MASA by Black Society at Great World City

MASA stands for Master in HK Cantonese and Taiwanese slang and MASA by Black Society is a master of artisanal dim sum. MASA aims to bring the traditional dim sum to a different level of creativity and dimension. 

MASA opened its first branch at Orchard 313. Its 2nd outlet was recently opened with all the grand opening of the revamped Great World City. Located opposite McDonald's, this cosy and foresty looking restaurant serves a series of fusion food and artisanal dim sum. 

Recently to attract more customers amid the Covid-19 situation, MASA offers a series of all day value set meal. We were served by very friendly staff and seated at a very cosy corner of the restaurant. MASA is a very good place for gathering with both family and frenz as the place is spacious and clean and quiet.

We ordered the following:

1. Fried chicken rice value set ($13.80) - crispy fried chicken lined with ginger bits. The cutlet was a little cold but fortunately still crispy. The egg fried rice was tasteless and the side fried vegetable tempura was cold and mushy. We enjoyed the hot pandan drink accompanying the set. Tasted a little like barley with strong pandan taste. Rating: 3.5/5

2. Sweet and sour pork ($16) - a highly recommended must order dish at MASA. This dish is fried with preserved ginger and was awesome in terms of flavour and texture. Thumbs up! Rating: 4/5

3. Spicy shumai ($5.50) - 2pcs of prawn shumai topped with floss. It was hard unlike other siew mai that we have eaten. Rating: 3/5

4. Dinosaur rice roll ($8.80) - 4 big pcs of chee cheong fun rolls stuffed crispy you tiao and popiah filling. A delicious rice roll to be considered. Rating: 3.8/5

We were not blown away by their dim sum dishes but had to to admit that their sweet and sour pork was good. Hopefully their food could be hotter and quality/taste be improved given their steep pricing.

A summary of what we had:

Fried chicken rice value set

Sweet and sour pork

Spicy shumai

Dinosaur rice roll

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.5/5

Price: 3/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

MASA by Black Society

Great World City, 1 Kim Seng Promenade, Singapore 237994

Restaurant - Fusion

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Bonchon Chicken at Northpoint City Yishun

Bonchon Chicken offers a wide range of Korean comfort food with the finest ingredients. The chicken is cooked using the unique double frying method found by the originator Jinduk Seo. It is supposedly to retain the juiciness of the chicken within the crispness of the skin. The sauces are also made in Busan so that it would taste the same around the world. 

We were at their Northpoint City outlet for dinner today. The outlet is located within the Food Street right opposite Value Shop. Ordering was done via the friendly servers.

1. Half and Half ($16.90) - small whole chicken in hot and spicy sauce and soy garlic. There are about 7pcs of chicken in all. The sauce was good, but the chicken were a tad dry to our liking. It does not have the juiciness unlike some other chicken stalls. The spicy sauce is definitely not for the faint hearted as it is really spicy. Rating: 3.5/5

2. Beef meatballs ($8.90) - 6pcs of marinated minced beef made into crunchy meatballs topped with bulgogi sauce. It was soft and delicious with the fresh crunchy lettuce. Rating: 4/5

3. Spicy ramyeon with egg ($9.90) - quite an instant noodle dish. Nothing to shout about except that it was rather plain. Not worth it for the price. Rating: 3/5

The fried chicken was a little disappointing but maybe it could be a branch factor thing. Hopefully we will be back at the other branches to give it a try again.

A summary of what we had:

Half and Half Whole Chicken

Beef meatballs

Spicy ramyeon with egg

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.5/5

Price: 3.5/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: 3.8/5

You can locate them here:

Bonchon Chicken

1 NorthPoint Dr, #B1-180, Northpoint City South Wing, Singapore 768019

Restaurant - Korean

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Hey Tea at Jurong East Westgate

Bailey's bobo shake is new creation from Hey Tea. Priced at $9.90, this alcoholic bubble tea is only available till 31st March. One can choose the different sugar level and could opt with or without whipped cream. We opted 50% sugar level with whipped cream topping. With high anticipation, we thought it would be heavenly but to our disappointment, it was diluted in taste and could hardly taste the bailey. 

At $9.90, it was definitely not satisfying at all and very pricey indeed. We would propose to go for others, like their mango shake or usual cheese bubble tea etc.

My overall ratings:

Drink: 3/5

Price: 2.8/5

Service: NA

Ambience: NA

You can locate them here:

Hey Tea

3 Gateway Dr, #01-25 , Westgate, Singapore 600226

Beverage - Bubble Tea

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Banchong Cafe at Vanguard Campus Kallang Junction

Banchong cafe is a minimalist hipster white cafe located at Vanguard Campus Kallang Junction. Looking at the interior and alfresco dining concept, we would think that the cafe should be offering the usual English lattes and breakfast brunches. But on the contrary, it offers traditional food like kaya butter toast set and many other local food at very affordable prices. 

Banchong is an open air concept cafe, with many power plug points available for one to chill and work at the same time. The cafe only opens on weekdays, from 8.30am to 6pm. We made our way down for brunch this morning and took us a 15mins walk from Lavender MRT. Ordering is done at the counter and food is to be collected after they call for your queue no. We ordered their popular and highly recommended kaya butter toast set ($4.50) and curry chicken with prata set ($6.80).

1. Kaya butter toast set - the soft boil eggs are so runny and lovely. The yolks are huge and juicy and so fresh. Loving it!! The kaya is homemade, so custardy and not overly sweet. The bread is toasted to the right texture and crunch. The coffee is a little diluted and milky for my liking though. Rating: 4.2/5

2. Curry chicken with prata set - generous portion of chicken cooked in Nonya curry. Its rather spicy but it has a great lemongrass taste. The prata was ordinary, think it's the ready made kind from the supermarket. Rating: 3.8/5

Personally would highly recommend their toast set instead of their local food. We enjoyed the ambience but it can be quite warm on a sunny day. Do come down to give their toast a try on a weekday if possible!

A summary of what we had:

Kaya butter toast set

Curry chicken with prata set

My overall ratings:

Food: 4/5

Price: 4/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

Banchong Cafe

1 Kallang Jct, Vanguard Campus, Singapore 339263

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Yishun Park Hawker Center

Yishun Park Hawker Center has been around since 2017 and it is a traditional hawker center with innovated and modernized hawker fare. There is a very wide variety of food stalls in the center, some of which are managed by very young entrepreneur hawkers. 

The hawker center is quite well ventilated, with very high ceilings and ceiling fans. Today we are there for dinner to explore some of the highly recommended food.

1. Ah Tan Crispy Chicken - at $1.80 per pc, this stall serves very delicious har cheong gai. The wings are a little oily though and it was indeed very crispy and fresh. Would have been better if the smelly beancurd taste is much stronger. Rating: 3.8/5

2. Ipoh Curry Noodles - we wanted to go for their signature roasted pork with chicken curry noodle but it was sold out. We opted for their normal chicken noodle at $6. The ingredients were very generous with lots of taupok, chicken slices and beansprouts. Though it was not as authentic, it was really a pretty decent bowl of curry noodle. Rating: 3.8/5

3. Munchi Pancake - selling at $1.20 per pc of man chiang kueh, the peanut filling one was awesome. You can either choose their traditional skin, charcoal skin or green tea flavoured ones. I love their generous filling and peanut butter flavour. There are other flavours like green tea red bean, coconut etc. It is a modernized man chiang kueh stall with many other fillings as well. Rating: 4/5

4. Jiaocai Hotplate Bbq Seafood - we ordered a medium sambal stingray at $15. The stingray was very fresh and the sambal chilli was good as well. Rating: 4/5

5. Crayfish chilli crab horfun - this is from XLX tze char stall. Priced at $24, one gets 3 crayfish. The horfun was delicious with a slight charred taste. A novelty to try but not a must. Rating: 3.8/5

6. Truffle beef burger - from the stall East meet West, this stall is managed by an ang moh. The beef patty was awesomely juicy with the huge portobello mushroom and the buns are toasted just right. We love the juiciness of the beef. The wedges are ordinary though. For $10.90, it's definitely worth the wait. Rating: 4/5

There are many other stalls to try but unfortunately the above 6 was what I can introduce today. We will be back to review on the rest of the stalls thus do stay tuned!

A summary of what we had:

Ah Tan Crispy Chicken

Ipoh Curry Noodles

Munchi Pancake

Jiaocai Hotplate Bbq Seafood

Crayfish chilli crab horfun

Truffle beef burger

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.9/5

Price: 4/5

Service: NA

Ambience: 3.5/5

You can locate all of them here:

Yishun Park Hawker Center

51 Yishun Ave 11, Singapore 768867

Hawker - Western

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Sushiro at Tiong Bahru Plaza

Sushiro, Japan's largest conveyor belt sushi chain, has opened its first outlet in Singapore last year at Tiong Bahru Plaza. Recently, it has opened another 2 outlets, at Isetan Shaw Orchard in January and Causeway Point in March. 

Sushiro offers more than 100 varieties of sushi, with prices ranging from $2.20 to $4.80. The red plates are priced at $2.20, gold plates at $3.20 and black ones at $4.80. Besides sushi, there are several side dishes like karaage, fried octopus and many many more. The desserts include Hattendo cream buns or puddings and milli crepes. 

The Tiong Bahru Plaza outlet is a 162 seater restaurant, with 2 conveyor belts per table. One is for normal sushi and the other specific to your order. Each plate has a sushi chip, which allows the plate to be removed after moving 350m on the belt to guarantee the freshness of the sushi. Billing is done via scanning the plates to count the qty.

We ate 8 x red plates and 1 x gold plates. I would highly recommend pork slice sushi, sword fish sushi, limited edition chicken rice sushi and beef ball sushi. For sides do go for the fried octopus and salmon croquettes. The fried octopus is so tender and and seriously addictive. We opted for the Hattendo coconut pudding with brown sugar, which was sinfully delicious to end the whole meal.

For $2.20 per plate, Sushiro definitely offers the most affordable sushi with guaranteed quality. We will definitely be back for more to try the rest of the dishes!

My overall ratings:

Food: 4/5

Price: 4/5
Service: 3.9/5

Ambience: 3.8/5

You can locate them here:

Sushiro

302 Tiong Bahru Rd, Tiong Bahru Plaza, #02-118, Singapore 168732

Restaurant - Japanese

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Green Ba at Marina Square

Green Ba is a vegetarian dining concept offering a variety of Asian and Western dishes. One can enjoy up to more than 50 different choices in Thai and Indonesian style as well. 

We went to their Marina Square outlet which took over Lady M previously. The Covid-19 has really hit the restaurant hard as it is used to be with lots of people but now only 3 tables are occupied including us. Nevertheless we enjoyed their attentive 1 to 1 table service.

The restaurant is beautifully and cleanly decorated with wooden furniture. We ordered 4 different mains to try and 3 sides to share.

1. Dry truffle noodles ($14.90) - dry la mian with 3pcs of tempura fried lotus root and mock minced meat with mushrooms. Very decent bowl of la mian and love the texture and truffle taste. Rating: 4/5

2. Claypot gongbao chicken rice ($10.90) - hot piping chicken mock meat with gongbao chilli sauce and lots of broccoli and carrot. Tasted very much like the ordinary claypot rice taking away the burnt taste. Rating: 3.8/5

3. Sesame oil chicken claypot rice ($10.90) - tasted very similar like the gongbao one except a stronger sesame taste. Nothing too fanciful. Rating: 3.8/5

4. Truffle aglio oglio ($18.90) - healthy pasta with lots of mushrooms and truffle oil. Rather blend in taste. Rating: 3.5/5

5. Spicy wantons ($6.90) - the best dish of all and we are all surprised that vegetarian wantons can be so delicious, especially with the sauce. 2 thumbs up for it! Rating: 4.2/5

6. Satay ($9.80) - mock meat on satay with sourish satay sauce. Tasted ordinary and could do better. Rating: 3.5/5

7. Broccoli with egg white ($14.90) - very decent vegetable dish and we love the scrambled egg white. Very delicious and healthy. Rating: 4/5

We are surprise that vegetarian dishes can be done so nicely especially the spicy wantons. We were happy that we are eating with much less guilt and felt a little healthier. 浪

Green Ba is definitely a decent restaurant option for vegetarians or vegans.

A summary of what we had:

Dry truffle noodles

Claypot gongbao chicken rice

Sesame oil chicken claypot rice

Truffle aglio oglio

Spicy wantons

Satay

Broccoli with egg white

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.8/5

Price: 3.8/5

Service: 4/5

Ambience: 4/5

You can locate them here:

Green Ba

6 Raffles Blvd, #02-103 Marina Square, Singapore 039594

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Parallel at Raffles City Shopping Centre

Located at the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre where most of the food stalls are located, Parallel is a speciality coffee joint with acai bowls. Given the recent Covid-19 situation, acai bowls are getting popular as it provides an awesome source of antioxidants. 

Parallel's acai bowls come in 2 sizes, regular at $8.90 and large at $12.90. There are 3 choices to choose from: Superstar, Antioxidant and Amino Bowl. We opted for the Superstar and Antioxidant bowl. The Superstar comprises of banana, blueberry, pumpkin seeds and granola on acai smoothie base. The acai smoothie was a little icy and diluted. Fortunately it was drizzled with honey and banana which gives it a sweeter taste.

The Antioxidant comprises of dragon fruit, strawberries, goji and granola. We added $1 for the almond nut butter drizzle. This bowl was even more bland in taste.

Overall, we were a little disappointed with the acai taste as the bowl in Takashimaya is definitely much better.

A summary of what we had:

Superstar Bowl

Antioxidant Bowl

My overall ratings:

Food: 3.2/5

Price: 3.5/5

Service: 3.8/5

Ambience: N.A

You can locate them here:

Parallel

252 North Bridge Rd, #B1-68, Raffles City Shopping Centre, Singapore 179103

Food Stall - Acai

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Ju Fu Mala Kitchen at Food Republic Orchard Isetan Shaw House

Located right at the back of Food Republic Orchard Isetan Shaw House where the old Japanese food town is, Ju Fu Mala Kitchen is a new Sichuan concept stall selling 麻辣香锅 and other fried Chuan dishes. The selection is rather wide, with vegetables pricing at $1 each, mushroom at $2, meat at $3 and seafood at $4. The base pot is charged at $2.50. 

We waited quite long for the food to be cooked. It took about 20mins before it was served but it was well worth the wait. The dish was very fragrantly fried with the ingredients chopped nicely. The base is not too wet or dry and the noodles retained its QQness. Love its 香麻 taste. The only negative point is that its really expensive. For such a small portion, it costs $15.50.

Despite not value for money, we think that it's still worth a try. So do drop by if you are around the area this weekend.

My overall ratings:

Food: 4/5

Price: 3/5

Service: 3/5

Ambience: 3/5

You can locate them here:

Ju Fu Mala Kitchen

350 Orchard Road, Shaw House, #B1 - 02, Singapore 238868

Food Stall - Chinese

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