Yoogane - Novelty in the Presentation of the Food

Closed

This restaurant is all about Chicken Galbi, which is prepared right in front of the patrons. A huge pan of fresh raw ingredients consisting of marinated chicken and crisp, fresh chopped vegetables is brought to the table, and a service staff will stir-fry them till a pan of piping hot chicken galbi is ready for tucking in. The seasonings on the chicken make it very flavourful and adds taste to the plain vegetables. This is really one hearty meal. Sides are not bad, do well to whet the appetite but lacks variety.

The place is open concept with only short fences drawing the boundaries of the restaurant. The good part about this is that it is great for gatherings since patrons will have no reservations about having boisterous conversations. Service is pretty okay, nothing worth that extra mention, but I do give them the credit for whipping up a decent meal.

My Thoughts: Not Bad

This restaurant is no longer in operation.

Yayoiken - Good Value for Money

Having been to Hai Di Lao and Saboten countless of times, I had always seen Yayoi's advertisement in the lift. Though its design cannot entice me to give this restaurant a try. It was by sheer coincidence that I went in to try out its set meals. The rational is: since it is cheap, ranging from $9.90 to $18.90, so why not. If the food there is meh, at least my wallet will bleed as much as my taste buds, not literally, of course.

The interior is modern zen where the place is partitioned into many sections. The good part is that there is a level of privacy, and the bad is there is no people watching.

The highlight of Yayoi are definitely the Teishoku meals. The huge variety of set lunches features stir-fried vegetables and meat, fried food, grilled food and even patties. The ingredients used taste pretty fresh, and the seasonings are done just right: tasty but not too salty. Surprisingly, there is free flow of quality rice, given how low the prices of the set meals are. The only drawback of the food is that the cooking standard varies slightly in different days. The first time I had the yasai itame, the meat and vegetables are well-soaked in the light sauce. On the second occasion, the ingredients seemed drier and plainer in taste.

Though I do not recommend the katsu meals because the deep fried breadcrumbs coating the meat really cut the tongue and palates, just like most CUTlets do. And avoid the sashimi also.

Still, for a wallet-friendly, quality meal around Orchard area, the place is one of the good choices. Not to mention that there are Japanese patronizing this place; goes to say how good the food here is.

My Thoughts: Not Bad

https://www.yayoi.sg/contact

Joe and Dough - Excellent Chocolate Cake

There is a cafe hidden behind the row of makeshift vendors on the first floor of Orchard Central. And it is one hidden gem of the place, after Jewels Artisans had closed and NUOC had shifted to Elizabeth Hotel. Want to lounge around and enjoy good cakes at Somerset area? Look for this secret cafe instead of heading to crowded Lady M for mediocre cakes.

The place is small, but it is less crowded, and the dark wood setting induces a cosy feeling. The service is okay.

What makes this place a keeper is the Trio Chocolate cake. Most chocolate cakes can hardly impress me, unless they are made with premium chocolate—Belgium chocolate, for the record, are not exactly considered as premium. This chocolate cake at Joe and Dough wins me over with its richness and the seamless combination of custard, praline biscuit base and different types of chocolates—both dark and milk. The cake part is crumbly though a bit dry and coarse. But thanks to the layering of the mentioned ingredients of the cake, the end result is a sweet smooth chocolatey goodness with a variety of textures and flavours. No boring, flat taste that is typical of lots of chocolate cakes.

Another highlight is the Blueberry Yoghurt Cheese Tart. The marriage of yoghurt and cream cheese is a match made in heaven—this tart looks heavenly also with its filling part taking on a white cloud-like appearance. The yoghurt tends more towards the greek variety in terms of taste: very thick in consistency and creaminess and not as sour as the common yoghurts. So the yoghurt balance out the taste of cheese to leave that lingering aroma of cheese intact while achieving a mild, light overall taste for the tart. A must try.

Pandan cake with gula melaka is saved by the intense flavour and moist texture of the gula melaka and grated coconut. Unlike the usual variety that made up of chiffon sponge, the pandan cake here is a butter cake, just like the Chocolate Trio. The texture is also the same, but I prefer such cakes over the plain chiffon due to my preference for richness in cakes. The gula melaka and coconut makes this an exceptional Pandan Cake that is more sinful to indulge in than its counterparts. Worth a try.

I am glad that I give this place a second try and get to try the Trio and went on to try other creations. The first time I went there, the SG50 chocolate cupcake I had is so dry that I kind of strike this cafe off my list.

One thing to note: given the coarse, heavy consistency of the cakes here, maybe it is better to give the cupcakes a miss.

All in all, the cakes here, which are of good quality, are slightly cheaper than those in other nearby places, so this is my favourite cafe in Orchard Area.

My Thoughts: Nice!

Nearest car park: Somerset 313's car park

Nearest MRT: Somerset

Orchard Gateway

227 Orchard Road #01-10

Contact No: 67024656

Hai Di Lao - Most probably the Best Hotpot

I was quite sceptical about how good Hai Di Lao is since chain restaurants are well-known to be huge disappointments. Thus I was totally bowled over by what this place has to offer, both in terms of food and service.

The rich, milky white—bright red if ordering Mala—soup base is very flavourful, even before adding the ingredients. The seafood one has a light taste of the goodness of the sea while the chicken soup has a strong flavour of, well, chicken. In fact, this is the only place, excluding Tsukada Nojo, where I do not need to order prawns to yield tasty soups. The Mala one is extremely potent in terms of spiciness, great for certain ingredients, like luncheon meat, sliced pork, tau pok (drain away the liquid first), baby corn and such. Avoid putting the vegetables into the Mala soup if one has low tolerance towards spicy food since it is easy to choke on the overwhelming hotness. Adding parsley and spring onion to the soup is recommended.

The ingredients are fresh, and most are reasonably priced, with exception to the pastes and seafood. Also helps that the variety is awesome, featuring many types of ingredients from all kinds of beancurd products, various meats and seafood, several kinds of noodles and vegetables. The best part about this place is that one can concoct customized dipping sauces from a huge array of condiments available. Sesame sauce, sesame oil, freshly minced garlic—so fresh that the typical strong pungent smell can blow one away, soy sauce, chives, parsley, spring onions, chillies, the list goes on. The staff is very regular in topping up the condiments, which is all good. Go easy on the chillies and even the garlic because the ones here pack lots of fiery power.

The service is unbelievably good, except for the reservation system where they lost track of a reservation that was two weeks old, and when they need to check their reservation list. They are very proactive, polite, patient and prompt in responding to requests. Even the kitchen staff is very polite.

The place is well-kept and clean. No complaints here. Though it may get cramped if an obnoxious patron sits behind you because the chairs take up quite a lot of space, and the person is inconsiderate, well, good luck.

Despite this minor issue, Hai Di Lao is still my favourite place to go for hotpot.

My Thoughts: Very Nice!

Nearest car park: 313@Somerset's car park

Nearest MRT: Somerset

Level 4, 313@Somerset

313 Orchard Road

Singapore

Contact No: 6835 7227

Saboten - Delicious Tonkatsu ... and Salad

If you check out my reviews, you will notice I generally have bad impressions of chain restaurants. There are of course exceptions, like Rakuichi, and Saboten!

What this place gets right are the tonkatsu and the free flow of salad. The tonkatsu is coated with an amazingly crispy yet fine breadcrumbs that does not cut the mouth, unlike lots of CUTlets out there. I highly recommend the tenderloin over the loin meat since as the name has stated, the meat is tender, fresh, flavourful and juicy. The loin meat is a bit too tough and has too much fat. The special sauce has the right balance of flavours and a bit of sourness to kick things up. To make things interesting, many patrons need to grind the sesame seeds before mixing them with the specialty sauce. Needless to say, the aroma of the crushed sesame adds more robustness to the overall taste.

The salad of finely shredded cabbage totally whets the appetite when the tangy sesame sauce or ponzu one, maybe both are added to the cold, crisp, extremely fresh vegetables, served in a cold bowl. Even the rice served here is of high quality type. The grains each has a pearl-like sheen coating it, looking really moist. They are perfectly cooked: no broken grains, smooth texture and quite soft to the bite, but not overly so.

Dessert is yuzu ice cream, which refreshes the palate a lot. Nothing really special, but I am glad that watermelon is not served instead since a lot of Japanese restaurants love to serve watermelon.

Service is okay. They are prompt to responses and are quite friendly.

I became a regular of the place already.

Update: I find the quality of the meat to have somewhat dropped. The rest are still good though.

My Thoughts: My Favourite place for Tonkatsu.

This restaurant had shifted to Millennia Walk.