Ikoi Japanese Restaurant is a pretty well-known restaurant for Japanese buffet aficionados, who consider this to be one of the better places for having Japanese buffet. It is different from the usual Japanese buffet restaurant as it is an a la carte buffet restaurant where you sit at the table and keep ordering like the food is free.

Overall I felt the sashimi was pretty good but the rest of the food was just average only, not worth returning again for it. They also gave lots of complimentary soups, no doubt to fill up my stomach before I can order everything! Overall, I’ll never come back to Ikoi again. It really failed to live up to its hype.

Candlenut Kitchen is a tiny restaurant in Tanjong Pagar, opened by Malcolm Lee, a recent graduate from the At-Sunrise Global Academy. Interestingly, he decided to open his own restaurant instead of working for other chefs, and as a Peranakan restaurant, which I felt was a rather niche market in Singapore. Peranakan food is tedious to cook, requiring lots of effort and time to prepare the dishes.

We ordered 2 simple dishes for lunch. Golden crispy pieces of ayam goreng arrived, fried to perfection with a tinge of tangy tamarind on the skin. Next, the ngor hiang that came was absolutely delicious and chocked full of fresh ingredients. The crackling beancurd skin reveals a savoury filling of pork belly, minced meat and prawns.

Overall the Candlenut Kitchen is a fine entrant to the Peranakan restaurants in Singapore, and it's a good start for the new chef Malcolm Lee.

Normally, one wouldn't expect a concept like 1 Twenty Six existing at the ECP because you're so used to those open air seafood restaurants selling their chilli and pepper crabs. But it does exist, opened by the 1 Rochester Group near the old Big Splash area. It is a mostly open-air concept restaurant, a great place to chill out and relax to the cool sea breeze.

A bunch of us were kindly invited by OpenRice to partake in their weekly ORTU at 1 Twenty Six and it began with a showcase of their original cocktails, aptly named the 7 Desirable Sins. Each of them is based on a particular type of alcohol and they all use freshly squeezed fruit juice. The 7 cocktails are Pride: Antoinette's Vanity (vodka), Greed: Alexander's Well (gin), Despair: The Screaming Banshee (tequila), Wrath: Dragon's Breath (rum), Envy: The Younger Man (brandy), Sloth: Slow Rush (champagne), Lust: Adam & Eve (whiskey).

The communal platter was ordered for us, with some changes to the menu. It started with 2 huge platters, the Nibble Platter and the Coast Platter. Being a seafood lover, I preferred the Coast Platter because it is a heap of delicious and fresh seafood. There are tiger prawns, a large crab, oysters, clams, mussels, and even sashimi. It was all fresh and succulent, making me very happy indeed.

Next we had the smoked sea urchin risotto with seared king scallops. This dish was quite delicious but I felt the taste of the smoked sea urchins didn't come through strongly enough. The seared king scallops were juicy to the bite and excellent though!

The classic fish pie with ocean trout and snapper was probably my favourite dish of the night because it was so rich in flavour, pleasantly creamy with the chunks of tasty fish.

We also had the roast baby chicken wrapped in prosciutto with truffle, raisin and pine nut stuffing served with rosemary potatoes and quince compote. While the chicken thighs and wings were tenderly wonderful, the breast meat was rather dry and hence not forgiving to the bite. I also felt that this was a bit too sweet and overpowering the natural taste of the chicken.

There was also an additional dish of the grilled tiger prawns with goat cheese tortellini. While the grilled tiger prawns were charred well giving that edge to their meat, I felt that there was too much goat cheese in the tortellini, making the taste too sour and pungent for most people.

The desserts were great, a deconstructed strawberry shortcake - sweet and clean. There was Valrhona dark and white chocolate fondant with coconut and peanut praline ice cream - the fondant was excellent, oozing thick luscious chocolate, but I felt the coconut and peanut ice-cream had too much of this Chinese New Year taste which put off the dessert. The classic vanilla ice-cream might have served better. And finally there was the Grande Assiette - a selection of 5 petits sized desserts to share, comprising of panna cotta, lime souffle, Devil’s flourless chocolate, marscapone and raspberry ripple cake, and a coffee crème brulee.

Overall I feel that 1 Twenty Six is a great place to chill out with your friends and enjoy a good meal with a wide selection of unique cocktails. The location and view are certainly unique, and the staff are impeccable in their attention and service. However the prices can be steep so those on the budget would be wary to come.

Central is host to a bunch of ramen restaurants and this time for lunch, I went to try out one of the more popular restaurants - Marutama! As expected, there was already a short queue forming up to get in. After waiting a short while, I managed to get a nice seat and ordered the basic Marutama ramen, together with a hanjuku egg, which is the usual semi-boiled egg.

The ramen came and I must say that it is quite tasty, but not as intense as the ramen from Tampopo, possibly because this ramen's soup stock is chicken based rather than pork based. It was a bit salty though. The chashu pork was tender and nice and the egg was done perfectly. Overall a place that I might consider visiting again but it doesnt exactly blow me away.

Gordon Grill is a venerable institution for fine steakhouses and it exudes class all the way. It is located deep inside Goodwood park Hotel, a medium sized restaurant with the feelings of posh upholstery. The service is impeccable as well, with the waiters knowing when to step and when to leave us alone.

The food is amazing! I had a starter of the lobster bique, strong and intense with the umami taste of the lobsters, and of course with real chunks of lobster meat. As the main I had the filet mignon, this was perfectly done to my liking and it was rather tasty even for a tenderloin, so credit to the chef on searing and cooking it properly.

This is a serious place for fine dining as you get excellent service and wonderful food!