As suggested by its name, this restaurant serves Mookata- a thai equivalent of BBQ and steamboat and they also have a variety of drinks from their bar. Take a look at their extensive menu and you will discover that they also whip up a variety of Thai and Chinese zi char style dishes too. And there's no service charge and GST here.

We shared a 2 person Mookata set ($29.90). This was my first time sampling Mookata, so for the uninitiated, Mookata refers to traditional Thai metal pan used to BBQ meats and also cooking steamboat items. There is a mini grill dome in the centre for you to grill meat which is surrounded by a shallow space to contain the soup broth for steamboat. The entire pan is heated by burning charcoal underneath, so yes very old school. The mookata set comes with a variety to meats, including prawns, squids, marinated pork and chicken and some crabsticks, fishballs and vegetables and you are free to choose between grilling the items or dunking them in the boiling steamboat broth.

As the pan starts to heat up, you are supposed to place the pork lard provided on top of the grill dome. The oil from the pork lard will slowly drip out and help grease the metal grill. It supposedly also helps add flavour to the grilled meat! The oil also drips into the soup to add flavour too.

Besides having the mookata set, we also tried some items from their Thai food menu. We had their Mango Salad ($7) which was rather fresh and provided a really good start to our meal. We got a little greedy and also tried their Thai Green Curry Chicken ($10) which was served in a nice rich and fragrant curry with generous servings of chicken and vegetables. The Thai dishes were not too bad, and they seemed to be prepared by their in house Thai chefs.

We top off the meal with some Red Rubies dessert ($5) which was a really generous serving red rubies on top of shaved ice drizzled with coconut milk and dried mango bits. As you can see from the picture, it's a visual feast. The only problem was the way it was served. It was served in small bowl, like those you would put rice in and we had a difficult time trying to finish the dessert without spilling the contents all over the table. And the dessert most regrettably came together with the food items. There was apparently some communication error and as a result the dessert was served out immediately. If you do intend to visit this place, make sure you reiterate to the waiter you want dessert to be served later.

Though the mookata was an experience, it was pretty normal grill and steamboat meal. I would like to try their other thai food next time round.

For more photos do visit http://mrfoodnotes.blogspot.sg/2013/01/thai-grill-n-bar-sembawang.html

Walk along Craig Road and you might actually miss this cafe. Located at number 40, it’s the last grey coloured shophouse at the quiet end of the road. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and although it was deceptively calm and quiet on the outside, the cafe was actually almost packed to the brim inside.

At the door, you will be greeted by this vintage converted sewing machine, where you help yourself to the menu, water and find a table (if any).

Generally, the cafe is really warm and cosy, but since it was a full house Sunday, noise gets trapped inside the boxy shophouse. Don’t expect a quiet sunday brunch here. But surely there’s a reason why people flock like bees to honey to this place right? Apparently, Gene (the cafe’s owner) is selfish because he will not serve food that he would not eat (hence the cafe name, get it?). Perhaps this is a strong signal that the food has gotta be DECENT and people really like quality food whipped out here.

So you place your counter located inside the cafe and they give these cute yellow paper cups containing your number, receipt and change. A really nice idea to cut down waiting time (for payment that is)

I had the B.O.B. ($15.80) all day breakfast set, which is only available on weekends.Not sure why it’s called BOB (reminds me of a certain singer), but this is a delightful dish served with perfect runny poached eggs slapped atop Norwegian smoked salmon, creme fraiche and multigrain bread. I really enjoyed this dish; the salmon wasn’t overly salty and I was quite content munching on the yolk soaked salmon and bread combi. The salad is served with tangy lemon vinaigrette dressing, which really completes the meal.For other scrambled egg lovers/ deluxe breakfast set lovers, do try their Breakfast Plate ($15.80), which has a little of everything: eggs, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomato, brioche:I had a cuppa Chai latte ($5) to go with my breakkie set. I would have preferred a slightly more spicy version of it, but for those who like their milky chai latte teas, you will probably get a nice balance in this cup.

AND FOR DESSERTSSSSS;You have to try the Banana cake ($5.80) here. Each bite is chock full of banana flavour, it’s really not something you can get elsewhere, unless you blend a sack of bananas and bake your own. It has a nice warm and extremely moist texture and it goes so well with their crumble and peanut butter sauce topping. The only downside? It’s really really small. If not for my lunch partners, I could have popped the entire loaf in one mouth.The other dessert item we had was the Lemon Tart ($5.80) also only available on weekends. The lemon curd inside was really well balanced- not overwhelmingly one sided sweet or sour, but a really nice refreshing balance of both. The slightly italian meringue went really well with the lemon curd tart and again, the dessert is unfortunately really small. (Photo was zoomed in!)

We came to the conclusion that Gene is indeed really selfish, for only serving certain good stuff on weekends and also shrinking their desserts to nano-bite size. But for small eaters and people cannot resist the allure of desserts (and their associated calories), the mini desserts and a nice cup of coffee/tea is something you would want to grab at this cafe. Plus, the small dessert size really forces you to take small bites and slowly savour the every bit of goodness.

For more photos, do visit http://mrfoodnotes.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/selfish-gene-cafe/

Sarang is located on the 7th floor of Orchard Central (the sprawling shopping complex designed like a rat maze). It has a small indoor seating area which is usually filled up. There are also outdoor seats and seats at the bar, where diners can barbecue their own food or get the chef to do it. We were assigned bar seats since most places were already booked up (business is booming on weekends). The outdoor restaurant is really airy but be prepared to walk out smelling faintly of korean bbq. Kpop fans will enjoying the booming Kpop music videos projected on a large screen behind the bar. It’s a really nice place to chill out and I discovered they serve decent cocktails!This place serves Makgeolli- a korean rice wine with alcohol content of about 5%. It has a characteristic milky, off-white colour and is sweet. The bar serves out several Makgeolli cocktails mixed together with fresh ingredients and we had their Makgeolli Mojito (left, $10) and Makgeolli Orange ($10, right). The mojito was fantastic! I really liked the refreshing hints of citrus and mint, but the drink itself is still sweet (mainly from Makgeolli and sugar). The orange concoction was a bit like orange sparkling juice, but I guess citrus lovers will enjoy the fresh squeezed orange pulp bits inside the drink.My friend was craving for Korean BBQ, so we ordered the DIY BBQ Platter ($38.80) where you get to select any 3 meat items from the ala carte menu, which was more worth it since each meat item costs between $16.80-19.80. We got ourselves Jeyuk Bakeum (marinated pork slices), Dak Galbi (marinated chicken) and Galbi Sal (marinated boneless beef ribs).

You also get to choose whether you want to cook the items yourself or get the chef to cook it for you. We opted for the former, so we were given this mini grill pan which came with some semi cooked mushrooms, kim chi, bean sprout and lettuce condiments to go with the meats. The waitresses are quite attentive, one even advised us to lower the fire to prevent the meats from overcooking. So BBQ noobs don’t be afraid, you won’t get burnt. The waitress also assured us that the oil from the grill will not splatter, but the pan got oily after a while and there were some oil splatter around the area. You can request for a change of grill pan, it somewhat helped reduce oil splatters. The meats were quite thinly sliced, so they cooked quickly. They were quite tender and well marinated, and I quite enjoyed the meal!

For more photos, do visit http://mrfoodnotes.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/sarang-orchard-central/

The Ellenborough Market Cafe is located inside the Swisshotel Merchant Court Hotel, just walking distance from Clarke Quay MRT (take exit B!) The restaurant has a nice colonial style decor- very nice and homely. There are two buffet stations- one near the entrance serves fresh, raw seafood, desserts and the other main station inside the restaurant offers the rest of the spread. Here are some highlights:

Japanese/ Korean food counter- There’s free flow sashimi, freshly cut slices of salmon and tuna that are perpetually swept off the serving plates by eager sashimi lovers. Be prepared to face hoardes of hostile uncle and aunties bent on removing every single sashimi slice from the place. A sushi chef also furiously prepares various sushi pieces which are also constantly swept off the plates. I don’t envy the sushi chef’s job; if he is not cutting up sashimi, he’s rolling up sushi, or being stared down by impatient uncles and aunties. There was also some korean salad served with hints of kim chi which was rather meh.

Cold seafood counter- There are raw oysters, mussels and steamed prawns to choose from. I was suffering from a severe oyster craving, hence the pile of oysters on my plate. Oysters were quite fresh- didn’t have any stomach upset the next day hehe. Prawns were big, juicy and succulent.

Nonya food counter- A wide variety of authentic nonya dishes like Ayam Buah Keluk, Chap Chye, fish, Nonya otah. There is also a Kong Ba Pau counter where the chef will prepare the soft steamed buns with braised pork on the spot. There is also a Nonya dessert counter which serves out an assortment of mini bite size kuehs kuehs placed in erm, bird cages.

Hot food counter- The two must try dishes are Butter Fish with Broadbean Sauce and Stir Fried Slipper Lobster in Black Bean Sauce (above). The fish is an excellent dish with great texture and flavour, and its quality is comparable to those served out in expensive chinese restaurants. No wonder the fish meat is quickly polished off the plate once it touches the table. The slipper lobster is also another dish that is not exempt from diners’ relentless stomachs. The lobster meat is very fresh, retains QQ texture and goes really well with the black bean sauce that is not overly salty. Do examine the lobster shells carefully; you would want to pick the piece with the meatiest section (like the one shown above) and not some random shell part with no meat. And if you can’t do without your greens, do grab some Stir fried seasonal vegetables in abalone sauce, also available here.

Durian Pengat- The famous, MUST TRY durian dessert served here. It is essentially thick, luscious durian cream, pureed from high quality durian flesh. Each mouthful is bursting with fragrant, bittersweet taste of durians pulp and cream. Durian lovers would TRULYMADLYDEEPLYABSOLUTELY adore this. I was somewhat tempted to haul the whole vat of durian pengat back to the table, but I managed to restrain myself.

Dessert counter- Sorry, I was too lazy to arrange the items nicely on the plate, but you get the idea- this place serves an assortment of cakes and pastries. I was too full to stomach everything by then, but there were also local desserts and ice cream available!

BTW, they do serve coffee/tea, just ask the friendly waiters around. I also thought the waiters were quite prompt in clearing the plates; by the time you return from another round of food stacking, the dirty plates from your table magically vanishes!

The price of a buffet dinner for one adult is about $60 (after the addition of GST and service charges), which can be a little steep. But considering the spread of good, fresh food available, it’s worth the occasional binge fest.

For more details, do visit http://mrfoodnotes.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/ellenborough-market-cafe/

It looks big from the outside but FFT@8QSAM is actually really small inside, so reserve your tables early if you intend to pop by over weekends, or head over to their bigger outlet at the Botanic Gardens. Part of the profits generated by the restaurant goes to several selected goodwill missions and charities, so it lives up to its motto of “Good Food for a Good Cause” .

Perhaps the centrepiece of this outlet, is its extensive light installation made out of food jars hanging from the ceiling. White tiles adorn the walls of the place- their signature look. Even the table we set on was covered with small tiles- giving off a very utilitarian kitchen vibe.I had their Garlic Prawn & Red Capsicum Linguine ($16). It’s pipping hot al-dente linguine- not too oily but a little dry for me. The garlic prawns served were huge and succulent, and the dish was garnished with bits of red capsicum and coriander leaves. The pasta dish was tasty, though I thought the portions were a little small (or I was probably hungry).Mussels in Creamy Laksa Broth ($18), a dish that is part of their May menu promotion. You have a choice of linguine or french fries, in a fantastic laksa broth sauteed with roasted capsicum, thickened with fresh cream and garnished with laksa leaves. I am a huge laksa fan and the cream broth really captured the authentic laksa taste which went surprisingly well with mussels. I did think the laksa sauce could be thicker but after some thought that may not be as enjoyable. Thick creamy laksa sauce+pasta+mussels would definitely make a deadly jerlek combo.And finally for dessert, we had Dark Chocolate & Stewed Cherries Pancake ($12). (BTW, pancakes are not on the dessert menu, they have a separate section, but anything with chocolate, sugar and flour makes the cut hurhur). So they serve out two freshly cooked warm pancakes (they even have a slight raw flour taste to it) generously topped with dark chocolate curvatures, cherries, fresh cream, drizzled in gula meleka syrup. How decadent can it get? The chocolate bits actually melt on the warm pancake, so the dark chocolate sauce spreads nicely throughout the pancake. The pancakes were thick and fluffy and definitely went well with the toppings. I wasn’t able to detect much gula meleka from the syrup, it tasted like normal syrup to me, but nonetheless I thoroughly enjoyed this! (Too bad the others were too full to eat anymore so I had the entire thing to myself muhaha).

FFT definitely serves out decent food and the best part is, you get to enjoy good food while helping the restaurant further its charitable causes. Kill two birds with one stone ya? It might be a good idea to avoid walking in during weekends- the place gets really crowded and a long queue of hungry teenagers form outside the restaurant very quickly.

For more photos, pls visit http://mrfoodnotes.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/food-for-thought-8qsam/