This is a restaurant located at Purvis Street, and have been receiving rave reviews in the media.
The restaurant offers modern European cuisine and has a tight 2 page menu, with 5 – 6 items for their starter, meats, seafood, mains and desserts section. This is good, compared to many restaurants who do multiple pages for their menu and leaving diners to ask the restaurant staff what are their specialities. This means the restaurant is confident of their offerings and keeping the menu items tight for each selection
I paid a visit with my lunch partner for lunch this week to try their food.
Here are the meal highlights:
Ciabatta Roll: $3. This was baked in-house and it was very soft and fragrant. A order is a set of 3 rolls comes with butter cubes and olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip. Just eating it alone or with the butter was heavenly. I had two pieces before the meal started.
Soup: Green Peas, Asparagus, Prawns and Edamame: $14. The soup is nice and smooth. I loved the edamame beans in the soup. The prawns and asparagus were grilled and placed on the side of the soup. Loved this.
Starter:
- Grilled Asparagus, Poached Egg, Parma Ham, Mixed Berries Compote: $19.50. The restaurant included some elements of Xmas in their menu and the mixed berries is that addition. The egg was runny when we cut into it. Mixed the yolk into the dish and it added a nice flavour and texture to the dish. The compote made the dish more purple.
- Duck Rillete, Seared Candied Foie Gras, Balsamic Cream topped with Rocket Leaves: $19.50. I loved foie gras and the duck rillete was a good pairing to make this this ‘all things duck’. The rillettes were nice and creamy. Foie gras was decent sized. Must-order!
Meats: Herb Crusted Lamb Rack, Grilled Tomatoes on Vine and Baby Carrots with Cranberry Compote and Chocolate Glaza: $32. The lamb was roasted to medium rare. The herbs crust imparted a nice flavour to the lamb. Delicious and the vegetables were also good. Order it if you love lamb and no regrets!
Seafood: Baked Miso Chilean Seabass, Edamame, Sweet Peas topped with Salmon Roe: $28. Nice big portion of fish that has been baked so the skin is nice and crispy on the edges. The sauce reminds me of oriental sauce, though the restaurant manager assures me that there’s miso in it. Its topped with a nice helping of salmon roe that makes this dish absolutely delicious. I think most ladies will like this dish, cos it’s light and easy on the tummy. Must-try!
Sharing:
- Salmon Skewers with Grape Relish: $13. Instead of serving on a plate, the restaurant serves this on a Himalayan Salt block. The salt imparts a nice salty flavour to the salmon that is placed on top, removing the need to sprinkle salt on the dish as a finishing, like most restaurants. Interesting indeed. Try it!
- Beef Tongue with Red Cabbage Salsa: $18. It may sound off-ish, but I loved it. The tongue is sliced thinly and nicely grilled. It has a nice smokey flavour and eaten with the purple cabbage and mango salsa, it was yummy!
Dessert:
- Gula Melaka Crème Caramel: $12. Gula Melaka is used in this dish making it a unique dessert with a local ‘twist’. It came together really well and I loved it. Recommended!
- Wasabi Ice Cream: $10.50: An interesting a rare ice-cream option. The ice cream was mildly spicy and the restaurant plated this with oreo crumbs and some cut strawberries and blue berries, topped with a piece of chocolate. I usually like eating my ice cream plain. But the oreo crumbs went very well with the ice cream. Must-order!
I chanced upon their offering of Japanese Craft Beers in their drinks menu, and ordered the following:
- Swanlake Porter, from Niigata: $22. Niigata is famous for their rice production, and this beer is made from rice. This was poured in a wine goblet, and the manager swirled the bottle before pouring it in the glass. You swirl the goblet to get a whiff of the aroma before sipping the beer, much like appreciating the first taste of wine. It had a nice fresh flavour and a good taste. Loved it!
- Swanlake Koshihikari Rice Lager, from Niigata: $22. This was also unique. This is a dark beer, almost like a stout and it has a nice coffee flavour. If you love coffee and beer like I do, it’s the best of both worlds!
There are other interesting items on the menu that I would like to try, such as Hokkkaido Scallops with Blueberry Cerviche, Slow Braised Kurobuta Pork Cheek, Grilled Octopus with potatoes, spinach, oranges and strawberries and Dessert: Rice Beer Sabayon with Mixed berries and Vanilla Ice cream, and Caramel Balsamico Ice cream.
The menu changes every month, with some favourites retained in the new menu.
I look forward to coming to this restaurant again.
Recommended!

This is an Italian-Japanese restaurant, located along Alexandra Road, at The Alexis. This building is a low rise private apartment with shops on the ground floor. It is located directly opposite the Cycle and Carriage showroom. As it is not located in a mall/ near an MRT station/ bus stop, you will miss it if you are not looking out for this restaurant.
I came here for lunch and the restaurant was packed for lunch. The tables were mostly occupied by Japanese housewives with a table by two businessmen.
The restaurant is helmed by Chef Takada, who lends his name to the restaurant. He has previously worked in several Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy and Japan. His many years of experience in Italy is shown in the food he prepares and his Japanese heritage is shown in the presentation and ingredients used. For example, the fish he uses in the menu is imported from Tsukiji market three times a week and he also uses Sea urchin (Uni) from Hokkaido.
The lunch sets start from $38 and I opted for the $48 set lunch (appetiser, pasta, main and dessert).
Here are the highlights of my meal:
Amuse Bouche
- Mushroom soup. Served in a tea cup with foam over it. The soup is light and you get bits of button mushroom in it. You also get to taste the mushroom flavour in the foam that sits on top of the soup.
Appetiser
- Burrata Cheese & Parma Ham with fresh French Tomato: You get half a burrata cheese with two pieces of parma ham and 2 slices of red and yellow French tomatoes. The burrata cheese is nice and soft. Eaten together with the parma ham, it was a perfect balance of saltiness and creaminess. The tomatoes were fresh and juicy.
- Shirako Japanese Radish Bagna Cauda: +$6. This will add an additional $6 to the meal if you take this option. The Shirako is plump and had a nice gratin coating on it, making it crispy on the outside and smooth and creamy on the inside. The Japanese Radish Bagna Cauda topping added a nice flavour to the dish. A pity I was sharing this with my lunch partner, as I could eat this all by myself! Nice!
Pasta
- Tagliatelle Amatriciana: This was flat pasta cooked in a creamy tomato sauce. The tomato base sauce is cooked from scratch and the chef actually have two pots of tomato sauce simmering and he mixes them together for each order. The tomato sauce is the quintessential element of every Italian Restaurant and this dish showcased the chef’s capability to create a good base for all great dishes.
- Squid ink Tagliolini Peperoncino with Hokkaido Sea Urchin: +$6, This will add an additional $6 to the meal if you take this option. It is well worth it. Home-made squid ink pasta, and cooked with fresh uni from Hokkaido. It was absolutely divine. I wished the portion was bigger, cos I shared this with my lunch partner, and I couldn’t get enough of it. Its good!
Mains
- Iberico Chuck grilled with Balsamic Sauce: The portion is much smaller than the usual pork chop that you will usually get when you order pork chop at restaurants. However, the taste and tenderness of the pork far exceeds any other pork that you would have had. It’s perfectly grilled and the taste was wonderful. Must-try!
- A4 Kagoshima Wagyu Steak: +$18. This will add an additional $18 to the meal if you take this option. The beef is worth the additional money to ‘upgrade’ the main. The beef is just one grade down from the top grade A5. The beef was juicy and tender. We asked for medium rare, and when you cut into the meat, you don’t get bloody juices flowing from the steak. Must-order!
Dessert
- Petit 4: Served on a 2 tier stand, you get madeleines, meringue, cookies, ‘Royce’ chocolate cubes and fruit.
- Tiramisu: Served in a cocktail glass, it is perfect for 1 person. The sponge was oozing with liquer and the mascarpone cream topped with cocoa was lovely.
After your meal, you have a choice of either Nespresso coffee or tea.
The quality of the food is good. I look forward to coming back here again.
Highly recommended!

We were looking for a restaurant to done last week and my lunch partner suggested a few places to dine. I picked this restaurant, as it was in town and easy for me to get to my next appointment.
The restaurant is located just outside the Esplanade, at Colors by The Bay
Gajalee means "an informal gathering" in Malvani & Konkani dialect is a Singapore outpost of a chain of seven restaurants, with the remaining six based in Mumbai & Mangalore, India.
The restaurant is popular for seafood, but as this was lunch time, we had to be practical and choose something easy to eat to avoid accidental staining of our business attire if we were to eat seafood.
We chanced upon set lunch options, and we ordered the Mutton Set, which had a mutton chop on bone, Briyani Rice, Mutton Curry, Dahl soup, Onion salad and Plain Naan. It costs $18.
The verdict:
- Mutton chop on bone, Mutton Curry, Dahl soup, onion salad and Plain Naan.
- Briyani Rice: I find the briyani rice a little moist. It was set in a mould. Breaking into the mould, you will find a hard boiled egg, which is cooked in the rice. A pleasant surprise.
- Mutton Curry: This was very tasty and went well with the biryani rice and naan. Nice!
- Dahl Soup: The soup is a small portion, with carrots and sliced French beans. Stir the soup around, which has mashed dahl below to get a better flavour.
- Onion Salad: This is like achar (pickled vegetables). But the onions were a little strong and both my lunch partner and I had half of this left behind at the end of the meal.
- Plain Naan: Naan was round and cut into 4 quarters. I felt the size was a little small and it was more like prata-sized. Eaten together with the mutton curry, it was nice.
I added a Spinach Soup, a creamy spinach soup cooked in vegetable broth. It costs $8. I found the soup a tad salty, and a little watery.
We ended our meal with masala tea ($6). I wished the serving could be more, as the tea cup was barely sufficient for me to enjoy my fill. The restaurant could use a bigger cup or offer a tea pot.
I learnt from the manager that the 3 chefs in the kitchen hails from the restaurant chain in India and have many years of experience. This means that the food served here is of the same quality and taste as those served in the restaurants back in India.
I will come back again with a larger group to try their ala carte menu items and definitely their seafood items.

I have been to many stalls selling oyster omelette around Singapore. In my opinion, this is the best oyster omelette that I have had.
The stall owner has been plying his trade for years and the experience shows in the final product – the oyster omelette that you eat!
You can order:
- Oyster Omelette: $4/ $5/ $8
- Oyster and Prawn Omelette – I only knew they had this at my last visit.
The oyster omelette is crispy and the oysters are well fried. Dipped in the chilli sauce,
Unfortunately, the stall owner does not allow you to order more oysters in your dish, even if you are prepared to pay more. The only way is to order the larger portion and thus you get more oyster and omelette!
The stall only opens from 2pm on weekends and 3pm on weekdays. They usually sell out by about 7pm. Go early to avoid disappointment!
Although I loved this dish very much, I always have a word of caution to myself: Eat in moderation!
Highly-Recommended!

This is my ‘go-to’ place for traditional Hainanese Beef Noodles.
They were previous from the Cuppage Hawker Centre, and shifted here many many years ago. I rediscovered them years ago and after eating at this stall, I have returned many time over.
You have a choice of noodles (Chor Bee Hoon - Thick Vermicelli/ Bee Hoon - Thin Vermicelli/ Yellow Noodles/ Kway Teow – Flat white noodles). My favourite is the Chor Bee Hoon - Thick Vermicelli.
You have an option of dry noodles which comes with a thick starchy brown sauce or noodles with soup.
For your order, there are a variety of options:
- Beef Ball: $4
- Sliced Beef with Beef Ball: $4
- Sliced Beef, Beef Ball with Stomach – Tripe: $5
- Sliced Beef, Beef Ball, Stomach – Tripe with Tendon: $6
- Tendons: $7
Most times, I will order the sliced beef and Beef Ball option at $4. If I am hungry, I will go for $5.
My lunch partner couldn’t resist the tendons and ordered a tendons with soup, for sharing.
I ordered the dry version - sliced beef and Beef Ball option. The thick starchy brown sauce was full of umami, with soy and beef flavour.
The beef was well cooked and the beef balls were nice and had a good bite. The tendons were also nice and soft.
There is always a queue here and you take about 20 minutes to get to your turn. But the wait is well worth it.
Highly-Recommended!