People always say, never eat cakes after 9.30pm! But who cares about the calories that comes along with the sinful indulgence? LIC says, have your cake and eat it! Especially since premium hotel cakes are going at half price after 9.30pm!
My secret food partner and i decided to go on a cake-hunt as we recalled that some hotels have half price promotions on their cakes after a certain timing. We went to Marriot hotel first, after which we found ourselves at Grand Hyatt, Mezza9.
Tiramisu ($7, half price $3.5) The Tiramisu here is reasonably moist, laced with a hint of coffee flavor that doesn’t overpower the sweet mascarpone. I like the subtle taste, as some tiramisu has a very strong wine taste.
Black Forest ($5, half price $2.5) The huge cherry on top of the Black Forest was what tempted my secret food partner to buy it. Ttogether with the chocolate shavings by the side, its a delight to look at and eat. At such a huge slice, even at its original price of $5 its worth a try.
Strawberry Cheesecake ($5, half price $2.5) Classic baked cheese cake with a strawberry jelly topping complete with ginormous (gigantic & enormous) strawberries! The oreo cookie base makes us felt like we were eating a cheesecake duo, we can taste the classic cheese cake flavor, and if eaten together with the oreo base, the taste becomes oreo cheesecake!
The Strawberry cheesecake itself was very filling though, creamy and rich!
Caramel cake ($4, half price $2) We came to a common consent that the caramel cake is our least favourite among the four cakes. For one, it doesn’t have the caramel taste, rather there’s a strong hint of coffee. If you like coffee cake, this is probably the one to get.
Nevertheless, it look pretty and its the cheapest at $2 after half price promotion!
Croissants ($2, half price $1) Besides the cakes, the baking items are also at half price after 8.30pm. We got the croissants for a dollar after promotion.
Total Bill is a mere $11.50 for 4 slices of cakes and 1 bread. The cakes at Mezza9 although not in the excellent league, but its definitely your premium hotel cakes after all, and at half price promotions they are certainly a steal!
Takeaway temptations, bring home Mezza9 freshly homemade products and enjoy half prices on bakery items from 8.30pm and sliced cakes from 9.30pm daily. 15% discount is also offered for whole akes from 9.30pm.
LIC will be looking to explore many more hotels to enjoy the half price promotions! Cakes and more cakes!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Island cafe at the Tangs shopping mall at Vivocity. You might find the association of Island cafe and Tangs weird, isn’t Tangs the fashion lifestyle retailer? What does Island cafe has to do with it?
Recently we have seen the rebranding of Tangs, from the old perception of Tangs is a boring place to shop, to the new image of a hip and lifestyle concept retailer store.
Naturally, Tangs wanted its customers to stay longer in its shopping mall, so it came out with Island Cafe for its customers to enjoy a little meal in between their shopping sprees. Tangs is not the first to come out with such ideas by combing food and shopping, think PS cafe and you will get the idea.
Island Cafe features a medley of local and regional favourite food, with choices like curry chicken, laksa, showing evidence of the “asian-ness”
The place at Vivocity is at ground floor within their shopping area. Exuding a rustic and tropical feel, there’s a cozy ambience factor with the small enclosed area.
Having heard about Island Cafe, naturally i was curious about how it’s like as i have never come here before. We decided to give the place a try while we are at Vivocity.
One look at the menu though, i immediately regretted coming in. Reason is simple, the menu selection is too little seriously. They got two choices of starters with the crab bisque as one. Two sandwiches, and two pizzas to choose from. There is four main course selection, laksa, curry chicken, green curry marinara, and black pepper aglio olio. And thats it!
We didn’t quite fancy the items available on the menu, but since we were there already, we just ordered their Guacamole & seafood pizza to share among the three of us.
Guacamole & seafood pizza ($12) Guacamole, prawns, crabmeat, tomatoes, tomatoes paste and mozzarella make up the Gucamole & seafood Pizza. It comes in two price, $9 for the 5.5″ snack size, and $12 for the 8″ meat size.
The pizza is all right i guess, quite cheesy, with the pizza base thin. But i suppose at $12, you can easily find better pizzas around for a bigger size.
Total Bill is $14.04 for one pizza. I definitely will not go back to Island Cafe because the selections are simply too few and too little. Prices are acceptable considering its a cafe, but most of the choices seems more like hawker-type of food.
Besides the one located within Tangs at Vivocity, there’s also another Island Cafe at Tangs in Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.
So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!
The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.
The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.
Mee Sua ($3.50) The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.
We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.
Egg Omelette ($8) $8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.
Crab Bee Hoon ($38) The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?
But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.
The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.
Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.
I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Epicurious, located on the banks of Robertson Quay, has been in operations for close to 6 years now. The restaurant is the brainchild of the duo owners, Helena and Sharon. The concept for the restaurant is like a neighbour joint, serving casual food where you can chill out and enjoy a meal without any qualms.
The interior of Epicurious is surprisingly small, from the outside i thought it will be bigger. There are only three tables inside, with most of the seats in the al fresco area.
Unpretentious and comfy, Epicurious is really a place where i can sit down there all day with my friends
The al fresco area offers a view of the river by Robertson Quay, its simple furniture make it seems as though you are having picnic out in the natural.
The food which Epicurious offers are simple and comfort food, like sandwiches, salads, pasta. On weekends from 9am to 1pm, they have the brunch menu which include choices like pancakes, toast, bagel, eggs, ommelette. And i am really tempted by their brunch menu, you’ll be seeing them here in the near future.
At Epicurious, there is the blackboard specials, which is not on the normal menu, and these are changed regularly to allow customers to experience different type of food.
The lunch menu does not have much selection of mains, in fact they only have three to choose from, with mostly sandwiches and pasta otherwise.
For dinner, the menu is a different one all together, with starters like beef carpaccio, smoked salmon tartare, to main course like their signature epicurious burger, and there are also quite a variety of grills to choose from. Price ranges from 10s to 20s.
Turkey Breast Sandwich ($9.50) Turkey Breast with roasted bell pepper and havarti cheese. The sandwiches are all freshly made with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, with choices of country-style white or wholemeal sunflower bread.
The turkey breast sandwich is fairly good, served with keropok.
Spaghetti vietnamese chicken bolognaise ($14) The chicken bolognaise spaghetti is served with cheese flakes, your good old reliable fix of pasta.
Asian Sloppy Joe ($12) Pork and beef mince with hoisin and lime. The Asian Sloppy Joe is under the blackboard special for sandwich. The unique name caught our attention, and the sandwich does not disappoint.
The pork and beef mince combination creates a rather distinctive taste, slightly sweet and spicy.
Epicurious Burger ($18) House-made beef patty with sautéed onions, mushrooms and fries. The Epicurious Burger is the signature dish of the restaurant, having heard many good things about the burger, it is inevitable that this is a must-try dish when you visit epicurious.
Although i just had burger at Seah Street Deli the previous day, but i have no qualms tasting the epicurious burger. And indeed, the Epicurious Burger is the star of the show, the beef done medium-rare, is tender and retains the juiciness of the meat.
And you can choose to add cheese, bacon or a fried egg for $2 each, or $4 for all three. But i choose to serve my burger the original way without any toppings.
I like the fries too, which comes with cheese flakes, the overall taste is buttery and cheesy!
Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream ($7) The Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream is recommended to us by Helena the owner of Epicurious. Now who can finish a meal without having desserts? Definitely not me! The apple crumble is sour-sweet, and the taste of it together with ice cream does it for us.
Bread and butter pudding with custard ($8) The bread and butter pudding is also another of their more popular desserts, the way to eat it is by dipping the pudding into the custard, but i preferred to taste the bread and butter pudding on its own.
Carrot Cake ($5) A slice of the Carrot cake is enough for anyone to end their meal on a high, and the cake certainly taste good here. With a layer of cheese on top of the carrot cake, the effect is a melt-in-your-month. The cheese is relatively light and does not overwhelms the carrot cake.
Total bill is $82.48 for 4 mains and 3 desserts. However, Helena kindly has the desserts on the house, so the total bill is $64.90 instead.
The owner Helena is friendly and warm, we had a chat and she explain the concept of Epicurious to us. So if you saw her at the restaurant, do not hesitate to have a chat with her!
The current location however is a tad too small, and cannot serve more customer. But then again this can be a double edge sword, more seats serves more customers, but in the process you might just lose the wonderful ambiance of the place.
And by the way, Helena and Sharon have recently opened another fusion western-local restaurant, Persimmion which is located at the Link Hotel. Do give them a try if you pass by Tiong Bahru area.
Epicurious is one place which i’ll gladly return again to try out their brunch and dinner menu. The reason is simple, Epicurious serves casual food, the price will not hurt your wallet, and the ambiance of the place is superb! Despite my usual practice of not repeating visits to a same restaurant, i’ll bend the rule this time, for Epicurious!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Balmoral Bakery is a very old-school bakery which is evident from the box they use for their bakes. Located at Sunset way, the bakery offers the type of breads and pastries which we grow up together with, but sadly are slowly disappearing from our sight.
Under the “undue” influence of my food partner, we jogged from our place to Sunset way, and pay the bakery a visit. She introduced me to Balmoral Bakery as she has been munching on their breads since young.
Egg tart ($1) The egg tart at Balmoral is those ‘watery’ type, my food partner love this type of egg tart, but i prefer those with crusty sides and firmer egg-fillings.
Custard Buns ($1.1) The custard buns are the star of the show! Billed as Balmoral Bakery’s signature item, the custard buns are really excellent! There are other customers who brought half a dozen or more at a go. Must try!!
Cake ($1) The cake is the very traditional type where you can only get at such bakeries, nowadays seldom do we still see such cakes around, well maybe if your neighbor still has such old-school bakeries around.
Char-siew Sau ($1) The char-siew sau is cripsy and the char siew inside sweet!
Cake with cream in centre ($1.20) I liked this one! The cake is very soft and fluffy, whipped cream in the center, and sugar white powder spread on top.
Total Bill for 5 items comes up to $5.50. I only brought 5 items as this is my first time there, but my food partner brought about more than 10 items!
The bread and pastries at Balmoral Bakery are mostly in the range of $0.80-$1.50, and there are really a lot of different types of traditional bakes which isn’t so commonly found nowadays. Go, and relieve your childhood memories!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Hankook Rice Cake House is under the same management with the popular Auntie Kim’s Korean Restaurant which is on the same stretch of road at Upper Thomson.
After finishing our meal at Chicken House, and Ritz Apple Strudel, my friend and i saw this shop across the street so we decided to venture there to check the place out.
Hankook Korean Rice Cakes are featured on the Business Times
The interior of the shop is very small and simple, with some Korean decorations
Hankook Rice Cake house sell quite a variety of rice cakes, there are also samples available on the table for tasting. We tried a few of them, but to tell the truth, Korean rice cakes are not really to our liking, or rather we can’t really appreciate the beauty of it.
But because we have tried their samples, we felt rather guilty if we just walk out of the shop, so my friend decided to buy a box of rice cake for take-away.
If i didn’t really remember wrongly, these are pumpkim with nuts, seeds, and raisins fillings. Please correct me if I’m wrong. One box is in the range of 6 bucks.
Hankook Rice Cake sell rather authentic korean rice cakes, even though i’m no fan of it, but to open a shop just to sell rice cake, we should applause the owner for that!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Ritz apple strudel & cafe has been around for quite some time, but it’s until now then i got the chance to actually try out their strudel which they are famous for.
We went to Ritz apple at Upper Thomson, the outlet is just a stone throw away from Chicken House
The interior of the place is very neat and clean, with simple white furniture.
Durian Strudel mini ($4.80) We made a mistake on this one, Ritz apple strudel is call apple after all, but we had the durian strudel which doesn’t quite make it. The durian is more on the sour side. Period.
Durian Crepe ($4.80) Another mistake since the durian is the same. Actually i heard their apple, or even strawberry is not bad, but my friend likes durian so we ordered durian flavor crepe.
Smoothies ($4.90) The smoothies is quite refreshing, and like the name implies, smoothes the throat!
Cashew Beef ($5.90) Beef isn’t very good when it goes along with nuts, in this case cashew as we find out. The cashew taste is too strong, which clashes with the beef. In the end we take out the beef and eat without the cashew. So much for cashew beef!
Total bill is $20.40 for the desserts. Ritz apple strudel isn’t that expensive considering the mini strudel is $4.80, i guess go for their apple or strawberry flavor and you will be alright, but please leave their durians alone.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Chicken is a very common dish in everybody’s meal table, there are so many different method of cooking it. I guess most people will have heard of Kampong chicken, which is quite unlike your typical chicken found in most places.
The normal chicken is usually injected with hormones, to make them grow faster so that the people who rear the chicken can get more profits. Most people thinks that it isn’t that healthy if the chickens are injected.
Kampong Chickens are different, they are usually rear in a manner where they are allowed to “run free”, instead of staying all day in the cages like the normal chicken. The “run free” manner of growing the chicken allows them to train and “strengthen” their legs and bodies, which make the chicken meat firmer and nicer to eat.
My friend had a craving for kampung chicken, so we went to Chicken House along the stretch of Upper Thomson road where they sell only Kampung chicken.
Half a chicken cost $11, and there are also other dishes like internal organs, vegetables, and thai style chicken feet available.
Apparently the store got featured in some publications as well.
Kampong chicken for 2 people ($8) I guess we can easily finish half a chicken as well, but we just ordered Kampong chicken for 2 servings. Unless you haven’t eaten Kampong chicken before, you should roughly know the texture and taste of it.
Kampong chicken is less meaty compared to the normal chicken, but in this way you won’t get so sick of eating too much meat. The chicken is firmer and nicer to eat!
Oyster sauce Kai Lan ($4) The oyster sauce kai lan is very normal, not very well stir-fried, we couldn’t really finish the vegetables.
Total Bill was $17.10 for 2 person, we had lime juice as well, which in my opinion is one of the beverage that goes well with many type of different food. The Kampong chicken is good, and i guess not that many places sell kampong chicken in Singapore.
So if you got a craving for Kampong chicken, you know where to go!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Sun Moulin is located just beside the Isetan Japanese Supermarket at Lido. My food partner and i went there after our lunch at Tetsu. I believe those who frequent the supermarket will need no introduction to this delightful bakery.
There are quite a wide range of breads, pastries, and cakes around, with prices ranging from 1 to 2 bucks, quite similar to your more commonly found Breadtalk and Four Leaves.
I was so full from the lunch at Tetsu, but my food partner is amazing, she brought quite a few home!
She has tried almost all the bread and pastries at Sun Moulin, so below are some of the ones which she highly recommended.
Soft An-pan ($2) The soft An-pan is actually more familiar to most of us as the red bean paste bun. But at Sun Moulin, they use Hawaiian Bread dough. Soft and fluffy!
Belgian Waffle ($1.30) The Belgian Waffle caught my attention first because i’m a sucker for good waffles. And at $1.30 its definitely worth a try, even though the waffle might be a little small in size. It will be excellent if you managed to get them hot off the pan.
Zebra Mini Croissant There are a few selections of Croissant here, with $0.65 for one, $1.80 for 3, and $2.70 for 5. Naturally the more you get the cheaper it is.
Petit Sesame Croissant Crispy layer of dough, with black and white sesame.
Mini croissant Mini-size croissant, try the original taste!
Mini Choc Croissant Your mini croissant now comes in chocolate flavour!
Double Taste Bun ($2) Enjoy 2 kind of home-made taste, chocolate and custard cream inside.
My food partner got the double taste bun for me, and boy the bread is really good! Peeling off part of the bread, fills my nose with aroma of the warm chocolate and custard cream.
The bread is super soft, and its delicious even eaten on its own!
Total bill for 5 items were $9.10. I only tried one of the bread, and i’m already thinking of going back to Sun Moulin for more! My plan is to go there on an empty stomach, then order a lot of different bread to have them for lunch!
Sun Moulin’s bread are definitely better than your typical bakeries (you-know-what), and the prices are also in about the same range with the most expensive bread at 2 bucks.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Tetsu, opening its doors at Tanglin Mall on January 17, 2008, pride themselves in serving Kushi-Tempura and Kushi-Katsu. Their concept is based on a “LIVE” preparation in front of you by their chefs, who have intensive training in their Japanese Headquarters.
The first impression upon stepping into Tetsu is really nice decorations. Contemporary yet not too modernize till the extend of losing the authentic Japanese feel. Chic furnishings like the curtains, and decors in the restaurant. The whole place exudes an elegant feel with its classy and clean look.
Tetsu certainly does not fits the bill with association to Food Junction, your local food courts isn’t it? But the truth is, Tetsu is actually owned and operate by Food Junction. Surprise surprise, i was quite astonished by this fact when i first heard of it. But i am pleased Food Junction is finally making full use to leverage on its experience and connections in the Food & Beverage Industry, to provide us the consumers with a wider variety of choices to dine at.
The counter bars in Tetsu are specially designed in such a way that diners can seat in close proximity to the chef, who will prepared their feast up for them, well its not just the stomach feast alone, there’s the visual feast right before you.
I was invited by Miss Pris Yap, who’s the consultant for Tetsu for a food tasting session. Here i will like to put Disclaimer first, the review written herein will not be influence simply because this is a food tasting session. Whatever written herein is the Frank and Honest opinions of my friend and i who went to Tetsu for the occasion.
We had the assurance from Miss Yap that they will seek our honest opinion to improve Tetsu, and that every visit to Tetsu will be the same, the food will not look or taste specially good just because this is a food tasting event.
My food dining partner joins me for Tetsu, and she’s a lover of Japanese food, so the review will be a combination of what both of us felt about the meal.
There’s also a VIP room which u can actually make a reservation to book it if you have a certain number of guests, around 10 at least if i’m not wrong.
At Tetsu, there are affordable set lunches from the Jubako, Katsu, Tempura,Sakana (fish) which are in the 20s to 30s price range. I’ll say the set meals are definitely value-for-money.
There is also the designer Kaiseki sets available. Kaiseki is an 5 course set, made up of 4 seasonal appetizers, designer salad, premium kushi-style main course, imported udon from Japan, and dessert at a mere $35. Of course there are more expensive options of the Kaiseki sets going at $45 and $55.
A wide range of Sake, Shoju, and wine are also available to go along with the food. We didn’t had any Sake because it was still early in the afternoon. Perhaps next time!
Salmon Carpaccio ($18) For appetizer to start off our meal at Tetsu, we had the Salmon Carpaccio with french dressing. Carpaccio originated from Italy, and its usually slices of beef, tuna, or veal traditionally thinly sliced or pounded thin, with olive oil or vinaigrette drizzled over it.
We’ll preferred the carpaccio to be slice thinner, the thick and generous slices of the carpaccio at Tetsu is almost akin to sashimi portions. For people who like sashimi, they will probably have mixed feelings for this dish because usually sashimi lovers like the clean and fresh taste of the fish, and its raw texture on its own, but for this salmon, it has a french dressing on it.
Nonetheless, the Salmon Carpaccio is quite fresh, and with the current Citibank promotion, receive this as a complimentary with a minimum spending of $50.
The Salmon Carpaccio is an interesting take on fusion japanese & italian appetizer (although this is done with french dressing). The french dressing helps to balances the richness of the salmon with the complex sweet and sour taste of the dressing, the contrast between the taste is definitely appealing.
Roll sushi 6 Pieces ($18) The roll sushi is covered with crunchy sesame seeds, but on the other end the sushis can actually can get quite dry. My friend thought that if the roll sushi comes with some sauce it will be perfect.
Traditionally sushi rolls are supposed to be eaten in one mouthful by putting the whole sushi inside. But the sushi here is a tad too big, so we couldn’t really fit it into our mouth.
Apparently it has salmon and scallops inside, though when mixed together the scallops taste can’t really be felt. The blend of crunchy sesame seeds and tobiko makes its quite yummy though. However at $18 for 6 pieces, it is considered rather expensive. Have this if you have the extra budget to spend on A la carte.
Onsentamago Tofu Salad ($13.50) Onsen Tamago is hot spring egg. The eggs here are cooked slowly in hot water, so the whites are still soft while the yolks just slightly cooked. Blended together with tofu and sesame sauce, the combination offers a very refreshing approach to the normal salad.
The salad is served by mixing the egg together with the greens and tofu. A good appetizer if you are like us, prefer runny eggs.
Thats all for our A la carte starters, just to recap, we had the Salmon Carpaccio, the roll sushi and the Onsentamago Tofu Salad. All these three appetizers are ordered from the A la carte menu and are not in the set meals which are coming up next.
Rosu Katsu Set ($24.50) The Rosu Katsu (Pork Loin) set is the actual main course that we are having for our lunch. There are two options for the Katsu set, you can choose from either the Rosu Katsu (pork loin) or the Hire Katsu (fillet katsu). Pork loin is fatter than fillet katsu in nature, which makes it more tender than Hire Katsu.
Another interesting point to note, besides the usual sauce that comes with the Katsu, Tetsu provides an alternative, the curry powder to go along with the pork loin. The curry powder is another option if you are sick of the usual sauce, however the powder here is quite on the salty side, so just dipped into it slightly.
The katsu is specially imported from Japan, lightly fried to produce a crust that is light but yet double the thickness of the usual katsu. The meat is marinated for 3 days to ensure its tasty and succulent texture.
Famed for their Katsu, the Kushi-age style (skewered with breaded batter) certainly lives up to expectations. The breaded style of the katsu is really good, the panko crumbs on it is very light which gives it a melt-in-your-mouth feel.
Furthermore, the katsu here has a generous cut, unlike some restaurants which cut the pork into very thin slices. At $24.50, the Rosu Katsu set is really a steal, definitely good value for money!
Fresh greens The fresh greens are the appetizer which comes along with the Katsu set. Basically its a run of the mill salad with japanese sesame salad dressing, ordinary but yummy.
My partner likes the dressing for its slightly tangy but yet salty taste, and the texture of the sauce is creamy. But for me, i’m more of a fan for oily italian salad dressings, so this salad didn’t quite work out for me.
Kaiseki Set Course B ($45) The Kaiseki Dinner course B comes with assorted 4 on a palatte as its appetizer, stick vegetable, Crab sukiyaki for the paper pot, with tempura as the main, and udon or rich, served with a dessert.
The main difference between course A ($35) and B ($45) is 10 bucks, with the addition of the Crab Sukiyaki. And the differiential between B ($45) and C ($55) is that C has an addition tuna carpaccio.
For our main course in the Kaiseki set B, the tempura is done kushi-tem style (tempura). It comes with six tempura, prawn, salmon, pork, beef, scallop and vegetables.
Tetsu is being known for its Katsu and Tempura aspects, and to tell the truth, we found the tempura to be quite a disappointment as we had expected better things from them. Right, the prawn was a bit small, not fat enough for a tempura, we didn’t get the “kick”from eating the prawn.
The Salmon (beside the prawn) was done better than the appetizer in the course.
My partner love the fresh air-flown scallop from Japan.
The seasonal vegetables are zuchinni and okra which my partner found it to be all right, but i didn’t like my vegetables to do it in this way, i prefer them green!
The pork and beef were quite average too. One thing that my partner concluded was if the mains are done in Kushi-age (breaded) rather than the one we had Kushi-tem (tempura), we felt that it will be definitely be better.
We felt that the tempura batter had nice texture, but it wasn’t seasoned enough, so it was quite tasteless for us. Nevertheless the batter is very light, not that oily and it didn’t leave any oily aftertaste that mediocre tempuras do.
The only reason we can conclude for the disappointment in the Tempura is because we had such high hopes for them, so even they are quite good, but they didn’t come out as well as we are expecting. You should try the Kushi-age (breaded) for this main!
Assorted 4 on palette This is the appetizer for the course B. One thing that i liked about the starters in Tetsu course meal is that they are changed regularly because the chef will always pick the freshest ingredient for the current season.
The appetizer is suppose to comes in the different flavors, sweet, salty, and sour. Specially designed to tantalize your taste buds and “prepared” them for the main course.
I like the zesty chicken too which comes with orange and lemon flavour to provide the sour-ish taste.
My partner didn’t like the Salmon teriyaki, she preferred the tamago and prawn which helps to the sweet flavoring of the salmon.
Cod is done with miso, to give the salty flavor.
Stick vegetables The Stick Vegetables also comes part of the Kaiseki set B. Its just your normal vegetables, but it comes with a soy-bean like sauce.
Kani-Suki (Crab Sukiyaki) The prelude to the main, there’s the snow crab legs which are filled with snowy sweet white meat. However we lamented the fact that there is only two crab legs.
The Japanese straw mushroom is always nice in sukiyaki. And the soup base here is nicer than the other sukiyaki we tried before. It tasted sweet but not excessively so till its artificial.
Inaniwa Udon (warm) The Inaniwa Udon is also imported from Japan. but the warm udon had a nice soup base so it’s good for rainy days.
Inaniwa Udon (cold) ($6.80) The udon is not the fat kind, and its sort of flat like ipoh hor fun, nice and slippery! One of the udon comes with the Kaiseki set, and we ordered another one to try both the cold and hot udon.
Banana Tempura & Ice ($7.80) In our frank opinion, the banana tempura is a ripped-off. For two pieces of banana tempura, we can get better ones at the hawker center at 50 cents each. Certainly not worth the price tag of $7.80!
Kisetsu ice & Warabimochi Monaka ($7.80) This dessert fares slightly better than the Banana tempura. The combination of the Japanese Mochi with one scoop of normal vanilla ice cream is quite good, but still not worth the hefty price that comes along with it.
Kokonatsu Milk Purin ($5.80) We concluded that the Kokonatsu milk purin, or coconut pudding is the best among the three desserts. This pudding is something new to us, not your usual run of the mill Japanese dessert which you commonly find in Singapore Japanese restaurants even though its supposed to be a classic Japanese dessert.
Coconut flavor wasnt that strong, we like the sublet flavor! hmm it was really pudding not creamy so i dont really like it
The coconut pudding is good to try for novelty, and it comes with the Kaiseki course set anyway, so there’s no need to order additional dessert.
Tetsu is certainly a nice place to try if you are looking for Japanese food. The set meals are really value-for-money, and the Kaisekis course meals, although heavier in price tag, but they provide more in variety and quality also. We felt that if its two person going to Tetsu, you can either order two set meals, or order one Kaisekis Course meals, and something from the A la carte menu.
The reasonable and affordable pricing at Tetsu means that you will no longer need to spend a bomb for your favourite Japanese food anymore. Tetsu offers a really chic environment, quite unlike your traditional Japanese restaurant. Its an excellent place to either bring a date for her cravings of Japanese food, or a group of friends where you can chill out with the selections of Sake, Shoju, and wine.
My friend and i, plus Miss Yap had a great afternoon enjoying and discussing about Japanese food, restaurants, and some off-topic conservations. We were so full from the meal! My thanks to Miss Yap for inviting us to a wonderful lunch experience at Tetsu.
And one other thing which I noticed, when we went in during 12 noon on a Monday afternoon, there wasn’t much people in the restaurant. But when the clock ticks towards two, the crowd starts coming in already. So you will be fine if you go during normal lunch hour, but still better to make a reservation.
I’ll certainly revisit Tetsu to try out their other stuff, maybe i will have the Kaisekis done in Kushi-age style (breaded) the next time! Tetsu’s at Tanglin Mall level 3, and remember to use your Citicard to get the free Salmon Carpaccio!
All in all, the Katsu is excellent! Its really a must-try if you visit Tetsu. The other fame of Tetsu, their Tempura leaves more to be desired, we felt that their Kushi-age style is better than the Kushi-Tem style. Nevertheless, the Kaisekis course meals are still value for quality. The desserts area is the part which i felt Tetsu must really improve on if i were to go back for a revisit. Being a big fan of any dessert, i must have a nice dessert after every meal. And the desserts selection there can’t quite make it for now.
I highly recommended and advise you to go to ladyironchef to read on this post, simply because the post is way too long, and there are many more nice photos of the food!
” Singapore’s First LIVE Kushi-style Tonkatsu & Tempura restaurant “
1=SGD 0.0587
People always say, never eat cakes after 9.30pm! But who cares about the calories that comes along with the sinful indulgence? LIC says, have your cake and eat it! Especially since premium hotel cakes are going at half price after 9.30pm!
My secret food partner and i decided to go on a cake-hunt as we recalled that some hotels have half price promotions on their cakes after a certain timing. We went to Marriot hotel first, after which we found ourselves at Grand Hyatt, Mezza9.
Tiramisu ($7, half price $3.5)
The Tiramisu here is reasonably moist, laced with a hint of coffee flavor that doesn’t overpower the sweet mascarpone. I like the subtle taste, as some tiramisu has a very strong wine taste.
Black Forest ($5, half price $2.5)
The huge cherry on top of the Black Forest was what tempted my secret food partner to buy it. Ttogether with the chocolate shavings by the side, its a delight to look at and eat. At such a huge slice, even at its original price of $5 its worth a try.
Strawberry Cheesecake ($5, half price $2.5)
Classic baked cheese cake with a strawberry jelly topping complete with ginormous (gigantic & enormous) strawberries! The oreo cookie base makes us felt like we were eating a cheesecake duo, we can taste the classic cheese cake flavor, and if eaten together with the oreo base, the taste becomes oreo cheesecake!
The Strawberry cheesecake itself was very filling though, creamy and rich!
Caramel cake ($4, half price $2)
We came to a common consent that the caramel cake is our least favourite among the four cakes. For one, it doesn’t have the caramel taste, rather there’s a strong hint of coffee. If you like coffee cake, this is probably the one to get.
Nevertheless, it look pretty and its the cheapest at $2 after half price promotion!
Croissants ($2, half price $1)
Besides the cakes, the baking items are also at half price after 8.30pm. We got the croissants for a dollar after promotion.
Total Bill is a mere $11.50 for 4 slices of cakes and 1 bread. The cakes at Mezza9 although not in the excellent league, but its definitely your premium hotel cakes after all, and at half price promotions they are certainly a steal!
Takeaway temptations, bring home Mezza9 freshly homemade products and enjoy half prices on bakery items from 8.30pm and sliced cakes from 9.30pm daily. 15% discount is also offered for whole akes from 9.30pm.
LIC will be looking to explore many more hotels to enjoy the half price promotions! Cakes and more cakes!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
” More cakes, more cakes! “
Rating given:
Island cafe at the Tangs shopping mall at Vivocity. You might find the association of Island cafe and Tangs weird, isn’t Tangs the fashion lifestyle retailer? What does Island cafe has to do with it?
Recently we have seen the rebranding of Tangs, from the old perception of Tangs is a boring place to shop, to the new image of a hip and lifestyle concept retailer store.
Naturally, Tangs wanted its customers to stay longer in its shopping mall, so it came out with Island Cafe for its customers to enjoy a little meal in between their shopping sprees. Tangs is not the first to come out with such ideas by combing food and shopping, think PS cafe and you will get the idea.
Island Cafe features a medley of local and regional favourite food, with choices like curry chicken, laksa, showing evidence of the “asian-ness”
The place at Vivocity is at ground floor within their shopping area. Exuding a rustic and tropical feel, there’s a cozy ambience factor with the small enclosed area.
Having heard about Island Cafe, naturally i was curious about how it’s like as i have never come here before. We decided to give the place a try while we are at Vivocity.
One look at the menu though, i immediately regretted coming in. Reason is simple, the menu selection is too little seriously. They got two choices of starters with the crab bisque as one. Two sandwiches, and two pizzas to choose from. There is four main course selection, laksa, curry chicken, green curry marinara, and black pepper aglio olio. And thats it!
We didn’t quite fancy the items available on the menu, but since we were there already, we just ordered their Guacamole & seafood pizza to share among the three of us.
Guacamole & seafood pizza ($12)
Guacamole, prawns, crabmeat, tomatoes, tomatoes paste and mozzarella make up the Gucamole & seafood Pizza. It comes in two price, $9 for the 5.5″ snack size, and $12 for the 8″ meat size.
The pizza is all right i guess, quite cheesy, with the pizza base thin. But i suppose at $12, you can easily find better pizzas around for a bigger size.
Total Bill is $14.04 for one pizza. I definitely will not go back to Island Cafe because the selections are simply too few and too little. Prices are acceptable considering its a cafe, but most of the choices seems more like hawker-type of food.
Besides the one located within Tangs at Vivocity, there’s also another Island Cafe at Tangs in Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.
So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!
The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.
The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.
Mee Sua ($3.50)
The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.
We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.
Egg Omelette ($8)
$8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.
Crab Bee Hoon ($38)
The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?
But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.
The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.
Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.
I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Epicurious, located on the banks of Robertson Quay, has been in operations for close to 6 years now. The restaurant is the brainchild of the duo owners, Helena and Sharon. The concept for the restaurant is like a neighbour joint, serving casual food where you can chill out and enjoy a meal without any qualms.
The interior of Epicurious is surprisingly small, from the outside i thought it will be bigger. There are only three tables inside, with most of the seats in the al fresco area.
Unpretentious and comfy, Epicurious is really a place where i can sit down there all day with my friends
The al fresco area offers a view of the river by Robertson Quay, its simple furniture make it seems as though you are having picnic out in the natural.
The food which Epicurious offers are simple and comfort food, like sandwiches, salads, pasta. On weekends from 9am to 1pm, they have the brunch menu which include choices like pancakes, toast, bagel, eggs, ommelette. And i am really tempted by their brunch menu, you’ll be seeing them here in the near future.
At Epicurious, there is the blackboard specials, which is not on the normal menu, and these are changed regularly to allow customers to experience different type of food.
The lunch menu does not have much selection of mains, in fact they only have three to choose from, with mostly sandwiches and pasta otherwise.
For dinner, the menu is a different one all together, with starters like beef carpaccio, smoked salmon tartare, to main course like their signature epicurious burger, and there are also quite a variety of grills to choose from. Price ranges from 10s to 20s.
Turkey Breast Sandwich ($9.50)
Turkey Breast with roasted bell pepper and havarti cheese. The sandwiches are all freshly made with lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, with choices of country-style white or wholemeal sunflower bread.
The turkey breast sandwich is fairly good, served with keropok.
Spaghetti vietnamese chicken bolognaise ($14)
The chicken bolognaise spaghetti is served with cheese flakes, your good old reliable fix of pasta.
Asian Sloppy Joe ($12)
Pork and beef mince with hoisin and lime. The Asian Sloppy Joe is under the blackboard special for sandwich. The unique name caught our attention, and the sandwich does not disappoint.
The pork and beef mince combination creates a rather distinctive taste, slightly sweet and spicy.
Epicurious Burger ($18)
House-made beef patty with sautéed onions, mushrooms and fries. The Epicurious Burger is the signature dish of the restaurant, having heard many good things about the burger, it is inevitable that this is a must-try dish when you visit epicurious.
Although i just had burger at Seah Street Deli the previous day, but i have no qualms tasting the epicurious burger. And indeed, the Epicurious Burger is the star of the show, the beef done medium-rare, is tender and retains the juiciness of the meat.
And you can choose to add cheese, bacon or a fried egg for $2 each, or $4 for all three. But i choose to serve my burger the original way without any toppings.
I like the fries too, which comes with cheese flakes, the overall taste is buttery and cheesy!
Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream ($7)
The Apple crumble with vanilla ice cream is recommended to us by Helena the owner of Epicurious. Now who can finish a meal without having desserts? Definitely not me! The apple crumble is sour-sweet, and the taste of it together with ice cream does it for us.
Bread and butter pudding with custard ($8)
The bread and butter pudding is also another of their more popular desserts, the way to eat it is by dipping the pudding into the custard, but i preferred to taste the bread and butter pudding on its own.
Carrot Cake ($5)
A slice of the Carrot cake is enough for anyone to end their meal on a high, and the cake certainly taste good here. With a layer of cheese on top of the carrot cake, the effect is a melt-in-your-month. The cheese is relatively light and does not overwhelms the carrot cake.
Total bill is $82.48 for 4 mains and 3 desserts. However, Helena kindly has the desserts on the house, so the total bill is $64.90 instead.
The owner Helena is friendly and warm, we had a chat and she explain the concept of Epicurious to us. So if you saw her at the restaurant, do not hesitate to have a chat with her!
The current location however is a tad too small, and cannot serve more customer. But then again this can be a double edge sword, more seats serves more customers, but in the process you might just lose the wonderful ambiance of the place.
And by the way, Helena and Sharon have recently opened another fusion western-local restaurant, Persimmion which is located at the Link Hotel. Do give them a try if you pass by Tiong Bahru area.
Epicurious is one place which i’ll gladly return again to try out their brunch and dinner menu. The reason is simple, Epicurious serves casual food, the price will not hurt your wallet, and the ambiance of the place is superb! Despite my usual practice of not repeating visits to a same restaurant, i’ll bend the rule this time, for Epicurious!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
” Epicure epicurious! “
Rating given:
Balmoral Bakery is a very old-school bakery which is evident from the box they use for their bakes. Located at Sunset way, the bakery offers the type of breads and pastries which we grow up together with, but sadly are slowly disappearing from our sight.
Under the “undue” influence of my food partner, we jogged from our place to Sunset way, and pay the bakery a visit. She introduced me to Balmoral Bakery as she has been munching on their breads since young.
Egg tart ($1)
The egg tart at Balmoral is those ‘watery’ type, my food partner love this type of egg tart, but i prefer those with crusty sides and firmer egg-fillings.
Custard Buns ($1.1)
The custard buns are the star of the show! Billed as Balmoral Bakery’s signature item, the custard buns are really excellent! There are other customers who brought half a dozen or more at a go. Must try!!
Cake ($1)
The cake is the very traditional type where you can only get at such bakeries, nowadays seldom do we still see such cakes around, well maybe if your neighbor still has such old-school bakeries around.
Char-siew Sau ($1)
The char-siew sau is cripsy and the char siew inside sweet!
Cake with cream in centre ($1.20)
I liked this one! The cake is very soft and fluffy, whipped cream in the center, and sugar white powder spread on top.
Total Bill for 5 items comes up to $5.50. I only brought 5 items as this is my first time there, but my food partner brought about more than 10 items!
The bread and pastries at Balmoral Bakery are mostly in the range of $0.80-$1.50, and there are really a lot of different types of traditional bakes which isn’t so commonly found nowadays. Go, and relieve your childhood memories!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Rating given:
Hankook Rice Cake House is under the same management with the popular Auntie Kim’s Korean Restaurant which is on the same stretch of road at Upper Thomson.
After finishing our meal at Chicken House, and Ritz Apple Strudel, my friend and i saw this shop across the street so we decided to venture there to check the place out.
Hankook Korean Rice Cakes are featured on the Business Times
The interior of the shop is very small and simple, with some Korean decorations
Hankook Rice Cake house sell quite a variety of rice cakes, there are also samples available on the table for tasting. We tried a few of them, but to tell the truth, Korean rice cakes are not really to our liking, or rather we can’t really appreciate the beauty of it.
But because we have tried their samples, we felt rather guilty if we just walk out of the shop, so my friend decided to buy a box of rice cake for take-away.
If i didn’t really remember wrongly, these are pumpkim with nuts, seeds, and raisins fillings. Please correct me if I’m wrong. One box is in the range of 6 bucks.
Hankook Rice Cake sell rather authentic korean rice cakes, even though i’m no fan of it, but to open a shop just to sell rice cake, we should applause the owner for that!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Rating given:
Ritz apple strudel & cafe has been around for quite some time, but it’s until now then i got the chance to actually try out their strudel which they are famous for.
We went to Ritz apple at Upper Thomson, the outlet is just a stone throw away from Chicken House
The interior of the place is very neat and clean, with simple white furniture.
Durian Strudel mini ($4.80)
We made a mistake on this one, Ritz apple strudel is call apple after all, but we had the durian strudel which doesn’t quite make it. The durian is more on the sour side. Period.
Durian Crepe ($4.80)
Another mistake since the durian is the same. Actually i heard their apple, or even strawberry is not bad, but my friend likes durian so we ordered durian flavor crepe.
Smoothies ($4.90)
The smoothies is quite refreshing, and like the name implies, smoothes the throat!
Cashew Beef ($5.90)
Beef isn’t very good when it goes along with nuts, in this case cashew as we find out. The cashew taste is too strong, which clashes with the beef. In the end we take out the beef and eat without the cashew. So much for cashew beef!
Total bill is $20.40 for the desserts. Ritz apple strudel isn’t that expensive considering the mini strudel is $4.80, i guess go for their apple or strawberry flavor and you will be alright, but please leave their durians alone.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Apple and strawberry, no durians! “
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Chicken is a very common dish in everybody’s meal table, there are so many different method of cooking it. I guess most people will have heard of Kampong chicken, which is quite unlike your typical chicken found in most places.
The normal chicken is usually injected with hormones, to make them grow faster so that the people who rear the chicken can get more profits. Most people thinks that it isn’t that healthy if the chickens are injected.
Kampong Chickens are different, they are usually rear in a manner where they are allowed to “run free”, instead of staying all day in the cages like the normal chicken. The “run free” manner of growing the chicken allows them to train and “strengthen” their legs and bodies, which make the chicken meat firmer and nicer to eat.
My friend had a craving for kampung chicken, so we went to Chicken House along the stretch of Upper Thomson road where they sell only Kampung chicken.
Half a chicken cost $11, and there are also other dishes like internal organs, vegetables, and thai style chicken feet available.
Apparently the store got featured in some publications as well.
Kampong chicken for 2 people ($8)
I guess we can easily finish half a chicken as well, but we just ordered Kampong chicken for 2 servings. Unless you haven’t eaten Kampong chicken before, you should roughly know the texture and taste of it.
Kampong chicken is less meaty compared to the normal chicken, but in this way you won’t get so sick of eating too much meat. The chicken is firmer and nicer to eat!
Oyster sauce Kai Lan ($4)
The oyster sauce kai lan is very normal, not very well stir-fried, we couldn’t really finish the vegetables.
Total Bill was $17.10 for 2 person, we had lime juice as well, which in my opinion is one of the beverage that goes well with many type of different food. The Kampong chicken is good, and i guess not that many places sell kampong chicken in Singapore.
So if you got a craving for Kampong chicken, you know where to go!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Kampong chicken, they run free! “
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Sun Moulin is located just beside the Isetan Japanese Supermarket at Lido. My food partner and i went there after our lunch at Tetsu. I believe those who frequent the supermarket will need no introduction to this delightful bakery.
There are quite a wide range of breads, pastries, and cakes around, with prices ranging from 1 to 2 bucks, quite similar to your more commonly found Breadtalk and Four Leaves.
I was so full from the lunch at Tetsu, but my food partner is amazing, she brought quite a few home!
She has tried almost all the bread and pastries at Sun Moulin, so below are some of the ones which she highly recommended.
Soft An-pan ($2)
The soft An-pan is actually more familiar to most of us as the red bean paste bun. But at Sun Moulin, they use Hawaiian Bread dough. Soft and fluffy!
Belgian Waffle ($1.30)
The Belgian Waffle caught my attention first because i’m a sucker for good waffles. And at $1.30 its definitely worth a try, even though the waffle might be a little small in size. It will be excellent if you managed to get them hot off the pan.
Zebra Mini Croissant
There are a few selections of Croissant here, with $0.65 for one, $1.80 for 3, and $2.70 for 5. Naturally the more you get the cheaper it is.
Petit Sesame Croissant
Crispy layer of dough, with black and white sesame.
Mini croissant
Mini-size croissant, try the original taste!
Mini Choc Croissant
Your mini croissant now comes in chocolate flavour!
Double Taste Bun ($2)
Enjoy 2 kind of home-made taste, chocolate and custard cream inside.
My food partner got the double taste bun for me, and boy the bread is really good! Peeling off part of the bread, fills my nose with aroma of the warm chocolate and custard cream.
The bread is super soft, and its delicious even eaten on its own!
Total bill for 5 items were $9.10. I only tried one of the bread, and i’m already thinking of going back to Sun Moulin for more! My plan is to go there on an empty stomach, then order a lot of different bread to have them for lunch!
Sun Moulin’s bread are definitely better than your typical bakeries (you-know-what), and the prices are also in about the same range with the most expensive bread at 2 bucks.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” My new favourite bakery “
Rating given:
Tetsu, opening its doors at Tanglin Mall on January 17, 2008, pride themselves in serving Kushi-Tempura and Kushi-Katsu. Their concept is based on a “LIVE” preparation in front of you by their chefs, who have intensive training in their Japanese Headquarters.
The first impression upon stepping into Tetsu is really nice decorations. Contemporary yet not too modernize till the extend of losing the authentic Japanese feel. Chic furnishings like the curtains, and decors in the restaurant. The whole place exudes an elegant feel with its classy and clean look.
Tetsu certainly does not fits the bill with association to Food Junction, your local food courts isn’t it? But the truth is, Tetsu is actually owned and operate by Food Junction. Surprise surprise, i was quite astonished by this fact when i first heard of it. But i am pleased Food Junction is finally making full use to leverage on its experience and connections in the Food & Beverage Industry, to provide us the consumers with a wider variety of choices to dine at.
The counter bars in Tetsu are specially designed in such a way that diners can seat in close proximity to the chef, who will prepared their feast up for them, well its not just the stomach feast alone, there’s the visual feast right before you.
I was invited by Miss Pris Yap, who’s the consultant for Tetsu for a food tasting session. Here i will like to put Disclaimer first, the review written herein will not be influence simply because this is a food tasting session. Whatever written herein is the Frank and Honest opinions of my friend and i who went to Tetsu for the occasion.
We had the assurance from Miss Yap that they will seek our honest opinion to improve Tetsu, and that every visit to Tetsu will be the same, the food will not look or taste specially good just because this is a food tasting event.
My food dining partner joins me for Tetsu, and she’s a lover of Japanese food, so the review will be a combination of what both of us felt about the meal.
There’s also a VIP room which u can actually make a reservation to book it if you have a certain number of guests, around 10 at least if i’m not wrong.
At Tetsu, there are affordable set lunches from the Jubako, Katsu, Tempura,Sakana (fish) which are in the 20s to 30s price range. I’ll say the set meals are definitely value-for-money.
There is also the designer Kaiseki sets available. Kaiseki is an 5 course set, made up of 4 seasonal appetizers, designer salad, premium kushi-style main course, imported udon from Japan, and dessert at a mere $35. Of course there are more expensive options of the Kaiseki sets going at $45 and $55.
A wide range of Sake, Shoju, and wine are also available to go along with the food. We didn’t had any Sake because it was still early in the afternoon. Perhaps next time!
Salmon Carpaccio ($18)
For appetizer to start off our meal at Tetsu, we had the Salmon Carpaccio with french dressing. Carpaccio originated from Italy, and its usually slices of beef, tuna, or veal traditionally thinly sliced or pounded thin, with olive oil or vinaigrette drizzled over it.
We’ll preferred the carpaccio to be slice thinner, the thick and generous slices of the carpaccio at Tetsu is almost akin to sashimi portions. For people who like sashimi, they will probably have mixed feelings for this dish because usually sashimi lovers like the clean and fresh taste of the fish, and its raw texture on its own, but for this salmon, it has a french dressing on it.
Nonetheless, the Salmon Carpaccio is quite fresh, and with the current Citibank promotion, receive this as a complimentary with a minimum spending of $50.
The Salmon Carpaccio is an interesting take on fusion japanese & italian appetizer (although this is done with french dressing). The french dressing helps to balances the richness of the salmon with the complex sweet and sour taste of the dressing, the contrast between the taste is definitely appealing.
Roll sushi 6 Pieces ($18)
The roll sushi is covered with crunchy sesame seeds, but on the other end the sushis can actually can get quite dry. My friend thought that if the roll sushi comes with some sauce it will be perfect.
Traditionally sushi rolls are supposed to be eaten in one mouthful by putting the whole sushi inside. But the sushi here is a tad too big, so we couldn’t really fit it into our mouth.
Apparently it has salmon and scallops inside, though when mixed together the scallops taste can’t really be felt. The blend of crunchy sesame seeds and tobiko makes its quite yummy though. However at $18 for 6 pieces, it is considered rather expensive. Have this if you have the extra budget to spend on A la carte.
Onsentamago Tofu Salad ($13.50)
Onsen Tamago is hot spring egg. The eggs here are cooked slowly in hot water, so the whites are still soft while the yolks just slightly cooked. Blended together with tofu and sesame sauce, the combination offers a very refreshing approach to the normal salad.
The salad is served by mixing the egg together with the greens and tofu. A good appetizer if you are like us, prefer runny eggs.
Thats all for our A la carte starters, just to recap, we had the Salmon Carpaccio, the roll sushi and the Onsentamago Tofu Salad. All these three appetizers are ordered from the A la carte menu and are not in the set meals which are coming up next.
Rosu Katsu Set ($24.50)
The Rosu Katsu (Pork Loin) set is the actual main course that we are having for our lunch. There are two options for the Katsu set, you can choose from either the Rosu Katsu (pork loin) or the Hire Katsu (fillet katsu). Pork loin is fatter than fillet katsu in nature, which makes it more tender than Hire Katsu.
Another interesting point to note, besides the usual sauce that comes with the Katsu, Tetsu provides an alternative, the curry powder to go along with the pork loin. The curry powder is another option if you are sick of the usual sauce, however the powder here is quite on the salty side, so just dipped into it slightly.
The katsu is specially imported from Japan, lightly fried to produce a crust that is light but yet double the thickness of the usual katsu. The meat is marinated for 3 days to ensure its tasty and succulent texture.
Famed for their Katsu, the Kushi-age style (skewered with breaded batter) certainly lives up to expectations. The breaded style of the katsu is really good, the panko crumbs on it is very light which gives it a melt-in-your-mouth feel.
Furthermore, the katsu here has a generous cut, unlike some restaurants which cut the pork into very thin slices. At $24.50, the Rosu Katsu set is really a steal, definitely good value for money!
Fresh greens
The fresh greens are the appetizer which comes along with the Katsu set. Basically its a run of the mill salad with japanese sesame salad dressing, ordinary but yummy.
My partner likes the dressing for its slightly tangy but yet salty taste, and the texture of the sauce is creamy. But for me, i’m more of a fan for oily italian salad dressings, so this salad didn’t quite work out for me.
Kaiseki Set Course B ($45)
The Kaiseki Dinner course B comes with assorted 4 on a palatte as its appetizer, stick vegetable, Crab sukiyaki for the paper pot, with tempura as the main, and udon or rich, served with a dessert.
The main difference between course A ($35) and B ($45) is 10 bucks, with the addition of the Crab Sukiyaki. And the differiential between B ($45) and C ($55) is that C has an addition tuna carpaccio.
For our main course in the Kaiseki set B, the tempura is done kushi-tem style (tempura). It comes with six tempura, prawn, salmon, pork, beef, scallop and vegetables.
Tetsu is being known for its Katsu and Tempura aspects, and to tell the truth, we found the tempura to be quite a disappointment as we had expected better things from them. Right, the prawn was a bit small, not fat enough for a tempura, we didn’t get the “kick”from eating the prawn.
The Salmon (beside the prawn) was done better than the appetizer in the course.
My partner love the fresh air-flown scallop from Japan.
The seasonal vegetables are zuchinni and okra which my partner found it to be all right, but i didn’t like my vegetables to do it in this way, i prefer them green!
The pork and beef were quite average too. One thing that my partner concluded was if the mains are done in Kushi-age (breaded) rather than the one we had Kushi-tem (tempura), we felt that it will be definitely be better.
We felt that the tempura batter had nice texture, but it wasn’t seasoned enough, so it was quite tasteless for us. Nevertheless the batter is very light, not that oily and it didn’t leave any oily aftertaste that mediocre tempuras do.
The only reason we can conclude for the disappointment in the Tempura is because we had such high hopes for them, so even they are quite good, but they didn’t come out as well as we are expecting. You should try the Kushi-age (breaded) for this main!
Assorted 4 on palette
This is the appetizer for the course B. One thing that i liked about the starters in Tetsu course meal is that they are changed regularly because the chef will always pick the freshest ingredient for the current season.
The appetizer is suppose to comes in the different flavors, sweet, salty, and sour. Specially designed to tantalize your taste buds and “prepared” them for the main course.
I like the zesty chicken too which comes with orange and lemon flavour to provide the sour-ish taste.
My partner didn’t like the Salmon teriyaki, she preferred the tamago and prawn which helps to the sweet flavoring of the salmon.
Cod is done with miso, to give the salty flavor.
Stick vegetables
The Stick Vegetables also comes part of the Kaiseki set B. Its just your normal vegetables, but it comes with a soy-bean like sauce.
Kani-Suki (Crab Sukiyaki)
The prelude to the main, there’s the snow crab legs which are filled with snowy sweet white meat. However we lamented the fact that there is only two crab legs.
The Japanese straw mushroom is always nice in sukiyaki. And the soup base here is nicer than the other sukiyaki we tried before. It tasted sweet but not excessively so till its artificial.
Inaniwa Udon (warm)
The Inaniwa Udon is also imported from Japan. but the warm udon had a nice soup base so it’s good for rainy days.
Inaniwa Udon (cold) ($6.80)
The udon is not the fat kind, and its sort of flat like ipoh hor fun, nice and slippery! One of the udon comes with the Kaiseki set, and we ordered another one to try both the cold and hot udon.
Banana Tempura & Ice ($7.80)
In our frank opinion, the banana tempura is a ripped-off. For two pieces of banana tempura, we can get better ones at the hawker center at 50 cents each. Certainly not worth the price tag of $7.80!
Kisetsu ice & Warabimochi Monaka ($7.80)
This dessert fares slightly better than the Banana tempura. The combination of the Japanese Mochi with one scoop of normal vanilla ice cream is quite good, but still not worth the hefty price that comes along with it.
Kokonatsu Milk Purin ($5.80)
We concluded that the Kokonatsu milk purin, or coconut pudding is the best among the three desserts. This pudding is something new to us, not your usual run of the mill Japanese dessert which you commonly find in Singapore Japanese restaurants even though its supposed to be a classic Japanese dessert.
Coconut flavor wasnt that strong, we like the sublet flavor! hmm it was really pudding not creamy so i dont really like it
The coconut pudding is good to try for novelty, and it comes with the Kaiseki course set anyway, so there’s no need to order additional dessert.
Tetsu is certainly a nice place to try if you are looking for Japanese food. The set meals are really value-for-money, and the Kaisekis course meals, although heavier in price tag, but they provide more in variety and quality also. We felt that if its two person going to Tetsu, you can either order two set meals, or order one Kaisekis Course meals, and something from the A la carte menu.
The reasonable and affordable pricing at Tetsu means that you will no longer need to spend a bomb for your favourite Japanese food anymore. Tetsu offers a really chic environment, quite unlike your traditional Japanese restaurant. Its an excellent place to either bring a date for her cravings of Japanese food, or a group of friends where you can chill out with the selections of Sake, Shoju, and wine.
My friend and i, plus Miss Yap had a great afternoon enjoying and discussing about Japanese food, restaurants, and some off-topic conservations. We were so full from the meal! My thanks to Miss Yap for inviting us to a wonderful lunch experience at Tetsu.
And one other thing which I noticed, when we went in during 12 noon on a Monday afternoon, there wasn’t much people in the restaurant. But when the clock ticks towards two, the crowd starts coming in already. So you will be fine if you go during normal lunch hour, but still better to make a reservation.
I’ll certainly revisit Tetsu to try out their other stuff, maybe i will have the Kaisekis done in Kushi-age style (breaded) the next time! Tetsu’s at Tanglin Mall level 3, and remember to use your Citicard to get the free Salmon Carpaccio!
All in all, the Katsu is excellent! Its really a must-try if you visit Tetsu. The other fame of Tetsu, their Tempura leaves more to be desired, we felt that their Kushi-age style is better than the Kushi-Tem style. Nevertheless, the Kaisekis course meals are still value for quality. The desserts area is the part which i felt Tetsu must really improve on if i were to go back for a revisit. Being a big fan of any dessert, i must have a nice dessert after every meal. And the desserts selection there can’t quite make it for now.
I highly recommended and advise you to go to ladyironchef to read on this post, simply because the post is way too long, and there are many more nice photos of the food!
” Singapore’s First LIVE Kushi-style Tonkatsu & Tempura restaurant “
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