A couple of weeks back, Maureen has gathered the group of friends from Twitter to celebrate his partner, Chuan Kai's birthday. It was supposed to be surprise celebration for him but sometimes no matter how hard you plan, things just don't work out according to plan. Nevertheless, we have a great time catching up with one another.

The Sashimi was very fresh and excellent! I would love to have more but it is quite expensive.

Shin Kushiya is popular for its Kushiyaki or grilled skewers. Kushiyaki refers to the use of ingredients such as beef, pork, fish or seafood grilled over charcoal on bamboo skewers. The restaurant uses only the Bincho charcoal (known as king of white charcoal). Biting into the meat, I could taste the distinct smoky flavour.

The rice for both the Salmon Ikura Don and Sanshoku Don was very nice and fragrant. I found out from Shin Kushiya website that they used premium Japanese rice that has short and plum grains. The restaurant also added Kombu, a Japanese kelp to the rice during steaming to infuse it with a special fragrance.

With all the beautiful food from the Sashimi to the Kushiyaki, the Tonkasu Curry Don was a disappointement. The Tonkasu was tough and dry.

The Truffle-infused Uni Pasta is an interesting culinary fusion of angel hair pasta, truffle oil, tobiko, caviar and fresh sea urchin. Expensive ingredients equal to excellent taste? Well fusion dish can be a subjective to individual's palate.

At The Tastings Room, their concept is to make food and beverage pairing a painless experience with suggestions within the menu. Every dish on the menu comes with 3 different wine pairing recommendations at a affordable wine tasting portion.

The Tastings Room has a huge wine cellar that housed 50 over unique and interesting selections of wine. If you are not into alcohol, they also have an exquisite selections of coffee and tea.

The Truffle Mushroom Puree Soup was served with a touch of truffle oil, truffle foam and croutons. The smooth puree was made of button and shitake mushroom. For extra texture, there was also sauteed mushroom in the bowl of soup. The truffle oul further enhanced mushroomy flavour.

Among the two, my favourite is the Smoked Vine Tomato Soup with Seafood while Charlene prefers the Truffle Mushroom Soup. I can tasted the freshness of the smoked vine tomato cooked into soup. The soup also came with fresh and crunchy prawns. I enjoyed the Smoked Vine Tomato Soup so much that I dipped the toasted milk loaf from the Truffle Scrambled Egg dish to clean up the bowl.

The Tastings Room has recently just came up with a Brunch Menu which is available between 11am to 4pm and we got to try 3 of the dishes. I usually do not take scrambled egg as it can be rubbery if not probably done. I was delighted when the scrambled egg was moist and cooked perfectly. The scrambled egg was served with a touch of truffle oil, sauteed mushroom and toasted milk loaf.

The colourful sight of the Egg Royale just cheers up one's day. The poached egg has smoke salmon wrapped around it sitting on top of a toasted milk loaf with a generous blanket of chives smooth hollandaise. This is a beautifully executed dish with the different tastes and textures coming into one. The poached egg was also cooked perfectly with the egg yolk oozing out.

The Poached Egg in Red Wine Hollandaise is another well balanced and executed dish. The egg was poached in a concoction of red wine, veal broth and herbs. Althought the hollandaise sauce is lighter , the stronger flavour from the crispy bacon gave that balance to the whole dish.

Forlino is one of the top Italian restaurants in Singapore. I have wanted to check out this place for a long time after reading so many good reviews. Knowing that DBS credit card was having 1 for 1 promotion for the Gourmet and Degustation Menu until end of October 2010, I made a dinner reservation before it ends and had the Degustation Menu which was $148 ++ per pax. Considered a sell since I only need to pay half of the $300++ bill.

The restaurant is located on the 2nd floor of One Fullerton with a beautiful view of the Marina bay front. A bit disappointing was the noise from the bar. It was quite noisy and loud. Fortunately it was for a while as the crowd at the bar left shortly.

The menu started off with the Amus Bouche and freshly baked foccacia. The Amus Bouche was light and nice. With a pinch of salt added to the freshly baked foccacia, it was soft and tasty.

Nexts up was the Crab Salad with wild rucola, sweet pea leaves and cantaloupe. Another artistic, light and refreshing dish. The cantaloupe sauce was a good complement for the salad.

I can smell the aroma of the Pan Roasted King Scallops from far when it was served. Complementing the huge and fresh scallops were french beans and hazelnuts. I really enjoyed the dish, every bite was filled with the freshness and pan roasted aroma.

This is my first time having the tradition Italian pasta, Tagliatelle. The tagliatelle was served with duck confit and goose liver. The duck confit alone was a bit salty to me. However eaten together with the tagliatelle and goose liver, the taste was balanced.

was looking forward to this dish wondering how an Italian restaurant will present the suckling pig in its menu? I was pleasantly surprised when I am served with a big piece of pork instead in a thin slice where how Chinese restaurant normally served it. The skin was crispy and the pork was moist and tender. A very well executed dish.

Dessert was creme brulee and raspberry ice cream. Simply fell in love with the creme burlee with its moist custard base and burnt caramel on the top. How I wish the restaurant could have served in a bigger portion.

The dinner was rounded up with a cup of coffee and petit fours. I googled and petit fours meant small confection generally eaten at the end of a meal or served as part of dessert. Its a french name meaning "small oven".

After doing some research on the restaurant, I realised it used to be a Zi Char stall in Marine Parade before it shifted to the current place in Macpherson. The Crab Bee Hoon was very good. The bee hoon they used absorbed the crab flavour very well. The crabs were excellent too. The pincers are large and the meat is full but at a cost of $45 per kg.The other dish that was really good is the steamed flower clams (Philippine La La). The sauce was your typical steam fish sauce but it was a heavenly combination.

The yam paste here was thick and gooey unlike those watery version. Instead of using coconut milk, the dish substituted it with pumpkin. Mashing the pumpkin together with the yam paste was another excellent combination and substitution for the coconut milk.

The Moluccas Room is an Indonesian fine dining restaurant which Chef Alicia Tivey marriage both French and Indonesian cuisine bringing Indonesian cuisine to another new level. After reading several food tasting reviews of this place, I brought my partner to The Moluccas Room for her birthday.

Four different types of sambal (Shallots, Ginger, Chopped Chilli and Garlic) greeted us on our table. The floor manager introduced us that the sambal was to be eaten with the chips. My favourite was the Shallots Sambal.

After placing our orders, we were served the Amus Bouche which was curry chicken on top of a cracker. The pleasant surprise of the flavour from the curry chicken gave a hint the style and approach of the chef's cooking.

Next we had their Signature Sate. There were 7 different type of Sate on their menu. We went for the Sate Ayam Madura which is an Eastern Java delicacy of grilled chicken tenders served with creamy roasted peanut sauce. The meat was really tasty and flavourful without the sauce.

For appertiser we had Kepiting Soka Acar Kuning. The crispy soft shell crab with sweet and sour turmeric spice infused vegetables and pineapple pickle was a delight to the palate.

For my main course, I had Angus Steak Rendang, a tender beef steak tenderloin topped with an extremely flavourful Javanese style rendang curry sauce. The rendang sauce was kind of mild but having said that it did not overshadow the piece of premium beef. The Angus Steak was so good that I can eat it without any sauce.

There were many good reviews for their Confit Sakura Ayam Tuturage, a light citrusy confit chicken curry from the Northern Sulawesi so I asked my partner to order it. We were lost for words to describe the sauce. It was very good. The chicken was also very tender.