Shabuya Shabu-Shabu @ Vivocity

Found a cheap deal at groupon.sg - For $30, we get to enjoy Shabuya Shabu-shabu buffet at Vivocity with full flow beer. There is also free flow of sashmi. NICE! But it was limited to 100 minutes of dinning which we thought was well sufficient. 

Everyone has a mini pot to themselves which I thought was great as I do not take beef. Thus, everyone can enjoy whatever they want and cook it whenever they like. 

Okay, besides the fresh sashimi which consist of Salmon, Tuna, Swordfish and Tai. The sashimi was really fresh and it was the first time I tried Tai Sashimi. It was quite nice to me. 

For the minipot, I think it was shoyu soup base. For the dipping sauce, there was only ponzu sauce and sesame sauce. I do not really fancy the sesame sauce. It tasted a bit weird to my liking. 

As for the meat portion, there are beef, pork, chicken, duck and lamb. Wooah, so many variety for me to choose from besides the beef. For the pork, there are pork collar, pork loin and pork belly. For me, I always had pork for shabu-shabu and had never tried eating other meat. Here, I tried the chicken, duck and lamb. Personally, pork is still the best. It was thinly sliced and with seconds, it was cooked. For the chicken, it was a bit bland and not that fantastic. I liked the duck and lamb too. But they were not very thinly sliced and thus, it took quite a while for them to be cooked. Overall, the meat category was great. I had plentiful of meat that night! 

For the seafood, they were relatively fresh. Some of those we had were the tiger prawns, mussels, crabstick, some seafood balls. We had initially wanted to try the fish paste, but it was never served to the table despite multiple reminders.

As for the healthier side, there were assorted mushrooms, cabbage, corn, carrots and many more to choose from. 

They will serve the 'standard' items when we first arrived. But you can 'reject' if you do not like it at the first instance. Do not eat and then try to reject them. Waste food will be charged!

Shabuya Hotpot

By the way, not sure if it was a promotion, the service crews were quite attentive when we arrived. But with more customers streaming in, they became busy and some of the orders were not served. As for the beer, we had to order thrice before it was finally served.

But well, at the end of the 100 minutes, they did not chase us away. I guessed it must be because they were too busy and that there were sufficient tables.

For the $30, I think it was quite worth the value!

VivoCity
1 HarbourFront Walk #01-102/103

Marusui Fish Market @ Vivocity

A small shop with limited sitting capacity but mind me, the menu is very extensive. It takes up a big blackboard of items ranging from ramen to rice bowls to fresh sashimi. 

Had the Black pork ramen as recommended by Roomie -  choose the soup base from three flavours - Kimchi, Paitan and Shoyu. I had the Shoyu soup based. 

Before the food arrived, I thought the black pork will be cooked together with the ramen and served with the ramen in a bowl. To my surprise, it was served separately. I have to say, the food is really yummy. The black pork is very tender and well-flavoured. Give me more plates and I have no doubts that I can just finished them in minutes. As for the ramen, it was springy and well-cooked to my liking. They are quite generous in giving the seaweed and mushrooms to go with the ramen. This combination is really fantastic! For SGD15, I confirm this is really worth your money!

I will be back, for more!

Black Pork Ramen

1 Harbourfront Walk
B2-15 Vivocity

Dim Sum Breakfast at Chinatown

Woke up early for a dim sum breakfast at Chinatown Complex Market. We opt for 香味香港点心 as 旺角点心 is not opened at 9a.m. Okay, both are located just a few stalls away, so if you are heading there for lunch, I think you can try both to see which is better. 

Located on the second floor of Chinatown Complex Market, some might find it a little warm to eat without the aircon. But for the affordable price you are paying for, just bear with the temperature. It is self-service and once you order, they are quite fast in preparing and serving you the food. 

I am not sure how the queue will be formed if the other dim sum stall is opened for business, but there is quite a reasonable long queue at certain intervals - not continuous long queue, if you get what I mean. 

There aren't many dim sum items from the stall but the typical popular dim sum are on the menu. Each item costs $2.20 (Yes, just $2.20) which is really affordable and the freshness of the dim sum is not compromised in any way.

Here's what we ordered - those served in plates are from other stalls - mainly because Mummy thinks they are good! 

Dim Sum- Yummy

The dim sums are served piping hot! For the Har Gow (the dumpling in white with prawn fillings), each plate serves three pieces and it was fantastic. The thickness of the skin was just right and the prawn was fresh and crunchy. Good. For the Siew Mai (the dumpling in yellow), it comes in four. The crunchiness of the dumpling was from the water chestnuts and it complements the fresh pork fillings. Each bite was great! 

For those who like savoury food, can try the chicken feet, the pork ribs and the bean curb skin . For the three items, they are really well-marinated though I found the bean curb skin a little too salty. 

For those who likes fried food, you can tried the fried dumpling. I did not try it so I could not comment further. 

Alright, jumping off to the next stall, we ordered the glutinous rice and the yam cake from 佳记美食. The queue is continuously long. But they are really fast in preparing the orders. Both items are not too bad though I thought they would be more generous in the ingredients. Not every bite of the glutinous rice is completed with peanuts and for the yam cake, I tried better ones elsewhere. 

Last but not least, coffee time! There is a queue in front of the stall - 五十年代. We just joined the queue. Not bad a cup of milk tea which was better than yakun and well, cheaper at $1. 

五十年代 milk tea

335 Smith Street
Chinatown Complex Market

五十年代
#02-048

香味香港点心
#02-101

Jia Ji Mei Shi (佳记美食)
#02-166

Introbar @ Swissôtel The Stamford

Friday the 13th!! Another gathering with the Randoms and beer is not out of the menu. First time for me at Introbar - Swissotel The Stamford. 

The ambiance here is pretty good and the way they place the sofa seats are great. It is very spacious and you have a personal space just for the group. The whole environment was pretty relaxing, the music was not that loud that you have to shout across the table. A pretty nice place to chill out on a Friday night. 

It does serve food here, so no worries about not having dinner before you head over. Everyone has to order at least a drink, it is okay that you do not drink alcohol. They do serve tea, coffee and soft cocktail. 

Here, the happy hour is from 3pm to 9pm and all the beer are half price. If you are a sports fan or now, being the World Cup season, Introbar do have ‘live’ screening of World Cup 2014 now and of course at other times, 'live' screening of other sports program. 

Alright, I ordered the Corona Lager. As recommended, it was a pretty light beer. Fresh lime is served together in the neck of the bottle to add tartness and flavor. And I learnt something new - it was said that Corona is bottled in clear glass where light can 'reach' the beer easily. Thus the lime helps to mask the altered taste resulted from the exposure to light by the virtue of their packaging. Quite interesting. But for me, the lime simply gave a refreshing taste to the beer. There is complimentary snacks (chips, pretzels and olives) which is free flow. So good for sports fan. Watch and eat and drink at the same time, definitely being kept awake all the time. 

Corona Lager @ Introbar with complimentary snacks

Food is the main thing I look forward to. We ordered burgers - If you do not eat beef, well, there is only 2 choices - namely the El Mexicano (Chicken) and other vegetarian burger. I had the chicken burger. It is served with french fries, coleslaw and pickles. 

Here's the pictures of our burgers. 

The 4 burgers chosen from 6 on the menu - each come with fries, coleslaw and pickles

Here's my burger close up. Personally, I find that the chicken is too tough to my liking. Not the best I had, but seems that it is the only item on the menu for me. The chipotle sauce was not that much to cater for every mouth of the burger.  It is a little spicy , so do take note of that. They should be more generous with the lettuce though. However, for the burgers, there are some add ons, so do take a look to make it a more appetizing burger. 

El Mexicano Burger

Best of this place, I guess Introbar might not have reached out to many people yet and thus, is a less crowded place in the area now. I hope it stays this way, for my sake! I will definitely come back again, maybe after a well-deserved dinner for a drink!

1/F Swissôtel The Stamford,
2 Stamford Road

:pluck @ Club Street

Friday nights out with the Survivors.... After a change of plan, we decided to head down to :pluck at Club street. This place serves food in Tapas style where people come together to eat, drink and mingle instead of focusing on one's food!. Indoor seats are just by the bar where there is an open-concept kitchen and bar. But we chose to sit outside for the relaxation!

Food are served in three different sizes - small, medium and (For Two or More) sharing. Well, though it is of different sizes, the dishes in each category are different. 

From the small category, we had the Seared Scallops, Roasted Apples & Hazelnuts. There are only three pan-seared scallops with roasted apples and hazelnuts. The scallops were tender and were perfectly complemented by the sweetness of the apples. The portion was really relatively smaller. 

For the medium category, we ordered the Whole grilled squid with a crisp block of Whole Grilled Squid, Saffron Rice. The squid was thinly sliced and was very much tendered rather than chewy. The saffron rice was quite special, crispy and nice. But it got soaked in the gravy and lost its crispiness at the end. 

Next up was the Roasted Rump of Lamb with Spiced Chickpeas ($28), which came with a watercress and pickled shallot salad. The lamb was quite tender, not those super chewy nor tough. It was very well flavoured and the chickpeas gave the taste a twist in its own way. 

Finally for this category was the Braised Pork belly with roasted potato and asparagus. A very well-balanced dish with both meat and vegetables. The Pork belly was not that sinful afterall. It was very well marinated and the potato and asparagus really completed the dish. 

Last but not least, we ordered a smoked salmon dish under the sharing category. The salmon was very well 'smoked' and when you cut it, it simply falls into pieces. Very well done for salmon!

For the drink, we went for the Signature Cocktail - The Concubine. Noted that it is a sweet vodka-based drink with Cointreau, five-spice syrup and Kaffir lime leaves. But I find it quite bland. Not sure if the plenty of ice has diluted the drink, I did not really like this drink. Well, maybe a beer would never go wrong at times!

Total damage for not-a-very-full dinner was around $230 for three persons. Will I come back again? Yes for the lamb and salmon, but not in near future!

The tapas and the cocktail @ :pluck

90 Club Street
Singapore 069458