Ginza Tendon Itsuki, Tanjong Pagar Road

I suppose it's no longer news that Tendon Ginza Itsuki (101 Tanjong Pagar Road, tel : +65 6221 6678) is the relatively new tendon (tempura donburi, not the connective tissue) specialist shop that is a collaboration between the Keisuke Takeda and Itsuki Sushi in Ginza, Tokyo. A vaunted and pricey sushi-ya from Japan and a ramen/gyoza entrepreneur a tendon specialist maketh? Beats me too.

But I was curious and we came to try. It's not bad. Even though the tempura was fried on order, the light batter had lost some of the crisp by the time it was ready to eat. I'm not sure if that constituted good tempura batter but the fried food was worth the visit at least. The prawns were fresh, the chicken was tender and the vegetables had a nice crunch. What probably sealed the deal for many would be the tempura tamago with molten yolk and no less.

I wouldn't mind coming back at all if they improved on the ventilation. Be prepared to walk away smelling of the grease. And one should remember not to compare this with Tenshin. As much as the Keisuke Group would term this joint a tempura donburi specialist, this was not of the same standards.

The tom yam seafood pasta from 49 Seats

We had previously seen quite a number of people ordering the tom yam pasta from 49 Seats (#08-08 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Rd) at the Kreta Ayer outlet and made a mental note to give it a try. As it turned out, the pasta was pretty enjoyable. Though there was nice balance of heat and sour from the tom yam cream sauce. It wasn't as heavy as we had initially thought. I can see why this was appealing. Don't expect too much out of the seafood though.

Sushi Jin (仁), Farrer Park Station Road

No, we did not have sushi at Sushi Jin (1 Farrer Park Station Road, Owen Link, #01-11/12, tel : +65 6443 3378). I think we would have wanted to. Or at least try their chirashi, but we decided to go red meat for this lunch.

We started with their truffle seafood chawanmushi. It's an a la carte item separately ordered out of their lunch sets. This was good, I could see that they tried to justify the cost with the ingredients which were of good quality and very safe but pleasing flavours of contemporary Japanese.

There was a wagyu foie gras don. At $39 we didn't expect top grade beef, but I don't think it was worth what we paid. We had no idea what cut of meat it was, but it was a rather small piece and since the menu did state that it was wagyu, we had expectations. Honestly, I couldn't tell this from any other decent quality beef. Even at the medium rare, we weren't getting the melt in your mouth thing. The foie gras was nicely done, so that was the salvation of this bowl. The rice was a little too little and that was such a pity since their sweet sauce was actually good with the rice.

Their wagyu don came with an onsen tamago. Same beef (pun definitely intended) as the previous donburi and the tamago was the real icing. This bowl had the same flavour profile as the truffle seafood chawanmushi because there was truffle soy sauce. In fairness, there were little we could have been unhappy about. In the same vein of fairness as well, we also thought it wasn't really impressive for $35. For less than half of what it cost here, we felt just slightly less better with the short rib and less fancy rendition at Tanuki Raw.  

I was really curious about their lamb with black garlic sauce but this was when things went downhill. The meat was quite overcooked to the point that it was probably medium well. While the meat wasn't tough, it wasn't quite ideally tender. And I totally didn't like the black garlic sauce which tasted like a viscous sweet teriyaki that had overtones of ginger. 

The odd thing was, there came from the chef the usual excuse about using the sauce as a foil for the lamb-y flavour which some people may dislike to justify the outcome of this dish without us even asking - and frankly, it was a tired one. Why the hell else would I order lamb if I didn't enjoy the flavours of the meat? I mean, why in the world would anyone even? It was way more enjoyable getting grilled lamb chops from Marché. You can quote me on that.

This is where I drop names. I know Sushi Jin is by Les Amis. We've previously had nothing but good experiences in our very limited visits to Les Amis' restaurants. I understand that this wasn't a high end gig and it wouldn't be fair to compare against an outfit like Aoki. With all things duly considered, this lunch was only marginally less expensive and that at a location with a much cheaper rental. Aoki gave us desserts while this one gave us chocolate ice cream that tasted like Wall's. And we had the fortune to watch the new guy in front of us screw up a tuna maki.

Pity cuz I wanted to like this place.

The mirin saba set and a bowl of oden from Nakajima Suisan

I rather liked this fish. It was a little sweet and didn't have much bones. Even though almost every neighbouring table had a saba shioyaki which looked a lot bigger and much more moist. I was just wondering if there was any reason why this mirin glazed fish was smaller.

Their oden was pedestrian. Not that it was bad nor were we having great expectations, but there was nothing in particular I would look forward to so I guess it's a first and a last.

The Diamond Jim Brady now with bone in

After 12 long years, USDA beef with bone in is finally back at our shores! Here's the bone in prime rib from Lawry's. Needless to say, we enjoyed it as we usually did. Today's cut of the rib felt much heftier than I had expected. Just as I was wondering if the Diamond Jim-bo had shrunk, this bone in slab proved me wrong. I wasn't referring to the additional weight or volume from that bone, it felt like there was a lot more meat as well. But, I'm not complaining. Just thinking aloud - why is the creamed spinach sometimes on the side and sometimes on a separate dish?

Meatless at Artichoke

lotus root - honey roasted, marmite, pistachio dukka, siracha yoghurt

babaganoush - smoked eggplant, sesame, yoghurt, pomegranate molasses teriyaki

fried brussels sprouts - almonds, pomegranate, cabbage, mint, labneh ranch

falafel lettuce cups - big mac sauce, butterhead cups, tomato ezme, jalapenos, grated haloumi

The food at Artichoke has always been complex. Boldly going where none has gone before at least in the local context. Adventurous yet grounded without pretension. It's face has varied textures - of crunch, crisp, chewiness, gelatinous, gooey, creamy and possibly more married with heat, spice, sweetness, savoriness, smokiness, sour and probably others that I cannot recall. Each different dish a qualification of different combination of the mentioned adjectives. Very often, more than a handful of those at each at time. This was a dinner with no meat items. I'll just save the individual descriptions and let the pictures talk.

By the way, that watermelon beer didn't taste like it had watermelon.