PS Cafe

Rating: 4/5
Destination: Paragon S.C, 290 Orchard Road, Level 3
Comments: A small café that has 2 different areas to dine in. The two areas are a seating area further away from the main café and the seats in the café for people to dine in. Very cozy environment for dining in. There is also sale of wines in the café. Service is decnet even though it might be slightly slow as that place is usually very packed with people. Some dishes now!

PS. Truffle Shoestring Fries. Well deep-fried shoestring fries, very crispy even after being cooked for so long. Serving size is huge, definitely meant as a main dish. The amount of truffles fries used is appropriate, fragrant and at the same time not too heavy. Grated parmesan are topped on the fries, giving it a slightly salty and cheesy taste. Fries is also showered in salt which easily compensated for the smaller amount of truffle oil used to give this dish a great balance. Parsley is also sprinkled on top. Very addictive.

PS. Bolognese. Ingredients used are homemade ground beef, bacon, hand-grated parmesan cheese and crispy basil leaves. Spaghetti is tossed in their tomato sauce. The sauce’s flavor is completely trapped in the dish. The amount of herbs used is appropriate, balancing the sourness of the tomato sauce without being overwhelming. The beef used are well grounded and still contains its distinct flavor. The cheese which is topped on the spaghetti tasted amazing eaten together with the spaghetti. It really allow you to enjoy spaghetti so well. Perfect.

The plain water here has lemon, carrot and cucumber, giving it a very refreshing taste.

Price ranges from $15-$25 per pax.

Gyoza-ya

Rating: 4.25/5
Destination: Robinson Orchard, 260 Orchard Road, B1-02A        

Comments: A restaurant in the basement of a big shopping center. It’s situated in the middle of the line of restaurants. Counter seats are also available. Gyoza-ya probably sells one of the best gyoza in Singapore. The environment makes it a good place for a person to enjoy some small bites with a few cold beer. Let me talk about some Gyozas now.

Yaki Pork Gyoza, Pork Gyoza. The simplest dish is always the hardest to master, this phrase targets every single simple dish. Pork Gyoza may be simple to make, but definitely not easy to make it delicious. The flat side of the skin is fried till crispy, and not over cooked. The thickness of the dough is neither too thick nor too thin, allowing us to enjoy the skin and the fillings completely. When the thickness of the gyoza is perfect, you’re able to enjoy the juicy fillings to the optimum. They have a special homemade gyoza sauce ready on the table, it is slightly sour and salty and very fragrant due to some sort of oil which was used in making the sauce. Going together with the pork gyoza deeply stimulates the appetite of the consumer, making it irresistible to go get another plate to consume.

Mentaiko Pork Gyoza, pork gyoza topped with mentaiko. They are totally not stingy with the mentaiko, it completely covered the 5 pork gyoza. Before serving, they torched the mentaiko slightly in ordered to give it a charred flavor. With the mentaiko on top of the pork gyoza, there is completely no need to dip your gyoza into their homemade gyoza sauce. The moment the gyoza and the mentaiko goes into the mouth, you’re able to immerse yourself in the richness of the mentaiko and the juicy fillings. A Must Try.

Jyajyamen, Thick noodles with minced pork and special Miso. There are 2 versions to this dish. First version is when it is just served, where there are huge amount of cucumbers, spring onion and other vegetables together with minced meat and seasoned with chilli oil and white vinegar to suit your own taste buds. The first version has a very refreshing flavor due to the different types of vegetables used. Leaving a few strands of noodles aside, here comes the second version. The servers will bring miso paste and egg for you to mix with the noodle and after mixing well, they will add hot soup into it. Honestly, the looks of the second version isn’t that appetizing. It completely looked like mud water and who wants to eat mud water? But giving it a try, it actually surprised me. I liked the second version better than the first version as the taste is deeply enhanced by the miso paste and the egg. There is a very nice soupy flavor that makes you want to slurp the noodle and the soup down.  

Ninniku Yaki Meshi, Japanese Garlic Fried Rice. The dish is very well seasoned, with a very fragrant garlic aroma. The taste of the garlic swirls around in the mouth for so long that it becomes really irresistible. The rice is not dry at all, making it easy to swallow and bite in the mouth.  

Torinankotsu Tatsutaage, Crispy Chicken Soft Bone. This dish is great as a small bites for beer. Deep fried soft bones served with mayonnaise. The crispy yet easily bite-able bone going with the mayonnaise is great even though it’s slightly greasy. Gulping a mouthful of ice cold beer down after that is unimaginably good.

I’ll recommend all the dishes I’ve said in this review for your first try, but feel free to try other dishes too! I’m quite sure it won’t taste bad at all.

Price ranges from $10-$20 per pax without alcohol.

The Majestic Restaurant

Rating: 3.75/5
Destination: 31-37 Bukit Pasoh Road

Comments: A fine dining restaurant that serves Cantonese cuisine. Comfortable environment to dine in. The menus they provide are for minimum 2 person and of different price range. I’ll be talking about one of their menu, “Citibank gourmet pleasures 2015, exclusive dinner menu”, a 6 course meal which comprises of 1 soup, 1 starter, 1 salad, 1 entrée, 1 main course and 1 dessert. 

Pan seared Foie Gras and sliced Peking duck served with passion fruits salad. Foie gras is served on top of a slice of watermelon. There are 2 ways to eat the foie gras and the watermelon, first way is to eat the watermelon together with the foie gras which is more suitable for people who can’t withstand the rich flavor of the foie gras as the watermelon has the ability to diminish the rich flavor. The second way is to finish the foie gras first, then consume the watermelon to cleanse your palate. People who prefers the second way of consumption will be able to savor the taste due to the slightly charred parts around the foie gras. It enhances the taste of the foie gras to a very big extent. For the peking duck, it is crispy and there are not much fats around the skin which makes it less oily and easy to consume and sweet sauce are drizzled on the peking duck. For the salad, it comprises of fresh lettuces, walnut, strawberry, other vegetables and its own salad dressing that has the ability to stimulate your appetite well enough for the following dishes.

Double-boiled sea treasures soup with black truffle. Different ingredients like sea cucumber, chicken, abalone, truffle and more are used to boil the soup. This is a very clear soup yet the essence of the ingredients are contained in the soup, producing a very deep flavor.

Braised whole abalone with homemade beancurd and garden greens. Vegetables served with its deep fried beancurd topped with a whole abalone. Although abalone seems to be the main dish here, but I personally feel that the beancurd tasted best here. The vegetable is slightly bitter even though there are sauces for the dishes. As for the abalone, it’s just an abalone. Not particularly unique or good. Although it’s well cooked and not that hard, it does not have a unique flavor. However for the beancurd, the deep fried skin has its distinct flavor when eaten with the sauce which has the the unique deep fried flavor that are able to instantly stimulate the appetite. The inside of the beancurd also has its charred flavor from the outer layer.

Pan seared ribeye in homemade sesame dressing. This is different from the usual western style steak that you would have eaten. It’s cooked in a Cantonese cuisine style, but it is unique in its own style. This ribeye has a very balanced amount of fats spread around the meat which makes it very juicy and tender. the marinate used and the sauce used has created the flavor of the dish. Served together are deep fried ginger and raw beansprouts with kimchi. Honestly speaking, the beansprout is too raw for me to consume, just giving it a try has probably made me regret my decision. Nevertheless, even though this ribeye is slightly different from what I’ve imagined it to be, it turned out great in terms of taste and quality.

One of the main highlight, Stewed boston lobster noodles with ginger and spring onions turned out to be one of the unexpectedly great dish. Thick broth accompanied with its fresh lobsters and noodles seems too heavy as the last dish before desserts are served. But it turned out to be the best dish to end the course. Even though its sauce is thick, the sauce entwined and entangle with the noodles and the lobster, allowing the whole dish to be filled with a fragrant and delicious lobster flavor. The lobster is extremely fresh too, allowing the meat to be very juicy and easily consumable.

Refreshing homemade sorbet with aloe vera and grass jelly. Frozen grapes on the top, served with ice cold watermelon sorbet at the bottom. Combination of aloe vera, grass jelly and a bit of pomelo, this dessert is a very light dessert after a hearty meal. It isn’t particularly bad, nor is it particularly good.

Reservations has to be made in advance.

Prices of set meals are minimum of SGD$68.