Fantastic food, elegance and a memorable experience beckon on the banks of Singapore River at Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Grill Riverwalk. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, this Italian restaurant has emerged with a sparkling new and elegant refurbishment and a thoughtfully curated menu. It's always useful to have a restaurant in mind that can impress for romantic dates, important family dinners and special occasions.Staying true to their roots, Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Grill Riverwalk maintains Italian elements in every aspect of the restaurant. Imaginative paintings hand-drawn by Italian designer artist Keziat Terracciano are prominently hung around. There are also multiple specialized in-house chefs for various sections of the menu. Start with an antipasta dish for the true Italian experience: Cioppino Soup ($25). Savoury and extremely generous with mussels and prawns, the brand manager, Walter Visioli, shared with us that this dish is a very rustic, homemade dish that women would cook for their husbands in the olden days. This is a powerfully seafood-infused stew with inklings of garlic paired with buttery crostini to dip. Carpaccio di polpo ($18) is a picturesque of summer with citrus flavours and well-marinated octopus. Among all the antipasti, this is my favourite because of the very chewy, thinly-sliced octopus slices and the dimensions of tastes that rupture together. I wished the portions could be bigger though! It's the glutton talking again... My first impression of the Eggplant parmigiana ($15) was that its well-execution... primarily because it actually made my mortal enemy eggplants taste appetizing! Baked with a satisfying layer of tomato sauce and cheese to create a lasagna composition, the texture of the eggplants at the bottom remains juicy and allows for "clean bites" rather than its usual slimy texture.Nizzarda salad ($19) integrated pan-seared, fresh tuna loin surrounded with a complimentary nest of mesclun, green beans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, anchovies, and very bouncy and soft-boiled quail eggs. Those eggs are the hot favourite of the table with sherry dressing.Pollo alla milanese ($22) is a breaded chicken dish with very finely scattered bread crumbs on the surface, plated on potatoes, with tomato salad on the side. While the breaded chicken was pretty decent, the potatoes were the ones who took me by surprise - they retained moisture, oozed with parsley fragrance, slightly crispy edges... loved it!This ear-shaped pasta orrecchiette broccoli e acciughe ($20) is one of those classic rustic Italian pasta dishes with a whiffs of anchovies, juicy cherry tomatoes and crunchy broccoli that got everyone raving!How would an Italian meal be complete without some comforting risotto?! Since Ricciotti has seafood as their specialty, Risotto al frutti di mare would be the perfect marriage of these two elements. This turns out to be really creamy and consistent in terms of evenness of flavours and broth mixture with rather firmly dense rice grains. Anyone who loves seafood definitely shouldn't miss out on this.Grilled seabass ($28) is not only an oceanic favourite, it is also my top pick out of all the main courses! The fleshy seabass has a tender yet firm bite. Its simple garnishing of tomato concasse capers allows the seabass to retain its original fresh taste. I love it! Not to mention, the wonderfully done potatoes appeared again in this dish.Every chef at Ricciotti Pizza Pasta Grill Riverwalk has a specialization. For pizza lovers, Chef Akram will be the expert to satisfy your tastebuds! We tried two flavours of pizzas: the Al tartufo pizza (top) and Porcini e scarmoza pizza (bottom)! The Al tartufo pizza referred to a beautiful amalgamation of full-bodied signature black truffle fragrance, earthy mushrooms, and quail eggs, while the Porcini e scarmoza pizza is lighter in taste, with a milkier cheese base.Finally the most delightful part of the meal - desserts! The Nutella sweet pizza was swept clean off the plate as quickly as the cameras were done with them. An ingenious use of the familiar chocolate hazelnuts spread doubled with a second helping of crushed hazelnuts, there is no reason not to love this.Except that the Tiramisu ($10) took my heart away and left me drowned in its excellently moist, chocolate mousse, mascarpone cream with crisp flakes, with a slight whiff of indulgent rum that doesn't overpower the overall taste. If you can only choose one dessert... this is it!The Panna cotta ($8) comes a close second with a distinctive vanilla flavoured pudding that has maintained a wonderful texture - very wobbly, yet held together nicely - even though we were shifting the plate around quite a lot to take photos! Paired with the seasonal fruit compote - tasted like a combination of a lot of sweet & sour berries - the panna cotta seemed to drown a little but I love the panna cotta in itself. Plenty of juice that stayed undiluted all night. I'm not sure how. It just happened.

For full review: http://www.amiehu.com/2014/11/sponsored-ricciotti-pizza-pasta-grill-riverwalk-openrice-singapore.html

For full review: http://www.amiehu.com/2014/10/crystal-jade-kitchen-holland-village.htmlCrystal Jade Kitchen serves an array of typical Cantonese selections that might entice you to order everything... but with such a glaring golden embossed branding on the wall, the dinner plan is obvious: La Mian and Xiao Long Bao, of course!You know a food has achieved cult status when they have their own acronym. Crystal Jade's XLBs come in a bundle of four, the perfect number for everyone to monopolize one entire bundle. The natural comparison would be against the famous Din Tai Fung's. Crystal Jade's XLBs have slightly thicker skin, but somehow all four of them are leaking through their bottoms. Taste-wise I would say I still prefer Din Tai Fung's... However, to settle a regular XLB craving, Crystal Jade's still suffice.Onto the la mian! This totally reminded me of pasta varieties! I was super surprised to find that Crystal Jade offers 8 different types of la mian types: (1) Dragon Beard La Mian (2) Double Width La Mian (3) Triangle La Mian (4) Flat Face La Mian (5) Broad Face La Mian (6) Double Line La Mian (7) Hand Torn La Mian (8) Hand Sliced La Mian. Number (7) and (8) require extra time to produce, I suppose the chefs need to take extra effort to make it. I wanted to try those but was too hungry to wait so I went ahead with the standard Number (1) Dragon Beard ones.Out of all the la mian flavours, I chose my favourite Zha Jiang La Mian to try Crystal Jade's version of this dish. Many restaurants have this dish in their menu, and I actively try many types from Din Tai Fung, Paradise Dynasty, and Nan Xiang Restaurant. Crystal Jade's Zha Jiang La Mian is arguably the most distinctive from the rest. There is a thick coating of pretty intense sweet and spicy sauce around the smooth and finely textured la mian. I liked how the spiciness is adjusted to make it more tantalizing and also the minced pork was also quite savoury. The overall portion was super huge and almost felt like it was neverending.There are many restaurants under the Crystal Jade Culinary Concepts franchise - the other two I've been to is Crystal Jade Korean Ginseng Chicken & BBQ and Crystal Jade Steamboat Kitchen.

For full review: http://www.amiehu.com/2014/10/sanpoutei-at-holland-village-must-try.htmlSANPOUTEI. A name that used to be the elusive ramen place that everyone keeps talking about but now I've jumped onto the bandwagon and tried it for myself. And I say, yes, yes, yes! But only if you picked the right soup base for your ramen.There was a good mix of locals and Japanese in the brightly-lit ramen bar. It sounds weird to mention that it's brightly lit, but only because most of those I went had this hole-in-the-wall factor - SANPOUTEI actually reminds me of cafes with its unabashed neat arrangement of seating areas.Baskets and purse hangers are provided for bags of the patrons, allowing for 100% comfort level despite the slightly squeezy floor plan.The first ramen on the menu (which I've decided never to trust, ever again) was the NIIGATA SHOYU Ramen. The shoyu soup stock was rather thin, saltish (rather than savoury), hints of sardine and tonkotsu. I don't like how it didn't match up to the springiness of the ramen noodles which were really awesome. After eating so much ramen, I can't really tell objectively how different the ramen noodles were except that this was above average. But... the one that took my breath away was this:Rich TORI x MISO Ramen is the one you've gotta try when you are here. I haven't tried the Spicy version which I suspect I would love as well, but the original is definitely awesome. It's the first time the ramen broth diminished way faster than the ramen noodles did in my bowl! The broth was so thick, not with random nonsense, but eggy goodness with very rich tonkatsu to form a umami goodness that slips into the ramen spoon like velvet. No kidding. It's addictive and I slurped it all up spoon after spoon (I usually only fill the broth up to about one-fifth per spoonful). No fancy tricks with the ramen noodles, aburi chashu and the egg yolk was expectedly good, but I was too preoccupied with the broth anyway. With good soup base, three-quarters of the battle is won. Please try this.

The price point is pretty high - $16++/bowl, comparable to Ippudo's pricing. However I must emphasize that this is better than Ippudo and if you can only choose one, choose Rich TORI x MISO Ramen from SANPOUTEI. In fact, they are so popular they even opened a second branch at Shaw Towers. You can browse more restaurant reviews at Holland Village or follow my ramen trail here!

Curiosity makes the cat hungry. With the number of matcha lava cake photos circulating around, I would think that the Internet would have had an overdose on green tea. Something else is also brewing at Westgate: their latest dining establishment, Sync Korean Fusion Bistro. Korean food and I find it hard to agree with one another. How would Korean Fusion food score in this case?Clean lines, chic, casual and contemporary: Sync Korean Fusion Bistro's interior take on a monochrome, muted colour scheme with wooden tables splayed in right angles to one another. The good news is that there's no service charge involved in your final bill, you will still get the usual service-fare including service staff going to your table to order, and serving it to you. The bad news is that the dishes are priced quite expensively, so I wouldn't doubt that they subsumed that elusive service charge into the prices already. Their saving grace might be the free wifi for those whose mobile data is hitting the roof or on prepaid cards.A bistro opened by Samsung: with a corner for children: Sync Korean Fusion Bistro is opened by Samsung, the Korean multinational company responsible for what we are mostly acquainted with - smartphones and tablets. Possibly the only multi-coloured corner in the entire bistro, this is a children's corner for them to entertain themselves on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2.Kicking off the meal with a Salad consisting of a melee of sweet corn, mushroom, beansprouts, pickles, kimchi. While the sourness and sweetness hit the right notes, the portion - approximately the size of two regular protractors - was much too little to justify for its price of $7.90.The savoury Korean pancakes that were going one-for-one for DBS/POSB card users. Originally priced at $12 each, they come in two flavours - Seafood (white), and Kimchi (orange). The seafood okonomiyaki was heavy with flour and flavouring, and that's about it. The kimchi okonomiyaki scores slightly better in terms of taste, but credit goes greatly to the bonito flakes. Fusion with Japanese? I was confused. In any case, even with the card promotion, it doesn't feel like it's value-for-money.The Ja Jang Myeon ($12.90) can still be considered decent, with a succinct fusion of Italian spaghetti noodles and Chinese/Korean ja jang myeon fragrant black bean sauce. For some reason the noodles break really easily and were not al dente. Blur photo because I put too much faith in my new S4 to do the work for me.

My order of the Smoked Duck Ramyun ($13.90) was quite edible, with ramen-textured noodles soaked in a semi-spicy kimchi viscous sauce. The sauce was thick, but suspiciously made so by a(n) (over)dosage of corn starch rather than egg yolk or tonkotsu goodness like I wished. I guess my recent ramen escapades are spoiling me too much. There were so many points on this dish that felt pretty half-hearted (spiciness level, smokiness of the duck, sauce)... I can't recommend this.Budae Jjigae, the army stew which I didn't try but had reportedly less sticky broth.I probably only came for the Matcha Lava Cake ($7.90) which doesn't really disappoint except that the matcha doesn't flow as much as raved?! It was still warm and overall, quite satisfying. But... I noticed it was sitting at the counter for sometime before it was served. I get it that there is no service charge at this place, but lava cakes are time-sensitive. I can only say so much, without asking for a refund for the substandard experience at Sync Korean Fusion Bistro.

For full review: http://www.amiehu.com/2014/10/sync-korean-fusion-bistro-westgate.html

Genki Sushi is one of the places I love recommending to people who are looking for some unconventional experience while enjoying sushi. If you love Japanese cuisine - in particular sushi, it's unlikely that you haven't heard of this place. This is my third time at this place but somehow I'm only reviewing it now because I realized I haven't! Find out why it has got me raving:1. Going electronic.

I remember the first time visiting Genki Sushi and getting all impressed with its all-electronic system that meant ordering from an iPad, receiving sushi plates on a super cute train, and sending it back by pushing a button! Clearing plates require manpower though. This makes the whole dining experience much more exciting and fun.2. Varietyyyy!

Genki Sushi has quite a crazy amount of sushi choices for you to choose from, although all you see here are nigiri and gunkan (which are my favourites). Keep tabs on how much you've ordered or you're definitely going to burst your budget (whatever it is!) or your stomach space! Everything is very attractive and tapping away at the iPad screen gets pretty addictive too.Photo credits: Genki Sushi Singapore Facebook pagePhoto credits: Genki Sushi Singapore Facebook page3. Value-for-money

I wouldn't say that the sushi is top-notch or as good as Itacho Sushi's (I refer to ION or Plaza Singapura's branches), but it's pretty good for the price, variety and overall atmosphere of the place. It's enough to satisfy, and definitely don't miss out on the smoked duck nigiri which I'm absolutely crazy over! If you haven't been here before, I'll say go for it!

Do note that the queue for Genki Sushi can get very long sometimes, and waiting time goes up to 30 minutes or more during peak hours. There are chairs for those waiting at the front of queue though. I guess the new branch opening at Bugis+ might ease the overcrowding a little. You can always go to Tanuki Raw for fresh oysters as a backup plan if you are already at Orchard Central.