Manhatten Fish Mart - Fishy Biz

My buddy will be jetting off to UK for a year come Sept08 so I promised her that we'll meet up more before her departure.
So yesterday we made plans to meet up for lunch with another good friend of ours.
Apparently all of us have a very bad concept of time and ended up meeting at 1245 instead of the arranged 1220. But anyway, after some quick brain stoming, we settled at the Manhatten Fish Mart for lunch and gossip.

Settling into a comfy sofa bench, we leisurely glanced thru the menu and decided to order the Seafood Platter meal to share after checking that it comes with 3 sets of soup and drinks.
One of the girls wanted the Clam Chowder after being seduced by the delicious looking picture on the menu so we checked and were told that we can top up a dollar for that as the "soup of the day" was originally cream of mushroom which was wat we did.

The soup and drink ( we all had peach tea by the way) came pretty fast. The clam chower came with fair amounts of baby clams but tasted just like those from the cans, extremely ordinary.
After waiting for about 20 mins, our platter came.
Here. See that whole fish?

That took me a little by surprise as I was expecting a fried fish fillet like those from Fish and Chips. And calamaris were missing too, replaced by fried ikan bilis. I felt a little cheated.

But well, we were famished and made no delays tucking into our food. The mussels were the first to make it's way into our growling tummy due to it's strategic location. Topped with buttery sauce, they were ok. Then I discovered everything else is topped on some like of buttery sauce, be it the rice, prawns, mussels, fries or veggies. So needless to say, everything tasted just like the other. However, the butter sauce was quite good so that in a way is a plus and the fish was quite fresh. So overall, the platter was ok.
The rice and butter sauce was a good combi and I kept feeding myself one mouthful after another with that. The fries was crispy but would be better if it was hotter and a little spicy.

I would rate this place as average and unless u are looking for butter sauce, not somewhere I would be in a hurry to return.

Ma Maison - Good Food Good Decor Good Service

Made plans to meet up with my pal for lunch at Central.
After some fundamental research, it seems like Ma Maison is a pretty good lunch location (I always have a soft spot for Japanese food).

I arrived earlier than the friend so I walked around leisurely for a short while and found that Central seems to be very Japanese-oriented, populated by lots of Japanese restaurant like Waruku, Pasta de Waruku, Tom Ton to name a few.

Soh arrived after a brief 10 min wait and we proceeded to hunt for Ma Maison. Along the way, she got distracted by Coffee Club but I promptly steer her in the "right" direction.

Ma Maison is located in an isolated corner on the 3rd floor and easy to miss if you are not vigilent.
The decor reeks of english cottage feel (read: very woody) and spots a cozy interior.
We were the 1st customers for lunch today and were promptly seated.

2 glasses of water appeared almost simultaneously to the speed in which our butts touch the chair. Truly impressive.
Ma Maison have taken the liberty of deciding that everyone will be having their set lunches because ala carte menu is non-existant during my visit.
After some careful mulling, I ordered the hamburger steak set while my petite pal have the Omu rice set as she is restricted to a non-beef diet.

The soup and small salad came after we placed our orders as part of the set lunch.
The clam chowder is donned with bits of bacon, onion and baby clamps, quite ok.
Salad is as salad as a salad gets. No comments.

The main course arrived after a brief wait, with the omu rice looking really appetizing.
Here, look at the fluffy eggs.



Don't they look delicious?
My petite friend has a petite appetite, I think I polished off 1/4 of this for her on top of my own orders.

The ketchup coated rice was tasty and not at all "ger lat".

My hamburger steak arrived immediately after in a hot plate, with a serving of fries and a plate of sushi rice.
The presentation of the food is always impecable as in most Jap eatery.
The hamburger steak is a little on the salty side. Fries are very munchy and I like them very much (but then again, I almost always like my fried stuff).
The rice is the glistering type of rice you find in your sushi, steamed to a good "doneness". So good that I finished the big serving of rice.

We ended our lunch with lots of gossip and the coffee and tea.


Ma Maison

6 Eu Tong Sen St. @ Central
#03-96 Singapore 059817

Marutama Ra-men - Far from Good

Long queues seen everyday.
Late and you may not even have the chance to savour their ramen - sold out.
All the signs points to fantastic food.
So me and 2 buddies decided to go there for lunch to try the highly popular (and expensive) ramen while gripping over our lives.

OK, so I was late for lunch. The friend that was early (or rather on-time) had to "chop" seat for us. She told me that the waitress(es?) kept giving her dirty looks and was about to make her give up the seat if I was another 5 min late.
You can see how popular this little joint is.

After some quick apologies and settling down into the much coveted seat. I run over the menu which was a 1-pager.
Basically there are only 3 types of ramen or rather stock to choose from - the basic chicken stock, chicken stock with green chili or the special stock (some 7 nut stock), each costing $12, $12 and $15 respectively.

NO nut lovers among us so the orders were 3 marutama ramen, 2 spicy version.

I was very disappointed when I sipped the stock which to me is the soul of a good ramen. It is not rich enough and not flavourful enough to make the cut of a good ramen and it is rather oily.
The noodles are decent but again expected of any good ramen.That bowl of $12 ramen came with 1 small,miserable piece of fat laden char siew and some spring onions and seaweed (read overpriced).

Lucky for me, I did not have to queue to try ramen of this calibre thanks for my punctual friend who had to take dirty looks for 30mins while waiting for us to arrive (Sorry ok?).

In short, overpriced and over-rated.

Marutama Ra-men
6 Eu Tong Sen Street,
#03-90/91 The Central @ Clarke Quay,
Singapore