Shabu Sai (Suntec City)

Went to Shabu Sai for lunch with Zq.

Shabu Sai is a Japanese hotpot buffet ($14.99++) where you will have a pot with 2 different soups from 7 choices(Seaweed, Sukiyaki, Spicy, Seafood Paitan, Spicy Beef Miso, Tonkotsu Shouyu and Monthly Special Soup) meats(pork, chicken and beef), seafood(additional charges apply) and others. For free flow of drinks and soft serve it will be an additional $1.99++. However there is a time limit of 70 minutes for lunch.

Here they teach how to enjoy either a shabu shabu or sukiyaki the right way.

I chose the Tom Yam Miso which was the monthly special soup and Zq chose Tonkotsu(pork bone broth). The Tom Tam Miso spiciness was mild which is good for people who cant handle the heat. The Tonkotsu was okay I guess, a little flavorful. For our meat we had 2 of everything. The picture above shows the beef.

Chicken

Pork

Ingredients to make your own sauce. For my sauce, I added every spicy ingredient available and it was so damm good One look and Zq could feel the heat of it even without trying.

Udon, soba, vegetables etc..  There were many items available to choose from. The display had a very Japanese feel to it. Especially the wooden board with the name written in Japanese and English.

Somehow hotpot always seem so comforting. I wouldn't mind going for more hotpot adventures again.

Rate:

Food: 7/10 ☺
Service: 7/10 ☺
Value: 7/10 ☺

Oishii Halal Restaurant -CLOSED-

Went to Oishii Halal Restaurant for a steamboat buffet. We bought an online voucher which cost $12 with the original price being $23.90. However, when we went there we noticed that the original price was only $12.99 for the day we went.

Oishii Halal Restaurant was actually called Yureka Teppanyaki Restaurant and on their facebook page you can see that it has not changed. At the restaurant you can also see a board hung on the wall with the words yureka teppanyaki.

We arrived, had a seat and was given 3 choices for our soup- Tom Yum, Chicken and Ramen. However if we wanted the Ramen we had to wait 20 minutes so we decided on tom yum and chicken soup instead.

The ingredients are all on the conveyor belt and you help yourself to whatever items you want. At first we could see some empty plate and some with broken egg shells on it but that was because there was no other place to dispose of your plate. Thus people would put it back at the conveyor belt which the people inside the kitchen would remove.

The food available was sliced beef, sliced chicken, prawns, squids, mussels, sliced fish, tofu, nori(which we only saw once), shiitake mushroom, enokitake mushroom, oyster mushroom, carrots, fishball, crab claw, crabstick and sausage. At the side you could get rice, cabbage, kang kong, condiments, egg, glass noodles, instant noodles, grape syrup drink, ice and plain water.

At the side of the table is the induction control- on/off and strength control (1,2 and 3). After a while even though the induction was at 1, the heat was still very strong. Strong enough for the soup to bubble and jump on to Hazel 's hand a few time (which wasn't pleasant for her). The Tom Yum soup was a little on the sweet side but there was slightly acidic as well. The Chicken soup was on the saltier side but flavorful.

At the front of the restaurant there were 3 types of noodles available-Instant, egg and glass noodles. Condiments- sweet red chili, green chili in soy sauce, wasabi etc.. Rice available too!

At $12 for this buffet I think it's good enough to fill my stomach and the plus side is that it's halal.

Rate:

Food: 5/10 ☺
Service: 6/10 ☺
Value: 5.5/10 ☺

Shinkei -CLOSED-

I wanted to eat Japanese buffet so I browse through some deals online. I actually wanted to eat at Gion but since they required booking 3 days in advance I decided to go to Shinkei. I invited Edmund and Hazel along for the buffet(my usual Japanese food cuisine buddies).

Ebi Shioyaki- Grilled Tiger Prawns. Only 1 per person. The prawn was coated with some salt. It was nicely barbecued and you could taste some grilled taste.

SHIN Sushi Set- Tuna, Salmon and Swordfish sushi. It was okay.

Sashimi Moriwase- Assorted sashimi platter consisting of salmon, tuna, octopus, yellowtail(?) and roasted salmon. Out of all the sashimi I like the octopus one the most!

Tempura Moriwase- Assorted tempura of prawn, pumpkin, carrot, fish and lady finger(?). Didn't like the fish tempura.

Ton Katsu- Fried Breaded Pork Cutlet. Hazel ordered it cause she wanted to eat tonkatsu. It was not bad. It was not tough or oily.

 

Uzura- Quail Egg. I love quail eggs! Anything quail egg is nice and you can never go wrong with ordering skewered quail eggs. Next to it was the chicken heart which Edmund ate. He felt that it was pretty tender and how some stretch but not chewy.

Shishamo Furai- Breaded Pregnant Capelin. Couldn't really taste the pregnant fish like the grilled one. Tasted more of the flour batter that covered the fish. Other than that, I think it was nicely deep fried.

Ginnan- Gingko Nuts. What can you expect from a ginko nut? Well it taste like the usual gingko nut you would normally get in your Chinese dessert. Slightly bland. it was sprinkled with salt and some bonito flakes.

Asuparagasu Be-Kon- Asparagus wrapped in Bacon. Hazel ordered it as she really wanted to try it. She kept on saying how nice it was that I decided to take a bite. From it I could taste some smoky flavour from the bacon but it was a little on the chewy side. Wish they cooked the bacon a little more. However Hazel liked it the way it was. She even ordered one more after our ice cream.

Spider Temaki- Fried Soft Shell Crab handroll. I love soft shell crab so I ordered this. It was good. Creaminess from the mayo, fishiness from the tobiko(in a good way), freshness from the cucumber and some crunch from the soft shell crab paired with sushi rice and seaweed. (Wished I had ordered more of it)

Spider Maki- Fried Soft Shell Crab matt sushi roll. 1 serving is 2 sushi roll. It was quite nice. Crunchy and quite flavourful. I ordered like 3 portions in total. 

Hiyashi Chuka Ramen- Cold Ramen. Wanted to try the cold ramen because that time I went with Edmund to Japanese Curry Express and their cold ramen which had a similar name tasted really refreshing and nice. However this was below my expectation. There was too much sauce which overpowered my tastebud so Edmund had to force it down his stomach. However the ramen was cooked al dente.

Ice Lemon Tea. The normal lemon tea you usually drink. The green tea was unsweetened so I got the ice lemon tea instead which had sugar. Can't stand cold unsweetened green tea.

Matcha Ice Cream- The buffet does not include any dessert. But if you post a picture on instagram and follow their account you can get a free ice cream. It was a nice way to end our meal.

I think Shinkei offers a buffet with food that taste slightly better than some Japanese buffet that I have went to at a reasonable price. I wouldn't mind going back again.

Rate:
Ebi Shioyaki: 7/10 ☺

SHIN Sushi Set: 5/10 ☺

Sashimi Moriwase: 6/10 ☺

Tempura Moriwase: 6/10 ☺

Ton Katsu: 6.5/10 ☺

Uzura: 7/10 ☺

Shishamo Furai: 5/10 ☺

Ginnan: 5.5/10 ☺

Asuparagasu Be-Kon: 5.5/10 ☺

Spider Temaki: 7.5/10 ☺

Spider Maki: 7/10 ☺

Hiyashi Chuka Ramen: 5/10 ☺

Ice Lemon Tea: 6/10 ☺

Matcha Ice Cream: 6.5/10 ☺

Omakaeya

Found an awesome deal online $19 for All-You-Can-Eat Japanese Pork Tonkatsu + Prawn Tempura + Assorted Vegetables Tempura + Ala Carte Buffet & Free Flow of Drinks.

So I invited Edmund and Hazel along.

I love the decor of the place. The door actually slides open and close(so cool!).

On the table there's soy sauce, chopsticks, toothpicks and side plates.

Here is the menu. We have 1.5 hours to order what we want and 2 hours to complete it.

The rice- to our surprise it was not the tasteless rice you would expect. It was short grain rice with some seasoning mixed together.

Special Salad- All three of us really LOVE the salad. The dressing was nice and the ingredients were fresh. This is a good way for people who don't like greens to start eating them.

Deep Fried Chicken- Juicy, slightly oily and tender chicken with mildly spicy seasoning. Great that it was not overcooked.

Edamame- Cooked in salt water and sprinkled with more salt. Nice snack.

Spicy Cucumber- The garnish seemed to be thinly sliced dried chilli. The cucumber was crunchy but still had some of the raw cucumber taste which I did not really like. The sauce that the cucumber was coated with was nice- sweet, spicy and salty.

Cold Tofu- This was the dish Hazel was looking forward to the most but in the end it was a huge letdown. It's just plain tofu topped with spring onion, fried shallot with minced ginger on the side. Tasted really plain. We only managed to eat it by adding soy sauce.

Assorted Tempura- Ordered 2 portions. The whole plate is 2 portion. Each portion consist of 1 prawn, 1 asparagus, 2 sweet potato, 1 pumpkin and 1 eggplant. The tempura dip was a little diluted for my liking. The sweet potato was the nicest followed by prawn, pumpkin, eggplant and lastly the aspargus.

French fries- was average, came with ketchup. Nicely salted fries that were not burnt.

Deep Fried Pork- Tender, not so oily, perfectly cooked pork with crispy skin. The sauce that came with it tasted like the sauce used in takoyaki. It was a nice pairing as the pork had a slight porky(?) taste which the sauce helped cover.

Glad I bought the deal as it was worth the money. Food wasn't too bad for a buffet.

Rate:
Hazel: 7.5/10 ☺ (Overall)
Edmund: 6/10 ☺ (Overall)

Rice: 7.5/10 ☺
Special Salad: 9.5/10 ☺
Deep Fried Chicken: 7/10 ☺
Edamame: 5.5/10 ☺
Spicy Cucumber: 5.5/10 ☺
Cold Tofu: 5/10 ☺
Assorted Tempura: 6/10 ☺
French fries: 5.5/10 ☺
Deep Fried Pork: 7/10 ☺

Address:
11 Unity Street #02-14 Robertson Walk, Singapore 237995

Other info:
Opening hours: 6pm-12pm (11pm last order).
Closed on Monday.