SET- Contemporary Cusine -CLOSED-

Zq wanted to try out this new restaurant that just opened- SET. SET offers 5-course set lunch at $28.80++ and 6-course set dinner at 38.80++ which comprises of contemporary fusion cuisine.

There was a 20% off their set menu when zq make a reservations through hungrygowhere. However it's only till end of September. But there's still a discount of 10% from 1 Oct till 31 Oct.

First course is the Chef Starter- Bacon and Mushroom Gratin with Homemade Toast. The bacon and mushroom gratin is served in a plate and you use a spoon to spread it on the toast. I love the gratin. It has the perfect combination of mushroom, bacon and cheese. The toast was also great. Each person is served 1 slice of bread cut into two. The toast is crunchy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside. One of the best toast I have ever eaten! The toast and gratin goes really well together.

Second course is the Cold Dish where you can choose either Smoked Duck Breast, Tomato Caprese, Huai San Carpaccio or Salmon Garvlax.

Zq ordered Smoked Duck Breast- Slices of smoked duck breast on a bed of fresh greens with cherry tomatoes and topped with an orange dressing. Everything was good except the dressing. I didn't like it. It was thick and slimy(?)

Second course, Tomato Caprese. I made a great choice when I chose this. I love this out of the three cold dishes that we tried. Fresh juicy sliced tomatoes with creamy feta cheese and frisee is a lovely combination. The melon ball however was a little weird in the equation.

Second course, Huai San Carpaccio. Huai San is actually a wild yam which has many medical function such as lowering blood pressure and it is very good for your skin. Thinly slices of huai san, topped with diced beetroot and diced red jelly. The sauce tasted like soy sauce which went well with the plain huai san and sweet beetroot and jelly.

Third course is Soup. The choices were Mushroom Veloute w Peanut Butter, Roasted Pumpkin w Truffle, Double-boiled Herbal Chicken and Miso Soup w Sake.

I chose Miso Soup w Sake. I love the presentation of how it looks like I'm really drinking sake. The person said that you are suppose to drink the soup from the cup in one shot. I tried and failed. It took me at least two shots to finish a cup. Inside the miso soup there's tofu and spring onion.

Fouth course is Main where you can order either Marinated Rack of Lamb, Baby Pork Back Ribs, Roasted Chicken Pullet, Grilled Snapper with Salsa or Roasted Beef Tenderloin.

Zq chose Baby Pork Back Ribs. The taste reminded me of Bak Kut Teh maybe because it uses pork ribs as well. The meat was a little tough but portion was quite big. A good choice for people who have a bigger appetite.

Fourth course, Roasted Beef Tenderloin. Nice presentation. I ordered it medium rare. The beef was very flavorful and it sorts of melts in your mouth. Really yummy. There's also pink peppercorn, sprouts, garlic and mushroom on the plate.

Fifth course is Dessert. The options were Home-made Cake of the Day, Espresso Creme Brulee, Pistachio Panna Cotta, Poached Pear w Gelato or Huai San Jello.

Zq chose Poached Pear w Gelato- Pears poached in red wine for hours with a scoop of vanilla gelato and a quartered strawberry. The pear wasn't mushy but the sauce was a little weird. To me it tasted like soy sauce(my taste bud must be broken or something haha) but zq disagree.

Fifth course, Huai San Jello. Start with Huai San Cappacio and end with Huai San Jello was what the person recommended. Ending with the jello was not too bad. It was light and tasted quite similar to cheng tng.(maybe cause there's barley and white fungus inside)

Fifth course, Home-made Cake of the Day- Chocolate Coconut Cake. Chocolate cake, desiccated coconut topped with gooseberry. The cake was quite nice. The coconut added some richness and sweetness to the chocolate cake.

I think this is a great place to dine. The food is good and the service is great too.

Rate:
Bacon and Mushroom Gratin with Homemade Toast: 9/10 ☺
Smoked Duck Breast: 6/10 ☺
Tomato Caprese: 9/10 ☺
Huai San Carpaccio: 8/10 ☺
Miso Soup w Sake: 7/10 ☺
Baby Pork Back Ribs: 7/10 ☺
Roasted Beef Tenderloin: 9/10 ☺
Poached Pear w Gelato: 6.5/10 ☺
Huai San Jello: 7.5/10 ☺
Chocolate Coconut Cake: 7/10 ☺

MIZ Japanese Restaurant

Came across a deal online on groupon- $24 for $50 Worth of Japanese Cuisine at MIZ Japanese Restaurant in Tanjong Pagar.

 So I bought the deal, zq made the reservations and we went there lunch.

Salmon Tataki ($14)- Tataki is a cooking style where the food is lightly seared so that the inside is still raw. Lightly seared salmon with soy sauce. The dish was served cold and tasted quite average.

Cold Garlic Butter Udon ($15)- Cold udon tossed with garlic and butter, topped with caviar. I ordered this cause I read lots of good reviews about this. When it came, the bowl was a little dirty(the sides of the bowl had butter and bits of garlic) Taste wise, the udon was chewy but the caviar didn't really add much to the dish in terms of taste of texture.(I felt like it was more of a garnish?) I would have like the udon to be colder but then if it were, maybe the butter(sauce) would solidify. 

Pork Ramen ($12)- Ramen, beansprout, pork and egg. Zq ordered this. She said the broth had a Chinese feel. One thing was that there were lots of beansprouts in it.

Mentaiko Shiitake ($15)- mushroom topped with mentaiko sauce and lightly torched. The mushroom was juicy but I didn't like the taste of it. It didn't had a nice taste. However, the mentaiko on the other hand was good. It was creamy and sweet.

Luckily we bought the voucher as the food here ain't cheap. But they do offer affordable food such as the Lunch Promotion $6 Set (limited 20 sets only). Look at their facebook for more details. There's also complimentary edamame and free flow of cold/hot tea.

Rate:

Salmon Tataki: 5/10 ☺
Cold Garlic Butter Udon: 6/10 ☺
Pork Ramen: 5/10 ☺
Mentaiko Shiitake: 5/10 ☺

Merely Ice Cream

Decided to give Merely Ice Cream a try since I heard some good review about it. So I brought zq along for our adventure.

 I like the font and the way the menu is being shown! Looks cool.

Anyway, we looked at all the ice cream flavors available that day, we decided on Salted Butterscotch and Dark Chocolate with Waffle($2.40)- Rich, salty, buttery and sweet salted butterscotch ice cream and strong and bitter dark chocolate ice cream with a nice waffle that is crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I love the salted butterscotch(My weakness for sweet & salty combination❤)while zq like her dark chocolate. The waffles for me were good-nice flavor and not too dry. Zq on the other hand felt that it was dry(she wished there was some sort of sauce like honey)

Each scoop of ice cream served here is slightly bigger than what you get at most ice cream shop. There's also some magazines under the tables to read and free ice water.

Rate:

Salted Butterscotch: 9/10 ☺

Dark Chocolate: 7/10 ☺

Waffle: 7/10 ☺

Shunjuu

So Sebastian asked me out for dinner with his friends at Robertson Quay. I thought we were meeting at 7pm so I prepared my timing nicely to be there just on time but... who knew he would have arrived earlier (like more than 1 hour plus earlier?? ). So annoying cause he made me rush to be there earlier too! Anyway I got there just before 7pm but his friends arrived like 7.15pm. So after contemplating we decided to dine at Shunjuu.

We opted for an indoor seat since we didn't want to sweat. The lightning as you can see from the picture were quite dim(which made it hard to take pictures). When we were seated we were given a wet towel.

All of us ordered Gohan($3)-steamed rice. Plain short grain rice.

We also ordered Charcoal-Grill Set. I also ordered Chicken Set D($16)- Chicken wing, chicken meat ball, chicken thigh, chicken filet with fish roe and chicken meat with cartilage. To me I felt that all of them were overcooked cause the meat were all quite tough. Taste wise it was okay. The one that I like the most was the chicken filet with fish roe because I liked the fish roe texture.

Even though the food wasn't up to what I had expected, it's a great place to chill with your friends.

Rate:

Chicken Set D: 5/10 ☺

Saveur

I was scrolling through Instagram when I chanced upon a dessert that my friend posted.Straight away I knew that I had to try it. What is it you may wonder, well I'm not gonna tell you so figure it out yourself :p

So I arranged a date to dine at Saveur with zq. That day finally arrived and..... I was late! About 20 mins and zq was kinda angry )':

So anyway, we went to the restaurant and got a table for 2 and ordered our food.

Saveur's pasta ($4.90)- chilli oil, finely chopped kombu, minced pork sauce, chives and sakura ebi. I came to Saveur once before so I've tasted their pasta. When this dish arrived, I tasted it and was a little disappointed. First it did not had as much flavor as the one I previously tasted and second, the pasta was cold(maybe because the person was spending too much time turning the pasta). But still it tasted nicer then most pasta that I have tasted.

Duck Confit ($12.90)- mashed potato, saute shitake with parsley, orange segments and orange-infused natural jus. My first time eating this dish. I love the taste of the dish. Duck was cooked nicely, meat tears off easily and skin was crispy. The mushroom were seasoned. Mashed potato was warm and the orange was refreshing. However zq said that it tasted better the previous time.

Salted Caramel Lava Cake ($10.90)- Maldon sea salt, Valrhona Dulcey chocolate and chantilly cream with vanilla ice cream.(+$2) Finally the moment I've been waiting for. Cut opened the cake and you could see the caramel oozing out. The cake's texture was kinda like steam cake. But taste wise it was okay. Not too sweet. From the ice cream, you could see tons of vanilla seeds all over it. The strawberry was a good garnish which provided some acidity.

Rate:
Saveur's pasta: 8/10 ☺
Duck Confit: 8/10 ☺
Salted Caramel Lava Cake: 7/10☺

Fluff

I heard that Fluff Bakery sells some awesome tasting cupcakes so there I was queuing up even before they opened.

Salted Caramel Cupcake ($4)- light and fluffy vanilla cake with a salted caramel filling, topped with mascarpone frosting and salted caramel drizzle. Cake was moist and taste like vanilla. Frosting was not too sweet and went well with the salted caramel drizzle. Even though there wasn't a lot of  salted caramel drizzled on the cupcake, I could still taste the salted caramel in every bite. The best part about this cupcake was the salted caramel filling! I absolutely love ADORE salted caramel!! When I bit into it, it was salty goodness ❤

Mooncake ($4)- light and fluffy brown sugar cake with a white lotus and salted egg yolk filling, a very light green tea frosting and white chocolate chips. This is a really interesting cupcake and as the name suggest, it really does taste like mooncake. I applaud fluff bakery for coming up with this flavor.(my first time seeing it in a cupcake form) The cake was moist and went well with the white lotus paste and egg yolk filling. However, the egg yolk together with the frosting tasted a little weird so I just ate the yolk without the frosting which was yummy.

This is the BEST cupcake I have tried. I don't mind going back to buy more. Maybe next time I'll buy the mooncake flavor instead of mooncake for my family to try.

Rate: 

Salted Caramel Cupcake:10/10 ☺

Mooncake: 9/10 ☺

Shimbashi Soba

Shimbashi Soba offers some great afternoon promotions(Available on weekdays excluding PH and peak season from 3pm to 5.30pm).

There's the Afternoon Mini Don Set- A small selection of mini dons served with a small portion of soba(warmed or chilled), fried flour batter and fruit for $9.80.

There's also the Tea Time Dessert Set- Your choice of ANY of the dessert(except Shimbashi Special Dessert Set and Shimbashi Parfait) with coffee or houjicha(hot/cold) for $8.80.

I had the Afternoon Mini Don Set: Mini Tempura Don Set ($9.80)- Assorted tempura on rice with chilled soba, fried flour batter, dried seaweed and 2 slices of watermelon. The rice was drizzled with some sauce for flavor. The tempura was okay. The soba was delicious! I ate it together with the fried flour batter which provided crunch and the seaweed which provided the usual seaweed flavor. The soba was chewy which I liked. Watermelon was refreshing.

Sobacha Pudding & Soba Karintou ($6.80)- Soba tea pudding and fried sweet soba served with caramel sauce. For this dessert I ordered it as an a la carte since I didn't want the coffee or tea. The pudding did not had a strong soba tea taste, was firm and it went well with the sweet caramel sauce. The fried soba was most likely coasted with sugar before frying. Even though it was coated with lots of sugar, it wasn't too sweet. The fried soba was crunchy and quite an interesting thing for me as I never thought that soba could be used for dessert.

Edmund ordered the Tea Time Dessert Set ($8.80): Cold Houjicha and Matcha Cream Anmitsu- Soba balls, sweet red beans, agar jelly cubes, fruits, boiled beans and green tea ice cream served with brown sugar syrup. This was an awesome deal since the Matcha Cream Anmitsu cost $9.80 as an a la carte. It has nice vibrant colors. The soba balls were plain and slightly chewy, sweet red bean was a little like a paste with bits of red bean, it wasn't too sweet. Green tea ice cream had a strong green tea flavor without being overly sweet.

Rate: 
Mini Tempura Don Set: 7/10 ☺

Sobacha Pudding & Soba Karintou: 6.5/10 ☺

Matcha Cream Anmitsu: 6.5/10 ☺

Koh Grill and Sushi Bar

Went with Edmund to Koh Grill & Sushi Bar cause I wanted to try their Shiok Maki. We arrived at around 12pm(cause Edmund was late) and there was a queue but we got seats quite fast.

We ordered our food and began out wait. 

Green Tea ($1.50). There's 2 option, sweetened and unsweetened. I love the sweetened green tea, it's has just the right amount of sweetness that I like which isn't too sweet.

Pufferfish ($12). Glad that it did not took too long for this to arrive as I was hungry STARVING! I expected something weird from it but in the end it was very normal. To me it was exactly like bak kwa(dried, barbecued pork a little like jerky). But the only difference was that it was accompanied with mayo and tons of flying fish roe. Chewy, tasty pufferfish with creamy mayo and those tiny fish roe that burst in your mouth. Definitely yummy.

Sashimi Jyo Moriawase ($38)- salmon belly, swordfish belly, white tuna, hamachi and ama ebi. 

-The salmon belly was average, standing sushi bar ones seems to be of higher quality. 

-Swordfish belly was firm and mildly sweet.

-White tuna. I think it's the one that was marinated with some soy sauce(?) The texture was firm and flavor was good.

-Hamachi(yellowtail). I like how it looks(although you can't really see it from the picture above). It was of good quality.

-Ama Ebi(sweet shrimps) had a slimy texture and was indeed sweet in taste. A little weird for me as I didn't like the sliminess of the shrimp.

My complain? Wished that the sashimi was colder.

Shiok!!! 2nd generation Maki ($16.80)- crispy prawn wrapped with lightly roasted salmon. Finally the dish that I came for arrived on my table. The flavors really went well with each other. The sweet sauce, lightly cooked salmon, the prawns and the fish roe was so good. My complain is that the maki was cold when they served us. Since the salmon was lightly cooked I was expecting the top to be slightly warm. I would prefer a warm/hot and cold combination which would have made it perfect.

Rate: 
Sweetened Green Tea: 10/10 ☺
Pufferfish: 8.5/10 ☺
Sashimi Jyo Moriawase: 6/10 ☺
Shiok!!! 2nd generation Maki: 7/10 ☺

CIA Top Table

Went to dine at CIA Top Table with my course mates. Only open for lunch from 28 Aug to 7 Nov, 11.30am to 1pm. Reservation required.

We ordered our food and we were given some breads- bread stick, milk bun and ciabatta. The bread stick was nice as it had some crunch. The milk bun was lovely- soft, fluffy and slightly milky. For the ciabatta it was nice, soft and fluffy on the inside. They asked if we wanted more bread and we did! (so greedy of us)

Pan Fried Stingray Cake ($6)-salad greens, Vietnamese herbs and soy lime dressing. Nicely pan fried stingray cake- a little on the spicy side. The salad with the dressing had the right amount of acidity and it goes well together with the cake as it helped mute the spiciness of the cake. Not sure what the sauce on the side was but it complemented the cake well too.

Seafood Salad ($7)- squid, prawns, green papaya and Thai cashew pesto. The prawns and squid was mixed with a nice acidic dressing which was really tasty and refreshing. Even though there were some chili, it wasn't spicy. The papaya salad on the other hand was really disappointing, the dressing did not have enough acidity and the papaya texture was weird like jelly. Such a huge contrast between the seafood and papaya.

Chili Crab Ravioli ($15)- semolina pasta, greens and fried quail egg. The pasta was al dente. There was crab mixture on the inside. However the dish could use more sauce which would give more taste to it. Greens and egg was good. The thing that was disappointing was that it did not taste like chili crab.

Vegetarian Benedict ($9)- poached egg, greens, cheese, baked sweet potatoes, hash brown and hollandaise. Egg was well poached, yolk was still flow-y. Salad was good, nice dressing and fresh greens. Hash brown was not overcook. I think it's one of the nicer main dish I've taste for the day.

After that we were given the dessert menu and also some cookies- Milo macaroon, passion fruit macaroon, matcha cookie and orange Madeline. The macaroon shells were really crispy and hard- not so nice. Taste wise the Milo one was okay but the passion fruit one was a little weird. Matcha cookie had a nice unsweetened matcha flavor, orange Madeline was lovely(nicest out of the 4).

Kalamansi Meringue Tart ($5)- kalamansi custard, coconut graham crust. Kalamansi is actually a type of lime. The tartness of the kalamansi custard works well with the sweet meringue. Very nice.

Kaya Pain Perdu ($5)- kaya cream, salted gula melaka, white pepper ice cream. Pain Perdu is actually french for 'french toast' or if you want direct translation 'lost bread'. So if you did not understand, you wouldn't have known that there would be french toast. The french toast was really yummy- chewy and tasty(wished there was more even though there's already 3 on the plate). Sauce tasted more like coconut than the usual kaya flavor. Was a little disappointed with the ice cream as I could not taste the white pepper, only coconut flavor. Maybe they could rename it to Coconut Pain Perdu.

Warm Jasmine Rice Pudding ($5)-coffee ice cream, coffee glaze. Wished that the rice was cooked more till it was mushy. Didn't like that you could bite each grain of rice. The cream and coffee was good.

Frozen Landscape ($5)- pandan and coconut ice creams, kalamansi and hibiscus sorbets. The pandan ice cream tasted like real pandan instead of artificial pandan flavor(something you don't usually get). Coconut ice cream was nice, creamy, coconut-y and not too sweet. Kalamansi sorbet was refreshingly acidic. Hibiscus sorbet was flowery at the start and slightly bitter at the end. 

We also tried Moscato ($45/bt) which is a sweet white wine. Really nice and sweet. 

Rate: 
Pan Fried Stingray Cake: 8/10 ☺
Seafood Salad: 6/10 ☺
Chili Crab Ravioli: 6/10 ☺
Vegetarian Benedict: 7.5/10☺
Kalamansi Meringue Tart: 8/10 ☺
Kaya Pain Perdu: 8/10 ☺
Warm Jasmine Rice Pudding: 5/10 ☺
Frozen Landscape: 6.5/10 ☺

NOM

Went to NOM with ZQ and Hazel on a Sunday cause of their rainbow cake. The bus stop outside the MRT I took a bus to Blk 90 and it took about 3 mins of walking straight after alighting from bus stop to find NOM.

We ordered the Egg Atlantic ($12.90)- slightly salty smoked salmon, runny poached eggs, English muffins, hollandaise sauce and salad. The combination of egg Benedict with smoked salmon work just as well as the bacon. The hollandaise color looked nice-pale yellow. The salad on the other hand was not very nice. Didn't like the dressing of the salad even though there was enough acidity maybe because of the fruitiness(?).

Front view

Back view

Ultimate NOM Burger ($13.90)- ground juicy beef patty with chewy smoked bacon, cheese, lettuce and a sunny side up egg sandwiched between 2 buns, hand cut fries and salad. The burger in one bite was amazing. Patty with the bacon was chewy but not overly chewy. Fries were nicely salted. Salad was the same as the one in Egg Atlantic.

Finally the (oreo) rainbow cake ($7.90). Actually wanted the salted caramel one but it was sold out (NO!!!!!!!!) Anyway, 7 different color cake in between layers of oreo buttercream. Didn't really like the oreo buttercream- not much oreo taste, more on the cream taste. Cake was average not moist but not dry as well. Wished I could try the salted caramel one.

Even though I came for the rainbow cake, I found something better, the burger and the egg Atlantic. It's a nice place that serves nice food however the salad that comes along with the dishes is very disappointing. 

Rate:
Egg Atlantic: 7.5/10 ☺
Ultimate NOM Burger: 8/10 ☺
Oreo Rainbow Cake: 6.5/10 ☺