Being an ex-student of a school nearby, ThaiPan has always been my frequent hideout for excellent company and delicious eats. Tucked away inside the condominium of Mandarin Gardens, it can be a challenge to find (at first!) given the sprawling space of the entire place. Being a frequent customer there means that you find your way to this lovely restaurant no matter which entrance you enter from The most convenient one would be along the main road, along Neptune Court. For those who enter from the back near the ECP, the walking distance tends to be longer but it also depends on which area you park in.



The interior was recently refurbished and although the decor is nothing extraordinary, it has a no-frills, warm ambience that really amplifies the atmosphere of having good food with great company. This place can also accommodate tables up to 10 persons, so it's great for a large gathering too!

Although the cuisine here is supposedly Chinese with traces of Thai influences, most of us agree that their Zi Char dishes are the best, with their signature ThaiPan fried rice -their very own rendition of the conventional fried rice with a spicy twist as fresh chilli padis are added in! Prices are extremely reasonable, ranging from $4-$5.50 for a one dish meal.

We ordered a Medium ThaiPan Fried Rice ($7), Honey Pork Chop ($9) and a Sambal Kang Kong ($9) to share.The Sambal Kang Kong arrived first - the food here is served quite quickly! The vegetables weren't as crisp as I would have liked, and were slightly soggy given that the sauce it was fried in was a tad watery. It would have been better if the sambal had more hae bi hiam (dried shrimp) and was slightly less watery. On the whole, it was a decent dish but for the excellent food standards ThaiPan has, this was slightly more disappointing.

We recommend vegetables such as their Si Ji Dou or their Mixed Fried Vegetables. Both are very tasty and would go well with nearly every dish!

The Honey Pork Chop is my favourite dish out of their entire menu - I'm not a fan of meat dishes but this stole my heart. With a dash of sesame seeds on the tender, sauce-glazed pork chops -this dish scores! The meat is fried, tender and juicy on the inside. The sauce is glaze-y and slightly sticky, a savoury sauce which has the perfect sweetness derived from honey (hence the name honey pork chop!). It's not overly sweet such that it ruins the balance of flavour as a savoury dish and I could honestly have it alone with just rice. Delicious and definitely worth eating.



The ThaiPan fried rice is my favourite one dish meal to order if I'm dining alone (yes it's a place where one can be totally at ease having a quiet meal alone!) It's tasty but not overly salty -do not be fooled by the dark-brown-coloured rice! It has bits of crab meat, egg, spring onions and chilli padi inside. It's fragrant, with grainy rice and the perfect spiciness. It's impressive in every sense and no one should visit ThaiPan without trying their specialty fried rice!! Fantastic value for excellent food -strongly recommending this to everyone!

ThaiPan offers an impressive variety of dishes (be it one dish meals or rice with dishes). We also recommend dishes such as their Butter Squid, which is squid fried in a buttery egg-like paste (sauce??), garnished with curry leaves. It's a real hit with ThaiPan lovers and it's one of the most sinful dishes you can lay your hands on..but it's so good. Although it's a "Thai" restaurant (of some sorts), we don't exactly recommend their Pad Thai -it's not exactly authentic and you can easily get better ones elsewhere.

Impressively, they also offer beers and wine (think: Heineken as well as a whole selection of wines from their own collection!) on top the usual drinks, for those who would like an alcoholic beverage to complement their meal. They have an al fresco seating (although it's not very large/spacious) but we rather sit in the comfort of the air-conditioning given the heat! x.x Service wise, the staff aren't exactly the friendliest and most exceptional, but they are polite and serve the dishes pretty quickly. Be warned though, if the place gets crowded (especially during the peak dinner and lunch hours (12.30 - 2 and 6.30 to 8), getting your bill may take awhile.



The food is great, the prices are even better. Everyone should take some time to discover this gem in Marine Parade even though the regulars would very much want to have this place all to ourselves -it's such a find!

Ps. There's no service charge here, only GST! And they serve water

Lunch at Nantsuttei leaves me with mixed feelings primarily because it reminds me so much of Japan -it's a temporary escape but also leaves a slightly bittersweet aftertaste when you realise that nothing can totally replicate the authentic Nippon experience. Japanese ramen shops always have this alluring charm, especially when its nondescript, tucked away in secret corners -yet the queues always seem to be long, and the eatery, packed. Nantsuttei is definitely popular with the local crowd here as the queue was snaking! Their menu offers black mayu in their ramen broth, which is quite honestly one of their hugest selling points. That thin film of roasted garlic oil looks horrifyingly greasy and gross at first sight, but after the first spoonful, I can fully understand why there is a queue that forms during lunchtime without fail.

Greeted with noisy, lively greetings of "irashaimase!" and a string of other Japanese words that i frankly do not recognise but find quite heartwarming, I find myself liking this eatery instantly. The shopfront is just cloth drapes with calligraphy, and a large signboard that presumably reads 'nantsuttei' in Japanese wording.Everything about this place reeks Japanese (well, if not for the Singaporean staff i would have thought I was magically transported to a small Tokyo ramen shop in a subway!) -the calligraphy plastered all over the walls in the shop. The wooden seats, especially by the bar counter, are reminiscent of Japan's ramen bars.The ramen ($12) was served within 10 minutes. A generous serving of noodles, beansprouts and spring onion, with soup filled nearly to the brim, made me a very happy girl. I'd advise that you give the garlic oil a good mix-in, if not that thin film of oil will forever be surfacing at the top of your soup which gives the whole ramen a very different (overwhelming) flavour. At first taste, the soup is light compared to many other ramen places, given its deep blackish colour. The tonkotsu stock is distinct and aromatic, heightened by the garlic oil. I say it's light in comparison because this version of ramen broth does not have fatty bits like in Ippudo and the flavours don't hit you as strongly. The noodles are still springy and even til the end of my meal it didn't overcook -which was a pleasant addition.

The charsiew however, was slightly disappointing. It wasn't tender and the gravy it was braised in did not fully permeate the meat, resulting in a slightly dry and unflavoursome charsiew. Nevertheless, the meat was fresh and it complemented the strong taste of the spring onions. The crunch of the beansprouts were also a welcome contrast to texture.

The ramen choices also include dragon ramen ($15), which is spicy, and spicy miso ramen ($16) which is a miso based ramen with varying levels of spiciness. You also have the option to add on items, such as their spring onion (air flown in from japan!!) -although we don't exactly recommend it because it's $3 additional for just spring onion with mileage.... Other add ons include an egg ($1) as well as side dishes such as Gyoza ($6).

Nantsuttei is nothing fanciful, but there are bits of this place that really won my heart -the decor and the whole ambience was heartwarmingly Japanese and it had an air of familiarity. The menu includes a section that provides the nutritional facts/value of their ingredients used in the ramen (complete with adorable illustrations -but I didnt get an opportunity to snap a photo!), and the walls have interesting calligraphy on it. There are quaint touches and the service is warm yet brisk. I would recommend their ordinary ramen, but for those who are meat lovers, please consider the Charsiew ramen ($16). That comes with extra servings of charsiew. If you're here for lunch, go early or risk having to queue while watching other diners slurp up delicious ramen as you peer into the glass walls along the queue line!

I had expected my visit to Balithai to be an experience like any other Thai chain in Singapore (Absolute Thai, Thai Express etc) but I was wrong. Balithai had disappointed me in terms of their food -although I wasn't hoping to have purely authentic Thai fare (it did had Balinese influences, I suppose?), the flavour and the value just wasn't there.

The lunch crowd wasn't as hectic as I had expected -perhaps due to the quality of the food here, yikes. We were ushered to a table quickly, and the best thing about this place is that they have an option for you to customise your noodles -you choose a noodle time, the main ingredient you'd like (vegetables, seafood, etc), and the style it's fried in.

I opted for the phad thai noodle with vegetables fried with basil & chilli. This cost slightly over $10.The noodles were really not much -the phad thai noodle had this distinct ricey smell (the exact smell you get when you buy kuay teow from the wet market!), and the basil/chilli had no real flavour. The vegetables weren't a lush green and they were slightly overcooked. The fried noodles were a completely lacklustre attempt to recreate the true Thai flavours. Overall, while it wasn't too salty, it also had no flavour nor aroma to speak of.The tom yum soup cost slightly over $10 as well, and it came in a clay, earthern pot. This was a nice touch as it helped to keep the heat in very nicely. However, the soup was a letdown. There was way too much lemongrass in the soup, and the flavours didn't fuse with each other nor provide a smooth transition. The flavours were way too isolated, the initial taste was (too) sour, then came the hit of spiciness, followed by the sickly sweet aftertaste that didn't sit so well with me. While there were ample ingredients (mussels, prawns and squid...), we would have rathered they cut down on the lemongrass instead.

All in all, BALIThai is not exactly the best out there for Thai food and if you need to satisfy a thai food craving, this isn't the place for it. The fried noodles had no real aroma nor flavour that was remotely decent, let alone impressive. The clay pot kind of made me anticipate something more for the soup, but it still fell flat. If you do try this place, maybe you want to give their rice & dishes a try. A colleague tried the fried rice and commented that it wasn't up to standard as well.

Fukuichi at TripleOne Somerset has got to be the most underrated Japanese restaurant, in town at least. Nestled in a quiet corner, in a quiet part of town, it's easy to miss. Japanese cuisine is synonymous with clean cuts, elegant plating and/or presentation and refined tastes. Fukuichi embodies this very spirit with its signature sushi and iconic sashimi platters. They also well-stocked with a range of sakes and Japanese alcohol that I'm pretty sure would impress the sake lovers.

With a reservation at 7.30, we arrived slightly early, but was still ushered to a bar-top seat that the staff had already prepared for us.The interior is distinctly japanese, with marbled table tops, hints of bamboo and wood. Service isn't top notch, but they are generally polite and courteous. Besides, we came for the food, not the staff!The exterior of the restaurant also has 3 large sake barrels on display outside! An interesting touch which we felt was unique.The bar gives us a lovely view of the sushi chefs at work, expertly slicing the raw fish with even strokes, resulting in fish slices of perfect consistency!

We ordered the Bento Set A for $40 (this is the most expensive bento set because of what it consists of!), which comprises sashimi, assorted sushi, grilled salmon with roe, tempura, an appetiser dish and miso soup. We also ordered two pieces of Mekajiki (swordfish sushi) for $8 and their signature Seared Salmon Sushi for $22 (for 8 pieces). The prices are a tad pricey but when the dishes came, we fully comprehended why we were paying just that extra bit for our food.The starter was a serving of Japanese style salad, in a light/tangy miso dressing. It tasted more sour than other Japanese style salads, so if you like your food really tangy -this one's for you. The cold jellyfish was mediocre, but proved to be a refreshing appetiser.The Bento Set came in 3 portions -the appetiser and the 2 bento boxes. The first bento box had 3 components -roe covered sushi, a sashimi assortment (prawn, tuna and some fish I did not recognise!), and a sushi assortment with raw fish. The sushi impressed me because the lightly vinegared rice was so well shaped and it complemented the fresh fish. The fish was firm, not overly frozen nor wet, and was so delightfully tasty in its pure, unseasoned form. Delicious. The prawn and sashimi deserve a special mention. The prawns were creamy and the sashimi came in generous, thick slices -a truly treat...before I knew it, we had polished off that entire plateSwordfish is one of my favourite fish apart from the usual tuna and salmon. Swordfish is firmer and less creamy, but the freshness really shines through, especially when its delicious, cold cut is a refreshing change from the creamier salmon belly. It's a fantastic contrast to anything fried and cloying, making this one of my top clean-eating picks! My companion was trying swordfish for the first time and he commented that the 'clean taste of the swordfish is really uplifting'! Definitely recommending this to everyone! The salmon and tuna go for around $6-7 per pair, and there are premium items such as sea urchin on their menu. Only for those feeling indulgent!(Cont Bento) The second portion of the bento included the cooked food -grilled salmon with a layer of roe smeared on it, and assorted tempura. The tempura was the only mediocre dish in our dinner for that day, but it was still of a decent standard. The outside of the tempura was light and crisp while the inside still retained the freshness of the ingredients -the carrots, capsicum and prawns still maintained their original tastes. The salmon was what surprised us the most -the outside had been smeared with a layer of salmon(?) roe, giving the fish an even creamier taste. The flakes of salmon just slide off when your chopsticks gently pick at the salmon, and the savoury Japanese-soy style sauce has a taste consistent with expertly made teriyaki dips. Heavenly.The seared salmon sushi is on the pricier side with 8 pieces for $22, but its completely worth it. Rolled by the masters with japanese cucumbers and avocado, with the salmon torched before serving, the fish has a slightly smoky smell to it. When you sink your teeth in however, it's a fusion of flavours with creamy textures combined with the burnt aroma of semi-cooked fish. Delicious as it looks -everyone should try this! It's one of their more popular sushi orders and nearly every table has one plate of this.

The Bento is great for sharing -perfect for 2 people, so you get to order other sushi and try other stuff too! This bento also gives the widest variety (you can get a bento set for around $20+, but the variety of the bento isn't as vast and the quality of the dishes are less premium too), but also ensures that you get the best of everything. Fantastic deal! Fukuichi also offers a range of hot dishes, but we say skip that. Go straight to the ala carte sushi and signature rolls -try the seared salmon, or live to regret it!

The place is pretty spacious, but it can get a teeny bit crowded especially on Friday and weekend nights, you may want to call and make a reservation ahead! This is also one of the places where bar top dining isn't cramped and stuffy, there's ample foot room and space for the dishes, and it's interesting watching the chefs at work (at least you know how your sashimi is being prepared!!). Fukuichi serves great, fresh Japanese cuisine with refined flavours for the discerning. It may not be on the highest end of Japanese fare available locally, but it comes close to the best value for quality (the bill came up to around $82 in total for 2 people.)

Yong Kee Seafood Restaurant is tucked away in a coffeeshop behind construction sites, at the end of the road. You'd never think to look for hidden gems in a place like this, but lo & behold -this place can really take you by surprise! Environment wise, I'd have to admit that the filthiness of this particular coffeeshop did get to me a little, but for the relatively good food, it's all worth it.There are the signature dishes and we decided to order a few of them -the crispy vermicili, the yom yum soup, the seafood beancurd and the fried vegetable with hae bi. The Seafood Beancurd came in a savoury, starchy sauce that was on the whole, tasty enough for me to wolf it down. The tofu is homemade and has a distinct, welcome smokiness. There is also fresh seafood -prawns, fish & cuttlefish with the tofu. While I felt that the cuttlefish were slightly unrefined in an otherwise delicate dish, the flavours for this were well-balanced save for the gravy that was a tad too starchy initially.While the extraordinary factor of this dish would be attributed to the fried hae bi (Singaporeans are all so used to having hae bi only in our spicy vegetable dishes!), I'll like to point out that the vegetables were also fried in a slightly starchy sauce. Maybe it's the Thai style of zi char but the stir fries seem to be slightly starchier than usual..hmm. The deep fried hae bi reminded me vaguely of lard, and its crisp texture complements the vegetables well -adding a refreshing texture to the whole dish.The crispy vermicili is the star seller of Yong Kee Seafood. One brilliant idea was formed one fine day and this dish was borne of sheer creativity and talent. It looks an omelet from far but it's actually bee hoon with a deep fried, crisp outer texture. The beehoon sticks to one another and is held by its deep fried top. The bee hoon is also chock full of prawns, fishcake and other delicious ingredients -oh, not to mention the sprinkling of beansprouts and spring onion. Delicious. The beehoon is tasty on its own without being overly salty and the novelty of this dish saves it from the mediocrity of the flavour.We had expected much more (maybe too much) from the tom yam soup. Being a Chinese-Thai Zi char eatery, we would expect really fabulous tom yum. However, the bowl of tom yum that was served was way too thick, with an overload of curry powder in it. I'm not biased towards tom yum soups that aren't clear even though I have a preference for clear soups, as long as there's a distinctly tangy flavour that's refreshing enough. This soup though, failed in that sense. It was too thick -passing off for a tom yum curry more than anything, and was far from refreshing. The ingredients however, were ample for the $7.

As a general rule of thumb, steer clear of the tom yum soup if you dine here! The stir-fries are also quite starchy, so we don't recommend these to people who don't enjoy gooey gravies. We recommend the seafood tofu and the crispy vermicilli -they all have very distinct flavours and textures. Waiting time is pretty quick, and dishes have a wide price range depending on what you order. Expect to pay around $15-$25 per person. They also serve crab here, so it's a cheaper alternative to the usual seafood venues.