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

Bluefin Tuna cutting demo at Isetan

C says:

We headed over to Isetan on Sunday after receiving their newsletter promoting a Bluefin Tuna cutting demonstration. Expecting a rather simple exhibit of a sushi chef slicing up fillets of tuna for sashimi or sushi, imagine my pleasant surprise when I got there and saw the entire tuna (gutted and gilled, of course) waiting to be filleted and portioned. We got there about 15 minutes early so I managed to snag a choice spot right in front (apart from annoying little kids who kept squeezing in front of me).



This particular tuna is from the Okinawa Sea, weighing in at a massive 61 kg and probably just over a metre in length. The fish was airflown, and was so fresh that there was absolutely no fishy smell at all – nothing like the wet market on a Sunday morning. They also specially brought in a Japanese sushi chef, who came with his arsenal of knives. His serrated knive with evil-looking teeth slicing through the fish head was impressive yet slightly frightening, and the way his chef’s knife slid through the thick tuna fillets like butter was truly a sight to behold.


What also threw me for a loop was the almost crazed fervour with which some members of the audience were clamouring to buy various parts of the fish. The head ($50) and each side of the collar ($60 each) had already been pre-booked, and an ugly scene almost ensued when someone had been waiting to buy the meat scraped from the bones, only to find that about 500g had been promised to another customer. At approximately $15 for 100g, these ‘scraps’ don’t exactly come cheap either. But what really got to me was the fairly young and insipid-looking guy who immediately snagged a 382 g portion of Otoro – the prized fatty tuna belly – the minute it was offered, at a whopping $152.

For me, it was just a rare opportunity to be up close and personal with a huge-ass bluefin tuna, and to watch a master at work methodically breaking it down, and seeing exactly what it takes to bring quality tuna to your plate. I took a load of photos but won’t bore everyone with all of them, so here are selected scenes from a very enjoyable half hour today.







A says:

The reason I don’t scuba dive is because I’m afraid of big fish. In fact, I find any animal larger than a fully grown man scary. Luckily, this fish was still smaller than me. And dead.

Another trip to Monster Mash

C says:

First things first – we are not becoming horribly boring, nor do we think that this place is so great that it warrants visits on consecutive weekends. We met M, J and baby E for an impromptu dinner, so we had to go someplace fairly baby friendly in the Holland Village / Ghim Moh area.

Nothing very new to add in terms of the sausages since the last time, except that we had the 2 sausages with mash to share, and the portion size was perfect. We tried two new sausages of the day – Duck and Orange, and Lamb, Lemon and Oregano. Both A and I were hard pressed to decide which we preferred – both were good, although the purported citrus flavours in both were quite undiscernable.


Because the sausage and mash portion was very manageable this time, the four of us also shared the Steak and Guinness pie with chips. I liked the puff pastry – it was light, airy and fluffy, but the beef filling (careful, it’s insanely hot), though superbly tender, was slightly underseasoned and again I didn’t taste any Guinness at all. It lacked a richness and depth of flavour. The chips were more like roast potatoes; they definitely weren’t twice cooked, deep fried French fries as we know them. These are probably much healthier, but not what I expected.


We also had room for dessert this time, and boy I’m glad we did. We ordered a bread and butter pudding and a sticky toffee pudding to share. Both came with a jug of Bird’s (read: instant) custard, another British staple. The bread and butter pudding was really old school –instead of the custard being baked in like lots of modern day bread and butter puddings, this pudding was really just layers of bread dusted with cinnamon, nutmeg and dotted with sultanas. You then pour the custard over according to your taste.


I much preferred the sticky toffee pudding, and I’m not even a fan of this dessert usually. It wasn’t at all stodgy – the sponge was quite light, and the dark butterscotch sauce was prefect without being too sweet. A bit of custard added a final touch. Yummy.

We met B there tonight, who was there with T. Before we left, we asked her how her dinner was and she wasn’t very impressed with her mains. I’ll leave her to post her comments – B?

A says

Despite my aversion to British desserts, these turned out really good. I figure the 2 bangers & 1 mash with dessert is the perfect size.

Monster Mash
26A Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: 6463-4610
Opening hours
Mon & Tues: 6 pm to 10 pm
Wed to Fri: 12 noon to 2.30 pm; 6 to 10 pm
Sat & Sun: 12 noon to 10 pm

Monster Mash

C says:

I read about this place a good month or so ago, and suggested to A that we try it but he was always non-committal about it. Then after a review appeared in Urban about a week ago, A had the gall to say “ooh, now I won’t mind trying it”. !!! So he doesn’t trust me, but he trusts that Urban chick. Lovely. Hmph.

Anyway the opening hours that were published in Urban are a little off the mark, so as a result we arrived here slightly early (they open at noon, not 11.30). This is an interesting little British café with outlets in Edinburgh and now Singapore. Kinda strange that they didn’t open something closer to home, but I guess they felt there was a market here for a typical British ‘retro’ café. As the name suggests, their main attractions are their different varieties of bangers and mash. They have 3 different types of sausages and mash on the menu, and every day they have another 3 or 4 sausages of the day, and a mash of the day.


We decided to be at different ends of the scale. A went totally traditional, and had the Monster Sausage (a smooth, slight herby sausage), Monster Mash (just milk and butter) and Monster Gravy (a classic brown gravy). As you can see, the gravy comes in a separate jug for you to pour over your food according to your liking.


I had one of the daily sausages – Pork, Cheese and Chive and I also had the mash of the day, Rosemary and Red Onion, with Onion Gravy made with caramelized onions, red wine and beef stock. I preferred my mash because I found A’s to be a little too plain and floury tasting. For the sausage, mine had more flavour initially, but I think I’m a purist and don’t really like my sausages too funky, so the old fashioned Monster sausage is more my thing.

I’m not sure if you can tell from the photos but the mash portions are HUGE. Props to anyone who can polish off the whole portion – even carb monster A couldn’t. Next time, we’re going for the 2 sausage platter to share; hopefully the mash portion is the same, which will be just nice for two.

They also have other traditional British dishes here – from a classic fry-up, to fish and chips with mushy peas and steak pies. They even sell vegetarian haggis but alas, not the regular sort. Their desserts also look comfortingly stodgy – crumble with custard, bread and butter pudding and sticky toffee pudding, but the mash did us in and we couldn’t eat another bite.

Located in Holland Village next to NYDC, where the old George’s Steak House used to be, this place may have fairly decent foot traffic and I guess the Urban article helped too, cos it wasn’t deserted when we went. Still, it remains to be seen whether they can sustain the dining concept in the long run. Perhaps we’ll come and try the fry-up next, and see how it compares to the one at Penny Black.

A says:

They’ve got a Cadbury Flake Milkshake which rocks. C says it’s a variation of a popular British dessert. I’d definitely come back here just for that.

Monster Mash
26A Lorong Mambong
Holland Village
Tel: 6463-4610
Opening hours
Mon & Tues: 6 pm to 10 pm
Wed to Fri: 12 noon to 2.30 pm; 6 to 10 pm
Sat & Sun: 12 noon to 10 pm

Pasta de Waraku

C says:

Word of warning: do NOT come here if you’re feeling indecisive, because the sheer extent of the selection is mind-boggling. We came here on Friday night with A’s friends, and 7 of us probably took a good ten minutes to read the menu from cover to cover a few times to decide what to order. Check out just 2 pages of the menu, multiply that by another 5 times, and you’ll get some idea of the dizzying array of dishes that are available.



Do note that this is definitely not fine dining, so don’t expect home-made or perfectly al dente pastas. The attraction of this place is the crazy selections and combinations, that will certainly make for a fun and interesting casual dining experience.



A had the Pasta Set, which allows you to choose 2 mini-sized pastas from a selection of about ten. He had the standard carbonara, and something that seems to be unique to Waraku – Japanese-style ‘soup’ pasta. He had the spinach soup version, which was quite interesting but surprisingly quite pleasant. The soup was thin but quite tasty, and overall it was a light and refreshing dish. The carbonara looked promising, with the whole wobbly egg yolk, but taste-wise it didn’t quite deliver. It was a bit lacklustre and flat - I think it needed a little bit more seasoning.


After long agonising minutes trying to decide what to order, I settled on the scallop gratin with a spicy mentaiko mayonnaise sauce. The scallops were a tad overcooked, but the crispy gratin bits on top of the penne pasta were good. I thought the sauce was a bit too creamy though, and lacking a solid hit of mentaiko.


What stole the show for me tonight was the okonomiyaki (the classic Osaka-style pancake) pizza. The thin pizza crust was topped with cabbage, bacon, mayo and a soft boiled egg, and the combination was heavenly. This is definitely something I’ll order again.


The dessert selection is a little less stressful; we went straight for the oreo and banana parfait. The ice cream was soft-serve vanilla – very old-school and perfect with the crushed oreo. The others had the green tea and red bean parfait, which looked very good as well, and the green tea ice cream here is seriously potent.

This place certainly puts the pasta selection at Angus House to shame, but quality-wise it’s not the best, nor does it purport to be. I think it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and you’re just meant to have some fun figuring out what to order, then just sit back and enjoy without too many expectations.

A says:

Great selection of pastas. I wouldn’t say they taste fantastic but they are definitely interesting. While portions are pretty small for the price, I’d rather pay for these than badly made Italian pastas.

Also, the outlets are usually crowded and I’d only recommend this place if you don’t have to wait too long.

Pasta de Waraku
Square 2 (Novena)
10 Sinaran Drive
Tel: 6397-6266
Open daily: 11.30 am to 11 pm (last order 10.30 pm)

Pasta Brava

C says:

Once again, just like almost all the previous times we've been here, this was an impulsive decision. We were all set to go to the gym tonight, but I was feeling pretty tired and in a rather bad mood, so we decided to indulge instead, since it’s the eve of a nice long weekend.

We decided to share 3 mains again, and once again we shared the wonderful home-made stracci pasta as our starter. This is a great dish – the pasta is silky smooth and perfectly done, the prawns and scallops are tender and fresh, and the saffron cream sauce is made less rich by the green peppercorns. This is another dish that I’ll be hard pressed not to order whenever we come here.


For once, we tried one of their non home-made pastas – I ordered the pappardelle with a ragout of duck and mushroom. While the pasta didn’t have the luxurious silkiness of the home-made ones, this was still very well done, and the ragout wasn’t excessively tomato-ey. It was meaty and full-bodied, yet quite light at the same time, and the duck was surprisingly tender.


We shared the T-bone steak Florentine style – this was an ok steak, but nothing great. The tenderloin side was pretty good, but the sirloin side was a little tough and sinewy at some places. We skipped desserts so the 3 mains between both of us was just nice.

A says:

I think the home-made pastas are much better than everything else. Stick to those and you can’t go wrong.

Note to self: the latte sucked so stick to the cappuccino.

Pasta Brava
11 Craig Road
Tanjong Pagar
Tel: 6227-7550
Lunch: 12 noon - 2.30pm
Dinner: 6.30pm - 10.30pm
Closed on Sunday

Olio Café

C says:

Part of the Olio and Dome family, this cafe is quite an underrated and pretty dependable casual dining option. We usually come to the Suntec City branch, but their latest outlet, and the one most recently in the press, is at Holland Village.

Their best dish, and also the one that they promote as their specialty, is the Capellini Miso Salmon Fillet. The miso cream sauce is just savoury enough without being overly salty, the pasta isn’t overcooked, and the salmon is done perfectly – just slightly rare in the centre. The generous heaping of flying fish roe also accentuates the flavour of the dish. Either A or I will inevitably order this dish whenever we come.


Since A had the salmon today, I settled for the Rendang Lasagna. In contrast, this was a very heavy and incredibly gelak dish, and tasted just like a curry puff. It was interesting, much like the way the BK rendang burger is interesting, but I wouldn’t order it again because it’s just too rich and heavy, and the flavour is too one-dimensional.

The good thing about coming here on a weekday (Sunday to Thursday) is that if you pay with a Citibank credit card, you get one-for-one main courses. I’m not sure how long the promotion will last, but it’s a pretty good deal. I don’t believe in wasting calories on sucky food just because there’s a promotion on, but I would voluntarily eat the food here anyway, so the deal is just a sweetener.

A says

C is just begging for a Citibank (or any other credit card rewards programme) endorsement.

Anyway, we pretty much decided to stick to the Salmon because everything else, while good, pales in comparison.

The iced coffee with ice cream is rocking too.

Olio Café Suntec Fountain
3 Temasek Boulevard
#B1-033 Fountain Terrace
Suntec City Mall
Tel: 6238-1109
11.30am to 9.30pm (Sun-Thurs)
11.30am to 10.30pm (Fri & Sat)