first thai

Sharon's colleague Christine introduced her to this Thai restaurant and she swears by it. Being the crazy foodies we are, we wasted no time checking this place out. I've been wanting to go to a proper authentic Thai restaurant to flaunt my Thai abilities after taking a course in Thai. (Alas, I've forgotten the most part of it)

First Thai Food turned out to be situated in an old-school coffeeshop setting. It seemed very promising and I immediately conjured up thoughts of authentic piping hot tom yum soup in cheapo metal bowls. There's a certain rustic charm about these coffee-shops that I cannot resist.

Parking is a problem if you are driving, because there are only limited PARALLEL parking lots. (It's a big problem for me la ok.)

The menu, which is a bit unsettling for me. I'm guessing it's a thai girl there. But she looks nothing like a Thai. in fact, I think she looks almost Indian. I think it's the huge huge eyes.

Mango salad. We ordered it "phet maak dai mai" which means literally means "very spicy, can or not?" (I told you I need to show off a bit right?) Well phet (spicy) it was. Not crazily spicy but with a very satisfactory kick to it. The mangoes were very fresh, and just unripe so they were still very firm and crunchy. Somehow, they weren't very sour as I find mango salads are wont to be. The zest was just right. We were very impressed by this unassuming dish. Very good.


We had a crabmeat fried rice. This was amazing. The crabmeat was sweet and succulent; they were generous with their serving, the rice was perfectly dry and fluffy and individually encased in that adored wok-hei. After the mango salad and this, I couldn't wait for what was coming up!

The tom yum was great. They were so generous with the ingredients that the soup was cloudy with the precipitate. I've never had clear tomyum made murky like this before. The bowl was literally overflowing with ingredients. Very very good.

The soup tasted great. It was very authentic, with that sour-sweet-spicy thing down pat. We spotted occasional chicken pieces (treasure!!) and the chicken was oh-so-soft. The prawns however, were not very fresh. Other than that, it was good.

Chicken fried with cashew nuts. I did not like this. There were more cashew nuts than chicken. More chicken skin than chicken meat. In short, where's the chicken?! It was also way too salty for my liking. I felt like I was chewing on deep fried chicken skin doused in gravy.

The hotplate tofu did not taste very Thai and we were disappointed with this too. I thought it was very average and Sharon thought it was too salty.

There were more hits than misses. I would say this is a good place for some-what authentic Thai food although I think that it is slightly overrated. There must be a better Thai restaurant waiting to be discovered. That's why we call our blog next-stop-ambrosia right?

First Thai Food
23 Purvis Street

Bobby's

We had wanted to check out the new restaurants at Cuppage Terrace and found ourselves in Bobby's. There is quite a story behind Bobby's as we later found out from the Manager, Desmond, who turned out to be quite a character. (If you do make a trip there, be sure to steal a conversation with him. You wil be thoroughly entertained)

Well, rumour has it that Bobby's was originally known as Bobby Rubino's, the restaurant at Chijmes. It was set up and owned by a Canadian couple who got into trouble with the law and sold the business off to an enterprising lady in the finance industry named Susan. She chose a new name for a restaurant, hired a new team, launched a new menu and Wala! Bobby's was born.

Yeap. I hear you. AS IF it were that easy right? Well, seems easy enough that Bobby's just set up its second branch at Cuppage Terrace.

The first thing that struck Sheryl and I when we entered the restaurant was how discordant everything seemed to be. From the zebra-print couches, to the plasma TV showing ESPN to the piped-in hip hop music, everything about the restaurant screamed incongruous. "Think of this restaurant as an American restaurant with an African beat" was what we were told by Desmond.

Uhm, ok Desmond, whatever floats your boat. I guess sometimes incongruity can be lost by novelty-seekers? Perhaps others would like the feel of this retaurant. But us? not so much. Give me either Africa or America. I don't understand the concept of an African-America. Or an American-Africa for that matter.

Moving on to serious business, the menu. Don't expect any surprises here. Yes, the menu is rather extensive. Yes, some of the food do sound appetising. But if its eye-catching, attention-grabbing, EAT-ME-NOW kind of food you're after, Bobby's is not the place for you. Bobby's offers standard American fare. We're talking Pizza, Pasta, Burgers and Grills here.

Bobby's is having a discount for lunch-goers. Order a main course between 12noon - 3pm and get a Caesar salad and dessert on the house! We had 2 of their signature dishes; ribs and the beef burger. Unfortunately, the beef burger did not qualify as a main and did not come with the promotion. This, as we later found out, was to be a good thing. Be warned that the servings here are huge. For a moment there, I felt like Gulliver in Brobdingnag.

The Caesar Salad, pressumably. I don't know about you but this did not look like a Caesar Salad to us. It was more like a garden salad served with some random tasting dressing that they tried to pass off as Caesar. Oh not that it was bad or anything. It was passable. Just definitely not Casesar dressing. So more like a Garden Salad served with a dressing that tasted remotely like Caesar. Need I say more about the incongruity of this place?Next up, the ribs. Mind you, this is the smallest order of ribs they offer. The menu reads "the lighter appetite". I'm not sure I want to know how big "the steel city rack" would be. These ribs were succulent and finger-licking good. I appreciated that the BBQ sauce wasn't too overbearing that it took away from the taste of the ribs. That said, I've had better and I felt that the ribs were a bit tough and did not fall off the bone. The coleslaw served with the ribs was forgettable too. The cabbage was limp and lifeless, as if it had been soaking in the slaw dressing for far too long. I've had better- at KFC.

Sheryl had the beef burger. We had asked for it to be medium-rare but it came more like well-done. No blood! No sweet blood! Nonetheless, the patty was juicy and flavourful. It was rather decent. It was supposed to come with Swiss Cheese but came with a disappointing thin slice of Kraft Cheddar Cheese look-a-like, taste-a-like. It wasn't even melted properly and it lacked that glorious cheese-in-every-nook-and-cranny, stretchy, gooey, wonderful cheesy thing. In fact, I thought that the amount of cheese was too pathetic and was completely lost in that gigantic patty.

The apple pie was great. The apples were not cooked till they were mushy but instead retained that firmness and crunch. It was not sickeningly sweet either and was in fact all rather tart. It looked more like a mini-chicken-pie, the size of a tart, that you can get at Delifrance. In fact, it tastes like that too. The pastry was commendable. Very buttery and nicely browned. I'm just not sure I would come back to Bobby's just for it.

Bobby's. Definitely a place to go if you're into food sharing. Or if you have one helluva appetite. But, with the myraid of options diners have at the revamped Cuppage Terrace, its easy to overlook this restaurant in favor of the other, more unique, ones.

P.S We didn't take many photos this round as we got stopped by Desmond who told us that they had a 'no food photography' policy lest other restaurants follow their recipes, presentation etc. This I don't understand. How can you copy a recipe from a photo? And seriously now, how many different ways are there to plate a burger or ribs?

MOF の my izakaya

Here's a little japanese language lesson: the character の (pronounced like a forceful 'no') is what is known in English as a possessive adjective, or rather, it transforms the root word into a posessive adjective. Like watashi means Me, I etc and watashi(no) means My.

eg. Watashiwa Sheryl desu = I am Sheryl.

Watashino namae (name) wa Sheryl desu = My name is Sheryl.

(ignore the desu and wa, take it that they are punctuation)

Therefore, MOF の my izakaya really means MOF's 'my izakaya.' I'm not really sure whether this means that 'My Izakaya' refers to the restaurant and 'MOF' refers to the group (like Tung Lok group) etc. But that's the only way that makes sense to me. And if so, I guess we can expect MOF to come up with restaurants other than My Izakaya.

An Izakaya is a popular japanese drinking place that also serves food much like a bar that sells bar food in our context. So imagine my surprise when My Izakaya is branded as a cafe/restaurant in Singapore. It's supposed to be a watering hole!

Nonetheless, I am very pleased by My Izakaya. Their menu is admittedly limited but offers quite a few interesting dishes. And, the food served is actually quite good.

Mekajiki (swordfish) sashimi.

This was rather good; firm and fresh. However, it was nothing out of the ordinary.

This is the plum rice sushi. It is pretty darn fantastic, if I may say so. I like tamago a lot but I always think tamago sushi is quite 'bo-hua'. So I usually end up ordering unatama maki (unagi+tamago maki) hoping that it will be good. But it never is. Somehow the combi just does not work for me. And it is difficult to find a tamago that is really spectacular and which hits that oomph spot. Yes, the humble tamago is easy to make but it is not easy to perfect it. I think it says a lot about a chef if he pays attention to this simple dish.

The tamago is in, Shally's words, "eggy like eggo pancakes" (though Shally didn't even try it and Sharon doesn't think that eggo pancakes taste eggy. Sheryl doesn't know what to say.)

But in all honesty, the tamago was quite good. It was very sweet and the firmness was just right, just that it lacked a bit of the eggy oomph.

The main thing about this plum rice tamago is not the tamago but the plum rice. Sharon really liked this because the plum rice is not too sour and is super fragrant. Without even putting it in my mouth, I could already smell the plum fragrance. I kept putting it at my nose and sniffing it. A bit unglam. It was an interesting dish; I think the plum kinda whetted our appetites for more food to come. You know, 'kai wei', which literally means 'to open stomachs'.

I love this dish. This is the salmon mango sushi. I expect Hong Kongers especially to love this. Everything in HK is mango-inspired. EVERYTHING. They put it into every plausible dish. They have mango desserts that are super mango-ey. Like mango pudding with mango bits topped with mango syrup and mango sago. These Hong Kongers are crazy over this fruit.

So anyway, I liked this a lot. I thought that the mango made a normally dull dish very refreshing. I liked the sudden burst of sweetness the mango provided as I put it in my mouth. In particular, the sauce that they drizzled over the sushi was delectable. Sharon reckons that it's a mango-mayo sauce. I have no idea but it went with the sushi and that's all that mattered. The sauce, the mango and the muted salmon flavour.. Very nice.

It is definitely not your traditional sushi and I think purists would probably balk at this but I thought this was very unique. I know that Sushi-Tei has a mango-inspired sushi too but I've never tried it so I can't compare. But I do like the version here. Sweet squishy mango with salmon. MMmmm.

What I did not like though, was how much rice there was. I felt that the proportion of rice to salmon/mango was too great and that took away from that wondrous flavour a little.


We ordered a seafood toji set. The seafood toji was forgettable. The gravy was ok, the prawns were fresh, the scallops overdone. It was aight but nothing to shout about. You can get such standards anywhere.
Our seafood toji set came with chicken katsu. It was nicely fried and you can see the salt/pepper seasoning on the chicken. The chicken was very soft too. Other than that, I think I'll pass on this the next time I come here. I have a feeling their mains are not as good as their side dishes.

We had a imo dessert. It came with a card, this is what it said. "The imo series is a marriage between hot and cold desserts. While sweet potato is hot the Hokkaido milk base soft serve ice cream is icy cold. The best way to eat our japanese sweet potato series is to spoon a bit of everything and then eat them together. MOF uses premium Grade A Jap sweet potatoes imported from Japan. It is so sweet we do not add in sugar to it!"

It was goooood. The imo set we ordered came with the soft serve ice-cream, red bean paste, deep fried sweet potato and deep fried yam. It was so good. The ice-cream was reminiscent of McDonald's cone ice-cream. In fact, the one at McDonald's was stronger-tasting; sweeter with more vanilla kick. I quite liked the red bean but Sharon thought it tasted like chinese red bean soup and not japanese an pan. We liked the yam and the sweet potato A LOT but (despite the shortcomings of the red bean paste and the ice-cream) I'm sure it was the combination of everything that created that magic and left us spell-bound.
The sweet potato was mashed but not too finely, so that you can still savour the odd lumps of sweet potato. And the sweet potato was really sweet and full-bodied. It's one of the better Japanese sweet potatoes I have had. It's fried to a nice crisp golden and the crispness and the half-mashed/half-lump creation was quite a marvellous marriage. It was also pretty to look at, like a golden pillow.

The yam is outstanding. It had a very strong yam taste to it. Normal yam desserts out there are quite bland and dull, with merely a whiff of the yam taste. This was not one such dessert. The yam taste was very 'full-on' and potent. It wasn't very sweet, I don't think they added sugar or anything to it, it was just very yam-mish! It did not taste like orh-nee because it was unadulterated by sugar/coconut milk or anything. Just straight up pure yam. It wasn't very smooth and had the same lumpy consistency that made it all the more authentic. Very hard to come by indeed.

The yam is not the "star dish", the sweet potato is supposed to be the selling point. But the yam stole the limelight from the sweet potato in our opinions. This is because good yam stuff are just so hard to come by. And this yam flavour really shone through, even when we ate it with the ice-cream and red bean sauce and all that. The batter was somehow "chewier" according to Sharon.

We liked this dessert so much we ordered it again, this time with black sesame. (No photo) It was even better. The black sesame was very authentic and very pang. We liked this imo series so much we were craving it the next day.

MOF の My Izakaya

Marina Square (Cafe & Restaurant)

6 Raffles Boulevard

#02-128E Center Stage

S(039594)

ji dan zai aka tumour

Whenever I watch TVB dramas I always think to myself how wonderful the food in HK looks. In particular, I wanted to try the curry fishballs and ji dan zai oh-so-badly. (not so much the smelly tofu. they stink way too bad for me to try them.)

When I first went to HK, I told Tina that I wanted to try the ji dan zai. She replied in surprise that Singapore sells these at Plaza Singapura and commented that they look horrible and resemble tumours. That's how we coined the term tumour and that's how this term became synonymous with ji dan zai. Sometimes I even feel like telling the Auntie 'tumour' when she asks me what I want.

I recommended this to Sharon and Sharon is even more in love with Tumour than I am. For the uninitiated, Tumour (or more accurately ji dan zai, which is loosely translated as 'egg boy'), is a sheet of many golf-ballish erm well, balls made from waffle-like batter.

It tastes like the waffles that you buy from Prima Deli (not the belgium waffles) with the kaya/peanut butter/blueberry/chocolate/red bean/whatever spread you can think of. But it's less coconut-milky and more eggy. It's still very fragrant and incredibly tasty. I don't think it's bland at all, even if you can't add a spread to it. It's perfect the way it is. (although I think that the stall sells it in an assortment of other flavours too)

It's very crispy, crunchy almost, especially at the fringe of the sheet, where the batter spreads out thinly. But even the tumours themselves are perfectly crispy on the outside. The inside is slightly hollow and therefore very light. It is also super spongy and dewy, although some tumours at the periphery are just crispy and hollow inside. It is very good.

I just don't understand why no other place sells this. I've never seen it anywhere except in PS. When I was in HK, they sell it everywhere! You'll find a vendor selling this around every nook and corner. It's easy to make too, it's simply a matter of putting the batter into the mould and voila! Tumour!

Ok, so it may not be easy to replicate the perfect HK version but I'm sure even the imitation will be good and can't go very far off. So why not? Singaporeans are so peckish and into snacks; there's no reason why this will not take off in Singapore. It tastes like waffles, is cheap, light and delicious. It tastes very traditional too and has a certain nostalgic ring to it (even though I first ate them last year). I can see many Singaporeans taking it as comfort food because it's a very familiar taste.

There are days when I crave Tumour but I can only find them in PS. I wish more vendors would sell this. It's really good and I believe Singaporeans will love them.

Ji Dan Zai store (beside D'Bun, stall no.2)
Plaza Singapura
Kopitiam Level 6

sun moulin II - Sharon's virgin post

The following post is written by Sharon:

Disclaimer: Just in case any of you were wondering. Yes, Sharon exists. See I wished I had a good excuse for my silence thus far. Maybe some fantastic story about how my fingers had grown too fat from all the eating (in a bid to start out this blog) and so I had to wait till I had slimmed down some to regain my shapely, slender, and not to mention, keyboard-friendly fingers. But sadly, no. I think the word we're all looking for here is: LAZINESS. (Right Sheryl?) Nevertheless, Sharon is here to stay. Hopefully. Reminder, Sharon is Lazy.

Here goes my first post. Damn my hands are clamy.

So Sheryl and I paid another visit to Sun Moulin. No, it's not because we were blown away from our first visit there but more because there's a shortage of good bakeries in town. Save for Breadtalk (which anyway can be found at any mall in the heartlands) and maybe Four Leaves at Takashimaya, (Sheryl: erm, Four Leaves good meh?) there just aren't any other good bakeries in the city area. Someone should really tell Provence to open an outlet in town.

Well, the truth of the matter is that I was feeling snackish and craved the Brazillian bun from Provence. Sun Moulin's cheese mochi was the closest substitute to be had, hence our decision to go there. (Again, someone please tell Provence to open an outlet in town. Someone. Anyone! Just SOMEONE please tell them!!) (Sheryl: ok people, forgive Sharon. She's a bit passionate about Provence.)

My craving for just the cheese mochi gave way to greed once I was presented with the delightful spread of breads that were for sale. Everytime I go to a bakery, I feel like a two year old girl in a sweet shop. I see everything and I want everything. I know they're bad for me, but I still want everything. I know I can't have them all, but I still try to get away with as much as I can. Today was no different. After a very full lunch, I still bought three breads to try, the snow custard, the an pan and the cheese mochi. (Yes Sheryl, you shared them with me so it cannot be counted as me having eaten all by myself. I know the drill.)

First up, the snow custard. It's a cake. No, it's a bun. No, it's a cake. No, it's a bun. Actually, its neither a cake nor a bun. It's BOTH a cake AND a bun. Think a rich custard bun enveloped in butter cake with the top encrusted like a hokkaido dome from BreadTalk and you would come close to the textural treat this provided in your mouth. Can't imagine it? Well, you know where you're headed for this weekend. Trust me, this is Gooooooooood.

Sheryl: The custard is the same as the cream coronet, which we reviewed in the last post. I still can't get over how fantastic this custard is. It's eggy and milky and eggy and milky.. it's the perfect cross between Provence's milk pan and custard pan. There's also a slight hint of lemon in it which made it all the more invigorating. The only thing I wish they could do is to make it cold, the way Provence does theirs. Oh if only it could be cold. Imagine cold delicious custard, smooth and satin-like, milky and sweet, oozing out of a warm freshly baked bun. Oh I know! Even better, put it in a mochi-donut!! A mochi-donut is a little donut ball (much like the size a Dunkin Donut ball) that's chewy. I've had it in HK and it was darn friggin' good. Combine that with the custard, lip-smacking I tell you. Lip-smacking. Just imagine it!

Sun Moulin has a few offerings of an pans and we decided to try another one of them, just for the heck of it. I had remembered this to be quite good from a previous visit but boy were we disappointed. Then again, that was before Sheryl introduced me to the an pan from Provence. Since then, I haven't found one that even comes close to matching it. Well well, another one bites the dust. (Seriously now, do we need more reasons for Provence to open an outlet in town?)

Sheryl: The an pan was, as you can see for yourself, clearly too dry. They might as well have given us a lump of an-pan flavoured clay. They're obviously not very consistent. Anyway, the main reason why we chose this was because Sharon said that this an pan uses hawaiian bread and which is incredibly soft and fluffy. I agreed that it was soft but it was a bit dry and (I can't believe I'm saying this) yeasty. I did not think that it was exceptional. I thought it was quite normal actually.

Disclaimer: Lest any of you are tempted to call me out for being lazy and not reviewing the cheese mochi, I didn't review it as Sheryl had already done so in our previous post on Sun Moulin. Ah-huh!
Sheryl: Yes, we tried the mochi. Just an update though, the mochi was considerably a lot more chewy than we remembered so that was good. But the cheese taste was very strong too and it was too overwhelming. Again another testimony to Sun Moulin's inconsistent standards. Nonetheless, its a great bakery.

In an ideal world, there would be a bakery that sold the fiery floss and steamed green tea cake (yes, we do like those too), the snow custard from Sun Moulin along with the Brazillian bun from Provence, amongst other things of course. Remember, little girl in the sweet shop?

tonkichi

We heard that Tonkichi has better katsu-don than tampopo and have been wanting to check this place out. I've always wondered which place could have better katsu-don than Tampopo?!

Trivia: Tonkichi means 'lucky pig' although I wonder what's so lucky about a pig that gets savagely murdered and devoured.

First up, my sliced pork with rice set. I really liked this one. It tasted like teppanyaki, especially with the fried beansprouts and all. The pork was very well-done and the seasoning was flawless. It was so flavourful and so full-bodied.

There was a lot of that wondrous savoury gravy, enough gravy to envelop each grain of rice entirely. The rice, however, was a little soggy. Also, I got a bit bored of the taste after a while. It was spectacular at first bite, but I soon grew weary of it. That did not stop me from polishing off the entire set though.

This is what we came for, the hire katsu-don. I do not think it is better than tampopo. Not at all. The katsu-don at tampopo is so good, the egg is so well-done, it is as if it melts into the rice, amalgamating into perfect unity and symbiosis. The rice is infused with the katsudon sauce. That is the perfect katsu-don man.

The rice here was nothing like that. The egg was overdone and the amount given was meagre. The katsudon sauce was also lacklustre and insufficient. It tasted more like katsu + don than proper katsudon. (Of course, I'm comparing it to Tampopo which has excellent katsudon)

One thing for sure though, their katsu kicks ass. This is one of the best katsu I have had. It is so crispy and yet so light. It doesn't taste cloying or oily at all. It is the elite of elite of katsu. When you bite into it, the bread crumbs literally sputter and crackle. You can feel the breadcrumbs giving way helplessly to the pressure of your teeth and then sprinkling mercilessly into your mouth. I am not kidding.

What amazes me is how NOT oily it tastes. The meat is so lean and yet so tender. Look at how lean it is! It looks a bit dry, I know, but trust me, it is very very good.

The texture is unbelievable. It is so crispy but not the least bit cloying, not at all. A superb katsu. It also helped that they were crazy-generous with the amount of meat they gave. Sharon almost couldn't finish it.

The next time I'm here, I will definitely have the katsu.

Tonkichi

Isetan Scotts,

4th Level

350 Orchard Road

Shaw House

Singapore 238868

(oomph)atico's

There's a reason behind the title of this post, or rather, why this post is spelt this way. The place is called oomphatico's, but there is no oomph. Not in the least bit.

I've been to oomphatico's before, about a year ago and thoroughly enjoyed my nice breezy lunch. A year later, I visited this place again, this time much to my chagrin. They changed the menu and the food there is quite nasty now.

Props to them for decor though. This cafe is extremely pretty, with rainbow chairs and funky signage like this. It is difficult not to feel cheery just being in the cafe. There's indoor and alfresco seating, and the place is generally bright, sunny, chipper and pleasant. This place is designed with the fairer sex in mind and it shows.

Lok at the cute "saucers". Talk about eye-CATching.

ok, bad pun, sorry.

The chicken caesar salad was not that bad, the egg was a tad over-cooked but nonetheless it was a very laudable attempt. It was almost just-right, just that underneath that glorious golden runny outlook, the yolk was unfortunately a bit powdery.

*Sharon, on the other hand, says that it is very easy to cook the perfect egg. She says, just give her 5,6 tries and she will get it right. It's either, 2, or 2.5 or 3 minutes depending on the size of the egg. (talk big only la she)

The croutons were fried to a gorgeous crisp and tasted fabulous. The chicken was beautifully roasted and very fragrant. It tasted a bit like barbeque chicken. :) The vegetables were fresh (but also uncut and huge and difficult to eat.)

The salad dressing though, was ghastly. It did not taste like caesar dressing at all. It was acrid and not palatable at all. I like tart-tasting food and I didn't like it. I only had it because the salad would be too dry otherwise. Pui.

The farmer's club sandwich. The rye bread had only a faint aftertaste of rye and otherwise tasted like normal wheat bread. The texture was nothing like bread and instead more like an extremely dense teacake.

The chicken was very very tough and much too dry for my liking. It tasted gamey and nothing like the chicken in the caesar salad. I have only one reaction to it. pfftttttt!

The only redeeming factor was the grain mustard spread. However, they were stingy with it and the sandwhich ended up exceedingly dry and unappetizing.

The chicken and the sandwich was so bad Sharon ended up eating only the avocado.

Another grouse is that while the description said chicken, tomatoes and avocado, the sandwich came in three mini sandwiches of chicken and tomato sandwiches on the sides and a plain avocado sandwich well, sandwiched in the middle. We had to deconstruct and reconstruct the sandwich ourselves. (Sharon: I did not pay $18 to make my own sandwich ok)

Where's the oomph in oomphatico's?

Oomphatico's!

Tanglin Mall

#01-03 & 01-35/36

163 Tanglin Road

tatsuya

We were supposed to go to Wasabi-Tei but changed our minds and decided to try out Tatsuya which had raving reviews. We ordered a bento set, a gindara, and sake (salmon) sashimi.
The bento is not supposed to come with california roll, but we decided not to have the unajyu and opted to change it to a california roll instead.

The california roll was not bad. Normal japanese rice taste of vinegar but is not very sweet. Somehow the rice here is very sweet. I'm not sure how they cooked the rice, but you know how when you chew on rice for a considerable period of time they start to digest and start tasting sweet? That's how it tasted, coupled with the vinegared taste of course. It probably sounds disgusting, but it is really quite good. The sweetness instantly erupts when you put it in your mouth and lingers long after you have swallowed.

Sharon thinks it is one of the best california rolls she has eaten. I don't think it is that good, but it is quite good, frankly. The avocado was very creamy, the tobiko burst into frenzied raptures when bitten into, the rice was an immaculate balance of acetous and sweet. It was definitely pleasurable. However, I wouldn't go so far as to say it is the most outstanding one I have tried. I'm certainly not about to run down the roads proclaiming Tatsuya as the King of california rolls.

The chawanmushi is very unique indeed. It is very soft, very smooth, very eggy and very tart. Yes you read right, tart! There is a distinct yuzu taste to it. That added an interesting dimension to a very traditional dish. I quite liked it. I thought it was refreshing and well, nippy.

However, this chawanmushi had no other ingredients added whatsoever so I got a bit bored of the taste. The yuzu was unable to sustain my interest for very long. As much as Sharon likes yuzu, she thought that this was a corruption of chawanmushi and did not like this at all.

Their tuna looked amazing. So thick and succulent. However, we did not like this. It was limp and very fishy. Then again, we're not big fans of maguro anyway. Somehow, we like tuna belly but not tuna sashimi. To me, it has a very metallic taste about it and I don't like it. So maybe maguro-fans will like this?

I thought the Salmon Sashimi was not bad. It was fresh and firm to the bite. However, compared to Akashi? It's a long long long way off. I don't know why, but Akashi's Salmon sashimi is simply out of this world. It's in a whole different league of its own. Akashi's other stuff are not that great but their salmon sashimi is darn freaking good. I have never had anything like that before.

Ok, I digress, back to Tatsuya. Their salmon sashimi was good, but it was not THAT good. It was definitely better than what you would get from sushi-tei, but I don't think the discrepancy is that great to command that wide a price gap.

Tai (sea bream/red snapper) sashimi. I did not like this. I thought it was limp (and not just cos it was sliced so thinly) and not very fresh.

Mekajiki (Swordfish) Sashimi. Sharon liked it, she thought it was very good and comparable to Akashi (though Akashi is better). In her own words "u know how when u eat swordfish, coz its a firmer fish, wen u bite into it.. there's a slight crunch to it? and lk the 'juice' comes out from the meat? this was lk that... just that akashi's is better"

The cod was flavourful. The seasoning was quite marvellous. Sharon found it too salty for her liking, which I found odd, cos I'm usually the one more sensitive to extremely salty food. Towards the end, her tastebuds could no longer handle the excessive sodium and she could only eat two slivers of it.

The gindara was overcooked and much too tough. Fish is always difficult to cook. A minute less and it is slimy, a minute more and it's too tough. But this fish was obviously wayyy overdone. The charred skin was great, I loved the smoky taste, but the texture was verging on rubbery. This does not make me a happy girl.

All in all, Tatsuya was a complete disappointment. I think I would have enjoyed myself a lot better eating at Sushi-Tei for half the price. I can't believe we chose Tatsuya over Wasabi-Tei. Why why why?!

Tatsuya Japanese Restaurant

270 Orchard Road

#01-05

Park Hotel Orchard