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.