Itacho Sushi Singapore

 

Again, another long queue restaurant in Ion Orchard. We came around 1 pm, lunch time... No wonder the queue was so long. We queued for about 20 minutes before we were seated. Itacho Sushi had 3 branches in Singapore, the other two were Plaza Singapura & Bugis Junction. I guess they were quite popular in Hongkong as I read they had 20 branches in there. 

The interior inside reminds me of Sushi Tei (don't you think?). Anyway, the service was different with Sushi Tei. Even though it was crowded and many people were still queuing outside, but the service was fast. The waiters were promptly response to our needs. I was surprised when I asked for teriyaki sauce, and it didn't took them more than 2 minutes to served it to my table. It took me 3 times repeatedly  asking to 3 different waiters just to get my tare sauce in sushi Tei during weekend. Anyway, they have a paper listed their menu so we can just write in how many qty we want beside the menu names, but we can also choose to order directly to the waiter and they will help us to write down. 

Here's what we ordered. 

Spicy Salmon Inari Sushi $1.30

Steam egg w/ Crab $4

Salmon w/ soy sauce $0.8

Shrimp Tempura $5

Salmon Roe Roll ($5), Roasted Salmon Roll ($3.5) 

I forgot to take picture of the Eel Spring Roll ($3.4), it was delicious. Mix flavor of vietnamese with japanese, very nice. The steam egg w/ crab were also very nice and filling, different with the usual chawan mushi. They limit the salmon w/ soy sauce to 4pcs only per person, but to me it was not as good as eel spring roll. 

They have this leaflet teaching people the authentic way of eating sushi. I hope my picture was clear enough.

Overall, it was a pleasant lunch. The sushi was fresh and the service was ok. I will be coming back =)

Itacho Sushi

Ion Orchard B2 - 18

ph. +65 65098911

http://www.itacho.com.hk/

Max Brenner Chocolate Singapore

 

On our way back to hotel from Gluttons Bay, we passed Max Brenner. As a chocolate lover, I was curious to try this even we were very full at that time, as I have heard many reviews about the one in Aussie. We decided to just order one dessert to share. We chose Banana Split Waffle ($15) and Choco Pops Hot Chocolate ($7.5). To me, the waffle was a disappointment. The banana was not fried and caramelized, it was just a banana topped above the waffle and ice cream plus chocolate sauce, but the taste and sauce was not mixed together. I directly remember Magnum Cafe, waffle de aristrocat... It was 3 times much better than the max brenner one. 

 

The hot chocolate also so so. However, I am still curious and would like to give another shot someday when I visit Singapore again or Australia, simply because the menus were really tempting. Really, I'm not lying... please have a view yourself at http://www.maxbrenner.com/menus.html

Max Brenner Chocolate 

8 Raffles Avenue

Esplanade Mall #01-06/08

ph. +65 62359556

Makan Sutra Gluttons Bay

Another post about my food hunting in Singapore. I have heard about Makan Sutra Gluttons Bay but never had the chance to go there everytime I went to Singapore. This time, it was a non planned visit. After our company's event that was held at Suntec Exhibition Centre ended around 8pm, we were starving but didn't want to eat at Suntec mall. So we decided to walk around Marina Mandarin (hotel we were staying at), turns out "Makan Sutra Gluttons Bay" was just right behind Esplanade, and Esplanade was only opposite of our hotel.

It was almost 9.30pm when we arrived and the place was still very crowded. It was like a backyard full with food stalls. We decided to each order 1 main course to share among us. I chose char kwetiau ($6), my two colleagues chose grilled string ray ($10) and BBQ chicken wings ($1.3/pcs). We saw many tables ordered the chicken wings. We added oyster egg omelette ($8).

We can choose the portions of kwetiau from Small ($4), Medium ($6) and Large ($8) . It was cooked with bean sprouts, jerked meat, prawn, egg and kucai. It was ok, not bad, not good either.

I didn't like the grilled string ray. It was not bad, but didn't suit my taste. However my colleagues quite like it. 

It was just typical grilled fish, nothing special.

This one was the best among all dishes that we had that night. No wonder most of the tables we saw had the same chicken wings. It was big, we ordered 6 pcs and hardly could finish them. But it was good, the BBQ sauce was really seep in. 

This one was the worst. The oyster still had this fishy smell. Not good at all. 

I think besides of the chicken wings, the rest of the dishes was not pleasant. As the place was not comfortable for eating (hot and humid, perhaps depending on the weather too as it was outdoor venue), I will not be coming back unless if I am craving for the wings. =)

Makan Sutra Glutton Bays

Behind Esplanade Mall

Marina Bay, Singapore

Blacksteer

Back then when I was preparing my wedding, I was in diet mode for almost 1 year. At that time, beside Ranch Market's caesar salad... Grilled chicken marinate from Blacksteer was mostly my lunch every weekdays. As I know that grilled breast with out any sauce was non fattening. It was good, the portion comes with side dish of coleslaw and choice of potatoes (I always chose mashed). I don't really remember how much was the steak, but as my order always the same... grilled chicken marinate + hot tea, the bill was always the same IDR 101,600. =)

Blacksteer

Grand Indonesia fl. 3A - 01

Jakarta Pusat

ph. +6221 23580606

Preview Lemon Online Shop's CLOSET 1

Yay! Finally my online shop's first collection! =)

These past few days had been crazy for me. I was super busy that I can't even relax and enjoy my days... I even had not been checking in Facebook for almost 1 week. It's amazing as checking "news feed" on facebook is my thing every morning after I wake up and every night before I go to bed. I guess I have been really busy and tired these few days. Start from my office big convention last week in Spore, then went straight to buying trip for my online shop, taking pictures of the collections, editing more than 300 pics, measuring all the clothes... and now blogging my excitement and happiness about the coming soon collections! =)

Despite the sleepless nights and sore legs I had, I am super excited and happy about my new online shop. I had been wanting to do this for quite sometime but never had the spirit and courage to do it (I'll share with you about why it's taking me this long to start in my next blog). 

Here are some of Lemon Online Shop's first collection. More to come tomorrow, May 25th @4pm. Add us and be our friends at http://www.facebook.com/lemon.onlineshop

Founder Bah Kut Teh

When me and my mom went to Spore, we will always went to this place to eat Bah Kut Teh. It was not a fancy restaurant, just a small ruko in side of Balestier road. There were a lot of Bah Kut teh stall in this area, I happen to know this one from many good review in the singaporean food blog. Since then, I never try others. This time, me and colleagues were staying near the area, so around midnight we decided to walk there. We were not hungry actually, just having a midnight craving. It was packed with people but luckily there was still empty table. We ordered 2 bowl of Bah Kut Teh (ribs $8), 1 pork kidney ($6) and salted vegetables ($3) to share. I end up eating the entire bowl of pork kidney, not because it was good as it was not, but because my colleagues didn't like it. The bah kut teh as usual was yummy, the ribs was very tender.

Founder Bah Kut Teh

Next to hotel New Orchid

Balestier Road

Opening hours: 

Day: 12noon - 2pm

Night: 6pm - 2.30am 

Closed every Tuesday

Ippudo Ramen Singapore

I have read many good reviews about Ippudo Ramen. They had their  first ramen stall with only 10 seats in Fukuoka back in 1985, now from stalls they have turned into 54 outlets in Japan, 1 in New York and 2 in Singapore. I was very excited to try the one in Mandarin Gallery, Orchard. Luckily, my colleagues loved food hunting as much as I did so I can dragged them to try this. We reached there around 7pm something and saw quite lines up. The restaurant was not big, but decorated nicely. We waited around 20 minutes before we get seated. I ordered Akamaru Kasaneaji ($15), it's a ramen with pork belly, kikurage and spring onion. I added nitamago (flavored egg $2). We can opted the cook level for our ramen... The waiter will ask us whether we want it to be soft, medium or hard. I chose hard as I don't like my noodles soft.

Akamaru Kasaneaji

 These were what my colleagues ordered: 

Shiromaru Ramen ($15) - More likely same as Akamaru but this one was with Pork Loin and the broth was original without any sauce like Akamaru.

Shiromaru Ramen

This one is Bakuretsu Tofu ($10) - Spicy tofu and minced pork served in hot stone pot.

Bakuretsu Tofu

Even though the presentations was not that nice, but all the menus we ordered were very good. The broth was delicious. I will surely be back other time when I visit Singapore. 

Ippudo Ramen

Mandarin Gallery  #04-02

333 Orchard Road

Singapore

Ph. +65 62352797

http://www.ippudo.com.sg/

Yummy Snacks' Kiosks

Last week, my company was having a big gathering in Singapore. We always had this annual convention every year and this year we were having it on 14-15 May. As 17th was Vesak Day, me and my colleagues decided to extend our trip until 17th. So we combined the trip into 2 days business trip and 2 days of fun trip, of course filled with food hunting. Yay!

Since Ion Orchard opened in Singapore, it had become one of my favorite mall simply because it has a lot of great food there. :) Below are some of the foods that we tried during our trip @Ion Orchard level B4. It was heaven for food lovers as there were almost hundred of small kiosks with many delicious yumm food. Let's start!

Gindaco Original Teriyaki

This one was certainly my most favorite snack in Singapore. I just simply love it, and until this moment, I had never found better Takoyaki compare to this one, even when I went to Japan. The flavour just feels right and the octopus inside came in the right side. Most of the other Takoyaki seller, they chopped the octopus into a very small size that we can't even taste it when we chewed.

It came in 2 sizes, $4 something for 4pcs and $6.4 for 8pcs. I love it so much I even bought 16pcs of it to bring back to Jakarta. =)

Bonchon 4 fingers Crispy Wings

This one also a favorite of mine. It was a franchise from Korea. Very popular in Korea that they claimed their chicken wings are better than KFC. I think it was one of the best wings I ever had, it is very crisp and the flavour just blend together. We chose the spicy one, and we can felt that the spices were really seep in to the wings. It was delightful wings.

Smallest portion is 6pcs with price of $7.9.

Chicken Katsu Curry

 One of my friend who live in Singapore always bragged about how good is Go Go Curry! I saw her status in facebook that she ofteenly checked in at this place for lunch. So I decided to give it a try. We ordered Pork and Chicken Katsu Curry to share among 3 of us as the portions are quite big. I prefer the pork one. They put the rice under the Katsu and cover it with the curry, then on the top put the Katsu. It was not bad, but also not that good. I think it just didn't suite my taste. I'm not a fan of curry, however this was stiill better than Mr. Curry.

The price of 1 portion is around $11 something.

We also had cakwe (there, they called it You Thiau) and butterfly (it was a fried dough that you can find in all Cakwe seller in jakarta). Too bad I forgot to took picture. Anyway, the butterfly was simply delicious. It was very crisp and very different with the one I had in here. My colleagues thought the same way. You can find it in all food court in most of the shopping mall in Singapore. Must try!

Food Kiosk

Ion Orchard level B4

Singapore

[CLOSED] Taiyo Sushi

Last night, we spotted a new sushi restaurant opened in Pluit area when we were driving to dine at Warung Bu Kris. The restaurant took place in the old pool place called Mazee that had been closed for months. As we were craving about iga penyet, we decided to try the sushi tomorrow. So this afternoon we went there for lunch. The parking spot were filled up, and when we entered the dining, I noticed the place was too spacious comparing to number of tables they had.

It was the type of place that requiring us to wait to be seated but the welcoming person was not there so we were waiting to be guided to our table. Behind us there were a group of people too. Funny thing, there were about 4 staffs and 1 manager were standing around but none of them came greeting us. After waiting about 5 mins of getting ignored, I went to them to asked a table for 2 persons. The group behind did the same thing. I think if I didn't took the initiative to ask them, they will just let us stood there.

The waiter told us that they just opened yesterday. No wonder! The menu was interesting, pictures were nicely taken. Hence, I spotted quite many of their menus were the same as Sushi Tei, such as Sanshoku Hana Salmon, Salmon Skin Fried, Jumbo Dragon Roll, Salmon Skin Maki, Crispy Roll so I asked the waiter if they were in the same management with Sushi tei, and he said no, just happen to have the similar menus.

We ordered Spicy Salmon Salad (36k), Salmon Skin Fried (19k), Salmon Sashimi (32k), Taiyo Special Roll (53k) and Gindara Teriyaki (48k). 5 mins later, our cold ocha and Gindara Teriyaki came. It was delicious! The size was surprisingly big and the teriyaki sauce was mixed perfectly. I was happy and excited waiting for the next one to come. Unfortunately, the next one was in slow motion mode. I saw 2 tables beside us were leaving as their orders took too long. We were trying to understand as it was just opened yesterday, so maybe they were short of staffs. But after 35 mins, my patience had touched the limit, I asked the waiter about our order, my husband nicely said to her that if it's not prepared yet, then we just cancel and ask for the bill. Not long, she came with Taiyo Special Roll and told us the rest of our orders are out of stock. It pissed me off that she didn't let us know our orders are out of stock and let us waited 35 mins. Another stupid thing, after the waiter delivered our Taiyo's roll, she immediately asked us whether we wanted to ask for the bill now. Huh? We haven't even eat yet. My hubby were furious and directly said yes. Between angry and hunger, we ate the rolls and admitted the Taiyo's special roll were as delicious as the Gindara. 

Gindara Teriyaki

Taiyo Special Roll

Despite our disapointment and anger about the service, we will still come back to this place as the meals were great (even we only managed to eat two dishes). But we'll wait a month before my next visit, hopefully by then, they had increased their service. O yes, there are 30% discount during this month.

Taiyo Sushi

Jl. Pluit Putera Raya No. 17

Jakarta Utara

ph. +6221 6631652

Bakmi Lamlo

Recently, after they open in Jakarta, this noodle had became one of my family's favorite noodle in town. I heard from my mom that Bakmi Lamlo is very famous in Medan. I'm not sure whether this one is the branch from Medan or not. We have been there countless times, but I always forgot to confirm about this to the owner. 

The noodles were served with pork, chaisim and beansprout. I always ask for additional of egg and chicken gizzard. Regular bowl is 18k and the one with additional egg and gizzard is 26k. They also served kwetiau, beehon and chicken soto. 

Bakmi Lamlo

Fresh Market Pantai Indah Kapuk

Pluit, Jakarta Utara
Opening hours: 6am - 2pm
 

Sushi Joobu

I saw this review about Sushi Joobu at detik.com. It was written that the chef was from USA and had experiences in restaurants across states, so I decided to give it a try. It located in Ruko Kelapa Gading Boulevard near Bread In and Ayam Presto. Not hard to find. It was wednesday night when me & hubby went there and the place was quite filled up, around 6 tables (they only had around 12 tables besides sushi bar). 

 

  

As we entered the dining, I noticed the place was quite small. It was 2 storey, and they have sushi bar on the 1st floor and tatami sitting on the 2nd floor.
We sat at sushi bar. 

Too bad the menu book came with no picture. The waiter said their specials are Joobu's special roll (55k), Grilled Salmon Head (61k) and Crispy Salmon Roll (32k). We ordered the 3 specials and salmon sashimi (47k), Seasoned Baby Octopus (29k), and  Crispy Salmon Skin (27k). Besides Sushi Tei, I had never find any other Sushi place with Salmon Skin in their menu, so I am very excited to try it.

The salmon sashimi came first and it was a disapointment. It was not fresh at all. Followed by baby octopus, crispy salmon roll and salmon skin. The salmon skin was different with the one I used to eat, this one was chopped and seasoned with vinegar, and they put sliced cucumber in the bottom and covered with fish flakes. It was not bad, but didn't suite my taste. The salmon head reminds me of grilled fish at Sundanese restaurant, it was weird. The Joobu's special was a roll of eel, seaweed, red chili, salmon slices and fish roe. Overall, the one I can tolerate is only the crispy salmon roll.  

O yes, there were 4 sous chefs behind sushi bar and all of them was not wearing the transparant gloves. So when they cut our sashimi and rolled the sushi, I can really see they are using their hands directly without putting the gloves. =After we paid, we were given 20% coupon for next visit. However, I don't think I will be coming back.

Salmon Sashimi

Baby Octopus

Crispy Salmon Roll

Crispy Salmon Skin

Grilled Salmon Head

Joobu's Special Roll

(Closed) Jack Rabbit

There's a new restaurant with western concept recently opened at Rasuna Said. Me and hubby went there for dinner on Sunday night. It was located in an office building, and we were confused when we hit the basement parking lot as it was very dark and empty, not more than 10 cars. We took the lift to office lobby and the security told us that Jack Rabbit was outside the building, so we walked there and turned out it had valet! Sigh... If we know, we can just park valet rather than park in that creepy parking lot plus I had to walk in heels.

private room hanging down from ceiling

As we walked in, I saw the bar is at the right side and we were guided to the dining place. They have outdoor spot too. I was quite amazed with the design, they had this private room hanging down the ceiling. The waiter told us they had 2 private rooms but can be opened into one with max 24 persons (for lunch, minimum spending is IDR 2.5 million, for dinner 3.5 million).

They didn't had too many selections on the menu. We chose pork belly (90k) for the appetizer. For the main course, we ordered Pan Seared Duck (130k) and Butter Poached Norwegian Salmon (150k). After we ordered, we were given complimentary bread for starters before the appetizers came. The pork was not good, so slimmy and fatty. :(

I liked the duck, it was very tender, it served with risotto and shimeji mushroom. More or less, like the one at Canteen. Yumm!

My salmon is so so, it came with potato gratine (love it!) and they put a little bit of melted avocado and three small cubes of jelly as decoration on the plate. 

Pork Belly

Pan Seared Duck

Butter Poached Norwegian Salmon

Overall, it was a good dine. The waiter also very attentive. It was not a fine dining restaurant, but it was a type of place where you need to dress up a bit.

Jack Rabbit
Cyber 2 Building
HR Rasuna Said X-5 No. 13
Jl. Prof.Dr. Satrio (across Manhattan Hotel)
Kuningan, Jakarta
Ph. +6221 29021357