Watami Singapore at Jcube

Side-track a little first. Recently I'm hooked onto the drama "너의 목소리가 들려 (I Can Hear Your Voice)". The drama plot is really captivating! Korean drama lovers out there, it's a must watch!! Haha love the 이보영 이종석 couple <3

Haha okay back to my main topic! Weeks ago, Will and I had cravings for ramen and so we decided to have dinner at Watami. We walked past Watami countless times but this was really the first time we stopped and went in. There is a touch screen tablet at the entrance of the restaurant where you have to indicate the number of people dining and get a queue number. The restaurant staff will then call for your queue number when a table is ready.

 

While waiting for our queue number to be called, it's a good opportunity to check out the restaurant promotions!

 

Will and I decided to go for the ramen promotion where you have 4 choices of ramen at $12.80. You can also upgrade the ramen to a value set and get an additional Half Watami Salad at $4.80. Feeling very hungry, we ordered 2 other ala carte dishes from the menu as well.

 

Kushiyaki Miso Onigiri (Rice ball skewer with miso paste) was first on our table.

 

Kushiyaki Miso Onigiri ($4.90)

 

The grilled onigiri had crispy rice on the outside and soft, chewy rice on the inside. As the onigiri had no seasonings to it, it managed to balance out the saltiness of the miso paste. Delicious!

 

The second ala carte dish that we ordered was the Chicken Katsu Tamago Toji (Chicken cutlet with scramble egg sauce). The egg came separately so we got to cook the scramble egg!

 

Chicken Katsu Tamago Toji ($11.80)

Allow the sauce to boil for a little while to cook the onions. Beat the egg, pour it into the boiling sauce and tadaaa it's ready!! Will had the honour to cook the egg and it looked great! Haha

The chicken cutlet was crispy and tender, and the scrambled egg was soft and moist! The only downside was the sauce. It could be more diluted and made less salty >.<

The Half Watami Salad (Special Watami salad with tuna sauce) came just in time.

Half Watami Salad

 

Will and I were surprised at the portion of the salad. So generous! As seen from the photo, the salad comprised of lettuce, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, corn bits, seaweed, yellow crispy strips (not sure what it is), chicken chunks and a scoop of tuna mayo. I dislike eating raw vegetables and salads but this salad was yummy!! I really liked it that the blanched broccoli was well-cooked and soft. Hate blanched vegetables that tasted raw. It got to be the best salad I ever had and I'm craving for it now. A non-salad lover craving for salad. Haha

 

After the pleasant surprise from the dishes above, it's time for some nightmare. Will ordered the Watami Ramen Special while I ordered the Kara Miso Ramen.

Watami Ramen Special ($12.80)

 

I stirred through my bowl of ramen to hunt for the main ingredients and this was what I found. Look at the miserable piece of Chashu in my bowl of ramen. -.-

 

Kara Miso Ramen ($12.80)

Although there was only a miserable piece of Chashu and a halved egg, the portion of noodles was generous. It should be ok right? No!! The ramen broth was SO SALTY that it was almost beyond consumption. I left the ramen untouched after few mouths. I am never going to order the ramen ever again. Will's ramen had more pieces of Chashu, a whole egg and tasted slightly less salty. So if you do want to try the ramen, my advice is to order the Watami Special Ramen.

Despite the ramen nightmare, I'm still craving for the Watami salad. I will be back for the salad soon!! ^^



Cheerios,
Mari




Seremban Kee Mei Siew Pow at Maxwell

It's been more than a week since I've blogged! >.< Last week was a hectic week at work and I couldn't find time to blog. But fear not, I'm back! ^^

 

Maxwell Food Centre is a place that I will visit every time I'm in Chinatown with my mom. It's almost like a fortnightly routine. It will be early in the morning, and I will queue to buy handmade peanut mochi (love it!) while my mom will buy curry puffs. For the past few visits, I noticed a new stall and decided to give it a try.

 

Seremban Kee Mei Siew Pow is a household name in Malaysia and has more than 80 distributors all over Malaysia. Good news for our fellow fans of the pastry as Kee Mei has opened up 3 branches in Singapore! Bishan Cafeteria, Old Airport food centre and Maxwell food centre.

 

 

Kee Mei is famous for their Char Siew Pow ($1.20) and they were featured on newspapers for it. Besides the signature Char Siew Pow, Chicken Siew Pow ($1.20), Portuguese Egg Tarts ($1.30), Tau Sar Biscuit ($0.80), Egg Tarts and Pineapple Tarts are also available. 

My mom and I are not fans of Char Siew Pow as we dislike the sweet pork filling that is often stuffed with fats. The lady overheard our concern and reassured us that the Char Siew Pow has no fats. She told us that the cut of meat was carefully selected such that it will be tender and yet not fatty at all. She even promised a refund if we were to find any fats in the pork filling! We trusted her words and bought a box of their pastries.

 

Our box of pastries include Chicken Siew Pow, Char Siew Pow, Portuguese Egg Tart and a Tau Sar biscuit ^^

 

Char Siew Pow

 

Haha it was indeed true that the pork filling of the Char Siew Pow contained no fats! The sweet-salty filling was average to me but I really liked the pastry crust. It was crispy on the outside and slight doughy on the inside.

 

Chicken Siew Pow

The Chicken Siew Pow tasted almost exactly like the Char Siew Pow?? The only difference in taste was that the chicken filling had a slight black pepper flavour to it. I still prefer chicken!



Portuguese Egg Tart

The freshly-baked Portuguese egg tart looked really good on the tray and the buttery fragrance was irresistible! I had to try one! The puff pastry of the Portuguese egg tart was warm and crispy. The egg custard was nice but could be less sweet. I will definitely get more of these the next time I visit Maxwell ^^



Cheerios,
Mari



Deal Review 2: Asian Buffet Lunch at Quality Cafe (Quality Hotel)

Deal Details:
From $12.06 Onwards for Local Cuisine Buffet at Quality Hotel – Enjoy Asian Buffet or Famous Taiwan Porridge Buffet (Valid Daily)


My family wanted to have a buffet lunch on Sunday and so we decided to give the deal above a try. We bought the following deal: "Weekend Asian Buffet Lunch (Fri – Sun) – Only $20.53 instead of $25.66".

My family and I have tried several pricey Asian-themed buffets but the food were disappointing as a whole. Come on, the food sold at the hawker centre near my house tasted much better! So honestly, I wasn't expecting much out of the Quality Café Asian buffet lunch. Haha I forgot to bring my hp along and so the few pictures were taken from Deal.com.sg.

We reached at 12noon and the restaurant was quite empty. The restaurant slowly filled up and it was full house by 1pm! We noted where our table was and proceeded to check out the food. I was pleasantly surprised that the food spread was almost similar to that written on the deal website.

For the Live Station, they have the Popiah and Singapore Laksa.



Popiah. Photo Credits: http://www.deal.com.sg/

Singapore Laksa. Photo Credits: http://www.deal.com.sg/

For the cooked food selection, they have:

• Radish and Carrot Soup
• Chicken Porridge             
• Steamed Prawn
• Tempura Soft Shell Crab
• Steamed Seabass      
• Stir fried Venison with black pepper sauce
• Stir fried Chicken with dried chillies
• Stir fried Broccoli with fish maw
• Stir fried Long Beans with Brinjal (Spicy)
• Prawn Paste Deep Fried Chicken
• Roasted Duck
• Sambal Sotong
• Fried Bee Hoon
• Steamed Chicken/Chicken feet (Served with chicken rice)
• Siew Mai
• Fried Item



Stir fried Venison with black pepper sauce. Photo Credits: http://www.deal.com.sg/

 

Prawn Paste Deep Fried Chicken. Photo Credits: http://www.deal.com.sg/

Roasted Duck. Photo Credits: http://www.deal.com.sg/



 

Lastly for desserts, they have: 

• Fresh Fruits (Pineapple, Watermelon & Orange)
• Assorted Nyonya Kueh
• Ice Kacang / Chendol
• Mango Pudding
• Mini Cake (Cheesecake)
• Goreng Pisang
• Donut with icing sugar
• Ice-cream

 

I started my meal with the Popiah and Singapore laksa. For the Popiah, I ordered one roll without the sweet sauce. Was it a weird order?? The chef stared at me for several seconds before confirming and preparing my order -.- The filling of the popiah consisted of minced garlic, stir-fried turnip, lettuce, coriander leaves, beansprouts, egg and peanut. I took a bite of the popiah and all I could taste was the spicy minced garlic! >.< It overpowered the taste of the other fillings. Even for my parents who eat raw garlic, the taste of the minced garlic in the popiah was still too over. 

 

For the Singapore laksa, the condiments include beansprouts, tau pok, fish cake, quail eggs (!!!) and sambal chilli. I personally love quail eggs a lot and so I was very happy to have it in my bowl of laksa ^^ The laksa broth was quite thick and fragrant. Also as the laksa broth was rich in coconut milk, it was slightly sweet and not spicy. Suitable for children consumption! I added sambal chilli for a spicy kick and my laksa tasted even better! Haha yummy!  

 

From the cooked food selection, I enjoyed the fried bee hoon, steamed chicken with chicken rice and roast duck the most. The white bee hoon was fried slightly wet, just the way I liked it. The chicken rice had a faint fragrance and tasted much lighter than the usual chicken rice. People may complain that the chicken rice is not fragrant and tasty but I liked it that way. It's probably healthier too as less chicken stock and oil were used. Both the steamed chicken and roast duck were tender and delicious. 

 

Desserts! I am someone who can't stand cheese but I gamely tried a piece of their cheesecake. The cheesecake piqued my interest as it had a thick biscuit crust layer. I'm a fan of biscuit crust in cakes! The ratio of the cheesecake layer to the biscuit crust layer was like 50:50? Haha I was glad I tried the cheesecake as it tasted quite good to me. There wasn't much cheese flavour (hmm is that good or bad??) and the biscuit crust was nice.

 

On the whole, the food and dining experience fared much better than I expected. The staff were very attentive and efficient to clear the used plates from the table. For the price I'm paying, I would say the Asian buffet lunch was worth it. ^^  

 

 

 

Quality Café

201 Balestier Road

Singapore 329926

Quality Hotel Marlow

Tel: 6233 6363

 

 

 

Smiles,

Mari

Good Eats at Nex

Is it because it's been 2 years since I have stepped into Nex? Why do I not remember the mall being so big? o.O

Last week, my family and I decided to make a rare visit to Nex. As it was a Sunday, the huge crowd in the mall was just as expected. We started window shopping and a sale at Hang Ten caught my mom's eye. They were selling skinny fit jeans at $19 per piece! The jeans are made out of my favourite stretchable and comfortable material. I dislike jeans that are stiff and heavy. Definitely not to be missed, I grabbed 2 pairs of jeans for myself ^^

Haha knowing that there is a Shokutsu 10 Japanese Food Street in Nex, I dragged my family along to take a look. The theme of the food street is "Yokoso! Japan", which translates to "Welcome to Japan!". The ambience of the Japanese Food Street is such a contrast to the bustling and noisy mall. With the dim lightings and beautiful contemporary Japanese interior décor, it really made one feel so relaxed and welcomed.

It was just too bad that my family had lunch already. The food photos on the restaurant menus looked so appetizing! My ramen, donburi and gyoza ):

Feeling sad, I made my way out of the food street. I walked past this...

 

BUT this made me stopped in my tracks. DORAYAKI and so many flavours to choose from!!!

  

 

The flavours are divided into 3 categories; Ice-cream, sweet and savoury. The dorayaki are priced at $1.20 to $1.80. Affordable right!! Eager to try both the sweet and savoury flavours, I ordered the Original Azuki ($1.20) and Potato Salad ($1.60).

 

You can also order the Dorayaki Set ($$3.90) as shown below. It comes with a cup of house brew coffee. Haha the cute Doraemon figurings!  

 

The dorayaki must be good since it was also featured in the newspaper!

 

Yays the lady staff started to prepare my order. The dorayaki are prepared upon order so that customers get to eat freshly made dorayakis. You can also watch while it's being made ^^

 

The pancake mixture was first added to the preheated surface grill. 

 

While the grill cooked one side of the pancake, the staff used a blowtorch to cook the other side. Cool right! Haha the blowtorch got to be their secret weapon. You can see the pancake mixture bubbling and rising up to perfection.  

 

The staff then proceeded to flip two pieces of pancakes.

 

Time to put the fillings! A generous scoop of potato salad and azuki bean paste.

 

Tadaa..freshly made Dorayakis!!

 

My brother took a huge bite of the potato salad flavoured dorayaki before I could take a photo. -.- But here's a photo of the azuki flavoured one.

 

I have tried dorayaki from Four Leaves and other bakeries but they were not enjoyable at all. The pancakes were too dry and the red bean paste was too sweet. It made me wonder why Doraemon love dorayaki so much. But now I know why!

 

The freshly made dorayaki got to be the nicest dorayaki I've ever had in Singapore. The nice warm aroma just whets your appetite up. The pancakes of the dorayaki were so soft and moist! I liked it that you could still see bits of the azuki bean in the azuki bean paste. It improves the texture of the azuki bean paste. A bite of the warm pancakes and cold azuki bean paste..YUM!

 

Ohh not to forget, the potato salad flavoured dorayaki was not bad too. My brother really enjoyed it. So if you are not a fan of sweet flavours, do try one of the savoury ones!   

While I'm interested in the Japanese Food Street, my brother was more interested in this. Hot-Star Large Fried Chicken.

 

Looking at the signboard that states "台湾士林夜市第一品牌", the fried chicken got to be good!

 

Besides the large fried chicken ($4.50 - $4.70), they also sell flavoured fries ($2.50 - $2.80), crispy fried mushrooms ($3.20), sour plum sweet potatoes ($2.80), tempura ($3.50), crispy chicken wings ($2.90 for 2), sotong balls ($2.50 for 4), popcorn chicken ($3.90) and drinks.

 

 

Together with their "Fried-to-Order" concept where the chicken will only be fried upon customer's orders, Hot-Star also insists on "No-cutting service" for large fried chicken. The large fried chicken has to be eaten whole to fully enjoy the flavours of the fried chicken. Haha reminds me of KFC! Just got to eat the chicken with bare hands ^^

 

As it was our first time trying the fried chicken, my brother and I ordered the Original Large Fried Chicken.

 

My brother and I waited for about 3-5 minutes and we got our order. How could it be so fast? Haha that's because we were given a wrong order! We blindly took it and walked off. By the time we realised it, it was too late to head back and change it -.-

 

In the end, we got the Seaweed Large Fried Chicken. I did not manage to take a photo that could do the large fried chicken justice so I'm not uploading any. BUT I can vouch that the large fried chicken is really yummy and huge. It's about twice the size of the fried chicken sold elsewhere!

 

The large fried chicken was really crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside! As the fried chicken was only thinly coated with batter, it was not too oily! Personally, I do not like seasonings on my fried chicken as the seasonings are sometimes too salty and overpowering. However at Hot-Star, the staff smartly sprinkled seaweed seasoning only on one side of the chicken. Good right!

 

Both the Dorayaki and Large Fried Chicken at Nex are really worth trying! Thumbs-up!

 

 

 

 

Warmly,

Mari

Ssikkek BBQ at Novena

On Saturday late afternoon, Will had a craving for Korean BBQ and the first Korean BBQ restaurant that came to mind was Ssikkek at Novena! ^^ 

 

For those who are unaware, Ssikkek has moved from Novena Ville to United Square.

 

 

Upon entering, I was amazed at the size of the restaurant. The current restaurant area is approximately two to three times larger than before! Despite that, the trademark long queue and large crowd in Ssikkek stayed the same (:

 

As Will and I did not make any prior reservation, we were told to sit at the chairs and wait. Seeing that there were empty chairs near the entrance, we grabbed our seats. NOTE!! Please do not make the same mistake as us. A minor confusion occurred and I learnt that customers were supposed to be seated in an orderly manner. If you are the first group of people in the waiting queue, please kindly take the seats nearest to the entrance. Subsequent groups of people are to queue and take the seats behind. As the staff will arrange tables according to the queue, do not sit randomly!!

 

After the minor confusion, we were finally told that a table was ready for us. To our surprise, we were led to a table for 6 in a small room for just the 2 of us. The staff (probably manager) kindly explained that he did not want us (customers) to wait too long and thus he gave us a reserved table. However, the condition was to finish our meal before 8pm. As it was only 6.30pm then, Will and I agreed.

 

The posters that decorate the wall of the small room...

 

 

 

 

My view from the room. Look at the crowd in the restaurant! This was only part of it -.-

 

Ignore the crowd, it's time to grab FOOD!! First up, they have salads, fruits and sauces on this round umbrella table that is so cute ^^ The round table design allows more people to have access to the food items at the same time.  

 

Next up is the wide spread of soups and cooked food! There were 4 different soups available that evening; Kimchi soup, chicken ginseng soup, seafood soup and seaweed soup.  

 

As for the cooked food, there were japchae mandu, fried chicken wings, fried noodles & beehoon, ddeokbukki, dakgalbi and japchae.

 

Food items for the BBQ include brinjal, radish, potato, enoki mushrooms, prawns, sotong, sausage, kimchi, fresh lettuce and more! 

 

 

And our star of the day, MEAT!! They have the spicy chicken, garlic chicken, spicy pork, rib eye, short ribs, pork belly, pork collar, beef roll, chunk tender and bacon. ^^

 

Not only does the restaurant offer a wide variety of cooked food and meat, they offer several choices of drinks too! With mango smoothie, lychee smoothie, lime juice, pomegranate juice and sikhye to choose from, I happily went with sikhye.

 

Finally time to dig in and enjoy our meal!

 

My favourite among the cooked food got to be the japchae mandu!! Although I had the mandu when it was cold, it was still good. The japchae and seaweed soup were great too. I love the sauce of the ddeokbukki as it was seasoned to be slightly spicy and not too sweet. Sadly, the ddeokbukki was not well cooked. It was still hard and not chewy.

 

As for the BBQ, I enjoyed the enoki mushrooms, sausage, garlic chicken, chunk tender and beef roll! The meat were really tender and well-marinated. Haha you can also prepare your own bacon-wrapped enoki or beef roll-wrapped enoki! Yummy!

 

On the whole, the BBQ buffet was decent! Being a meat lover, Will really ate his fill that day. ^^  

 

 

 

Ssikkek Korean Grill BBQ Buffet

101 Thomson Road #B1-15/16/17&34

United Square

Singapore 307591

Tel: 6254 8123

 

Mon to Fri: 11.30am - 2.30pm & 5pm - 11pm

Weekend, Public Holiday: 11.30am - 11pm

 

Lunch (Mon to Fri only): Adult $14++ / Child $9++

Dinner (Fri, Sat, Sun, PH eves & PH): Adult $24++ / Child $18++

 

 

 

 

Bye for now,

Mari

Deal Review 1: Brazilian Churrasco Buffet at Wavve Grill & Chill

Deal details:

Only $19.80 for All-You-Can-Eat Brazilian Churrasco Buffet at Wavve Grill & Chill, Toa Payoh Central - Includes Beef Rump, Assorted Sausage, Chicken with Bacon, Pork Belly, Pasta, Salad Bars & More (Min 2 Pax)

 

Last Saturday evening, Will and I met up to redeem the deal (above) that we bought on deal.com.sg. Both of us reached Toa Payoh early and so we decided to walk around the area to pass time. Guess what! The neighbourhood Bata store had SALE with discounts up to 70% off retail price! Haha I was totally drawn towards it and I managed to grab a pair of ankle heel boots at $15!! Just love shopping ^^ 

Shopping just makes time passes so fast! After I made my purchase, it was time to make our way to Wavve.

 

 

When we reached, we were 15 minutes ahead of the buffet time. It was nice that the staff allowed early-comers to settle down in the restaurant and not wait outside. We were given a table for 2 and I must say, the chair was very comfortable!

 

The design concept of Wavve is "Abstract Aquatic" and hence water features can be observed throughout the restaurant’s interior and décor.   

 

The bar with blue neon lights to match the design concept...

 

 

After a few minutes wait, the food was finally ready! Ok first up, they have soups, assorted sushi, potato & pasta salad, and a mini salad corner to prepare your own customized salad. The salad condiments include cherry tomatoes, olives, shredded carrots, shredded cucumber, corn, chickpeas etc. Haha can't remember the rest.  

 

As for the cooked food, they have aglio oglio, fried rice, baked fish, seasonal vegetables, pizza and sautéed potato with thyme. For desserts, they have chocolate cake, fruits and mango pudding.

 

 

Besides the food spread above, the staff also served a plate of appetizer to each table. The appetizer of toasted garlic bread and fritters with tomato salsa sauce tasted good to me.

 

My plate of food...

 

 

The assorted sushi was basically sushi with the same ingredients (cucumber and crabstick) but wrapped and presented in a different way. The sushi tasted as average as it looks. The potato and pasta salad was not bad and I had a few servings of it.

 

I am a fan of aglio oglio and thus the generous portion of it on my plate. Huge regret. The aglio oglio was very dry and bland. While I am not a fan of rice, my spoonful of fried rice tasted much better. -.- Will found the baked fish ok but it was a little salty for me. The sautéed potato was good but it was not well-stirred. Some of the potato chunks tasted alright but some were really salty! Fruits and mango pudding were the best out of the food spread. The fruits were fresh and sweet. Although the mango pudding could be less sweet, I liked it.    

As Will and I were munching through our first round of food, the Churrasco appeared. In Brazil, Churrasco is the term for a barbecue where a variety of meats, pork, sausage and chicken are cooked on skewers. As written on the deal voucher, beef rump, assorted sausage, chicken with bacon, pork belly etc will be served on rotational basis.

The serving style turned out to be really poor and inefficient as there was only 1 staff serving the food. Moreover, the staff would only serve a single skewer of food from the kitchen each time. A single skewer of food could only serve up to 4 tables max. For the rest of the tables, I'm sorry but you have missed your chance and you will have to wait a long time for it again. Remember, Rotational Basis.

Although it was not stated on the deal voucher that there was a dining time limit, food was no longer served to us after 8pm?!?! -.-

Will and I sat around till 8.30pm and these were all the food served; Normal hotdog (where's the assorted sausage??), chicken with bacon, corn, chicken wings, chicken drumlets (the inside was not cooked), chicken heart, pork belly (I couldn't bring myself to eat it as it was too oily), prawns (not fresh) and beef rump. I did not take any photos as the small quantity of food served each time looked too miserable on the large white plate.

On the whole, the food offered was mediocre and definitely not worth recommending. But for a place to chill out and have some drinks, the cosy ambience and comfortable seats of Wavve fits the bill.


Wavve Grill & Chill
430 Lorong 6 Toa Payoh #01-01
Orange Tee Building
Singapore 319402
Tel: 6255 5771



Smiles,
Mari