I'd heard a lot of things about the tofu cheesecake here, and how it's served in a little cage-like thing. Fascinating enough for me to want to try this restaurant out myself. But interestingly enough, I haven't yet ordered this famous tofu cheesecake yet.

Came upon this place with my bf while considering a Japanese restaurant at The Central where its star attractions were something other than ramen (it's not tt I don't like ramen, it's just tt I've had a bit of a ramen overdose with all these ramen restaurants springing up on the 3rd floor). There's both indoor and outdoor seating, but somehow we always come at a time where without reservations, we always end up outdoors. Because Singapore weather is very balmy, even at night, you will probably feel warmer and more uncomfortable than were you seated in air-conditioned comfort. But on the upside, at least the service here is very good. Waitress is really friendly and attentive, and serves our iced waters and food very promptly. You can actually feel the personal touch in the service here (at least, for the waitress tending to us), despite the crowd.

For starters, the bf ordered the assorted sashimi for $32. The sashimi here is really good. Very fresh, thickly-cut, and very delicious. And the presentation! Ooh, the presentation. I get this feeling tt a good third of the price we are paying is going towards the presentation. The sashimi is presented on a bed of crushed ice, nestled in this bucket-like thing. Almost too pretty to eat. In fact, we've come to realise tt most of the food here will usually look too pretty to eat. But eat we must. =P

For the main, I got the beef kamameshi for $14.90, while he ordered the beef sukiyaki. I can't comment on his beef sukiyaki because I didn't get to try it. As for my beef kamameshi... Well, let's say tt this marked the first time I ever ordered something like tt. Apparently, it's supposed to be a traditional Japanese rice dish cooked in an iron pot with marinated beef and a runny egg. It's presented covered with an hour glass on top. You only remove the lid when all the sand has been transfered from the top to the bottom of the hour glass. That's supposed to give the meat and egg a little time to cook just tt little bit, to tt right texture and consistency. Then, once you remove the lid, be prepared for a barrage of steam from the piping hot dish as you take the wooden spoon provided to mix all the ingredients - including the now-cooking egg - together. A very fascinating sight, and an interesting experience. Taste-wise, it's pretty delicious too! Beef is tasty, rice is tasty (because the beef marinate has been well-mixed into the rice)... I think both counts make this dish a must-try. At least once for the novelty effect.

For dessert, we got the matcha parfait ($8.80) and the 3 kinds of ice-cream ($6.80). Nope, no cheesecake. I swear it's the photos on the menu. Once you see how the matcha parfait and the ice-cream look like on the menu, somehow you just have to order them. Presentation really is the key here.

And for tt price, I think the matcha parfait is one of the more-value ones I tried so far, especially as compared to places like Ajitei or Azaru Sabo. For this price, you get a giant - and I mean giant - glass of green tea ice-cream topped with soft-serve vanilla ice-cream, red beans, lots of mochi balls, cornflakes on the bottom and a piece of wafer at the side. If you find your main a little too light for you, by the end of dessert you will definitely be stuffed.

But the 3 kinds of ice-cream is no slouch either. You've got 3 flavours - black sesame, green tea and red bean. In my personal opinion, the black sesame ice-cream is the best of the lot. It beats any other black sesame ice-cream tt I've eaten thus far hands down. The black sesame flavour is strong, it's creamy, and yet it isn't all too sweet. Really liked it. The green tea ice-cream is quite decent too; really not bad. The red bean unfortunately, proved to be the weak link in this dish. But still.

All in all, this restaurant warrants more than one visit. The food's really quite decent, and because of the emphasis on presentation, each visit can be quite an experience, especially when you order the more exotic dishes. The only thing to be mindful of is price - the money for the presentation has to come from somewhere, and in this case, it's your pocket.

After debating with a friend on where to have Japanese food, we decided we were just going to meet at the centre of The Central and then decide, since there were many Japanese eateries within the mall. However, on my way there, I walked past Sun with Moon and after seeing the decor I knew I wanted to have my dinner there - so that was where we settled for dinner.

I started with the California Roll ($11.80) and the version served here is lighter without much use of the avocado.

The Chirashi Don ($18.80) consisted of an assortment of sashimi consisting of sweet prawn (amaebi), tuna (maguro), salmon (sake), squid (ika), prawn roe (ebiko) and salmon roe (ikura). It looks small but it certainly did enough to fill me up.

For desserts I decided to go with a Hokkaido recommendation of the Haskap and Vanilla Mousse ($5.80). What a choice for a name but it basically was a light mousse with a raspberry tinge.

In summary, come here for a light meal. The ambience makes this place ideal for a romantic date.

Though I'm a fairly big fan of Sun Moon, but frankly speaking not all their dishes are that fantastic, you’ll get certain hits and misses along the way, but one particularly ultimately simply heavenly item called the Foie Gras Lettuce is a must-try whenever I visit the restaurant.

Beautifully displayed on a lettuce leaf and a small crunchy toast, this little piece of foie gras will truly let you experience what is meant by ‘melt in your mouth’. I can recall that when I tried this dish for the very first time, the foie gras started to melt the very moment I put it in my mouth. It caught me by surprise and my instant reaction was to hold my hand at the underside of my mouth, thinking that the foie gras is gonna drip out or something. Thankfully, such an embarrassing thing didn’t happen, but instead you can feel the foie gras melting all over the toast, and as you bite the crunchy toast into smaller bits, the foie gras will spread throughout your mouth and literally melt into nothing, what remains is only a rich aftertaste that leaves you craving for more.(Ahh~ makes me drool to just even think about it~~)

Sadly, I had a disappointing experience when Sun Moon Central was celebrating their 1 year anniversary and had a 30% discount promotion. They served me 3 pieces of unrecognizable foie gras that seems to have suffered from prolonged sun bathing. There's a photo comparison on my blog if you want to witness it for yourself.

Fortunately on this trip the foie gras was much better, and a short review on what we ordered:

- Foie Gras Lettuce (Melts in your mouth~)
- Avocado Soft Shell Crab Roll (Colorful dish but taste is norm)
- Hotate Spicy Cream with Mentaiko (Creamy, Cheesy and so rich~~)
- Pork Kamameshi (Nice if you want a kamameshi with lighter taste)
- Maguro Tataki (Rejected the 1st order because it was overdone, but the 2nd order was heavenly~)

The full review is really too long to be posted here, feel free to visit my blog for more pictures too!

I have a friend who once raved about Sun With Moon (Wheelock), and finally today, got a chance to try but at The Central outlet. Made reservations days earlier and arrived at 730pm. Quite quiet then, with few patrons.

Outside dining area seemed quite cosy. However, we chose indoors. We were seated at a corner (so that was quite a good space I think. Throughout our dinner, the table next to us remained empty so we had privacy). For dinner we ordered:

1. Nasu Foir Gras Dengaku (foie gras mixed with miso paste placed ontop of japanese mushroom and brinjal)

2. Sashimi Mori (salmon - 3, swordfish - 2, tuna - 2, scallop - 2, prawn - 1, yellow tail - 2).

3. Sukiyaki

4. Tofu Cheesecake

5. Goma ice


Sashimi Mori came first. One word. Pricey. Haha, but sashimi is something both my friend and I enjoy, so not bad la but nothing to shout about.

Next came the appetiser dish (which actually came after a very long waiting time... it came after we finished the sashimi.. and we ate very slowly!) Hmmmm... from the mis-spelt (foir gras) dish title, I should've expected it. I think next time I need to order foie gras that I can actually see. Anyway, the taste is quite interesting. Salty (paste), mushy(paste), chewy(mushroom), mushy (brinjal). But the aftertaste is smoky and sweet. However, I'd suggest you don't order the sukiyaki with this dish. Because both will end up cloying sweet together.

Sukiyaki. My friend didn't mind it. But its just not my kind of dish (I thought I'd like it but its really too sweet for me).

Dessert as usual, quite normal. Yes, tofu cheesecake was served inside a cage. But for what purpose leh, may I ask? Not much use. Unless the cage is made up of something that we can consume. Hmmm...

Had dinner here with a few friends, and we ordered a lot of stuff, so don't take our expenditure seriously!

Here are the highlights, or at least those that I sampled. The oysters with bacon are nice, even to a non-oyster lover such as one of us. The scallops in spicy cream and cod roe were delicious, and those in butter were even more sinful.

The pork cheek was tender and tasty with a slight char-grilled flavour. The chef's spaghetti I had came with mullet, mushrooms and pine nuts and I liked it, even though the mullet slices had a strong flavour.

The potato gratin had more cream than cheese but I eat too much of the latter anyway, and supertasters might want to note that it comes with broccoli. The only letdown was the tuna, which was cooked for too long and turned out leathery.

The sweet potato ice-cream is more starchy than creamy and thus it wasn't to my preferences. It wasn't too sweet, thankfully. The black sesame pudding is heavenly, however! It's very fragrant and smooth. One of our bunch said that it's the best black sesame dish she's ever had here.

Service was prompt when we needed it, and we have no complaints about that. We'll be back to use our vouchers, and the general quality of the food and cooking make it worth the prices. And the twists on the dishes make you want to try everything!