Bornga Korean Restaurant, Hui Lau Shan, Taang Shi Fu @ JB City Square

If you guys do get bored of SG environment and prices, you guys could hop onto the sbs bus at kranji mrt to get into woodlands checkpoint, and crossover to JB for some foodhunt.. I did that a few weeks ago, was kinda late, 12pm then reached kranji, and queue was freaking long, longer than my previous visit..

And if you guys are not that adventurous and prefer to be safe, then i would recommend just staying within the 2 malls just across the JB checkpoint, that way you'll be covered by aircon throughout the day.. I reckon every level at JB citysquare has something to eat, so you can have 3 meals at 3 different places..

First i tried Bornga, well i've tried the one in SG at Star Vista, and well they are pricey cause they are a well known celebrity chef restaurant.. But in JB, the food was almost half the price of SG's and provide better service!

The usual banchans that you will get at most korean restaurants, couldn't resist the endless refills of the braised peanuts and fruits & macaroni salad, i think we refilled those two dishes slightly more than 5 times, buay paiseh one... XD the rest of them were pretty normal..

Ever since i tried the army stew at Seoul Yummy at Bugis Plus, i usually will order this if there is enough people to share with me, as usually the portions are huge! If 2 army guys can finish it, i'm not surprised.. Picture above is before the ingredients were boiled, kimchi, spam, sausage, korean rice cake, tofu, minced beef, mushroom, baked beans, leeks, vegetables, glass noodles and instant noodles..

My friend's bibimbap, awesome presentation, and tasted up to standard.. 

And here's the army stew after being cooked and stirred... It was so yummy i finished all the spam and leeks, didn't managed to finished it though, as it was too huge for 2 to share.. Only flaw was that i didnt get to eat the baked beans much, the stew kept boiling, the soft baked beans dissolved into the soup and became a powdery base that sinked to the bottom of the pot...

This was the rubus like plum like sorbet drink that they gave every customer after their meals, the staff were quite auto within this one, once they see you're almost done, they don't even ask u, they just serve it to us.. 

Definitely will eat here again, will never eat in SG anymore after this JB visit..

They are located at:

BornGa Korean Restaurant

JB City Square, Level : 3, Lot : MF-23

Next stop for high tea after some digestive and calorie burning shopping.. Saw that 許留山 is quite popular on reviews, so decided to try how nice it was, below is the picture of their top 10 desserts..

Mango sago was pretty awesome, worth the money for this one..

Look at the awesomely ripe and sweet mango cubes..

This was what my friend ordered, birdnest in coconut milk..

And it was kinda like eating jelly bits in coconut milk, after awhile it gets pretty jelat and filling.. Not advisable to eat this alone, better share with 2-3 people...

This was what I ordered, coconut jelly with a side serve of birdnest in some sweetened milk..

This was awesome, my personal preference though, cause my friend didn't like how the birdnest was in the milk.. Definitely would eat this dessert again, i can finish it all on my own..

And well the joke was this, when we the desserts came to our table, my friend and I mixed up our own orders, so i ended up finishing hers which I didn't really like, and she ended up not finishing mine as she didn't really like it as well, and was sulking throughout.. 

Somehow, JB's version of 白果薏米 abit different.. I don't know if its because hongkong style or malaysia style, but they served it with a hard boiled egg, which was pretty peculiar, as its my first time seeing such way of serving.. Nonetheless, it was a pretty fair dish..

Definitely coming back for the coconut jelly though it costs like SGD$4-5 for a serving.. They are located at:

Hui Lau Shan

JB City Square, Level 3 - J3-20

Next stop for dinner! Taang Shi Fu, another one of the popular restaurants at City Square, apparently famous for their dry mee sua..

Vintage tea china..

This abalone and chicken soup mee sua, i know it looks simple and the ingredients look meagre... But the richness of the broth for this one is just awesome!

My friend ordered this thick mushroom scallop XO broth together with the dried mee sua.. The thick broth was awesomely fragrant and not too salty, that i actually kinda drank it as soup, cause my friend didn't liked it that much, as it was served to her lukewarm, which I was abit disappointed.. Wanted to get the waiter to change a hot one, but my friend doesn't want to.. So..

And the dried abalone meesua dish above is mine! Never had mee sua served in this way before, and this was just awesome, practically can just lick the plate clean.. I think main highlight is at ball of brown stuff served on top, which i'm guessing is deep fried shallots, dried scallops and shrimps.. Cause it was so fragrant, wished they give more of those though..

Ordered chicken feet for the bf, served in a different style than those we get at HK dimsum stored that has red sauce... This one was peppery and bf finished the whole plate.. Im not a fan of feets, but i tried the sauce and honestly love it..

My friends congee, loved the way they serve it, but portion was quite small, pretty silky texture but slightly lacking in flavour.. 

Well, if you are looking for good tasting food, then they are worth a try.. As for service, i was so pissed with their service, not attentive and machiam unwilling to serve us, took me like 3-4times to get them to our table to answer our queries.. Value for money? Honestly, they charge abit high just for those meagre portions of noodles and ingredients, but cause they tasted awesome, it kinda did covered up for that.. 

They are located at:

Taang Shi Fu

JB CIty Square, Level : 4 - Lot J4-21

My friend suggested for us to buy this pretty swissroll, as she tried before and find them quite delicious.. Apparently there is another store in city square that offers the same kind of swissrolls, but my friend tried both and prefer this store's version.. Located right at the level where you enter City Square..

Strawberry one was pretty mediocre, considering i paid for about SGD$5-6 for this one, i don't think it is so awesome that i must buy it the next time i go JB... Other than smoothness and softness of the spongey texture, its all average..

Matcha azuki swissroll, well as long as there is green tea, i sure buy.. This one was mediocre as well, thought there will be like pieces of red bean everywhere in this sponge or even inside the cream.. End up they used red bean paste and roll them into 2 parts of the cake, which i felt was pretty -.-||| my verdict? Not enough green tea powder and red bean needs modification.. 

If you guys still wanna try after my review, they are located at;

Yong Sheng Gift Shop

JB City Square, Level 3 - MF-14

XOXO,

CheryL

The Nook All Day Dining @ BIG Hotel

Heya! The night after sushi airways, i had a staycation at BIG hotel.. Yup, the new flashy hotel near kaplan @ wilkie edge, quite near rochor tau huey store.. So the next day, we actually had breakfast at their self-serve café which was included in the price of my staycation, thought i did a review, cause the food was pretty awesome, and not much people review on them yet...

So basically they do serve ala-carte dishes which you can order and pay from their self-serve kiosks, otherwise their hotel guests gets to have breakfast buffet from 6-11am, and after 11am if u happen to wake up late you are still able to redeem for a sandwich at their snack shelf..

Look at the amount of people at the cafe at 10am, and the interiors above were pretty awesome.. Like harry potter's library, just that instead of books, i see wine, lots of them..

So above is bf's and my first portion of breakie! Mee goreng fried using spaghetti which he quite like... And i had awesome baked beans, grilled tomatoes, beef, and awesome mushroom soup.. They are not those creamy kind where you get the mushroom taste but cant find much mushroom to chew on kind... Their version had lotsa mushroom minces in every mouthful of soup you take.. 

Oh and the highlights was them liu sha bao aka salted egg custard bun! You'll be surprised! They served  pretty awesome version of it! Not sure if their supplier made it, or their chef made it themselves, but either way it was addictive and awesome... Look at the awesomely hot and flowy custard oozing out when i tore the bun apart! Heavenly start for brekkie for me!

They had cereals, buns, a salad bar, fruit bar and some yoghurts for the health concscious people as well! But forgotten to snap a picture of that area... Oops :(

Sausage was awesome, hard boiled eggs were abit damaged, hashbrown was good too..

Overall verdict, so far one of the value for money breakfast, i wouldnt say that there are alot of variety, but every section provides substantial variety, and taste and quality was there, the food wasn't too salty or oily.. Not really sure if they do sell their breakfast buffet to the public, even if they have, im not sure how much they charge, but you guys can call the recept and ask;

BIG Hotel Singapore

200 Middle Rd, Singapore

bighotel.com

6809 7988

Sushi Airways @ Baghdad Street

Hello Everyone! after 2 weeks and i'm here to post again, pardon the delay, kept putting it off for my US and Korean dramas...

So I've been wanting to go to this restaurant ever since I saw their photos on instagram, think it was last year, and I finally got to try this on the 1st week of July... Look at the pretty lighted steps leading to the 2nd floor where SushiAirways Sushibar is located at;

Look at the awesome menu! Comes as a Flight Manual, and my flight ticket cause i made a reservation, so they indicated my name :)

 & here's a fun fact for the reason behind their awesomely fresh food!

Pretty lighted bar :)

Paid $11+ for this 4 thick pieces, but I reckon it was every inch worth, super succulent & fresh!

And my favourite, the larger version of my usual amaebi order at sushi express, paid $15+ for this 4 pieces, again super freshness and sweetness that I reckon was worth every cent.. :)

One of their signature dishes, the Double salmon roll, 8 pieces at $30+, way pricier than Shiok Maki at koh's grill & bar, but it was every piece worth with this dish as well :)

Look at this pretty close-up, and the flowers can actually be eaten, I didn't taste any unusual taste with the flower, you can almost say it almost wasn't there.. Of course if you guys prefer your maki to be drizzled with dollops of "fatteningly" awesome mayo and ebiko then well shiok maki would be the one for you, otherwise this was a fine dish as well, the crispy skin on top was a surprising combi...

Wanted to order their other signature dish, some mango lobster roll, but bf didn't quite like lobster, so we ordred the kani mentai cheese maki at $30+, another one of their dish recommended by the super friendly waitress...

Honestly, this was an intriguing dish, as I never had such a maki in this variant before... Then again, where was the mentai, couldn't taste much of it, it was more of the melted cheese top and the teaspoonfull of ebiko that was the highlights, should order to try but i'm definitely not a fan of it.. but we finished both plates of sushi though... :)

The verdict for this? Pleasant atmosphere facing the nightlife of haji lane, old japanese airplanes interior design, pleasant and attentive staff, even the boss asks us if we liked the food, and we see him patiently mentoring his chefs... GST already included in their pricings, and they only charge 10% service charge on your total bill.. this meal amounted to about $100 for 4 dishes, pricier than Koh's Grill & Sushi Bar, but this restaurant was every bit worth, you guys should give them a try.

Area of the restaurant is quite small, so it'll be good to call for reservations, they are more known for their value for money weekday lunch sets which I will never get to try unless I get an off day, i heard it was priced less than $20, you guys can google other reiews.. They are located at;

20A Baghdad Street
Singapore 199569
Tel: 6291 1151

Chef Noodles @ Harbourfront Centre

Hi guys! Last weekend was really hectic for me, i crazily packed my saturday schedule from 10.30am all the way to 12 midnight! Like yoga, ipl, lunch, yoga, chef noodles exclusive closed door tasting event and then 987FM RSVP hunting party..

So let's talk about the tasting event i was invited to! It's my first invite, and i was extremely excited! (Just a Disclaimer; i am not paid to do this blog entry, so everything that you will read below is just my honest views) 

So Chef Noodles is a celebrity chef's restaurant that 1st opened on 5th April 14 at harbourfront centre, and they are under Zingrill Holdings with familiar household names like Seoul garden under their group of restaurants.. & who's the famous chef? He is none other than Chef Choi In Sun! Anyways, this restaurant features Korean-Japanese Fusion Cuisine, with noodles, or ‘Guksoo’ in Korean, being the core of their menu items, and also dishes serves ‘Deopbap’ or Rice Tubs, and the ‘Bulchobap’, or Fire Sushi. For more information on their menu, please refer to: http://chefsnoodle.com.sg/menu-category/chefs_guksoo/ 

So here's the menu that we had for the night, and we chose pork belly wrap, and Chef's Bibim Guksoo and Daehan Deopbap, partially cause my table had 2 other friends who couldn't eat beef..

Here's the ice rubus tea, have no idea what it is made off, but honestly it tasted like ribena, and then it had this berry & floral taste, and it was a slightly cloudy drink, and you could see pulps upon close examination of the drink.. And then i googled & it says its a fruit similar to raspberry or blackberry! Anyways, other than the fact that it was a really nice drink and thirst quencher, we all found it too sweet even with ice! They could dilute it further.. At $4.90, it is still within reasonable price..

They portioned the sampler of appetizers really well, as we had only 3 pax on our table, we only had a piece of each, that came with a unique sauce that had wasabi in it, but not too pungent.. So basically there was the chives and prawn fritters that was like our local prawn fritters, only slightly healthier with the amount of chives it contained.. My friend loved it, whereas i found it only mediocre as prawn fritter isn't really my kind of food.. Mandu was awesome, reminds me of the awesome ones i had at seoul garden hotpot! Then there was this round breaded croquette like thingy, i loved that as the ingredients they used were like the fillings of a chicken pie! And they range from $5.90-$6.90 a plate, which is quite cheap..

Then came our pork belly wrap! Well i wouldnt say this was awesome, neither would i say it was bad.. It taste similar to the one i had at amara hotel, just that i don't really fancy pork belly, so I used my noodle's pork bulgogi to wrap it instead! And for $6.90 i think its freaking cheap though the portion is small, cause at amara i remembered paying $20-30+.. And they have options for pork or beef bulgogi wraps as well..

Jajang! My awesome bowl of noodles.. Haven't tried any korean or chinese dried sauce cold noodles before, so no idea if this is better than others! But i personally loved it.. The noodles weren't that cold as they catered to singaporean preferences.. The noodles were soft just the way i liked it, and importantly it wasn't instant noodles! The presentation and flavour of food was awesome for me, absolutely love the juicy sweet pork bulgogi meat and the spicy soy bean sauce that mixes well with the noodles.. At only $13.90, i would definitely go back for this dish.. And their signature egg roll that came with their noodles and rice was fluffy and awesome, like japanese tamago, but more moist and soft..

Their popular rice dish, Daehan Deopbap is a rice dish in a stylish wooden tub serves with a generous amount of savoury and delicious topping – from flavourful and sweet sautéed Bulgogi Beef to crispy battered stuffed ‘Gochu’ like our local yong tau foo but fried tempura style and a medley of healthy veggies.. Personally, though similar sauce as my cold noodles, i did not fancy this dish, rather order my noodles!

All their main dishes of Guksoo and Rice are served with 2 small portion of banchan; and all the dried mains are accompanied with a cup of peppery ‘Janchi’ broth which is refillable. This broth was like a mix of japanese miso soup and bak kut teh to me, thought i liked the soup, it was a lil salty.. :(

Look at chef preparing his signature fire sushi! This was so awesome! Wagyu beef slices fire blasted on the spot by Chef Choi, and he fed me!

And this is him preparing the signature Chef's guksoo, basically the soupy version of my dried noodles, and him showing his cartoon face that is toasted on his signature egg roll, and he says the chefs tried their best to get all the words and picture on the egg, but its still not that clear to see.. And he jokes that he hopes we will try to eat the words first then eat his head last.. XD

My overall verdict? You guys should come to try their guksoo whether soupy or dried, and the fire sushi! Its wagyu beef not some lousy cheap ass beef, and they are priced pretty reasonably!

Chef choi and his awesome team, and their morning cheer to build energy before they start work! He is such a pleasant guy, always similing!

They are located at:

• HarborFront Centre
• Singapore 099253
• 1 Maritime Square #01-99/100
• Tel:(65) 6271 3033
  Do make reservations prior, just in case..
  XOXO,CheryL