Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya
Labels:
japanese,
media event,
orchard,
orchard central,
restaurants,
sommerset
·
Media Invite
Located at the pinnacle of Orchard Central, the newly opened Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya is a rambunctious casual dining joint that scores high points for its decor (a graduation from 1950s roadside setup to 1960s Orchard Yokocho and finally to the 70s -80s Dining Izakaya) and merry making ambience. With roof access and a lovely sunset view to boot, there's more reason for food and booze enthusiasts to nestle themselves in the enclaves of Sumiya. Note that Asahi Draft Beer are priced at $4.90++ per mug as per the ongoing promotion which is proclaimed to be the lowest price in town, now that's worth a try!
On our gastronomic journey through the premises, we were brought to the outdoor terrace, where the kindest looking Japanese gentleman greeted us. Here, patrons can have a go at the Do-It-Yourself Garden BBQ. Some of the offerings include Angus Beef, beef tongue, wagyu beef, marinated chicken and assorted vegetables. Start your weekend night of partying with an invigorating pint of beer and cheerful company over the BBQ, that pretty much sounds ideal to me.
As we were lead back into the smokey depths of the restaurant, I came to realise how the laid back atmosphere sprawled across the huge decks sophisticated diner and outdoor terrace was conducive to the endless chatter amongst its delighted guests. Expect the standard fare at Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya, boosted only by a sprinkling of marketing magic (adore the $6/grab Moshio Edamame btw). We started with the Prawn Tempura Roll Sushi, simple and unassuming. Then moved on to the Potato Salad with Mentai Mayonnaise and Sweet Pumpkin Salad , both of which were seasoned beautifully and its creamy luscious texture added a bit of full bodied lavishness to the spread that night. The Salmon Sashimi tempted me into submission with its gorgeous rubied tones of the sliced salmon, the fresh hamachi beckoning with its evident suppleness.
Fancy something a little off the beaten track. Try out the Do-It-Yourself Table Sumiyaki of Assorted Dried Fish, consisting of a platter of conger eel, soft smoked squid, dried baby squid, semi-dried hage fish ready to be placed on the mini barbecue pits at our tables. Curling in silent resistance to the heat emitted,their protests lead to a loud spates of natural flavors of the seas to be enjoyed. I was fond particularly of the dried baby squid that was excellent partner to a stiff glass of sake from the old fashioned tubs placed so conveniently in front of us.
Let's not forget the promotion for the $6/grab Moshio Edamame, a real good bargain for those with seriously BIG hands. The duo, one carrying a towering basket of willowy gently salted beans at hand, and the other, toting percussion drums sure created a stir in the dining room.
The Char-grilled Wagyu Beef Skewer and Bacon wrapped Eringi Mushroom Skewer is a delight, an example of a classic main done right. Since Sumiya specialises in the art of charcoal grill, I expected nothing less. The former served with leeks on a stick, helped to enhance the tenderness and fragrance of the beef slices.
Last but not least, we dug into the Deep-fried Squid with Chilli Sauce, a showcase of the deep fried items included on the menu. This dish, with a sweet and savoury mix, did not pay off for me, the freshness of the squid squandered away in a chaotic mish-mash of thick red sauce.
Sumiya pleases most with its attention to detail; memorabilia collected lining the counter tops, old school Japanese decor, completed with prompt and attentive service. Throw in the killer view and boisterous cries from the ever-so-happy staff, there's no lack of reason for more visits to Sumiya Charcoal Grill Izakaya, especially with your best mates in tow.
Thanks once again to Rachel from The Asia Media for the gracious invite!
#12-02, Orchard Central,
181 Orchard Road
Website: http://www.sumiya.com.sg/
Phone: 65099618
Wordless Wednesdays: Porn's
Labels:
bukit panjang,
food,
junction 10,
overrated,
restaurants,
thai food,
wordless wednesdays
·
Pad Thai
sadly pedestrian (sorry for breaking the code of silence)
Porn's Thai Restaurant
#01-32, Junction 10,
1 Woodlands Road
Opening Hours: Mon - Sun 11:00 - 22:00
Jewel Cafe + Bar: OMG
Labels:
burgers,
cafe,
coffee,
farrer park,
food,
hidden finds,
pasta,
restaurants
·
I loved that you were late because that just gave me more time to squeeze some more shots of the place.
My dining accomplice arrived a tad late. Held back by the nasty traffic that curse the Jalan Besar area daily, just slightly before the mad peak hour rush. No complaints of course. I happily settled down at the table with a cappuccino and a magazine which I hastily picked out from the vast spread made available and pondered life's choices. All was peaceful then.
Jewel Cafe + Bar is a second outlet, with Jewel Cafe at Shenton Way shedding the light on to this new establishment. Having had huge success taking the coffee route with the working class in the heart of town, Jewel Cafe ventures out to the more "indie" zone of Singapore to dabble its luck. What is remarkable about the place is firstly, the location - where else do you turn out the black-soaked, Tamil-reigned area, walk a couple of steps and find yourself in a "hole in the wall" styled cafe and bar complete with tinkering warmth and strange modern light panelling overhead? Then there is the food served. At this cafe+bar concept, a full fledged menu of hot meals harbouring around the safe origins of comfort foods is provided. Some not so safe... but with major emphasis on freshness and down-to-earth flavors made right from scratch.
The dish of Umami Prawn Cappellini ($22) arrived at the table a 'hot mess', the bonito flakes atop the pasta revelling in the heat. Grilled prawns, crustacean oil, bonito flakes, Tobiko (flying fish roe), and Umami 'magic dust' made up make up this dish. Sadly it wasn't mine.
Worth the wait, my OMG! Burger ($20) quickly stole the attention of my accomplice and with cruel intentions, I allowed him to bathe in the green luminance of jealousy for awhile before painstakingly slicing him a portion to taste. He swooned and pouted, my heart sang a little more at my triumphant choice. Fully loaded with crispy bacon, luncheon meat, lettuce, USDA beef patty, caramelised onions and cheese between two deliciously buttered brioche buns, it was indeed a deadly mix. let's not forget the perfectly fried sunny-side egg, the crowning glory of the dish, one that sent an intoxicating meander of yolk, streaming down the sinful tower of glorious ingredients. This dish definitely stole my heart for the night and is one of the top contenders on my ever-growing list of burgers conquered.
One more look at the heart-attack on a plate
For all your coffee snobs out there, do not leave Jewel Cafe without a cup of artisan coffee. With beans roasted in-house and espresso-based coffee specialities extracted using the Italian state-of-the-art La Marzocco Strada machine, you will surely be in for a treat.
I'm so checking out the uber chic loft level the next time round!
129 Rangoon Road, Singapore
Tel: 6298 9216
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JewelCafeAndBar
Chili's Central @ Clarke Quay:
Labels:
clarke quay,
comfortfoods,
food tasting,
foodpanda,
media event,
mexican,
restaurants,
the central
·
Food Panda and Singapore Dine have partnered up to provide Singapore with the largest delivery service on local shores. To mark this momentous announcement of the collaboration, a launch event was held at Chili's Central @ Clarke Quay and yours truly received an invite!
Frankly, mingling isn't my strong suit so I chose to settle down along the padded booth seats with a San Miguel in tow. Soon after, I was introduced to two other food bloggers from Piece of Cake and Dairy and Cream whom I got acquainted with swiftly. Thank goodness for that. Surrounded by a special blend of politisse with a soupcon of obsequous grovelling all around, I was grateful for the company of my new found friends who like me, zoomed in like eagles over the food.
We were treated to a starter dish of warm and crispy tostada chips with flavourful house-made salsa on the side. Perfect dish for the peckish. The freshly fried chips, light and extremely thin yet resilient enough to scoop up the tangy salsa. I appreciated that these chips did not reek of old re-used oil.
Then next up came Big Mouth Bites, mini renditions of beef burgers with ground steak beef patty, apple smoked bacon, cheese and ranch dressing. As much they looked good on the platter as the server made his rounds, ringing the crowds and prancing through the human obstacles like a ballerina; this dish was less than stellar. The patty was dry and clumsily seasoned, overworking the meat resulting in a texture similar to a Macdonald's sausage patty.
If there was one comment about the food that was clearly palpable throughout the line-up of dishes that night. They were all overzealously salted. Perfect if you're downing a couple of beers along with your meal.
The Boneless buffalo wings, essentially golden nuggets of chicken breast battered and deep fried and served with a cool blue cheese dip fell prey again to the spells of the salt over dosage. On a hindsight, these were exceptionally moist and succulent despite it's breast meat beginnings.
Moving on to the better dishes of the night, we were presented with the lovely Club Quesadillas, a melted orgy of chicken with applewood smoked bacon, fire-grilled corn guacamole, grilled onions and peppers. Eaten alone, this was a gorgeous exercise of purity in flavors. But eaten with a shy smothering of jack cheese and ancho-chile ranch dressing, this humble looking Mexican fiesta attained a whole new level of piggish indulgence. I wanted to hog this dish so badly.
Equally tantalizing, the Southwestern Eggrolls looked spectacular with its colourful medley of smoked chicken, black beans, corn, jalepeno jack cheese, red capsicum and spinach all within a crispy flour tortilla. Scoring in terms of presentation, I fell in love with the eggrolls, the little spoonful of avocado ranch sauce over the top resulting in a riotous mouthful of crispy, soft, crunchy and savoury goodness all at once.
Chili's Central @ Clarke Quay is a good place for hearty American food, some Tex Mex style and others of more traditional origins. A good place for a chill-out night with close friends over simple food and couple of margaritas to match.
Thank you once again to Antoniya and the team of Food Panda for the generous invite. (You can read about my experiences with Food Panda here)
(The Central)
#01-18, The Central,
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
Website: http://www.chilis.sg/
Purple Mustard: It's got heart
It was just one innocent glance. Then, envy struck me down with the weight of Thor's hammer. And yes, I’ll admit, I am jealous. I am jealous of the boy from Oh Nom Nom Nom who sank his teeth into picturesque dogs from Purple Mustard. And as a result, I had to get in on the action.
All in time for International Hot Dog Day too on the 4th July. I swore it was absolutely unintentional.
Purple Mustard is a no frills joint located at Icon Village @ Tanjong Pagar. With minimal seating and no elaborate decor so to speak of, the store steals the hearts of many wandering souls with it's gutsy sauces and innovative pairings, all dealt with the humble hot dog.
I opted for the signature Barnyard Dog ($9)which comes with a beef and Guinness sausage, caramelized onions, purple mustard and sriracha remoulade. I raped the poor beast of a dawg with my eyes first, my breathe stolen by its vibrant nature, the striking shade of purple caused by mixing Dijon mustard with whiskey soaked blueberries. The blueberries imparting a slight fruity perfume to the overall makeup of the sauce. This complimented the robustness of the firm savoury sausage sandwiched between the pillowy soft buns. And which each bite, I let out a painful moan of pleasure, as quietly as possible, to avoid my companion over hearing my exquisite love-making session with the unassuming fella. His combinations, power-packed and alarmingly alluring given it's humble beginnings from just a sausage and a bun (that I supposed was factory produced)
I added another $1 for the house drink of Lemongrass tea, a two way servant as a palate cleanser and a breathe freshener after the flavoursome ordeal.
Note: My friend's order of Beanless Chili Meat ($3.00)was excellent too so I suppose the Coney Dog would be a good option for the future. It's all out on the table now. Definitely worth a second, third and fourth visit! Check out their menu here!
Icon Village
12 Gopeng Street,
#01-31/32 ICON Village (near Tanjong Pagar MRT)
Tel: +65 6221 8498
Opening Hours: Mon–Fri: 11am – 9pm;
Sat: 12pm – 9pm (Closed on Sun)
SPR.MKRT: Supermarket sans the vowels
Labels:
Bread and Butter Pudding,
cafe,
chiffoncake,
desserts,
hidden finds,
pumpkin,
soup,
tanjong pagar
·
This cafe-cum-retail space boasts an atmosphere of conviviality, and I was hoping that its food doesn't fall short behind this spirit. Named SPR.MKRT, I was first befuddled by it until I realised it was nothing more than the word "supermarket" with the vowels extracted out; undeniably, it is a rather cool monogram for an up-and-coming establishment in this well-trodden zone.
After reading numerous reviews, I was expecting a crowd no less on a Wednesday night, strangely, what I encountered was only a thin whisper of guests that passed through the kitchens that night, most of them settling in the calm private interiors of the cafe with work in tow and a cup of joe. Perhaps the cafe sees the most traffic come lunch time and during it's more popular weekend brunch periods... , I took this opportunity to go trigger crazy.
Visiting the cafe with Li Tian of Dairy and Cream (whom I got to know from a recent Food Panda media invite session over at Chili's), we seamlessly devised a plan to attack the desserts for dinner. Pity there were only two to choose from that night, hence our choice to do both complete with a soup to share.
The Azuki Vanilla Chiffon was a bit of a let down, at first, when we were presented with a dried piece of cake that we suspected was portioned out much earlier in the day and left to sit out on a plate prior to being served to us. After a subtle prompting, we were then offered another fresh piece, sliced and portioned from the centre of the chiffon cake. This in all honesty, fared a little better, it's large aerated pores holding in a little more moisture than the former. Taste wise, we enjoyed the thin wall of azuki cream enveloping the sponge and yearned for a higher ratio of cream:sponge; that aside, the dessert was rather forgettable.
Available that night was the Curried Pumpkin Soup ($9); the result of this combination leading to a confusing blend of flavors on the palate. Mostly, our sense were assaulted by the strong powers of the pepper added, and strangely, not the curry. The sweetness of the pumpkin that my taste buds strained to attain a familiar grip on was washed out completely by the overwhelming use of vegetable stock and the jarring layer of oil floating on the top. It was a frustrating attempt at making a pumpkin soup that failed to deliver in terms of texture and flavor.
Saving grace of the meal had to be the Bread and Butter Pudding ($6.00) which came with a minuscule pitcher full of damm good vanilla sauce on the side. The pudding, a blend of varying textures throughout, crisp, nicely browned edges near the top and a moist, chocolate chip studded centre. Comfort food at it's best.
That being said, I probably wouldn't be planning a revisit very soon. My advice to the rest of you who are, check out their website for daily specials should you want to check out a specific menu item.
2 Mccallum Street
Singapore 069043
Hours: 8am-9pm (Mon-Fri), 9am-4pm (Sat)
Tel: 6221 2105
Website:http://www.sprmrkt.com.sg/
Jin Shan Lou: Walk the talk please.
Labels:
chinese,
chinese food,
food tasting,
HGW,
marina bay sands,
porridge,
restaurants
·
Jin Shan Lou located at the lobby of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel has an imposing opulence to it, perhaps it's just me, but dining within it's regal aesthetic surroundings made for a somewhat uncomfortable experience. Thank goodness for the velvety arm chairs that made the long dinner a little more tolerable.
The dinner was spotted by tiny glimmers of hope; take for example the Jin Shan Special Combination that warmed us off. The platter consisting of roast duck, roast pork and cold chicken; vanished quickly before our eyes as the lazy susan took two spins on the dance floor. My favourite was the roast duck with its beautifully crisped skin and succulent flesh. The chicken paled in comparison with a somewhat dry interior.
Our next course was a Seafood Soup served in mini Pumpkin, another excellent dish that was well thought and executed. Presentation was spot on with the mini pumpkin steamed to perfection, ready for the diners to scrape away at it's tender sweet flesh whilst slurping down the sweet seafood broth studded with generous bits of prawns and dried scallops.
Pass up on the Golden Sands Fresh Prawn with Salted Egg, the batter on the prawns lack the tight crispness and the salted egg yolks sauce was grainy and strangely spicy at some points with the unsuspecting bits of chili padi conjuring up coughing fits amongst some of the diners.
Instead, turn your attention to the Steamed Cod Fillet with Chinese Wine and Egg White , this dish, similar to the version I had at Crystal Jade presented itself with a replacement of more luxe ingredients. The Cod Fish sat like a dainty beauty atop a bed of fluffy egg whites steeped in chinese wine and a myriad of sauces, making for an explosion of umami with every mouthful. Definitely my favourite dish of the night.
Cartilage Soup? My eyes trailed across the tasting menu, summoning a bit of doubt in me. Frankly, the Poached "Xian Cai" Served in Cartilage Soup turned out to be another winner, the cartilage adding a wee bit of milky silkiness to the broth. The balance of flavors and the soft greens making for a delightful experience.
The Mandatory carb dish at the end of our Chinese dinner was a Fujian Wheat Vermicelli with Shredded Meat. This dish despite it's simplicity, came with an extremely well balanced ratio of noodles to ingredients. The prawns, fried eggs and silvers of beansprouts adding a much needed contrast to the well seasoned noodles. Pity I didn't get to eat much of it warm...
Dessert was a Chilled Mango Sago with Pomelo. Didn't fancy this dish much because it was way to sweet for me, almost akin to eating a bowl full of sweetened mango puree.
Based on the dinner tonight, Jin Shan Restaurant has many hits and misses. But without a doubt, one of it's major draw factor would be the ridiculous operating hours, opening from 11pm-4am daily. So all you night owls out there, this is a spot worth checking out!
Marina Bay Sands Hotel
1 Bayfront Avenue
L1-05, Tower 2 Hotel Lobby
+65 6688 7733
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