The sudden heavy rain has ruined out lunch plan today. We have no choice stop at the People’s park complex, there are quite a lot of diners already. We just want to have something simple. We have ordered bak ku teh and braised pig’s trotter from another store but we want to have some veggie for fibre.

This zi char stall is just near our table. We just ordered a place of garlic kalian. Kailan was quite fresh and green, it didn’t have the bitter taste. Generous crashed garlic pieces. Taste was just right. The only thing I don’t like is the starchy gravy, it can be skipped.

If we pass by this place next time, we don't mind to try some other dishes.

Before we decided to have dinner at Watami, we called up a few places for buffet dinner, they were all full-house, so we have to change our dinning place to Watami. I like this place because their variety of choices and reasonable prices.

We reached there around 6+pm, it was still early for dinner. Right from entering the place, all service staff would greet us in Japanese “Welcome”. I bought this meal for our office’s cleaning auntie, she is so good to me and chat with me whenever we have time. With her age, she can’t eat raw fish or big meal, so she just chose a bowl of Nagasaki ramen. I chose Konbu Dashi Nabe, a shabu shabu dish, it contains fatty pork, chicken, scallop and clam are the main ingredients. I added Teppen Bou Gyoza, it has mince pork and shrimp+black fungus, quite a big gyoza with generous filling.

Auntie likes her ramen so much as ingredients are generous with shrimp, pork and veggie, bone soup based is thick and rich, she says it isn’t thirsty after the meal.

I like my shabu shabu too, meats are raw when serve and cook in front of diner with a mini steamboat stove, service staff would refill soup if it has less. Ingredients are fresh. Soup is a bit too salty to my taste.

Gyoza is fried with a lace floured, it is crispy at the side and soft inside. Best eating it when hot, once it is cooled down, the oil taste is too strong and dough skin becomes tough. I soak it in the shabu shabu broth, it helps to soften the skin and better in texture.

When we finished our meal, the restaurant was filled with full of diners. It is a popular place though.

Actually we wanted to try the Buffet Town but the perpetual long queue put us off. Then we thought we haven’t been Brotzeit for more than 2 years, why not gave it a try again. It was still early before lunch crowd, plenty of seats were available.

We have ordered pork knuckle, cheese sausage and 2 beers. I wasn’t a beer person so I have a small glass of Dunkles, I liked freshly tap beer though, it was refreshing to go with oily food. Whereas my friend has a pint of seasonal beer-Winterbier, I taste a mouthful, it was crisp at first note then followed by bitterness.

This is my first time to try German cheese sausage, frankly I didn’t like the texture, it was too soft to my liking, taste wise, it was all right, having said that potato salad made up the whole dish. Here came the pork knuckle, it was really mouth-watering dish, golden brown and crispy skin, a mouthful it gave the best crunchiness and smooth oil mixed. We liked sauerkraut so much, it was the best with the crispy knuckle, neutralised the oiliness. Whereas mashed potato mixed with sour cream, it was a bit overwhelm to me.

We couldn’t finish up all food and requested to pack up. They were happy to do so and packed into two boxes to separate meat and side dish.

Casual ambience, good food and service, definitely will return.

Saw it open the door for business while I have yet to try, slowly queue was forming up every time I passed by in the evening. It really raised my curiosity about this little ramen shop. I didn’t try it when it first started business because I have a very good ramen at The Central few months back. We reached there early 6pm, it has few people in front of us already. In front of us was a Japanese, he waited patiently with working on his mobile phone. Frankly the wait wasn’t short, we waited about 20~30mins then. There was a lady dashed into the shop and requested for takeaway, obviously she was rejected as the chef said ramen should be eaten once it was cooked. She was disappointed and left.

While we were waiting, they would distribute the order form, menu was simple,
1.Soup base : original, spicy and peppery
2.Taste of the soup : light, normal and strong
3.Chicken oil : less, normal and more
4.Noodle texture : soft, normal and hard
5.Prices : $10.80 to 15.80 depends on ingredients
6.Diner can opt out some ingredients like spring onion, black fungus and char siew
7.Soup and noodle can be refilled with $2 each
8.Marinated bean sprouts and boiled egg are free flow.

I have ordered an original ramen and chose authentic Japanese taste, whereas my friend has peppery ramen and a bottle of Sapporo. According to him, pepper was overwhelmed the overall taste. I like the original pork bone soup so much, it was milky smooth, very rich in taste, most importantly it wasn’t too salty, I have no msg aftertaste. Ramen cooked to the right texture to my liking - springy.

Once we be seated, they would give us each sesame grinder, we got to do it ourselves, grind it to release the full sesame fragrance. This is the only extra ingredient I added into my bowl of ramen, I didn’t add the Japanese chilli or mayo as the soup based was so good on its own. We specially like the marinated bean sprouts, we kept eating it and requested for refill. Eggs were boiled to the right consistency, yoke wasn’t overcooked, it was still soft inside.

Though the waiting at the onset was long, we both agreed it was worth the waiting. We did return for second and my friend return for so many times already……

This is a great find from TV program, ever since I have seen it presented on food and infotainment program. I longed for visiting them. It was nestled in an industrial/HDB area. This is definitely a gem in that area.

It was a rainy Monday, I managed to have the afternoon free from work. My friend and I decided to have a relaxing high tea there. We reached there around 3+pm, there were already few tables filled. We were led to a 2-seater table, chairs are really comfy. As this was my first visit, I couldn’t help but marvel at the opulent Parisian essence setting, it gave out a grandeur décor theme.
I was really impressed with the exquisite furnishing and the conscientiously-designed layout of Antoinette, seemingly inspired by a typical French patisserie. The lay-out is segregated into different corners for the various groups of customers, which might probably denote the respective individual private corners or personal spaces for each duo or group.

We combined lunch and high tea into one meal. First we ordered Club Antoinette because of the type of bread Pain de Mie they used. If one who is careful with the calorie count, Brioche is being used for most of their bread dishes, eg, French toast. Both of us liked specially the real crab mayonnaise, the sweetness of crab meat still attained, the rest of the ingredients were fresh and crisp. The sandwich was still lukewarm when served.

I have a pot of Earl Grey tea to go with the food as it could clear the savoury and sweetness tastes with a long lasting tea fragrance afterwards. Whereas my friend chose Rose tea, I have tried a cup, Rose flavour was mildly released.

Here came our favourite meticulously crafted cakes, mine was Antoinette, a pretty little chocolate cake, make up of milk chocolate mousse infused with earl grey and dark chocolate cremeux, a base of chocolate biscuit gave crunchiness to overall texture. The raspberry coulis in the form of a sour tang neutralised the sweetness of it, burst it and let it flow over the whole cake, one mouthful of it one would know what is called chocolate heaven!

My friend has Saint Honore L’Amour, she is so kind to let me have a taste of the rose petal and mini choux pastry. The edible rose petal was slight bitter as it should be, it has mini syrupy dots on it so it could defuse the bitterness. Choux pastry was just alright.

The waitstaff was politely and patiently serving customers. They would not ban customers for photo shooting, probably the more photos we took the merrier the own would. We were very happy to have a relaxing afternoon there, it was a memorable experience though, dining at a French patisserie without flying over to France.