese Restaurant @ Novena Square 2

Located at Level 2 of Square 2. Opened in April 2014, so it is fairly new. The first thing one notices, would be the huge serving bowls for the udon!

Already tried their udon and tempura, so wanted to try something else for this visit. Earlier visit saw teething problems, not unexpected as of newly opened restaurants. During April visit, our food did not come till much later, and we were given a free-piece of tempura. For this visit, the food came out in good speed.

nabeyaki udon @$16.50++

tempura prawns, fish cake, mushroom, peas and raw egg

Had to wait a few minutes to heat up the udon and to cook the raw egg. While waiting for that, my seafood donburi was served.

seafood donburi @$16.50++

There's salmon, tuna, scallops and ikura. The rice was not heavily vinegared and the whole bowl had a homely and mellow feel to it.

plenty of toppings

The donburi came with miso soup.

miso soup

Some service staff are fairly new, and hence could be a bit clueless. However, there was one staff that was pretty attentive to our needs. Tea refilled every so often. Came over to ensure that the raw egg in nabeyaki udon was properly cooked, and even gave a refill for miso soup. Excellent service.

Green tea is complimentary and total bill came up to $19.50 per pax.

Yi Jia Le Seafood Delivery (一家乐煮炒外卖) & Shi Fu Ge (食福阁) @ Foodpanda

Had previously used Foodpanda, so once in a while will receive email offering discounts or vouchers. Feeling lazy one weekend, so decided to use the voucher before it expires (only valid for 3 days).

Very quickly settled on Shi Fu Ge as the delivery menu looks more manageable (aka reasonably priced and minimum order is $30 with additional $3 for delivery).

Chinese zhi char food it is, and for two pax. Assam fish head, omelette egg, salted egg yolk pork ribs and white rice. Both small portions for the omelette egg and pork ribs. Total bill was $43.50 before the use of discount voucher.

The total estimated delivery time shown online was 2 hours. Various modes available for payment. Once that's done, there should be a confirmation email for the delivery order. There will be an automated sms sent out to indicate that the restaurant had received and confirmed the order. Though the sms stated 105 minutes for delivery to arrive, the initial estimation of 2 hours was more accurate.

Previously, the experience with Indian food order was that the butter chicken that costs us $17++ came in the normal noodle soup container size. So this time round, we waited with trepidation on how the fish head will turn out. Thankfully, it arrived in a good sized round container!

'Ang kueh' assam fish head @$21

closer view of the ingredients

The assam fish gravy was really appetising. Sourish but not overly. Brinjal looked abit raw but actually pretty juicy. The fish was a tad overcooked.

salted egg pork ribs (咸蛋排骨) @$12

Hmm. For some reason I had expected pork ribs as in pork ribs with the bone-in. Haha...The pork ribs were lean and some meat was quite tough. Turned out quite oily too, otherwise the salted egg flavour is there although abit mild.

egg omelette (芙蓉蛋) @$6

The white rice portion was actually adequate per pax and came in individual styrofoam box, much like when we 'da bao' rice outside. Had ordered 3 white rice (@$0.50 each) as precaution and ended up with one extra that was kept for the next day as we couldn't finish.

Ate as much as we could, and there was enough for the next day too. The meal can actually feed 3 pax easily.

Soup Restaurant @ United Square

Located at B1 of United Square. Finding for that escalator to move downwards to basement in United Square took a bit of time.

This restaurant has a lot of secluded corners so there was that bit of privacy, though our corner actually has clear glass that outside can see. Haha!

@Soup Restaurant

typical cover charge

Dinner with two lovely ladies. Ex-colleagues that have known each other for about 7 to 8 years now? How time had passed by so quickly.

Was already 8pm, so decided on 3 dishes to share and a pot of soup.

order chit

chrysanthemum tea (sweetened and refillable)

Service was efficient. Food was delivered in quick succession and tea regularly topped up.

lotus root soup with pork ribs (medium)

For soups, one could order individual portion with various properties. For example, they have 'Healing', 'Strengthening', 'Wellness' type of soups. However, seemed like only lotus root soup has a bigger portion for sharing.

lotus root pork ribs soup (莲藕汤)

Soup was simple and flavourful. Plenty of pork ribs in the pot.

Samsui Ginger Chicken

Steamed white chicken with tender flesh. Lettuce was really sweet and crisp. Best eaten with lots of those yummy ginger. Oily, yes but it is a necessity!

leaf lettuce (油麦菜) with fried dace fish

Usually will order sweet potato leaves (番薯叶) if its in the menu. Decided on something different and friends liked it. Leaf lettuce has that slightly rough feeling but yet still gentle to eat. First time having it with fried dace fish.

hometown fried fish belly (鱼腩)

Loved the thick slices of fried fish belly. Firm and tasty with the simple sauce.

Hearty homely meal with good friends. Thank you guys!