Wednesday 29 May 2013

[CLOSED] Kome – Refreshing Quality Japanese Food

Thank you to Kome Team and Hungry Go Where for the invitation.

Kome Japanese Restaurant in Keppel Club is under a new management. The new owner, Bobby has brought in Chef Albert a well-loved chef with over 30 years of experience in top Japanese Restaurants in Singapore, to ensure Kome serve the best quality Japanese food to the diners.


We kicked off the food tasting with the serving of Sashimi Moriawase; which consist of tuna, tuna belly, salmon belly, yellow tail, yellow tail belly and scallops All the sashimi tasted smooth, fresh, and the cutting is very generous. This is the first time I tried yellow tail belly, it looked like swordfish sashimi, with its creamy outlook but with a texture that tasted like salmon belly. It is simply tasted awesome.

Sashimi Moriawase

Next come several grilled fishes such as seasonal fish, grill yellow tail cheek, salmon belly and cod fish. The seasonal fish and yellow tail cheek are grilled with salt and serve with grated daikon and lemon wedge. The meat is slightly resilient, fresh and moist. Meanwhile the salmon belly and cod fish accompanied with variant of sweet sauce, the meat is so moist and tender, it just melts in your mouth.

Grill Seasonal Fish

Grill Yellow Tail Cheek

Grill Salmon Belly

Grill Cod Fish

The speciality of the Kome is their shabu shabu, where they had used monk fish as an ingredient for their soup base. The soup base has a natural sweetness and is full of flavours. The best part is that it does not contain any MSG and I can vouch for this as I am pretty sensitive when it comes to MSG. For normal buffet, you can have unlimited serving of topside beef, with excellent marbling that it melts in your mouth. For this tasting, we have Alaska crab legs as well.

Shabu Shabu

Topside Beef
If you are ordering ala carte, the foie gras and beef cubes are a must try. The foie gras is seared perfectly with a crispy texture on the outside with smooth velvety texture on the inside and coated with sweet sauce. Perfecto!. The beef cubes is cut to bite size and well cooked. It is tender and full of flavour. It will even be better if the beef has a little more fat / marble in it.

Foie Gras

Beef Cubes

To end the night, we close the dinner with sushi and yuzu sorbet. The cutting of the fish in the sushi is very generous to accompany the rice. Good all rounded sushi. The yuzu sorbet has a light and refreshing taste to it. A good way to end the meal.

Sushi

Yuzu Sorbet

For those who like shochu, try out out their sparkling yuzu shochu and blueberry shochu. As I can't have any alcohol at the moment, but looking at the others gulping down the shochu, it must be good.

Sparkling Yuzu Shochu

Blueberry Shochu

The décor of this restaurant is very Zen and bright. Private room with tatami seating is available. There are several dining options available, such as ala carte, ala carte buffet (adult $40++), and omakase. If you compare the buffet price with other restaurant in the market, you will get your value for money here.

Overall, Kome served a very good quality Japanese food. The ingredients are fresh, seasonal and unique. The location in Keppel Club can be slightly challenging for the non drivers, but it is a good place for a quick getaway from the business in the city. I'll be back soon, as my Little Devil keep pestering me to go for a meal here after she saw the pictures. Cheers!!


Food & Drink: 8/10
Value: N/A
Service: N/A
Ambiance: 7.5/10.

Kome
10 Bukit Chermin Road
The Keppel Club
Singapore 109918

Tel: 6273 0118
Op Hours:

Daily 12.00 – 15.00; 18.30 – 22.00

Monday 20 May 2013

Ponggol Nasi Lemak – Not Your Ordinary Nasi Lemak



Nasi Lemak, one of Singapore Favourite dish. There are a few popular nasi lemak joint in Singapore, such as those in Adam Road Food Centre, Changi Village Food Centre or even the famous Ponggol Nasi Lemak.

[CLOSED] Onaka Restaurant : Putting the Yumminess in Healthty and Special Diet Food


Thanks to Onaka Restaurant Team and HungryGoWhere for hosting this food tasting event.

The restaurant’s speciality in Conscious Cuisine is a merging of Asian culinary cultures and traditions with modern Western influence, using only wholesome and selective organic ingredients. Onaka chef team is dedicated to using all-natural ingredients without artificial additives, chemicals, colourings, flavorings, MSG, preservatives and trans-fats. About 50% of the menu is vegetarian with special focus on Low Glycemic and Gluten-Free options.




This restaurant / bistro located in Alexandra Retail Centre (ARC). The décor is bright, modern with a combination of white colour and dark wood colour. You have a choice of seating at the bar or normal dining environments. So how's the food?


Dip Platers: Watermelon sashimi. Sous vide watermelon, agar wasabi “tobiko”, daikon and tamarind dressing. This starter shows a lot of creativity, flair and usage modern western cooking technique as the watermelon is sous vide to the point it look like “tuna”. At first bite, it tasted slightly weird, however when you dipped it with the tamarind dressing, it taste, texture and flavour just come together in this dish.

Watermelon sashimi

Salads: Tofu Avo and Nicoise Paper Roll. Tofu Avo is a great vegetarian salad with ingredients such as avocado, mesclun, walnut, sprouts, hazelnut, soy brined tofu and tamarind dressing. Light and healthy, and soy brined tofu tasted like feta cheese. The Nicoise Paper roll tasted light, fresh and refreshing. Special mention of this dish is the yummy soya made aioli instead of using eggs, which tasted like Japanese mayonnaise.


Tofu Avo

Nicoise Paper Roll

Noodle & grains: Pineapple Rice, Mushroom Soba, Chilli Crab Capelini and Maritime Barley Risotto.

Pineapple Rice

Roast Mushroom Soba
My favourite was Chilli Crab Capellini, served with crab cake, home made chilli carb sauce and perfectly poached egg. The pasta is al dente which absorbs the chilli crab sauce and nicely complemented by the crab cake.

Maritime Barley Risotto.

The second favourite is the maritime barley risotto. Yup, Barley risotto. This simple ingredients actually create a nice substitute for risotto, it is slightly chewy, not starchy and tasty, as it absorbs the crustacean stock broth quite well. The incorporation of foam in this dish to prevent it from making diner feel “Jelak” (overwhelmed).



Carnie: Duck Pancake, 48 HR Beef, Miso Lamb, and Modernist Chicken Curry v2.0. Duck Pancake is the highlight here. Five Spice Duck Confit wrapped in turmeric crepes served with orange caramel glazed. Onaka answer to Peking Duck, it is slightly crunchy, flavourful and slightly sweet, Yummyyy!!! A must try dish, we actually have an encore for this dish. :)

Duck Pancake

The 48HR Beef with red wine reduction and Miso Lamb use a modern slow cooking technique in low temperature, 48 hours for beef and 24 hours for the Lamb. The result is moist, succulent and tender meat.

48 HR Beef

Miso Lamb
The modern take of chicken curry does not suits my taste buds. I find the taste too sour and just simply like my chicken curry with some lemak taste.

Modernist Chicken Curry v2.0

Sweets: Banana Pastillas and Avo Choco Emoticons. Baked banana in phyllo pastry serve with cardamom ice cream and maple syrup. The banana pastillas has a nice combination of crispy, sweet, moist and complemented well with cardamom ice cream. The Avo Choco Emoticons is the Onaka answer for healthy moose. Combination of Avocado & chocolate “healthy” moose.

Banana Pastillas

Avo Choco Emoticons
Overall, Onaka serve a modern, healthy conscious type of dish, but not forgetting the taste as well. They are very creative and they price their food reasonably. I have to honestly say that without this invitation, I will probably never enter this restaurant. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to sample the healthy and Yummyyyy food here. Cheers!!!

Food & Drink: 8/10
Value: n/a
Service: 7.5/10
Ambiance: 7.5/10.

Onaka Restaurant & Wine Bar @ARC
460 Alexandra Road
#01-32. PSA Building
Singapore 119963

Tel: 6270 2012
Op Hours:
Mon – Fri: 11.30 – 22.30
Sat – Sun: 10.30 – 22.30

Sunday 19 May 2013

Satsuma Shochu Dining Bar – Fantastic Food [CLOSED]



Satsuma Shochu Dining Bar is an izakaya* with more than 100 labels of of shochu** by the glass. Located on the premises of The Gallery Hotel at Robertson Quay, there are two seating options. On the first level, you will have a more casual and relaxing dining environment and be seated on tatami, while the second floor offer more formal dining environment with table and chairs.

Sunday 5 May 2013

Re!Fill @ Hotel Re! - Menu Re!Fresh, Re!juvenate & Re!launch


Thank you HungryGoWhere and Marketing Team of Hotel Re! for the invites to the food tasting session.



Re!Fill is Hotel Re!'s dedicated restaurant, helm by Chef William Ang with more than 38 years culinary experience in the F&B industry. His achievements including cooking for His Excellency, President S.R. Nathan and his distinguish guests and organiser & participants of several record breaking F&B events in Singapore. The décor of the place is bright, retro with pink colour wall paper.



In April 2013, Re!Fill Re!Launch a Re!Fresh and Re!Juvenate menu to better serve the hotel guests, patrons and regular customers of Re!Fill. Spoilt with more than 80 items on the menu, combining local and international cuisine to delight the palate to the Re!Fill customers.

So when there are so many items on the menu, I will normally go for the jugular, the items in Chef's special . For starter, we had Pan-Seared Duck Breast Mesclun (small salad leaves) Salad with Walnut and Mango in roasted sesame dressing. This item has been a permanent resident of Re!Fill menu, it is light, refreshing and perfect for the palate. The duck breast is moist and tender, and the Japanese influence sesame dressing really binds all the salad components and give you the WOW and Yummy taste. This is a definite must try here!!!

Pan-Seared Duck Breast Mesclun Salad with
Walnut and Mango in roasted sesame dressing

Hotel Re! Signature Abalone Seafood Laksa follow next. The laksa base is rich with a nice balance of the spices, spiciness and lemak (coconut milk). Other than abalone, you also get scallop and prawns with the regular laksa ingredients such as fish cakes, tau pok (fried bean curd), boiled egg and rice noodle. Well executed with the abalone and scallop bringing the luxury feels. It is comparable to any “Five Stars priced Laksa”.

Hotel Re! Signature Abalone Seafood Laksa

Waffle with vanilla ice cream. The heart shape waffle is light and thin with generous serving of maple syrup and ice cream. The portion of this dessert is ideal for a sweet way to end the meal.

Waffle with vanilla ice cream

What about the rest of the item in the menu. I personally feel it need some refining to reach the necessary standards. Such as Boston Clam Chowder soup. Creamy but clearly lack in its distinct taste of clams, can be mistaken for potato soup.

 Boston Clam Chowder soup

Assorted Satay “Esplanade” - skewers of chicken, mutton and beef served with peanut sauce. The peanut sauce is rich and tasty, but the satays are dry, tough and lack of marinate. The mutton and beef has a strong gamy taste that can put you off. For a country, like Singapore, with reputation that serves good satay, it might actually deters tourists on how a nice satay should taste.

Assorted Satay “Esplanade”

Munchy Combi & Chicken Wings, deep fried calamari, chicken wing, breaded prawn and potato wedges, served with coleslaw. More like a bar food with a nice presentation, served pipping hot but taste ordinary. The chicken wings are juicy, but small in size. The calamari batter was very thick. Overall tasted quite average.

Munchy Combi 
Chicken Wings

Mango Sago Cream with Aloe Vera is a little bland. Lack of defining taste of the mango in the cream.

Mango Sago Cream with Aloe Vera

Overall, the food presentation was great. When a restaurant has more than 80 items on the menu, there will be some hits and misses. The most notable is that all the items we ordered are from the Chef's Special, you would expect better taste and quality food to give satisfy the customers taste-buds. Cheers!!


Food & Drink: 6.5/10
Value: n/a
Service: 7/10
Ambiance: 7/10


Re!Fill Restaurant
175A Chin Swee Road
Lobby Hotel Re! @ Pearl's Hill
Singapore 169879

Tel: 6827 8226
Op Hours: Daily 07.00 – 23.00
Menu available on website


Photos of other food the other reviewer tried:

Lobster Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Mushroom Soup in Puff Pastry

Lobster Bisque with Atlantic Scallops

Oven Roasted Cod Fillet with Shimeji Mushroom Sauce

Chocolate Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream

Tiramisu

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