Canele

C says:

I was all set to write something rather nasty about the service I received at Canele at Paragon, but to their credit they rectified the situation so well that now I’m feeling rather bad. To provide a fuller and more complete picture, let me explain…


I called the branch on Friday to order a Gateau Chocolat for Mothers’ Day. At first they told me collection was after 2 pm, but when I asked if I could come by at 1 pm, they said yes, and that the cakes would usually arrive from Robertson Quay by then (they’re all baked offsite at the Robertson kitchen and delivered fresh daily).

So on Sunday, promptly at 1 pm we turned up at the branch, only to be told that collection is after 2 pm. When I mentioned that the person who took my order had assured me at I could come after 1 pm, they said the delivery ‘uncle’ was on his way, and if I could please walk around for a while, they would call me the minute he arrived.

We didn’t want to wander around aimlessly, so we ended up getting a table at Starbucks opposite and nursed a coffee while waiting. Finally, at 1.45 pm we saw the uncle pushing the delivery trolley in, so after giving him a while to unload, I walked in 5 minutes later.

I was told to take a seat while they got my cake ready. After waiting for another 10 minutes, I realised that something was up when the waitress kept taking out cake boxes, checking them and putting them back, all the while looking harassed while on the phone.

Finally, she came to me and very apologetically said that my cake was still at Robertson Quay. After having spent an entire hour waiting, I couldn’t help but wail “What??!! I don’t understand, why is it still there?!” She apologised profusely, and said there were so many cakes for Mothers’ Day that they needed to do two deliveries, and it was on its way. She then said that she felt bad for making me wait any longer, and volunteered one of their delivery men to drop it off at our home or the dinner venue, whichever was more convenient.

She also offered to either give me a larger-sized cake, or something else to compensate for the trouble caused. Feeling duly mollified, I asked if she could give me a box of macarons, since I hadn’t tried Canele’s fairly famous macarons before. She agreed, and said the cake and the macarons would be delivered to our place that afternoon.


The delivery guy arrived at 3 pm, with the cake and two boxes of macarons, each containing a dozen. That was a lot more generous than I expected, figuring that they’d just fob me off with a box of 6, or 12 at most. After the delivery guy left, it suddenly occurred to me that in the whole hooha of the afternoon, I hadn’t even paid for the cake yet! I immediately called the branch and spoke to the same waitress, and when I sheepishly said I hadn’t paid yet, she said “No no no, it’s ok. It’s our fault, we made you wait for so long and caused you so much inconvenience, we’re very sorry.” By then I felt SO bad and offered to pay a few more times, but each offer was rejected. Ack.

So there you have it. Yes, perhaps they were a little disorganised, more so because it was Mothers’ Day, but you have to give them props for their fire-fighting and damage control. Very good customer service, and I must say it does pay off – now I feel obliged to patronise them more. Anyway for what it’s worth, the cake was good but could’ve been thawed a bit more before eating, and the macarons were rather impressive.

A says:

C probably scared the poor girl.
C is very scary.
She beats me.
Help.

Anyway, Canele has more than made up for the disappointing experience we had the last time. I can now recommend it again.

Canele
290 Orchard Road
B1-25, Paragon
Tel: 6733-8893
Open daily: 11 am to 10 pm

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant

C says:

The first and only time I ate at Tatsuya was on a corporate expense account, and I had one of the best Japanese meals ever, although admittedly I had no idea what I was eating half the time. With their a la carte omakase-style lunches going for as much as $150 a head, the only time we can afford to eat at Tatsuya is to have their bento lunch sets, which at between $25 and $30 are very reasonable in comparison. The best part is that their bento lunch sets are available daily from 12 to 2 pm, including weekends.

We made a booking on Friday night for Sunday lunch, and they were quite full by then (maybe Mothers’ Day had something to do with it as well) so they told us they only had the sushi counter available. Apart from being a bit squeezy, this was great because we got to see the chefs preparing all the food, including our lunches. Seeing the care and skill that went into making even our basic bento lunches is enough to convince me that the bentos are very good value for money.

There are a total of about 8 different bento sets, so there’s quite a wide variety. In addition to the Sushi Bento and Barachirashi Bento that we ordered, there’s a sashimi one, tempura, grilled fish, teriyaki chicken, grilled unagi and a Ladies’ Lunch. Each set comes with miso soup, fruit for dessert, and a chawanmushi that’s refreshingly uplifted with some orange zest. For the very first time, A actually finished a bowl of chawanmushi.


The Sushi Bento included about 6 pieces of sushi – salmon, 2 pieces of maguro, a swordfish, prawn and one more that I couldn't identify. There were an additional 6 small pieces of rolled maki, and 2 pieces of a California roll. I also had some tempura – 2 prawns, 2 pieces of lady’s finger or okra, and 1 piece of eggplant. The sushi was great – the slices of fish are pretty generous, and they give you very little rice in relation to the fish, allowing the flavour of the fish to really come through. Watching them make it, they add a few touches to it that are probably absent in more commonplace sushi chains, like adding some citrus zest and brushing a mysterious sauce on top of the sushi. These additional flourishes gave the sushi quite a bit of flavour, thereby almost negating the need to douse it in soy sauce.


Inspired by the barachirashi that we had at Akashi, A went for the Barachirashi Bento (he actually wanted mine but was put off by the tempura). They were very generous with the fish, which was good quality and very fresh. In terms of portion size it’s not huge though, so if you’re hungry you may want to go for some of the larger sets.

Generally the portions are enough to just fill you, so if you’re starving you may not be totally satisfied. All in all, we’ll definitely be back whenever we crave a fix of good quality sushi.

A says:

Very good. A bit stressful sitting right in front of sushi chefs though. Must remember not to mix wasabi in soy sause and cannot dip sushi in it.

Maybe one day, we’ll be able to afford the chef’s menu.

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant
270 Orchard Road
Park Hotel Orchard (formerly Crown Prince)
#01-05
Tel: 6737-1160
Open daily: 12 to 3 pm, 6 to 10.30 pm

Ragazzi – the Italian kitchen

C says:

Ragazzi is an unassuming Italian joint (run by Singaporeans though, not Italians) situated in a coffee shop in Ghim Moh. For a place that operates out of a stall in a coffee shop, the menu is surprisingly extensive, offering a full menu of starters and soups, pastas, main courses and desserts.

We went there for dinner on Thursday after A got back from reservist. We decided to share a pasta and a main course so that we could try a wider range of their offerings. We had the mushroom alfredo spaghetti, and the Carne Misto – a mixed grill for meat lovers.


I quite liked the pasta; in fact I preferred it to the meat, but A disagrees. The noodles were pretty well cooked, the cream sauce wasn’t too rich and heavy but still had good flavour, they were very generous with the mushrooms (shitake and button), and it didn't suffer from the fate of most food court pastas, i.e. it wasn’t overloaded with garlic such that you didn't taste anything else.


The Carne Misto was a sampler of most of the main courses on the menu. There was a lamb and sausage kebab, a portion of steak, and a huge lemon and thyme roast chicken leg, all served with side salad and mashed potatoes. Initially I thought this was good, but after a while the flavours started merging and everything ended up tasting the same. The chicken was good initially, but while it was well flavoured, the meat itself was a bit tough and lacking any sweetness. The lamb on the other hand had a rather strong aroma – avoid this if you not a big lamb eater. The steak was passable, though they looked a bit puzzled when we wanted medium rare when they asked “do you want it medium or well?”

My one complaint would be that their cutlery really isn’t suited for hard core meat dishes. Their knives are like butter knives, so it was a challenging and rather tiring affair trying to make my way through all that meat with such pathetic knife. Other than that, this is pretty decent and since it’s so close to home, definitely a good option for a simple meal. Reasonable too – our meal cost us $24 in total.

A says:

It’s not a destination point, but definitely an option for around the area. The sauce was a bit too watery for my tastes. Lots and lots of mushrooms though. I’ll try the salmon alfredo one next and hope they’re just as generous.

Ragazzi – the Italian kitchen
Block 10, Ghim Moh Road
Fu Chan Food Paradise
Tel: 9693-4228
Open daily: 12 – 2 pm; 5 – 9.30 pm

Aston’s in Jurong – Update

C says:

Clearly I spoke too soon when I said that the new Aston’s in Jurong East had no teething problems – they simply took a while to show up. We were there for dinner again with A’s parents, and it was an appalling experience.

Firstly, we waited more than half an hour for our food, only to be told that only 2 of the 4 chicken wings that we ordered were available. Fine, we accepted a refund for the other 2. Then, food arrived in bits and pieces. The Porterhouse that A’s parents ordered was too rare; they were probably rushing so took it off the grill too soon.

Then only one of the 3 soups arrived, and it tasted bland and watery. After waiting for the other 2, we were told that they’d run out of soups. Fine. So we asked for two corn on the cobs instead. THEN the garlic bread for the soup had ALSO run out, and by then I swear my patience was running dangerously thin, so we simply asked for extra corn to cover it.

The corn arrived and it was stone cold and undercooked. So off we had to go to get them to heat it up for us. All in all, what should have been a quick and simple dinner at a neighbourhood coffee shop turned out to be a long drawn and unnecessarily stressful affair.

Looks like we’re back to square one for places to eat when we visit A’s folks. Dang.

A says:

I pity the poor waitstaff who have to deal with angry customers. But seriously, if it’s going to take so long and you’re in danger of running out of food, at least tell the customers first. At least then they know what to expect and can’t complain. Botak Jones used to do it.

I seriously hope our corn wasn’t spat into. I know one waiter who told me all sorts of shit about what they’d do to the stuff sent back.

McGriddles

C says:

I don’t believe I’m actually saying this, but for the first time in a very long while, I had McDonald’s this morning. It’s all D’s fault – she told us that the new McGriddles were really yummy and got us psyched to try them this morning.


These have been available in the US for ages, but have only just reached our shores in the Macs breakfast offering. They’re similar to the McMuffins, but instead of using English muffins to sandwich the egg and sausage, these are like hotcakes with the butter and maple syrup built-in. They’re quite delicious, especially when you bite into the portions with the maple syrup. However, because of their butteriness, they’re also a bit gelak towards the end.

The McCafe cappuccino is pretty good, but the hash browns suck now. They’re way too oily and not worth the calories.

A says:


I like the taste of the “Griddle”. Not enough to make me want to eat the crappy McD’s sausage though. Yuck.

Tuckshop – 6 months on

C says:

After raving about the steak sandwiches at Tuckshop and having them almost every other week at one stage, we somehow OD-ed on them and coupled with how fast time flies, it’s been more than 6 months since our last visit.

We went with D&D on Saturday night, and expecting a weekend drinking crowd, I took the precaution of booking a table. When we got there, we were the only table and over the course of our dinner, only one other table of 2 arrived. I wonder how they’re faring on weekdays, but the turnout for dinner on Saturday was certainly not sustainable in the long run.


A still ordered the sandwich, and the mouthful that I had was still pretty good, but A thinks that it’s deteriorated.


Kudos to them for always trying to update their menu - they’ve added more new items keep things interesting. There’s a two-mushroom sandwich with Portobello and enoki mushrooms, chicken wings and instant noodles dressed with sesame oil and sliced shitake mushrooms, which I what I ordered. Because I was feeling a bit ill, this was just what I needed – some comfort food. The noodles were simple but good; my only complaint was that the noodles were a tad overdone.

I wanted the chicken wings but they were sold out, so I consoled myself with another new dish, the crumb coated chicken. Unfortunately I wasn’t too impressed with this. It was too crumbed and overfried, so the chicken ended up being dry and overseasoned.

They also claim to serve ice cream from Ice Cream Chefs in the East, but tonight their machine/freezer wasn’t working so the ice cream was melted and couldn’t be served.

I think a combination of the waitstaff’s rather lackadaisical attitude and their inconsistent food quality has led to the slowdown in customers. Now that A isn’t working in the immediate vicinity any more, I don’t think this place is worth a specific visit.

A says:

Good. But not as good as before.

Tuckshop
21 Tanjong Pagar Road
#01-05
Tel: 6534-9287

Valentino’s

C says:

Ah… always satisfying. Since A is off to reservist (for a long period of 4 days, haha) next week, we decided that that was as good a reason as any to have dinner at Valentino. It was quite a feat for me to resist ordering the lobster pasta again, but I managed, just barely.



We had a couple of the specialty starters: a Caprese salad with fresh buffalo mozzarella and Italian cherry tomatoes flown in from Sicily, and scamorza cheese with tomatoes and anchovies. The Caprese salad was a classic example of good produce, simply executed. The tomatoes, vine-ripened, were so sweet they were almost like grapes, and the mozzarella was soft and creamy. This was a fresh, clean starter compared to the scamorza that was mild yet smoky, and paired with the savouriness of the anchovies and good capers and olives.


After hearing Cousin C’s recommendations of the Fiorentine cote de boeuf, they happened to have a small portion today just nice for 2 to share. As far as steaks go, this was very good – perfectly cooked, tender, wonderfully charred on the outside and sweet inside, and drizzled with lemon juice to keep it from being too cloyingly beefy and heavy. But while it was a really enjoyable steak, I think I’d still rather have the lobster pasta.


Because we didn’t have any pasta or carbs today, we weren’t absolutely stuffed so I was able to order a slightly heavier dessert (compared to the light as air Chantilly cake). The pear and chocolate tart was still one of the lightest I’ve ever had – the chocolate filling was lightly whipped, the pears sliced really thin, and the crust was light, buttery and perfect.

We really should come here more often – it’s getting increasingly more difficult to get a reservation though, so it’s not a place that we can go to immediately satisfy a craving, but if we call two weeks’ ahead we can expect an incredible meal in two weeks’ time. The challenge is waiting that long.

A says:

This is definitely my favourite restaurant now. There’s no course that I’d want to skip. Tiramisu can’t be beat!

Ristorante da Valentino
11 Jalan Bingka (off Rifle Range Road)
Tel: 6462-0555
Tuesday to Sunday: 12 pm to 2.30 pm, 6 pm to 10.30 pm

Dozo

C says:

We finally made it to Dozo (the more upmarket sister restaurant of Tao’s) for dinner tonight, after hearing pretty good reviews from my dad, of all people. I can’t believe my dad made it to Dozo before me…

Anyway, their concept is similar to Tao’s but on a more high-end level, with better ingredients. For dinner, a 7-course meal costs $58.80 and you can choose from about 5 options per course.

As a pre-dinner amuse bouche, we were served a mango sorbet, and a platter comprising smoked salmon with sour cream atop a mint leaf, grilled scallop with asparagus, and a crostini with a small morsel of foie gras.



For starters, A had the beef carpaccio with parmesan cheese shavings, and I had the king crab claw salad. 1 point to A – the beef carpaccio, besides having a kick-ass (and rather phallic) presentation, was very tasty. In case you’re wondering, that cone is actually a cone of filo pastry that was deep fried, and the carpaccio slices wrapped around it. The actual filo didn't do much for the dish though, as it tended to detract from the delicate slices of beef.

In comparison, my crab claw salad was pretty ordinary. Not much meat on the crab leg, and the dressing was nothing to shout about.



Next were the side dishes. A had the escargot with yuzu garlic butter, and I had the foie gras chawanmushi with scallop and caviar. This was a tough call – mine will appeal to foie gras lovers because the foie gras is blended into the egg custard so each spoonful has a nice rich foie gras aftertaste. A’s escargots were surprisingly good, given that I only expect French restaurants to do good escargots.



The soups presented another tie, although I think mine narrowly edges out A’s. A had the cepes mushroom soup with truffle, and I had the seafood bisque. The mushroom soup was very similar to the one at Tao’s, but apparently they use a few more wild mushrooms here compared to simpler blend of mushroom and shitake at Tao’s. The result is something slightly richer, but not obviously so. I really liked my seafood bisque. It was full of flavour and yet wasn’t too rich or creamy. There were fairly generous pieces of crab meat in it as well.



Although their main course specialty is the grilled rib eye on hot stones, we both decided to go for fish today. A had the cod fillet with miso cream cappuccino, and as you can see, I’m clearly still not over my yellowtail collar obsession – I had the oven-baked Hamachi Kama with risotto. The cod was ok but the portion was pretty small. In contrast, my main course portion was huge, and the quality of the yellowtail collar was pretty good. All in all, I found this very enjoyable. 1 point to C.



Finally it was time for dessert. A had the sesame yin yang panna cotta – yin yang because the panna cotta was flavoured with white sesame, and served with black sesame ice cream. Separately, this wasn’t great but eaten together, both types of sesames really complemented each other. I had the warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream, which was predictable but good. The ice cream was more like gelato, and I think it would’ve been better if it had been richer and creamier. Still, 1 point to C for dessert.

Dinner was quite an experience – enjoyable, but a part of me wishes they’d tone down the dramatic plating just a tad. The place itself is a lot bigger than I expected, and it seems to be a good place for private functions. They have rooms for 4 to 6 persons, for 10 to 12, or even large groups of 18 to 20. They’ve also got a Ladies Room, done up in plush purple velvet and black lace, that would be perfect for a girls’ night out.

A says:

Service was excellent, just like Tao’s. I have to give credit to whatever training or incentive programme they have because the main waitstaff are always very good.

Food-wise, I think I might still prefer Tao’s though. While the food is good and the quality of ingredients here is somewhat better, I just get the try-too-hard-and-not-quite-making-it feel. You can tell a lot of effort went into the presentation, but the taste doesn’t quite match.

Overall, I wouldn’t mind coming back but I’m in no big hurry.

Dozo
491 River Valley Road
#02-02/03 Valley Point Shopping Centre
Tel: 6838-6966
11.30 am to 2.30 pm, 5.30 pm to 10 pm

Al Forno (Taka Italian Fair)

C says:

This is Al Forno (East Coast), not to be mistaken with the completely unrelated Al Forno Trattoria at Goldhill Centre. We’ve heard some good things about the Al Forno at East Coast, but being in the East, we haven’t dared to make our way there so we decided to give them a try when they opened a little stall in Taka’s basement for their Italian fair.

The menu at the fair (which lasts till 11th May) is apparently completely different to the menu at the restaurant – the chef said that the menu at Taka is just a hint of what’s available at the restaurant, and portions and prices are also different.



We had the Spaghetti Vongole, which wasn’t too bad, if a tad predictable. The Deep Fried Pizza was a no-go – it looked like a curry puff and was way too doughy and tasteless. The stuffed pizza – a slice of pizza stuffed with sausage, spinach and ricotta cheese – fared much better, with the ricotta giving a nice creamy texture and the spinach preventing it from too heavy.

Given that the chefs were cooking on makeshift stoves, I don't think it would be fair to expect the restaurant’s quality to be the same, but based on what we’ve tasted so far, I think there’s definitely some potential, and wouldn’t mind trying the restaurant proper whenever we next venture to the East.

A says:

The food was as good as can be expected from a makeshift Italian kiosk. I was let down by the deep fried pizza but very impressed by the stuffed pizza. Also, the chef was very friendly and not imposing at all.

Aji Tei

C says:

I’ve come to realise that even amongst mid-range Japanese restaurant chains, there are some good ones, and some really not so good ones. Akashi at VivoCity was a pleasant surprise, but Aji Tei at the basement of Takashimaya was a downright disappointment. We were there on Saturday, and were deliberating between trying Al Forno’s makeshift stall that was set up there for a 2-week Italian Fair, and the Aji Tei restaurant nearby. Had I known that it was part of the Ajisen Ramen chain, I might have had second thoughts, but based on the photos in the menu, we decided to go with Aji Tei.



Deceived! The food was nothing like how it was represented in the photos. Almost everything was disappointing; the best dish for me was the chicken wings with a sesame and barbeque sauce. The scallop sushi, which was supposed to be part of the Hokkaido promotion, was tasteless and the scallop was watery, a sure sign that it had been frozen and thawed.


The black pepper grilled pork was by far the most misrepresented. The photo made it look succulent and luscious; in stark contrast, the pathetically few slices were tough and tasted like poorly-cooked poolside BBQ. The mini salmon don was just that – mini, with some of the thinnest slivers of salmon I’ve ever seen. The salmon sushi sampler that A ordered was just ordinary.


As you can see, I’m in a grilled fish head mood, after my experience with the yellowtail collar at Akashi. Unfortunately, the salmon head here fell far, far short. The salmon was under-salted and didn’t really have any flavour at all, and the bowl of rice that I ordered was nothing like the one at Akashi either – it was soft, slightly mushy, and tasteless.

Give this place a very wide berth, given all the other dining options in the vicinity. And don’t be conned by the photos in the menu, either.

A says:

Except for my salmon which was passable, everything else was disappointing. Don't be fooled by the low prices; portions are incredibly small.

Aji Tei
Takashimaya Department Store
B2-02
Tel: 6333-8110

Aston’s comes to the West!

C says:

I didn’t realise that Aston’s has slowly but surely been expanding its reach beyond just the East. They’ve opened up a few Aston’s Express outlets in heartland coffeeshops – similar to the Botak Jones concept. There’s one in Serangoon Gardens, Bedok, Prince George’s Park and the latest one which only opened on 20th April – at Jurong East Central, right across the road from A’s parents place, woo hoo!

We had dinner there on Friday night and, expecting some teething problems, were very pleasantly surprised. We ordered a Porterhouse steak to share, as well as a spaghetti bolognese because strangely enough we both had a craving for it.

At $25.90, the steak isn’t cheap for neighbourhood coffeeshop standards, but then again the quality is also clearly in a different league. It was cooked medium-rare, as requested, and both the sirloin and tenderloin sides of the T-bone were equally sweet and tender. I dare say that this was actually better than the T-bone we had at Pasta Brava. Each main comes with 2 side dishes – we had the corn on the cob and onion rings. I would highly recommend the corn. It was wonderfully juicy and oh-so-sinfully buttery.


The Spaghetti Bolognese was an incredible deal. It was only $5.90 AND it comes with a soup of the day! The soup was a pretty tasty clam chowder, and the pasta was objectively very good. The spaghetti was al dente, and the Bolognese sauce was very hearty and chunky, with a good balance of sweet and sour.

The only downside to opening outlets in heartland food courts is the clientele that you sometimes attract. I don’t mean to sound atas, but while we were in the queue to place our order, we were standing behind the most annoying girl who kept going on at length about whether, if she ordered her ribeye medium-well, it would be too tough. I felt like telling her "er, wanna know how to avoid having a tough steak? DON’T order it medium-well!" Yeesh…

A says:

Exceeded all my expectations. Highly recommended if you don’t mind eating at a neighborhood kopitiam.

Update: Click here to read about our subsequent less positive experience.

Aston’s Express
Jurong Café
Block 134 Jurong East Central
#01-309

Elmo cupcakes

C says:


I made these for little A’s birthday party. Being a Sesame Street theme party, I decided to decorate the chocolate cupcakes with Elmo faces. I thought hard about how to do this with the least amount of fuss (read: no buttercream, which (a) takes ages to make and (b) SOME people think it’s neighbourhood bakery-esque).

I ended up using stabilised whipped cream, which is simply whipped cream stabilised with some gelatine so that the cream doesn’t bleed (or leak and get all watery) after a while. Pretty simple to make. I then used chocolate buttons for the eyes, and a flash of inspiration coupled with an inability to find orange jellybeans led me to use cashew nuts for the nose.

I quite like how the cake and the decoration turned out, visually. Unfortunately, with the sheer amount of food colouring that was required to tint the cream to the lurid shade of vermillion that is Elmo, the icing ended up tasting rather synthetic, with a decidedly icky aftertaste. Oh well, this IS for a kiddie party, and hopefully under-6 year olds are less than discerning foodies.

A says:

Children are evil little creatures sent to ruin your lives.

Unless they enrol in A’s Playstation Academy (must be toilet-trained).

Aerin’s

C says:

My goodness, Raffles City is an absolute madhouse on a Friday night. There were queues everywhere, starting from the car park, to almost every single eating establishment. The line for the fairly new Marche-esque Japanese food court was at least 30-people strong, as was the queue for the new donut place – J.Co. In contrast, there was barely a line at Donut Factory, which just proves that Singaporeans have short attention spans, and are ever-ready to blindly follow the next big food trend.

We decided to go for something quite light, at the place with the shortest queue. This turned out to be Aerin’s, a little restaurant café tucked away in the basement adjacent to the fountain. I think this place is the less upmarket sibling of Whitebait and Kale over at Camden Medical Centre.


A ordered the Aerin’s tagliatelle, with cream sauce, smoked salmon and mushrooms. I thought this tasted ok – pretty much like how you would expect it to taste, given the ingredients, but A found it a bit too ordinary. He thought the pasta was too hard but I found it actually perfectly cooked.


I ordered the cod with pasta in a light Japanese soy broth with pea shoots. Unfortunately, two things marred my dining experience. (1) The waiter brought the food and, in his blurness, sloshed the sauce all over my lap. Lucky for him that my bag was on my lap, AND that I don’t carry posh bags. (2) While the cod was alright, the capellini was horribly overcooked – there wasn’t even any bite or texture to it.


We ordered their signature dessert to share – the baked apple and rhubarb pie. I had it once before, ages ago, and had forgotten quite how large the portion was. I must say it was pretty good, but while the top layers of puff pastry were lovely and crispy, the layers underneath were underbaked.

Well, I can’t say that I won’t ever come back here, because if we’re at Raffles City again and everywhere else is packed, we may find ourselves here again. It just won’t exactly be our first choice.

A says:

It was very ordinary. I guess I expected more.

Aerin’s
Raffles City Shopping Centre
B1-11/12
Tel: 6337-2231
Open daily: 11.30 am to 10 pm

Funny Lasagna

C says:

Funny Lasagna is Chef Peter Bontoi’s latest venture. Previously from Il Piccolo, he opened Pizza Pazza at Anchorpoint food court, sold that off to his partner, started a brief chef for hire business, and now has positioned himself squarely in the heartlands – in a quiet little coffeeshop within Alexandra Village.

His pizzas and pastas from his Pizza Pazza days are still on the menu, but given the shop’s name, we couldn’t not order lasagnas on our first visit. Given that there are about 15 different lasagnas on the menu, it certainly took us some time to decide on two.


I ordered the Lasagna Buongustaio, a cream sauce with chicken, mushrooms and onion. This tasted pretty much like how you’d expect – quite rich and creamy, but pretty good all the same, if a little gelak.


A ordered the Pesto-Salmone Lasagna, which was definitely more original. Although slightly lacking in salmon, the pesto sauce gave a very different spin to the usual expectation of lasagne, and all in all it was very good.

Next time I think I’ll try the squid ink lasagna, or maybe try something slightly tomato-based, like his seafood lasagna or the vegetarian house special with porcini mushrooms.

A says:

RAWK!

Funny Lasagna
Block 127, Bukit Merah Lane 1
01-230, Alexandra Village
Tel: 6270-5464
Open: 11am to 10pm daily

Nam Seng Wonton Mee

C says:

This place probably wins for the sheer number of times that they’ve had to move. Previously at the old S-11 coffee shop at the National Museum, they had to relocate when the Museum was torn down, and settled at the now defunct Food Opera food court at Far East Square, managed by Makansutra. They were then at Market Street car park for a brief period, before landlord problems forced them to move to their current location – also at Far East Square, along the same row as Ya Kun, Puay Heng and the Hock Lam Street beef kuay teow.


We came here for dinner on Wednesday night – A ordered the venison hor fun, and I had the wonton mee. Previously, their hor fun was always better than their wonton mee, but tonight it was quite the opposite. The hor fun looked promising but ended up tasting flat – the sauce was starchy and just didn’t have any taste.


On the other hand, my wonton mee, though it looked really insipid, actually ended up tasting half decent. Although there wasn’t any sauce and the noodles looked a bit dry, they were actually quite flavourful; they must’ve been tossed in some kind of flavoured oil.

All things considered though, they’ve definitely deteriorated, and the lackluster food, coupled with having to sit on the roadside at wobbly tables, means that I probably won’t be back, especially since there’s beef noodles or Puay Heng right next door.

A says:

Good noodle. Small portions makes it perfect for when you just want something light.

Akashi Japanese Restaurant, VivoCity

C says:

We ended up at the VivoCity branch of Akashi on a Monday night, after a fruitless attempt to find Sakae Teppanyaki at Harbourfront. Apparently it used to be there but they’ve since closed down. Anyway, because we were fairly psyched for Jap, we headed to the basement of Vivo to check this place out.

This place definitely has some high end items, like otoro sushi for $28, or uni temaki for $20 each. But they also have decent sets at both lunch and dinner, which are a lot more doable if you’re not in the mood for a splurge.


A had something that was akin to a chirashi sushi – raw seafood on vinegared rice, a bit like a deconstructed sushi, really. The portion was smaller than expected, but the vinegared rice was fabulous. The rice was very well seasoned and was perfectly cooked, with each grain separate and distinct yet still fluffy and not underdone.


I ordered the Akashi special yakisoba, which arrived as a tiny little appetiser portion with 2 plump juicy prawns. It had a nice savoury umami-ness to it, but it wasn’t so spectacular that I’d order it again.


What I definitely would order again, and in fact am already craving, is the yellowtail cheek/collar grilled with salt (hamachi kama shioyaki). I first tried this somewhere else and was less than blown away, but the one here was really good. The fish wasn’t overcooked, and was grilled with a perfect scattering of salt. It was obviously good quality fish, because (a) the texture was creamy and slightly oily and almost melted in the mouth, and (b) it didn’t have a fixed price on the menu. Instead, you have to ask the servers for availability and price. The portion I had cost $27.

The dish was just begging for some carbs to accompany it, and I had long finished the yaki soba in the 15 minutes that it took for the fish to grill, so I ordered a portion of rice, which was again perfectly cooked, and when eaten with the ponzu/vinegar sauce that accompanied the fish, was absolute heaven. Thoroughly enjoyable.

This is clearly my new favourite dish at Japanese restaurants. I wouldn’t order it at a chain restaurant cos I have my doubts on the quality of their fish, but certainly in a more authentic joint like Tampopo or Sakuraya, I’ll definitely give this a try.

Random: VivoCity is great on a Monday night. Ample parking as compared to a Friday night when we couldn’t even get into the car park because it was full.

A says:

This place does good rice.
Though small portions for the price.
It was very nice.

Akashi Japanese Restaurant
1 Harbourfront Walk
#B2-07/08/09 VivoCity
Tel: 6376-9972
11.30 am to 10 pm

Jing Hua Sliced Fish Bee Hoon, Maxwell Road Food Centre

C says:

It’s hard to find a really good yu pian mi fen (sliced fish bee hoon) these days. Lots of stalls sell it, but more often than not it’s the clear soup rather than the milky broth that I like, or it’s bland or tasteless, or the fish is tough and overcooked.


Well, I’m happy to say that the one at Maxwell Road scores on all counts. They use sang yu (snake head fish) which is incredibly fresh and they’re also very generous with their portions. The soup is milky (though possibly assisted by some evaporated milk), and very rich and tasty thanks to a good fish stock and the addition of pounded dried flat fish.

As with all good stalls at Maxwell, there’s a queue here but it’s nowhere close to the Tian Tian chicken rice queue. I think I waited about 8 minutes at lunchtime on a Sunday which was pretty decent, all things considered.

I’m craving it again, but with parking at Maxwell an absolute nightmare and the perennial queues, I’m not sure how soon we'll be coming back. At least A has his Scissor curry rice to entice him here as well – he had it today and I must say it was delicious too.

Maxwell definitely has my vote as being one of the best hawker centres in Singapore. It’s no wonder that it seems to be Anthony Bourdain’s favourite hawker haunt. Unfortunately, everyone else seems to think so too, as evidenced by the snaking queues. This is definitely a destination hawker centre – come here prepared to wait for good food, so you don't get impatient.

A says:

I am not a fan of fish bee hoon so I wouldn’t queue for it. The Hainanese Pork Chop Rice is another matter altogether…

Jing Hua Sliced Fish Bee Hoon
Stall 77
Maxwell Road Food Centre
11am to 8.30pm
Closed Thursdays

Fabianne's Bistro, Espirito Santo

C says:

Another trip to Howards Storage World, another opportunity to eat at the Espirito Santo bistro. After a rather disappointing experience when we went on the day it opened, we thought after 3 months we could see whether they improved.

In terms of service, there are obviously 2 or 3 very savvy and competent servers, but the rest are still really blur. A ordered a salami sandwich, and the waitress brought it saying “You ordered a burger?” At first we thought it was déjà vu, or perhaps the burger that we order the last time and never got… Turns out it was the correct salami sandwich after all, as one of the head waitresses rushed over to assure us.


The sandwich wasn’t bad – very clean tasting with just sliced salami, tomatoes, some chutney and lettuce. Definitely not something I’d order for myself, but it was really up A’s alley. Fries probably weren’t made in-house, but they were well fried and ended up pretty good.


I was quite undecided about what to order. I was toying between a porcini risotto, baked cod with fettuccine, and one of Fabianne’s Brazilian specialities. In the end I decided to try a Brazilian dish, and the question turned to: which one? It was a toss up between the moqueca, a fish stew with coconut milk and dende oil, and the classic feijoada, a stew with pork, salted beef, bacon and black beans. Since this is a butcher specialising in meat, I decided to go with the feijoada.

Alas, it was pretty much a non-event. The flavour of the stew was one-dimensional and not at all outstanding. I guess it’s not exactly fair to compare this to a properly-plated dish, because feijoada was never meant to be fine-dining. Like all traditional peasant food, it was created with scraps, leftover meat and bone pieces, bacon and chorizo for flavour, and black beans added to stretch the dish as far as it could go. The beauty of peasant food is creating something out of nothing and I appreciate that, but notwithstanding that awareness, this still didn’t have any rustic authenticity either.

I’m not sure if I’m going to give this place another chance. Their roast pork is definitely one of the better ones I’ve had; I guess we just have to go without lofty expectations, and not order anything too ambitious.

A says:

Sandwich was surprisingly good and affordable (compared to certain high end sandwich places). Bad latte though.

And, the wait staff seem consistently blur every time we come.

Fabianne’s Bistro
Espirito Santo
80 Marine Parade Road
#B1-83B, Parkway Parade
Tel: 6440-8867
Opening Hours: Monday to Sunday: 10am to 9pm

Simply Peranakan Cuisine

C says:

There seems to be a dearth of eating places at the Esplanade where you can grab a quick bite (not counting Glutton’s Bay which yes, is a hawker centre but queues are long and the walk there and back alone will take about 15 minutes in all). We were here at about 7 pm on Thursday evening and needed some place to have dinner before watching an 8 pm show. Our initial plans to grab some quick conveyor belt sushi from Ichiban Boshi were shot down when the waiting time for a table was 15 to 20 minutes.

Everywhere else – Harry’s, Al Dente, Via Mar, My Humble House – all seemed to require quite a dining production, so in desperation after spending 5 minutes walking around we decided to try Simply Peranakan, opposite Ichiban Boshi.

As far as peranakan food goes, this is really quite ordinary. The only thing that was good was the poppadum that they served at the start, which tasted really good dipped into their sambal belacan. We ordered a nonya chap chye, an assam pork and a piece of otah.

The chap chye was more like the cabbage served at economy food stalls than anything particularly peranakan. My grandma’s chap chye is far superior, but then again, I think everyone’s favourite peranakan food is their mother’s/grandmother’s. The assam pork was also quite bland; it could’ve been spicier. But at least the meat was pretty tender. I quite liked the otah because there were discernable flakes of fish, rather than just a processed puree, but that quality was the precise reason why A didn’t like it.

Oh well, we came here with our eyes open, and if you need a quick place for dinner before a show at Esplanade, you can’t go too far wrong here. Food came very fast, but unfortunately they were let down by the payment system. I guess everyone else was also catching the 8 pm We Will Rock You, because we waited ages for the bill and for our credit card to be processed.

A says:

Considering the restaurant was a tad understaffed, I think they performed brilliantly. Food is merely passable though. The best dish was actually the achar amuse bouche.

Simply Peranakan Cuisine
#02-12 Esplanade Mall
Tel: 6333-9382
Opening hours: 11 am – 3 pm; 5 – 10 pm