&Sons was pretty much like a bar restaurant, with really loud music playing in the background. The concept here is that the food they serve are tapas style, with small portions for each dish. We were expecting to have decent/great food here but we were really disappointed.


The yellow sauce you see at the top is the sea urchin sauce. Both the taste of the sauce and spaghetti were really forgettable. This dish was also quite oily.



I really love cod fish but the Roast Cod was very charred (the other side of the fish was even more charred), such that the charred taste overpowered the taste of the cod, which was really a pity. Not to mention all the charred bits are super cancerous too. The only thing I liked out of all the dishes was actually the salad served with the cod.



The iberico pork belly was really tough, making it really difficult to bite the meat apart. We were expecting the meat and fats to be melt-in-your-mouth sort of standard . The Tuscan bean cream was mild, tasted like mashed beans only.



The mojito was ok to me, which had a strong lemon taste but no mint taste. Wished I could somehow taste the mint since that's one of the biggest components of a mojito.

Istimewa is located near my house and almost each time I walk past, whether it's at 8am or during lunch time, there's a pretty long queue. I've had their lontong and beef rendang before, which was only ok to me, but the spices they use to cook the food is really fragrant. That's the thing I like about them.



This time, I had the chicken, brinjal and bergadil. As usual, they gave loads of rice - really really huge portion! The brinjal was nice and soft without being mushy. The bergadil was ok, overall was quite soft. The chicken was also average. The food is decent in general but I'm not sure why people would travel all the way here for their food..

I read about their chicken rice from ieatishootipost, and it was a pretty good review so I decided to try it when I was at Tiong Bahru Market.

I was there on a Sunday at about noon time, and there was a queue of about 10 people in front of me. However the queue moved pretty quickly so I really didn't have to queue for long at all .



I got myself the white chicken rice but with drumstick, hence I was prepared to pay about $1 more. Imagine my surprise when it was still the same price at $3! The rice was moist but didn't stick to each other, it was fragrant and nicely flavoured with garlic, ginger and chicken stock. The chicken was not bad, but can be smoother and more moist. Salted vegetables were also included. I also took some ginger sauce which was really terrible and watery. This spoiled the entire meal...I'd rather they didn't provide this at all.

There were so many ramen stalls selling different types of ramen that we were spoilt for choice! Really didn't know which to choose so in the end we bought a bowl that was awarded the winner of Ramen Champion - Tonkotsu Ramen - and another bowl with the kind of pork slices that I like - God Ramen.



God Ramen $15 From Buta Ramen: The noodles in God Ramen were straight and yellow, which are relatively firm but not hard. The soup was tea-coloured and relatively clear, slightly salty. There were so many slices of pork in this bowl! The kind of pork used here is different from the cha shu normally featured in ramen. Instead, they were thin slices with lean and fatty portions in each slice - it was very much like the beef slices in Yoshinoya's beef bowl! There was also bamboo shoots and a lovely egg, which was about 3/4 boiled. The yolk was runny and the whites were still wobbly  

Tonkotsu Ramen set $16: We got ourselves the set which consisted of the ramen, agedashi tofu and grilled char siew. 


The noodles here are whiter and softer. The broth is full and creamy, which gets really jelat after a while. Sadly, there was only one piece of pork which was really soft and tender, almost melt in your mouth. The piece of pork wasn't even big so the portion was really pathetic! There was also black fungus strips in the bowl, but no egg included . 





The Agedashi Tofu consisted of 4 big pieces of fried tofu in some soya sauce concoction which wasn't too salty. This was ok, nothing special. The other side dish in the set was Char Siew pieces which were really nice due to the strong char-grilled flavour. 

Overall I think I preferred the ramen from Buta Ramen as it had way more pork and the soup wasn't jelat. However if you like broth that has a full and creamy mouthfeel, Tonkotsu Ramen is the way to go.

This place is a small casual eatery kind of restaurant where you order straight from the cashier and menu comes in the form of a huge handwritten board behind the cashier.



I got myself the Salmon & Ikura Don for $15.80. There was a strong sesame oil smell and taste in the rice. Sesame oil is not supposed to be added to sushi rice hence I found it really strange. Despite that, it made the rice really fragrant and I quite liked it. The rice grains itself were moist and firm, really really nice and cooked well. The salmon sashimi was really fatty but with hardly any flavour and taste. Somehow the cuts they use for Salmon Don is different from those used for Salmon Nigiri. As for the ikura, they were not really good as they were not round and full like it's supposed to be. The don also came with a bowl of miso soup with seaweed. The saltiness of the soup was just right. On the whole I really liked the rice so much and did not like the salmon at all.