When I was working at Raffles Place before, Yomenya Goemon at Marina Bay Link Mall was one of my favourite places to have lunch. Since a colleague greatly recommended me this place, it has become the only spaghetti house I go to now whenever I need a pasta fix.

Yomenya Goemon opened its doors in Shibuya, Japan in the 70s and is one of the top spaghetti houses in Japan today. The secret to their success probably lies in their ingredients which they claim to be imported from Italy so customers get to taste authentic Italian cuisine with a East-meets-West (or Japan-meets-Italy) fusion twist. The end result? Tasty plates of spaghetti with unforgettable sauces and the freshest ingredients ever.

I have eaten at Yomenya Goemon countless times and their quality has been consistent so far which is truly commendable.If you pick their Regular, Large or Dessert set meals, you can help yourself to the salad bar. Basically, the service staff will just hand you a bowl and you can just fill with whatever you want from what’s available at the salad bar. Do note only one serving of salad per set meal is allowed so you can’t go back for seconds. I have seen people piling ingredients as high as possible on their bowls to make it all worthwhile so you just got to try that and see how high you can go. The variety of ingredients is not huge but some notable items to get would be the lychees and silken tofu that really lends some sweetness and smoothness respectively to the salad. Their sesame dressing is a must-try!

If I’m not wrong, not every outlet has a salad bar. I recalled the outlets at Changi City Point and Marina Bay Link Mall have the salad bar but not the Citylink Mall one so it’s good to call and check if you’re going to their other outlets.

This time round, I opted for their Half & Half Set A (S$20) which consists of a Tomato Sauce with Basil & Mozzarella Spaghetti, Cream Sauce Spaghetti with Crab, Shrimp & Scallops, soup, soft drink or dessert. Their half & half sets merely mean you can try 2 selected types of spaghetti at one time. Unfortunately, the choices of spaghetti are fixed for the half & half’s so you can’t pick from the ala-carte menu.I’m normally not a big fan of tomato based spaghetti but this Tomato Sauce with Basil & Mozzarella Spaghetti is pretty good. The taste of the tomato sauce is not overpowering and the dish is pleasantly balanced by the sharpness of the cheese and aromatic basil. Even though it doesn’t have much ingredients in it, the sauce makes it very palatable.

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/08/04/yomenya-goemon-japanese-spaghetti-house/

My husband and I made a second trip down to Queensway Shopping Centre so he could buy that pair of Nike Dunk Low sneakers he had been eyeing since our last visit. But it was a wasted effort as that model he wanted was no longer in stock and we just couldn’t find it in any other shop there. I knew he was feeling a little disappointed so I treated him to his favourite laksa to cheer him up. At the same time, we also wanted to try the ‘other’ laksa stall (328 Katong Laksa) that was located within the same level as its competitor, Janggut Laksa (#01-59) which I thought was a little overrated because of its longer heritage and history that I shall not dwell into. I tried Janggut Laksa once but didn’t really enjoy it that much. All I remembered was the tremendous amount of oil floating on top of the gravy that wasn’t really worth me blogging about it.

As I am looking up on 328 Katong Laksa now, I’m pleasantly surprised to discover it is the same outlet where I had eaten at United Square a long while back. I was impressed with the laksa gravy then and I’m still impressed with it today.We ordered the smallest portions of laksa and curry chicken with rice. While the curry chicken was still considered sufficient for one person, the laksa was miserly portioned. In fact, the bowl was only half-filled when it came. Despite that, the taste was still as good as I remembered. The gravy wasn’t overly greasy (didn’t see oil floating on top) and had a good balance of aromatics and coconut milk. it came with a reasonable quantity of prawns and fish cake slices too. The gravy was so tasty, you could just slurp all up with the spoon. That’s how it should be enjoyed anyway!

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/08/30/328-katong-laksa-queensway-shopping-centre/

Monster Curry claims to be the biggest and heaviest Japanese Curry Rice in Singapore. Probably yes because it’s the biggest (hence heaviest) plate I’ve seen being used to serve curry rice. See the picture below where I had compared the size of the plate to the can drink.I ordered one Monster Combo Curry set to share with my husband and it came with pork katsu, fried fish, pork shabu-shabu, prawn tempura and grated cheese. When the rice was served to our table, I was thrilled to see the variety of ingredients soaked in a massive amount of gravy. Yum yum yum.

The pork katsu, fried fish and prawn tempura were crispy but I found them a little too greasy with a slightly thick batter on the outside. The fish was fresh with no fishy smell and the prawns had a good crunch too. The pork shabu-shabu was surprisingly tender and very tasty. Even the coleslaw was lovely with a soury sweet thousand-island like dressing that really whetted the appetite.

There are 5 spicy levels to choose from:

1 Flame (Normal Hot)
2 Flame (Extra Hot)
3 Flame (Very Hot)
4 Flame (Super Hot)
5 Flame (Monster Hot)

And we picked Extra Hot which I presumed was the chilli sauce that was drizzled over the curry. The curry sauce was a clear winner. It tasted different from the packet Japanese curry sauces we could get from the supermarket. This gravy was rich in flavour with a good balance of sweetness, spiciness (from the chilli sauce) and saltiness (from the cheese) that really blended well together.

It really wasn’t as spicy as we expected so we would probably try Super or Monster Hot next time.

For full review and pictures, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/07/25/monster-curry-ion-orchard/

Nasi Padang is the quintessential cuisine of the Minangkabau people of West Sumatra in Indonesia and its name is derived from the capital city of Padang. Padang cuisine is well known for its heavy use of spices, chillies and coconut milk that give food robust and aromatic flavours.

I haven’t been to Padang before, neither have I tried enough Nasi Padang to know what’s authentic or not. But there’s something unique about Rumah Makan Minang that completely brings Nasi Padang to a different level. We are so used to Malay-style Nasi Padang from food centres and coffee shops here in Singapore but as their dishes are made to suit the local taste buds, they tend to be less spicy and a tad too sweet.Rumah Makan Minang, which is located next to the Sultan Mosque, is a halal Indonesian restaurant that specialises in Minangkabau cuisine. This is a no-frills, open-air corner coffee shop with an air-conditioned dining room on the second level.

Be prepared to wait as the queue is always long. And it’s always advisable to have someone to reserve a table first while you queue.

Just before you order your food, you can catch a glimpse of the menu and plan what dishes you’re going to get. Unfortunately, due to the constant influx of customers, some of the popular dishes go pretty fast at peak lunch or dinner times so you may not get what you want.I’m a big fan of beancurd and tempeh (fermented soy beans) and this is one signature dish that you just cannot miss. The sambal sauce is to die for! It really adds a punch to these otherwise bland vegetables and make it super appetising with heat and spices aroma.The chicken rendang is a little different from others I’ve tried because of its rempah (spice paste). It is not as sweet, and has a dense galangal and shallots taste and of course a very rich coconut milk flavour too. The only downside of this is that it is too oily. Just look at the oil at the bottom of the plate.

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/12/15/rumah-makan-minang-kandahar-street-the-most-authentic-nasi-padang-in-singapore/

I hadn’t made any successful reservation during the last Singapore Restaurant Week as the restaurants that I wanted to visit were all fully-booked by the time I was down to it. So in the recent same event (7-13 October 2013), I acted early to secure a lunch reservation at Taratata Bistrot, not because it was one of the few restaurants with available slots but its menu was appealing enough for me to want to try it.

French cuisine in a French Bistrot helmed by two Frenchmen, Chef Bertrand Raguin and Chef Philippe Nouzillat. How authentic can it get? Both chefs have more than 20 years of culinary experience in top-notch fine dining restaurants as well as Michelin-starred establishments around the world. At only S$25++ per person for a 3-course lunch, dining here is just an inexpensive affair.I am truly captivated by the Parisian-style decor of the bistrot that exudes this old European vintage charm with its wooden tables & chairs, warm lighting and black-and-white photographs on the wall. The floor space is not huge so the furniture is placed quite close to one another. If you’re not bothered whether your neighbours can overhear your conversation with your dining mates, then it’s not an issue.

I had requested for a corner table when I made my reservation and Ms Marie-Agnès Labopin, the front-of-house, had sent me an email to confirm that my request had been taken care of. I appreciated the thoughtful pre-dining service as she had also sent a few email reminders as my reservation was made more than a month ago which could easily slip out of my mind.

As we arrived earlier before our selected time slot, we had to wait for a couple of minutes outside the restaurant for all guests from the 1st seating to leave and for the restaurant to refresh the table setting which didn’t take long. We were then greeted by big smiles and ushered to our table speedily. Ms Labopin even exclaimed to me that she had reserved a lovely corner table for us. She’s very candid which we like. Made us feel like we’d walked into a friend’s house for lunch. Orders were also taken promptly.When a basket of bread and butter was served, I was already excited to find out if the bread was warm. And indeed, it was. I always love fresh, warm and moist French baguettes. And this was even better because it had the sourdough tang that I adore! The slab of butter could be softened more for easy spreading.

The menu had 2 selections for appetiser, 2 choices for main and 1 standard dessert. We ordered one of everything so we could try them all.

To continue reading, please visit http://springtomorrow.com/2013/10/21/taratata-bistrot-keong-saik-road/