Monochrome Fusion Bistro

Came to Monochrome Bistro with Zq for Monobistro's weekly lunch set ($15.90++) from 11am to 3pm.

Here in this restaurant everything is decorated in black and white. 

Taken from their facebook page

Soup of the Day was Onion Soup. The hearty onion soup was flavourful. The onions inside were tenderly soft. A nice start to our meal. The server was also friendly, asking us how our meal was after each course (but we both think that he kind of overdid it).

Main Course Chef's Selection there were 3 options but I forgot what they were. For me I chose the Prawn Linguine Pasta in Pesto Tomato Sauce. In the tomato sauce there were hints of pesto flavors. The pasta could be cooked a little bit more. Prawns were most likely frozen ones. Shimeji mushrooms was well cooked. 

Dessert is either Vanilla Oreo or Black Sesame Ice Cream. I had the Vanilla Oreo which is always the safest options. It tasted like cookies & cream. For the Black Sesame, it tasted a little like eating Mua Chee. Lucky I chose the Vanilla Oreo. Dessert was the only item that hit their theme of black and white.

Taken from their fb page

We also ordered their Signature Thai Sauce Coated House Wings which are going for $0.50 per piece. We ordered 2 pieces each (regretted not ordering 4 each instead). They were really good. Juicy chicken wings with a crispy crunchy coating and topped off with a sweet Thai sauce that makes you go back for more.

Rate:
Onion Soup: 7/10 ☺
Prawn Linguine Pasta in Pesto Tomato Sauce: 5/10 ☺
Vanilla Oreo Ice Cream: 6/10 ☺
Black Sesame Ice Cream: 5/10 ☺
Signature Thai Sauce Coated House Wings: 9/10 ☺

Itacho Sushi (Ion)

Itacho Sushi offers cheap a la carte items but they also do offer lunch deals and other promotions.

Came here to eat with Edmund.

Tiger Prawn Roll with Curry and Lobster Salad ($7.80). Deep fried prawn wrapped with seaweed and rice and topped with either curry or lobster salad. The curry really tasted like curry and did not taste weird with the sushi. Lobster salad was creamy and had small bits in it.

Fried Shrimp Roll ($3). Rice was a little sticky and could have used more flavor. The cucumber helped add some crunch while the mayo added some creaminess and flavor to the sushi.

Grilled Pork Hand Roll ($2.80). Not a bad combination. Pork, lettuce and sushi rice goes well together.

Salmon & Roe Mini Rice ($5.40). I love roe so much! The roe helped add the saltineess needed for the mild tasting salmon.

Seafood Salad Warship ($0.90). Really good. A must order. Creamy, cold and fresh.

Clam with Butter & Black Pepper ($4.50). The sauce was fragrant with buttery and peppery flavor which went well with the clams.

Roasted Egg with Seaweed and Crabstick ($3.80). It was served hot but tasted quite plain.

Rate:
Tiger Prawn Roll with Curry and Lobster Salad: 6/10 ☺
Fried Shrimp Roll: 5/10 ☺
Grilled Pork Hand Roll: 7/10 ☺
Salmon & Roe Mini Rice: 7/10 ☺
Seafood Salad Warship: 8/10 ☺
Clam with Butter & Black Pepper: 7.5/10 ☺
Roasted Egg with Seaweed and Crabstick: 6/10 ☺

GastroSmiths

GastroSmiths started out with a simple menu selling sandwiches and cakes which were all made fresh. But with its rising success they decided to rebrand themseves and started to offer a full dining menu that is influenced by mostly French, Japanese and Italian.

Zq and I came here for their weekday set lunch promotion. 3 courses at $18.90++

Taken from their Facebook page

Each week they offer 1 item from seafood and 1 item from meat which you can choose. The day we came, they had smoked salmon sandwich and steak frites. We obviously chose the steak.

Soup of the Day was Tomato Soup. It was good. Thin consistency, tomatoe-y flavor with a bread on the side. But I'm not fan of tomato soup so I didn't finish it.

Steak Frites. We had ours medium rare. It was well seasoned, juicy and quite easy to chew. Shoestring fries were crispy and sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was a little too salty. Zq love the steak.

Pastry of the Day was Olive Cake with Pistachio and Vanilla Ice Cream. Cake was slightly dense, the pistachio added crunch and the ice cream provided coolness and sweetness. My ice cream fell but nonetheless it still taste good.

We also ordered Caramelized French Brie ($9.50). 3 slices of Brie on a soft, fluffy bread, topped off with brown sugar and torched till caramelized. The Brie had a very mild blue cheese taste which went well with the caramelized sugar.

The server there was really knowlegdeable, friendly and even joked around.

Rate:
Tomato Soup: 6/10 ☺
Steak Frites: 7/10 ☺
Olive Cake with Pistachio and Vanilla Ice Cream: 6.5/10 ☺
Caramelized French Brie: 6.5/10 ☺

Udders Ice Cream (Siglap)

Went with Zq to Udders. Wanted to go there for a looong time but couldn't find anyone so I forgot about it, till Zq asked.

We got waffles with 1 premium and 1 classic ice cream ($10.90) Mari Kita- Red Velvet & Cream Cheese ice cream, Brownies. Inspired by the luscious red velvet cake as a special National Day flavor. Half red velvet ice cream, half cream cheese ice cream with brownie bits swirled in. You can have your cake and eat it too! Zq (a red velvet fan) wasn't impressed by it. She said she couldn't taste the red velvet flavor and the cream cheese.
Salted Speculoos- Spiced Caramelized Speculoos Cookies. Enjoy your cookies with a crunch! Crunchy Speculoos (lotus caramel biscuit) cookies in a brown butter ice cream base. I like it, it was sweet and crunchy from the biscuit. Zq said that the speculoos spread itself taste better. (richer)
Waffle was a little doughy on the inside (felt like it wasn't cook but it was).

Rate:
Mari Kita: 6/10 ☺
Salted Speculoos: 6.5/10 ☺
Waffle: 5/10 ☺

Ajumma

Came here for lunch with ky and wx for wx's birthday. Ajumma is a causal Korean dinning restaurant located at The Cathay.

Canned drinks ($1.50 ea). Wx and I had the peach while ky had the grape. Both were nice but majority of us preferred the grape juice which had a few real grapes in it! (that surprised us)

Each set comes with 4 side dishes- Kimchi, Yellow Pickled Radish (danmuji), Korean Seaweed and Corn. Kimchi was slightly spicy and sour with a good bite to it. Radish was crunchy. Seaweed had a very strong sea taste.

I ordered the Bibimbap Hot Stone Set (Dolsot) ($10.90)-Yellow bean sprouts, spinach, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, cucumbers, egg and choice of beef, pork or chicken in a hot stone bowl. I chose beef. Once you get your dish you had better start stirring, if not the bottom will get burnt. The main flavour of this dish is the chili paste (Gochujang) which isn't very spicy and has a unique taste which I don't really like.

Ky had the Chicken Bulgogi Set ($7.90). Bulgogi in direct translation means fire beef but it can refer to any marinated meat. Ky said the chicken was normal and cooked just nice.
Wx had the Signature Beef Kalbi Set ($13.90)- certified USA Prime beef ribs. Wx complaint that there were too many fats in the beef. Taste wise it was okay.

Hoddeok Pancake ($3.90 for 2 pieces). My first time trying this. It tasted like deep fried mantou. Slight crisp exterior and soft on the inside. The filling was honey and cinnamon but I could hardly taste the cinnamon. Also, the pancake gets a little oily when it cools down.

Rate:
Bibimbap Hot Stone Set (Dolsot): 6.5/10 ☺

Hoddeok Pancake: 7/10 ☺

Shin-Sapporo Ramen (Tampines)

Went with Nia to Shin-Sapporo Ramen for lunch because Nia was craving for ramen.

Both Nia and I ordered the lunch set. Eugenia order Set 1- Menchi Ramen with Shin-Sapporo Gyoza ($11.80+$3) while I ordered Set 4- Karaage Curry Rice with Shin-Sapporo Gyoza ($13.80+$3). Both of us upsized (+$3) to regular size as the waitress told us that the serving were actually mini size.

I got the Hot Tea. Your usual unsweetened green tea. Nia had Cold Tea which was the same tea except served cold. Somehow I felt that the cold tea tasted more bitter.

Salad- shredded cabbage, cherry tomato with sesame dressing. All vegetable with this sesame dressing always taste good.

Karaage Curry Rice. Plain rice served with sweet curry and topped with garlic flavored chicken. Curry was similar to those store bought kind. There were potatoes and carrots inside which were well cooked. Fried chicken was not overcooked and was juicy with garlic taste.

Shin-Sapporo Gyoza. It was not bad. Minced meat and chive for the filling which were seasoned.

Menchi Ramen. Soup tasted a little like instant noodle kind to me. Nia said the dish was so so. Menchi was nice. Menchi is like minced meat except finer.

Ice Cream. We got free ice cream by liking their facebook page which the service staff informed us. It was vanilla flavored ice cream with chocolate sauce. A sweet way to end my meal.

Rate:
Nia: 6/10 ☺ (overall)

Hot Tea: 6/10 ☺
Karaage Curry Rice: 7/10 ☺
Shin-Sapporo Gyoza: 6/10 ☺
Ice Cream: 6/10 ☺

Llao Llao (Plaza Singapura)

Had Llao Llao with zq and gen.

Llao Llao started off in Spain and expanded very quickly. Even though it was not the first frozen yogurt brand to arrive in Singapore, it sure is the most popular. Almost everyone has heard of it and there is always a queue for it. But maybe because there is a long queue that the service staff aren't quite friendly.

Gen, zq and I all order a Sanum ($8.50) each- frozen yogurt, crunch, three fruit, sauce, frozen yogurt again and end of with sauce drizzled on the frozen yogurt. I chose strawberry, melon, kiwi, caramelized cookies and candy milk sauce.

http://www.werthers-original.us/products/caramel-candies/hard-candies

The candy milk sauce reminds me of my favourite candy Werther’s Original hard candies. The melon was not sweet at all but it did provide crunch. Strawberry was sweet and sour. Kiwi was slightly sour. All in all I'm still more of an ice cream person than a yogurt person.

Rate:
Sanum: 7/10 ☺