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Personally, I have always loved the Ichiban chain of restaurants. I find them one of the more reasonably priced and good tasting japanese restaurants here. I love sashimi and clear soup udon. And till today, I still love the udon served at Ichiban. As usual, consistency in the quality is important for me and the only Ichiban which served me horrible food was Ang Mo Kio Hub Ichiban Sushi restaurant. The other restaurants I have tried were the ones at Causeway point, Suntec, Parkway Parade and maybe some other places which I cannot remember. But almost all the restaurants have not disappointed me, except the one at Ang Mo Kio which I had maybe 2 or 3 years ago.
The udon they serve is usually very bouncy, chewy and fresh. The soup is really hot when served, which is a must for me. It is just so refreshing to have udon anytime of the day. And salmon sashimi. Although their sashimi is not the best, it is still fine for me because it does not give off any weird fishy smell.
Overall, Ichiban chain of restaurants have been pleasant for me. So go ahead and patronize them. If you have bad experiences, share with me and I will personally go down to the particular outlet to try as well. :)
SimpleMakan
Went to I12 Katong for dinner with her. It was quite crowded and all the restaurants were kind of packed. We did not really know what we wanted to have for dinner and we finally decided to have pasta at Yomenya Goemon. There were some people in the queue outside but it seemed to move quite fast. I bought the crab and prawn creamy sauce pasta while she had the spicy tomato sauce carbonara. The pasta came with a small cup of soup. And the cup was really small. But the soup was good. It was clear soup (my favorite) and full of flavor. So I loved it.
My pasta had very little crab, quite a number of super fresh prawns and mushrooms. The mushrooms were extremely fresh as well. And the sauce was really good. It was perfect because usually, having too much of these pastas ad sauces can make you feel kind of sick, but this was not the case here. The taste was perfect and I really enjoyed my pasta. For her, she had the tomato sauce spicy carbonara. She actually does not like tomato sauce for pasta, she prefers creamy pasta but she chose to try this. And there were totally no regrets. She loved it as well. There were big chunks of bacon in the pasta and it was super awesome. Both of us really loved the pasta. We would definitely try it again and hopefully it is good. As I always say, consistency is super important for food.
SimpleMakan
Girlfriend broke her iPhone front screen, so she had to bring it to repair. My friend recommended this shop called "playurconsoles". They are very honest and fast in their service. Very very nice people. Price and workmanship is excellent too. Their website is www.playurconsoles.com.
Alright, back to food. So she went to repair her phone alone because I supposedly had tuition. I surprised her over there and we had dinner together. Too much of choices and this Fire Grill store caught my attention. Decided to try it. I bought Grilled Pork Chops with potato wedges and coleslaw. She bought Fish fillet with butter corn and pasta salad.
My Pork was cooked very well. It was tender and not hard. The pepper sauce was good as well. The coleslaw was old and tasteless, so thats a failure. The wedges was fried perfectly so no issue with that. Her fish was really fried to perfection. The fillet of fish itself was thick and had no funny fishy smell. It was really good. The pasta salad was good as well. The cream sauce complimented the pasta very well. The butter corn was old though. So it was a failure just like the coleslaw.
Overall, food was served relatively fast. Good price for a food centre. Taste was reasonable as well except for the minor issue with the old food served.
SimpleMakan
We were in town and wanted to kill some time together before she went home for dinner. So she suggested going to this cafe. It was a really small cafe. It was clean and cosy. A good place to chill if you have time. Not too comfy for me but fine if I do not have other choices. I ordered Iced Mocha and she ordered Mango Margarita, I think. And we ordered fried drumlets just to munch on. The drinks were served fast but the drumlets took almost half an hour even though we were the only ones there. Even if they are made from scratch, I do not expect to wait so long for a few drumlets. And after half an hour, when we finally got the drumlets, we tasted it and all I can say is "I waited half and hour for this crap?". Come on, the drumlets at McDonalds tastes much better. This was just mediocre. Really disappointed. The drink was good though. My coffee tasted good and the Mango Margarita was good too. But food was a total failure because of the horrible waiting time and the taste.
SimpleMakan
Went in to pump petrol with my friend and wanted to have lunch as well. Wanted to bring my friend to the coffee shop which sold that simple noodle dish which I had with love on New Year's Day but while walking to the coffee shop, passed by this shop and the Pork leg one guy was eating looked too good to ignore. I immediately stopped and asked if he was alright with this but I actually already knew that it was definitely alright for me, because it was all meat! Awesome!
We ordered Pork Leg, Bak Kut Teh, Roasted Chicken and Roasted Pork. All meat! It was wonderful! The pork leg gravy was really good. The meat was tender with just the right amount of fat. The Bak Kut Teh was even better. The soup was really tasty, with a good balance of the herbal and salty taste. The meat was tender as well. The Roasted chicken and pork was awesome! Somehow, meat in JB seems to be better than Singapore. I think the reason might be due to the freshness level. Over here, there are too many regularities and the meat takes a long time to reach the consumer, causing it to always be in a freezer. I guess that already causes the meat to be less fresh.
Anyway, this makan place is at Jalan Harimau, pass the Esso and just before the Caltex.
SimpleMakan
She baked me Banana Nut muffins! I was so tired after tuition and she passed me this before we headed to taiwan bistro for supper. I could not wait, immediately took one out and gobbled it because I was really hungry. OMG, IT WAS SUPER GOOD! I enjoyed it very much! It wasn't too sweet and it wasn't dry. It was really just nice. She added alot of nuts because my mum likes nuts. I hate nuts, but it was still alright for me because the nuts complimented the taste of the muffin. It was really really good! Thank you love, pass me the recipe and I'll share it here okay. :)
SimpleMakan
There is this taiwan bistro located on Yio Chu Kang Road, closer to Serangoon North area. My girlfriend usually likes to buy supper takeaways there. One night after my tuition near her place, we decided to meet for supper and we went to this bistro. It was a very simple and clean eatery. We ordered the Chicken cutlet, Fish with mango sauce and Bubble tea.
The Chicken cutlet tasted good, but I felt that the meat was too thin. What shops usually do is to slice the meat in the middle and split it so that the cutlet will look bigger. I think the same was done here and I found the meat too thin. If it was thicker, it would have been juicier and tastier. The fish was fried perfectly and the mango sauce was really good as well. I'm not really a fan of sweet sauces for savory dishes, but this was fine for me. I did not feel it was bad. The bubble tea; it was really good. Pearl was chewy but not very sweet. The tea itself was very very rich and I enjoyed every drop of it. :)
SimpleMakan
Alright, I know Koi Bubble Tea is kind of famous, but I just felt that I should provide my opinion on it as well. KOI IS AWESOME! Well, like what I have said a million times, consistency is very important to me. And to me, Koi is very consistent in their quality and taste of the bubble tea they serve. I usually buy the plain milk tea with pearl. The pearl they serve is smaller than the usual pearl from other stores but bigger than mini pearls. The pearl is chewy and sweet and never ever bland and hard. So that is awesome. The tea itself is creamy and rich. It actually does taste like tea and not just milk powder with water. So again, that is awesome. The price is about $3-$5 which I guess is quite affordable although they might be more expensive than some other tea parlors. I think the serving is quite good compared to others, so the price is fair. Overall, the pearl is awesome, the tea is awesome, the price is awesome. BUT! The wait in line is not awesome. Sometimes the queue is just too long and the wait is more than 15 minutes. Usually, I only buy when there are less than five people in queue. :)
SimpleMakan
For New Year's Eve, decided to spend a night in Johor Bahru with love because I found a good offer for a good hotel. The hotel's name is Mutiara Hotel. It is very near to KSL City which is very near to the Causeway itself. Maybe about 5 minutes drive. Here are some photos of the hotel itself.
The hotel costed about RM200 for one night with taxes and all, which I find absolutely reasonable for such an ambience and quality. Both of us were really pleased with the hotel. To me, cleanliness is the number one priority (people who know me will understand this :-X), and I would have to admit, the hotel was really clean. No funny smell whatsoever. Very big and spacious as well. It was really relaxing and wonderful there.
So some might think, go JB stay one night do what? And then I've the friends who have nothing else in mind but activities which only happen behind closed doors. Haha! But no! There's definitely much more to do in JB than just "naughty stuff". We mainly spent a lot of time in KSL City and Holiday Plaza because they were really close by. I guess the number one past-time was..... EATING!!!!!!!!!!! But we did eat in moderation. Let me share the photos, then say a little bit about the food itself.
First, we went to Hong Kong Kim Gary Restaurant at KSL City. First time eating there. I understand he has a restaurant in Singapore as well right? We just wanted to try the food there. Here are some photos.
She had Fish Fillet with Spaghetti in cream sauce while I had the Sichuan Pork slices noodle. Her dish came with a drink and soup as well. The soup was fine, nothing special to me. I felt it tasted like Campbell's soup, but it was fine. Nothing to praise. The spaghetti was just fine too. Nothing to complain about, just edible. She liked the corn in it though. My noodle, it was close to being a failure. It wasn't nice, and it wasn't bad. But would I recommend it or try it again? Never. The meat was hard and chewy and bad. The broth for the noodle was close to tasteless. The only thing which was good was the Iced Coffee. At least that made the meal a little better. Both of us enjoyed the coffee very much. Other than that, totally would not try that restaurant again. Service wise, the staff were nice n friendly and efficient. But the menu and ordering system was extremely dumb and horrible due to the countless amount of papers and variety. They should really review their ordering system or better yet, review the entire menu.
For a snack, we had Aunt Anne's. I have always walked pass Aunt Anne's pretzels in Singapore, but I have NEVER TRIED IT. So this time, I wanted to try it. We bought just one to share (I told you we were moderating the food intake :-P)
We bought the Cinnamon sugar flavor. Let me make this clear, I love bread, pastry and any of this baked or fried doughy stuff; and this was one of the most awesome dough I have eaten! It was extremely soft and amazing with the cinnamon sugar. Sweet, chewy and delightful. Now I crave for it all the time, but I know it only sells at a few places here.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the checkout time for the hotel was 2pm! How awesome is that!?!?! I hate to have to wake up early and checkout of hotels, freaking dumb. But at this hotel, you can sleep like a pig and slowly wake up. Wonderful! So we woke up, walked around in Holiday Plaza and then at KSL again. Then we went to have brunch at Manhatten Fish Market at KSL City. She has never tried it before, even in Singapore. So we decided to try it there.
We had Fried Calamari, a small set Fish and Chips and an Oreo Milkshake-like drink. The calamari was different from Singapore. It was not in circles, it was in strips, so it was not really very nice. It was edible, but not something I would say don't try. The fish and chips was excellent. Perfectly fried and amazing to the taste buds in the morning. The Oreo Milkshake was quite bad. It wasn't nice at all. Very bland.
After that meal, she wanted to have Milk tea. Both of us LOVE MILK TEA remember? She said she remembered this stall called Blackball and their drinks looked good. So we went ahead to buy a drink there.
A lot of times, her mandarin is quite bad. Sometimes, I have to be alert and correct the orders made in mandarin. Hahahahaha! She wanted to ordered milk tea with herbal jelly. But their menu only had this special tea with herbal jelly or milk tea with pearl. So she said "yes, I want the herbal jelly." And the girl said "ok, so you will have the special tea with herbal jelly?" She said "Yes." And I was like, what??? "Milk tea with herbal jelly please." Then the counter girl said "Oh ok, no problem." Hahahaha! I'm so proud of myself. And I guess I'm going to get some scolding for bitching about her bad mandarin here. Anyway, as you can see from the photos, the milk tea was damn awesome! I felt it was one of the best I had. I think they use fresh milk and it tasted absolutely wonderful. The herbal jelly in the milk tea was fresh and the milk tea was creamy and rich and not too sweet as well. Some of you might be wondering what the second photo is. Well, once you make your order, they pass you that device and when you order is ready, that thing rings like nobody's business! Damn loud and irritating. But I guess it works when people are talking to friends and not concentrating on a centralized number-calling system.
I forgot about the supper we had at night. We went rounding just past midnight and I felt like sharing a small dish with her. I wanted dim sum but she knew she could not eat much and she did not really like dim sum. So while walking back, I decided to eat at this coffee shop. They serve this simple noodle dish.
I totally have no idea what it is called but it is simply the best! The soup was wonderful and flavorful. The noodle was PERFECTLY cooked!!! I have to type the word perfect in caps because this was the thinner kway teow noodle which I personally know that is very difficult to cook. The perfect way to cook this is to get an al dante texture and the cook manages to do it so easily. It was very simple and flavorful. No regrets having that like past midnight. We both loved it. :)
It was a super awesome and simple day at JB and we had an amazing time. It is NOT BORING. So go on, bring a loved one to JB and spend the night there. You never know what secret/special food you might find there.
SimpleMakan
