Rocku - Japanese Charcoal Grill

Bugis+ (previously known as Iluma) is where all the hype is going on. If you have yet to step into this mall, please do! There are tons of shops where you can do your fair share of shopping, cafes for you to rest your feet and restaurants/eateries for you to have your meals. And oh, the number of eateries? Too many to count, that's for sure.

So L and I were at Bugis+ deciding on a place to eat, and we decided on Japanese Charcoal Grill - RockU!

Empty dining area since we were the first few customers for dinner.

I guess they were trying to pull off a construction site/underground cave look. Especially when we see some waiters putting on the yellow helmets where they were taking our orders and serving us the food. I wouldn't say the whole dining area is a cosy one, although it was rather dark. There were music blasting in the restaurant, with some videos playing on one side of the wall.
Great place for casual meetups I would say.



Dining Utensils for the night

Attractive menu

Here's the menu. We decided to go for the 2-person set meal, which comes with a pork platter, 2 fried rice, and 2 miso soup. Since the rest of the dishes were rather costly, we only order an additional kimchi and a plate of chicken meat.

When the food is finally served, I personally got a shock, because the serving size are really small!

Kimchi

Like we paid S$3.90 for this small bowl of kimchi which I wouldn't advise anyone to order. There are too many better tasting kimchis out there.

Chicken

And this plate of countable pieces of chicken meat costs us S$7 .90. However, I must admit this is really tasty and probably the only dish which I truly enjoyed for the night.

Here's the Pork Platter.

Pork Platter/Combo

Which doesn't seems impressive either, because the meat:fat ratio is 1:4. And most of the vegetable in the middle of the plate are for display since neither of us fancy them.

We also had some fried rice that came along with the pork platter, which tasted rather bland, but at least decent. Or probably it was because we were hungry.

As usual, full of MSG.

The three items above costs us $34.90 - Pork Platter + Fried Rice x2 + Miso Soup x2.

The bill for the night came up to a total of S$54.95. Satisfying meal because the chicken meat went well with the fried rice. But will I come back again? Probably not. I would rather go for a korean bbq buffet with the amount of money paid.

ROCKU

201 Victoria Street

Bugis+ #04-06

Singpore 188067

Tel: 6634 3313

Ama Soy

When you think of Tauhuay, what comes to your mind? Lao Ban (the mother of the emerging tauhuay clan), 51, or maybe the ones we can get at our wet markets.

Oh, but here's one more to add to your list if you have yet to come across it - Ama Soy!

This is what caught my attention.

Just look at this! How adorable. And yes, there is an on-going promotion now, Buy 3 Get 1 Free.

Price list

There are a couple of flavours for you to pick. I have gotten the originals, because I feel that if the original is good then all the other flavours must be good too. After all, you can't make something bad good, but you can definitely make something good better. And in my honest opinion, these isn't one of the cheapest Tauhuay around. But let's hope they tasted good!

Soft, pudding-like Tauhuay seems to be the hot favourite now. When you shake the container, you can see the whole pudding shaking with you. It's ever softer, and more watery than Lao Ban.

Now to the tasting:

Once you get the Tauhuay into your mouth, it will instantly disintegrated and melt, enveloping all of your tongue. The level of sweetness is perfect. Sweet enough to keep people enjoy this dessert, yet not too sweet to chase people away after afew spoonfuls. Of course, eating this requires no chewing, which is perfect for ahma(s). Hence the store's name perhaps. Now, after swallowing the Tauhuay I felt that there is some powder at the back of my throat. No speculation as to which ingredient that powdery feeling stems from.

Generally, I feel that Tauhuays shouldn't contain traces of coffeemate. Tauhuays should be made from soya bean milk. Pure soya bean milk. Otherwise, why call it Tauhuay?

The Verdict:

Is this my kind of Tauhuay? Not really.

To be honest, I have yet to be a fan of these pudding-like tauhuay. Given a choice, I will gladly march to the hawker centre and get my 60cents tauhay fix. I'll yell over the counter (since the hawker centre is always noisy) for the aunty to add in more sugar syrup, and that's it. Somethings are better, when made the traditional way. And oh, I prefer warm Tauhuay.

But if you're a fan of pudding-like tauhuay, why not give this a try?

3/5 Stars.

Ama Soy

Blk 442, Clementi Avenue 3

Michelangelo's - Innovative Italian Cuisine

It's Restaurant Week! And of course both L and I couldn't give this chance to try good food a miss. I am very excited that I'm finally participating in RW for the first time!

Here is some background information, Restaurant Week comes bi-annually, and this October, Singapore has her 5th edition of Restaurant Week! RW, as the name suggests, means dining at participating restaurants which offers a set course menu at affordable prices! Lunch is a 3-course meal at top restaurants at S$ 25.00++, while dinner will be a 4-course meal at S$ 35.00++. If the restaurant of your choice is awarded a Dining City Star, then you will be required to top-up an addition S$ 15++/20++ for lunch/dinner respectively.

Being a huge lover of spaghetti, I've decided on an Italian restaurant, Michelangelo's, situated quietly in Chip Bee Gardens, just a stone throw away from Holland Village.

Two kinds of sitting arrangements, just pick what you like.

Panorama Shot

Perfect for first dates!

Just a word of caution, you may be a little uncomfortable over how dim the whole dining area is.

This seating arrangement will be nice if your date doesn't mean the heat, or if it isn't pouring.

Our set menu for the afternoon!

Don't worry if you're very hungry. While your dishes are being prepared, you will be served pieces of bread together with a platter of sides.

These taste perfectly normal. Nothing too fanciful. But please don't over stuff yourself with these.

For starters, both L and I picked Caesar Salad.

What attracted me was the poached egg. This is good. Wait, I mean this is very good. Fresh greens, drizzled with some magic sauce which is sweet and sour, yet not overwhelming. Simple, yet tasty enough to make both of us finish every single green on the plate. However, the bacon pieces, both chunky and flaky, was a little disappointing. Would prefer bacon bits anytime.

For the main course, L picked Quarantaotto, while I picked the Spaghetti Carbonara.

We were both surprised when this dish turns out like this, with soup. I guess that's the problem when you don't read the menu carefully, because I was expecting steak. But I feel that it turns out nice, because L commented that the meat was tender and tasty.

One word: Perfect-o.

Being a spaghetti lover, I have a soft spot for them. Which means everywhere I go, if I spot Spaghetti on the menu, I will not think twice about ordering that.

This particular dish, I must say, is lip-smacking good. I can't wait to finish everything in one go, yet I want to savour it for as long as I can. The spaghetti is done al-dente, not under or overcook like how some restaurants might. The white wine cream sauce is really tasty. Some wine sauce may be too strong, and turns people off with the 'wine taste', but this is done so perfectly, the wine sauce just brings the whole dish up to a higher level.

By this time, I am already extremely satisfied with my meal, and I can't wait for the desserts to be served because I believe that good desserts to sum up the meal is as important as the main courses being good.

I'm not a Tiramisu fan, after learning that it is made from raw egg. But this particular Tiramisu won me over, both its appearance and taste.

What is more amazing is the attentiveness of the waiter/waitress, who never fail to refill our glasses without being prompt to do so, even though the bottle of water is on our tables. At the end of the meal, when one of them saw L and I trying to take a photo on our own, he came up and initiated to help us take a photo. Isn't this what F&B service should be all about?

This meal came up to a total of S$ 96.51 for the both of us.

Inclusive of a whooping S$ 12.00 for the above aqua mineral.
I have to admit that this meal is quite expensive, and not exactly pocket friendly. But for the ambience, quality of food served, and of course, the thoughtfulness of the waiter/waitress, this particular meal is worth every penny.

Will I be back again? Yes I will, definitely. But I need to make sure that there's a promotion going on, else my wallet will not be able to afford it.

Michelangelo's

Blk 44 Jalan Merah Saga

#01-60, Chip Bee Garden

Holland Village

Ling Zhi - Food for the Vegetarian

Buffets, buffets, buffets. Buffets are common, but hey, vegetarian buffet is smth new to me.

Having tried Lao Beijing by Tung Lok w L and have a good dining experience, I obviously jumped at the chance of trying another new restaurant by Tung Lok - Lingzhi vegetarian, since both mummy and grandmother is on vegetarian diet that day.

I know, I know. You're being turned off by the thought of greens in trays waiting for you to eat them, no meat, no nothing, just vegetables and vegetables. This is where you are wrong. Because being a vegetarian doesn't mean there is nothing other than green leafy vegetables. There's delicious mock meat (which I suggest for people who are on a diet, to steer clear away from them since they are made up of flour), and desserts!

I believe a pleasant dining experience comprises of good food + good service. But unfortunately, this place doesn't provide any resemblance of reasonable service. Despite having made reservations, the waitress at the reception refused to let us in reason being that our seats are still currently occupied by the current customers. Why couldn't they let us have another table which is obviously unoccupied, and not reserved? As long as you explain it to us calmly, I'm sure we'll understand what is going on. After all, my family are very harmonious people.

Add in a small section of steamed dimsum and two pots of desserts, and basically you'll have the whole selection of food for the buffet itself. But of coruse, bearing in mind that this is just a hi-tea buffet, one can't expect much from it isn't it?

Fried beehoon and noodles are really tasty and not too oily. They went very well with the curry served as gravy. Lip-smacking combination, I went back for seconds.

Mock Shark Fin Soup

My all-time favourite dish. Perhaps I have held expectations that is too high for this dish, I was utterly disappointed. Not that it was bad of course, but it tasted a lot better with loads of pepper and vinegar.

Here are some of the steamed dimsum they provided. Not all impressed though.

The steamed mock char siew bun were fluffly, light, and tasty. Both my grandmother and daddy were full of praises for it.

These are bad. The skin is too thick for all our liking. For perfect steamed dimsum, the skin should be thin and light. When I sank my teeth into this little pouches of delicate looking dimsum, I thought I was eating into a slab of tough dough. Enough said.

This is so good. Lip-smacking, finger-licking good, and everything nice. But this may be a biased opinion because I've a soft spot for Lotus Paste. I had 3 trays of these, each tray consisting of 2. Everything with Lotus Paste tastes awesome. I can just survive on Lotus Paste alone daily. But okay, from an unbiased point of view, this isn't well done. The whole bun is hard and tough, the skin were (as usual) hard and thick too.

This is...interesting. For me, this doesn't taste right at all. Weird combination, or maybe I just dont fancy this.

Dessert time!

Walnut Cream

Not too sweet, perfect for the eldery or if you dont have a sweet tooth.

Chilled Mango Juice with Sago

This will make it up to people with sweet tooth. Chilled and sweet, the way I like my desserts to be. I had to go for seconds even though I was stuffed.

The food isn't lousy, but definitely not tasty enough to attract me back for another trip. And of course, the service was a huge turn-off. $113 for 6, which even out to be $18.80 for each person, I can't complain much about the variety of food, can I?

Lingzhi Vegetarian Restaurant by Tung Lok (Novena Square outlet)

238 Thomson Road

#03-09 Velocity @ Novena Square

Singapore 307683

Tel: +65 6538 2992

Opening Hours :
Mondays - Fridays
Lunch : 11:30am - 3:00pm
Dinner : 6:00pm - 10:00pm

Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
Lunch : 11:00am - 3:00pm
Hi-Tea : 3:00pm – 5:00pm
Dinner : 6:00 - 10:00pm