Even more from Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine

We tried the fish noodles from Imperial Treasure Fine Teochew Cuisine in our last dim sum lunch/brunch because I was curious if their rendition were as nice as the ones I recalled from Hai Tian Lo or Peach Garden ages ago. Hoping to recapture a little something here. It didn't. No char and not so much fish flavour in those noodles. Disappointed.

On the bright side, we found out that the restaurant offered a steamed version of the usual pan fried radish cake we normally get. This was really nice. Glided down the throat with ease even without the grease. Think we're gonna stick to this rendition from now.

Tried their mushroom dumplings for the first time. Pretty good if I might say so. The soft and chewy crystals skins were packed with diced mushrooms and green beans...I think. Will be getting these again the next time too.

More from Astons Steak & Salad

We came back to Astons Steak & Salad mostly for the salad bar.

They have a duck a l'orange. Not on the regular menu. What I disliked about the duck was how heavy the flavour of the herbs were on the skin. Didn't need those at all. The parts of the duck that didn't have those herbs were good on their own or with the sauce.

Tried their t-bone. Probably the most expensive of their regular steaks. A little too much sinews for me. Not feeling how this was better after paying so much more so I'm sticking to their non bone-in regular steaks the next time.

Miso hybrid duck broth ramen from Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke

This completes my tour of noodles at Ginza Kamo Soba Kyudaime Keisuke. At least for the ones I was curious about anyways - this hybrid miso duck bowl, the regular hybrid duck bowl, the tsukemen and the kamo mazesoba.

The miso bowl looked a deeper brown than the regular bowl. The flavour was understandably a balance between miso and the duck so it didn't have as much duck intensity as the regular bowl. I kinda enjoyed it too.

iSteaks Diner, Star Vista

I remember iSteaks (#01-42/K3 Star Vista, 1 Vista Exchange Green, tel : +65 6285 8839) back in their humble days at Serangoon Gardens and also seeing them at Lor Liput. Remembered liking that $35 wagyu that they put out in that little corner stall in the coffee shop at Serangoon Gardens. That $35 wagyu has become $46 today. They've become a bigger business these days too.

Did not think so much of their 250g 100 day grain fed Australian rib eye. Meat had some fat with no visible marbling and didn't taste that great. Black pepper sauce was nice though. I suppose if I wanted something at affordable entry level, it'll still be Astons.

Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh, Raffles City

Finally decided to give Ya Hua (#B1-44B Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road, tel : +65 +65 6264 7066) a go after passing by this shop so many times and wondering if they were any good. I didn't recall not liking the food from their Havelock Road shop.

Was pretty surprised that their broth tasted weak. We had initially thought that their fish and pork ball mee sua might have been served with another broth that wasn't for their pork ribs. After we had accepted a top up of that soup, we learnt from them that it was the same as the one they used for their pork ribs. I'm not sure if it even had pepper.

The fish had a muddy taste of fresh water fish. The meatballs had a nice soy sauce flavour but were a little too soft. Almost mushy with no yield to the texture. If I had to do an apple to apple comparison, we've had better mee sua. Portions here were also little small.

Speaking of small portions, the menu mentioned that the mee sua came with dough fritters. We got exactly two pieces of those. Could taste the oil that they used to fry those fritters and I'm not sure if that's a good thing.

Their chap chye wannabe tasted not bad. Generous with the tau kee which I liked. Tau kwa wasn't too bad too but this was usually difficult to mess up. Don't think these dishes alone were good enough to be an incentive for a return.

Didn't try any of their pork ribs but we felt this was an indicative experience. Between Old Street and this for a convenient go to, the choice was pretty easy.

Wolfgang's Steakhouse, Nanson Road

This was a lunch at Wolfgang's (#02-01 InterContinental Singapore, 1 Nanson Road, tel : +65 6887 5885). Legends speak of the owner, a Wolfgang Zwiener whom was a waiter for 40 years at Brooklyn’s Peter Luger before starting his own. Guess this would be the closest I would get to Peter Luger until I actually get to visit Peter Luger.

Bread basket's not bad. Their onion loaf was quite delicious.

We ordered a wedge salad because blue cheese. That dressing was half the victory with winning us over.  

The other half came from the chilled crisp lettuce and the delicious chunks of their bacon. I couldn't decide if I like this or the one at Morton's better because I enjoyed them both.

Shrimp scampi was pretty good. Shrimps were large and meaty. The lemon garlic butter that was drizzled over the dish tasted fresh. The servers mentioned that it was made on order so when we asked for more, we had to wait for them to make a new batch.

The Wolfgang burger was okay. It was hefty but the meat didn't have much of beefiness I was looking forward to and needed a bit more salt. Didn't like the fries because there wasn't much of potato flavour. For the first time in a long time, I used ketchup and the ketchup was actually quite nice. This isn't gonna beat my favourite burger or even Black Tap.

Pecan pie was delicious. Nice toasty pecans with a butterscotch-y base on a buttery crust. Unfortunately, we didn't dig the schlag. It tasted odd without any milkiness 

Coffee's not bad but kinda pricey. Wouldn't mind coming back again.