LeNu at VivoCity

LeNu is part of the Paradise Group of companies, and specialized in beef noodles.  Their restaurant at VivoCity very much looks like a Japanese ramen shop, and the noodles they serve tend to have some semblance of Japanese ramen too.

To order, you just need to tick the item and write the quantity of it in the order slip.  It is pretty straight forward.  After that, go to the cashier and make a payment for your order.  Here is pay before you eat.

Braised Beef Combination Noodle, $16.50+

I ordered their braised beef combination noodle.  Well, the name is a bit strange in English, but that is what is listed in their menu.  Basically it is egg noodle in beef broth, with wagyu beef, tendon and the "muscle".  I don't know what is the proper English name for that "muscle".  In the menu, it is listed as "shank". 

The beef portion was quite tiny, if you don't look for it, you might not find it.  The tendon portion was reasonable, a piece or two.  The 'muscle' portion was the most generous, there were quite a number of pieces.  The taste was pretty good.  You could still 'feel' the toughness of the muscle, but then it would breakdown easily in your mouth.  You don't have to worry that you need to chew forever to make it swallow-able.

For every main, if you top-up $3.50, you could get a side dish and a can of soft drink.

Century Egg Tofu

I chose the century egg tofu as my side.  It was a cold dish.  The presentation was good, like a piece of art.  Taste-wise, it was a bit bland, as the tofu basically had no taste, while the century egg's taste came mainly from its yoke, which was kind of a bit heavy for me.

Overall I think LeNu serves reasonably good beef noodle at a competitive price, especially considering it is in a busy shopping center.

Hattendo Singapore

Hattendo (八天堂) Cafe is a new Japanese cafe that opened its first shop at the brand new Tanjong Pagar Center in Singapore.  It is hidden behind the Japan Rail Cafe, so you have to make some effort to find it.   The space is quite small, a small counter where you can order your buns and coffee, and then some 10 or so small tables for patrons to sit down and enjoy their coffee and buns.

I had never heard of Hattendo before, until one day their instagram "like" one of my posts, then I started to find out what Hattendo is.  They are said to start their business in Hiroshima, Japan, back in 1933.  Well, impressed, that means they survived the atomic bomb which was dropped in Hiroshima on 9 Aug 1945.

Back to topic, their signature dishes are the 5 types of cream buns: Custard, whipped cream, matcha, azuki beans, and chocolate.  Each bun costs $2.50.  We ordered their matcha and azuki beans.  Just in case you wonder what azuki beans are, they are red beans.  We also ordered a cafe latte and a caramel latte. 

Matcha Cream Bun

Dangdangdangdang, here is the matcha cream bun.  Well, the bun seemed to have been left on the shelf for quite a while, and appeared to be soggy.  Matcha is supposed to have some bitter taste, but in this case, it was all sweet, the bitter was almost undetectable.

Azuki Beans Bun

Next came the azuki beans bun.  There were some red bean paste litered among the creams.  As both the cream and red beans were sweet, so I think this is quite a perfect match with the coffee.  It neutralized coffee's bitter, leaving a pleasant sweet after taste in your mouth.

Overall, I think the cream buns can be a good companion to the coffee.  However, this cafe's environment is not very cozy for friends to sit down and enjoy a romantic or free spirited afternoon.  I kind of wonder what kind of market niche that they wanna craft out.

Tenten Ramen at Raffles City

Tenten is a small ramen restaurant among the many eateries on basement 1 of Raffles City shopping center.  The deco is simple and typical of a Japanese ramen restaurant, a small kitchen with a few small tables around.

Yuzu Chashu Ramen, $14.80

Yuzu Paste

I ordered their Yuzu Chashu ramen.  Yuzu basically means pomelo in Japanese, kind of curious how a Yuzu ramen would look like.

I was surprised when my ramen came.  Firstly, the soup base was a clear soup base.  Have you ever seen a clear ramen soup base before?  This was my first time.  Secondly, the Yuzu paste that came in a separate container was just tiny, but the pomelo smell was actually quite strong.  It was a bit sour, and a bit sweet.  It enhanced my appetite.

Let's get back to the ramen.  The clear soup base was like a fresh breeze in the stagnant forest of milky ramen soup bases.  Not salty as the milky version, very pleasant to drink.  The ramen was very much like our wanton noodle, tough yet easy to bite.

Eat the chashu with the Yuzu paste provided.  The fragrance of the fruit freshened the heavy meat flavour, giving the patron a sense of fresh air in the Spring.

Their green tea was not bad, thick and full of flavour, but it was not cheap, $2 a cup.

Overall the ramen was pretty good, and the clear soup base was unique.  If you don't like the normal milky ramen soup base, you should give this one a try.

iSteak at MyVillage Serangoon Garden

iSteak is a popular western food place at MyVillage at Serangoon Garden.  During lunch, you will see lots of people who either work nearby or live nearby come in for a quick lunch.  The prices here are quite reasonable, and the food is quite decent.  Well, how did I know it?  Somehow it is not too pleasant for me to come here, as someone likes to choose this place for farewell whenever we have someone leaving us for greener grass.  I have been here numerous times.  The dinning environment is pleasant, large glass windows let in plenty of natural light.  We want to support this place also because they support people who are intelligently challenged.

Honey Ginger Chicken, $10.00

For this occasion, I ordered the honey ginger chicken, for $10.00.  Every main comes with two free side dishes, which I chose spinach salad and olive rice.

The chicken was grilled together with the skin, which provided lots of natural chicken oil.  The meat was just nice, fully cooked but not dry.  Honey and ginger combination is a bit interesting.  Honey neutralized ginger's strong flavor and taste.

There is no GST, no service charge here. The price you see in the menu is what you pay.  By the way, if you do patronize this place, just help yourself with a menu from any table or display, choose what you like and then go to the cashier to make your order and payments.  Then you will be given a number plate indicating your order number.  The staff will bring the food to your table.  For cutlery, it is self-service, you can get them from the cutlery station, as well as whatever ketchup, chili sauce that you prefer.  For drinks, you have to order separately at the drinks counter. 

Botanist at Neil Road

The cafe is housed in an old shop house in the Tanjong Pagar conservation area.  The sign is not very prominent.  We almost walked right past it without noticing it.

The place is quite small, with 5-6 tables in the alfresco area, indoors there was only the cashier, kitchen and product displays .  The alfresco area is just a stone's throw away from Neil Road, so sometimes it can be quite noisy when there is a lot of traffic.

You have to go the cashier to order your food and drinks, make the payment and then came back with a number plate for your order.  Surprisingly, there is no service charge, GST is included in the stated price.

Slow Cooked Beef Cheek, $24.00

I ordered their signature slow cooked beef cheek.  Well, beef cheek is the cow's facial muscle, which works really hard throughout a cow's life, munching grass.  This tough muscle transforms into tender stew after being cooked low and slow.  You could still see the coarse fibre-like tissues but it was pleasant to bite and chew.

Underneath the beef cheek was the truffle mash, which is mash potato cooked with butter and truffle oil.  Butter and truffle oil added layers of complex sensations to this otherwise common ingredient, in particular the fragrance, which enhances your appetite.

Piccolo Latte, $4.50

Other than food, this cafe is famous for its coffee.  They are by the Pacamara people.  Well, as if I knew what Pacamara are.  Frankly speaking, I have never heard of Pacamara, until now.  Obviously they are a well-known boutique coffee roaster in Singapore, providing good coffee to the Singapore connoisseurs.  At first, I wanted to try their cold brew, but then it was not available on the day of my visit (why?).  I ordered a piccolo latte instead.

I always wonder why there are so many different names for the same stuff, coffee is just coffee.  Piccolo latte is a kind of 'new' invention that became popular in Sydney about 10 years ago.  It is coffee with milk served in a small glass.

The milk tames the bitterness of the coffee, while retains the nutty flavor of the beans.  It is gentle to the stomach, stimulating to the brain, fresh for the nose.  It would be great to have it after meal, but too bad, they served it before my food arrived.  Still not bad.

Overall, it was a pleasant dining experience.  The staff were friendly, service with a smile.  The place can be noisy and hot sometimes, mostly due to its close proximity to the main road.  Food and coffee are both good.  My friend whose standard comment on food is always 'so-so', surprised me with an 'above average' comment for Botanist.

Santouka at Clark Quay Central

This is my second visit to this ramen restaurant in 8 or 9 years.  During my last visit, their ramen was way too authentic for me.  The soup base was so salty that it was unpleasant to eat.

Shio Ramen, $13.50++

This time, I ordered their Shio ramen.  The soup base was still as thick and milky, but the taste was a lot less salty.  I think they had made adjustment to their soup base so that it is more acceptable to the local taste.  It is also better from the health point of view.  Too much salt in a person's diet will have many serious consequences, including high blood pressure, diabetes and even stomach cancer.  Japan has one of the highest stomach cancer cases in the world, partially because of their diet.  It is great that they made the adjustment. 

Back to my Shio ramen.  The chashu was thinly sliced.  The proportion of fat and lean meat was good.  Melt-in-your-mouth element was still there for the fat part.

Ramen-wise, it was like our egg noodle, and I think it was slightly over-cooked, leaving the contour less clearly defined. 

Overall, their ramen was quite enjoyable, with good adaption to the local taste for the soup base.
The staff were friendly and service efficient.  If you choose your table correctly, you can enjoy the view of Clark Quay while enjoying your ramen too.

Sik Bao Sin Eating House at Geylang Road

Spotted this Sik Bao Sin Cantonese eating house along Geylang Road the other day and decided to give it a try.  The place is open for dinner from 5.45pm, we arrived at around 6.20pm, the place was already almost full.  Luckily there were only the two of us, and we were warmly ushered in immediately.

We were given a menu to order, but there was no price tag on the menu, so you have to be a bit thick-skinned to ask them for the prices.  There are not many items on the menu, so almost every item on the menu is their recommended dish.

Black Chicken Herbal Soup, $26.00

My friend wanted the black chicken soup, so we ordered one.  When it arrived, it gave us a shock.  Usually the soup is in a small bowl, and you get some body parts of the black chicken, and some tiny amount of herbs, but the black chicken soup here came in a giant bowl, with an entire black chicken in it.  There were generous portions of Chinese herbs of YuZhu (玉竹), BeiQi (北芪）, QiZi （杞子）, etc.   The soup was excellent, 真材实料, boiled for hours with authentic ingredients.  The sweetness of the soup came from the ingredients, not some added sugar or artificial flavouring.  As the portion is quite big, I think it can be shared by at least 3 persons.

Steamed Song Fish-head, $26.00

We also ordered their signature dish, the steamed Song fish-head.  When the dish came, we got another shock.   When I ordered the steamed Song fishhead in another local restaurant, the fishhead was of palm size, but the one here again was of giant size.  It was steamed with preserved vegetables, and deep-fried pork lard, topped with spring onion and then finally hot oil was poured on it to spark off the fragrance.

Cantonese like to eat fishheads, as it has lots of collagen, which is tender and smooth, full of nutrients.  The fish head was done just nice.  The meat was still tender but fully cooked.  The collagen was still juicy.  It was good!  However, there was something I didn't like.  Somehow they use fermented tofu (豆腐乳) as part of the sauce.  Fermented tofu's flavor was too strong for such a delicate dish, it grossly dominated the entire sensation system.   Well, it is just my opinion, maybe many other patrons like the strong taste.

We also ordered a vegetable dish, together with two bowls of rice and two teas, in grand total we paid $68.00 for the entire meal.  No GST and no service charge.

I think I will go back for their soup, but with more people.  Their soup is simply too big for just one or two persons.