Seoul Jjimdak at Northpoint City

Seoul Jjimdak's 1st branch was at City Square Mall. Its boss brought in the jjimdak food dishes from Seoul, which is braised chicken in soy sauce. 

Besides the main jjimdak, the restaurant also offers other popular Korea dishes like army stew, fried chicken tteokbokki etc.  

With Eatigo discount, we managed to secure a reservation at 6pm today at their Northpoint City outlet. We ordered 3 dishes in all:

1. Spicy tteokbokki with cheese ($12.90) - we added $1 for mushroom. The tteokbokki was chewy and spicy and we love the sauce. However, it would be better if the cheese is more evenly melted and could have a little more sauce. Rating: 3.8/5

2. Japchae ($12.90) - sweet potato glass noodles stir fried with onions, chicken, mushrooms etc. Tasted more chinese than the authentic korean japchae. Rating: 3.5/5

3. Fried chicken ($12.90) - we had to top up extra $2 for asking for the mixed flavor of spicy and non-spicy. The chicken was succulent and I love the marinated flavor. Much better than Cafe Mamma or other equivalent. Rating: 4/5

We would definitely be back to try their original jjimdak dish. So do stay tune for our jjimdak review.

A summary of what we had:

Spicy tteokbokki with cheese

Japchae

Fried chicken

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.7/5

Price: 3.8/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: 3.5/5

You can locate them here:

Seoul Jjimdak
Northpoint City, 930 Yishun Avenue 2, #B1-179, Singapore 769098

Restaurant - Korean

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OMU Singapore at Suntec City

OMU, Japanese lava omu rice, has opened its first branch in Singapore at Suntec City. Very similar to Kyoto's Kichi Kichi omu rice, the restaurant offers various omu/lava omu rice with sides. OMU is not originated from Japan but from Thailand. In Bangkok, they have several branches like in Siam Center etc.  

The lava omu is a $2 top-up from the usual standard omu rice. Would say its worth the top up as its fluffy on the inside. However, the texture is not as viscuous as Kichi Kichi Omu when cut open. 

We had 2 mains and a salad.

1. Curry omu rice with chicken cutlet  ($12.80) - crispy and juicy breaded chicken cutlet fried to the right taste and texture accompanied with hot and delicious tasting curry sauce omu rice. Really one of the better omu rice tasted. The rice is flavourful unlike others which could be served with plain rice. Rating: 4/5

2. Nagoya style red miso omu rice with pork cutlet ($14.90) - the pork cutlet was similarly juicy and crunchy. The rice is sauteed with chicken chunks and homemade sauce. The red miso sauce was a little sourish and it is much preferred over the curry. Rating: 4.1/5

3. Mushroom salad ($9.90) - generous portion of salad with sauteed garlic mushrooms. Ordinary in taste. Rating: 3.5/5

For omu rice lovers, OMU is definitely worth a try as it really serves the better omu as compared to others. 

A summary of what we had:

Curry omu rice with chicken cutlet

Nagoya style red miso omu rice with pork cutlet

Mushroom salad

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.8/5

Price: 3.8/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: 3.9/5

You can locate them here:

OMU Singapore

3 Temasek Boulevard, #01-301A/301B, West Wing, Suntec City, Singapore 038983

Tel: +65 98340079

Opening Hours: 10:00am – 10:00pm

Restaurant - Japanese

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Aburi-En at Tanjong Pagar Center

Aburi-En is a cosy Japanese restaurant offering flame-seared meat on rice. Their popular and recommended mouth-watering dons include their kurobuta and wagyu beef series.

With their newest opening at B2 of Tanjong Pagar Center, we were there to try out their delicious and very appetizing looking dons. We ordered the below:

1. Kurobuta hoho don ($16) - tenderly grilled kurobuta pork marinated in their homemade sauce. The pork was so flavourful and nicely done that it melted in our mouths. It was an awesome combination with the sweet japanese rice drizzled with their sauce. Rating: 4/5

2. Aburi salmon don ($13) - has expected the salmon slices to be more torched but they were like salmon sashimi don instead. Rating: 3.5/5

3. Chicken nanban ($7.80) - this dish deserves 2 thumbs up. The chicken pcs were so succulent and juicy and the skin tasted so good. It was great with the tartar sauce accompanying it. Rating: 4.2/5

All dishes are subjected to 10% gst and 7% service charge. We would be back to try their wagyu dons next and we simply love their chicken nanban. 

A summary of what we had:
Kurobuta hoho don
Aburi salmon don
Chicken nanban

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.9/5

Price: 3.5/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:
Aburi-En 

#B2-09, Tanjong Pagar Center, Singapore 078884

Restaurant - Japanese

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Chill Gen Modern Cha Chan Teng at JCube

Chill Gen Modern Cha Chan Teng is another HK concept restaurant by Xin Wang. The restaurant is located at level 1 of JCube beside Aji-ichi. It offers a scaled down version of Xin Wang's menu, with more focus on one dish meal. 

The restaurant is not crowded even during meal times and would be a good place to chat and chillout. We ordered 2 mains and 1 vegetable for dinner today.

1. Chicken chop instant noodle ($8.80) - HK style nissin noodle soup with tenderly fried chicken chop and panfried egg. Love the nissin noodle springiness. Rating: 3.6/5

2. HK signature noodles ($9.80) - fried HK noodles with loads of seafood and ingredients. Tasted not as good as it smells but given its ingredients' freshness still quite good. Rating: 3.4/5

3. Sambal long beans ($6.80) - very small portion of fried long beans with sambal. Similarly not as tasty as it smells. Rating: 3/5

Overall, Xin Wang definitely offers better food choices as compared to Chill Gen. Would head down to Xin Wang anytime if we craved for HK style food. 

A summary of what we had:
Chicken chop instant noodle
HK signature noodles
Sambal long beans

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.2/5

Price: 3.5/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: 3.8/5

You can locate them here:

Chill Gen Modern Cha Chan Teng

2 Jurong East Central 1, #01-06, Singapore 609731

Restaurant - Chinese

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One Sushi at Northpoint Drive Yishun

Located at Yishun Town Square beside Northpoint City, One Sushi offers a wide variety of affordable sushi at $1.50 per plate. Just like Sushi Express, these sushi are available on the conveyor belt. Other than these, there are other food varieties as well and the highly recommended ones are their mentaiko dishes. Being mentaiko lovers, we tried majority of their recommended dishes. 

We had 3 yellow plates at $1.50 each. Basically their salmon sushi, jellyfish and fried fish skin. The fish skin is recommended as its lightly fried yet crispy and not so oily. We had zaru soba ($2.80) which was rather hard, chicken and vegetable gyoza ($3.60), tori karaage ($3.60) , french fries mentai ($3.80), ika mentai ($4.80) and lastly, salmon crepe roll ($8.80). 

Of all, we would recommend their ika mentai, french fries mentai and salmon crepe roll. They were generous with their mentaiko and flamed to the right level. Ordered items are sent to you via their auto-cart like Genki. 

One Sushi is very much like Genki Sushi. In terms of sushi quality, Genki is definitely much preferred. We should not be back anytime in the near future. Hopefully their sushi standard would have improved by then. 

Here's a summary of what we had:
Zaru soba
Chicken and vegetable gyoza
Tori karaage
French fries mentai
Ika mentai
Salmon crepe roll

My overall ratings:

Food: 3/5

Price: 3.8/5

Ambience: 3.5/5

Service: 3.3/5

You can locate them here:

One Sushi

3 Northpoint Drive, Yishun Town Square, #01-04, Singapore 760925

Restaurant - Japanese

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Myung Ga II at Bukit Timah Plaza

It has such a long time since we last stepped into Bukit Timah Plaza. The last time we went there was like 15yrs ago. The place has modernised a little but some of the old restaurants like the stalls selling Nyonya delicacies are still around.

We have heard of many good and affordable Korean restaurants in Bt Timah Plaza, so we decided to give it a try at Myung Ga II. 

The small Korean restaurant is located at B1 of the mall. The restaurant is small and one feels like in Korea when stepped into the restaurant. 

We were served with 4 sides: kimchi, seaweed, tamago and ikan billis. The sides are freeflow and we loved the ikan billis and kimchi. So good! We ordered 3 of their dinner dishes: 

1. Spicy cold noodles ($18) - this dish deserves the 2 thumbs up! The springy noodles are so refreshing and the taste is exactly like what we had in Korea! Rating: 4.5/5

2. Spicy chicken soup ($15) - piping hot korean soup with lots of leek, vermicilli and chicken pcs. Not the usual kimchi stew flavour but with a unique homecook taste. Rating: 4/5

3. Seafood leek pancake ($18) - crispily fried pancake with lots of leek and seafood. Its so tasty even without the soy sauce. Kevin loved it! Rating: 4.2/5

All prices are without Gst and service charge. We will definitely be back to try the other dishes but do come early or will need to queue for at least mins or more. 

A summary of what we had:

Spicy cold noodles

Spicy chicken soup

Seafood leek pancake

My overall ratings:

Food: 4.2/5

Price: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 3.8/5

You can locate them here:

Myung Ga II 

1 Jln Anak Bukit, Bukit Timah Plaza, #B1-11, Singapore 588996

Restaurant - Korean

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Tianfu SzeChuan Cuisine at CityVibe Clementi

We have been missing our SzeChuan dishes ever since we returned from our Shanghai trip so we continued our craze by trying out Tianfu SzeChuan Cuisine in Clementi. 

Quietly situated on the 1st level of CityVibe, the restaurant serves a constant small group of streaming customers, be it China locals or Singaporeans. We were approached by their friendly staff and realised they do lots of takeaway from Foodpanda. 

We tried 3 dishes below: 

1. 干妈鸡 ($14) - very fragrantly fried chicken pcs in peppercorns, garlic, dried chilli etc. The taste of the dish was excellent but the negative point is that the portion is small. Rating: 4/5

2. 番茄炒蛋($8) - a simple yet difficult to achieve dish. Very well done with the right taste and texture. Rating: 4/5

3. 干炒四季豆($9) - deep fried long green beans fried fragrantly with caipu and garlic. Awesome dish to go with rice and we really enjoyed it. Rating: 4.2/5

All dishes are subjected to gst and service charge. We thoroughly enjoyed the food and will definitely be back for more! 

A summary of what we had:

干妈鸡 (Gàn mā jī)

番茄炒蛋 (Tomato scrambled eggs)

干炒四季豆 (deep fried long green beans)

My overall ratings:

Food: 4.1/5

Price: 3.8/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 3.5/5

You can locate them here:

Tianfu SzeChuan Cuisine

3151 Commonwealth Ave W, #01-17/18, CityVibe, Singapore 129581

Restaurant - Chinese

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Gong Yuan Mala Tang at Westgate

Located on the 4th floor of Westgate, Gong Yuan Mala Tang offers a great dinner alternative to diners who wish to have hot piping soup on a cold day.

Customers are free to choose their own mala ingredients and Gong Yuan really offers a wide variety of them. There are only soup based options, choosing from 4 bases: mala, pork broth, pickled vegetables and tomato. All ingredients are charged at a standard price at $2.68 per 100g. 

We opted for their mala base with medium spiciness. The soup base was thick and smooth with the right spiciness though its medium hot.

I love the soup and tasted especially good on a cold evening. Ingredients were fresh and there are things like cheese cuttlefish balls etc. We tried their black fungus dumplings at well at 5pcs for $3.50. Nothing too special. 

We would give thumbs up for their mala soup and will definitelt be back to try the other soup bases. One trick to note is to get lighter ingredients since the price is the same for all ingredients.

My overall ratings:

Food: 4/5
Price: 4/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Service: 3.5/5

You can locate them here:

Gong Yuan Mala Tang

#04-07, 3 Gateway Dr, Singapore 608532

Restaurant - Chinese

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Indulge at RedHouse Upper Thomson

Indulge, a fusion western stall at the corner of RedHouse in Upper Thomson, offers a wide range of western food at affordable prices. Ordering is done at the stall and food is to be self collected upon buzzer sounds. 

Our buddies and us were there to try out their highly recommended bowls. We had the below:

1. Chicken cutlet bowl ($6) - there is a small bowl version at $4. The nacho cheese on the fried juicy cutlet deserves thumbs up. There is tasty popcorn as sides but strangely made a good combo. Rating: 3.8/5

2. Teriyaki salmon bowl ($11) - 2 salmon fillet on rice with popcorn side. The salmon is a little dry and tasted rather ordinary. Rating: 3.2/5

3. Hae bee hiam pasta with chicken chop ($7) - generous portion of chicken chop with pasta fragrantly fried with garlic and hae bee. Not spicy but a tad salty. Quite tasty for a fusion pasta. Rating: 3.5/5

4. BBQ Sauce Chicken chop ($7) - typical western food with coleslaw and fries. The bbq sauce and fries are salty and would be better with teriyaki or mushroom sauce.

5. Sweet potato fries ($3) - shoestring sweet potato deep fried in oil. Would have tasted better if the fries were cut slightly more evenly.

Overall, food's portion from Indulge is not too bad and tasted ok as well. There seems to be some inconsistency in cooking and would be good if the standard maintains the same throughout.

A summary of what we had:

Chicken cutlet bowl

Teriyaki salmon bowl

Hae bee hiam pasta with chicken chop

BBQ Sauce Chicken chop

Sweet potato fries

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.5/5

Price: 4/5

Service: NA

Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Indulge

236 Upper Thomson Road, Red House Kopitiam, Singapore 574367

FoodCourt - Fusion

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Gochi-So Shokudo at Westgate

Taken over Coco Ichiban at Westgate, Gochi-so Shokudo has opened their 2nd outlet on 13th Oct earlier this month. Gochi-so serves affordable Iberico pork all the way from Spain. 

Ordering is self service at the counter and customers will only be given their table no upon ordering complete. Food will be served thereafter. The service crew were friendly. 

Besides pork, Gochi-so also serves chicken katsus and other various sides. We ordered 2 mains as follow: 

1. Pork jowl don ($13.80) - beautifully charcoal grilled pork cheek slices on rice with onsen egg. We added $4 more for set which comes with salad and miso soup. The pork cheek is so well done and it simply melts in your mouth. No porky smell at all and can go with the many condiment sauces on the table. Awesome! Rating: 4.2/5

2. Chicken curry katsu ($14.80) - the katsu is breaded freshly on the spot and deep fried to the right temperature and juiciness. The chicken was tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. The curry sauce is indeed delicious as well. Rating: 4/5

The only negative point is that we had to wait 25mins for the dons. Hopefully the waiting time can be reduced when we visit it again. Other than this, the food here deserves thumbs up. 

A summary of what we had:

Pork jowl don

Chicken curry katsu

My overall ratings:
Food: 4.1/5

Price: 4/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

Gochi-So Shokudo 

3 Gateway Drive,#01-02, Westgate, Singapore 608532

Restaurant - Japanese

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