Maguro Donya Miura Misakikou Sushi & Dining, Suntec City

The name of this restaurant (#03-314, Suntec City North Wing, 3 Temasek Boulevard, tel : +65 66845054) was certainly more than a mouthful. Sixteen syllables is no laughing matter. I've read that they're apparently a collaboration in part done between Maguro Donya and ANA; the latter forms the part of the partnership that supports the flying in of fresh whole hon maguro - or blue fin tuna. So yes, they are a tuna specialist restaurant and that was pretty much what piqued my interest. 

That's their Hon Maguro Megumi Trio, a teishoku set which featured akami, chutoro and kama yakimono. The latter of which was described as cheek, but is actually the collar of the fish. Their maguro was of good quality. The grilled collar had all the moisture and oils sealed in by the crisp browned surface. The grey meat was my favourite part. I'd come back just for this alone.

And since we were already here, we ordered their hon maguro otoro don. Which was sublime like how fatty otoro can be, bolstered with lightly vinegared rice. 

While it was really quite affordable for blue fin tuna at lunch prices, I couldn't say that it was cheap or anywhere close to cheap. In fact, one could lunch at a nice Japanese restaurant for the amount you would be paying. Albeit with no bluefin tuna involved.

Vegetarian couscous and falafel from Ikea's cafeteria

We hadn't seen this on the menu before and decided to see if they were any good. Actually, I kinda liked the couscous. While those falafel (it's more like a spiced potato vegetable ball than one that's made of chickpea) weren't exactly the type that I liked, I'm pretty sure I might eat this again the next time I need to get food here considering that there really isn't so much to choose from at Ikea.

Pizza Fabbrica without pizza

As much as the name may lead one to think otherwise, there is much more to Pizza Fabbrica than just their pizza. I would even venture as far as to say that they're competent with their pastas to the point that they would give many a number of other similar restaurants a good run for the money as well. But I shouldn't get ahead of myself.

This was a Parma ham and mango salad. It would have been perfect for me if it was only just the ham, the mango and some shaven Parmigiano Reggiano. Those were all that were good. But there were also rockets and olives and bitter bits of radicchio. Unnecessary distractions.

The mangos were so fragrant that if one attempted to wrap the ham around to eat a slice, most of the taste of the ham would be lost. Such was the quality of the fruit, ironically unbalancing the seemingly mild flavours of the prosciutto.

Rather impressed with their garganelli with a chocolate lamb ragout and smoked ricotta. The sauce was rather well balanced. Nothing quite overpowered the other and though I wished for a little more punch from the lamb. I liked it. The smoked ricotta on top was just icing for the pasta. I'd gladly eat this again

We don't often do pasta with frutti di mare very often because it's very often tomato based which I'm not a big fan of in general. This fregola with seafood, shaven zucchini and bottarga wasn't one of those. The tasty seafood broth was well absorbed into the pasta, shrimp was de-veined and succulent, squids hiding at the bottom was tender yet with bite and there was even a solitary scallop waiting to find a home. And yes, that's a scampi there. With sweet tender white meat that I scraped out with my fork.

If I had to gripe, it'd be how little bottarga there was.

This was off the current specials. Which described a bacon wrapped beef filet stuffed with Marzolino cheese topped with shaven truffle. The plating could have impressed a Master Chef finalist. And it tasted pretty much like how it looked. Quite good I would say.

Dessert was a saffron panna cotta with a sauce call Sambuca Red Berries. I assumed that it was Sambuca in a berry sauce/compote. The aniseed flavour was ever so mild and complimentary that we didn't mind. Pudding was wobbly and creamy. Enjoyed it.

Will definitely be back.

The grilled aubergine and hummus sandwich from Sarnies

There...... trying out a meatless sandwich from Sarnies for the first time. I was thinking that those aubergines might have been freshly grilled but it turned out to be chilled instead, making the sandwich oddly refreshing? Especially when everything else including the roasted capsicum were chilled as well. The only gripe I suppose was while I could see the hummus that was spread onto the bread, I couldn't quite taste it in the midst of all the flavours. Still I thought this was pretty enjoyable. Would have been even better if there was more of that feta cheese to go around though.

Update on 18/10/2015

So we sat near the kitchen today so everything looked a lot more blue. The sandwich today had extra feta cheese which was requested for. There was indeed more feta than the last time, but they were lumped together in the centre that the flavours concentrated in the middle while the edges of the sandwich didn't have any. Speaking of more, there was a lot more hummus as well. Each bite was oozing hummus around the edges of the bread. The greens were totally different from the last round.

The verdict was, it's been inconsistently made. There appears to be more people at the sandwich counter these days, but they gave me the impression weren't too serious about what they were doing. I hope this doesn't signify a downfall in their standards.

Casse Croûte, Park West Condominium

Nice little outpost cloistered within a private residential estate (8 Jalan Lempeng, Park West Condominium, #02-02 The Club House, tel : +65 9630 4526) by Patrick Heuberger, formerly of Au Petit Salut and Le Bistrot Du Sommelier. I had never really gotten familiar with his former bistro but the latter, I liked so we made the trip down to have some of his food.

Waiting time was spent on some charcuterie. Most of them - like the duck rillette and the pig head terrine were made in house. Which was the point because as much as they have been derived from traditional recipes, it was unique to this place.

We tried their house made andouillette, pan fried and served with mustard.

The spiced pig intestine and tripe stuffed sausage was delicious. People tend to classify these items as an acquired taste. We've acquired such a taste a long time ago and thus enjoyed all of it. The grind of the stuffings were more fine than those served at L'Angelus.

Their ribeye au poivre was delicious. The meat was a nice shade of medium rare as requested for, crusted with a salted peppercorn crust and paired with an outstanding brandy cream sauce. The sauce was so good that we simply had to help monsieur Heuberger wipe down his cocotte with an extra order of baguette. I'd order this again in a heartbeat.

With all the meat, we needed to balance off the dinner with some vegetables.

And some profiteroles to end. By the way, Le Loups dans la Bergerie was a pretty decent bottle. Enough body to be paired with steak, not too tannic and relatively inexpensive.

Kanda Wadatsumi, Tras Street

Here's a barachirashi lunch with an additional side of a grilled ayu from Kanda Wadatsumi (50 Tras Street, tel : +65 6221 6264). The rice bowl was rather small and honestly not very impressive at all if not for the uni. We also didn't quite understand not having vinegared rice with the barachirashi. Apparently, they provide a small pot of bonito broth which one could use on the rice like a sort of chazuke. But really, with such a small bowl, how much rice did they honestly expect us to have left for that purpose. 

While it could be argued that one could top up the lunch with an option for zensai/dessert which comes with unlimited refills of rice, I'm not sure the correct idea is to expect everyone to do so. Fortunately, one could easily find a similar and more satisfying option down at Sakari Sushi which was also more straight forward; and in my not so humble opinion, tastier as well just a few literal minutes walk away.

The grilled ayu was quite good. Loved the bitter sweet innards. But it is a little difficult to convince ourselves to come back on the merit of a pricey small grilled fish.