Kotobuki Izakaya at Wisma Atria Orchard

Kotobuki is well-known for its authentic Japanese cuisine which also a mastery on traditional sashimi. It also carries a unique collection of Sake and Shochu with a list of mouthwatering Otsumami, a dish that goes along with alcoholic beverages. Entering the branch at Wisma Atria, it provides a warm homely Japanese environment.

  

It was a family dinner and we were showed to a private room with 6 cosy seats. We ordered many many items as my sister simply love them. Here's what we had:

1. Yakiniku don ($15) - thinly sliced yakiniku pork slices sauteed with onions on rice. My mum loves the taste and tenderness of the pork. But I personally found it a little too fatty for my liking. Rating: 3.8/5

2. Aburi sake bakumori don ($26) - this dish looks like korean bingsu when it was first served to us. The rice was shaped to a volcano and covered with freshly cut salmon sashimi pcs covered with mango mentaiko sauce. Awesome!! Rating: 4.2/5

3. California maki ($12) - 8pcs of freshly prepared roll with generous filling and roe toppings. A maki worth ordering. Rating: 4/5

4. Chawanmushi ($5) - it is expensive for such a small cup of steam egg but the egg was so smooth and silky. Ethan loved it! Rating: 4/5

5. Fried dou miao ($12) - surprisingly a very good fried vegetable dish. Tasted better than the ones at Din Tai Fung. Rating: 4/5

6. Saikoro steak ($26) - pcs of tenderly grilled steak sauteed with garlic and black pepper on hotplate. Goes well with a bowl of high quality japanese rice. Rating: 3.8/5

7. Tonkatsu ($13) - ordinary deep fried pork cutlet that fails in comparison as compared to Tampopo or Tonkatsu. Rating: 3.2/5

8. Ika maruyaki ($17) - charcoal grilled squid so good with a glass of cold beer. Awesomely fresh and tender. Rating: 4/5

9. Garlic fried rice ($13) - not strong in garlic taste. Rather disappointing. Rating: 3/5

10. Curry udon ($13) - ordinary curry udon with pcs of potato, carrots. Rating: 3.5/5

11. Gyoza ($7.50) - fresh and juicy pork gyoza that tasted so good with vinegar. Rating: 4/5

Buta Hourensou itame - Kotobuki Izakaya at Wisma Atria Orchard - Paulin's Munchies

As drinks, we had their kyoho grape and yuzu soda float. ($7.50 each). A refreshing dessert and drink. Kotobuki Izayaki is definitely a great authentic Japanese restaurant for family and frenz.

A summary of items Ordered:

Yakiniku don

Aburi sake bakumori don

California maki

Chawanmushi

Fried dou miao

Saikoro steak

Tonkatsu

Ika maruyaki

Garlic fried rice

Curry udon

Gyoza

Kyoho grape and yuzu soda float

Buta Hourensou itame

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 3.9/5

Price: 3.2/5

Service: 3.5/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

Kotobuki Izakaya

435 Orchard Road, #01-18/18B Wisma Atria, Singapore 238877

OPENING HOURS (SEE ALL DAYS +) 11:30am - 10:30pm

PHONE +65 67347767

Restaurant - Japanese

0

Tampopo at Ngee Ann City Orchard

Tampopo is definitely not new to many and for years, the restaurant has maintained its Japanese quality and standard throughout. The first restaurant was at Liang Court. The queue at Ngee Ann City is perpetually long during meal times. As early as 5pm, queue has already started. 

During this season, Tampopo is offering a series of kurobuta pork dishes, from dons to noodles and shabu shabu. Despite the bustling hour, the servers are still very attentive to every customer's needs and wants. We ordered the below: 

1. California salad ($10.80) - their chef recommendation salad. Shredded crabmeat tossed on the top with wasabi salad dressing. Vegetables are fresh and crunchy and very refreshing with the dressing. Rating: 4/5

2. Black pig toro jyu ($22.80) - slices of seasoned black pig meat on rice with miso soup, pickles and watermelon. The sauce on the rest was absolutely delicious and pork so tenderly grilled. Rating: 4.2/5

3. Aburi salmon don ($16.80) - not the best don but salmon slices are fresh. The rice was sweet and overall combination still good. Rating: 3.8/5

4. Tori karaage ($8.80) - 5 pcs of very well seasoned chicken accompanied with fried sweet potato chips. The karaage is so good that you could eat it on its own without the mayo. Yummy! Rating: 4.2/5

Dish prices are a little steep at Tampopo but still considered worth it for its quality. We will definitely be back for the rest.

A summary of items Ordered:

California salad

Black pig toro jyu

Aburi salmon don

Tori karaage

My Overall Ratings:

Food: 4/5

Price: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 3.8/5

You can locate them here:

Tampopo

391A Orchard Road, #B2-33, Ngee Ann City, Singapore 238873

Tel: 62352318

Restaurant - Japanese

0

正新记 Famous Chicken Rice at WestMall

正新记 Famous Chicken Rice was founded in 1971. With the ever changing demands, the restaurant not only serves chicken rice but many other side dishes, dim sum and steamboat too.

The branch at WestMall is latest shop opened located on the 2nd level beside Swenson. Prices are nett with just service charge applicable. The restaurant was bright, spacious and clean. Looking through the menu, we went for the following dishes:

1. Poached white chicken rice ($4.80) - was rather disappointing as rice was plain and no flavor. Fortunately the chicken still tasted ok. Rating: 2.5/5


2. Soy sauce chicken noodle ($4.80) - the oil used to mix the noodle might have gone bad as there was very strong rancid oil smell and taste. The chicken was tough as well. Rating: 2/5


3. Fried springroll ($4.50) - one of the better dishes. The oil taste was rather strong but at least it was crunchy and fresh inside. Rating: 3/5


4. Siew Mai ($4.50) - the best dish of all. Crunchy fresh siew mai topped with prawn on the top. Rating: 3.5/5


5. Braised chicken feet ($4.50) - it was overly peppery in taste, probably to cover the strong taste. Rating: 3/5


6. Traditional grandma chap chye in claypot ($9.80) - a dish really not acceptable. It was slightly burnt and tasteless. Vegetables are hard as well. Very lacking in taste. Rating: 1.5/5


7. Peanut chicken feet soup ($5) - the soup was plain and peanut very hard. Guess those double boiled soup sold outside tasted better. Rating: 2/5


Overall 正新记 Famous Chicken Rice is rather disappointing. Improvements should be made to the dishes to attract more customers to return.


A summary of items Ordered
Poached white chicken rice
Soy sauce chicken noodle
Fried springroll
Siew Mai
Braised chicken feet
Traditional grandma chap chye in claypot
Peanut chicken feet soup

My Overall Ratings:
Food: 2/5
Price: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Service: 3/5

You can locate them here:
SinKee Chicken Rice (West Mall)
1 Bukit Batok Central Link, #02-04, Singapore 658713

Restaurant - Chinese

0

MILK MOONS at Takashimaya

MILK MOONS, the other cake company, is a new cake stall setup at the basement of Takashimaya just beside Tai Cheong Bakery. Very similar to Chalk Farm at Paragon, it sells cakes like kueh selat, kueh lapis and very local fusion cakes like pandan durian. Prices are ranged above $5 per slice.

The thick huge cakes attracted us to it and we went for their pandan INTI ($8). It is pandan sponge cake with gula melaka cream and coconut. The pandan cake is made of fresh pandan leave juices. It was soft, moist and delicious.

The gula melaka coconut strips were a little sweet and thickly sliced but overall was still a good pc of cake with a cup of black coffee or tea. We will be back to try the other recommended flavors like coffee almond cream and pandan durian.

The stall is having 10% discount on all cakes since the stall is new.


My Overall Ratings:
Food: 3.8/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: 3.8/5
Ambience: NA

You can locate them here:
MILK MOONS
Takashimaya Shopping Centre, #B2 (Food Hall), 391 Orchard Road, Singapore 238872

featured

0

PICNIC at Wisma Atria

PICNIC, located on the 3rd floor of Wisma Atria, has the dining concept very much like Marche. Customers are given a food buzzer each upon entry and food ordered are tagged to the buzzer. Upon food readiness, it will for collection. The restaurant ambience is very garden-like and cosy, very much like us having picnic in a real garden.

There are about 6 different food concept restaurant within, with the very popular Omakase burger as well. We went for the Japanese and Korean concept since we are their food lovers. Prices are rather steep, starting with more than $15 for main course.

We had budaejigae ramen ($16) and butadon with onsen egg ($21). The budaejigae soup base was seafoody and very tasty. Ingredients are clams, kimchi and chicken dumplings. The bowl looks small but filled very fully with ingredients. The noodles are little soggy and overall taste still good. Rating: 3.8/5




The must eat is the butadon, which is japanese chargrilled pork on rice. The sauce with the pork was simply awesome and tasted so good with the additional onsen egg added. Very generous portion of pork slices that were tenderly grilled. Thumbs up! Rating: 4.2/5

Bill is settled on the way out at the self checkout kiosk. PICNIC is a nice place for friends gathering but prices are a little steep. However, with the food quality, it was still worthwhile.




A summary of items Ordered:
Budaejigae ramen
Butadon with onsen egg


My Overall Ratings:
Food: 4/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: NA
Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:
PICNIC
435 Orchard Rd, Wisma Atria, #03-15 to 49, Singapore 238877

Restaurant - International

0

Come N Joy Korean Restaurant at Millenia Walk

Another Saturday of Korean food. Last week we had Bonchon Chicken at Bugis Plus and today via Eatigo, we are here at Millenia Walk for more Korean fried chicken.

Through Eatigo, we are entitled 30% off all food at Come N Joy Korean Restaurant. Its located outside along the stretch of restaurants of Millenia Walk. Being served by friendly Korean owner, he showed us to our spacious table. Popular dishes recommended are the fried chicken and ramyeon dishes.

We ordered the following:

1. Lemon cheese half chicken ($20) - 5 pcs of chunky tender crispy chicken coated with thicken lemon sauce and sprinkled with cheese. The chicken is juicy and flesh so soft that it will fall apart when bitten into it. Very delicious indeed. Rating: 4.2/5


2. Beef ramyeon ($12.90) - instant ramyeon topped with leek and beef slices. The soup base spiciness is just nice. We love the QQ texture of the noodles and we can just slurp them down. Rating: 3.8/5




The sides accompanying the dishes are not the tastiest but was enough to have the homecooked taste.

We will be back to try their other dishes like gimbap, seafood pancake etc.


A summary of items Ordered:
Lemon cheese half chicken
Beef ramyeon


My Overall Ratings:
Food: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Service: 3.8/5
Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:
Come N Joy
Millenia Walk #01-26, 9 Raffles Boulevard, Singapore 039596, Tel: +65 6338 3831

Restaurant - Korean

0

dessertstory at Tiong Bahru Plaza

dessertstory started in Singapore in 2007 with their vision of providing traditional, healthy Asian desserts for the young and old at any time. With many branches across Singapore, they are recommended for their hot desserts like black sesame paste and cold desserts like shaved ice and mango puddings.

Recently they have introduced a new Taiwanese all favourite dessert called the peanut candy ice cream roll. This is a popular must eat dessert at 九份. Priced at $3.50, this dessert is actually shaved peanut candy with yam ice cream wrapped in popiah skin. 


The yam ice cream was thick and creamy and tasted awesome with the shaved peanut candy but with the corriander added, it tasted totally weird. A little too strong in taste for our liking.

Nevertheless, it still serve as a good alternative for those who crave for it without having to go to Taiwan but will be good if they put in less corriander.


My Overall Ratings:
Food: 3.5/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5

You Can locate them here:
dessertstory
#B1-140,Tiong Bahru Plaza, 302 Tiong Bahru Road, Singapore 168732. Tel: 6352 2162

featured

0

Bonchon Chicken at Bugis Plus

Bonchon Chicken is another Korean fried chicken restaurant following many others like Chicken Up. Located on the ground floor of Bugis Plus, it is located just beside Xin Man Lee Rou Gu Cha restaurant. 

The restaurant is open-concept, with wooden benches, tables and chairs. It was rather crowded at 5.30pm on a Sat. Ordering is self service via the ipad unless we wanted to order their promo set. We decided to go for some of their specialities instead. We had 4 dishes in all: 

1. Jajangmyeon ($9.90) - the noodles looked like instant pkt jajangmyeon noodles. The dish is accompanied with 2 pcs of fried chicken pcs. Not the best jajangmyeon we have eaten as the noodles are sticky and flat. Rating: 3.2/5





2. Half and half chicken wings ($8.90) - for 3pcs of wings and drumlets each, we ordered both of their spicy and soy garlic flavor, thus named as half and half. The chicken is crispy on the outside but a little dry. We preferred the saucier version. Rating: 3.5/5




3. Gyoza ($7.90) - suprisingly this is one of the best side dish. The gyoza is deep fried and drizzled with sweet sauce. The gyozas are huge and juicy. Yummilicious! Rating: 4/5




4. Tofu salad ($9.90) - fresh lettuce with tofu and sesame dressing. The sauce was flavorful with a tinge of sourness. Very refreshing indeed. Rating: 3.8/5


For fried chicken, we definitely prefer others like Chicken Up and Chir Chir Chicken. Neverthless, Bonchon chicken still serves as a decent Korean restaurant for family and frenz. 


A summary of items Ordered:
Jajangmyeon
Half and half chicken wings
Gyoza 
Tofu salad


My Overall Ratings:
Food: 3.5/5
Price: 3.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.8/5


You can locate them here:
Bonchon Chicken
#01-11 BUGIS+, 201 VICTORIA STREET, Singapore 188067

Restaurant - Korean

0