For my order, I chose light for saltiness of the broth, less oil and hard noodles. I really liked the soup. The sweetness of lobster coupled with the savoury and fragrant blend of 3 different types of miso made for a good, full-bodied broth. I also found this miso to have a more delicate flavour compared to other miso ramen I've had, so it definitely didn't overpower. If you would like a more pronounced flavour of lobster, the clear lobster broth was also tasty and very homely. It also didn't taste like a glorified version of prawn noodles to me, cause it was sweeter and had a purer flavour. I didn't really fancy the toppings here (but I appreciated the variety - dumpling, chicken chashu and pork chashu), which paled in comparison to what's offered at other Keisuke branches.
Not quite the coffeeshop prices I was expecting (this was $19 nett), but the steak is significantly heftier and finished so nicely! Here, you get to choose the doneness of your steak - we chose medium and it turned out really juicy. For the sauce, we had the rosemary brown sauce, which was tasty but a little too starchy. The fries were very average. The highlight of the platter is the steak.
The gravy for the chicken was my fave part. It had shallots in it which added a really nice fragrance to the curry. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that the curries here would do better with a little more heat in them, but the depth of flavour won me over. The rice was delicately spiced and very fluffy, and the portion of chicken (the breast meat might be a tad dry) was more than enough. If you prefer something more tender, you need to get the mutton briyani which is so soft and comes in an equally flavourful curry. Try the mutton murtabak as well!
I was initially a bit worried that this stew would be too sour for my liking due to the tamarind, but it wasn't the least bit tangy. In fact, it was (again) too sweet for me. This however was more palatable than the beef shin because the stew was actually really rich and well-spiced. A pity the aftertaste was sugary sweet. :(
Fork tender beef, generous side of steamed bokchoy, but... There was way too much sugar in this for my taste. A corner of the beef was in fact chewy due to the caramelised sugar. It tasted a little like bakkwa but in the form of lor bak, which was a truly odd culinary experience for me cause I wa definitely expecting something savoury.
Juicy chunks of pomelo, dressed in a sweet-tangy dressing and accompanied by the rich nuttiness of cashews made for a really good appetiser and palate cleanser.
A lighter alternative to the Truffle Short Rib bowl, this came with two meaty pieces of salmon and diced zucchini. The salmon was lightly seasoned and the yuzu flavour was subtle. It tasted really healthy, but wasn't satiating for me as the portion was quite small.
The sesame ice shavings were good - really soft and fine, and packed a punch of flavour. This came with a red bean topping, which is a classic flavour combination. Though you don't get as many toppings as in a bingsoo, at just $5-6 a bowl, the Snow Ice here is an affordable and really good option. They have it in a wide range of flavours (including DURIAN and SOURSOP) as well.
One of the stalls at Pasar Bella (Suntec) is Grillo, which I've patronised several times for the donburi. My fave is this one - Japanese rice topped with beef slices, an onsen egg and fried garlic chips, and drizzled with a sweet, truffley soy sauce. I thought the garlic and truffle went really well together, and the beef was a tender and juicy medium. Will recommend it!
Sumiya offers some really nice set lunches available till 2.30pm! I ordered the conger eel rice bowl set, which came with chawanmushi, miso soup, a salad, pickles and a really yummy matcha mochi! I loved all the sides! The eel on my rice bowl was also good. Look at that shine! I've had eel where the bones were still hard, but this one's been stewed till the bones were so soft I couldn't even detect them. 👍🏼 Not to mention, the amount of eel just overwhelms my rice hahaha. I think this was quite a steal at $21.80++
Tendon seems to be all the rage recently, and the queue at Kohaku was insane. I joined the queue at around 8pm but still had to wait for an hour 😭 At least the tendon I had was quite yummy! It's topped with a mountain of tempura (battered prawns, chicken, asparagus, mushroom and pumpkin) - what a great deal for $15! The sauce drizzled on the tempura is stickier and sweeter than the dipping sauce we usually see. If you can't get enough of fried food, you'll be very happy with this tendon! For me though, it got a little heavy after 3-4 pieces so I would have preferred to share this. I got myself some green tea which is free flow and that helped too.
Super yummy tendon set! I'm not much of a fan of fried food but I wouldn't mind having this again because the tempura batter was light and airy, and it wasn't greasy. I also prefer the tendon sauce here to kohaku's because it was less sweet, and was lighter tasting. I like the fact that the set comes with miso soup and chawanmushi, which made all the fried food less monotonous. OH and this tendon comes with a nice gooey egg that I mixed into my rice. It was soooo good eaten with the tendon sauce. There wasn't much of a queue when we got there at 5.30pm. :)
