A place for the tai-tais, Antoinette serves up really expensive cakes. I tried the Antoinette strawberry shortcake but unfortunately found it really mediocre and certainly not worth the price. The cake itself was too oily and there was just too much cream. The shortcake itself did not have a crunchy taste. The strawberries tasted somewhat sour and thus not totally fresh.

Ootoya is an established chain in Japan and has a few outlets in Singapore. The service here could have been much better; we had to constantly ask the waitresses to fill up water. But that could be attributed to the busy period where they looked understaffed. The chawanmushi was mediocre unfortunately. It was too soft and had not much taste in it. It is better to order only one set and utilise the free refill of rice for others.

If you like ramen, you can try Daruma Ramen House helmed by a celebrity Hong Kong chef that specialises in Japanese ramen. The menu is not too extensive and the portions are quite small. However, there is an ongoing promotion of 1 for 1 which makes it worth trying. The ramen itself was not too bad and rather springy. We had the BBQ pork ramen and the BBQ pork itself has a Cantonese feel to it, with it being sweet and pretty well done. We will be back to try other offerings.

I was back at this place in just a short span of time. I decided to try something new this time and hey presto, otah bruschetta was what I ordered. This is an interesting take on bruschetta and has much of a local touch. Its novelty didn't hold up too much for me though. The otah was nice and the bruschetta was acceptable. But the combination tasted too weird and more of otah sandwich. The soup was so-so.

Despite the experience of a previous visit, my friend insisted on visiting Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice Eating House before it closed down for good. Sure enough, there was a huge crowd wanting to try out its braised duck rice. Having ate here previously and only recently, I was not too taken in by the hype. The duck rice once again proved normal and not worth the special trip. I like the sambal kangkong this time because the wok hei was more evident. Tofu was so-so.