Thoroughly enjoyed my lunch experience at Ember recently.

My friend and I had the $38++ 3-course set lunch and ordered the following:

Starters:
- Tofu (can't recall the exact name of the dish. But it's similar to the "Feicui Tofu" you can find in Cantonese restaurants, except that the tofu here is not coated with a layer of spinach and instead of oyster sauce, it's truffle oil and sauce and instead of conpoy and shimeji mushrooms, it's just shimeiji mushrooms). Nevertheless, a great-tasting appetizer.

- Citrus salad - a mix of ruccola or arugula with orange, grapefruit and feta cheese and orange vinagrette dressing. Didn't particularly enjoy the dressing, found it a bit flat.

Mains:
- Chilean Sea Bass with yuzu butter sauce and mushroom ragout. The fish is good but didn't particularly dig the slightly "jelak" yuzu butter sauce.

- Miso cod. Oh so incredibly good! When the dish came, our appetite was already piqued by the wafting buttery smell of the dish. The dish also looks deceptively simple, but once you pop the morsels of fish into your mouth - yum! The sweetness of the miso and cod engulfs your palate. Enjoyed it even better than the above house special of the Chilean sea bass. To be honest, this is the first time we've tried miso cod (I know, I know, it's almost as ubiquitous as the molten chocolate cake by now!). Usually preferred to try other dishes as miso on fish doesn't seem particularly interesting to me. But guess I'm proven wrong by Ember's offering. Now I can't wait to re-acquaint myself with the other versions out there!

Dessert:
- Chilled Mango soup with pomelo and grapefruit (basically similar to the "Yang Zi Gan Lu" dessert you can order at dim sum restaurants). Pretty good though.

- Banana tart and Lavender ice cream. Yummers! An ideal way to end a great meal. Needs about 20mins to prepare though, so best to order it together with your main course at the start.

And we round up the meal with complimentary coffee and tea. The coffee was served in a generous cup and came with a lil' madeleine like cake.

The restaurant is cosy and modern and the service, polite and efficient. The restaurant is rather small though with limited seating,and judging from the packed crowd on a Friday lunch, reservations are probably a must! The set lunch menu options are plenty and I'll definitely be back to try out the other dishes!

Real thrilled when I found out by chance that Creperie des Art existed. I'm a fan of crepes and have lamented the closure of two other authentic Bretagne creperie in Duxton and Thomson.

Had the following:

1. Starter: Duck Rillette (basically duck pâté, though not the usual finely minced variety, this rillette is more coarsely textured) - Enjoyed everything about it - the bread, the rillette, the butter and pickles! But funnily enough we thought the duck tasted a tad like tuna.

2. Mains: Complete du pays galette - buckwheat crepe with parma ham, emmental cheese and egg. Simply love the egg on crepe dish!

3. Seafood galette - shrimp, squid and other seafood in a cream base sauce.

The mains were served with condiments of cracked black pepper and sea salt (perchance fleur de sel de guerande? Or maybe it's just sel de gris. Looked grey enough!)

4. Two-percent alcohol apple cider

Had an enjoyable meal and because we were real early, virtually the sole customers then, we had prompt, attentive service. Jonah, the French owner/manager (?) was real friendly and was helpful with the crepe recommendations. He even generously offered a second cup of cider on the house to my companion when he saw that we had only ordered one.

The ambience could be charming or kitschy depending on how you view it. The restaurant went for a nautical theme and has fish nets cast about, probably to reflect its Bretagne roots (coastal region). Missed the dark, simple elegance of the Duxton creperie, but I guess the interiors of Creperie des Arts has its quaint, traditional charms.

We were too stuffed to order the dessert crepes, but will definitely be back to try them next.

Yup, enjoyed the Tontoro Ringo (Pork with Apple) the best, it made for a real delectable, sweet savoury treat!

We also enjoyed almost every other dish we ordered:

* A variety of Kushiyaki skewers (sorry wished I could remember which ones we orderd, but I can’t, except that they were all gratefully devoured!)
* Some special grilled Japanese beef (again, can’t really recall the exact name, but it costs around $60 -90 a 100g, I think) – served with a cute lil’ tray of condiments – sliced fried onions, grated ginger, Japanese lime, sauce.
* Foie Gras – gorgeously unctuous at the first bite, but I could really only stomach two out of the three portions on 1 stick. Too rich for me, but I’m sure Foie Gras fans will love it.
* Hotate with cheese on a shell
* Grilled Eggplant – this was probably the only dish that I had better elsewhere.

I also really appreciate the complimentary (?) side of raw cabbages – sweet and crunchy and complements the grilled stuff.

The food with rice and sake costs us around $150. It’s really pricey, but probably because we ordered the special beef, which was pretty good, even better than Wagyu.

The service is pretty OK, with friendly, knowledgeable waitresses who recommended great dishes. As more patrons fill up the place, it can be harder at times for the waitress to remember to top up your tea. But other than that, generally no major hiccups, unlike the wait I had to endure when I dined at Kushigin (another yakitori joint just 2 floors below). But of course, I acknowledge that could be because I had dined at an earlier time at Kazu’s when the pace is not as hectic for the waitresses.

The ambience is not what one would call fine-dining, but I really digged the small, cosy, noisy vibe. It's akin to a vibrant izakaya and adds to the authenticity of the place. I especially enjoyed sitting at the counter seat too as you get to watch the master chef in action and of course, eyeball more delectable dishes to add on to your orders! The whole sensory experience is great too, you get to taste your food amid the ambrosial smells and stimulating sounds of the grill.

Note: Had actually dined at Kazu about 1-2 weeks earlier but unfortunately had not written a review yet. That was till I dined at Kushigin today and compared it to Kazu, that I really appreciated the dining experience at Kazu on hindsight! Had checked out Kushigin with the thought that "Hey, if Kushigin can be as good as Kazu but at half its prices, I can have a more affordable place to satisfy my yakitori cravings!" But I guess sometimes, there's a reason why certain places are priced so, every extra penny paid makes a difference. And Kazu is worth every extra penny! We had a more than satisfying meal. Guess I’ll just have to trade 2 meals at the mediocre Kushigin for 1 superb meal at Kazu!

Sorry to burst the bubble, folks. But I did not have too great a dining experience at Kushigin and this is especially so as I had dined at Kazu previously. Kazu also serves yakitori and is located in the same building, 2 floors above, so the comparisons are inevitable.

Had a great but rather expensive meal at Kazu a week earlier, but decided to try Kushigin after reading the reviews and seeing that the prices of an average meal is generally cheaper than Kazu's. Had the thought that "Hey, if Kushigin can be as good as Kazu but at half its prices, I can have a more affordable place to satisfy my yakitori cravings!" But I guess sometimes, there's a reason why certain places are priced so, every extra penny paid makes a difference.

The meal got off to a bad start when we had to wait ages for the waitress to take our orders. We had to signal for the waitress' attention a couple of times and every time the waitress replied "gimme a minute". So we gave 10 minutes or more and after the second waitress replied "gimme 5 minutes", we were rather frustrated and were very tempted to walk out of the restaurant. The dictum "a hungry man is an angry man" could not be more true. The waitresses were too busy busing the tables, topping up drinks, chatting with regulars to take our orders. I feel that's a glaring flaw in the system. You should always be prompt in taking orders, that'll appease the (starving) customers as they can then have their drinks, chat and wait for their food orders, in the comfort of the knowledge that their food is being prepared.

To be fair, after the initial order stonewalling, service got more prompt. Food came after a fair amount of waiting time. There were still times when you have to remind the waiter twice or thrice before he remembers to top up your tea. But this is so common in Singapore restaurants (yes, it's tragic), that we're kinda numb to it and not particularly bothered by it.

To be honest, I'll still give this place a second shot if I find the food fantastic. But note, it has to be FANTASTIC. It's a high order, I know, but how else would it be worth the pain?

Tried the Today Specials of soft shell crab tempura and grilled Japanese sweet corn. They were OK only. The imported Japanese sweet corn is pretty much normal, tastes like the usual sweet corn to me and not as sweet as expected as we had previously tried unbelievably sweet ones in Hokkaido. But to be fair, it's the same as how the sashimi flown in especially from Tsukiji, will not always taste as fresh/great as dining in Tsukiji itself.

Then had a variety of the kushiyaki skewers - asparagus maki, chicken meatball, chicken gizzard, shisamo, garlic pork, hotate, chicken with mentaiko, special meatball and foie gras. Again, all were OK only and not particularly memorable, except recall an overly salty aftertaste for most of the items. Maybe the foie gras is better than Kazu’s as instead of skewered and salted like Kazu’s, theirs is served on a plate with side salad and drizzled with oil and balsamic vinegar (I think) and I feel this makes it less “ger lak”.

Had an OK Okonomiyaki. Enjoyed the Daikon Salad and the Chawanmushi the most. But part of the reason could be because the Daikon Salad came first and we devoured it out of sheer hunger.

Spent $101.60 in all, including 1 soft drink. It's way cheaper per pax than what I spent at Kazu previously, but I did order different stuff there. But at the end of the day, find Kushigin's food passable only and hence not worth the headache of sitting through painstakingly slow service.

Went to check out Shokutsu 10 Osaka - the new Jap food street at Jurong Point and after a toss-up between Men-Ichi Ramen and Yaki Yaki Bo (the other eateries that make up Shokutsu consists of the familiar Kuishin Bo, Ichiban Boshi, Kuriya and Tori-Q, so we gave them a miss), we decided to settle for the latter.

Four of us went for the executive set - which consists of a choice of main course, rice (add $2 to upgrade to garlic fried rice or tamago rice), salad, miso soup, choice of tamago tofu or chawanmushi, beansprouts and dessert (basically 2 slices of oranges on our visit).

For the main courses, we had the following:
1. Salmon
2. Wagyu Beef
3. Sirloin Beef
4. Chicken and Seafood - salmon, prawns, scallop.

The chicken and seafood set was alright. The prawns and salmon were nice and sweet. The beef were passable, not particularly memorable. The restaurant did have a more premium beef offering , the Yaki Yaki Bo set at $29.90 though (the Wagyu and Sirloin sets were around $16.90 -17.90. So I guess my recommendation would be to try the salmon or seafood set or perhaps plump for the Yaki Yaki Bo set and see if it's worth the beef.

The garlic rice was pretty ok and cooked before you at the electric-teppan(no flames, less fumes I guess). As for the choice between Tamago Tofu (basically the tube-like silken tofu you buy off supermarket shelves, brushed with a coating of egg) and Chawanmushi, I would recommend the latter as it's rather delectable and novel. The chef was so proud of their creation, he boasted that after trying their version, you wouldn't wanna eat Chawanmushi anywhere else!

The Egg Custard is done before you at the teppan and cooked in a ring of onion and from the looks of it, it takes quite a bit of effort by the chef to cook it (our chef had to chuck the first attempt after the egg mixture leaked out of the onion). The Chawanmushi is silky soft and rather delicious with a savoury soup stock and you can easily, devour the whole thing, down with the sweet-tasting onion.

So all in all, a rather pleasant meal for a mid-priced teppanyaki. The restaurant also serves Okonomiyaki - the Japanese pancake. Yaki Yaki Bo tries to be innovative (or gimmicky, depending on how you view your glass)and add a little twist to the usual - such as cooking the Chawanmushi in an onion and presenting their teppan on slices of toasted bread, instead of the usual plates. Have your plate and eat it, geddit? haha. The chef recommends eating the bread at the end of the course, that's when the bread would have fully soak up the juices from the earlier meats/seafood and bean sprouts presented on it.

There were three Teppanyaki tables and they were all manned by experienced chefs when I was there. We had our meal prepared by an ex-chef of the Jurong Hill's Hilltop restaurant and I was told the other two chefs hail from Shima - the Teppanyaki restaurant in Goodwood Park Hotel.

We spent around $109 for the above four executive sets and drinks. I guess I'll be back again, just to try the Okonomiyaki and perhaps, see I'll be lucky enough to end up sitting at a ex-Shima chef's table and see if it'll make a difference.

Had a great value-for-$$ dinner at Matsuo.

Ordered the $40 set dinner, which though not ostensibly expensive, was not exactly cheap cheap either. But the generous set was totally worth the $40 paid, perhaps more - so value-for-money!

The set includes:

1. Sashimi
2. Chawanmushi
3. Choice of grilled Saba, Tempura or Tori Karaage
4. Miso Soup
5. Sushi
6. Fruits

The sashimi and sushi were fresh, generously thick cut and of a good variety. There was salmon, maguro, mekajiki, hamachi, hotate, ikura, amaebi and even a slice of otoro sashimi, I believe.

We tried the tempura and the grilled saba. While the tempura was fine, I highly recommend the grilled saba - nicely grilled and sweet, best savored with a squeeze of lemon and grated daikon (radish).

Little touches liven up the miso soup (a piece salmon and clams)and the chawanmushi (unagi among the usual crabstick meat).

All in all, had a satisfying meal of quality food and generous serving. Mosts of the dinner sets range from $30 ++ to $55 ++ and there's another special menu of more premium dinner sets (includes appetizers of oysters..etc) that range from $80 per person and above, minimum two to order.

Was there real early, so we were the only customers and found the service alright, nothing to fuss about. Ambience-wise, simple like your usual small-size Japanese restaurants' pedestrian decor.

Love the En Bar and from the looks of the positive reviews here, I'm not alone!

Been there probably about 4-5 times and had enjoy every dining occasion. The bonus of the place is that they serve yummy Japanese cocktails and lotsa nice, appetizer dishes. Great variety - sufficient to make a meal there. I always head there whenever I'm in the mood for Japanese nibbles and want a "sure-thing" meal. And the added bonus are the late hours! Jap meal at 2 am anyone?

I usually have sashimi and yakitori items, and maybe some salad (I dig the daikon salad - refreshing and lotsa kick with wasabi dressing) and sushi.

At the most recent visit, had a mixed sushi platter, daikon salad, some yakitori items - all good. One particular standout was the anago (sea eel) sushi, it's rather costly per piece, but it's super yummy and the anago is easily 4 times the length of the sushi rice - kinda tricky to eat it, but oh so worth it! Unagi fans should really try the anago - it's the better eel!

And this time I finally had room for dessert and ordered the Goma pudding. YUMMY. The goma sesame is really fragrant and the smooth pudding just melts in your mouth. A truly blissful dessert. It's one of the 2 Must-try sesame desserts I've came across in mid-priced Jap eateries. The other is the Tofu and sesame dessert of Sun & Moon Dining, which is incredibly fragrant too.

Eyeing the Tofu panna cotta next!

Well, I actually preferred the desserts to the main courses. And that's not because I'm a dessert fiend, but the desserts do stand out more, compared to the main courses we had.

To be honest, I wasn't a fan of the Wild Rocket Burger back when they first had it on the menu of the preceding Wild Rocket at Mt Emily. But I had only tried it once or twice on a smaller portioned set lunch, so after finding out about this burger-focused spin-off, I decided to give the Wild Rocket burger a second shot.

And... it was still only "okay" for me. Yes, the beef is thick and fresh and all, it has my favorite stuff as toppings - argula (wild rocket)and tomato relish.. but somehow the beef is just not "juicy" enough for me and the overall mouth-feel of the burger when you take a bite just ... falls short.

Also tried the new burger additions of blue cheese and william pear. I liked it better than the wild rocket burger, but that's probably because I'm a blue cheese and pear fan. The burger could do with more cheese though.

Also shared the pasta of the day - some linguine pasta with crabmeat. Ermm.. stick to the burgers.

As was out on a lunch meal, we skipped the beer pairings, which is a shame as that might have given the meal more oomph.

But while the burgers were only okay, was really impressed with the 2 desserts we shared - strawberry cheesecake and chocolate gateau - particularly the cheesecake.

The cheesecake did look quite interesting in the way it was presented - a deconstructed eton mess-lookalike. But it tastes great with a delectable mix of cream cheese, whipped cream, berries (yes, it's that good that you could even forget that they substituted the strawberries with other variety of berries) and crumble. Really enjoyed it. Might wanna order one portion each the next time though as it's really just a tiny cup of it.

The chocolate gateau - basically your molten chocolate cake - was pretty yummy too. And the staff were pretty flexible on letting us have it accompanied with both the flambed bananas and vanilla ice cream (it's supposed to be "either, or" on the menu) - you just pay more lah.

Despite the (expected) ambivalence with the burgers, I'll probably still come back on a return visit - perhaps to try the ramlee burger (it does look quite decadent with the omelette and sauce) or the lamb pita (I love my pitas), with beer and just for another excuse to have the cheesecake again! I dig the place too, white and airy with lotsa natural lighting. Nice environs to have your lunch, albeit a tad warm on hotter days. There is aircon, but the windows and sidedoors open out and let the balmy air rush in.

Wanted to splurge on a classic Cantonese meal, since I'm in HK - capital of top-notch Cantonese cuisine.

Did some research and settled for a good, old, trusted established name, after reading glowing reviews by international press - NY Times inclusive! (Me = big sucker for reviews & NYT)

Was really disappointed when much awaited meal turned out less than spectacular. Okay, maybe I pinned too much hopes on the meal, expectations were primed and the bar was raised. But at HKD 1800 per person, I was honestly anticipating to be blown away! I mean, that's easily SGD 300, USD 230 down the drain! I supposed the dining scene in HK is much pricier than Singapore's. But it's a real heartache when I spend that amount of money on a less than stellar meal.

We ordered a dinner set meal which had the signature (!) dishes - shark's fins, abalone, crab gratin, roasted pigeon, roasted suckling pig, lotus rice and dessert of bird's nest - all served in small, individual portions. I have no gripes with the serving size cuz I'm not too big an eater and there were quite a few dishes after all. So basically the expensive stuff like shark's fin and abalone passed muster, but the other dishes, especially the roasted pigeon (isn't HK famed for its roasted meats and birds?) just lacked finesse.

The saving grace of the meal was the bird's nest dessert - nicely presented and generous servings double-boiled in a coconut with fragrant almond milk (or choice of coconut milk).

Quite a pity the food does not live up to the hype as the service was pretty good - polite, attentive and accommodating.

Still a bit perplexed why the restaurant managed to garner all the good reviews and why the usually gourmand Japanese can't seem to get enough of it - there are four branches in Japan. Hmm.. maybe I ought to check back on the dates of those reviews I read. Were they written back in Fook Lam Moon's bygone heydays? Or should I have eaten at the original Hong Kong outlet instead of this Kowloon outlet?

Read the press releases on Caffe Cova, hailing from Milan and I just must check out this place, if only to replicate the feeling of La Dolce Vita and imagine that I'm back in Milan.

Sad to say, I've not tried the original cafe in Milan, so no basis for comparisons here. But I do really appreciate the elegant decor of Caffe Cova and the waitstaff in vests and bow-ties complete the look of an old-school, decadent era.

As a first visit, I went for the afternoon tea sets, where you have a choice of three options and basically get a platter of small bites - pastries, finger sandwiches, open sandwiches etc with choice of coffee or tea. Note it's a mere "platter", not the three-tier English tea set. I was also a little disappointed that the teas served were from Twinnings, yes of the good ole dippin' sachet tea-bags. At about $20+ before tax, I did find the set a tad expensive and we ordered additional dishes to fill our tummies.

While, the small nibbles on the set were pretty, but not particularly satisfying, I did rather enjoy the additional orders of salmon quiche and prawn salad. So my advice would be to skip the gimmicky afternoon tea set and just order straight from the a la carte menu. The Sacher Torte perhaps? And maybe have coffee, instead of tea. The recommended Cafe Corretto, I supposed.

While I did not encounter curt service (on the contrary, I find most of the staff rather polite), I must admit service was a tad slow and not as forthcoming. We did wait quite some time for the quiche to be served to us (basically it just needs to be taken out of the display and was not even served warm) and suspected that our orders were not relayed to the kitchen the first time round. Teething problems perhaps? After all, the cafe is still rather new in operation.

Still, despite the slow service and the miss with the tea-set, I still enjoyed my afternoon tea there.I mean, there are definitely worst ways to spend your afternoon than whiling away in refined, chi-chi environs, sipping tea, nibbling on quiche and salad.