Watami at ION Orchard was recently given a facelift. The restaurant is a lot smaller now but the interior looks a bit more posh and they even have some brand new dishes on their menu. I ordered myself a Tonkotsu Ramen and Miso Yakionigiri set. The ramen came in a nicely plated huge bowl with an onsen tamago. If you prefer eating your chashu meat hot, then it would be advisable to let it soak in the soup for a while because it was served to me cold. The noodles are pretty good although the soup broth was a bit too salty for me.This is the first time I've heard of Yakionigiri - "onigiri" is a rice ball and "yaki" usually refers to dishes that have been grilled or fried. While it was a bit oily, I enjoyed the natural saltiness of the miso paste that has been generously slathered on top of the fried onigiri. And it makes for a very interesting side dish! You should try it for yourself..

It's my first visit to this Japanese restaurant at the new Plaza Singapura extension. They have a rather unique and interesting concept - an open bar appetizer buffet with every main course ordered! Plus, it has pretty good selection of appetizers ranging from chawamushi, salads and other Japanese side dishes.I decided to try their Beef Sukiyaki ($14.90) which turned out not bad. There were enough beef slices and the sukiyaki broth was rich and flavourful. They even added some shimeiji mushrooms to it. Overall, the food was really worth the price and I'll definitely come back again to try out their other dishes.

I'm back here again for some affordable teppanyaki! The lunch set here costs only $9.90 and you get a whole plate of meat, lots of veggies and a bowl of soup too. The teppanyaki chefs here sure know how to do their thing. They cooked up 3 servings of veggies in a single swoop and equally divided them up into 3 plates.It's my first time trying the pork here. Although I still prefer the beef, the pork was tender and tasty too but it seems they use exactly the same type of sauce for all the meats. You could also add-on an omelette for $1 if you'd like. Overall, great place to have some pretty affordable teppanyaki.

Situated just at the entrance of Forum Shopping Mall, this ramen restaurant serves up pretty affordable lunch sets. For just $14+ you get to choose a bowl of ramen, one additional topping, one side dish and a drink. There is also this huge caligraphy painting in the restaurant which caught my eye because it kinda looks like 5 cute gyoza. I ordered the Tonkatsu Ramen which was pretty disappointing. The pork slices were chopped up into bits instead of served in thick chunky slices. Good thing the broth was pretty good and the noodles were springy too.For the side dishes, we shared a plate of 5 mini-sized Gyoza and Chicken Karaage. Nothing exceptional about these 2 dishes and the gyoza was also rather oily. Overall, it's a pretty decent place to have a quiet and quick lunch.

I've walked past this cafe several times before but this is my first time trying out the food here. It's one of those Japanese parfait cafes that make beautifully colourful parfaits, pastries and drinks.A friend mentioned that she has been addicted to Matcha Latte recently and I was curious to find out what so good about it. The Matcha Latte you get here is quite different from the one you get at Starbucks. It's a lot creamier and the distinct bitterness of the Matcha is more pronounced. It is also less sweet which is great!They have this pastry called the Chocoro. It's basically a croissant with various types of cream filling in them - from custard to chocolate and even red bean. The chocolate cream was rather rich and not as sweet, and it paired up really well with the Matcha Latte.