Brotzeit (Westgate)

Rating: 3.5/5
Destination: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, #01-04

Comments: A German Bar and Restaurant, but definitely more like a great bar. Bar counters and normal tables and chairs for customers to seat on. As Westgate is an eco-mall, seats outside might be slightly warm even though there are big helicopter fans. But that does not make Brotzeit a bad place to drink and enjoy. I’ll be talking about some of their main dishes and sausages.

Rinderfilet, Grilled Beef Tenderloin.
Grilled Tenderloin served with bacon, baked potato and fine beans. Mushroom sauce is used for the tenderloin. Medium doneness is requested for the beef. It is well cooked and charred on the outer layer with a slightly bloody red middle that is juicy and tender. The flavor of the beef is trapped in its meat and spread in the mouth. Baked potato with sour cream and bacon provides the dish with another salty and sour flavor that stimulates the appetite. Fine beans are seasoned slightly, producing its flavor to cleanse the palate after consuming the tenderloin and the baked potato.

Lachs/Car-grilled Salmon Fillet.
Grilled Salmon Fillet served with sautéed spinach and parsley potato. Balsamic vinegar are drizzled around the plate. The fresh salmon retained its freshness, and went along with a salty sauce which was used to cook the potato and the salmon. The balsamic vinegar gives a slightly sweet and sour taste that assist in creating more flavors in the dish. But one thing about this dish is that the sautéed spinach has an ingredient used in it that gives out an over-salty taste, making the combination of the spinach and that certain ingredient bad.

Sausages

Grilled Pork Sausages, normal pork sausages grilled on the pan. It might be less tasty compared to others as this is just pure pork sausages grilled without any extra enhancements.
Pork Cheese Sausages, pork sausages with cheese in the middle. One of the better ones as the thick and greasy cheese enhances the taste of the sausages, and giving it a very satisfying feeling. Salty and cheesy flavor, great as a beer snack.
Spicy Chicken Sausages, quite a spicy sausage compared to the others. Can't be any better if you’re a fan of spicy food, as it also serves as a great appetizer and drinks snack. Spicy and salty, great as a beer snack.

Schokokuchen, Warm chocolate cake with its ice cream. Never miss a dessert to end the day. This may not be the perfect example of a chocolate lava cake due to the lack of lava in the center of the cake, but there are crispy chocolate bits in the cake that melts in your mouth that acts as a substitute. Going along with it is their ice cream, which balances up the thickness and the sweetness of the chocolate. 

Highly recommended to get their sausages to go with your beer. There are still other small bites worth getting for the night too.

Price ranges from >$25

Hatched

Rating: 2/5
Destination: 267 Holland Ave

Comments: Comfortable and cozy environment to dine in. Hatched serves all day breakfast and eggs are their specialty. They can be poached, boiled, fried, baked or scrambled.

Sir Benedict, which is also eggs benedict. Half English Muffin topped with smoked ham, bacon, poached eggs and hollandaise sauce, served with homemade mash. The ham & bacon are the main contributor to the salty flavor of the eggs benedict and the hollandaise sauce seems to be slightly off the taste. As for the sides, vegetable salad with its own salad dressing that seems to be vinegar and oil but there seems to be a kind of unpleasant taste or smell that made me feel uncomfortable eating it. The mash was topped with cream of mushroom sauce and had bits of potatoes that are not mashed. It is also not well seasoned.

A very bad experience compared to my previous visits and I've no special recommendations.

Price ranges from >$15.

Marks and Spencer's Palmier

Rating: 4/5
Destination: Marks and Spencer, Westgate 

Comments: A pastry worth mentioning once in a while. Big in size, great in taste. Unrivalled among most palmier when this is fresh from the oven. That fragrant aroma of the palmier spread through the whole of Marks and Spencer. There is a layer of coating on the top of the palmier, probably sugar/honey, that gives the body a sweet yet not too sweet flavor. The aroma of the butter stimulates the appetite and the coating on the top provides you with the perfect sweetness. Crispy and flaky pastry, perfect as a snack.

Recommended to anyone who likes or don’t likes sweet stuffs. Do buy it when its fresh from oven, as it do taste different when it’s hot and slightly cold.
Price of this palmier is $1.70.

Modesto

Rating: 3.5/5
Destination: #03-11 Vivo City, 1 Harbourfront Walk

Comments: Modesto is an Italian Restaurant, serving Traditional Italian Wood-Fired Pizza and Home-made pasta. Situated at the top floor of the shopping center with a beautiful sea view scenery and great ambiance for the diners. I'll be talking about some of their dishes.

Truffle Fries
This truffle fries is probably one of the most pungent one that I’ve encountered. A combination of the truffle oil and parmesan cheese has produced an unbearable smell. But this has a similar characteristic compared to a Chinese dish called the Stinky Tofu. The more pungent the stench is, the better it taste. When the first one entered the mouth, this crispy and slightly cheesy fries that was tossed with truffle oil tasted amazing. The 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th went in right after each was swallowed, and the aftertaste of the truffle fries is heavenly. In the mouth, the flavor of the truffle oil was so great, together with the combination of the cheese. And at the lower part of the fries, they were showered with salt, making it so addictive and impossible to resist. This provided the best of tri-worlds, salt, truffle and cheese.

Linguine Alla Modesto
Flat spaghetti with fresh prawns, squid, mussels, clams, anchovies, capers, black Kalamata olives, dried chili, garlic, white wine and tomato sauce. I really wasn’t expecting this dish to be so delicious. The spiciness from the dried chili and the sourness from the tomato sauce have completely stimulated my appetite. The taste of the seafood are completely immersed in the sauce and the spaghetti. This is also the first time I’ve ate a kalamantra olives. Once bitten, it oozes out juices that are slightly salty and provides a new flavor to the whole dish. The only bad thing about this dish is, there isn’t enough linguine in it to satisfy me.

Straccetti Di Manzo
Well charred Medium done Ribeye on a bed of fresh rucola salad, drizzled with balsamico sauce and served with French fries. The charred flavor on this ribeye was perfect along with tender and juicy meat. Top part of the rucola salad was drizzled with balsamico sauce that provided the sour flavor while the rucola salad that was under the beef absorbed the juices from the beef, providing a fragrant beef flavor in the vegetable. Fries are showered with salt, perfect as a side.

Tortino Cioccolato
Molten lava cake with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Probably the best type of dessert to end the night. Hot and sweet yet bitter ‘lava’ with its chocolate cake to go with a scoop of vanilla ice cream is heavenly. Sour strawberry at the side to cleanse the palate after a hearty treat. Perfect.

The above mentioned food are all highly recommended.

Price ranges >$30.

Tanuki Raw

Rating: 3.75/5
Destination: Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road, #02-03 

Comments: A moderate size shop with an Al fresco balcony. They adopt the open kitchen concept which makes it slightly different from most restaurants. To be able to enjoy the food and the view of the chefs cooking is another form of pleasure. I’ll be talking about some of the dishes.

Foie Gras Unagi

Ingredients are rice, unagi, foie gras, pickles, onsen egg and mixed rice. Well charred and delicious unagi served on top together with its foie gras. The unagi and foie gras are so good and full of umami, super satisfying. The sauce of the unagi has covered both the unagi and the rice but it didn’t sip into the inner part of the rice. The onsen egg is gooey, mixing them together with the rice and the sauce deepens the taste of the sauce, acting as a great flavor enhancer to the dish. Pickles are there to cleanse your palate in case the foie gras is too rich for you to withstand as it is one fatty foie gras. One downfall of the dish is the mixed rice, it’s just plain Japanese rice with sesame. People would say that it’s normal for the rice to be plain as there are sauce on the above to compensate for it but to me, rice is as important as the other ingredients. The rice must have a certain flavor to have the ability to stimulate the appetite of the consumer and even have the ability to diminish the greasy taste of the foie gras. In this dish, it’s as though the greatness of the other ingredients had to compensate for the plain Japanese rice.

Foie Gras Truffle Yakiniku

Ingredients are US black angus short rib and onsen egg seasoned with truffle soy sauce, foie gras and black garlic brown butter over the mixed rice. The flavor of this dish is slightly weird due to the truffle soy sauce. Truffle tends to have an overwhelming smell and taste that are can cover the taste of different ingredients and that is what it did here. The combination of the truffle soy sauce and the yakiniku feels like a mismatch to me. The yakiniku lost part of its beef taste and the rice has this heavy truffle soy sauce taste that somehow killed the appetite. Together with the foie gras, it made this dish a very heavy dish to consume.

Even though there are downfalls for certain dishes, the quality of the preparation of the ingredients are top notch. That explains why I’ve gave it 3.75 as rating. There are still their fresh raw oyster or their Chirashi Don that includes salmon, tuna, striped jack, ikura and scallop.

Price ranges from >$20++

Everything With Fries

Rating: 3.75/5
Destination: Holland Village, 40 Lorong Mambong

Comments: The design and the lighting of the restaurant makes it a comfortable environment to dine in. As the name of the restaurant says, Fries is the main attraction of this place and different main dishes are paired with different flavor of fries. I’ll be talking about one of their many dishes.

The Chargrilled Pork Chop w/ Smokey Sea Salt Fries. The pork chop is tender, juicy and slightly charred. At the side is a type of garlic sauce that has the similar taste as the garlic paste on the garlic bread mixed with cream of mushroom to go with the pork chop. The dish is also accompanied by onions that is slightly sour, due to some tomato sauce and vinegar that they used. Of course, not missing the main attraction. The Smokey Sea Salt Fries that is served together with the pork chop. They are crispy and salty, a great combination of the fries and the pork chop flavor.

I’ve also ordered a drink to go with my meal. Barista’s Teh Tarik, tea with milk. It’s slightly sweet, probably better when it’s chilled than hot as I’m not a very sweet person. Nevertheless, the Teh Tarik is a fragrant and smooth drink.

There are a lot of other different flavor of fries, e.g truffle, curry, and even luncheon meat fries.
Price ranges from $15-$25 per pax.  

E Sarn

Rating: 3/5
Destination: The Grandstand, 200 Turf Club Road, #01-13 

Comments: The environment is dark and quiet, comfortable for for Thai cuisine dining. Most of the dishes they’ve prepared are slightly sweet and not spicy. I’ll be talking about some of them.

Tom Yum Soup

The classic Thai spicy and sour soup should have the ability to stimulate the appetite because of the sour and the spicy flavor it has. But this certain soup has only sour flavor. I did not taste a hint of spiciness from the soup which was kind of disappointing to me. The ingredients used are well prepared but I’ve only tasted mild seafood flavor but heavy sour taste. Quite disappointed due to the zero spiciness.

Pad Thai

Thai-style fried noodles, served with lime and peanut. Slightly different from the other Pad Thai that I’ve eaten which are spicy and salty, this is sweet and not spicy at all. The peanut is probably the ingredient that have gave the noodle a sweet flavor. But since it’s a fried noodle, I would’ve thought it would be salty instead of sweet, and it didn’t really have the ability to stimulate my appetite.

Thai Vegetable Omelette

The last dish to talk about, which is also the best dish I’ll say. Slightly charred omelette served with their spicy belachan sauce. The most exciting and appetizing dish you’ll get. The belachan sauce has that great spicy and salty flavor and is also fragrant. Eating slightly charred omelette with the belachan is superb. This was the dish that caught my attention the most even though it is the easiest dish to prepare among all the dishes I’ve ordered.

I understand that not all Thai Cuisine are supposed to be food and I may not be profound in authentic Thai Cuisine, but this is the rating I’ll give for the dishes and the restaurant. Price ranges from $15-$25. 

FatBoys

Rating: 4/5

Destination: Holland Village, 26 Loring Mambong

Comments: FatBoys’ restaurants have their unique design of the walls. They are normally painted black and white with different kind of drawings of human’s face, or any kind of stuffs. This makes the restaurant a very suitable environment for people to consume burgers. I personally like their choice of songs too. Here are some of the burgers.

The Bushtucker

Whole meal bun with bacon, beef patty, melted swiss cheese, beets, wild argula and garlic aioli as the sauce. The beef is juicy and piping hot when served. Topped with melted swiss cheese and garlic aioli. The garlic aioli is the main contributor to the unique flavor of the whole burger. Together with the saltiness from the bacon, it easily stimulates the appetite of the consumer. Some beet and arugula to give it some green to the burger, but arugula has this unique taste that normal vegetables don’t have. It easily absorbs the juices from the ingredients and combine the juice with the vegetable into something great. Fries are served as a side together with the burger, and the choice of fries can be chosen. In this case, I’ve chosen truffle fries. The truffle fries are showered in salt, making it irresistible as the smell and taste further improve the flavor of the combination. Fries is undeniably the best side for burgers.

The Yolo
Sesame seed bun with fried egg, fried spam, pork patty, mozzarella cheese sticks, onion strips and smoked chipotle as the sauce. Nicely grounded meat turning into piping hot and juicy pork patty. The chipotle sauce gives it a slightly spicy and smoky taste. For the mozzarella cheese sticks, I personally do not think it’s a good combination with the burger as it feels like the odd one out in the burger. The cheese sticks may be a little dry for the burger as the chipotle sauce did not cover much of it. The fried spam blended in well due to its salty and meat flavor.

Even though I’ve pointed out some inadequacy for “The Yolo”, FatBoys is still one of the best burger restaurant. They are also famous for their milkshakes, so if you do visit, try their milkshakes and other burgers. They also have custom-made burger. Price ranges from $20-$30.

Victor's Kitchen (Dim Sum)

Rating: 4.25/5
Destination: Sunshine Plaza, 91 Bencoolen Street, #01-49

Comments: Its a small shop, thus I will not be talking about the design as it only has a kitchen and place for people to seat. But due to the size of the shop and how close we are to the servers and kitchen, it actually gives a comfortable feeling. Food are definitely fresh from the oven instead of mass produced and placed at 'waiting area' till ordered. I’ll be talking about some of the dishes, but not all as there will be too much to say. The names of the dishes may be slightly fancy, but it definitely represents the dishes.

Golden “Bo Lo” Char Siew Butter Buns, this are butter buns that encase the fillings in it. This buns is slightly sweet due to the sugar used in making the dough and very fragrant because of the butter coating on the top of the bun. The outer layer of the bun is baked till crisp and the inner has the fillings in. Be cautious when you’re biting onto the bun, as you’ll find piping hot sauces oozing out which might be too hot to handle. The fillings inside are cha siu and the sauce. Because the sauce are not that salty and there are some fats on the cha siu, it gives the combination a great balance between the sweetness and crispiness on the outer and the delicious char siew and the flavor of the filling.

Fresh Oven-baked Egg tarts, one of the best egg tarts I’ve taken. The crust is crispy and has a very nice buttery fragrance in it. The egg yolk mixture in the middle is as important as the crust. The mixture is still shaky like a jelly and the taste of it is perfect. The flavor is superb, with a combination of a crispy and buttery crust and a perfect egg yolk mixture.

H.K. Style Pan Fried Cheong Fun is fried Cheong Fun served with their XO Sauce and shrimp paste sauce. There aren’t many stalls that sell this dish, which makes it unique in one way. The charred taste on the Cheong Fun, mixed with their XO sauce and the slightly spicy shrimp paste sauce, is a combination of spicy, salty and a fragrant charred flavor.

Victor’s King Prawn Dumplings is basically prawn dumplings with huge fresh prawns in the middle and a perfect thickness on the skin. But that may not be all to the secret to the name. Even though this may be a simple dish to make, but that’s also the reason why there aren’t many good prawn dumplings around. The skin must not be too thick as it will make it tough and dry to eat, but not too thin too as we might not even taste the skin at all. The prawns must not be frozen prawns as they loses their freshness of it. Fresh prawns are springy and has its prawn’s essence in it. This King Prawn Dumpling is an example of fresh big prawns and perfect thickness of the skin.

Tasty Queen Size Siew Mai is basically Siew Mai with fresh ingredients used. Similar to the prawn dumpling, this is a simple yet not simple dish. The freshness of the ingredients and the thickness of the skin is the key to this dish. Fresh prawns in the middle, perfect thickness of the skin, fresh minced meat, crab roe and other fresh ingredients. As shown on the name, the size of this Siew Mai is definitely bigger than the normal Siew Mai you’ll have outside.

Golden Egg Yolk Lava Buns are buns that have custard and egg yolk paste encased in it. There aren’t many people that aren’t a fan of this certain dish, I myself is not an exception. This is one of their chef’s special as this has one of the best balance between the buns and the paste. First the buns, the buns cannot be too thick as it may get tough and dry easily and we will not be able to savor the flavor of the lava paste, nor it being too thin as the lava paste would easily leak out and leave an empty case in the middle. This buns has its perfect thickness, to be able to trap the gooey lava in it, without being too thick nor too thin till it leak out. That fluffiness of the bun is perfect to go with the sweet lava. The gooey, sumptuous, hot custard and egg yolk paste has its deep flavor of the custard and the salted egg which makes it a dish that we can never miss.

One downfall of the restaurant is that there are too many people during peak hour, do not expect pure 1 to 1 services to you as every single server are tied down with more than what they can cope. All the dishes mentioned above are highly recommended to try. Price range is from $15++ per pax or more.

Ippudo SG

Rating: 3.75/5
Destination: 3 Gateway Drive #03-03, Westgate

Comments: The restaurant is slightly dark, with bright lights at each tables, making it comfortable for dining. I’ll be talking about 2 of their ramen of different soup base. For all ramen, there are 4 types of firmness to choose from, very hard, hard, normal and soft. I personally prefer hard as the ramen is Al-dente with that.

Shiromaru Motoaji uses normal tonkotsu broth. Pork bones and fats are used to cook them. Another main ingredient for the ramen is their Chashu, delicious, juicy and soft meat that has some fats in between the meat, giving it a very nice texture when it enter the mouth.

Akamaru Shinaji, uses normal tonkotsu broth but enhanced with their special homemade blended miso paste and garlic oil. I personally prefers this version as the garlic oil’s aroma has the ability to spike one appetite up, and the miso paste gives the soup a new flavor. They also have their main ingredient, the Chashu.

I personally recommend the Akamaru Shinaji version, but also do try the Shiromaru Motoaji as it gives you a comparison between a normal and an enhanced broth. Price ranges from $10-$20, and a refill of noodle will be $2. But that is only if you’ve enough soup left in your bowl.

Lady M

Rating: 2/5

Destination: 3 Gateway Drive, #02-25/26

Comments: The design and the colour used to paint the wall is unique and makes this place a very comfortable place to dine it. Services are decent. But when it comes to their desserts, I am not contented with the quality of food. Some of the desserts that I’ve ate will be reviewed.

Chocolate Arc-en-ciel, normally chocolate cake desserts should be of a lower temperature, not freezing cold, but at least chilled. But I’m quite disappointed that I do not feel a hint of coldness in this slice of cake. The milk chocolate mousse kind of tasted somewhere near a jelly texture of a cream. Other parts were decent, like the dark mousse, chocolate sponge topped with ganache and cocoa powder but the mousse and the temperature of the cake have killed the overall flavor.

Eclairs, quite a huge one. I don’t think anyone would hate eclairs, with that sweet cold cream in the middle and chocolate coated on top which are harden due to the low temperature. But for today, that’s not the case. I’m utterly disappointed with the quality of éclair I’ve gotten today. This éclair, is sweating, at first I thought that since its just taken out from the fridge, its normal for anyone cold food to have water droplets. And then the next moment its cut, and I scooped up a part of the ‘cream’, it felt different. Normally cream are fluffy and light, which actually makes it slightly hard to scoop with a fork as it goes through the gaps too easily, but this ‘cream’ was easily scooped and had its own shape. The cream was then placed the cream directly in front of my nose, and it produced this sour smell, or slightly pungent. Apparently, I tried tasting it and I ended up spitted them all out. This cream had turned sour. Yes, sour, and I’m not kidding. I’ve got a free replacement, and an explanation saying that there might be a chance that this éclair had been in the refrigerator for a long time maybe in the main warehouse or here. Thus I’m the unlucky fellow that have gotten this sour cream éclair(Just to say, this line is added by myself).

Almost everyone and myself should have a first impression of Lady M as a very “atas” desserts restaurant. High quality desserts should be found here. But it seems like the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” really do exist. ("Atas" is high class in Singapore English, Singlish ^^)

I’ve no recommendations on this shop. But still do feel free to patronize the shop as I might really just be the unlucky one that got that one, sour éclair. Price ranges from 9-15 per pax.

Disclaimer: This is my honest review on the restaurant. This is not a personal attack on any restaurants, but it is true that they have provided me with a sour éclair. Thus as I’ve my own principles to follow, I will review honestly. And also, I’m not a dessert person, so it may be very hard to fulfill me with desserts that are not astonishingly good. I’m quite sure that for the desserts that I say is good, will be good for majority of people.

Enaq Restaurant

Rating: 4.25/5
Destination: 303 Jurong East Street 32

Comments: A small Indian shop selling great pratas and different Indian cuisines. This place usually gets very packed during meal times which is what happens to all shops but I’m willing to queue for some fresh from the oven crispy prata.

Their Plain Prata A.K.A Kosong, cannot be compared to any other plain pratas in most shops. This does not mean that there are no better ones, but this is probably one of the better ones. This prata is crispy on the outside, and moist in the inside because of sufficient oil are used. Their pratas are served with mutton curry and their homemade sambal chilli. The combination of these two gives you a nice spicy taste and a deep curry flavor. This sambal chilli is slightly salty and spicy, spiking up the consumer’s appetite and providing a different flavor to the dish other than just curry. Different curry can be chosen but for mutton curry, it is also slightly spicy and it has this nice curry flavor in it.

The Plaster, not the plaster that you use after you get a cut. This is a plain prata, while being fried to crisp, has an egg cracked on the surface and nothing else is done to it. Basically it’s similar to eating a sunshine egg with a prata, but the only difference is, the egg has merged with the prata and is inseparable. Egg yolk has this ability to deepen the flavor for almost any type of food and specifically enhances food that are made of wheat, which explains why this is so amazing. Part of the egg white and yolk are still runny, mixing it together with the crispy prata really hits the spot. Crispy prata, with a bit of the runny yolk and some sambal chilli, you probably can’t imagine how good this is. I suggest you not to mix it with the curry as it tends to cover the aftertaste of the egg yolk on the prata.

I highly recommend their plain prata, it is a must to try. Price ranges from $2-$4, considering you order a drink and 2 pratas for yourself. Average people would have been full from that. And I’m not stopping anyone from getting more than 2 plain pratas, feel free to go for as much as possible.

The Carving Board

Rating: 3.75/5

Destination: 252 Jurong East Street 24

Comments: A western food store in a place that it is unlikely to be, a coffee shop. The coffee shop itself still has other stores that opens from morning till afternoon, but the whole coffee shop looks like it was designed for The Carving Board itself only. You probably won’t find another western food that is this good and is just a road away from your house that is in a coffee shop. I’ll be talking about some of the dishes.

Seafood Spaghetti with Pesto
Al Dente pasta to go with seafood and pesto sauce. Everything was great, until we figure out that they are using frozen prawn and squid, which was slightly disappointing but unavoidable since this is a coffee shop and its way cheaper. I wouldn’t mind paying slightly more for real fresh ingredients.

Air-flown Australian Striploin Steak
Doneness of my steak is medium, it’s the optimal doneness for myself as it provides a tender and juicy center without being too bloody at the same time. The surface of the beef is nicely charred and the flavor is great even without the mushroom sauce that is supposed to go with the beef. Lettuce and a side dish are served along with the beef. There are a list of side dishes that can be chosen. Potato salad is chosen in this case. The potato salad is probably one of the best side dish among the list and I recommend this to anyone that is visiting as they uses different types of herbs combined and mayo. They also uses fresh raw onions which provides the potato salad with the right crunchiness.

Chef Gary’s Curry Pork Burger
A huge burger served with fries. In the huge burger is the pork patty, bacon, onion, tomato, lettuce and their homemade curry mayo sauce that is irresistible. The lettuce, onion and bacon provides a crispy and crunchy taste the burger and the patty is juicy and piping hot. The bread was cooked on the pan for a while in order to make the crust crispy and give it a charred flavor. The fries was showered in salt, perfect as a burger side dish.

Highly recommend the Curry Pork Burger as you’ll get addicted to it. Price ranges from $10-$25. Extremely worth it compared to other restaurants.  

Supply & Demand

Rating: 4/5
Destination: Orchard Gateway, 227 Orchard Road #02-13/14     

Comments: An Italian restaurant with great pizzas and pastas. The ambiance and special design makes the restaurant a comfortable place to dine in. This is also a good place to have selfies/wefies in. Now, I’ll talk about some of the dishes.

Garlic Truffle Fries, Appetizer… Not so. It is definitely an appetizer, but the portion is of a main dish size. Very big serving, accompanied with deep fried garlic that has the taste and aroma of the truffle oil.  The fragrance of the truffle oil is definitely hanging in the air. Serving size is definitely more than 2 people, so beware.

Carbonara Classico, Pasta served with bacons. Bacon are cooked and blended in so well that the bacon aroma is everywhere in the pasta and sauce. White wine is used as one of the ingredients for the sauce. The carbonara sauce is well-seasoned and the taste of the cheese is not that heavy, highly recommended for even people who normally don’t eat carbonara, as I’m one of this, I just know you’ll love it. There’s another similar version of this that has cream mixed in it. 

Ragu Di Maiale, Ingredients used are bacon, minced meat. Red wine is used as one of the ingredients for the sauce and it is heavily seasoned with different herbs. Very fragrant, and the sauce has covered the whole dish. Strips of cheese are served on top of the spaghetti. One thing about this dish is that it might not be suitable to people who aren’t used to western herbs as the taste of the herbs are overwhelming in this dish.

Carbonara Classico is highly recommended to try on your first trip. The desserts looks really good too but didn't had the chance to try it on the first trip. Price ranges from $20-$35 per pax excluding wine orders.

Ma Maison

Rating: 3.5/5
Destination: Westgate Shopping Mall, #04-06

Comments: Ma Maison specializes in breaded, deep fried pork cutlets. There are main dishes like tempura, or even oyster. The service is great, but the shop is slightly small and there is always long queues during peak timings. There will be free flow of rice, cabbage and soup for every set. Now, I’ll be talking about one of the sets.

Rosu Katsu and Oyster Set

This set comprises of a bowl of rice, soup, pickled radish, tartar sauce and the main dishes. The main dishes are their pork loin cutlet and oyster. In the pork loin meat, there is a layer of fats that gives this dish the savoury taste in the mouth. It is supposed to go with a tonkatsu sauce that is slightly sour, which easily get rid of the taste of the oil in the mouth easily. Oyster is also deep fried served with homemade tartar sauce. This homemade tartar sauce is not the sour tartar sauce that you get outside, it’s similar to mayonnaise with onion but still, the taste is different from mayonnaise. This sauce can go with the oyster or any other deep fried dishes as they matches too well. Fresh lettuce is served together on the same plate where the meat is on. Mustard and sesame sauce are available to eat together with the lettuce.

For the miso soup, it is filled with different ingredients like radish, mushroom, minced meat, spring onion, carrot and one mysterious ingredient. The soup contain the essence of the ingredients in it very different from other miso soup whereby they only have seaweed and tofu. This is one of a kind. I’ve also ordered Japanese curry to go with my rice as the curry is great too. Great aroma coming from the Japanese curry powder that spikes up the appetite instantly. 

Lastly, Lipton Tea Jelly for desserts. It’s not a very sweet dessert, but it is a light dessert that can assist in cleansing the aftertaste of the food in the mouth. This actually taste like gummy burger if anyone have ate it before.

The mentioned set and any other pork loin sets are recommended.
Price ranges from >$25

Kinoshita

Rating: 4.5/5

Destination: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive, #04-07

Comments: One of the highest quality Japanese BBQ Restaurant you’ll find around here. Different types of main ingredients, like seafood, pork and beef are available to choose for Grilling or Nabemono. The restaurant is slightly small but the environment and service makes it comfortable to dine in. Now, it's dishes time!

Sakura Set – A variation of the cuts of beef.
There are different BBQ Sets and one of it is the Sakura Set. It contains 4 type of beef, Jo-Karubi, Karubi, Rosu and Harami. Jo Karubi and Karubi are beef short ribs. Jo-Karubi’s marbling is very balanced, thus it’s very tender and full of umami.  Karubi is a slightly lower quality of Jo-Karubi but there isn’t much different as both meat are tender and delicious when properly grilled. Rosu is loin, while Harami is the meat around the diaphragm. They have less fats around the meat and are slightly tougher, but the taste of beefs are very prominent in these 2 types of beef. A homemade BBQ sauce will be served at the start and should be used as sauce for the meat, enhancing the taste tremendously. The set includes a bowl of rice and a bowl of soup. A beef soup is served together, and is best drank hot. The essence of the whole cow is probably in the soup, causing it to be one of the best beef soup you’ll ever drink. A 2^nd bowl is definitely yearned for but it comes at quite a price. So do check before you order.

Gyu Nabe Set, a hot pot set. A sweet base miso soup accompanied by different vegetables and beef. Chilli and garlic are recommended to be added as it enhances the taste and give it a hint of spiciness. Beef in the pot, if not over cooked, is definitely very tender and tasty even without any sauces. Vegetables goes well with their chili provided.  

Pork Bara, Pork belly, best when it’s grilled till charred. As they grill, oil will be squeezed out and the marinate used also sticks onto the meat as it gets slightly charred. The homemade BBQ sauce is a must to go with this, if not you will regret not trying.

Sio Tongue(Beef Tongue) is a side dish, that must be ordered if you like the ‘organ’ taste. I have it seasoned in salt and pepper, with lemon juice as dipping sauce. The lemon juice gives the flavor a twist and making the aftertaste more prominent. But if you’re not used of the taste of internal organs, you might not get used to eating beef tongue. But nevertheless, Highly recommended. A Must Have!

All food are grilled by yourselves, degree of doneness is up to the consumers’ preference. There will definitely be times when the food does not reach its optimum taste due to overcooking/undercooking.

Price of sets for dinner is normally ranges from $30-$40 per pax. But for meat lovers, price is >$50. The quality of meat is just chopsticks-licking good.

P.S. First post, Do comment on how to be better. :)