Yesterday, I met up with my ex-ex colleagues, J and Y. Y had told me over MSN the previous week that they were going to do some ‘food-tasting’ at a Japanese restaurant, and I was invited! So honored!
The food-tasting was at this Japanese restaurant at Clarke Quay Y and I have walked past the last time we met there. You have to walk up to the second level to get into the restaurant. It looked quite classy from the outside. Well, it did the last time we passed by. But this time, the moment I stepped in, it left a not so good impression on me.
First, the floor to the entrance on the ground level was wet. There were even some little puddles on the path leading to the stairs. I am one person who doesnt like puddles. Minus points immediately.
I walked up the stairs and into the restaurant. As usual like in all Japanese restaurants, I was greeted amiably by the staff there, and led to the table, where Y was already waiting.
The décor of the restaurant was not too bad. Quite zen, with water features and plants. The only thing was the music they played. Some English pop songs. I would be expecting them to play some soothing, instrumental music, or at least Japanese songs. But no, they were playing loud pop songs, which I, being a mountain tortoise in this area, was not familiar with. More minus points.
J arrived shortly, and we ordered our food. Cheese dumplings, some chicken thingy, grilled codfish, teppanyaki beef, mixed tempura, fried udon with pork, grilled sausages, and grilled dumplings. I think we must have had ordered a lot, because the waitress looked at us and said “I think it is enough for 3 of you. If you need more, you can order again later.” In her heavily-Jap-accented English. Ok…
The food arrived. Ok, to save time and me from typing (Cos I decided I should be doing work and not blogging!), here is our review:
Can try:
Grilled codfish (Oh there is a short story to this. When it first came, I tasted it. I thought it tasted funny, not like codfish. But I kept quiet. The Y and J ate it too. Someone commented “this taste more like salmon leh”. We started to examine the plate of fish more closely. Confirm la – colour was salmon colour; taste was salmon taste. Wrong dish! But when the correct one came, it tasted not too bad.
Teppanyaki beef
Fried udon. Although the looks of it was not very appetizing, but it tasted good.
Mixed tempura. Well, it tasted like normal tempura. Nothing special, nothing to rant about.
The chicken thingy. I dont know what it is called…
Can give it a miss:
Cheese dumplings.
Grilled sausages. We wanted to know if the sausage was some special sausage, like they made it themselves, or Japanese sausage, or anything special. It turned out to be – US sausage. Why would anyone come to a Japanese restaurant to eat sausages from US? Though it tasted not bad (They thought it was too salty, But I like salty stuff), but can give it a miss. Go Cold Storage and buy a packet, go home and fry yourself. You can get the same dish.
Grilled dumplings. J did not like this, because she said there was too much Jiu Cai in it.
Dessert time! J ordered her favourite Black Sesame ice cream. Y and I wanted to try the lemon sorbet, but it wasnt available, so we decided to be more adventurous and try their Sweet Potato Ice cream.
The Black Sesame ice cream came first. It was like the normal ones we eat. 3o of us were happily eating, while waiting for the Sweet Potato ice cream to come. It did. And 3 of us looked at it for some time before we decided it was time to pu it into our mouths.
It looked weird. I was expecting it to come in ice cream form. But it wasnt so. The out layer was real sweet potato, with a thickness of about 1cm. I think they grilled it so it tasted abit of charcoal. The inside was ice cream. What flavour, I seriously dont know. Honestly, it did not taste that bad. But J spat out whatever she put in her mouth, and decided that Black Sesame is the safer choice. But Y said “J, we are supposed to be doing food tasting, not order the food we like mah.” Truuuuuuuueee…
Our overall verdict for the restaurant: It is not worth the money and trouble. Food was so-so only. Service was excellent, but we wished they could assign someone who could speak and understand Singlish to our table, to save the trouble of us repeating ourselves many times what we wanted.
But oh well, it was a free meal for me. I still enjoyed it. :-)
The food-tasting was at this Japanese restaurant at Clarke Quay Y and I have walked past the last time we met there. You have to walk up to the second level to get into the restaurant. It looked quite classy from the outside. Well, it did the last time we passed by. But this time, the moment I stepped in, it left a not so good impression on me.
First, the floor to the entrance on the ground level was wet. There were even some little puddles on the path leading to the stairs. I am one person who doesnt like puddles. Minus points immediately.
I walked up the stairs and into the restaurant. As usual like in all Japanese restaurants, I was greeted amiably by the staff there, and led to the table, where Y was already waiting.
The décor of the restaurant was not too bad. Quite zen, with water features and plants. The only thing was the music they played. Some English pop songs. I would be expecting them to play some soothing, instrumental music, or at least Japanese songs. But no, they were playing loud pop songs, which I, being a mountain tortoise in this area, was not familiar with. More minus points.
J arrived shortly, and we ordered our food. Cheese dumplings, some chicken thingy, grilled codfish, teppanyaki beef, mixed tempura, fried udon with pork, grilled sausages, and grilled dumplings. I think we must have had ordered a lot, because the waitress looked at us and said “I think it is enough for 3 of you. If you need more, you can order again later.” In her heavily-Jap-accented English. Ok…
The food arrived. Ok, to save time and me from typing (Cos I decided I should be doing work and not blogging!), here is our review:
Can try:
Grilled codfish (Oh there is a short story to this. When it first came, I tasted it. I thought it tasted funny, not like codfish. But I kept quiet. The Y and J ate it too. Someone commented “this taste more like salmon leh”. We started to examine the plate of fish more closely. Confirm la – colour was salmon colour; taste was salmon taste. Wrong dish! But when the correct one came, it tasted not too bad.
Teppanyaki beef
Fried udon. Although the looks of it was not very appetizing, but it tasted good.
Mixed tempura. Well, it tasted like normal tempura. Nothing special, nothing to rant about.
The chicken thingy. I dont know what it is called…
Can give it a miss:
Cheese dumplings.
Grilled sausages. We wanted to know if the sausage was some special sausage, like they made it themselves, or Japanese sausage, or anything special. It turned out to be – US sausage. Why would anyone come to a Japanese restaurant to eat sausages from US? Though it tasted not bad (They thought it was too salty, But I like salty stuff), but can give it a miss. Go Cold Storage and buy a packet, go home and fry yourself. You can get the same dish.
Grilled dumplings. J did not like this, because she said there was too much Jiu Cai in it.
Dessert time! J ordered her favourite Black Sesame ice cream. Y and I wanted to try the lemon sorbet, but it wasnt available, so we decided to be more adventurous and try their Sweet Potato Ice cream.
The Black Sesame ice cream came first. It was like the normal ones we eat. 3o of us were happily eating, while waiting for the Sweet Potato ice cream to come. It did. And 3 of us looked at it for some time before we decided it was time to pu it into our mouths.
It looked weird. I was expecting it to come in ice cream form. But it wasnt so. The out layer was real sweet potato, with a thickness of about 1cm. I think they grilled it so it tasted abit of charcoal. The inside was ice cream. What flavour, I seriously dont know. Honestly, it did not taste that bad. But J spat out whatever she put in her mouth, and decided that Black Sesame is the safer choice. But Y said “J, we are supposed to be doing food tasting, not order the food we like mah.” Truuuuuuuueee…
Our overall verdict for the restaurant: It is not worth the money and trouble. Food was so-so only. Service was excellent, but we wished they could assign someone who could speak and understand Singlish to our table, to save the trouble of us repeating ourselves many times what we wanted.
But oh well, it was a free meal for me. I still enjoyed it. :-)
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