Sakari Sushi, Orchid Hotel

This was a lunch at that other relatively new Japanese shop (#01-05, 1 Tras Link) located at the quieter perpendicular to that "popular" stretch under the watch of both the Dons (not donburi but pun coincidented) Yamashita and Takeda. It's actually kinda quiet for lunch in the weekday in here. The stand out item at Sakari Sushi seemed to be the bara-chirashi. While I may not be the expert, I'm going to have to say that the rendition here was good. It was very much a meticulously put together bowl of diced seafood over room temperature vinegared rice prepared with some effort. I know because saw mine being made. Did I mention grated wasabi too?

They had shako (mantis shrimp) on nigiri too. From what we were told by the chef, these are the smaller variety that are used for sushi. The sushi were dusted with some yuzu zest before serving. The meat was firm and sweet.

And some yaki hamaguri (some large saltwater clam) which were grilled on shell and glazed with sweetened soy just before serving.

COMNAM Broken Rice, Raffles City

The mainstay of this shop (252 North Bridge Road #B1-46, tel : +65 6334 7377) is cơm tấm, a Vietnamese dish made with broken grained rice. Which I liked and felt better about than Nam Nam next door. While I couldn't tell at all if any of the renditions served here came close to the original dish, the food was pretty tasty. I liked the soup option which one could basically trick out in flavours after a few splashes of fish sauce and that Maggi condiment on the table.  The shredded cabbage salad with peanuts and grilled chicken was appetisingly delicious too. 

If I had to gripe over anything, it'd be that I would like more grilled meat options on the menu rather than deep fried ones. And really, charging for chilli padi here?

Sacha & Sons, Mandarin Gallery

I had been wondering to myself after stepping into Sacha & Sons (333A Orchard Road. Mandarin Gallery, #03-02, tel : +65 6735 6961) if there was a difference between a New York-styled delicatessen and a shop that is merely styled after a New York-styled delicatessen. Don't know if that's occurred to anyone but I guess it's food for thought. 

Anyway, to keep this short, the chopped liver sandwich was really good. Comes recommended to anyone who doesn't have aversion to livers. The pastrami in their Reuben was just passable for me. Smoked in house I hear. The meat was somewhat dried out and definitely not so tender. For the quality of the meat, these guys should have used a meat slicer (of the non-human kind) which would have achieved thinner and more tender stacks. 

For what it's worth, the defunct Sweet Spot Deli at Marina Bay Sands had a much more delicious corned beef and pastrami Reuben for probably half of what this place charges; the same sandwich from even Brewerkz was more enjoyable. And for a sandwich experience, I personally feel that Nassim Hill Bakery's hot Reuben was much more worth the while than this was. I'm not too impressed here. But I probably will come back, even if it's just for the chopped liver.

A Murtaburger from The Prata Place

From what I understood, this was suppose to be the amalgamation of a murtabak and a Ramly burger. Which effectively only makes sense in this part of the world since most of the rest of the world would probably have no idea what were those. Hence making this a uniquely regional beast that could only be appreciated (in idea) by the people here and our northern neighbours. It also happens to be the item that The Prata Place had put up for last year's Ultimate Hawker Fest.

The idea I'm sure was to produce flavours and maybe some textures that resembled both. In that, they had quite succeeded. I enjoyed those crusty mutton patties that they had stuffed into the prata along with eggs and a generous portion of gooey mozzarella cheese. What didn't quite work for me were the sauces. It was quite a bit of sweet chilli, mayo and sweet black pepper sauce that they had gleefully squeezed into the pastry and as much as it helped replicate the Ramly flavour, it was also a sweetness overload for me. Perhaps, I should ask for less sauce the next time. If a next time happens. 

Auntie Kim's Korean Restaurant, Upper Thomson Road

I've lost count of the number of times I've passed by Auntie Kim's (265 Upper Thomson Road, tel : +65 6452 2112) and telling myself that I'm dropping by some day. Now that it's finally happened, I suppose the overarching impression is that they're home styled Korean cooking at CBD prices.

Here's us opting the lazy way out with the saeng galbi by getting them to grill the meat for us instead of breaking out the grill (and our perspiration) at the table. On hindsight, this should be the last time we don't cook our own meat. Their kimchi fried rice with pork was altogether comforting, quite delicious and rather pricey. Certainly not so much value for what we paid in comparison with the one at Kim Dae Mun which was equally satisfying, but what the heck. Those kimchi mandu aren't actually stuffed with real kimchi much?

Sarnies, the evening edition

I've been meaning to drop by at Sarnies for some time during the evenings and it's never happened until recently when they had started a beer and burger for $15 on Thursdays and Fridays. Which sounded like a pretty cool idea to get people heading to this part of town after work. 

What I was basically curious about was their burger and what they could deliver at that price point. As much as it was something between sliced bread - something they've proven to be pretty competent at, this wasn't part of their usual sarny repertoire. I'd say they did a decent job (but nothing to really get too excited over) with the burger if I wasn't comparing the quality of their patty to my last, but I did wish it was a bit more substantial. Buttered brioche with black sesame seeds, sautéed onions, sliced tomatoes, lettuce, well melted cheese over the meat and mayo. Pretty much the standard works.

There was a risotto which turned out to be some sort of a wet rice (like mui fan without the starchy gravy) than what I had expected of risotto. Done with Kabocha pumpkin and some prosciutto.

The Ultimate Black Truffle Burger from Omakase Burger

This did not look as impressive as the name sounded nor even as good as the product shot on their social media. But these guys still managed to sucker me into dropping $22.90 to try it out. Apparently a Christmas special from their outlet at The Grandstand. Let's see, the truffle shavings were nowhere near the "generous" portions that they had claimed and the black truffle honey that was "slathered" over was so subtle that I tasted nothing of it. At all. I'm not sure if they achieved any success with that ash grey black truffle cheese but it tasted very much like their regular cheese. There was truffle flavour in the burger, just don't expect too much of it. And for what it costed, shame on me.

The beef patty was still good though.

Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya, Orchard Central

mixed bara kaisen don 

nama hon maguro don 

Here's lunch from Sumiya (181 Orchard Rd, #12-02 Orchard Central, tel : +65 6509 9618), so not so much on the sumiyaki stuff but rather their raw fish over rice bowl lunch sets. The quality of their fish was very good. Notably from the maguro don which featured the trimmed off basic cuts of akami, chutoro and otoro which were very enjoyable. You get to choose between regular rice and vinegared rice too. Those little browned chunks on skewers were wagyu and remarkably tender.

A nasi goreng from Habib's Mee Stall

Here's a rather random pick from ABC Market (#01-08, 6 Jalan Bukit Merah). I'm aware that this food centre is a local hotspot, but I've found myself at a loss for what to eat more than a couple of times whenever I'm here. This was nasi goreng from one of the stalls that looked it it had a little queue going on. I requested for a little more mutton and an egg. The portion turned out little smaller than I had expected. I think it was rather decent nasi goreng; I remember having had better but at least this was rustic and properly fried up as I had been expecting. The thing I couldn't get past was how brown the edges of the egg were. The oil they had been using definitely needs a change.

Gindara mentaikoyaki from Chikuwa Tei

There are talks on how standards of food have declined in Chikuwa Tei after the founding chef Peter Ho has left and started another restaurant, Mitsuba by Yurine (I hear he split from that place too). Even before he had left, there had been comparisons on how Chikuwa Tei was different from his first gig, Wasabi Tei. I happened to be one of those that have been eating his food from the days of yore at Wasabi Tei so I guess I can personally attest to those degrees of truth.

So it's been a while and we decided to drop by to check out how things are with what they are serving these days. Sadly, while food remains very edible, it wasn't on par with ancient history. The ankimo servings were dry and minuscule in portions. The chirashi don looked like it had gone on a diet as well. But I found their gindara mentaikoyaki good. It was a very nicely grilled cod that was flaky, juicy (or oily) and tasted like it was good cod along with that nice salty flavourful crust of mentaiko. But it sure was pricey at $28 for a set option. For that price, I had hoped for a fish more substantial. And I was disappointed that the rice that they're serving these days aren't even close to the quality of what they did in the past. Barely sticky. Not to mention that there's less of it these days in the bowl too.

Sometimes, one cannot blame the older folks from missing the good old days eh? There's probably a very good reason why the word 'nostalgia' exists in the dictionary.

Sushi Kou, Orchid Hotel

It was actually supposed to be Sakari Sushi at the other corner, but they happened to be closed for lunch without notice and thus we decided to give Sushi Kou a go (1 Tras Link, Orchid Hotel #01-16, tel : +65 6444 8433). This wasn't too bad at all. I've been hearing excessively about their affordable omakase (which we did not have today). Instead, we went the a la carte route getting their spinach with a creamy goma sauce and also trying their otoro nigiri which was priced...... at a rather unbelievable point. The latter was actually pretty good. The tuna belly wasn't very large or thick, but it had good marbling and was noticeably cheaper than anywhere else I've had so far.

Their kaisen don was definitely worth the dip. There was a nice variety of fish and pretty decent quality at that for what they charged. Even their mekajiki was fat laced and the only fish that disappointingly wasn't belly was the salmon. Well, maybe that and the knife work has room for improvement, but I quite sure that icing isn't the point at Sushi Kou. 

Grilled cheese ramen from Buta God

This was the other seasonal cheese ramen that got my attention from my last visit to Buta God. I think it was cheddar that they used. Like the snow cheese, the portions of the cheese were moderated so as not to overwhelm the flavours of their broth. Meaning that while you could taste that cheese, you're not getting a whole load of them. The grilling helped impart additional flavour but this didn't dissolve like powdered Parmesan and hence, no even distribution. I did like the bits of melted cheese over the noodles and sliced pork. Today's soup tasted intense with very pronounced sweet and salty. The flavour of the broth felt really rich. I'm probably going to lay off Buta God for a while now that the sweetness has gotten to me.

This sounds wrong