Recently at Healthy Soba IKI

It's been over a year since we were last at Healthy Soba IKI (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二).

Their August special was a chilled unagi shirayaki soba.

Thick cuts of unagi with a sprinkle of matcha and salted black peppercorns. Green leaves on top were shiso. Couldn't taste much of the matcha though.

There's also a summer mango salsa duck soba featuring cubed mangoes and mango jelly with a fruity soba broth. Those chunky slices of duck were smokey. Nice.

Kinmedai saikyoyaki teishoku with natto from Nakajima Suisan

I've been lamenting over the portion of the kinmedai at Nakajima Suisan (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九, 十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七, 十八, 十九, 二十, 二十一, 二十二, 二十三, 二十四, 二十五) for some time. I think they have gotten a little bigger. 

The slice was thicker and it now comes with bones as well.

Now I just have to wish for them to put the shioyaki version on the regular menu. 😬

Natto and shoyu with rice today.

This has got to be the first time I've noticed the grooves on the backrest of their seats.

Udon Shin, Ngee Ann City/Takashimaya

Managed to snag seats at Udon Shin (#B2-32 Ngee Ann City, 391 Orchard Road) without a ridiculous queue today. They're from Tokyo and this outlet is apparently the first outside of Japan. Another one of those.

From what I gathered, their udon are not cut or boiled in advance. Each portion is rolled, cut, and cooked on order. Gotta admit the texture's smooth, firm and chewy.

This was their seasonal Arrabbiata bowl which featured a tomato base. Because of the name, I had the impression that it would be spicy. Wasn't really. It was cheesy and tomato-y though. And unexpectedly sweet. Came with some vegetable and snow crab tempura on the side. Those snow crab legs were puny. 

Their Carbonara bowl was topped with a strip of tempura bacon. That bacon was not bad tasting and wasn't as thick or salty as I had imagined. I'm not sure if I'd associate the flavour of this bowl with carbonara but it was eggy, buttery and cheesy. Kinda enjoyed it. Don't think I'll be getting it again though.

A couple of weeks later......

Butter shoyu udon with tempura. Tempura was sliced chashu and cheese. 

Cheese was gooey and salty so I liked it. Charshu was dry-ish and flavoured from the marinate. I think there was considerably more punch from the udons the last round because of the cheese in the noodles. This butter shoyu bowl felt less intense.

Ramen Shoshiji, Orchard Plaza

If one were in the know, Ramen Shoshiji (#03-42 Orchard Plaza, 150 Orchard Road) is a buzz about town now. What they bring to the table is a never seen before (at least for me) ginger shoyu ramen. The standard bowls on menu here appear to be said ginger shoyu and a Hakata tonkotsu. There's also tori paitan, Iekei and Jiro styled on rotation based on availability.

Availability is determined by updates on their IG.

Tried their pork shumai. These were huge, freshly steamed, moist on the insides and tender. Nice. 👍🏼

We were given plate with a smudge of mustard for the shumai. I enjoyed the pairing.

The other condiment(s) which worked with the shumai are the doubanjiang or doubanjiang with garlic.

I'm typically not a ginger person but I thought the broth from their ginger shoyu ramen rocked. This bowl was with extra ginger. Brought about a nice bit of prickle at the back of the throat. Did not expect to take to it but I ended up liking it and being amazed by myself enjoying it.

The Hakata tonkotsu bowl was somewhat more pedestrian. There seemed to be an underlying sweetness in the broth which I preferred without. Charshu's lean-ish. Nothing particularly special about this.

Interestingly, they have a wider range of hardness for their Hakata tonkotsu noodles than the other ramen-ya around. I got the ultra hard which wasn't very hard at all.

Sushiro, Q4 2025 - Q3 2026

Another compilation of random stuff from Sushiro (一, 二, 三, 四, 五, 六, 七, 八, 九,十, 十一, 十二, 十三, 十四, 十五, 十六, 十七) eats from last quarter of 2025 to around 3rd quarter 2026. Most of it happened in the last quarter of 2025 so there's more of the winter toppings.

Curry clams udon.

Shirako gunkan with ponzu jelly.

Ankake shirako chawanmushi.

Winter yellowtail with anikmo.

Anikimo gunkan with ponzu jelly.

Crispy chicken nigiri.

Kani miso wrap.

Mozzarella tempura with honey and salt

Roast beef with yuzu kosho.

Sweet potato apple.

 

Wagyu if I remember right. It tasted much better than it looked.

Miyagi salted beltfish. Forgettable.

Uni & cream cheese with ponzu sauce - there's bonito powder and onions in it as well. Sushiro has traditionally not faired well with the quality of their uni and this was no exception. The smokiness from the bonito powder was nice with the cream cheese though.

Aburi shiodare cod. Didn't remember much of it so it probably wasn't great.

Tempura cod nigiri.

Butter & scallop. Nice.

Shrimp, cheese and mentaiko mayo. A guilty pleasure.

Some limited time thing. It's Arabiki sausage with mayo and ketchup. It's actually kinda nice.

Prawn nigiri two ways. Raw and boiled. I prefer the raw one which was sweeter.

Matcha parfait with matcha Kit Kat.

A $6.10 Suntory for ND 2026.

Revisiting Tsujiri Premium @ Tanjong Pagar

Back at Tsujiri Premium. Tried the mango matcha milk cap & black sesame matcha latte. The latter's pretty good with a nice balance of the flavours/aromas from both the matcha & kurogoma. Light on the sweetness as well. As for the mango matcha milk cap...I'm more favourably disposed towards the strawberry one we had previously. Something odd about the mango flavouring.

That's a slice of Okinawa sea salt matcha dark choco cake. Loads of creamy salted dark chocolate with matcha and some crunchy bits of stuff in it. Not bad.

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.