[Hana Japanese Restaurant]Hana, which means "flower" in Japanese, is a modern Japanese restaurant situated at Forum Shopping Mall, away from the busy streets of orchard. Situated on level 1 and just infront of the lift, it's quite impossible for you to miss this restaurant. The interior of Hana was nicely decorated with koi fishes on the wall, drums of sake around the restaurant and a huge Sakura tree in the center. The whole ambience was romantic for some, cosy for many and somehow makes you feel like you're in Japan. Chef promised serving all customers with only the freshest seafood and using top grade ingredients. He said most of the time, they handpicked the freshest seafood themselves from Japan and flown back to Singapore the following day. *Wow* After hearing these words, our saliva already drooling~ Without further hesitation, we started our night with Chef's signature starters.

[1] Truffle Ikura Somen with Chef Special Sauce $15- A chilled appetizer before the mains. Infused with strong truffle taste, the cold noodles tasted so good! Together with the crispy shrimps, crunchy cucumber & salmon roe, it's a starter that you would love at first bite. My most loved food item of the night.

[2] Santen Chirashi Mori with Teapot Soup $28
(Kanpachi Truffle Premium Kaisen Bara & Aburi Salmon Cheese atop Chef's Special Pink Rice)- This set of pretty rice bowls kept us going for more as they were so tasty. Totally no complains for the fresh sashimi but the highlights here were the pink rice underneath. I love the natural sweet aftertaste!! (Hack care about carbo overloading!!) Sip sip the teapot soup after the yummy bowls and its wonderland already! Soup was packed with seafood essence and tasted refreshing too after we added in the lime.

And if you think I stopped eating after the carbo loading?? NOooo.. More food came as we ventured through Hana's *New* Tempura Omakase set meal.

[3] *NEW* Tempura Omakase Set $38.00++ per pax

This set comprises of 7 courses, each served individually on board.

• 1 appetizer
• 1 serving of Assorted Sashimi (3 types)
• 4 Tempura (4 choices but seafood types subject to availability)
• 1 Dessert

We started off this set meal with a salad.

(a) Sakura Ebi Salad with Chef Homemade Sesame dressing (Goma) & roasted cashew nuts

- Maybe you could find salad anywhere, but one with nicely executed goma dressing, it had got to be here at Hana. This specially in-house made sesame dressing was so fragrant, nutty and not overly salty! It indeed brought up so much flavour to the greens.

(b) Fresh Sashimi

- We were served with 3 types of sashimi fish, choices varies everyday, depending on restaurant. Hana was so generous, look at the thick slices!! Fresh too!! Nomnomnom!

(c) Tempura (4 types)
All served with Green tea salt, Paprika salt, Teriyaki mayonnaise and Tentsuyu dipping sauce.(i) Tempura Jumbo Prawn w/ Shiitake Mushroom- Big! Huge! Woww! These were the voices from all of us when these prawns arrived. First time getting such jumbo ones compared to other restaurants. Fresh and succulent prawn in truffle infused batter, so crispy and yum. You heard right! "Truffle batter"!! Only at Hana's!

(ii) Tempura Mekajiki (Swordfish) w/ Sweet Potato Chips- Swordfish meat was so fine and juicy while wrapped in the crispy tempura batter. The saltiness from the seaweed flakes made by Chef made this fish dish so savory, I completed it in quick 2 mouthfuls!! Sweet potato chips did bring up some sweetness in our palate after the savory fish.

(iii) Tempura Scallop Skewers w/ Pumpkin fries - Texture of these tempura scallops were abit tough, needed more time to chew and swallow, probably because the deep frying dried out the moisture. It was a waste though, may be better off eaten raw. Instead, the companion pumpkin fries here became my preferred choice between the two. Love pumpkin's natural sweetness, even more love than sweet potato.

(iv) Tempura Zuwaigani (Snow Crab) w/ Eggplant- I usually had snow crab legs in sushi rice rolls or seafood on ice, first time having it as a tempura item. Crispy exterior and having its seafood sweetness still locked within, it's quite a delicious way to enjoy snow crab too!

Lastly, we rounded up our meal with desserts. Despite we were very full already, we girls still managed to wallop up every bit of the desserts!

(g) Dessert Sherbet *ala-carte @$6.00ea*

Yuzu sherbet- This citrusy dessert was so refreshing. Indeed suitable for clearing our palate after all the fried stuff. I strongly recommend this flavour to go with this tempura omakase set meal.

Kyoho sherbet
- Compared to the Yuzu flavour, this grape-ssi one was sweet, tastes like our childhood bubblegum and a girl's choice definitely!

NOTE: This Omakase set was served with rice, onsen tamago and furikake (rice seasonings). Best of all, a bowl of umeboshi (Japanese plum) clear soup to clear off the oiliness after all the deep fried food. Tempura were all freshly fried upon order therefore whole course duration 2 hours, last seating at 8.30pm. Available only for Sunday dinner starting from 27th July, fast fingers get this good deal!! For $38.00++ per pax, with food served which worth more than $80.00, you won't wanna miss this place!

📍 Hana Japanese Restaurant
Forum The Shopping Mall
583 Orchard Road
Unit 01-17
Singapore 238884
Tel: 6737 5525

[KATTO]

KATTO, which means "cut" in Japanese, was started up by two brothers. Together with a bunch of good friends of theirs, coming together to bring us quality food which they specialized in; Sashimi. Having family in fresh food trading industry, all the sashimi you see at KATTO were self-sourced and self-imported. That was why KATTO promised to serve only the top quality, freshest cuts.Apart from serving premium fish, the rice they used were from Hokkaido. Premium Hokkaido Nanatsuboshi rice that's milled in Singapore to keep the freshness. Together with 18 other grains mixed in, steamed in dashi broth, their version of white/brown rice definitely bring your palate to another level. You could choose cabbage base too, if you're not a carbo loading person.How does this Sashimi ricebox works? For $12.90, you could order 2 mains of 140gm, 2 sides and a base of 250gm grains/salad. Mains were definitely the different varieties of sashimi. As for sides, there were edamame, pickled mushrooms, seaweed salad, miso buttered baby corns, tomatoes, pickled radish, cucumbers etc.My first box was with California Unrolled, Creamy Goma Tuna, paired with 2 sides of Seaweed Salad and Mushroon on top of a mixture of white and brown rice.

[1] California Unrolled (Salmon)- It felt like having a California hand roll the "naked" "undressed" version. I love how creamy this combination was. The sauce was umami. Every bite was filled with generous seafood goodness from the fresh salmon cubes and kani sticks. The crunchiness from the cucumber and the popping of roe in my mouth made every mouthful delightful! Nomnomnom..

[2] Goma Tuna- Fresh Tuna cubes soaked in this rich, sesame flavour. The goma dressing was so fragrant! With toasted almonds and sesame seeds mixed in the sauce, so good, you wouldn't want to waste a single drop of it. As the base rice was a little dry, this dressing worked really well to make the grainy rice softer too.

Sides:
[a] Seaweed Salad- Seaweed were indeed crunchy but tasted too bland for me. Although seaweed was rich in minerals and helps in maintaining collagen in our skin, but if they don't do something to the taste, I guessed I would give it amiss on my next visit.

Pickled Mushrooms

 

- Mushrooms, fungus with good source of selenium (antioxidant mineral) and protein, eating more do no harm And by chewing these sourish tangy mushrooms, it gave me more appetite to consume more KATTO as the vinegar clears my palate. I liked this choice of side.

On my 2nd visit to KATTO, I've chosen Chicken Rice Chilli and Classic Shoyu for my rice box.

 

[3] Chicken Rice Chilli (Salmon)

 

- A twist of asian touch I would call this and KATTO team was really bold to make this flavour. Like how it was named, it tasted just like our usual chicken rice chilli but with salmon cubes rather than chicken. The seasoning and spiciness wasn't too overwhelming to shadow away the glory of the fresh salmon so it was a rather interesting choice which eventually worked for me.

[4] Classic Shoyu (Salmon)

 

- Among all 4 types of sashimi which I tried, this was the most common yet safest choice. Sashimi with shoyu, a classic way of eating, this combi will never go wrong. It was light weight, but the crispy seaweed bits and sesame seeds mixed in did made the overall taste tasted better.

Sides:
[a] Miso Buttered Baby Corns

 

- Lightly grilled on the surface, these baby corns were still crunchy when bite. They tasted buttery while sweet on the inside. They went really well with the chicken rice chilli salmon sashimi.

Pickled Mushrooms

- This was my second time choosing mushrooms as one of the sides. I still love it.

If you have a smaller tummy space, mini boxes were available too at $7.90 each. For a mini box, you could get 70gm sashimi, 1 side on a 250gm grains/salad base.

** Dining experience at KATTO was enjoyable. My tummy was happy For $12.90, the portion was definitely sufficient for lunch and most importantly, a healthier choice compared to fried kway teow or roast meat rice

I find the sashimi flavours bold yet unique. Kinda love these fusion combi that KATTO provides now and awaiting to see new flavours soon! Now they have new additions of teriyaki chicken and onsen egg for you guys to choose from! 😋 **

📍 KATTO
1 Fusionpolis Place
Unit 01-21/22
Galaxis@ One North
Singapore 138522
Mon to Fri 11am - 8pm
Sat 11am - 2pm

Mr Punch Public house, a gastropub along Seah street, was a relaxing place for friends gathering or after-work chillax. Well known for its violent puppet show, "Punch & Judy" since 16th century, this gastrobar was decorated with great memories of Mr Punch, displaying puppet figurines, statues and vintage posters throughout the space. As the owner loves toys too, the Mint Museum of Toys connecting to Mr Punch Public House showcases 5 levels of his personal toys' collections from all over the world. From vintage to present, I find myself back to childhood! Indeed it's an eye opener for all!!Other than toys, Mr Punch introduced new food concept plus drinks menus such as sharing platters and punch jars to increase the awesomeness experiences for all customers.

For a start, we ordered the new appetizers' platter. Mix & Match any 3 items for $35.00* (*premium items incurred additional charges) There's total of 8 items for us to choose from.Our platter choices were:

1a• Chicken Thigh Roulade
1b• Slow-cooked Pork Belly
1c• Custard-battered Squid Rings (+$4*)

- Chef cleverly uses chicken thigh instead of breast to keep the tenderness of meat. Tender chicken with foie gras mousse wrapped in, so sinfully good! Love the creaminess of foie gras lingering on my tongue! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

- Slow-cooked pork belly was so well marinated with their secret sherry sauce, every part of the meat absorbed the flavours. Other than being savory, the layers of fats inbetween the pork belly simply melts in my mouth without much biting needed. So yumz. Pair the meat with the red wine apple chutney to bring the flavour to a whole new level. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

- Custard-battered squid rings was deep fried till crispy and glazed with marmite. Not much of a surprise for this item. 👍🏼

[Bar Bites]

2• Teriyaki Charred Squid $12.00- Char-grilled till perfection, this plate of squid was so good! Cooking timing was perfect, presenting infront of us was a soft tender whole squid that we couldn't resist eating it. Teriyaki sauce beneath added a little sweet plus salty aftertaste to this seafood dish and the flying fish roe scattered on top gave the extra popping crunch. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

3• Potato Chips Chicken $10.00

- Breaded Chicken, Teriyaki Chicken, Tempura chicken you had heard of, but Potato chips chicken?? You heard it right! Potato chips! Deep fried chicken breast meat with crushed chips coated as batter. Creative but recipe needs improvement. Chicken was bland and dry, thanks to that korean inspired cho jang mayo dip which saved the dish. 👍🏼

[Mains]

4• Herb-crusted Barramundi $29.00- This piece of barramundi fish served to us was meaty, succulent and texture so delicate. Already tasted good on its own with the crusted herbs, chef's homemade beetroot gel and tarragon purée on the side made the whole dish more interesting. Felt myself absorbing lots of antioxidants and vitamins after this, a healthier choice definitely. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

5• Seafood Linguine $32.00- Linguine texture was good, al dente but taste wise, needed more punch. Sauce beneath was indeed sweet since cooked with so much seafood but still lacked that white wine fragrance and aftertaste I was hoping for. 👍🏼👍🏼

6• Bacon-wrapped Venison Loin $45.00- The fragrance from the bacon fats eventually covered the overall taste of the dish. Chewing the dish can only taste pork. Venison loin was also too bloody for my liking. The pairing port jus was sweet and rich, too bad it didn't work well here, but I'm sure it's good with beef or duck dish. Ironically, the potato terrine and stewed mushroom sides were the highlights for us. 👍🏼

[Desserts]

7• Banana Chocolate Cake $14.00- Banana cake was too dense for my liking, wish it was fluffier. The surprise was the "pudding" sitting next to it. Forking through it then we realised there was banana custard hidden in it. Jelly-like texture, with the choco ganache, made us feel like we were eating chocolate flavoured "Tokyo banana" but a yummier version. 👍🏼👍🏼

8• Passionfruit Creme Brulee $14.00- Creme brulee was smooth and creamy like tofu. The passionfruit purée and mango cubes may be very sourish but it helped to cleanse our palate after all the savoury food we had eaten earlier. 👍🏼👍🏼

9• Flaming Tiramisu $16.00- A deconstructed tiramisu I would call this. Homemade Savoiardi (ladyfingers) were stacked on top of fresh cream and chocolate cake pieces. This dessert was heavily loaded with Sambuca so consuming too much made me felt drunk ;) The best way to enjoy this tiramisu was to dunk the fingers into the bowl and scoop up the chocolatey cream within! 👍🏼👍🏼

[To Chill]

10• Punch Jar: The Servant $46.00 p/jar- For drinks sharing, it's most ideal to order a punch jar. There's two punch jars available for ordering; The servant & The skeleton. We chose the first.

The Servant comprises of rum, peach liquer, orange, cranberry, pineapple and lime juice. Tasted very fruity with hints of alcohol, more of a lady's drink than men. Whole jar can share among 4-6pax. 👍🏼👍🏼

** Our overall dining experience at Mr Punch Public House was an enjoyable one. Most of the food were good and ambience was comfortable. Staff were very attentive and courteous too! A great place to chill at after work and on weekends. If you're here, do go take a look at their rooftop bar, it's kinda cool Live bands available on every Friday too, featuring local talents.

📍Mr Punch Public House
26 Seah Street
Singapore 188382
Tel: 8339 8966
www.mrpunch.com

Opens daily
Mon- Thurs 3pm to 11.30pm
Fri & Eve of PH 3pm to 2am
Sat 11am to 11.30pm
Sun 11am to 6pm

My jelly ratings:
👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼 Yummy
👍🏼👍🏼 Not too bad
👍🏼 Needs improvement

Black and Ink cafe had become one of my frequent hangout places. I'm always here to try out new items on the menu. The boss, Roy, constantly introduced new pastries, new burgers choices and gelato flavours in his cafe. There bound to be at least one item here that wows you
What I tried on this latest visit:
(1) Masala Chicken set at $8.50 (croissant at +$1) (cheese at +$1)- Boss Roy kept telling me how good this new sandwich was, strongly recommend me to try it and so I DID! First bite and I was already impressed. The croissant was very crispy, flaky and best of all it's super buttery! The usual combi was onion thyme with chicken masala but I upgraded it to croissant, definitely the right choice. Chicken thigh slices were tender, the masala meat sauce was really savoury. I request for cheese to be added and love the warm melting cheese moments! If you're not fond of chicken, Black & Ink also serves egg mayo sandwiches.
Other than cakes, lava muffins, danish and the sandwiches, Black and Ink now also invades the world of pies. Introducing us with flavours including lamb shank, beef rendang, wild mushrooms, bbq chicken and beef goulash. I gave the bbq chicken and beef rendang a try.

(2) Bbq Chicken Pie $6.50- This lovely, light buttery crust pie comes in a rectangular shape. Every time I fork in, there's generous chunks of tender chicken cubes. Bbq sauce was sweet sourish with mild spicy peppery aftertaste. A decent choice.

(3) Beef Rendang $6.50- Beef rendang, usually ate them at a Malay nasi padang stall, first time in a pie (IKR, I'm a mountain tortoise). The coconut milk aroma was fragrant. Juicy tender beef cubes were also cooked together with carrots, potatoes and chilli spices. Flavour was good but can be heavier. Spiciness level can increase too.
Both pies were quite filling, suitable as a lunch meal for ladies. I will come back for other flavours real soon!! Boss says Lamb shank was the most popular flavour

(4) Dark Chocolate Lava Cake set $8.50- First look at it didn't impress me because the plating was bad. But people always said "Don't judge a dessert by its appearance".. And true enough, the taste says it all. Thick, luscious dark chocolate slowly flows out of my lava when cut. So thick, It's a "throat choking" indulgence that chocolate lovers must definitely give it a shot. I paired mine with another scoop of banana peanut butter gelato (Top up $ because it comes with vanilla) and it's HEAVEN! It will never go wrong when chocolate, peanut butter and banana comes together. There were many other gelato choices available but do note that there will be additional charges.

(5) Pear Danish- Small and petite, it would be a great choice for afternoon snacks with coffee or tea. Having slight crisp on the outside, danish fluffy and airy inside. Not only adults love it, the sweet candied pear fruit in the center would attract kids to love it too. If you're lucky, you could get their signature apple crumble danish too (runs out fast).Verdict: A small but very nice place to chill at. Menu changes regularly so there's surprises every now and then. Cold brew, espresso cubes coming up too! Definitely a cafe that makes you feel at home and kept coming back for. Boss was too friendly to be missed and he love chatting with customers to share his life experiences.

Joyden treasures- The 3rd eatery of Joyden Concepts after Joyden Seafood and Joyden Canton. This new concept mainly presents dishes from the past with homemade secret recipes, to rendition heritage taste/ local recipes that many of us may have forgotten. Compared to the other 2 restaurants, Joyden treasures currently holds the biggest space with 6 VIP rooms and more than 200 seats available.Service staff were attentive and courteous, we were brought to our seats quickly without hestitation. We started off with ordering of drinks and trying out their homemade side dishes.
(1) Iced Apple Hawthorn Tea- A sourish yet refreshing iced drink to start with. I'm a sour plum drink lover but this was way better! I'm in love with this drink from now. Thank you Cheryl for recommending. 
For mains, we had this pipin' hot and flavourful soup to start:
(2) Double-boiled Seafood Soup in Old Cucumber $14/individual portion- Melons were specially selected of almost the same size to create this dish. The aroma was so fragrant when served. One sip down my throat and ahhhhhhh, so sweet and comforting. The soup was double-boiled with natural ingredients and seafood such as fish maw, dried scallops, abalone, mushroom, to achieve this kind of rich flavourful soup. Be surprised with a mini pork dumplings right at the bottom of your soup. 
(3) Phoenix Beancurd Skin Prawn Roll
($16s, $22m, $30b)- Fillings inside were made up of fresh prawns, century egg and salted egg. Hand chopped till minced, wrapped with the beancurd skin then deep fried till crispy. Love the exterior crunchiness of the bean curd skin but would prefer the prawns inside comes in a whole instead of minced. A whole prawn would definitely give a firmer bite and least mushy. 
(4) Steamed Red Grouper in Homemade Soy Bean Broth
(Market rate. $108 per kilo currently)- This red grouper was fresh and meat really firm. Natural sweetness of the fish alone was never enough to satisfy my tastebuds whereas I hope to get more out of it. Joyden's method was to cook the fish with soya bean broth freshly made in house, a family recipe, to give this plain fish soya bean fragrance and additional sweetness. Although great efforts were put in but it didn't impressed me, probably because I wasn't a soya bean fan afterall. Fried enoki sprinkled on top wasn't necessary though as they didn't blend in with this fish dish. It would be great as snacks individually.
(5) Crispy Fragrant Duck with Lotus-shaped Buns
($58 per whole duck)- Duck was well marinated with chinese spices, slow cooked to boil, then quick fried for the skin to become crispy. The waitress skills to scrap up the duck meat was really good and swift. I took the breast part and it was dry chewing it on its own. Not forgetting the bite-sized homemade buns made fresh daily, they were soft and fluffy too. Wrapped it with the duck meat, cucumber and pickled papaya, add the orangey tangy sweet chilli, it's more yummy.Another alternative way to enjoy the duck was to wrap the duck meat with Joyden's homemade achar. Delicious till max! 
(6) Jumbo Prawns in Traditional Dark Sauce
($26s, $36m, $52b)- Best thing about this dish, wasn't the prawns but the sesame infused gravy. Sweet, savoury fragrant soya sauce gravy that goes really well with a bowl of plain rice. Jumbo prawns tends to be over-cooked causing meat to be hard and tough but these were cooked perfectly. Prawn meat were succulent and crunchy. One piece for each of us was never enough. 
(7) Traditional Salt Baked Crab
(Market rate. $63 per kilo currently)- Various types of salt and spices were wok fried first before applying onto the crab. The seasoned crab was then baked in low temperature till cooked and served as it is in a whole. With all the shell intact, crab meat was firm and not mushy, natural sweetness of the flesh were all locked in. Although the baking process caused some drying out of the flesh but this dish was still savoury. Rating 3.5/5
(8) Malagao
($4.20 per portion)
- These chinese brownies were so soft and pillowy. Look at the air pockets they contained and you can imagine how fluffy they were. Packed with gula melaka fragrance, these squares were so yum and not overly sweet too. A highly recommended item to order if you're here at Joyden. Rating 5/5
(9) Traditional Yam Purée
($6 individual portion, $16s, $26m, $36b)
- Yam paste; an all time favourite chinese dessert which my family would definitely order if item was available on the menu. Joyden's version was with steamed pumpkin, ginko nuts, lard, chestnut bits and sugar glazed on top of the yam purée. The yam purée texture was smooth and creamy with the additional crunch from the chestnuts bits. Not sweet enough in my opinion and lacked aroma. I prefer my yam purée with only yam paste and fresh coconut milk. Simplicity was the best! Rating 3/5
Verdict: A restaurant with great ambience for family dinner and gathering. Service were very good too. Food quality were fairly good and portions definitely enough to go round. Dim sum menu was small but looks interesting, I will find time to come again to try them out.

** More food images at http://jellylovesfood.blogspot.sg