Restaurants

For the weekday lunch Burpple Beyond deal at Tamoya, you get to enjoy two tempura items (around $2++ each) and we decided to get the signature prawn tempura, as well as try the fried chicken cutlet. The prawn tempura was great as the batter was really crispy and the amount of prawn used in it was really generous too! However, the fried chicken cutlet was disappointing as it was rather tasteless and it was quite dry. ☹️ We would definitely not get the fried chicken cutlet next time!

Tamoya was really crowded even for a weekday lunch and we would strongly recommend you visit before the office lunch crowd comes! Otherwise, be prepared to queue outside for up to half an hour for a table!

This was the obvious choice for us since the sanuki egg beef udon is the bestseller on the menu! The udon was just the right texture as it was sufficiently chewy, and we liked that the serving of beef was really generous! The beef are thinly-sliced and they are hence really easy to chew. The soup also felt great on a rainy day and we loved the slightly sweet taste from the broth, although we would advise you not to finish the entire bowl as it might be overly salty.

While the bowl of udon originally cost $11.20++, we were here on a weekday lunch and the Burpple Beyond coupon for a weekday lunch was really worth it! You get a bowl of udon and a tempura free, so do use that coupon if you happen to be visiting on a weekday! 😁

Attracted by the pictures of the partially-grilled meat served at Aburi-En, we decided to give their specialty dishes a try. We ordered the premium buta bara don, honestly because the picture in the menu looked so appetising and we were happy to find that the actual dish tasted great as well! The dish contains charcoal-grilled pork belly served on top of white rice, with salad at the side. The pork belly was really awesome as it had a mixture of lean and fat meat and we loved the fatty parts! The meat was covered in some sweet gravy, although the meat itself had a lightly-smoked flavour, presumably from the grill.

Our only complaint is that the dish came with rather little rice and it may not be filling for the big eaters amongst us. Nonetheless, we think the dish is pretty worth it for $16.90++ given how enjoyable the pork belly was!

We are back to Eleven Strands for their pasta dishes and the quaint surroundings! For dinner, we decided to try out the Vongole as it is supposedly listed as an all-time favourite on the restaurant's website! The dish comes with a very generous serving of clams, cherry tomatoes and parsley, bathed in a flavourful sauce with white wine! We enjoyed the Vongole broth a lot as it wasn't overly salty and the wine added a pretty nice flavour!

For the pasta, you can choose from a few different varieties, including spaghetti, penne and linguine. We thought to go with the standard spaghetti and the pasta really didn't disappoint. It was prepare al dente and the serving was a lot more than we had expected, since most Italian restaurants go with smaller servings!

While the dish might be a little pricey at $25++, the pasta dishes qualify for a one-for-one promotion on Burpple Beyond! Hence, do remember to redeem your vouchers if you are on Beyond!

We visited Merci Marcel for brunch for the first time today and we decided to try something that is uniquely on the restaurant's brunch menu - the Croque Marcel! This dish is basically egg and ham on two pieces of baguette! It is not clearly shown in the picture but there is even more ham in between the two slices of bread! :)

That being said, the Bayonne ham used may be a little too salty for our local taste buds although we were surprised as we read online that such ham isn't supposed to be as salty as prosciutto! 😰 It's great that the ham is sliced so thinly because if it were too thick, it may be a little too much meat/salt for one mouthful!

To be honest, the dish is a little pricey ($25++) although that is likely because of the Bayonne ham used, which is supposed to be of a pretty decent grade. The dish wasn't outstanding in our view and there are many other better options at Merci Marcel (including their ravioli 😋)

Bao Makers currently has this alcohol promotion whereby the restaurant is serving hot sake at 50% off for the second bottle! Hence, while you pay $20++ for the first bottle, it costs $30++ for two bottles! Note that this promotion is only available between 5 pm and 8 pm everyday so you may wish to order it before finishing your meal if you are visiting for dinner!

While some Japanese restaurants serve their sake warm, we think the sake served here should actually be classified "hot" as it is actually challenging to hold the bottom part of the glass sake bottle due to the temperature of the drink! 😰 As with most warmer sakes, the alcoholic flavour becomes stronger and we also felt that the sake drink became drier accordingly as well! Nonetheless, we thought it was a pretty refreshing drink as the taste of our baos and bonito fries were pretty heavy!

We have been to Bao Makers on a few occasions and we have never failed to be impressed by their gourmet baos! Pictured here are the 3 baos we tried today - the salted egg yolk chicken bao, the mala beef bao and the chilli crab bao!

The chilli crab bao was the best and we liked that the bao was essentially a deep-fried mantou and the restaurant was really generous with the crab meat filling. The sauce was really on point too and it tastes the same as a chilli crab dish that you can get at restaurants!

We also loved the salted egg yolk chicken bao, as the salted egg sauce was pretty concentrated and went well with the piece of fried chicken! It is also great that the sauce isn't very runny so you wouldn't get too messy eating it!

The mala beef bao, however, was a little disappointing as we felt that the mala flavour was a little too subtle and we would have loved a little more of the numbing and spicy sensation. The beef was a little tough too! 😰

Although the baos were delicious, we have to say that they were really expensive, with the chilli crab bao costing $4.50++ and the other two costing $4.30++! For the small size of the baos, we think that they were really pricey and it would be great if the baos could be bigger!

We love Eventasty because their soups and noodles are great and their food isn't all that expensive! Today, we tried their hot and sour soup with sliced sea bass and the soup was great - it was slightly spicy and slightly sour but the soup was still very drinkable and it was very 开胃! The noodles were decent and they were cooked just right as they did not end up soggy! We paid $1++ more to upgrade to a large bowl of noodles!However, the sliced sea bass came with a rather fishy taste and that was a negative point about this dish. 😰

Do use your Burpple Beyond vouchers as Eventasty is on Burpple Beyond! You can order any bowl of noodles to enjoy the promotion!

I keep coming back for their tomato soup broth as it's really rich and tangy. Their lamian texture is chewy as well. The serving size is pretty good for their price, with enough noodles, along with 4 big shrimp paste balls and half a ramen egg. With burrple it's even more worth it and they have ongoing store promotions as well. Recommend a visit if you're nearby and looking for a good bowl of noodles.

We realised that Santouka had done away with their previous lunch set menu, which made lunching there pretty worthwhile. While the previous lunch set offered you a small ramen bowl and a small rice bowl, now you only have one option: ramen (can be small or medium) with a plate of gyoza! Nonetheless, you can still choose your ramen broth and you have the options with shio, Kara shio, shoyu, miso or Kara miso.

We decided to get the set in any case as it came with a drink and I got the shoyu ramen for a stronger flavour! However, the ramen was pretty ordinary and the slices of pork were a little tough. :( The noodles were decent and of the right texture though - they were firm and not overly soggy. Note that the ramen itself doesn't come with the ramen egg and you have to pay an additional $1.50++ to add one! 😑

We think it would be better to try what Santouka is famous for: their pork cheek (toroniku) ramen, even though it is no longer included in their lunch set meals. The pork cheeks were so soft and tender and we think the meat paired really well with Santouka's ramen. It's $22++ for a bowl but we think it's worth the upgrade from the $17++ we paid for the lunch set meal since the standard ramen we had today was a little meh... 😐

We are back to VeganBurg to try their other vegan burgers and today, we decided to try out the smoky BBQ burger! Instead of a meat patty, the eatery used a mushroom patty for this one and you can really taste the mushrooms in it! It was also nice that VeganBurg provided a generous serving of BBQ sauce, although we felt they could have gone easier on the sauce as it was literally dripping out of the burger, which made it harder to eat.

The seaweed fries, on the other hand, were pretty disappointing as they tasted like regular fries (the harder and firmer type) and there was almost zero hint of seaweed on it. If we had a choice, we wouldn't have upgraded to a meal (~$16) and stuck with the a la carte burger order. Serving size of the fries, however, was pretty generous.

We were looking for a slightly healthier option at Bukit Panjang Hawker Centre and we landed on the Day Night Herbal Soup stall! 😋 We ordered the chicken soup with white fungus and we added the brown rice for a healthier carbs option! The brown rice tasted really healthy although it was a tad dry, and we had to eat it with the red chilli paste to give the dish some flavour! For the soup, we felt the chicken taste could have been stronger (perhaps the chicken wasn't boiled long enough) although it was great that the soup wasn't overly oily!

We added on the braised cabbage for $1 and that was a nice side dish to have! The only bad thing about dining here is that it's ridiculously difficult to find seats at this hawker centre due to the safe management measures. :(