Ippudo

Lunch with Winnie and we landed at Ippudo!

I had the tonkatsu ramen with option of very hard noodles!

The noodle was not bad! Hard as I wanted it to be. Soup base was nice too. But the charsiew was mediocre.

Opted for the set (additional $4) which came with a karage chicken...

Karage chicken was nice!

Winnie had the same noodles and she opted for the salad set (additional $3)

We also ordered the side of a $6 steak thingy...

This was serve semi chilled. Not bad in terms of taste.

Churros Factory

I have actually been on a self imposed sugar free diet for coming to 2 weeks. The toughest to resist, for me, is milk tea! But today when I saw this ondeh ondeh milk tea, pandan flavored milk shake with gula Melaka, I could resist no more!

Luckily, it wasn't very nice (in my view). I expected the pandan taste to be stronger but instead it was a bit of a sourish (not the turn bad kind of sour) sweet.

So lucky for me, I only took like one or two mouth and can go back to the sugar free diet!

Truffle Ritz cheese sandwiches

I chanced upon this today at Shiok Japan. It is SO GOOD! There's really the truffle taste! 

I bought the last 2! It's out of stock now :(

Imam Banana Leaf Restaurant

Had cravings for curry and Indian food so we ended up here. The prata here is pretty good!

Also had the curry chicken which was also pretty good!

Cucina

I was actually just here for lunch yesterday but the cream sauce dory was really good that I want to be back again today!

Cucina is one of the restaurants within Aperia mall. Italian concept of sorts. Ala carte food is not cheap but with promo it's quite ok. Like set lunch is avail at $12.90++.

If u order the pasta set lunch it's even cheaper at $8.90++.

They also have a one for one for any pasta/pizza/mains. The lower value one is free.

So anyway, of course I had to order what I came back for!

For some reason, today's one didn't taste as good. It was still ok but the cream was too watery today. Flavour wasn't as strong also. Just when I thought I found a potential regular lunch joint, it has failed me!

And because the portion was quite small, it was barely enough to fill me. So we also ordered a duck confit to share...

The duck confit wasn't very nice. Sauce was pour onto the skin resulting in the skin not being crispy. In fact, even if there was no sauce I believe the skin was also not very crispy. The meat of the duck also didn't feel tender or juicy. Basically not an item I will order again. Esp since it's very pricey @ $32. Not worth it if there's no one for one.

 And since there's a one for one, bunny chose the seafood pasta

The pasta was decent.

I guess I will still be back but more for the set lunches!

Service wise, they are pretty ok. Can feel everyone there is trying to make the business work as the mall can get petty quiet.

Tony Roma's

I have been craving for their baked potato soup for quite a while! And since we were around the area, decided to do dinner here. Turned out to be a great decision as this is one of those very satisfying dinner!

For one, service was excellent! Right down to the young little server girl who looked like she was just temp-ing there. When asked about her comments between the ribeye and New York steak, she actually gave me her opinion and recommendation. Not a "oh depends on ur preference " kinda diplomatic yet not helpful answer. She actually could tell me how the New York strip's fats is at the side whereas the ribeye one is all over and she prefers the New York striploin! 

And the manager who was helpful in checking whether I am still a Friend of Tony Roma's! Haha

So yeah, the baked potato soup!

I like it for the chunks of potato they have inside topped with bacon, cheddar cheese and spring onion! The overall taste is good! Comfort food!

For mains, we ordered the New York striploin as per the server's recommendation! 

It was a good around 340g of steak and like the server said, fats was all evenly on one side. It was thick which made it a good mouthful. Even the fatty part was good! Meat was lean yet juicy. I like it!

Also, after serving the steak, the server will patiently wait and prompt you to check if the doneness is right. That's good service for u!

Steak mains also came with choice of 2 sides and for this we chose the coleslaw and the mashed potato.

The coleslaw was so so, slightly sour and  had a mustard-ish taste.

The mashed potato was awesome! Yummy! Using almost the same stuff as the soup - cheddar, bacon, spring onion!

The other mains, we had a combo of rib with the ribeye steak...

The pork rib was so so. Tender but not super tender. The rib eye steak was much thinner than the New York striploin but it was much juicier and flavorful. I love both the steak!

Sides was the rice and the baked potato. 

Baked potato was nice and again same items as the mashed and the soup but with addition of sour cream. Also very nice! I guess I just like this combo!

The rice is so good! It tastes like chicken rice, very yummy!

We will be back for sure! 

Lok Kee

It was a belated birthday treat for Winnie and knowing that she's into Chinese food lately, Lok Kee came to mind Coz of some of their very interesting and creative dishes.

We ordered mostly the interesting items. Like the flaming pineapple beef!

The beef cube was tender but sadly despite the flaming, the beef was not hot. It was probably just slightly warm. 

Next was the chicken nest thingy...

It's actually fried chicken in ma la style. Dry Mala style. Very good! But not sure why it's also not hot. I'm usually not into Mala but it's Mala after taste in the mouth is quite Shiok. What's interesting about this dish is the egg yolk like thingy on side. It's actually mango purée, coated with some gelatin. Also very yummy and refreshing to have after the Mala!

We also ordered their fat London duck!

It was not as crispy today but overall still good. 

Shared a xo crab meat fried rice ...

Which was decent.

Fermented bean roast pork belly bun...

Funny couldn't really taste the fermented bean thou. The sauce was more like a sweetish sauce. It was decent but not something I will order again. 

The salted egg fish skin was really good!

It was crispy and tasty!

For desserts, we had the bacon ice cream... Yes, bacon ice cream !

It's interesting and the ice cream did have a saltish bacon taste. Served in a bread bowl.

We also ordered the custard buns that were shaped to look like mushrooms

Again, very interesting but taste wise was mediocre. Can eat. Haha

Rice House

Noticed this place when driving around my place and was drawn by their antique looking signboard....

There's actually a Chinese one but its beside a deity figurine and the owner informed we are not to take pictures. The Chinese words wrote 粥大王!

After finally dropping by to check out this place recently, we realised this is a vegetarian joint! The gf has made a conscious decision to go vegetarian every 初一十五 so I'm trying my best to comply too. Hence, it was a no brainer that dinner was to be settled here.

An aunt who is a regular vegetarian gave rather positive feedback about the food here so that also encouraged us.

We ordered the duck porridge that my aunt recommended

The duck porridge is pretty good! Really does quite taste like duck. 

Bunny had the curry chicken rice..

This was ok only.

We also shared a fish slice soup...

The fish slice soup is pretty good. I wouldn't say it tastes like fish but it's flavour is nice. 

We also had some mock luncheon meat and duck to share...

The mock luncheon meat really tasted quite like luncheon meat!

Things here aren't expensive, not air conditioned though. 

Overall a decent vegetarian joint. Believe we will be back!

Antoinette

Bunny came down to pick me up for lunch today. We headed over to Antoinette to check out the talk of the town - salted egg crossiant! 

Bunny's coffee that looks elegant and smells awesome!

For mains, bunny ordered the mushroom risotto which was very yummy!

It was flavorful and tasty with a generous amount of Parmesan and a crispy pieces of ham. We both loved it!

I had a beef ragout pasta and they acceded to my request of changing it to pappardelle!

It was also awesome! The pappardelle texture was exactly how I love pappardelle to be. It's thin and hence springy! The beef ragout was not bad as well topped with a good amount of Parmesan cheese.

And the star for today, the salted egg croissant!

I think amongst the many places selling this salted egg crossiant here in Sg, Antoneitte (based on a recent Facebook trending article) seems to be ranked quite high. I quite liked it. The salted egg wasn't as flow-y but I think it's pretty good. Reminds me somehow of mooncakes.

Bunny said it was nice but fell short of her expectations. She expected it a bit more savory. We ta bao-ed one for ken and she had the same comments as bunny, they both found it too custard-ish. I think it's pretty good!

Barossa

Firstly, I want to thank amex again for the wonderful promo and offer they have again. I must say, their promos are always very wu Hua! Also, their customer service always impress! I got to know about this promotion when I called in to their customer service line and the service officer found a chance to bring up  this promotion to me. They even emailed me the promotion details:

Basically its a tie up with creative eateries restaurants. On Mondays and Tuesday's, not limited to the no. Of pax, there is a 40% off food. Well, it was only when we got there that we realised drinks were not included but it's ok coz still wu Hua.

I chose Barossa as I saw they seemed to serve pretty decent steak. It is dad's birthday and I believe he enjoys a good steak too.

When we got there, I was quite disappointed that this place has no indoor seats at all - as in no air con! N weather these days are sooooo hot!! But since we were here, decided to continue with dinner. Thought we could quickly finish eating and all but sadly, service was  lacking here.

Actually, we should have known - for a place running a promotion of 40% discount yet having only like 2-3 tables, tells a lot.

For starters, it was hard to get attention of the servers (yes, despite only having maybe 2-3 tables of patrons). 

Next, after we ordered, the server came back to us and told us that the chicken spatchcock we ordered was not available. 3 of us ordered that so we changed our orders. The changed orders arrived but the original order (items that were available), did not come even after a long time - to be specific, 40 minutes. This was so much so that those whose orders came had already long finished eating! 

We actually asked to check on the items after about 30 mins and were told they are preparing. But by 40 mins, when i walked over to the side where I saw the open kitchen, I saw they only just took the steak out of the fridge.

Turns out when they cancelled the initial order, they cancelled the whole first order or something or kitchen did not see the other items of the first order hence this blunder. But what was infuriating was that when we checked about it at around 30 mins, they actually told us they were preparing it but they were actually not -.-

But in all fairness, they did try to do some form of service recovery. The server offered all of us a round of ice cream as a gesture of service recovery. They also offered us some vouchers for a return visit.

We ordered a margarita pizza to share...

Thin crust, decent pizza.

Truffle fries to share...

A little too dry. 

Fish and chips....

Fish n chips was pretty good! Good portion and I think the fish is actually pretty good.

Baked salmon 

Salmon was done just right, pink in the middle and not overdone. Nice!

Huiying ordered the bleu cheese steak burger after seeing this on some social media...

I was excited to try it too but the steak here turned out to be quite dry. 

My dad ordered a rib eye sampler which came with 3 types of steak! 

This one was good! And it was worth it! Each piece was an average of about 150g? And it was good in terms of price, taste and portion! This will be what makes me want to return here again.

The wagyu one in particular is good. Very beefy and yummy.

Also, I like that they separated the sauce. A good steak, to me, is when it is nicely seasoned with just salt and pepper and the rest will be just the beef au naturale taste! They provided some sea salt for further taste which was good in my view!

I ordered the pork rack

It was a 7 out of 10 in my view. It probably wasn't super tender but tender enough. I didn't like the sauce spread over it but overall I'm pleased with the texture of the pork. 

We also ordered a platter of prime rib to share...

It was pretty good! Again, for the price, I have zero complains, only thumbs up. The steak was again nicely marinated and the charred sides were on point! Love it!

Detchie ordered a prawn aglio olio which came last and didn't try...

Overall I will say the food is actually quite decent. The service was not so ideal, the venue is too hot but I may be back when I want a fix of steak that's not over priced.

Stellar

Had the honour of having lunch with Chef Chris Millar at Stellar...

When I think of Stellar, I cannot help but think of the lobster risotto they have. Super good.

Today, I went for the set lunch and chef also ordered a charcoal loaf...

It was so so so so good. Blog readers will know, I find bread a waste of my stomach storage space and if I do eat the bread, it must really be good. I had 3 slices! It was really good. I spread it with the butter and it was fragrant at every bite! Still missing it now!

We were also offered little bite size canapés from the chef...

For my starter, I opted for a pesto soup...

It was served with two clams in the soup plate and with the soup poured in.

The soup was very interesting. I mean, we typically have pesto with pasta or maybe with bread but first time I'm having it with a soup. I think it's quite unique and I really quite liked the taste.

My other starter was the foie gras pate...

The pate was yummy too!

For mains, I went with the chef's recommendation of the pork even thou I usually go for beef. Thank god I did that coz the pork is indeed very tender!!

It was really good. Each piece is a relatively thick cut, the way I like it. Every mouthful was really good!

Wonderful lunch!