FAIL Eats - Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar

Sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve had several good eats in the past weeks, will tell you more about them later. But first! I must warn you about this horrible meal I had last week!! See Mr. NoTasteMemory decided he wanted ramen or something soupy so we were going to meet at City Hall and walk over to Liang Court to have some good Tampopo ramen (remind me to post about our Tam Po Po fiasco as well later). Only it was pouring at city hall and while I had an umbrella, we decided it was not worth trying to walk over there in the dreadful rain. This was mistake number 1.

Then since he was craving ramen, I was like, let’s go try out that new Japanese version of Marche, Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar. Similar to Marche, diners take a card at the entrance and go to the various stalls within the restaurant area to order their food, get the card scanned and pay at the cashier later. This was mistake number 2. The queue at this place on a weekday was insane! There were at least 3 big groups of [unfashionably dressed] people ahead of us at 7ish pm and the place already looked fully booked. When dining out, I usually plan ahead and make reservations to avoid the queue. This is because I refuse to wait more than 10 minutes to get into an eatery when hungry. Even when I’m not hungry, unless I can go somewhere else and have them call me, I’ll usually go somewhere else to eat. I won’t die if I don’t eat there today.

Sigh, the bunch of weirdly dressed people outside the restaurant should have clued me in to the quality of food to be expected here, but I guess I was too blinded by their clothes to make the connection. They were dressed in a typical ugly fashion, and the typical ugly fashioned Singaporean usually has bad taste buds. GAH. This was mistake number 3

Thankfully, the host noticed that behind the 3 groups of [unfashionably dressed] people, there was this normal looking couple and got us some seats within 7 minutes of us joining the queue. Yes, I timed.

So, off Mr. NoTasteMemory went to feed his ramen craving, only after he took his first sip of the soup, he made a face. That’s when I knew we had made the biggest mistake.

That was when I knew it was very bad ramen. See, he doesn’t have a golden mouth like me, and can usually accept lower standards of cooking so when he says it’s bad. It is really really bad. As it is, I am trying to block the memory of that foul tasting soup from my mind. It had no flavour, no smell and could have possibly been taken from a ditch or drain. IT WAS THAT BAD. Unfortunately, we had already ordered some tempura and some seasoned jelly fish which was alright. Their tempura was also quite expensive, slightly over $10 for 2 prawns, 3 veg and 1 fish combi. And instead of a light, white fluffy texture from the batter, it was yellow and hard. Jelly fish was normal. The ramen was slightly under $10, but it could have been free and it still wouldn’t have been worth putting in anybody’s mouth.

Unsatisfied from that god awful meal (I didn’t even bother getting a main, I just forced myself to finish some of his ramen and called it a day), Mr NoTasteMemory decided he wanted waffles, but I convinced him to try the crepe with banana and chocolate and that turned out quite alright. That was initially $4.80 but he added a scoop of ice cream (white sesame, which was alright) and that made it $7.80. Yes, they charge $3 for ONE scoop of ice cream.

Total damage for two pax was $35ish with taxes. NEVER AGAIN.  YUCK. 

Shokudo Japanese Food Bazaar
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-44E Singapore 179103
(65) 6837 3793

what the wafu is wafu

So, about 2 weeks ago, Ms P was craving for pasta after dance class (yes, yet again! we pig out after our attempt to exercise) and so we headed to Pasta de Waraku today.  I must admit, I really had reservations about going there.  I really don't like fusion food, or rather, so far the dishes placed in front of me claiming to be fusion have been utter disaters.  I mean come on, green tea pasta done char kway teow style?  Massive FAIL.  So yes, despite reassurance from P that it was a good restaurant, I was like, ORLY?

I ordered the sukiyaki pasta, partly cause I really really like sukiyaki, and also because I figured I might as well go all the way and really try this Japanese pasta than order something safer like carbonara.  Ms P, despite craving pasta, ordered the hamburg steak set [rolls eyes].  I was actually afraid that the sauce would be too salty and thick for pasta. I mean it's one thing to have a cream based pasta, but a sukiyaki sauce on pasta sounds like LOR MEE gone wrong. Thankfully, the sauce was a lighter version of the usual sukiyaki broth, more diluted than the actual thing but perfect with the pasta.

At first glance, the dish looks like fried prawn noodles, with bits of beef instead of prawns. Then you notice the tofu cubes and golden mushrooms hiding in the pasta. The beef was tender with slithers of fat here and there, to give it that slightly meaty and oily texture. The broth was sweet but not overpowering, and because it is more watery then the regular sukiyaki sauce, it gently coated the pasta noodles without the starchy, viscous goo you get when you pick up Lor Mee. Because the taste of the sauce was very light, you can actually finish the entire dish without getting tired of it.

I must say the serving size is definitely on the small side, I wasn't particularly hungry but I finished this plate with ease. I also think they could have added more golden mushrooms into this dish, I swear they only gave me 10 strands of mushroom. The mushroom provide that crunchy texture in a dish that is relatively mushy (tofu, pasta noodle) and chewy (beef). And because they were camouflaging themselves between the noodles, they kinda surprise you with that popping thing that happens when you chew golden mushroom (I really don't know how to describe it in any other way than popping okay?!)

P's steak set with tomato sauce as also good, and we now have a clearer idea of what they mean by Jap burgers. See we tried cooking something similar some time back, only we fried the burgers instead of sautéing them, so they ended up hard and oily. This one was soft and had a almost melt in our mouth texture. The sauce was very tomatoey and a hint of sourness but again not overpowering.

Overall, this place was alright but a bit overpriced considering the small portions (the pasta was about $14 - $18). I could easily go have regular pasta or regular jap food at more affordable prices. Or at least with bigger portions for the amount I pay. The fact that it took me more than 2 weeks to write this review also shows how unimpressed I am by this restaurant.

Edited to Add
A weird thing they had on their menu was this thing called Wafu sauce. According to the waitress, I think she said it was a "japanese sauce" or "japanese styled sauce" which left us with larger question marks over our head. Anyway, after surfing the web, it turns out that it really means japanese style, but at the same time could be any japanese style. So what the wafu is wafu?

Pasta De Waraku has several outlets island wide. I went to
6 Raffles Boulevard
#03-257 Marina Square
Singapore 039594
Tel: 6333-3433


Opened Daily
11:30am - 11pm (Last order 10:30pm) - Good for late night dinners..

Akashabu shabu

So, this new outlet called Akashabu just opened at Kallang Leisure Park and it's a shabu shabu place opened by the same people that brought you Akashi.  A friend of mine who is also a big Akashi fan was meeting me for lunch the other day and we decided to give it a go.  The thing with my friend (despite being Cantonese and all) doesn't like soup (I can hear at least one person in Tampines who is weeping over this non-soup loving Cantonese); and I have never had shabu shabu seeing as I don't like steamboat.  Eek.  So, this was a fairly interesting experience for both of us anyway.  My only regret is that I did not read up on how to go about enjoying shabu shabu which I think would have added to the experience.  

I must also explain that this friend of mine apparently dines often enough at the various Akashi outlets that the waitress knew him on a first name basis.  Anyway, since we weren't that familiar with how to order (okay I was not, and I suspect my friend was just being lazy about it), we got the waitress to suggest what to order and serving size.  So all I can tell you is that we had two type of mushrooms, Enoki (golden) and Bunashimeji (I think), pork and beef strips.  We also had the three types of sashimi they had (yes they only had 3, salmon, some clam thing and I can't remember the last).  And we began cooking the meat and the mushrooms.  

What surprised me was that they used plain water for the shabu shabu.  This is where I really regret not reading up, apparently shabu shabu means cooking in plain water.  So I was like.. hmm, wouldn't the soup just taste of meat and mushrooms?  And it did.  Yes, after cooking half the meal, we tried the soup and were not very impressed with it.  I was like, HUH? so what's so great about this shabu shabu thing that have people going all crazy about.  What I liked about this meal was the sesame dipping sauce that accompanied the meal.  It was really flavourful and had a nutty taste to it.  We thought it was a soya bean/miso paste sauce.  It really added the that oomph factor to the meat (seeing as it was cooked in plain water and really just tasted of meat).  It's also great with just rice.  The ingredients were fresh, the meat came thinly sliced with a slither of fat on the edge.  My friend, being the  health freak started to remove the bits, and me, feeling guilty, followed suit.  

The limited sashimi variety lived up to the Akashi standard of being extremely fresh too.   What surprised me was that this outlet did not serve green tea.  Can someone tell me if this is also part of the shabu shabu experience?

The soup at the end tasted better, and I only found out that that's how it's consumed.  After the meal. Total damage was about $50 for 2 paxor $25 each.  I think it's okay. But it's really not something I'll try again. Give me my regular Akashi outlet any day.


Akashabu
5 Stadium Walk
#01-12 Kallang Leisure Park
Tel: 6346 3868

Opening hours
Lunch: 12noon - 3pm
Dinner: 6pm - 10pm

Akashi Japanese Restaurant

So a friend felt like treating me to dinner last fri, seeing as he just received his bonus and since we were at vivocity, we decided to go down to Akashi Jap Restaurant. At 8.30pm, the restaurant was still relatively crowded, but thankfully, there was no queue (the parking was quite a nightmare already). The menus seemed rather normal and a bit on the overpriced side ($20 for one type of sashimi!) however, we ordered anyway since we had already sat down. He ordered some beef thing (looked like steak with rice) and I ordered the tonkatsu set (both sets were $18 during dinner). We also asked for a mixed platter of sashimi consisting of maguro (tuna), tako (octopus) and kajiki (swordfish).

Because the place was so crowded, we expected them to take a while to serve us our food, what we did not expect was our hot food reaching us before the sashimi. In fact, the sashimi actually came after my friend was done with his meal and I was also nearly done (and I am a very slow eater). The sashimi was really good though, just a bit odd to eat it at the end of the meal that's all.

When it came to the time to pay up, we had to ask for the bill 3 times and still no one came to give us the bill! There were some people who were heading there to pay, now I'm not sure if its the norm here or they were equally frustrated and did not want to wait anymore. If its the norm, you'd think the waitresses could have told us instead of yelling on 3 separate occasions for the cashier to pass us the bill. We eventually decided to go to the counter to pay up instead of kicking up a fuss as we wanted to go shopping but seriously, you'd think that they didnt want us to pay or something!

The bill came up to about $90 after taxes. The sashimi is a bit pricey, 4 slices of each type (12 slices in total) for $40, though there is no doubting the quality. Overall, I think it's a slightly above average restaurant, not spectacular or a place that I would immediately think about going but not a place I'd shun either.

Ichiban!

Recently brought the mom to Ichiban boshi for dinner at jurong point and was pleasantly surprised the the quality of the food and price range.  An average meal there is about $17 - $25 per pax, quite value for money considering the number of dishes we had.  I ordered the unagi set which was about $25 and it came with a generous helping of unagi, 3 bite size portions of chicken teriyaki, salmon sashimi, mixed veg and prawn tempura, rice, soup and fruits.  Mom ordered the salmon set with chawanmushi and that was about $17 I think.  When you compare it to other similar style places like sakae sushi (yuck!) or suki sushi (bigger yuck!) which may be slightly cheaper, but for the amount of crap you get there, you’re better off skipping the meal anyway.  I’m still horrified that I used to eat at sakae sushi on a regular basis.  Ah, we were all young and stupid and lacking tastebuds once.

The conveyor belt sushi is also quite good.  A friend brought me to the esplanade outlet for lunch that day and I’m not sure if it’s this particular location, but the sashimi was pretty good.  It wasn’t the “taste of the ocean” fresh, but fresh enough. For most of the sashimi anyway.

We also ordered some tuna belly maki, but it was too cold for me to taste anything.  This is even after letting it sit there for a while.  I just could not taste any of the usual oily meaty taste you get from tuna belly, instead, the image of raw mince meat kept coming to my mind as I tried to down the last maki.  My friend had asked me to finish it and I did not want to seem impolite, but really, it was quite a feat getting the ice cold maki down.  I think for higher grade stuff like tuna belly, you still have to go to a sushi place which has more frequent orders.  Not sushi chains like this, however, the overall experience was still okay.  Just avoid things like that and you’ll be okay.