Ichiwan Don, International Plaza

Came across Ichiwan Don (#02-51 International Plaza, 10 Anson Road) recently. They're mostly about donburi, sashimi and small plates. Tried a couple of of their dons.

The bowl with aburi salmon belly was disappointing. The torching was token, didn't have much smokiness in the fish and it wasn't melty like it should be. Pretty sad. 👎🏼 

Barachirashi was pretty generic with large cubes of salmon, tuna, swordfish, tamagoyaki and takuan. Both bowls were served on vinegared rice that's topped with furikake. Miso soup tasted like the powdered stuff.

Song Fish Soup (宋鱼湯), Hawkers' Street @ 100AM

This was a bowl of fish maw mixed fish soup from Song Fish Soup at Hawkers' Street at 100AM (#04-05/06 100AM, 100 Tras Street). It's milky looking because we requested for milk to be added. Not bad tasting broth - I could taste a splash of hua diao in it. That being said, it's not as full bodied or impressive because the bar for which we're measuring it against has risen because of Hai Kah Lang. Will skip the fish maw option the next time because they aren't great. Not feeling like I'm getting much sliced fish compared to the fried ones out of this bowl too.

Les Canons, IOI Central Boulevard Towers

Les Canons (#01-07, IOI Central Boulevard Towers, 2 Central Boulevard, tel : +65 8926 0726) by the il Lido Group is the 3rd bouillon styled restaurant that's open up lately together with Bouillon Gavroche and Les Ducs.

House lemonade was fizzy, has some mint and infused with maybe elderflower? Thought it tasted like elderflower.

Tartare de boeuf was not much tangy and didn't have much in the way of flavouring. Not one of the well flavoured ones around. The bread was very hard. Will not get again.

Pan fried foie gras on pain perdu. Nice. Thought I tasted orange in the sauce.

Pretty good tasting crevette Nantua - prawn bisque-esque sauce over mash and some meaty real prawns. Comfort food that's good enough to come back for. 👍🏼

Had a steak au poivre. Smallish Angus sirloin.

Fries were pretty good. Steak did not have much taste and very little salt. The meat was mostly dependent on the pepper sauce for flavour. Was more medium than medium rare that we asked for. Sauce was quite creamy and peppery.

Mashed potatoes was creamy, flavoured with browned butter. Nice.

I like the mousse from Les Ducs better. Tasted more like dark chocolate compared to his one which seemed to have much more milk in it. Not that it's bad. Love that creme Chantilly.

Nicely done thin apple tarte. Was served hot. Love the caramel on creme Chantilly on the side.

Coffee's smoky, bitter and nice.

Busaba, The Exchange TRX, Kuala Lumpur

Busaba (L1.02.0, Level 1, The Exchange TRX, Imbi, 55188 Kuala Lumpur) may be the first time we've having Thai food in KL. Typically, it's not something we go for since Bangkok isn't that far away and Singapore has decent ones as well. I prefer to eat something more Malaysian which we can't get back home. And some others. But one meat kinda tipped the scales in our decision. 🐑.

We did have some things we generally like. Like tom kha gai.

This was loaded with tender slices of chicken and coconut meat. Pretty delicious rendition if I might say so.

Some pomelo salad with tempura-ish deep fried prawns.

Fried prawn cakes. Decent rendition as well.

Sadly, the lamb pad krapow that walked us in was forgettable. Super forgettable. The meat was either very marinated, very fat free or both. No even the slightest hint of lamb. Pretty disappointing for RM65.

That one item on the menu which could've been it just didn't do it. As for the other dishes, it's not exaggeration to claim that they're more or less a dime a dozen in Thai restaurants in this part of the world. Will not be coming back of course.

Battered Fish & Chip, REXKL, Kuala Lumpur

Read about these guys located at Chinatown (REXKL, 80 Jalan Sultan, 50000 Kuala Lumpur).

According to them, perch is used for their fish.

Cut of the fish was a little thin and soft. Detected a slight "muddiness" in the flavour. I prefer the firm and flaky texture from haddock and cod. Not a fan of their batter too.

The lemon & mint mushy peas were refreshing though and it was my favourite thing together with the chips from all the food we got here.

Curry sauce had texture like it was made with melted potatoes.

Pickled eggs are available here.

Something call posh prawn sandwich. Not bad tasting with the dill-y salad inside but there weren't much prawns. I got reminded of the prawn roll from Market Grill. This one here felt like the less posh version compared to what Market Grill did.

Nong Geng Ji (农耕记), Great World

Nong Geng Ji is one of a few Hunan based restaurant that's mushroomed around the island in recent years. Like Xiang Xiang which we've had a few times before. This was from the branch at Great World (#01-115/116 Great World, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, tel : +65 6908 0347).

Metallic.

This bothered me. The block of solid fuel they used for their heaters was wrapped in plastic and they left the plastic wrapper and lit them up together. That's gotta be some level of residual toxicity if they keep doing that right?

Tried their big shrimp and vermicelli with garlic (蒜蓉大虾仁) which was steamed on serving. The server put a timer to return but that dude returned several times because he wasn't satisfied with the doneness. They need work on the SOP for the timing...hahaha.

A tad greasy and most of the flavour came from the garlic. Edible but not impressed. 

Their stir fried cauliflower (大碗有机花菜) was pretty good though. Those fragrant chunks of fried lard, sweet cloves of garlic and bits of chilli helped with that. Good with rice.

That's the stir fried beef with tea oil (茶油鲜炒牛肉). The dish had a flavour that we weren't familiar with and I'm guessing it's the tea oil. Dish packed a bit of heat and those green stuff tasted like celery. Meat wasn't fatty and was a little sinewy. Not impressed at all.

Bean curd skin & eggs (鲜腐皮焖鸡蛋) - not bad. Realized that we've had something similar at Xiang Xiang at Westgate so I'm kinda getting predictable with my choices.

Rice was much more enjoyable with the dishes than the vermicelli.

Noci Pasta Bar, Suntec City

Korean pasta place at Suntec (#01-386 Suntec City Mall, 8 Temasek Boulevard) that opened late last year. They're by a Gold Moon Restaurants Group which has brought in brands like Tonshou and Seoul Noodle Shop.

Complimentary sourdough with whipped butter. Butter's nice. Bread's okay-ish. I prefer them with a bit more tang and texture.

There's baccala. Not as lard infused as I was imagining. Flavour's mostly from the fish which wasn't a bad thing.

Had a couple of pastas. This one featured their in house squid ink tajarin with bottarga and anchovies - understandably umami that way. Not bad.

The other was their cacio e pepe which also used their house made tajarin. What's different from the usual cacio e pepe are the crush bits of pistachio. Would like for it to be a bit more cheesy and peppery but I think I enjoyed this as well.

Both pasta had great texture.

A coffee called cream di noci which had bits of walnut and walnut oil. There was a thick crema but I didn't detect walnut flavour from the mundane tasting coffee which had little worth mentioning.