Ember

C says:

8 years!! Our anniversary is upon us again, as is our annual pilgrimage to Ember. The set dinner menu ($85 for 4 courses) again looked pretty enticing, and this year I had the brainwave to ask if I could have my standard Chilean seabass as my main course instead of the options on set menu. They said it wouldn’t be a problem but that there may be a surcharge. When we got the bill it was a pleasant surprise to see that they didn’t add any extra in the end.



For starters I had the grilled bamboo clam with black bean sauce; A had the prosciutto with figs. A’s was good in a predictable way, though frankly I’ve been spoiled by Spanish jamon, so for me, prosciutto will always be an inferior cousin. My bamboo clams were awesome – there was a nice smoky flavour and the shellfish wasn’t overcooked. I don’t think the black bean sauce really contributed much to the dish though; it was good enough without it.



A had the lobster with a lobster beurre blanc dipping sauce, and I ordered the foie gras with maitake mushrooms, poached egg and truffle salt (c’mon, how me is that dish!). The beurre blanc in A’s dish packed some serious flavour, but overall mine was way better. It was everything that you would expect a dish with those ingredients to taste like. Delicious.



A’s main was a beef tenderloin with a red wine reduction sauce and a variety of mushrooms. And for myself, what would our anniversary dinner be without Ember’s signature Chilean seabass with bacon and mushroom ragout? This was as outstanding as ever. A’s steak was good in a predictable way. The meat was refined and tender, but because it wasn’t a grilled hunk of meat, it lacked the beefy flavour of a (good) steakhouse steak.



I just realised we had the exact same desserts as last year – the banana tart and the caramelised pear tart. This time, A kept the original ice cream as it was a lavender and ginger ice cream, not a straight up lavender. It’s a bit floral on its own, but actually does work with the banana tart.

We always say we need to come back to Ember more often, but almost a year has flown by without us realising it. Still, never too soon to make resolutions for the coming year.

A says:

Always reliable. Always good. Although this time, C’s choice of dishes were all better than mine. Hmmpf!

Restaurant Ember
50 Keong Saik Road
Tel: 6347-1928
Mon to Fri: Lunch 11.30 am – 2 pm; Dinner 6.30 pm – 10 pm
Sat: Dinner only
Closed Sunday

Sarnies

C says:

A and I had a (not so) leisurely breakfast at Sarnie’s this morning (I was on leave but he had to work; for a change, damnit) – a relatively new sandwich shop that opened up along Telok Ayer Street.


We came here primarily for the bacon and egg sandwich, which did not disappoint. The portion is huge for $7.50, and was piled high with crispy bacon and fried egg. My only criticism is that if you're not careful, you could seriously injure the roof of your mouth with the hard toasted edges.


A ordered the salmon bagel, which was also very good – very generous portions of smoked salmon for $7.90. The combination of smoked salmon, cream cheese and red onion was very balanced, and the bagel itself was good too.

Given the standard of their breakfast offerings, I’m sure their lunchtime salads and sandwiches will be good too. A says there’s usually quite a long line, so best to come either early or late.

A says:

One of the best sandwich joints in Singapore. And coffee is pretty good too. Awesome!

Sarnies
136 Telok Ayer Street
Tel: 6224-6091
Mon to Fri: 7.30 am – 5 pm
www.sarnies.com.sg

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen

C says:

This branch of The Asian Kitchen at ION Orchard specialises in Taiwanese delicacies, particularly street food specialities. (I assume that’s what the name refers to, but my Mandarin abilities are sorely limited.) Since there wasn’t any queue at all, we decided to give them a try.

There were surprisingly quite a number of things on the menu that called to me, but we clearly couldn’t order all of them today. They sell limited portions of their famous roast pork every day, and since it was available we had to have it. We ordered their original “guitar duck” as well, and a stir fried tung hoon.


I was a bit disappointed with the duck, mainly because this was just like regular roast duck, and somehow from the description on the menu I expected this to be more like a crispy duck instead. Still, as far as roast duck goes, it was quite good – tender and not dry.


The roast pork was heavenly. The crackling was thick but pretty crispy, but what pleasantly surprised me was how remarkably tender and juicy the meat was. Pork belly has a tendency to be quite tough if it’s not cooked properly, but here it was almost melt-in-the-mouth tender, yet not overly fatty.


The tung hoon was another surprise. Fried with minced pork and diced mushrooms, this was very tasty without being greasy, which this dish has a tendency to do.

While this place probably won’t be our first or second choice when we’re in ION, now that we’ve discovered what it has to offer, it’s definitely another viable alternative when our default favourites are too packed.

A says:

We always avoided this place as it looked a bit blah. But I was happy to be proven wrong as the food here is not bad at all (except for the watery bubble tea). Like C says, not our first choice at ION, but a definite worthy option.

The Asian Kitchen LuGangXiaoZhen
#B3-22 ION Orchard
Tel: 6509-1128
Open daily: 11.30 am – 9.30 pm

District 10

C says:

District 10 is now at UE Square, having moved from Windstedt Road in Newton a few months ago. It's actually part of the Bonta group; I'm not sure if it's always been, or whether a change also prompted its move.

It was pretty empty when we were there; probably a combination of it being Sunday night, and a rainy one to boot. Service was good, partially because we saw a familiar face who later identified himself as a waiter from another restaurant we used to visit. Quite impressive that he actually recognised us.

We shared 3 starters and a main of steak frites. On hindsight, our starter choices weren't the most properly thought out - way too carbo-loaded.


The chicken liver pate with garlic bread ($14) was so-so. The pate was pre-made in individual ramekins and arrived straight from the fridge. It was a bit hard at first and the layer of fat on top was slightly off-putting, even for me. The taste wasn't too bad, but the garlic bread could be better. It was over-toasted and hard, and was barely garlicky.


I was highly anticipating the parmesan and foie gras croquettes ($16) - can you blame me with a description like that? - but was quite disappointed with the outcome. I expected the cheese and foie to be integrated into the croquettes, a bit like those we had in Spain, but instead there was just a tiny cube of foie in the centre of a rather large croquette, and I think the parmesan cheese only made its appearance in the form of the sauce.


We ordered the ribeye, which was from Argentinian beef. At $29 for 200g this was fairly reasonable, but unfortunately the meat was tough, not particularly flavourful and wasn't very well seasoned. At these prices the steaks at Pepper Steakhouse are way better. The steak fries were good, but ketchup wasn’t Heinz...


The best dish of the night was the Black Angus mini burgers ($18 for three mini burgers). I was impressed that they asked for our preferred doneness, even for a mini burger. The patty was juicy and beefy, and there was a generous amount of cheddar cheese on top. This needs to be eaten hot though - it was awesome when it first arrived, but got a bit dry once it sat around for a while.

Besides the burger, everything else was a bit lacklustre; not sure if it was down to poor choices on our part. Even if we did go back, I’m not sure what else we’d order because we already covered all the dishes that called out to us.

A says:

Service was good. Ambience was nice. Food was good but not really great. The big surprise were the excellent fries that came with the steak frite. And while the starters/light bites may seem expensive at almost $20, the portions are big so it’s pretty worth it. I’d probably recommend this place for a drink with friends complimented by decent food.

District 10
81 Clemenceau Avenue
#01-15/16/17 UE Square
Tel: 6738-4788
Open daily: 11.30 am to 3 pm; 6 pm to 11 pm
(Open all day Sunday)
www.district10.com.sg

Triple O’s

C says:

We got off work earlier today, so we made it to Triple O's at Asia Square before they could close early again. To be honest we're not familiar with this Canadian chain at all, so we just ordered what appealed to us and hoped for the best.


We ordered one combo meal, and the other burger just a la carte. A had the orignal Triple O burger, which comes with lettuce, tomato and special sauce, and I had the mushroom burger.

The burgers here are around Carl's Jr's price point - about $11 for the burger and $15 for a combo meal. It's definitely better than Macs and BK, but I think Carl's Jr actually makes better, more satisfying burgers. Triple O's are good but the patty, albeit quite flavourful and tasty, is a bit thin and hence dries out a bit.


The combo comes with fries and a soft drink, but for $3 more you can switch to their poutine and signature milk shake. Poutine is Canada's version of chilli cheese fries, consisting of fries topped with cheese and meat gravy. This was good but as expected, became a bit stodgy towards the end.

A had the chocolate milkshake. He wasn't expecting much cos it looked pretty thick in the cup, but it was surprisingly drinkable.

Generally, I found the food good but not great. It certainly won't become my go-to place if I want a good cheap burger, but if we have a burger craving while we're in the vicinity, this will be a convenient place to satisfy it.

A says:

Awesome milkshake. Everything else was pretty good, but definitely not worth the $11 price tag. My advice is to go round to Jewel Coffee to eat, then come here for a milkshake for dessert.

Triple O’s
Asia Square Food Garden
2nd floor, Tower 1
Tel: 6636-0002

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

C says:

I guess atetoomuch is finally going places, if a reader deems our reviews worthy enough to pass off as his/her own. We recently discovered that substantial extracts of a huge number of our posts have appeared as someone else’s reviews. The similarities, down to certain turns of phrase that I think are quite “me”, are too close to attribute to coincidence.

Yes we’re annoyed; wouldn’t you be, if you discovered that the words that you worked (fairly) hard on were passed off as someone else’s? But at the same time I’m also amused. While some of the extracts are blatant copies, others simply don’t make sense.

Hmpf! Maybe he/she should try to copy this post too!

A says:

omgwtfbbq. No one copied what I wrote. I wonder why?

Jewel Coffee

C says:

We planned to try Triple O tonight, the first Singapore outpost of a Vancouver burger chain. They've opened at Asia Square Food Garden, the upscale food court in the new Asia Square office building in Shenton Way.

Their official opening hours are till 9 pm, but when we got there at 8 on a Friday evening, they were inexplicably closed. They said they closed early cos there were no customers. ?! Shouldn't you at least hold out a bit later, especially on a Friday night? Black mark against them, even before we actually dine there.

Anyway, we decided to go to Jewel Coffee instead. We'd had their breakfast and coffee but not their all-day offerings.


A had their Ribeye Hero, a ciabatta sandwich with slices of ribeye steak, mushrooms and cheese. I'm not a huge fan of sandwiches but this was toasted so it was hot, the bread was soft so it didn't chafe the roof of my mouth, and the meat was really tender.


I went with the Mushroom Medley linguine, which indeed had a medley of mushrooms - a very generous amount of buttons, shitakes, shimejis and oyster mushrooms. It was served on a bed of baby spinach that became slightly wilted from the heat of the pasta, which helped to move it from salad territory.

The sauce was a simple aglio olio, but because there was a liberal sprinkling of shaved parmesan on top, it melted and merged into the sauce as well. The result was a delightfully moreish, earthy dish that wasn't overpowered by garlic. Very good.

Because my pasta was vegetarian (you can opt for additional chicken breast for $4), we had to have some sort of side and it was a toss-up between the chicken wings and the pork cubes. We eventually decided on the less predictable pork.


The cubes are deep fried pieces of pork collar, marinated in a powerful blend of 14 spices. It was decidedly Asian, and I detected either har cheong paste or lam yu. It comes with kicap manis, a sweet dark soya sauce, which had a subtle underlying heat from being infused with chillies.

I must have burnt my mouth a few times because these arrived piping hot, but man, they were good. I'm not usually one for sauces with my meat but the kicap manis paired with the meat amazingly. Perhaps my only criticism is that the pieces were a bit too big - something more bite-sized would've been easier to eat, and they could maybe have been cooked a little less.

Service was excellent too, though maybe because they were the owners so they probably had a vested interest. I dare say we probably had a better meal here, than if we had gone to Triple O.

A says:

The steak sandwich is a bit on the expensive side but great. The mushroom pasta is awesome for just $10.90. The coffee is very distinctive. And the service is great. Rock!

Jewel Coffee
1 Shenton Way
#01-17, One Shenton
Tel: 6636-9452
Mon to Fri: 7 am – 9 pm
Sat: 8 am – 5 pm
www.facebook.com/jewelcoffee

Good Ol’ Cafe

C says:

Somewhat at a loss for an appropriate dinner venue, we ended up at Good Ol’ Cafe with A’s parents on Sunday night. Good Ol’ Cafe is the sister restaurant of HooHa/The West End, which we only recently discovered. They opened Good Ol’ Cafe quite recently, and while they serve pretty similar fare, Good Ol’ Cafe supposedly focuses a bit more on French preparations and presentation/plating.

It’s located at YESS Centre, right next to Korean Charcoal BBQ joint Ju Shin Jung. Unfortunately, the disparity in the customer volume is that much more apparent as a result. Ju Shin Jung is bursting at the seams on weekends and still has a fairly steady clientele on weekdays. On the other hand, I’ve never seen Good Ol’ Cafe with more than 4 tables occupied on any given day.

They have something like a tasting menu – for $48, you get a selection of their starters, followed by either a laksa or an aglio olio spaghetti, then downsized versions of 2 main courses, followed by dessert. Enough for 2 people to share if you’re not hungry; if you’re atetoomuch, you top that up with an additional order of rack of lamb.


For the starter sampler, we had a mushroom soup, escargots on toast, smoked duck salad, salmon tartare, a crab cake and a fried prawn wonton/ravioli. The soup was pretty decent – thick and quite mushroomy, and the tartare and duck salad were ok as well. There was only one escargot on the toast but the creamy sauce wasn’t bad. The fried items were so-so.


The laksa, again a cute little tasting portion, was surprisingly good. We had just had the “Katong” laksa at Holland V recently, and the one here was definitely comparable. The seafood was quite fresh, and the gravy was rich yet not too thick and heavy; still very much a drinkable broth.



The downsized mains were still very decently-sized portions. 4 meaty ribs for the BBQ ribs, and a palm-sized tenderloin for the steak. The ribs were nice and tender; the tenderloin was better at The West End. In fact, a 200g a la carte order of tenderloin here costs exactly the same as the steak at Pepper Steakhouse, and quality and taste-wise the one at Pepper is far superior.


The rack of lamb was good, but somehow it lacked the oomph of the one we had at The West End as well.


Desserts were a mini sampler of tiramisu, lemon cheesecake and oreo cheesecake.

Again, service isn’t as fine-tuned as The West End. Waiters are a bit slow on the uptake, although they definitely do try hard.

If I were craving similar food I’d rather head to The West End. I think I’ll probably only go to Good Ol’ Cafe if we were there for Ju Shin Jung and couldn’t get a table.

A says:

Service was poor at first but rapidly improved. The taster menu was an interesting introduction but food-wise, it’s just a little bit fancier than HooHa/West End. Honestly, I think I prefer the original though.

Good Ol’ Cafe
27 West Coast Highway
YESS Centre, #01-16/17
Tel: 6777-7600
Open daily: 12 noon – 2.30 pm; 6 pm – 11 pm
www.goodolcafe.com

Paradise Pavilion

C says:

We're generally fans of the Paradise Group. Their casual outposts like Paradise Inn and Paradise Dynasty are regular haunts for us, for their tasty and value for money offerings. That's why we decided to get their Paradise Group card, and in the process received a voucher for $30 off their signature peking duck.

The restaurant, located at Marina Bay Financial Centre, was surprisingly packed on Saturday night. Somehow I expected it to be mainly patronised by business types on weekdays and empty on weekends, but there were quite a number of family dinners there.



Their peking duck is prepared and served like the one at Imperial Treasure. The premium skin is served on its own and meant to be dipped in sugar, and they serve the breast meat and thigh meat sliced separately as well.

Their duck is roasted with apple wood, meant to impart some fragrance to the meat. Comparisons with Imperial Treasure's duck are inevitable, and unfortunately Paradise's falls short. Yes you do get the apple wood aroma but the duck was overcooked. The meat was a bit tough and dry, and even the cubes of premium skin didn't have the airy crispiness of the Imperial Treasure one.

At $88 – $20 more than Imperial Treasure's, I don't think it's worth the mark-up. They don't even give you the option of a second preparation for the remaining meat for a nominal sum, which is pretty much par for the course at most other duck joints.



In fact, the general impression was that the hefty prices aren't justified by the quality, or lack thereof. Sure, there were some good dishes, in particular the roast pork and a prawn and vermicelli claypot with a rich garlicky stock, but almost everything else we had, we've had better elsewhere.

Somehow it feels like it's trying too hard. The decor is too fancy and looks a bit forced, and the cooking doesn't quite match up to the ambience it's trying to create. Imperial Treasure has better food for lower prices, and if I were to spend this much, I'd rather go to Chinois by Susur. I think we'll stick to what the Paradise Group does best, which is simple yet well executed home-style cooking.

A says:

Er... the service was good and the food was decent, but I wouldn’t recommend it for a traditional dinner. It seems like a place for fancy degustation versions of a Chinese meal. And maybe for client lunches.

Paradise Pavilion
8A Marina Boulevard
#02-01 Marina Bay Financial Centre
Tel: 6509-9308
Lunch: 11.30 am – 3 pm (Mon to Fri); 11 am – 4 pm (Sat, Sun & PH)
Dinner: 6 pm – 11 pm daily

Pepper Steakhouse & Bistro

C says:

This review, and our experience of Pepper, changed dramatically in the last 15 minutes or so of our visit. We started out quite enthused, but by the end I was seething and couldn't wait to get out of there.

First off, Pepper is not to be confused with Pepper Lunch, the casual/fast food chain from Japan. Pepper Steakhouse is actually part of the folks behind The Pump Room (literally; the restaurant has been carved out of The Pump Room's premises at Great World City). They decided to open their own steakhouse, sourcing almost exclusively grass-fed beef, after being dissatisfied with the quality they were getting from their purveyors.

The restaurant is still pretty new - I think it's still only in soft launch phase, so from now till 30 November they're offering 15% off your bill. I guess just-opened jitters accounted for our experience, though to be fair if we judged them purely on their food they would still score pretty highly.

In addition to quite a selection of typical mains, they have signature steaks, currently from five different breeds. Besides their sharing cuts for two (an Entrecote and a Chateaubriand), the rest of their steaks come in 200 gram portions, and range from a very decent $32 to $38 (for the non-wagyu beef).

After much deliberation, we decided to try a ribeye from a New Zealand Harmony Prime Beef, and a tenderloin from a New Zealand Savannah Black Angus. Both medium rare.



It's usually the case that ribeyes are a more flavourful cut but tend to have a bit more bite, compared to tenderloins which are tender but lack much beefy flavour. But comparing the two, the tenderloin came out the clear winner in both departments. Much better texture and flavour, and even the colour of the meat was far superior. The ribeye was rosy, whereas the tenderloin was a deep red, almost burgundy - the mark of good aging. That's not to say that the ribeye wasn't good, it was; just that the tenderloin was much better.

You can choose from a selection of sauces - we picked wild mushroom and bearnaise, but firstly the sauces weren't good, and anyway the meat was good enough without any sauce.


The steaks come with free flow fries, but they're the thick cut steak fries. They're still quite addictive, and at least they serve good ketchup. We ordered a creamed spinach which was more of a sauteed spinach in cream sauce, but was pretty good anyway.


We ordered a starter of crab cakes with a watercress salad and mango chutney, which came in a decently sized portion and was pretty good. Wasn't bursting with crab meat but what do you expect for $18.


We tried the chocolate lava cake which was decent, but the cake had a weird alcoholic flavour to it that we couldn't put our finger on.

That was the food. Now on to the bad stuff. Firstly, I don't know if it was just this particular night, but we were plagued with screaming babies all night. And parents who were content to let them continue wailing.

Then the service. Food took a while to arrive, which was bad enough but still forgiveable. What wasn't, was the fact that I had to wait 15 minutes after giving them my credit card, for them to bring it back to me for signing. After 5 minutes I got impatient and started chasing them. After 10 minutes I started asking anyone who walked by and when still nothing materialised, I was really pissed. Finally when they brought the credit card slip there was nary an apology, and the waitress only muttered an insincere "sorry" to A, not to me although I was the one who was (a) paying, and (b) looking almost murderous by then.

So, food-wise yes, I think I would recommend Pepper for the quality of the meat and the price you pay for it. But if they don't improve the service then I don't think the food is worth the angst.

A says:

I hope this place just has teething problems because our service, while polite, was incredibly slow. As was the kitchen. And a 15 minute wait to pay is plain bad.

Food-wise, the crabcakes, spinach and harmony ribeye were good, while the savannah tenderloin was excellent. Everything else sucked. Especially the steak sauces (thankfully served on the side) and the horrible molten chocolate cake.

We’ll probably be back later next month (while the opening 15% promo is still on) to give them another chance. But if the service and the kitchen are going to be as bad, they’ll definitely get a not recommended rating.

Pepper Steakhouse and Bistro
1 Kim Seng Promenade
#01-66/67 Great World City
Tel: 6887-3229
Mon - Fri: 10am - 10pm
Sat & Sun: 9am - 10pm

Ramen Champion 2011 at Iluma – Part 2

C says:

Ok, so our return visit to Ramen Champion happened a lot sooner than I anticipated…

On Wednesday night, we tried three more contenders. A wanted to try Tetsu, the other tsukumen vendor, and I wanted to try Bario. Since Bario considerately sells half portions of their famous Bario ramen, we were able to share one more bowl from Iroha.

Tetsu


Their specialty is the Very Rich! Paitan ramen - “paitan” being the Japanese way of referring to a milky soup (rather than century egg, as I’d hoped). Very Rich! is right. The consistency is more like a thick, almost starchy gravy rather than a soup, and even with the dipping method, it’s still pretty salty. The noodles are decent but the chashu is again quite forgettable.

Between the two tsukumen vendors, Taishoken is the clear winner.

Bario

Bario’s ‘thing’ is their thick noodles that are made from bread flour, which has a higher gluten content and therefore produces stronger and chewier noodles. Their signature Bario ramen comes with a few slices of thick chashu, a slightly cloudy soup and topped with a mountain of beansprouts. The egg is optional but I would highly recommended getting it as an add-on. They do a half portion of Bario ramen for $7, as opposed to the full one for $13.


I think opinions are mixed on this one. Wong Ah Yoke named this his least favourite of the six, and another friend didn’t fancy it either. Nor did A, who really couldn’t get past the thickness and chewiness of the noodles, but admitted that the broth was pretty good. On the other hand, it also had the longest queues out of all six stalls, unless that’s due to the “let’s just join the longest queue” herd mentality.

I personally liked it a lot. Yes the noodles were a bit disconcertingly thick, but no different from an al dente tagliatelle, for example. I loved the heaping mound of beansprouts, and the soup was flavourful without being too rich/jelak. I think the soup already has a considerable amount of garlic, so I would advise passing on the optional minced garlic if you want a cleaner flavour. The chashu was good, and the egg was excellent.

Iroha


Their black ramen is their bestseller, with a primarily shoyu-based broth. This is so far my least favourite. It didn't do anything for me at all. I’m usually not a shoyu ramen fan to begin with, and the slightly thicker consistency of the broth didn't help. The noodles were sort of in between normal ramen and Ikkousha’s thin noodles, and I guess were pretty nice and springy. The main highlight was the chashu here, which was sliced nice and thin, tender and had a good meat/fat ratio. Best chashu of the lot so far, but unfortunately everything else fell short.

So far for me, it’s a toss up between Ikkousha and Bario for first place, but since we've already tried five out of six, we might as well, for the sake of completeness, go one more time to try Gantetsu’s Sapporo ramen.

A says:

Bario vs Iroha vs Tetsu. Round 2. Fight!

Bario has awesome broth. But I hate the weird thick mee-pok like noodles.

Iroha has awesome char siew. But I hate the soy sauce broth.

Tetsu had a weird thick dipping sauce that I thought I’d hate but it really grew on me. It’s by far my favourite of this round.

Tetsu wins!

Ramen Champion 2011 at Iluma - Part 1

C says:

Ramen Champion is an initiative where selected ramen chefs, all highly acclaimed in their local arenas, have been invited to ply their trade at Iluma mall for a year, from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012, with a view to one of them being awarded the chance to set up a permanent store in Singapore.

As you all know, until quite recently we were pretty ramen-ed out, which explains why we’d yet to head to Iluma despite the fair being around for 4 months now. It took a visit to Ippudo Tao to banish our ramen fatigue, and get us in the mood to give Ramen Champion a go.


The 6 stalls competing for the title of Ultimate Ramen Champion are:

- Ikkousha, whose specialty is Kyushu broth with Hakata ramen
- Taishoken, apparently famous for inventing tsukemen
- Tetsu, another tsukemen specialist from Tokyo
- Bario, selling Jiro-style ramen with thick chewy noodles
- Iroha, specialising in black shoyu and spicy miso ramen
- Gantetsu, the most “typical” of the lot, serving Sapporo-style miso ramen with corn and butter

Despite being pretty hungry when we got there, we only managed to try two stalls, so the jury is out on our favourite until we’ve tried at least another two more.

Ikkousha


I have a weakness for Kyushu-style ramen, which uses a milky pork bone broth. The noodles here are the thin Hakata-style – similar to our local mee kia. The broth was light yet quite deep in flavour, and the addition of a tiny dollop of minced garlic added a whole new flavour dimension. The soy eggs had a nice gooey centre, and the best part was the pork belly chashu, which was tender but still had a nice bite to it.

Taishoken

This is one of two stalls that serve tsukemen-style noodles, i.e. where the noodles are served separately from the broth and are meant to be eaten dipping style.


Interestingly, their noodles are somewhat of a cross between ramen and soba in texture. The broth on its own is really pretty salty but once eaten as it’s meant to be, i.e. as a dipping sauce for the noodles, the balance is just right. The broth is pretty complex too, since it’s made from a mix of chicken, pork and anchovies. The slightly fishy flavour is a bit disconcerting at first but it does add a nice body to the broth. The chashu wasn’t all that great though. The meat was braised so even though it was soft and tender, it also a bit dry.

Their system is akin to Marche – you get a card upon entry so it’s cashless inside, which is pretty convenient so you’re not trying to fiddle with your wallet and carrying hot soup at the same time. Just make sure you check your bill at the cashier later on. The cards are numbered, and the stallholder manually keys in your order into your card number. The information isn’t embedded into the physical card itself. My order didn’t register in my card number because they keyed in “140” instead of “148”, so someone else’s order could just as easily be mistakenly entered into your card.

Between the two I prefer Ikkousha, but watch this space; we’ll definitely be heading back to make our way through the rest of the stalls so that we can vote for our favourite(s).

A says:

Ikkousha vs Taishoken. Round 1. Fight!!!

Ikkousha is more like your standard ramen. The broth is rich and complex, plus it had great char siew and egg.

But for me, I prefer Taishoken with the salty soup that’s filled with flavour, without being too rich or heavy. Great to dip the thick, meaty almost udon-y noodles. The only negatives about this are the eggs (yolk not runny enough), and the char siew was more like the meaty chunks you find in stews.

Taishoken wins!

Ramen Champion
201 Victoria Street
#04-08/09/10 Iluma Mall
Tel: 6238-1011
Open daily: 11.30 am – 10.30 pm
www.ramenchampion.com.sg

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar

C says:

With the opening of the Circle Line in our neck of the woods, Holland Village is now just a short train ride away and we can do away with the nightmarish parking that put us off dining at Holland V for some time.

We took our first ride on Saturday evening and tried Crust, located on Lorong Mambong just opposite Wala Wala. Crust is apparently an institution in Australia, and the opening of the Holland V store in August last year was their first international expansion. They pride themselves on serving healthier gourmet pizzas made with fresh ingredients. They have gluten-free bases available, and in Australia they’ve won multiple awards for their healthier offerings.

Immediately, healthy pizza to me sounds like an oxymoron, but if the pizzas here at Crust are supposed to be healthier, then sign me up for more, please. I was extremely impressed with all the flavours that we tried tonight. We each ordered a regular pizza, and for more variety we asked for half-and-half.


I had the Sausage Duo and the Wild Mushroom. The Sausage Duo has a tomato base and comes with both Italian and chorizo sausage, caramelised onion and roasted red peppers. This tasted the most like a generic pizza, though I was a bit thrown off by the sweetness of the peppers and onions.

The Wild Mushroom was really good – probably the best meat-less pizza I’ve ever had. It had wild mushrooms, asparagus and pine nuts on a béchamel sauce based, topped with truffle oil and shaved parmesan. The flavours went amazingly well; even the pine nuts added a nice nutty touch.


A ordered the Moroccan Lamb and the White Proscuitto. The lamb was a winner – slices of marinated lamb, red onion and baby spinach, topped with mint yogurt and a squeeze of fresh lemon. This tasted like a really good kebab. Best flavour of the night.

The White Proscuitto was interesting. Again a béchamel base, topped with sliced roasted potatoes, prosciutto, gorgonzola and fresh rosemary. The prosciutto used was quite salty and tasted almost like pancetta, but eaten together with the rest of the toppings, I thought this was pretty good in a unique, not your typical pizza way.

One of the best parts of the pizzas here is the crust. I think they dust the base with corn meal or something, because there’s a texture and a crunch to the crust that I’ve never had elsewhere, even with the thinnest crust pizzas.

The only downside is that there’s no indoor seating. There are limited tables that are under a few fans, that we managed to snag cos we were early. It wasn’t as busy as I would expect, for pizzas this good. They do takeout as well, and delivery to limited areas near Holland V. They’ve also opened a second outlet at Upper Thomson. I don’t think enough buzz has been generated about them, which is a pity because they’re a lot better than the substandard pizzas that are all too prevalent out there.

A says:

Not exactly cheap, but a very good selection of toppings. I recommend going early and getting a seat nearer the counter/away from the road.

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar
34B Lorong Mambong
Tel: 6467-2224
Mon to Thurs: 5 pm – 10.30 pm
Fri & Sat: 5 pm - 1 am
Sun: 5 pm – 11 pm
www.crustpizza.com.sg

The Wok & Barrel

C says:

The Wok & Barrel is a quintessential success story. This used to be an apparently famous nasi lemak stall at Maxwell Food Centre, called Madam Tan’s Nasi Lemak. Owner Shen Tan did so well that she decided to open her very own restaurant at Duxton Hill. Since we haven’t tried the original one at Maxwell, we came without any basis for comparison, although we had read a number of good reviews from both her longtime customers as well as new fans.

They have a slightly different menu for lunch and for dinner. I think the famous nasi lemak is available as a set lunch, but at dinner time you have to order each component separately, i.e. the rice, curry, chicken wing, omelette, achar etc.


We ordered a plate of the rice, and the beef rendang. The rice wasn’t as rich and lemak as I expected, nor particularly coconutty, but I liked that it came with two different types of sambal. There was the usual sweetish nasi lemak sambal, and a fiery, more savoury sambal belacan that really packed a punch. No prizes for guessing which sambal we each gravitated towards.


The beef rendang was awesome. Every single piece of beef was super tender, and the sauce didn’t skimp on flavour at all. Although we want to try some of the other curries, like the mutton and chicken, I’ll be hard pressed not to order this again, it was that good.


Besides nasi lemak, they have a few other dishes that are modern takes on Singaporean classics. We tried the lamb char siew drizzled with balsamic vinegar, and served with crispy fries and baby spinach. This was another stellar dish. She used lamb neck so there was lots of flavour and just the right balance of fat and lean. The meat was perfectly done, and the seasoning enhanced but didn’t overpower the flavour of the lamb. The crispy fries were really good too – tasted like old school A&W curly fries!

Another lauded dish is her Bak Chor Mee Pasta, which would ordinarily have me dying to try it. However, after I read a few reviews and descriptions, it turns out that it’s just a nod to bak chor mee, and doesn’t actually have minced pork nor chilli and vinegar. It’s actually tagliatelle tossed with the chef’s signature five-spice pork. That being the case, I decided a whole plate of pasta wasn’t a good idea, and instead just ordered a plate of the pork on its own.


In comparison to everything else so far, this was a bit of a letdown. I guess it’s also not meant to be eaten on its own (we had long since finished our rice by then), because the five spice flavours are quite strong, and being almost like a pulled pork in texture, it became a bit too one note after a few bites.


Dessert was by far the most disappointing though. We ordered the Shendol – a coconut panna cotta topped with chendol jelly, drizzled with gula Melaka and served with red bean ice cream. It should have been really good, but everything didn’t really work. The panna cotta wasn’t light or wobbly enough, and the red bean ice cream was thick and slightly gummy, which really didn’t make for a good mouthfeel at all.

I would pass on desserts in future, but I definitely want to come back to try some of the other curries. And have more of that amazing beef rendang.

A says:

I can’t decide if it’s upscale nasi lemak or what happens when the chi-chi crowd pseudo-slum it with some old school dishes. Either way, the service is pretty good considering there’s no service charge, and most of the food is good, especially the beef rendang. Probably the only minuses for me were the bad (noisy) acoustics and the very dense and powdery ice cream (potong gone rough).

The Wok & Barrel
3 Duxton Hill
Tel: 6220-0595
Tues to Sat: 11.30 am to 10 pm
Sun: 11.30 am to 4 pm
www.thewokandbarrel.com