I had heard ALOT over the years about this little korean gem tucked away in the basement of Concorde Hotel, and I decided to try it finally heh. One weekday afternoon my colleague and I walked over for lunch and got to filling our hungry tummies.

The set up of the place was not bad, its was a food court setting, but they had their own seating area and the cooking/service area was hugeeeeee. An old korean? lady took our order and we paid, then stood to a side to wait for our food. Efficient and rather fast, our food was soon ready for collection.Tada! I chose the kimchi chigae (I always do haha) set, which came with a banchan (side dish) of either pickled cucumber, kimchi, or ikan bilis. Not a fan of ikan bilis and already having kimchi in my stew, I settled for the cucumber. After taking the requisite photos, we quickly tucked in. The broth was tangy and sour and spicy all at the same time, very yummy! I sampled a piece of kimchi, firm and crunchy, it wasn't as soft as I would have liked, and certain pieces (nearer to the heart of the cabbage) was a little too sour. Close up shot of my stew ^^ My colleague commented that no matter what angle you take kimchi chigae from, it always turns out bad -.- Either way, it was not bad. Eaten with the rice, the broth, which was a little too salty on its own, was balanced out nicely. My only peeve is probably that there was REALLY little meat in the stew. But then again, the whole set was $5.50, so no complains I guess.We also shared rice stew, dokbukki, between the two of us. I had high expectations of this, as it's one of my favourite things to order at dongdaemun. However, I felt that while the rice was sufficiently chewy, the sauce tasted like chee cheong fun sauce- thick sweet sauce. I really disliked it as I was expecting something more akin to my stew, tangy and spicy, with bits of kimchi in it. Oh well

Overall, the meal wasn't a bad one. Obviously it was not the best korean food I've had, but again, for the price, it was pretty not bad.

A few colleagues and I had recently discovered this new addition to the Orchard Road belt, and so decided to come here for lunch one day. Triple O is like a fast food burger place, but when we looked at the prices, they weren't very cheap- burger sets started from $9.90 and went up to $14.90. With such prices, we had rather high expectations in mind.

I ordered a Chicken Supreme Combo, with had a grilled chicken burger, a drink and fries, which I upgraded to poutine- a Canadian dish of fries topped with gravy and cheese. They gave me a little disc that would vibrate when my food's done, so we went to find some seats first.

Soon after, my disc vibrated and I went to collect my burger. Here's how it looks- a pretty standard fast food kind of set. The poutine didn't look as exciting as I had expected though, and neither did it taste as exciting. The fries were substandard (I like mac's crispy shoestring fries, and these were fatter and soggier) and the gravy was just the mashed potato gravy that could be dispensed from 7/11s all over Singapore. As for the cheese, there were several clumps of melted cheese but it was too little to add any flavour.

The burger though, was quiteeeeee okay. Here's a close up.My colleagues were complaining that their patties (which were beef patties) weren't juicy, but mine was pretty good I feel; perhaps it was because my patty was a grilled chicken patty. The honey mustard sauce was just nice too, such that each bite was flavourful and juicy. My only qualm i guess, is that my burger didn't come with a pickle The pickles here are quite cool, its a long slice from a dill pickle, and its laid on top of the burger, so I was quite looking forward to it. I guess they figured that only beef burgers should have pickles though, but oh well.

Overall, I think the food was okay? It's probably not worth $10 (about $12 if you count the poutine top up)though, seeing as I can get better burgers and free-flow drinks for about the same price at Carls Junior. Maybe if I get a really bad burger craving and there's nowhere else around the area heh.

I had heard good things about Ootoya, and after checking a few blogs to be sure of its quality, I decided to visit it. I went on a Thursday night and I was rather worried that it would be full, but thank goodness, it wasn't too crowded. The set up consists of a 'bar area' where customers could sit in a large square on the floor - a little open concept I guess - and a normal booth area. I was directed to the booth area, where I settled myself.

Ootoya had a set menu concept, where all its items were set items which came with refillable rice and miso soup. It seemed simple enough, and I got a Katsu nabe set- basically a pork cultet with egg on top set in a light soup broth- that came with rice, miso soup and a small pickled dish.How my katsu set looked like, it was quite a large portion and smelt really good!A close up heh. The pork cutlet was really flavourful and the breadcrumbs were nicely fried, although they soon got a little soggy because of the broth/gravy, but that was fine. I think my dish was quite good actually, but what irritated me quite a bit was the saltiness of the broth. It was so salty, I had to eat every piece of meat with a lot of rice, because the meat had soaked up quite a bit of gravy. In the end, I ate almost two bowls of rice -.-The chawanmushi also came with the set, and was really small Other than that though, it was fine. Although it wasn't anything to rave about, it wasn't bad either, so I was fine with that.

I think the food is not bad, and at a price of $21 I think it's quite reasonable. The only peeve that I had was the saltiness of the broth, but other than that, not bad. Will I come back? I might, but I definitely wouldn't get the nabe set again.

I had great ramen at The Central's Santouka, so when I found that there was another outlet at Cuppage, I couldn't wait to try it. Just my luck, a couple of friends and I were around Somerset and looking for a lunch spot, so off to Santouka we went!

Whenever I go to ramen places, I always get their signature; I feel that from their signature/ original ramen dishes, you can more or less gauge the standard of the ramen. Thus at Santouka, I got the Shio ramen- the salt based ramen. And as always, I got a serving of the tamago ^^

I was really hungry so I couldn't wait for my ramen to arrive, and when it did it smelled sooooo good I almost forgot to take a picture of it first. Anyways, I was super excited and quickly dug in after taking the mandatory shot. At first slurp though, I was disappointed. The noodles were too soggy for my liking, and they were thicker than I remember (or expected). I like my ramen a little like mee kia, thin and springy, so that was a disappointment as it felt like instant noodles to me :/ The soup was slightly better, the chicken broth was tasty and flavourful, albeit a little salty, but it didn't make up for the ramen

I think what saved the day though, was the tamago- the egg that comes with ramen. I don't know how exactly it's made, nor how to make it, but I die for a perfect tamago; soft and creamy egg white and an almost liquid gold egg yolk that spills out when you bite into it. And boy oh boy, Santouka does a GREAT tamago.Their tamago is the perfect tamago; heaven in a bite. It's slight sweetness complements the salty soup so well, and Santouka gave a whole egg, unlike certain other ramen places (coughippudocough) so that I could enjoy my eggy goodness more.

While their ramen isn't as great as I remember, Santouka's tamago is perfect and I sincerely think that I might go back, just for the tamago heheh^^

I've heard from somewhere that &made was named so as to sound like the word 'homemade' in a french accent, after it's French creator. Well, being a restaurant of celebrity chef Bruno Mernard, I wanted to see if it was really all that great, so when my friend wanted to meet up for lunch around the area, I volunteered &made.

The decor of the place is a mix of modern and quirky, with colour tones of red, black and white. We were seated at the far end of the restaurant, so getting the attention of the servers' was alittle hard, even though there wasn't much of a crowd, but when we did get their attention they were attentive and enthusiastic to serve us.

My friend, being the salmon fanatic that she is, got the Honey Salmon burger, which was basically seared salmon with a honey mustard, dill and tatar sauce, while me, being a nuisance, decided to create my own burger. I chose a beef patty and paired it with shitake mushrooms and a fried egg, as I had had great breakfast burgers before with beautiful sunny-side-ups and I had hoped to recreate that experience. All the burgers on the menu came with a side of fries, which meant that my friend got to have fries while I didn't, but that was fine.

Our burgers arrived relatively quickly, and they definitely looked good.The Honey Salmon burger, which looked great and according to my friend, yummy! (although she does like anything salmon so we don't know how accurate her judgement is.) She also kept munching on the fries, and she's rather picky about carbs, so it must mean that they were good- thick and well fried, but soft and still potato-y when you bite into it.As for my burger, well... I'm undecided. First things first, my egg was NOT a sunny-side-up. This might have been a misunderstanding on my part, as fried eggs (as I belatedly realised) are not necessarily sunny-side-ups. However, I had expected one so I was rather disappointed. The mushrooms were done well though, with the earthy taste coming through nicely, and the beef patty was fine- but not amazing. It was seasoned well and it wasn't too well done too, but I felt it wasn't very juicy, neither was it super flavourful.

All in all, while the presentation was good and the burgers weren't bad, they weren't amazing either? My burger was $17, which I felt was okay for the reputation and ambience, but again, I probably will not be coming back :/