自然海鲜 (opp Redhill MRT)

My first time at this place. We didn't know what to eat and upon strong recommendation by the lady boss (I think), we took this $48.80 set meal - 6 dishes including a dessert. Overall, I find the food just above average. The presentation is something they could improve on haha!! But I love the double-boiled soup - quite generous with the amount of sharks' fins ;p

铺田 (Jurong Point)

The boss of 铺田 must be laughing his/her way to the bank! Within very short period of time, there were many branches which sprouted across the island! And most of the times, they are well-filled with curious and hungry customers! I, for one, decided to try the food cos I like the 兴化米粉 I've once tried at one of those "铺田s" at Lavender. There are so many around. Which is the authentic one? Does anyone know?

I think this is spinach and 皮蛋

兴化米粉
Duck wrapped with yam, deep fried. A little oily, I think but the duck meat was quite tender!

Sweet & sour pork with lychee. This is one of their signature dishes. Actually, this was like any sweet & sour pork, except they had 2 lychees on it haha! No lychee taste in the dish, otherwise. But the pork was quite tasty and not like most sweet & sour pork where you'd be eating the fats more than the meat, the amount of meat used was quite substantial.

Overall, the food was quite good! After the meal, we waited to test if much MSG was added. Indeed, it was! Haha!! Then again, I went back one day to "tabao" the 兴化米粉红 ;p

锅贴 (40A Commonwealth Ave)

The stall (forgot name lah..) at a corner on the 2nd floor is better known for its 锅贴 (though they are actually fried), other than its 酸辣汤 and noodles. I've been there a few times and still love its food! But it seems that the quality of its fried dumpling has dropped. The dumplings used to be real crispy! Anyway, I'd highly recommend this place for anyone who has not tried eating at this place ;)

酸辣汤 I think it's $3 for this portion. Good for 2!

Fried dumplings - $4 for 8pcs (I think ;p)

I don't remember the name of this noodle. But it was really good! Think it's also $3 for this big plate enough for 2 too! They also have 炒年糕 which I'd try the next time ;)

If you want a drink to get rid of the oiliness, just pay $0.10 for free flow of chinese tea!

Pioneer Seafood Restaurant, Jurong Point (10 Aug)

New restaurant at the new wing Jurong Point called Pioneer Seafood Restaurant (ground floor of the new wing). It has a branch at Mount Faber (if it's still there) which we've tried but I don't remember if the food was fantastic. Since it didn't register very well, I take it that it wasn't memorably great hahaha!!

We had tim sum brunch and also ordered its Sri Lanka crab on promotion - $33 per kg (medium size), which we thought we could try as it was priced cheaper than what is served at one of the coffeeshops in Jurong West/ Nanyang.

皮蛋瘦肉粥 - bad! tasteless!
小笼包 - err.. think it's skin was quite thick and the soup/ meat wasn't very tasty either

虾角 - forget it!
烧卖 - not nice too.. no "tim sum" taste
Blackbeans steam 排骨 - totally cannot make it. tasteless.. and we wonder what happened to the black beans??

Broccoli with minced meat fried with its famed XO sauce - I believe I can make my any dish good with the sauce too what... so no big deal... hahaha!! the restaurant sells its sauce - each bottle costs $9+ I think. Nope, I didn't buy...

锅貼 - not impressive too..

Black pepper crab - also cannot make it haha!

We were very disappointed with the quality of food served at this restaurant. All the dishes were not tasty.. it wasn't saltish which is fine by me since I'm not a fan of salt haha but I felt the chef didn't bring out the distinctive flavour of each dish, be they the tim-sum or the crab!! We ordered the black pepper crab which taste "sweet" and definitely short of peppery taste. Most of all, the crab wasn't flavourful at all and didn't have the "wok taste" (or "wok hei" as the cantonese calls it). The crab taste like plain jane crab meat while the black pepper sauce was on its own outside on the shell.. But, I must admit the meat was not too bad, quite "springy" and I suspect the meat at the end of the pincer wasn't cooked well.

In essence, we still love our Nanyang coffee shop (it's beside the Nanyang Community Club) crabs - they cost $44 per kg but they are huge and tasty! The chef cooked it very well!

Irodori Japanese Restaurant (21 Jul)

This meal was to celebrate our wedding anniversary, 7th year, if you are curious ;p I think we are (or perhaps just me) suckers for japanese food cos we've been dining in japanese restaurants quite frequently. After reading good reviews of this place, we decided to go ahead - S$33++ per pax for buffet dinner, at Riverview Hotel. http://irodorijapaneserestaurant.com/. It was a weekday that we went so it was crowded.

Generally, the quality was quite good, and we were happy to receive a few complimentary dishes hehe... Service was fine since there weren't too many customers. Go in a big group so you could try the huge variety. There was only so much 2 persons could eat ;)

Menu which has lots of items

Udon (very small one-person portion). The noodle is not the usual fat and round type but rather, it's flat, so it doesn't taste as "springy" as any udon should be, I feel.

Grilled pregnant fishes - very yummy actually

Teriyaki mushrooms. The sauce was too salty.

Kimchi with errmm... can't remember if it's chicken or pork strips.. good starter!

Inside of restaurant

Tempura prawns - crispy!

Teriyaki chicken, I think ;p

Unagi handroll on the left and spider handroll on the right. I like the spider one ;)

Fried chicken.. what do you call it?

金针菇 wrapped with pork slice, I think.

Soup in a pot - sorry forgot its name hahaha!

We love this best! Grilled chicken wings!

This was served complimentary as appetiser, but frankly I don't remember what it was. Think it's fried salmon ball.

Grilled fish - forgot what fish hahaha!

Variety of sashimi - yellowtail, salmon and swordfish. There are others but we chose these.

These were complimentary starters too! Grilled king prawns with mayonnaise and fish roe. Think anything grilled with mayonnaise taste good hhaha!

Were these complimentary too?? Hahaha!! Don't remember what roll they are ;p

Ok, this was complimentary - the first dish that came when we sat down. Think the green piece thinggi is tofu.. topped with fish roe and condiments

Kuala Lumpur (4-7 Jul)

No special mention from this trip to KL, of which the main purpose was to "attack" the Malaysia Mega Sale. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't buy anything.. yup, nothing at all... so disappointed... Not that the sale was not good, but I did not manage to buy things I had in mind to get.. like, I wasn't looking for shoes nor t-shirts so the shoes/t-shirts sale wasn't a big draw.. BUT I was glad I bought something in Singapore, just the day before the trip hahah!! So, that was the only consolation... hehe.. ;p

Lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop at Times Square.

This was the "Family Feast" set which costRM$38 if I'm not wrong. Nothing fantastic lah..

The next highlight of the trip was our Jap buffet dinner at Gonbei, at the Starhill Gallery. RM95+ per pax for dinner from 6-10pm. The items were authentic jap dishes, and the raw items like sashimi and oysters were very fresh and yummy! Basically there are 4 stations you can order your food from: sashimi station, teppanyaki station, tempura station and grill station. You can go to each station and pick any items you want to be cooked and they will be served to you. Free flow of green tea, ice lemon tea and can't remember which is the other drink. Generall Gonbei offers great variety, so it's good value for money ;)

We were there at 6pm cos we were hungry!! The meal before was just brunch at our hotel (Impiana KLCC http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com/) mah... We were the first and only customers from 6-8pm and so it kinda felt strange that the staff/ chef had nothing much to do hahahah!! At first, we thought perhaps the place wasn't popular or over-priced. But more and more people started streaming in after 8pm... In fact, before we visited the restaurant, we read reviews of people spending more than RM500 for their ala-carte dishes! We found out from one of the waitresses who told us that the buffet promo started only 3 weeks prior to our visit. Frankly, if not for the buffet, I don't think I'd patronise ;p !!

The sashimi bar

Anti-clockwise starting from bottom left: Unagi sashimi, octopus, sakae sashimi, kajiki sashimi (which was lightly cooked and we love the sweetness!!), maguro sashimi

More sakae and kajiki sashimi, and raw oysters!
The grill and dessert station
Soft shell crab and tempura
The teppanyaki station
Teppanyaki prawns and beef

Grilled chicken wings, cod fish and unagi. The chicken wings were very well grilled! Very crispy!

Since I didn't manage to do shopping, I had a wonderful spa session in the hotel we stayed in. Swasana Spa http://kualalumpurhotels.impiana.com/spa.php was offering 50% off its 2hr spa packages. I chose the Asmara Dana package which included full body scrub, rose petal milk bath followed by full body massage. BLISS! How much? After 50% discount, the SGD equivalent was S$85 ;)

Our return coach - Grassland which has a ticketing booth right opposite the Times Square. We bought tickets for its Royal VIP Coach at RM55/ pax (which otherwise will cost RM70 for Sundays). It was a double-decker, with entertainment system.