Yogurette

The acidity and creaminess of yogurt simply works so well with chocolate.

Country of Origin: Germany

Where to buy this: Candy Empire

Waiting for you …

Found this old review while doing some formatting. It is not on this blog since it is not about morsels of delice. But I post it here just for the fun of it, as this is one of the more unique reviews I had written. And no, I'm not saying which restaurant is this.

Try "singing" this review to the tune of "I will be right here waiting for you".

After order, time after time 
I had asked about my food, 
Twenty minutes, had just passed 
But not one dish had came yet 
The kang kong had finally came, but it tasted oh so salty 

Your service is slow, Your food is awful, 
Why am I still here, waiting for you 
At least thirty minutes, to wait for each dish
Why am I still here, waiting for you 

The scallops with yam, tasted so bad 
This is a lousy combi
The only good, about this place 
Is the live and fresh Seafood 
But the chef can't cook it well, what a waste of good seafood

I wonder how I can survive, to even 

Have to wait for thirty minutes, 
To Settle my Bill 
Oh, even getting the change
Took more than twenty minutes

After this, I quit being a romantic, and go "No more nonsense about all these waiting, I'm not coming back ever!".

Just Acia - Very Value for Money

Actually, I have never intended to write about this restaurant since I am not feeling particularly inspired to do so. In other words, I kind of take this place for granted. It is only until I had visited Hifumi that I feel this place does deserve a mention here after all.

Ambience wise, the place is clean and pleasant to dine in. It scores more on functionality instead of aesthetics. The staff is okay; some are friendly while some are just doing their job, nothing more. The main drawing point is how incredibly value for money the set meals here are. For just $6 plus onwards, patrons can get free flow of drinks, soft-serve yoghurt and Mingo ice-creams to go with a main course. While these are not exactly something to rave about, I like the variety of drinks available, from the usual suspects of frizzy drinks and sugary drinks to Thai ice tea and hot beverages of coffee and tea. The ice-cream section features an interesting selection not commonly found in supermarkets, like lychee for example. To me, this is a huge plus point since I don't fancy eating ice-cream that I can easily get from NTUC or Cold Storage.

Main course dishes vary from mediocre to decent in terms of standard. The dumplings are bland, and the amount of filling inside is pathetically little. The Aglio Olio is surprisingly not bad. Not al dente, but the spaghetti has not fallen into the category of "soggy", in fact, far away from it, thus I still find myself enjoying this dish. And it helps that the aroma of garlic is pronounced in this dish. This is the dish that gives me the reason to visit Just Acia again when I am in saving mode. This is also the place that comes into my mind if suggesting a place for gathering since it will not hurt the wallets.

My Thoughts: Not Bad

For locations, click on the link below:
http://www.justacia.com/findus.html

Rabbit Stash - Rabbit's Little Secrets

Closed

So many restaurants, so little time … and when I finally get a free slot in my tight schedule, I head straight down to Rabbit Stash aka Hareloom Bar. Though I do wish I could go for dinner instead since the offerings for lunch is catered to executives looking to have a hearty and filling meal before heading back to work, and it is hard to get a strong feeling of the chef's talents and creativity from these dishes available during lunchtime.

The interior of the restaurant is like the rabbit's secret little snuggery, being dim and cosy with yellow lights, cute but classic rabbit figurines and walls highlighted with washes of purple light. It seems like the rabbit has a taste for modern chic.

The generous basket of breads may look ordinary, but they have this interesting texture that lies between crunchy and chewy. A nice change from the usual. These are best enjoyed with butter and the sea salt. Just dab a small cube of butter on the sea salt and then put that butter onto the bread, the combination of the aroma of baked, toasted wheat and grains, creaminess of butter and mineral taste of sea salt makes for a wholesome treat.

Hokkaido Scallop with 58 degrees Egg, appetizer of the Executive Set Lunch, not only looks pretty, its taste is simply unbelievable awesome. The sweet flesh of the fresh scallop is firm with nary the chewiness, which is the perfect texture for indulgence of scallops, and permeated into it are the flavours of earthly toasted brown rice and sea salt—I do think that there is sea salt sprinkled on top before being seared. The myriad of flavours makes this one of the best and most flavourful scallop I have. The 58 degrees onsen egg stands out on its own with just a scattering of fine pepper on top. And its yolk also complements the scallop well. The sauce on the lettuce leaves tastes like goma sauce, except that the nutty flavour of sesame is more pronounced here. While not as stellar as the scallop and egg, it is pretty good for a salad due to the rich, nutty, slightly creamy sauce.

The main course of Sea Bass goes big on portions, which is good news for many. The sight of the generous bowlful of French fries may delight lots of people, but not me since I know I cannot finish them, and French fries is not my thing. While I like the salad in the appetizer, seeing it the second time on the mains does not incite the same level of excitement since I am looking to explore different tastes—have to admit this is expectation issue as the restaurant's focus during lunchtime is on Hareloom Bar offerings. The sea bass is fresh, and the sauce is very interesting in taste, having just that iota spicy flavour to kick things up. However, the sauce is not enough to add enough flavour to the plain fish meat.

Chocolate Fudge Cake brings things up a bit with the lovely combination of milk chocolate fudge and cake made from dark chocolate with intense flavour. The cake is best eaten with the fudge since on its own, it is a tad dry—have to admit that I am someone who loves to have lots of cream in my cakes. The chocolate crumbs, when eaten together with the cake, gives a nice extra crunch to the dessert. The ice cream is the weak link since on its own, it is not exceptionally creamy to create an impact and it does not really make a difference to taste and texture of the dessert either.

The Gourmet Bowl of Tiger Prawns is an à la carte item I ordered on my second visit. The fresh springy tiger prawns coated with golden yellow batter is what draw the thumbs up from me. A dash of tangy flavour, a tad of sweetness and a tang of spices yield a multitude of flavours that surprises and intrigues. The runny onsen egg complements the tiger prawns well to add eggy goodness to the rice. Talking about the rice, it is good that Japanese rice is used instead of Thai jasmine rice, as I prefer to try other types of rice outside of the regular jasmine rice I have been eating almost everyday. But being an individual who is very picky about rice, I find the rice lacking the sheer shine indicating the perfect texture that I look for in Japanese rice. Still, at $17 plus, this is very value for money.

Service here is wonderful. The staffs, who are friendly and helpful, responds quickly to my requests with smiles. And they are very proactive in replenishing the butter for my breads and filling up my glass of water. Lastly, they put a nice finishing touch to the entire dining experience of the patrons by bidding farewell to them. Providing good service is not easy feat, to exude that genuine warmth is something not many service staffs, even those of the best restaurants, can achieve, but the service crew here exceed my expectations to exhibit this trait that I appreciate.

This is a nice place to consider for a hearty lunch with sprinkles of exciting flavours incorporated. Dinner maybe even more exciting since I can tell the chef is really great at playing with flavours based on Hokkaido Scallops and Tiger Prawns.

My Thoughts: Nice!

This restaurant is no longer in operation.

Bakerzin - Stick to the Desserts

Closed

This is kind of like the long overdue post because I had visited this cafe way before Izy Dining & Bar, Nakhon Kitchen and even Chateraise. But the motivation to translate the experience into words is not that strong. How things have changed. Bakerzin is the cafe that introduced me to the world of premium desserts. The first time I tried the Jivara cake, the pure chocolatey richness of the cake blew me away. And from there, I went on the quest to try out as many delectable desserts as possible. But as tough competitors join the local culinary scene, raising up the bar, I no longer patronize Bakerzin anymore, especially after the awful service I had encountered at Paragon. A sure fire way to get me to boycott eateries is very bad service, including those of hawker stalls.

Bakerzin still holds a special place in my heart though. My guy and I did go there often for dates. And he still believes that Jivara is the best chocolate cake he ever has. So when I passed by the cafe in Vivocity, I decided to take the plunge and try out their offerings.

The Pineapple Rice with Chicken is quite a disaster in my opinion. Being very particular about quality of rice, I find the rice here to be lacking in aroma of rice, and the surface is dull, having no shine. Saved for the yellow colour and few cubes of pineapple, there is nothing about the taste and smell that deem it as pineapple rice. The chicken is not fresh. I can taste it, even with that lacklustre sauce, since I am sensitive to this. It is quite a torture to finish it actually.

The new creation, Lychee Rose Cake, redeems things a lot though. Rose and Lychee is a match made in heaven. Both have very distinctive fragrance, but in this cake, they complement each other to take sweetness to greater heights. The sweetness I am referring to here is in terms of the smell. Taste wise, it is just right in sweetness, not cloyingly. The shortbread base does well to add variation in taste and texture through a bit of butter flavour and crunchiness to the two types of mousses.

Service is not bad, but not great either. They get all the basics done: responding promptly to requests, etc. But there is this lingering air of coldness about them. Does not help that when I first entered the cafe, the two staff just looked at me, doing nothing, like they thought I was taking a tour of the cafe?

So conclusion is this place can still be considered for a get-together to enjoy desserts and cakes. Just don't have high expectations if one is ordering the pineapple rice. And based on the standard of this dish, I am not expecting the other savoury dishes to be good.

My Thoughts: Well ...

This place is no longer in operation

Nakhon Kitchen - Surprisingly Good

At last, another Thai restaurant featured on my site! As I had said before: I only bother to write about restaurants that are at least decent, and not a lot of Thai restaurants can make it up here. The problem is not with the cuisine itself since I absolutely love Mai Thai and this new kid on my blog. It is more of lacking the time to specially go down to the ones out of the way—have to admit that when I have the time, I usually use it to suss out the European restaurants instead. And it does not help that lots of neighbourhood Thai eateries just do not impress me. Anyway, it is always good to add another eatery into my list of restaurants I will regularly visit.

The Tom Yum soup is uncannily similar to Mai Thai's one, which I billed as the best tom yum soup. Very clear and clean, saturated with strong flavours of tomatoes, lemongrass, seafood, lime, kaffir lime leaves and coriander leaves, this soup truly simulates the senses.

The spring rolls feature very crispy skin, but the fillings are not exactly noteworthy. The highlights are the vegetables do not have a weird taste that most cabbages have, and the rolls do not have that smell of stale oil. Red curry has the rich creamy taste of coconut, which I love, though I wish they can be more generous with the amount of meat used. Well, at least, fresh meat is used. Deep fried chicken with garlic hits all the right notes with sprinkles of spices on top and its fresh, succulent meat with no tendons. This is one of those few times I actually like deep fried meat.

I think Nakhon Kitchen serves Northern Thai cuisine since it is so similar to Mai Thai's. I had tried Thai food of Southern region, and taste wise, they are quite different from the ones of above two mentioned restaurants. Since the two are on par in terms of food, I will go to Mai Thai for ambience and Nakhon Kitchen for the well-being of our wallets.

No photo taken because being low profile, I do not fancy taking photos with a bunch of people standing beside me—they are actually queuing for a table while I am happily tucking in my food. Note that I am happy with the food, but the environment is noisy. I suspect the loud music is to ensure patrons do not hang around to just chit chat after finishing the meals. But frankly speaking, I rather come here than to go to some sub-par restaurants with air-conditioning.

My Thoughts: Nice!

Nearest car park: Open air HDB car park behind Blk 212
Nearest MRT: Kovan

212 Hougang St 21
#01-341
Singapore
Contact No: 62868785

Izy Dining & Bar - Japanese Cuisine with Lots of Twists

Closed

Note: This post was written when Izy Dining & Bar was Izy Dining & Bar serving Japanese cuisine, not its present incarnation:Izy Fook, which serves mod-sin cuisine instead.

Longing to try food that brings something new and unique to the table and excites our palates, just like falling in love for the first time, and given that my guy now way prefers Asian cuisine over European ones, I suggest heading to Izy Dining and Bar instead of other establishments in my wish list. And good thing that it is a trip well-made and well-worth it.

The location, open kitchen, the bar table and dim lights is reminiscent of my favourite places, such as Lolla and maybe Esquina, the hottest spots in town where people gather when the sun disappears from the skyline. Izy's interior does have that industrial vibe, but at the same time, the Japanese influences are strong and the glass lamps hanging from the ceiling add that touch of class to the whole place.

Notwithstanding the chic environment, the star of this watering hole is still the food. And when paired with quality sake, such as Mizubasho, it makes for a hearty yet fine treat. Nokke roll pulls no punches back in impressing us with huge dollops of fresh, creamy, briny uni, well-prepared negitoro, flavourful real crab meat and salmon roe. This is not like any roll I had seen before. The Kappa roll at the base complements the decadent ingredients at the top very well due to its neutral and clean taste that balance the sinful richness of the gems of the sea. And I appreciate how the Japanese chef makes the effort to soak his hands in ice water and plunges the tip of his knife into the cold water before meticulously preparing our Nokke roll while ensuring the freshness of the seafood will not be affected by the warmth.

Japanese food staples, like miso soup and salad, are also pretty good. The crisp vegetables are generously drizzled with Japanese salad sauce. And the soup, packed with lots of chopped vegetables, is very light and clear, which is my preference for miso soup.

The batter used in the Chicken Karaage is one of its kind and a league above others. The pale batter is crispy, with oh-so-slight texture of soufflé incorporated, thin and moist yet absolutely not oily. I love it not only for the unique texture, but also for its light colour—a testament to the fact that fresh oil is used. It is impossible to get that colour with used oil. The meat wrapped in the batter is also fresh, succulent and tender. The sauce poured onto the Karaage has a unique taste—a mix of tangy flavours and unami of dried bonito. While I like the uniqueness of the sauce, I do feel it is a bit too salty for me. My guy loves it thorough and thorough though, since he has higher tolerance for saltiness.

We are pleasantly surprised by how good the plain-looking potato salad is. It just has a dash of finely grinded pepper sprinkled on top, nothing else. But the combination of mashed potatoes with butter and pepper works so well. The pepper adds that subtle kick to the wholesome earthy flavour of potato.

The batter coating the fresh, flavourful prawns and vegetables in the Tempura set is crisper. And when dipped into the tempura sauce, softening it a slight bit, it tastes perfect. Even without the sauce, the tempura still tastes great due to the inherent sweetness of the ingredients, and one may prefer the crunchiness of the batter.

The service is good, being prompt in responding to requests and always eager to interact with patrons. Though one may need to call their number a few times to get through, just take note.

I am totally digging this place because of how the chefs put a new spin on traditional Japanese food. And quality and the essence of Japanese cuisine are not compromised in the process. Not to mention that lunch sets are absolutely value for money, from $18 onwards. Yes, the Tempura set is $18 only. Without a doubt, I will be back for more.

My Thoughts: Impressive!

This restaurant had been revamped to serve local fare.

Latest update: This restaurant is no longer in operation