Bistro Du Vin @ Shaw Centre

Had lunch with danieru弁～～V(^o^)V at Bistro Du Vin on a weekday.



Bistro Du Vin was serving a special set lunch set at S$30++ on weekdays, and it consisted of an appetizer, main course and dessert. The bistro was not fully packed, unlike dinner time when it was difficult to find a set after 8pm.



Other than what they had on the menu, they also serve daily specials, which was written on the blackboard.



I had the Pumpkin Soup with New Zealand clams. Soup was not very rich, unlike normal pumpkin soups. The clams were sweet and I enjoyed the tiny bits of crunchy vegetables in my soup.



Pan roasted seabream with red wine sauce. After watching Julia & Julie, I was quite tempted to try pan fried fish done ala French style. Although Bistro Du Vin didn't had the butter pan fried fish, but the red wine sauce version is good too. Seabream is moist and fresh. But I didn't like the beans as I though it had a strange "raw" taste to it. Potatoes were good though.



Battered banana with homemade vanilla ice-cream. It's essentially goreng pisang. The batter taste exactly like a good goreng pisang should be. Not too impressed with the dessert, and I wonder if the French really ate goreng pisang back in Paris. Homemade ice-cream was good.



Meanwhile, danieru弁～～V(^o^)V ordered dishes from the ala-carte menu. He started off with the French onion soup, which is a specialty in the restaurant. Do take note that the salt content is higher than your usual soup, but this is to bring out the sweetness of the onions. The cheese on top was quite sinful though.



Duck confit, another specialty of the restaurant. Those on diet should totally avoid this dish, as the duck leg is poached in its own fat till soft before being pan fried again to make the skin crispy. It's ultra sinful, but also ultra delicious. However, my all time favourite duck confit is still from Le Fig at Camden Medical Centre.



Profiteroles - Light choux buns with vanilla ice cream and warm chocolate sauce. Another ultra sinful dessert. But to me, it is absolutely worth the calories and fats!



Bistro Du Vin
1 Scotts Road,
Shaw Centre
Tel: 6733 7763

Watami @ ION Orchard

Once again, went to Watami to eat the Cold Seafood Ramen. Had it a few weeks ago, and still cannot forget the crunchy and fresh texture of the noodles and all the vegetables and ingredients added together with their special sesame sauce!



The prawns are very fresh. But what is good is the springy noodles with the special cold sesame sauce. It is both very appetizing especially in a tropical country like Singapore.



Also tried the Brownie with Vanilla Ice-Cream and fudge sauce. The fudge is of good quality chocolate, and the brownie is not too sweet. Would recommend this dessert to 1st time diners of Watami.


Watami
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-23 ION Orchard
http://www.watami.com.sg/

Oriole Cafe & Bar @ Somerset Road

I visited Oriole Cafe a few months ago, and am now back at this cute little cafe and bar in the heart of Orchard Road.



The place is quite dark at night, and it is difficult to access the cafe through Orchard Road. The best way is access through Pan Pacific Serviced Suites along Somerset Road. But once 313@Somerset opens in December this year, it can be easily accessed through the new shopping mall from Orchard Road.



Beetroot Salad - The beetroot slices are slightly warmed, therefore making it softer and sweeter. I like the bits of nuts and goat cheese with the salad.



My all time favourite Philly cheese and steak sandwich. The beef is wonderfully tender, and I like the shreds of panfried bell peppers. But the grilled onions is too sweet for my linking. Kuods to Oriole for adding chips and salad to the sandwich. Definitely one of the best steak sandwich in Singapore.



Risotto with Salmon. I am not a big fan of risotto, so I can't really comment on whether this dish taste good or not. But my fellow diner who had it enjoyed this dish.



Bread and butter pudding - The pudding was a bit too thick for my liking, but I like the slightly less creamy sauce. Overall, it was a good attempt by Oriole.


Oriole Cafe & Bar
96 Somerset Road
#01-01
Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

Fou de Fafa @ Capital Tower

In French, Fou de Fafa literally means "crazy". Opened by the former shareholder of Oomphatico’s at Tanglin Mall, this small bakery and cafe is located right below Capital Tower facing the CPF building.



Had lunch there once before and ordered the bacon eggs and ham sandwich which was good. One of the best sandwich I ever had. So during my 2nd visit, ordered the Spicy Chicken Wrap (Thai), which was recommended on an internet website.



Ineed, the chicken wrap was bursting full of flavours. The moist and juicy chicken was marinated in Thai chilli sauce. The fresh vegetables and warm toasted wraps went well with the juicy chicken. Very appetizing.

There are lot's of quirky food on the menu. I think it is a great place to relax and enjoy our limited 1 hour lunch in the busy CBD district.


Fou de Fafa
#01-05 Capital Tower
168 Robinson Road

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen @ ION Orchard

Aoba Hokkaido Ramen has been in Japan for many years, since 1947 to be exact.



The menu offers a wide range of Hokkaido style ramen, as what Aoba is famous for. Many people would not have guessed that Ajisen Ramen actually bought over the rights for Singapore franchise for Aoba.



The interior looks quite "Japanese", but I find the table quite cramp and little privacy between tables.



Recently, I am in a salad mood, and decided to get this Soft-Shell crab salad. The salad was quite small portion actually, but the crispy soft shell crab was good.



Shio Scallop Ramen (S$12.80) - A trademark of the Ramen here is that the soup is salty. So some may not like the saltiness.



Shoyu Cha Shu Ramen (S$12.80) - My Shoyu was less salty, but still more salty than the usual ramen (especially when compared to Tampopo). The Cha Shu was acceptable. The noodles was ok too.

Comparing Tampopo with Aoba, I would prefer the former due to the soup and noodles. But as taste is subjective, I think the best way is to try both and decide for yourself.


Aoba Hokkaido Ramen
2 Orchard Turn
#B3-25 ION Orchard

ION Food Hall @ ION Orchard

Besides the very yummy Takoyaki at ION Food Hall, we also tried some other Japanese food stalls within the food hall.



Had this pancake with Japanese read bean. The stall was generous with the red beans, but the pancake is not crispy enough. I prefer my pancake to be crispier.



Next was Japanese cake roll shop Arinco King. As the Salt Caramel Roll was too big, we opted for the Caramel Sands (like a sandwich). The girl was quite good at slowly digging fresh cream and putting it on an open face swiss roll cake



The cream was very good. Fresh and light. But the caramel was so-so only. Don't know what all the fuss is about their swiss roll. Maybe I should try the Salt Caramel Roll next time.



Took a photo of the Peking Duck stall before leaving. Didn't try this, but the ducks were very beautiful.


ION Food Hall
2 Orchard Turn
Basement 4
ION Orchard

Tsukiki Gindaco @ ION Orchard

The Takoyaki craze has not died down after 3 months, and long queues still form around the Gindaco stall at B4 of ION Orchard on a Sunday afternoon.



The whole place works like a factory, with each person concentrating on their stacks of takoyaki balls. 3 locals, who have been trained under Japanese chefs for 2 months are trained to cook the takoyaki just like how they did in Japan. And I am happy to report that their skills match the Japanese chefs who were here earlier on in July, Aug and September.



First, a flour mixture is poured into the hot mould. Ingredients such as spring onions, red preserved ginger and huge chunks of sotong meat are added into each mould. They are not stingy with the ingredients.



More flour mixture is poured and when the mixture is semi-cooked, the chef used 2 metal iron rods to slowly mould the takoyaki into circular spheres.



After they are moulded into balls, the chef adds a generous splash of oil on top to make the takoyaki crispy and crunchy on the outside.



The end product, with a serving of matcha + soft serve vanilla ice cream. The takoyaki is served in a special leaf which helps to absorb oil and keeps the takoyaki crispy. Generous amount of Bonito flakes are added to the Takoyaki.



This is my 2nd visit, and I will definitely be back for my 3rd, 4th, 5th .... visits!


Tsukiji Gindaco
2 Orchard Turn
#B4-64
ION Orchard

Tampopo @ Takashimaya Shopping Centre

With the opening of ION Orchard and other new shopping malls along Orchard Road, the older malls along the stretch are frantically trying to revamp their malls to retain their shoppers.

Ngee Ann City has recently introduced some brand new food outlets and shopping brands in their mall, and Tampopo set up a new branch at Basement 2 of Ngee Ann City (next to MOS burger).



Had an order of the very popular Hokkaido Ramen. It comes with a slab of butter, char siew, sweet corn, fresh seaweed and a soft boiled egg. The noodles is springy, soup base is nice and the char siew is tender too. Fortunately, the soup was not too salty as other ramen shops. So finished every single drop of the soup. I am not sure why they added butter, perhaps to make the soup more creamy?


Tampopo
391 Orchard Road #B2-33
Takashimaya Shopping Centre

Prego @ Fairmont Singapore

Prego has been serving Italian food in Singapore for years. It has been operating out of Raffles City and it's especially popular with cardowners of the Feed At Raffles card, as 2 diners get to enjoy 50% off their meals.



What struck me when I entered was the circular wine shelf. You get a great view of the Esplanade and the Marina Bay Sands from the restaurant.



Prego serves pizza, pasta, and other Italian desserts, soups and side dishes. Most of its diners are locals, but there are also some Italians and Japanese having Italian food there.



I like their bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. It's a 2 in 1 bottle. Very unique.



This is the olives + anchovies pasta with tomata paste. Those who like the taste of anchovies would enjoy this dish. The taste of olives is a bit too over whelming for the local taste buds. But still, this pasta dish is acceptable.



I like my Bosco in Bianco pizza. The freshly baked pizza has toppings of Porcini mushrooms, bacon, Scamorza cheese and truffle oil. Frankly speaking, I couldn't taste much of the truffle oil. But I did taste the bacon and the fatty bits of the bacon went well with the pizza. It's a refreshing change from the usual tomato based pizza.


Prego
80 Bras Basah Road
1F Fairmont Singapore

Capital Restaurant @ New Bridge Road

Every year after Mid-Autumn Festival, it will herald the start of the Hairy-Crab season around the world. As China gets more affluent, more and more people are now rich enough to enjoy Hairy Crab where the best comes from "Yang-Chen" Lake in China. There are now so much counterfeit "Yang Chen" Lake hairy crabs that the Chinese Government has ordered all hairy crabs from that lake to have a special ID tag.



In Singapore, the best place to enjoy good quality Hairy Crabs at a good price is none other than Capital Restaurant. The older generation of Singaporeans would remember one particular terrible incident at the old Capital Restaurant back then when it was still located around Everton Park area.



After moving its restaurant the 2nd time (previous location was at Bukit Pasoh), it is now situated under a shop house which is directly opposite of Pearl Centre (where Nam Ho travel agency is). It's quite small, but always full even on a Monday night at 8:30pm. And that is a reason why reservations is a MUST. If not, you can forget about walking in for dinner.



Appetizer of cold duck wings. Nothing too exciting here. But we were hungry and gobbled the entire plate.



The waitress recommended their roast chicken. It's actually old fried chicken. Through the windows, I saw the chef scalding the chicken with boiling hot oil. He must have lot's of experience doing it, as the end product is where the skin is very crispy, while the meat is still juicy. Great skills!



A vegetable dish of 3 eggs and veges. The 3 eggs are century egg, duck egg and normal chicken egg. Nothing too exciting, just that we need some healthy dish before the sinful hairy crab.



A must order at Capital Restaurant - their crab noodles. The thickened sauce is very very flavourful and the noodles is very springy, the same kind as Hong Kong wanton noodles. There are also chunks of crab meat in it. My personal way of eating this, is to add a generous tablespoon of the vinegar used to dip the hairy crab, into the noodles. One word can describe the taste of the noodles - SHIOK!



Here comes the Hairy crab. We ordered the bigger version which is S$25 per crab.



It's very easy to open the crab. Just pull open the top shell from the backside of the crab. After seperating the crab, take out the tiny white blob above the body (it's the heart) and the white gills of the crab.

The roe is creamy and very addictive. The crab meat is also sweet. My parents complained that they rather eat Sri Lanka crabs as they find there are too little crab meat, but I really like the creamy roe in the Hairy Crab.



As Hairy Crab is very "heaty". a cup of ginger tea is served to neutralize the "coldness". Make sure you finish this cup of spicy ginger tea.


Capital Restaurant
No 323 New Bridge Road
Tel: 6222 3938 (Reservations are highly recommended)

The Handburger @ Raffles City

I had a good experience with The Handburger last month, so did a re-visit this month to try out some of their other burgers.



I like the concept of the restaurant, clean and bright. Nothing too fanciful.



I believe The Handburger bakes their own bread, as I can see an oven and also a chef making fresh dough from their see-through kitchen. Freshly baked breads are lined across the shelves.



This is the Original Handburger. Comes with cheese, preserved onion sauce, a thick beef patty, vegetables, bacon and a bun. The preserved onion goes very well with the beef patty.



I had the Tandoori chicken burger. The chicken thigh meat was marinated in tandoori spices, and I thought they did a great job in capturing the complicated flavours of tandoori chicken. There was also a thin mint sauce being buttered on the bun. A commendable effort by The Soup Spoon group which developed this new restaurant.

On a side note, danieru弁～～V(^o^)V recently told me that he found the quality of the beef patty to have dropped. I am not sure as I didn't have the beef patty during my 2nd visit, but will try the beef patty again when I have the chance to eat here.


The Handburger
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-77/78
Raffles City Shopping Centre
http://www.thehandburger.com/