Megumi Japanese Restaurant @ Sunset Way

After church one evening the sisters and a friend and I went to Sunset Way for dinner, and we chose Megumi! We have already tried Megumi a few times before when it was still at its previous location a few doors down. Recently it relocated to a vacated shop round the corner, refurbished and rented a larger space.

Sashimi Mixed Platter ($28) -We requested for the tuna to be changed to something else since none of us liked it. The waiter recommended sea bream so we took his suggestion. When it came it was still the same old tuna, so we told another waitress about the request. When she came back, the tako (octopus) was gone but the tuna was still there. So we told her again, that the order was wrong... Finally the right plate of sashimi came. Fortunately the service staff were not impatient or anything, I think some places would just give you an impatient or miffed look. Anyway the sashimi was so-so only. Chikuwa Tei sashimi anytime! (Though I can't remember how much was that already!) The sea bream here came half frozen! It was hard and I could still taste ice in it.

Unagi Tofu $7.80 for 2 pieces - Best stuff! Can't find this anywhere else. Pardon the (relatively) lousy photos in this entry - everyone couldn't wait to tuck in and I was too paiseh to hold up the rest! This is basically agetofu (fried tofu) with huge slab of unagi on top.

I had always wanted to try blowfish sashimi ever since I saw it on a Korean movie (ironic) and on Japan Hour where they had blowfish feasts where all the parts of the blowfish are used for something - sashimi, tempura, steamboat etc. That kind of meal would cost you more than SGD100. This fish is a rare delicacy, with the tiger blowfish species being the most "prestigious edible species and most poisonous", and sushi chefs need license to handle this fish because if not handled well, the poisonous parts would not be taken out and would be fatal to consumers.

So when I saw this dish Fugu Mirin Boshi ($10.80) served as appetizer in Megumi I was excited to try it out! The english description stated "puffer fish" and not blowfish. I thought being an appetizer it would be in sashimi-style, but I was told by the waiter that it would be grilled. I thought, oh wells, not many places serve this dish, so might as well just try it out here! So we ordered this. When it came and I tried it, I was sorely disappointed. As you can tell from the photo it did not look appetizing. When I tasted it it tasted like salted fish - no joke. Chewy, salted fish. It came with mayonnaise, which I was rather baffled about - what kind of grilled items came with mayonnaise? Strange. Anyway, please do not order this if you happen to dine there. In the end I had to reluctantly finish it 'cos my dinner partners didn't like it. We somehow have this policy where if you order something and it's not nice, you bear the responsibility of finishing it :( After this when I thought about it I realized that when I ordered this I forgot that it was blowfish and not puffer fish, if there was a difference at all. Maybe that could explain why the puffer fish was not nice.

Yaki Soba ($8.80) - My church friend M saw this being served at the other table and thought it looked good, so we ordered this! It was fragrant, worth the price I should say.

We ordered this the last time we were here too - Chilled Charcoal Udon (Hiyashi Sumi Udon, $10.80)
Though when it arrived it looked and tasted more like soba instead, coupled with the fact that it comes with the quail egg which you usually see served with soba and not udon. But I'm not complaining - this definitely tastes good. 

We wanted to have a maki but couldn't decide, so we asked for recommendations, and this was what we got - UFO Maki ($12.00) Basically it's cooked salmon and crabmeat inside wrapped in sushi rice and coated with fish roe. Not bad - can't really go wrong with cooked salmon and roe unless you don't like salmon.

By this time we were really full - we came to the conclusion that 3 main dishes, or staples, (2 noodles and 1 rice) were too much for four ladies. Next time we will cut down on one staple, (and the puffer fish of course), and maybe order something else smaller. We also had this - Unagi Chawanmushi $7.80 (yes, we like unagi very much) which came in a very nice bowl. They changed their way of presentation, we noticed. Tasted good as well, smooth and silky, just rolls off your tongue, with generous servings of unagi.

No meal is complete without dessert no matter how full you are. Since we had four people with us we decided we could very well handle one single dessert, so we ordered Deep Fried Kuro Goma (Black Sesame) Ice Cream ($6.80). I like fried ice cream! And their goma ice cream is good so this dessert was really yummy. We polished it up despite on the verge of bursting.

 

We'll always go back to Megumi, somehow. Good place to go for dinner if you're around the area. This restaurant IMO is between middle to middle-high range. We could probably have saved a bit if we hadn't ordered the puffer fish.

How much was spent: Around $35 per pax
Would I go back? : Yup!

Address: Blk 106 Clementi St 12 Sunset Way #01-38 Singapore

Tel: +65 6779 1411

Opening Hours: 11.30-2.30pm, 6pm-10.30pm

Noodle Place Restaurant @ Centrepoint

On Wednesday Drumstick and I went in search of the authentic Hong Kong wanton noodles. (or rather, I dragged her along to hunt for it). Reviews by a certain food blog suggested that it may be at this place, so off we went.

When we reached I suddenly remembered that I had been into this restaurant before, a few years ago. Though I forgot what I had ordered then, my conclusion with my friends that time was that it's unlikely we would come back to this restaurant again because they offered similar fare to Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure and the latter two were much better.

That food blog rated their char siew as 4/5 so we decided to give it a try too! I'm not much of a fan of char siew until I tried some really good ones at a roadside eatery, before then I used to order wanton mee without char siew at hawker centres, and until recently I also didn't like char siew bao until I got addicted to those by Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure. So we ordered their char siew with honey sauce ($12+). I found it slightly too tough, could be more tender, though it was well marinated and I liked the taste of honey sweetness and the meat. It was too much for the two of us to finish though, so we had half of this take-away.

We also ordered their signature congee ($11) - There's a lot of ingredients inside; when I asked the waitress what this consisted, she rattled a whole list of ingredients and I interrupted her, "oh okokok we'll have this then". Haha! This had chicken pieces, fish maw, meat ball, egg, prawn, jelly fish, cuttlefish and some other stuff inside. Delicious, I must say. It's a nice surprise to find out what you can find inside.

 

Then comes the wanton noodles (dry; $8)! I had forgotten how the Crystal Jade ones tasted like, so I had no basis for comparison. However, I must say that this was slightly disappointing. The wantons were just too small. I remember having a bowl of wanton mee in Hong Kong, just $2, but the wantons were just made of fresh succulent prawns, so tasty for just SGD2.00!

I don't think I would come back here often, but if you're ever in the area and craving for Chinese food but Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure (or maybe Paradise Dynasty?) are too far, this may be the place to satisfy your craving. 

How much was spent: $20 per pax
Would I come back again? : Maybe.
Rating: 3/5

Address: 176 Orchard Road
Centrepoint #01-53/56
Singapore 238843
Tel: 67333171

Sangokai Japanese Restaurant @ Upper Thomson Road

On our way home on Tuesday, Pineapple and I stopped by this place to have dinner/supper. I had known about this place when the Straits Times was doing an introduction to new restaurants along Upper Thomson Road, and she, probably through 8 Days, her favourite magazine that she follows religiously.

It was rather empty on a Tuesday night. Save for us, there was only another pair of ladies sitting outside. Looking at their menu, I decided that this is one of those Japanese restaurants whose price range belongs to the "upper middle" range. For Japanese restaurants, there are no low range restaurants. For average range, those affordable ones, they include Watami,  Ichiban Boshi, Suki Sushi and Sakae Sushi. Closely behind is Sakuraya. For upper range, there's Kuriya and the likes of Kaiho Sushi where one meal easily reaches $100 per person. For upper middle range, they lie somewhere in between. I usually classify them if they fulfil the criteria of scoring more than $7/$8 for a serving of salmon sashimi. One meal usually comes up to around $20-$30++ That's just my classification system of a Japanese food lover, haha! 

Anyway, the salmon sashimi ($11) was the cheapest among the sashimi, so we settled on this. The sashimi was decent, but with a price tag like this, I certainly expected more. Perhaps it wasn't the best day to have salmon sashimi that day. You could kinda tell from the not quite distinct fatty lines on the slices that it's not the best/freshest part of the slices.

It was a cool night and we wanted to drink some hot soup, so we decided to have some miso ramen ($10). From the discoloured eggs (a kind of dark yellow instead of the expected bright yellow) I wasn't too pleased but nevertheless I still slurped up the soup hungrily 'cos I was, well, hungry. If you want to eat ramen, a better bet would be those specialised ramen places like Daikokuya or Tampopo. There is no richness in this stock, and they put an excessive amounts of bean sprouts of spring onions.

This one was the best, not just it's best because the rest were lousy, but objectively it was good. This one had the "人気" (popular) stamp beside it on the menu, and since it proved to be good, we decided that it was reliable to follow this label should we go back the next time. Flaming Roll $19.50 -  Toppings of cod roe, Jumbo prawn wrapped inside, with a layer of white fish sashimi. What I liked about this was that they were generous with the precious cod roe, which some restaurants are stingy about. It was certainly very flavourful.

If you can spot the piece of white fish below because it camouflages with the rice:

There are dinner sets available too but we ordered ala carte. This is the menu for their lunch bento sets.

Worth a try if you're around the area, though I wouldn't go back often.  There is 15% off if you pay by cash or NETS.

How much was spent per pax: $20 per pax

Would I go back? Maybe once in a while. 

Rating: 3/5

Address: 203 Upper Thomson Road

Tel: +65 6251 7009

Opening Hours:  Tue–Sun, 12pm–3pm, 6pm–11pm
(Closed on Mon)

Strictly Pancakes @ Prinsep Street

Met up with the ex-hall neighbours for brunch on Deepavali, decided to try out this newly opened pancake place at Prinsep Street. As you can tell from the name, this place sells strictly pancakes. And drinks as well. And sandwiches and some finger food. I came to know of its existence through Yogi Bear, whose BF's friend is the owner, who is also coincidentally Pineapple's friend's sister's friend. I think. Singapore is so small that everyone is a friend of your friend.

Anyway, I love trying out new places! So we met at Dhoby Ghaut at around 11+am, early because I heard it gets full house easily!

 

Looks yummy doesn't it! Read on! 

A very cozy little cafe. We wanted to sit upstairs because I heard there were couches there which sounded more comfy, but they told us it was full there already, so we sat on the first storey instead. Though during our meal, we saw new customers kept entering and walking up the stairs...


I didn't know maple had so much goodness! It's probably still too sweet to be taken on a regular basis though.

Nutella shake - $5. I liked it, 'cos it wasn't too sweet and too "gelad", though there wasn't really any hint of nutella haha! 
 

For the butter, you can have a choice of salted/unsalted butter, garlic and herbs, or rum and raisin. The maple syrup comes in a strange tilted glass.

I heard that the Garlic Butter Prawns ($14) pancake was really good, so we ordered this. Can't say no to prawns in garlic and butter sauce! And you probably can't go wrong with them either! Came with 3 pancakes and 5 prawns. The prawns were really crunchy and the sauce was yummy too!

Chicken A La King ($13) - It comes with some cream sauce that went well with the chicken. The chicken was tender in that it was chewy but then again, it was tough 'cos after chewing it it takes a long time to be chewed into smaller pieces!

Our interest got piqued by the mushrooms and scrambled eggs which are almost always the perfect brunch selection. So we ordered the short stack (2 pancakes) with these two toppings. ($10.50) This one was really worth the money. Not that it wasn't good, but just that it could easily be done.

 For our dessert, we chose the apple and cinnamon pancakes ($10). Caramelized apples in cinnamon sauce and vanilla ice cream. By this time we were already so full by the 8 pancakes we had earlier! Our appetites had clearly shrunk. Somehow the vanilla ice cream was a bit "sticky" but nevertheless good. Tasted a bit different from the usual vanilla ice cream that I eat. This was good. Other choices include really sinful ones like chocolate pancakes with chocolate sauce and peanut butter and whatnot. Would love to try that someday (though not anytime soon haha!) along with the salmon pancake.

5 of us girls shared 3 mains and 1 dessert and we were super full from them. I think it's quite a cool concept. Business seems to be booming during these first few months of opening. It's worth a try, I feel :)

How much was spent: Around $12 per person. 

Would I go back again? Not sure, maybe once in a while.

Address: 44A Prinsep Street Singapore

Tel: +65 6333 4202

Opening Hours

Mon–Thu: 11.30am – 11pm
Fri: 11.30am – 1am
Sat: 9am – 1am
Sun: 9am – 11pm

Chin Lee Restaurant @ Bedok North Road

For our grandma's 82nd (or 83rd I can't remember :X) birthday my cousin recommended this place to have the celebration 'cos it was near his workplace and according to him it was always packed during lunchtime so it must be good! Near to his workplace but so very far for my family... This place is at Bedok! So if you stay around that area, read on! 

It's one of those surprisingly good Chinese restaurant under HDB flats. This one serves Teochew fare and when we reached there, I was surprised at the crowd! The place was practically full house! Ok actually it was full house... Maybe it was also because it's a Sunday night. I forgot to take a photo of the interior, because it looks very presentable, cozy and comfortable. The washrooms are clean as well, almost hotel standards. Almost.

We ordered the $388++ package. First up is the longevity buns!

My favourite dish during all (wedding) dinners - Cold Dish. 

Shark's fin

Steamed pomfret Teochew style - one of my favourite fishies, nicely steamed and very fresh as well.

 

This is one of their signature dishes - Coffee Pork Ribs. When it arrived the aroma of coffee was oh-so-strong, it was lovely! This photo isn't very well-taken 'cos all of us couldn't wait to tuck in! I think if you order this dish ala carte it's $10. It was flavourful and tender. Very nice. It was a tad too salty though, would've gone great with rice!

By the time the noodles arrived we were so full already! Before/After this there was steamed prawns as well. I was just too full to take any more photos and so sat slumped back in my seat. The noodles were average only, slightly bland in comparison to the other dishes.

Dessert - Orh Nee (Yam paste) with Pumpkin. Not much of a fan of this hot dessert but it's always on the menu when it comes to this kind of dinners...especially when the older generation is around!

 

They call this the "kung fu tea". You're supposed to drink this after eating the Orh Nee 'cos the dessert is sweet and this tea, slightly bitter.

If you work/stay/study around the area, I would really recommend you to give this restaurant a try! Good for family dinners. Though since I stay at AMK, it's unlikely that I will go back again unless... next year we celebrate Grandma's birthday at the same place again! :)

How much was spent: $388+ for 9 (or was it 10?) course meal, 10 pax per table
Would I go back again? Yes for family celebratory dinners!

Address: Blk 115 Bedok North Road #01-285

Tel: +65 6444 5554

Opening Hours

Mon–Fri: 11.30am–2.30pm, 6pm–10.30pm
Sat–Sun: 10.30am–2.30pm, 5.30pm–10.30pm

Porn's Sexy Thai Food

I was headed to Bugis last weekend and was really perturbed as to what to have for lunch. Suddenly I couldn't recall any appealing restaurant to try out or go back to. Researched on a particular Spanish-Thai fusion restaurant along Purvis Street but to our dismay, we couldn't seem to locate it. Continued walking and decided upon this.

This restaurant is opened by the popular Channel 8 host Pornsak, for those who are not aware, which explains the "sexy" restaurant name. "Porn" means blessings in Thai so do not be mistaken! Serves the usual Thai food such as Tom Yam Goong and Pineapple Fried Rice. 

Went there on a Saturday afternoon and it wasn't crowded at all, though it started to fill up while we were there. Menu is no-frills kind though I like the elephant icon! Cute. After perusing the menu, I felt that prices were slightly on the high side as compared to my favourite Thai restaurant Ah Loy Thai at Shaw Towers. Truth be told, I came to try this eatery because it's opened by one of my favourite Channel 8 host! And voila, he was sitting right at the cashier when we went in hehehee. But of course, whether I would go back would depend on the food, and not the celebrity who opened it. Prices are comparable to Thai Express though.

A cutely drawn map of Thailand (I presume).

One of the chef's recommendations is this - prawn cakes, which the waitress claimed that "customers come back for it". She also mentioned that Tom Yam Goong was one of the most popular dishes as well, though I thought to myself, naturally Tom Yam Goong would be one of the most popular, since everyone who goes and eat Thai food would surely order Tom Yum Soup no matter what? Methodological bias, but never mind.

 

Prawn cakes (3 for $8.50) - Fried to golden goodness, tasty and crispy with prawns inside. Yummy and worth a try.

Of course, the must-have Tom Yam Goong (10.90) that every trip to a Thai eatery must include. This one is with prawns (around 4 prawns, if you're curious). You can have the option of seafood or chicken as well, and to come in a bowl or hotpot. This one serves 2-3 people.

This one is rather unique - Stuffed Chicken Wings (3 for $8.50) I seriously have no idea how they do it. It's basically chicken wings with minced meat (with mushrooms and vermicelli) stuffed inside, yet the wing part is still nicely intact, albeit looking a bit bloated.

 

This one was really unremarkable. Please do not order this should you go there. Seafood Fried Rice ($9.90). It tasted as bland as it looked. I could've done a better job at whipping up a plate of fried rice, I think. A better bet would be the Pineapple Fried Rice, which comes in a pineapple as I spied on other tables, with pork/chicken floss on top and seemed rather popular. Of course, it could be a case of Thai food = must have PFR as well.

Thai Roselle and Lime ($3.90) - Nice and refreshing, not too sweet as well.

 

Since we were seated right next to the cashier, I tried to catch a glimpse of the owner himself. He was busy talking shop with his business partner, who was there that day too. 

How much was spent: $23 per pax

Would I go back? Maybe for another time, to try other dishes.

Address: 28, Liang Seah Street Singapore 189049

Tel: 63375535

Opening hours: Mon - Sat: 3pm, 6pm-10pm, Sun: 6pm - 10pm