I have always wanted to try Todai as it is well known as the “Mother of all Seafoods”. Finally has the chance to visit the restaurant as we bought a deal S$38.00nett for lunch buffet on weekdays. We made prior reservation before heading to the restaurant to avoid any disappointment.
The restaurant is very spacious and huge compared to other buffet restaurants that I visited. Each section has their individual open concept kitchen where the chefs perform their tasks. All chefs are busy preparing for the foods and the display are nicely filled with beautiful decorated foods. Basically, chefs are doing their job on individual sections to ensure the turnover of foods servings.
Since it is a lunch buffet, fresh oysters are not served. But snowcrabs are served for lunch though. Salmon sashimi is available as well. There is a chef at the counter slicing the sashimi live to meet the customers’ demand.
I personally enjoyed the salads section.There are quite a various selections for salads and are nicely presented on the display. It is something different from the usual buffets. Different kind of dressings are mixed with the ingredients. This tempts me to try all of it. Unlike most of the restaurants, salads bar does not have choices like these.

Live Italian pasta is available in request. Diners can request for the available choices of pasta of the day for chef to prepare on the spot. Foods are always taste better when it is served hot. Korean section is available with some of the korean specialty foods at the section. Churrasco section has the well- grilled meats that are nicely grilled and juicy taste.Desserts section is not to miss with its variety of desserts available on the counter. Crème brulee and different flavors of mini slices of cakes are available. The portion of the cakes is just perfect for buffet session. This can reduce the food wastage and diners able to taste a bit of everything.
The restaurant has an excellent culinary standard as the chefs delicately prepared the foods and did the art plating as well. Service staffs were prompt with their services. Plates are cleared away after I am back from my next serving. I will definitely visit to try the dinner session next round.

Uncle Tetsu Cheese Cake started their first branch in Singapore recently. The brand is very popular for producing Japanese style cheesecake. Uncle Tetsu originated from Kyushu, Japan and has outlets in Japan, China and Taiwan.All cheesecakes are baked fresh daily in the stall. Due to the high demand and limited quantities for each batch, there will be new batch fresh from oven over times.There are two types of cheesecake offered here which is the original flat cheesecake and the dome shape cheesecake.It comes with 3 different flavours – Mango, Strawberry and Chocolate S$13.90 for Dome shape cake.
The original cheesecake S$9.90 was soft, light and fluffy It does not taste too cheesy at all. It sort of melts into the mouth especially the ones that are freshly out from oven.
Store Manager shared some insider information about Uncle Tetsu during the session. The secret to their cheesecake is that they will steam the cake before baking them. Thus, this explains the differences on the texture of the cheesecake with others. No added preservation in their cake at all and best to store in fridge. The cake only can last for 3 days.

Salt Grill & Sky Bar by Luke Mangan is no strangers to most of us. Located at level 55 and 56 of ION Orchard provides an awesome panoramic view of the bustling city. All-day dining restaurant that is accessible from Sky Concierge Desk on level 4 followed by exclusive lifts that bring you up to the sky top.Three-tier set of Afternoon Tea Platter S$30++ per person inclusive of a tea or coffee was served. The platter comes with assortment of pastries in beautiful setting.Here are the lists according to the tier breakdown.
1st Tier : Raspberry macaron , Pate de fruits, Mini Orange Tarts.
The macaron sweetness isn’t overwhelmed and has a strong taste of blueberries and jam. The tarts are quite decent and the proportion was just fine for taste bud.
2nd Tier : Smoked Salmon, cucumber, chive, crème cheese on rye , Coronation chicken sandwich and Ham & turkey Croque Madame.
I enjoyed this tier of savoury delicacies as the filling was generous and filling. It’s quite an idea to compliment in between desserts serving.
3rd Tier: Chocolate delice, Almond & Cranberry Florentines and Chocolate & Jam Lamington.
I couldn’t miss the last tier as chocolate is my all time favourite. Loving the rich and sweetness taste of chocolate that flows into my mouth.Scones are served as well and it is best to go with vanilla cream and jam.

The mini delicacies spread on the platter with a spectacular view and an affordable pricing would be ideal for an afternoon tea session with your loved ones or friends.

Aquamarine Marina Mandarin is one of the top few Halal restaurants in a 5-star hotel in Singapore. Located at Level 4 of the hotel, Aquamarine offers a wide buffet spread of International and Asian cuisines.
We were greeted by the smell of seafoods when we stepped into the restaurant. There is a seafood section right in the heart of the restaurant that drawn my attention. Various selections of seafoods are displayed beautifully on the section with labels on the side. Fresh oysters, snowcrabs and fresh prawns are the ones that you wouldn’t want to miss out.Western cuisines and Chinese cooked sections are available at the right corner of the restaurant. Choices for Chinese cooked foods are limited. As for western cuisines, foods such as roasted chicken, pizza and spaghetti are available for serving as well.Indian foods are found in one of the section where briyani rice, naans and various curries are served. I tried the naans and it was quite decent with the mutton curries.There is also hands-on section where diners can customize their version of Singapore Laksa and kueh pie tee. Ingredients are readily available on the display.
Appertizer section that provides the salad selections and various cheeses are available too.
Japanese cuisine section is not a miss when comes to buffet. Fresh sashimi is a must to have for myself. There are three different types of sashimi served that day- Salmon, Tuna and sea bream. The chef will prepare the portion of the choice of sashimi on the spot upon request. I requested for 2 persons and he is quite generous with the portion and end up I didn’t went for the second serving. Tempuras, assorted sushi and chawanmushi are available at the section too.Desserts section was an eye candy for me.The colourful spread of choices which tempt you to try almost all of it. The cakes are in a small portion so that we, diners can try a bit of everything. I think it is a good way to reduce wastage as well. Durian pengat is available too.I am loving it! Freshly cut fruits are available. There is also ice-kacang maker machine available for us to customize. Topping choices for ice-creams and ice-kacang are nicely spread across the section. Nyonya kuehs are found at the other side of the section next to the desserts.Services are good as the service staffs are polite and smile to customers. Foods served on the sections are consistently filled by the staffs promptly. It is quite consistent and I think Aquamarine did a good job on this. Our buffet ended with a cup of tea served towards the end of the dinner. It was a pleasant dinning experience with Aquamarine.

For more photos and review, check out my post :http://hazeldiary.com/aquamarine-marina-mandarin-hotel/

Whenever I pass by Orchid Hotel, there is always a long queue that attracts my attention. The people are actually queuing for Keisuke Tonkotsu King, the little ramen shop which is accessibly to Tanjong Pagar MRT Station. C and I always wanted to try the ramen and we decided to join the queue on one of the weekdays after work. We reached the place around 7.20pm and queued for approximately an hour to settle down for our ramen.
The ramen shop is relatively in size and can only sit about 20pax. Thus, this explains why the queue is long. The staffs do try to speed up the turnover by giving out the ordering sheet of the whole menu to customers who are queuing.
In the ordering sheet, there are options to choose between the basic Tonkotsu Ramen ($10.80), Black Spicy ($11.80) or Red Spicy ($11.80). I had Tonkotsu Ramen with choice of add on Seaweed. There are indications of the soup to be light, normal or strong. You can also choose the noodles texture you want. Additional add on choices (eg. Chashu, seaweed, eggs) are available in the ordering sheet.The serving speed really fast once we handover over the ordering sheet to staff. The ramen was served within 2-5minutes time after being seated in the restaurant. Before the ramen was served, each table was served with the pestle and mortar which has some black and white sesame seeds inside. We grinded it up and tossed them all into the bowl of ramen. It’s an added nice aroma in the soup broth. The soup broth tasted not too heavy and smoothing to my taste bud. Most importantly it is not too oily for me as I did not choose to add in chicken oil into my ramen bowl.
A basket of eggs are placed on each table for customers to take. It’s complimentary plain hard boiled eggs. There is also a container of pickled bean sprouts on the table as well. However, our table doesn’t have the pickled bean sprouts which I think the staff might have overlooked it.We also tried the Japanese Green Tea Cola. This is something new that caught our attention. It’s a green tea flavoured dizzy drink which I don’t really taste the green tea in it.