Hungry Jack has four promotional rice meals of either chicken or fish with rice costing $5.90 per portion. I picked the Grilled Fish & Rice and added $1.50 for a bowl of cream of mushroom soup (no chpice of soup everyday).

The portion was big but the rice was bland, with a small dollop.of coleslaw served at the side. The grilled dory fish fillet came smothered in a mildly spicy black pepper sauce though the picture on the stall's signboard showed a reddish gravy (tomato or salsa sauce?). The mushroom sauce was too concentrated with plenty of cornflour added to thicken its consistency. Nice topping of crunchy croutons.

With A Pinch of Salt from Tanjong Katong Road has opened an express counter at the basement food court of HDB Bldg in Toa Payoh Central. There was an on-going promotion for selected pastas at $5.50 each, with 30¢ surcharge for each takeaway container

We ordered the Spaghetti with Fish in Cream Sauce and the Marinara Fish Pasta. Our orderes took about 15minutes to be assembled. The Spaghetti with Fish in Cream Sauce was dry with not enough gravy and tasted very bland. The Marinara Fish Pasta was not bad but like the cream sauce version, again was too dry with the spaghetti strands clumped together. Each pasta dish had only fpur chunks of deep fried dory fish - due to the promotional price. Similar dish at Pizza Hut tastes better, with more & better quality ingredients, costs only slightly more at $7.90++.

Qi Ji occupies a tiny corner on the ground floor of ICA Bldg. It is the only place for F&B within ICA Bldg so the place is always crowded and the staff usually rude. The self service cafe seats only about 25 persons in cramped tables, with refrigerators holding canned & bottled beverages lining one wall and the order counter cum service area at the back.

I ordered the mee siam priced at $3.50 and a canned drink that costs 30¢ is sold at the outrageous price of $1.60. A light meal sets you back more than $5! You've to ask for ice which is given to you grudgingly.

The mee siam is not bad but nothing to rave about. Lime was missing and the stallholder was stingy with the chopped chives. The gravy was overly acidic possibly due to the addition of vinegar to.the gravy made of tamarind paste.

It was after the dinner peak period of 7pm-8pm when we arrived at Watami. No queue and no staff at the entrance though DinTai Fung was still having a long queue. We thought we could get seated and be served dinner in a jiffy, only to be disappointed. The bad stuff first:

* no staff shortage at Watami which was 85%-90% full, but we were left standing at the door a good 10mins before we managed to get a staff to lead us to one of the empty tables.
* only one menu and two sets of cutlery at the table meant for three of us.
* water was served only after we asked for it twice, and brought to us one glass at a time. Even if staff were walking to and fro past our aisle side table and our empty glasses were put on the edge of the table they were not topped up.
* we were discouraged from ordering the beef don in stone bowl as the staff said there was at least 30mins wait.
* the server didnt bother to check on our orders and our pizza arrived after chasing them 3x and waiting 45mins - longer than the sizzling beef don that we were discouraged from ordering.
* we got tired of waiting for our bill and had to wait at the cashier's for it to be pulled up.

Ok, the service by the crew of Filipino fulltimers and student parttimers (both local and China) sucks big time, but Watami remains popular because it offers plenty of choices on its big menu and the prices are reasonable and affordable. Two of the three items we ordered were delicious too.

The watami salad $10.90++ was a generous portion with shrimps, shredded chicken, romaine lettuce, corn kernals, shredded seaweed and ebiko.The watami chashu ramen $12.90++ that the waitress advised us to order instead of the beef don in stone pot. The so called cha shu was two thick slices of belly pork was different from the menu photo which showed grilled marbled chashu. The soup was too salty and oily. Should have stuck to our preferred item of beef don since we were kept waiting so long for our pizza!The wafu pizza with teriyaki chicken $10.90++ that arrived 45mins later after several reminders, long after we had polished off the salad and ramen. Parts of the crust were burnt but the pizza was mostly cracker crisp and the teriyaki sauce, cheese and mayo base was lip smacking. Similar pizza from the overhyped Skinny Pizza Restaurant a few steps away will cost $24++.Ratings:
1/5 for service, 2/5 for environment (a bit stuffy and clothes smell of hotpot after meal); 4/5 for watami salad, 2.5/5 for ramen and 3.5/5 for pizza (worth the long wait. Will get 4/5 if not for parts of the burnt crust).

Menya's tsukumen ramen $14.90 is rather unusual in the sense that the noodles are served au naturel or "kosong" in Malay, separately from the broth. At Menya, the ramen is served at a standard tasting portion of 120g which is like a kid portion but they allow diners to upsize their ramen portion by up to a whopping 5x! Due to their strict policy of "no sharing" and "no takeaway", most diners would opt for 2x 120g though those with huge appetites may opt for 3x 120g ramen portion. The upsize is strictly for the ramen only and does NOT apply to the soup or toppings/other ingredients.

The tsukumen ramen was topped by four 0.5cm thick slices of marbled chashu, bamboo shoots, half egg and plenty of shredded scallions (see photo). It was accompanied by half a bowl of broth and they charge another $3 for another half bowl of soup. The included portion of soup seems adequate only for the regular 120g ramen portion so I guess the trick here is to let you upsize your ramen but not really free since you need to pay extra for the soup. Based on menu instructions the way to eat the tsukumen ramen is to dip them into the soup. Unfortunately the accompanying broth was way too runny or diluted to be used as a dipping sauce. IMHO Menya should serve concentrated broth similar to the consistency of lor mee gravy with their tsukumen ramen so that the broth is thick enough to coat each strand of ramen evenly.

I ended up mixing small portions of ramen and shredded scallions into the small bowl of broth. The result of doing this is that the broth had cooled down to room temperature when I was only half way through my ramen. So I had to order another portion of soup. Anyway I find Menya's food rather overrated. The soup was not that great - it was not really flavourful and the dominant taste was saltiness rather than meaty.

Service was attentive and brisk. However the restaurant was too dark and uninviting, with the dated stark black decor and dim lighting. Casual restaurants should be bright instead of resembling a dark, sleazy karaoke lounge.