Japanese

I read a lot of good stuff about Donya on my feed and on the usual food websites and I was so excited to try it!!! 🤤 But this was honestly one of the worst meals I've had in a long time. And I've genuinely not felt so demoralised after eating in a long while. ☹️ We tried the Mentai Salmon Don and the Chicken Katsu Don. The Mentai Salmon Don was so dry and the sauce so sour. You would think the generous Aburi Mentai Mayo would patch my bleeding heart from having spent $8.80 on this bowl but some wounds can't be plastered over just like that. It was a torture to finish this bowl of rice and I only finished it because it was so expensive. The Chicken Katsu Don was hopefully a safer choice. But while the chicken was slightly thicker than normal food court katsu dons, the sauce was hopelessly bland and tasteless. The chicken was also rather bland and not well-seasoned at all. Even though it's quite affordable at $5.80, this is a price that makes my soul bleed too considering that the Koufu near my house does better Katsu Dons than this. You know, I really wanted this to be good since I travelled all the way to Toa Payoh for this. But it sucked. And I am incredibly heartbroken and disappointed and angry. 💔

Affordable lunch donburis with quality ingredients. Grilling the pork belly skewer brought out the flavour of the meat so deliciously, and the sweetness of the grilled zucchini was pleasantly surprising. Not forgetting a classic onsen egg to add some creaminess to the dish! With the complimentary green tea, this was definitely a very worth it meal, though would save myself from getting the $6 set meal add on.

Full review ➡️ http://zhencaneat.blogspot.sg/2018/05/kurama-robatayaki-lunch-donburis.html

I'm a huge fan of the Mentaiko pasta to be found at Kabe no Ana and was excited to see a Mentaiko Gnocchi on their Mentaiko Madness special menu. The mentaiko cream sauce was amazing, as per their usual standard. The mentaiko added a wonderful umami flavour to the cream sauce that made an already addictive cream sauce even more addictive! The ikura salmon roe was also a delightful addition, with bursts of umami flavour everywhere, adding so much complexity to the texture of the dish. It was a pity though that the gnocchi was rather dense and hard, because this would have been perfect with soft, pillow-y gnocchi. I still enjoyed the dish anyway with much credit to that addictive mentaiko cream sauce. The set at $22.90 is also a very good deal as it comes with a side of smoked duck and grapefruit salad, and breaded iberico pork, and a glass of ume sparking juice. ➡️ Full review: http://zhencaneat.blogspot.sg/2018/04/mentaiko-madness-kabe-no-ana.html

This Ootoro Meshi bowl with five slices of Ootoro sashimi on a bed of pickled ginger and vinegared rice with a dollop of wasabi was such a delight. I love salmon sashimi but ootoro is on a different level. If the timbre of salmon was an alto note resonating in bubbly river water, ootoro is a delightful mezzo-soprano that rings like clear spring water. One bite and the tone of the tuna taste distinctly resonates in my mouth. The beauty of the ootoro is in the fat of course, it adds a roundness to the flavour of ootoro, and beautiful melt-in-your mouth texture. Instead of it echoing in your mouth like maguro, it rings once and disappears into the air, and you're left longing for it, chasing for that last taste it left in your mouth. Due to the freshness of the fish, there's no fishiness at all, and you can deeply appreciate the ootoro in all its beauty. 

When you're too lazy to make your own tempura and too cheapo to go to a tendon restaurant... You go to a tempura stall in a food court! Pleasantly surprised at how delicious this was. Tempura was hit and miss but overall not bad considering that this is a food court. Anyway you can't really go too wrong with fried food! 😉 You can choose your tempura like Yong Tau Foo style, but it's all pre-fried, and then you choose a base dish (rice, udon, soba etc). Prices range from just around $5-$10+ depending on what base dish you get (rice at $1 vs curry soba at $6.50) and how much tempura you get. Some tempura is more worth it than others, some you know are straight from NTUC's freezer section. But if you're here eating tempura, that means you're too lazy to make it yourself, so you're just paying for the convenience of having people cook it for you.

Read more: http://zhencaneat.blogspot.sg/2018/01/tempura-fuji-westgates-foodrepublic.html

Have actually wanted to try Monster Curry for the longest time! Ordered a katsu set and a fish set for the lunch special, which came with a bowl of mushroom soup, a glass of iced lemon tea, and a really tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream.

The curry was actually very delicious, very sweet, though a bit too salty. But well balanced with the rice. The curry itself actually isn't spicy and the spiciness comes from the chilli sauce drawn in hearts on the curry. The chilli actually tasted somewhat like chicken rice chilli to me hmm. The pork and fish were also very substantial and juicy not like flimsy food court versions.

Serving is super big though. Enough for two meals. But well worth the price. The lunch special price came up to $16.25 after GST and service charge.

One of the best meals in my life and I can't believe I had it on a university campus. Salmon belly was beautifully fresh and soft, Wagyu beef slices as well were tender and seasoned deliciously. The Mentaiko mayo (in both) smoothes the textures of the toppings and the rice, and also adds a subtle complexity to the dish. And it was really good rice as well. Main courses here are all around $20 and you can top up $3 for a set (drink and chawanmushi). The people this place definitely love their food and I will definitely be back for more!