Genki Ninja Bowl from Ninja Bowl – yaki unagi, roasted pumpkin, beansprouts, onsen egg, pickled beet. The usually wriggly eel completely lays limp in sweet, luscious surrender here, whilst elsewhere the various crunchy elements each bring something different to the table – the beets bring a veggie wetness, the pumpkin…
Roasted cod and soba noodle salad from Populus – roasted cod loin, soba noodles, marinated mushrooms, lightly pickled vegetables, broad beans, lime and sesame dressing. Whilst the saltily-skinned cod may have gone a tad overboard in its vain efforts to achieve a Kim Kardashian-esque bronze, the soba noodles were intriguingly…
Kaisen Ninja Bowl from the newly-opened Ninja Bowl – pan-seared Hokkaido scallops, mussels, mixed mushrooms, lemon butter sauce and carrots with added quinoa. The four Hokkaido scallops had a taut, delectable crunch, while elsewhere the carrots possessed the youthful sweetness of a fat smiling baby and the lemon butter sauce…
Wafu Tagliatelle from Mariko’s – mixed mushroom, wafu, bluefin chunks, konbu sauce. The waifish pasta seemed to have slathered salted buttery all over its slithery body before sliding down a smoking chimney to join its thick, crunchy mushroom friends at the other end. 3.9/5 This was a hosted meal, courtesy…
Bangkok Fried Chicken with green chilli nam jim from Bird Bird. The chicken smells like it had just finished a rejuvenating spa session, whilst elsewhere the green chilli nam jim launches a fiery seed blast which envelopes your tongue with a sharp citric wave – an attack that is, interestingly,…
Penne Cioppino from The Wicked Garlic – fresh prawns, squid and NZ half shell mussels and Asiatic clams in a soupy white wine sauce with homemade pesto sauce. Whilst the soupy sauce was suitably salty and steeped in oceanic goodness, the shellfish had the languor of a Bedok kopitiam drinks…
Goldband snapper sag aloo with garam masala from Ding Dong. The piquant gravy was an appetite-whetting cross between tangy assam and powdery curry which the soft fish soaked up unreservedly. Elsewhere, the soft spinach displayed a multiculturalism Social Studies teachers would fawn over, speaking fluently in Chinese despite its Indian…
Marinated pork loin, celeriac purée, baby carrots and onions with whole grain mustard from 999.99 Five Nines. The pork loin was well-cooked and suitably roasty with the slight toughness of a Signals NSF sergeant whilst elsewhere, the light sauce-tempered and wasabi-esque militant tang of the mustard kept the proceedings lively.…
Grilled Spanish octopus with Jerusalem artichoke, burnt onion and oyster leaf from Esquina. The octopus had a sensual and deeply roasty quality which extended to its very core, and its suction cups will disengage recklessly inside your mouth, offering more artillery for your crunching pleasure. Elsewhere, the burnt onion will…