Ala Carte Japanese Buffet @ Irodori Japanese Restaurant, Singapore

Sometimes good food is just around the corner. I kid you not.

My stay in Riverview Hotel Singapore was a pleasant experience. Yet, within the hotel, there's a very good Japanese restaurant. Its called Irodori Japanese Restaurant. Since my clients recommended me the place, we decided to have my dinner there.

There's a lot of Japanese buffet restaurant but ala carte japanese buffet was the first time for me. Ala carte japanese buffet means they only cook when you order. The food will taste better definitely. When we reached the restaurant, we were greeted by the friendly waitresses there. We waited no more and started to order our dinner.



Fresh sashimi was pretty good. The fish were very fresh indeed. We ordered quite a few plates for the night.



Ebi Tempura or Tempura Prawn. Lovely.



The complimentary Grilled Prawns. This was pretty good. Too bad its complimentary, if not we would order more.



Most Japanese restaurants in Malaysia are halal. Having pork shogayaki was something a little bit different to me. This was decent.



Trust me, this was not my order.

The buffet only cost $33++ per person for dinner. It's really worth it. I'm talking about the quality of the foodi and the variety of foods we can ordered. There's more than 100 types of dishes to order. The service was good as well. What else to ask for?

Recommendable!

Address:

Famous Lor Mee @ Tiong Bahru Market, Singapore (March '09)

This was an unexpected interesting find. I was at Singapore for a short working trip in March. I was staying at Riverview Hotel and they didn't provide my breakfast for my hotel rates, so I had to go out to search for breakfast.

After asking around and walked for 20 min, I reached at this place called Tiong Bahru Market. I was told that they have a food court.



Looking for good food is always easy. Look for the stall that the most people queue up should be fine.

After looking around, I saw this stall with a huge long queue so then I checked it out. Apparently, it was a Lor Mee Stall. There were lots of newspaper write ups posted on the stall. I read a few of it and then I started to queue up. In minutes, I got myself the famous Lor Mee.



Excitedly and I took my spoon and tasted the paste. It was rather starchy but the taste was good. There's no lack of flavours. Interesting enough, they put garlic in the Lor Mee. With that, I mixed it all together. The noodle blends very well with the thick paste. There were also no lack of ingredients. It comes with various dumplings, meat and egg. From a mere $3.00, this Lor Mee was a steal. I could never imagine I could get such pricing in Kuala Lumpur (KL).

Well, after filling up my tummy, I felt lucky because I had a good lor mee.

Its very much recommended!

Address:
Tiong Bahru Food Court (look for the queue)
Tiong Bahru Market

Riverview Hotel, Singapore Review

Last month I went to Singapore for a working trip. It was a real short notice and a real short trip. I was there for only 2 days 1 night.

I was staying at Riverview Hotel. It was my first time at this hotel.



I find it hard to believe when I realized this hotel is more than 20 years old. One of the reasons was how well the place was maintained.



Not to mention the lovely rooms. It looked like brand new. No stains and every single bit of it was good.

In fact, I was given a river view room. I didn't have the time for a swim at their lovely swimming pool.

Rates goes around SGD 13x.xx ++ excluding breakfast (price varies from time to time). A 10-15 min walk from here will reached Tiong Bahru Market Food Court.

Recommendable stay.

Address:

382 Havelock Road, Singapore 169629
Tel : +65-6732 9922 Fax : +65-6732 1034
Email Address : reservation@riverview.com.sg

Din Tai Fung @ Wisma Atria, Singapore (Dec 08)

Din Tai Fung was ranked as one of the world's top 10 restaurants in 1993 by The New York Times. If a restaurant is rated so highly, I think I would pay to get the top 10 in the world. The Taiwanese restaurant is famous for its pork dumpling or Xiao Long Bau.

This was the first I patronized Din Tai Fung, in Wisma Atria, Orchard Road, Singapore. After peeking at their menus at the entrance, I find that the menu are reasonable priced (after conversion and so on) . Since a while I met Anne a friend in Singapore, so me, Rachel and Anne had a brunch in Din Tai Fung. We started with Braised Sichuan Sliced Beef (cold plate dish)[S$6]. The thinned sliced beef was a great starter! Then, we ordered a Steamed Yam Paste Bun [S$2.50]. The yam bun was ok, yam paste was okay.

We also ordered Noodle Soup With Shrimp Pork Wanton[S$8.80]. The noodle was good, soup was tasty, wanton was nice. We then ordered 6 lovely Shrimp and Pork Siew Mai [S$9.30] and their infamous Steam Pork Dumplings [S$6.50 for 6 dumplings]. Overall the food was good, but not the magically top 10 taste. Its still a good place to visit.

Address:
#02-48/53 Wisma Atria
435 Orchard Road,
Tel: 6732 1383

Fried Hokkien Prawn Noodles & Beef Noodles @ Food Republic, Vivo City, Singapore (Dec 08)

Prawn noodle fried Hokkien style? The first one I had was in Tangkak in 2008, it was horrible. Well, since recommended by a friend, I ordered a fried hokkien prawn noodle and fried oyster omellete.
The prawn mee is quite different from the one I had. This one was not too bad. Something really 'uniquely' different than what we have in Malaysia. They didn't use black sauce to fry it? Fried oyster omellete is ok ok only.

We also ordered beef noodle dry and soup. Both are pretty decent.

I like the Food Republic's concept of gathering all the best stalls in Singapore into a food court. I felt that its quite easy to know which stall is good in Food Republic. Follow the queue.

Price per pax usually is less than $10. Mostly operates as self service. Most stalls are well-known stalls in Singapore, you be the judge.

Address:
#03-01 VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk
098585

Max Brenner Revisited 2008 @ Promenade Singapore

* HALAL

The recent short trip to Singapore did not hamper me of going to Max Brenner again. I tried 2 of their drinks last time around... so this time, I went back for more...

The place didn't much change since I was there last year...

Their chocolates...

The place...

Venezuela Milk Choco...

Coockieshake...

We were very happy indulging our lovely drinks...

Venezuela Milk Choco is definitely for hot choco lovers. Not so dark or sweet, just nice with thick choco taste with hints of caramel, vanilla and hazelnuts.

Coockieshake is a cold drink of blended white choco cream, Oreo coockies, caramelized pecan... This drink is like an ice blended choco dreamland shake. Its really lovely...

Service was pretty good. The girl was pretty helpful explaining the drinks. Price was reasonable as well... S5.90 for the hot one, S8.90 for the cold "dreamland" shake...

I find it hard to stay in Singapore as I would go to this place often. The temptation will be always there.

Another funny thing is I never actually tried any choco cafe in Malaysia yet. I heard there's a few quite "interesting" choco cafe in town. Will go there soon maybe...

Address:
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-06/08 Esplanade Mall, Singapore 039802
Phone number: +65 62359556
Opening Hours:
Sun-Thurs - 11:00am to 11:00pm
Fri-Sat - 11:00am to 12:00 (Midnight)

Christmas Decorations In Singapore

Last weekend I was in Singapore for a short trip. I never had such fun in shopping since the last time I was in Bangkok. I was told that the lighting for this year Christmas in Singapore is worst than last year. However, to me it is as good as it gets. Lighting around Orchard Road is sponsored by Hitachi....

In front of Ngee Ann City...


In front of Takashimaya...


Inside Ngee Ann City...


Inside Takashimaya, the tree is made of cute little bears...


The tallest Christmas tree in South East Asia? This is at Vivo City...


We are in front of Vivo Ciy...


Somewhere in Orchard Road...


Me with my luggage and shopping bags...


Orchard Road...


Orchard Road....


In front of Takashimaya...


Orchard Road...


The first of its kind, flying Christmas trees at Suntec City


I enjoyed my weekend at Singapore. I promised myself not to shop but it didn't work. During at bad times like this, Singaporeans still shop like no tomorrow. Uniquely Singapore...

Weekend Flea Market @ China Square Central

Toys hunting is normally hard. However, in Singapore, its easy like 1-2-3...
There's this notorious place called China Square Central in the proximity of China Town Singapore are famous for its weekend flea market.



Of course, in KL, we have Amcorp Mall's weekend flea market for antique and collection stuffs.
China Square Central is more famous for its toys flea market.



Being a toy collector myself, I had been to China Square Central for a few times. With toys outlets which are permanently there, shopping there could take hours if you would go stall by stall searching for the missing toy in your collections.

Choco Madness @ Max Brenner, Singapore (2007)

I never been to any chocolate restaurant or cafe before. I was introduced to this place by a friend residing in Singapore. The interesting part is the restaurant is in the "durian" building, The Esplanade.
The interiors...
Suckao that's what its called...

I thought its just a normal choco drink, but I was wrong. I ordered Suckao or "sucker" or what ever it pronounced. This drink itself is very complex. They will put a small candle in the jar, heat the top portion so I have to put the choco chips to melt with milk and I had to suck it with the metal rod straw....I paid less than 10 SGD for the "sucker" drink and its worth it. Too bad Max Brenner never consider opening a branch in Malaysia if not I can go there often.


Address:
8 Raffles Avenue, #01-06/08 Esplanade Mall, Singapore 039802
Phone number: +65 62359556
Opening Hours:
Sun-Thurs - 11:00am to 11:00pm
Fri-Sat - 11:00am to 12:00 (Midnight)