Ordered a 5 course lunch special at close to $40. The duck salad and soup was forgettable. For starters it was a really tiny piece of fish. The skin was as crunchy as a biscuit but the portion was too small to really taste anything. Next up was the beef spatzel, a kind of German pasta dish. It was my first time having this dish, so it tasted quite strange to me. At first, I couldn't really figure out if it was an omelette or flour bits. It was rather filling and complemented the beef slices. For dessert, they served warm strawberry mousse. It tasted exactly like strawberry foam. It's something unique, but not something I would try again.

Overall, this place has ambience but food is just average.

The Plain does really good coffee at reasonable prices. The service staff are fairly young but make an effort to chat. Service is warm. The menu is pretty basic. I had a half darlings, which meant a poached egg atop a slice of cheese and vegemite toast. Very simple. They also have other more filling sandwiches available, like the ciabatta and pastrami.

However, the ordering system is a bit different. You need to go up to the counter when you're done and recount the items you've ordered from them. If you don't remember, they'll need to ask the particular wait staff for your order details. If it's all purely based on memory, it should be more efficient to just rely on a receipt system. My last visit was in August. Not sure how things have changed in that aspect. Oh, and bring enough money. They don't accept NETS or cards.

It's still a good place for chilling out with a cuppa on a rainy day!

I had a discount coupon for the herbal duck, so I decided to bring my dad and boyfriend there as we had never dined there together before.

Service was very slow despite it being a weekday. We ordered sweet and sour pork and vegetables to go with the duck. Both side dishes were exorbitantly priced. It cost over $10 for average tasting vegetables. The sweet and sour pork tasted good though, slightly better than what you get from the coffee shop's zhi char stall. However, the highlight of the day was the herbal duck. It lived up to my expectation. The serving size was generous, and although the meat was covered in sauce, the skin still managed to retain its crispness. No wonder it's their signature dish. The sauce also went well with white rice.

I'm not quite sure if this dish is available in other Japanese restaurants, but I first had this dish in Sun with Moon. This set comes with a teapot filled with broth, rice and salmon served in a metal bowl, salmon sashimi and fruit. There are 2 or 3 ways to eat the dish. Apart from eating it alone, you can pour in the broth from the teapot and eat it like porridge. Or you can just add in a little to flavour the rice. However, I find it best when both are eaten separately as the rice is already flavoured enough. There are also generous slices of cooked salmon in the bowl. It's well worth a try if you haven't had this dish before!

Spizza names their pizzas after women - we called for Juliana and Isabella to the office (read: home delivery).

Juliana's actually just a Hawaiian pizza, but because it's baked in a stone oven, the taste is more even. Isabella has rucola salad atop Parma ham, mozerella and shaved Parmesan and makes for a more unique combination. My favourite pizza is the Ursula, with smoked salmon pieces, cream cheese and rocket.