My craving for Japanese ramen went beyond control so I decided to try out the first Ramen stall I encountered this past Saturday at Vivocity. When I saw Aoba ramen's selection of dishes, it immediately reminded me of Ajisan's sub par food standards. Nonetheless, I decided to give this shop a try and here's my verdict.I tasted out their only highly recommended dish in their menu. The "Tontoro Ramen" which seems to resemble a pork cheek ramen. I was thinking if their best ramen is unworthy in its taste, then there's no point trying out their other flavours of ramen in the future. Sadly, their Tontoro Ramen was nothing to rave about. The char siew or pork slices they offered was too oily and fatty for my liking. The noodles to be fair tasted pretty average so there was nothing to complain about. The soup however which makes up the most important component or "soul" of the ramen tasted too salty for my liking as I can't taste any essence of their broth whatsoever. This is may taste fine for the undiscerning diner but for regulars who frequent ramen joints like me, this sits in the same league as the sub par Ajisan's ramen.

If you have been to city square mall, you would know that this shopping mall has low human traffic despite it being a newly opened shopping mall. The F&B outlets are never packed except for this restaurant and there is a good reason for this.

For 2011's New Year's Eve, I headed down to this place to enjoy a worth your money Japanese buffet. The selection offered by this restaurant is extensive and it includes free flow of snow crab, sashimi, sushi and at least 30 more items. Here is a summary of what you can expect.The sashimi and seafood section is highly "contested" as diners always choose the snow crabs despite the other wide variety of other seafood available. The sashim whilst offered in a wide variety, the quality of the seafood's freshness could be better controlled.The Japanese paper hotpot that we ever so often see on television is also offered as part of their wide selection. The soup is a tad too salty for my liking and has way too much vegetables in it.Their Chawanmushi looks delightful but upon tasting it, I am disappointed to find the prawns in this dish to be fibrous and a sign of not being freshly prepared. Quite disappointing frankly speaking as the ingredients offered in this dish is plentiful but taste bad.

Overall, at approximately $36 per pax, this restaurant will make diners feel that they have their money's worth. If you are looking for quality, this may not be the place to satisfy your tastebuds. However, if you want variety and eat to your hearts' content, this is definitely the place for you dine in.

Had a sudden craving for Dim Sum in the middle of the night so my friend kindly drove me to Geylang for Dim Sum supper!

First of all, the place was packed even though it was close to 1am. We ordered the classics of Dim Sum to just to find out the reasons why the crowds travelled all the way to this place to have Dim Sum.The fried dumplings that first reached our table felt short of expectations. The prawns inside had a fishy smell to it which frankly is quite disappointing and that was definitely not a good start to the supper.Subsequently, the Ha Gao, Siew Mai and pork ribs arrived. The Ha Gao tasted uninspiring with the skin being too sticky. The pork ribs were more like ribs only with not much meat for us hungry supper diners. The saving grace would be the Siew Mai thankfully. Even though my friends thought nothing of the Dim Sum. I thought that the Siew Mai definitely tasted above average with a more decently prepared filling. Their Xiao Long Bao however tasted nothing like a Xiao Long Bao as it was juiceless. To me, their Xiao Long Bao is just a white edition of their Siew Mai except that it tasted worst. Their Chee Cheong Fan (prawn) was smooth and tasted above average with a distinctive sauce that helped it to slide down your throat.

Service wise, the staff was prompt but we had two of our orders left out. This place serves decent Dim Sum in my personal opinion but nothing that will make you want to return to the place another time.

The tea party has always been a place I frequent to study, discuss projects or simply to chill out. I dropped by the place again after a heavy lunch at Ikea and must say that my impression of this venue has been altered.Nothing beats watching the world go by and sipping at your cup of favourite tea. To my dismay, my Casablanca melon tea was not available. What was more disappointing was, many of the other tea flavours were also not available that afternoon as well . In the end, I settled for a mango delight ($6.50). The scent was nothing spectacular or calming which was what I was hoping to get from my tea. I chose to sit on the upper levels of the tea party because that is where I feel most relaxed at. The atmosphere was not as appealing as before. The fans were switched on but i'm not so sure about the air-conditioning as there seemed to be little ventilation. The furnitures have obviously gone through much wear and tear and there were pretty obvious stains on the white sofas. I felt that the sofas could at least be maintained if not switched for new ones to make their patrons more cosy.

I chose to ignore the unappealing sight of the dirty looking furnitures. Still, this place offers the peace and tranquility for those looking for a good place to sip tea, read a book or simply chill out.

My girlfriend saw a long queue of people waiting in front of this stall so she decided to get one plate for us. My first impression was that this fried kway teow taste good and not too oily for my liking. However as we finished up the fried kway teow, we found that the base of the noodles were kind of watery and thus we had a good portion of leftovers uneaten. The watery base probably came from the excessive cockles that the hawker had added into the fried kway teow. It is good but I would not travel all the way there again just to eat the fried kway teow.