This outlet of Auntie Kim's Restaurant is located at Alexandra Retail Centre, and I liked how it was a rather quiet mall compared to all the super crowded malls in town etc. However, there were quite a number of people in the mall on a Saturday night so it's not like it's a ghost town! The deco of the restaurant was very Korean like, with muted colours and the staff in traditional Korean costume.


There were quite a number of food that looked really tempting, but we decided on the army stew in the end. The army stew has a history to it (just google 'army stew') and it consists of "American food" like sausages and luncheon meat, with mushrooms, sliced carrot, sliced rice cakes, tofu, zuchinni slices, leeks, kimchi and some Korean ramen. The ramen included in the pot wasn't much, so we ordered another bowl of rice and another portion of ramen. The stew base was quite spicy, but sharing the army stew with your loved one and slurping up the spicy noodles and ingredients felt very shiok Just thinking about it is making me salivate!

There was also ban chan/side dishes which was complimentary. The ban chan is refillable at some places but sadly, it's not the case here. I really loved their ban chan so I would really love for them to make it refillable. There were 6 side dishes.


This was cabbage kimchi. It was nice and juicy and crunchy, but really spicy!


Bean sprouts which were nice and crunchy too. Korean bean sprouts are always somehow juicier and fatter than the normal ones you eat in Singapore.


This was kelp, which I really really love! It was kinda crunchy and savoury which tasted like seaweed.


Spinach that's cooked with sesame oil I think. It was still fresh and wasn't overcooked with a hint of sesame.


I'm not too sure what this was, but they were like noodle strands in mayo which were really crunchy. I really liked it but I've no idea what they were.


This was pretty interesting and can easily replicated at home. What you see are actually zuchinni slices coated in egg then pan fried. This is probably a good way to disguise vegetables to feed them to fussy kids !

The Korean food here is of good quality, and I also really liked the ambience and deco of the restaurant. Will be returning again and again in the future

I originally wanted to go over to Zion Food Centre for dinner but their menu looked really tempting and I'm always game for Japanese food so we ended up in Ichiban instead

Their seasonal set menu had an assorted seafood set, consisting of assorted seafood in garlic teriyaki sauce, chawanmushi, snow crab miso soup, salmon sashimi, cold tofu with sesame dressing, rice and 2 slices of watermelon for $27.90. I ordered this as I liked every item in the set


The assorted seafood consisted of 2 pieces of salmon, 2 pieces of dory, 2 prawns and a scallop in garlic teriyaki sauce. I thought the portion was really generous! I gave 1 piece of salmon and dory each to my boyfriend and was still full after the whole meal. This says a lot since I'm usually a big eater. The sauce was a little salty. The salmon could also be more moist. My favourite was the dory fish.


The chawanmushi was nice and soft with the lovely eggy taste . There were ginko, mushroom, and a big chicken chunk inside.


Included in the set were also 4 slices salmon sashimi, which were fresh and yummy. They didn't stinge on the thickness and size of the slices which I was really happy about

I was expecting to taste some of the crab's sweetness and freshness in the miso soup but I couldn't. I was a little sad that it tasted like normal miso soup. Anyway, there was a good amount of tofu cubes and seaweed in the soup. There was a pincer and part of the crab leg in the soup, but the snow crab meat was difficult to eat, with the meat stuck to the shell and it comes apart easily/disintegrates when you try to pull the meat out. Not sure if this is how the meat of snow crab normally is. But taste-wise, the crab meat was nice and sweet.

I thought this set was pretty worth it considering there were so much food included! The food quality was also good. Ichiban never disappoints

I wanted to have Peranakan food for my birthday and this place seemed to have consistently good reviews, hence I decided to head there for a meal with my family. It was a small restaurant situated at the top floor of Beauty World, seems to be family-owned. The whole place had a really homey and cozy feeling.



The Nonya Chap Chye was okay, I would have preferred if the vegetables were cooked longer so that they'd be softer.


I really love Sambal Petai so of course I had to order this when I saw it on their menu! The petai was cooked well, retaining the nice crunch of the bean. The sambal was also great and not too spicy.



The Assam Fish Head tasted like tomyam, which was fine by me since I like tomyam. The fish was fresh and the vegetables like tomatoes, brinjal and lady's fingers were cooked till soft and had soaked up the lovely assam gravy.



The Beef Rendang curry was really nice and fragrant and the beef was pretty tender. This was my favourite dish there.

All the dishes (except chap chye which was non-spicy) were not too spicy which was great for me. Portions were on the smaller side and there's only one size for all the dishes. Will recommend this to anyone looking for good and affordable peranakan food!

This beef noodles is unlike any beef noodle I've tried! Definitely different from Singapore style beef noodles, Taiwan beef noodles, Thai Thaksin beef noodles and even Vietnamese Pho! 

The Hue Beef Noodle Soup features thick rice noodles with slices of beef shank and one pig's trotter (if you don't want this, let the staff know and you'll be served with more beef slices instead), and a wedge of lime and raw bean sprouts served on the side. The noodles were slightly thinner than the normal chor bee hoon/thick rice noodles you usually eat in hawker dishes. They were nice and smooth, albeit too smooth making it a little hard to eat with the chopsticks. The broth itself was light yet flavourful, and I really liked the hint of tanginess after squeezing the juice from the wedge of lime into the soup. The star of the show is of course the beef, and they were really nice and tender. My only fault about this dish was that it was served only slightly hot, which got cold really quickly Otherwise, I absolutely love this version of beef noodles and I'll definitely be coming back for more!

We were here on a Friday night and even though the location is a little out of place and there's nothing much in the Maritime House, it was still full house. The ambience had a very old school feeling to it, which was nice in a way. There's just too many swanky new restaurants popping up in recent years and Mariner's Corner just felt really cozy and nostalgic, which I believe is a selling point in itself. The customer service was also consistently good with friendly and smiling staff all around. One of the staff, an elderly lady, repeatedly told my friend to be careful as her main course was served on a hot plate which was really really hot. She reminded me of a caring yet slightly naggy mother



Escargot in Garlic Butter $21 for a dozen: We ordered a dozen escargots to be shared among the 4 of us. The escargots were soft while still slightly chewy. I absolutely loved the sauce which was made of melted garlic butter. It was slightly salty though.



Half Lobster with NZ Sirloin Steak in Mushroom Red Wine Sauce $27.50: I got myself the half lobster combo, which came with a variety of options like oxtail stew, fish or steak etc. I chose the NZ Sirloin Steak with medium doneness. 

The steak was not bad. It was still pinkish in the centre and easy to chew. The portion was just right for me. The lobster was also good, with sweet, firm and succulent meat. It also had a bit of roe and it smelled really really good when it arrived at the table with very strong grilled lobster smell. The sides were mashed potato, sauteed crunchy long beans and carrot chunks, which were soft and sweet. I thought this dish was really value for money - decent quality and portion of both steak and lobster at $27.50, what more can you ask for! For those who prefer a set, you can add $4.80 for soup and garlic bread, free flow salad bar, dessert and coffee/tea. On the day I was there, soup of the day was tomato soup and dessert was sliced cake.

I definitely recommend this place to those looking for decent food at affordable prices, and also to those who long are looking for a cozy, nostalgic place to dine and catch up with your loved ones.