Mentaiko rosu katsu from Imakatsu

The mentaiko that they used were pretty generous in portions and very tasty. Totally worked with their well fried rosu cutlet. Unfortunately, these guys seemed understaffed during this visit and somebody in particular had been getting the orders wrong that some of the orders never arrived while others came in the wrong portions. But still, I like this enough to come back again.

Hot Reuben now with Guinness Stout bread at Nassim Hill Bakery

This was the third beer bread at Nassim Hill Bakery for their sandwich, with the previous ones being made with Asahi Kuronoma and prior to that, Grimbergen Ambrée. What seemed different from this visit was texture (and flavour) of the bread. Previously, they were soft, chewy and warm. This time round, it had lightly toasted and didn't seem to taste as good as the previous visits. The toast had taken the chew and the soft out of the equation.

I'm guessing that it's probably a better idea to visit in the morning when the bakes are fresher; which was exactly when the previous two visits occurred. Hopefully it's not the downfall of their bread because of a change in recipe.

In the other news, they have a Po Boy on menu. It's didn't quite look like what I expected out of a po boy but it was a decent sandwich I wouldn't mind having again. Shrimp, ham and lettuce between a cheesy sun dried tomato focaccia.

Royal Noodle, Circular Road

This (27 Circular Road) was kinda disappointing. The only thing that helped me finish the bowl was an extra helping of their tasty chilli paste. The noodles were ordinary and I didn't find anything memorable with the sauces. What's worse was that the peanuts where just shy of turning stale. Those nuts really bugged me about the quality of their food here. 

Grand Mandarina, New Bridge Road

Grand Mandarina (#01/02-00 Thye Shan Mansion, 325 New Bridge Road, tel : +65 6222 3355) opened about a year ago and I had never heard about them until recently. From what I could gather online, they're a new player in the local scene with no ties to any of the better known restaurant groups which could mean that they are a little bit more interesting with what they do rather than the usual formulaic themes.

The restaurant is located at a spot just a short walk from Outram Park MRT exit at Bt Pasoh's side.

This was chicken and cordycep soup. It happened to be soup of the day which is going for less than $2 due to some promotion that they were having. Pretty well done double boiled soup and just for a song, I'd easily return for them.

One of the items that they are apparently known for is their honey glazed barbecued pork loin. Char siew in other words and yes, it was as good as people were saying. We had seconds of those glazed pork which possessed a light sweet glaze shattering crunch. The meat was relatively tender and fat layered.

Fried fish skin with salted egg yolk, curry leaves and chilli padi. Rather addictive. Even for the pieces that had gotten a little bit soggy.

This was described as soya poached foie gras with 20 year "Shao Xin" wine jelly. The idea was good, but the foie gras tasted funny. It was livery without the buttery element, might have something to do with the poaching. The Shao Xin jelly sounded impressive if I had understood that 20 year part correctly; the flavours were present but not extraordinary for something that sounded like it had been aged. Did I read this wrong?

Their stir fried vermicelli with pork collar and XO sauce was not bad too. The generous amount of sprouts lent texture to each mouthful of noodles.

Steamed rice rolls with scallops were quite ordinary.

Those crystal dumplings aren't my thing. The dominant flavour was chinese mushrooms which I'm not big on in the first place and we've definitely had better done crystal dumplings with mushroom.

Competent if ordinary har gow.

Also competent if ordinary siew mai. If I'm giving the impression that these were mediocre, dispel those impressions. 

Their phoenix claws with black bean sauce was a mishap. Those chicken feet tasted a little sour (not quite the vinegary manner) and that sour didn't come from the sauce. We stopped after a couple of bites and feedbacked to the restaurant. They were gracious and took it off the bill.

That's pan fried carrot (radish) cake with lup cheong and a sprinkle of chicken floss. Again, competent.

We liked the char siew bao. Skin was fluffy enough, sufficiently voluminous for balance of proportions between meat & bun and the fillings were more savoury than sweet. 

The other let down was the salted yolk custard buns. There's not enough salted yolk flavour and it was a little too sweet for us to like them.

Apparently, the one thing Grand Mandarina seems to be known for is the empurau fish; reputed to be the most expensive edible fish from Sarawak in Malaysia. Expensive like a couple of thousands of dollars perhaps for a single fish. Obviously, it's not going to be something that's landing plated on my table anytime soon.

Sugisawa, Robertson Quay

I remember reading about the origins of chirashi which began as a way to utilize the unattractive looking cuts of fish that were leftovers from making nigiri sushi or sashimi. On certain occasions, I've actually tried to relate that possibly dated (or geographically inapplicable) fragment of history to the ones that we're having. I'm pretty sure that's not how it works these days here with the most of them far too prettied up or voluminous to be treated as discards. 

This chirashi donburi from Sugisawa (30 Robertson Quay, Riverside Village Residences, tel : +65 6235 0212) could just possibly be one of those bowls that fit in to the category of repackaging remnant cuts of fish - plus a little more on the side. Either that or the knife work was especially lacking in finesse. The quality of the fish had passed the decent muster but wasn't extraordinary.  I didn't quite take to the extra chewy slice of octopus tentacle. What I liked was the sakura denbu. Not so many places include them. And the butter fried scallops were actually rather good. Weren't overcooked at all and had that residual natural sweetness intact.

Chir Chir Fusion Chicken Factory, 313 Somerset

Just to be clear, I didn't queue to get into Chir Chir (313 Orchard Rd #B3-04/05/06). I happened to be there at a time when the insane queue hadn't yet begun for dinner. Their food was a fairly interesting experience if not altogether anything new.

I liked the grape salad with honey and ricotta but the restaurant doesn't used freshly toasted flatbread and was careless with the freshness of the nuts that they used. Otherwise, the rest of the food was pretty much how it looked. Those "cajun" spiced chicken with cheese & cream weren't as heavy as they looked though.

I could eat it again, but I sure as hell wouldn't queue for it.