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

Ichiban Sushi - Value for money

The family is a supporter of Ichiban Sushi inheriantly because of the set meals they offer - value for money.
I suppose the many people queueing outside the restaurant last night feels the same way.

After waiting for ~45mins, they finally have a table for us. But alas, the table was one that was supposed to be for 4 pax and we had to squeeze in or wait somemore for a bigger table (which I did not see) that can seat all of us comfortably.
So 6 rumbling stomachs echoed "food over space" and we settled for the small table.

A quick look at the menu - the menu which we are all very familiar with by now. The only thing that changes are the promotional set meals which did not appeal to me last night, so back to my cannot-go-wrong orders - Salmon Teriyaki set meal.

At this point, one of the server (prbly the restaurant manager) came over to tell us that there is a counter table that is more spacious and asks if we wish to change table and so we did.

After placing all our orders, we waited not-so-patiently for our food (hungry men and women are not patient people). To my pleasant surprise, the food was served very promptly (<15mins!) except Mr HB's promotional set.

Food is nothing to rave about, just average but the portions are generous - Big piece of grilled salmon drizzled with sweet teriyaki sauce and some slices of lettuce, tomato and cucumber (meant to be salad?), chawanmushi, rice, miso soup and 2 slices of watermelon to finish off the meal. All for the price of $14.90. So nothing much to complain about.
The family also ordered the salmon head soup, tempura curry rice, gyu-don with fried chicken set (promotional set of the month) and salmon sashimi.

Foodwise - OK, nothing exceptional but nothing to complain also

Service wise - I'd like to praise that lady server for the initiative for offering us the "bigger" table though personally I think that didn't help anything.

Space wise - A big no-no for big group of people.

Ichiban Sushi
90 Hougang Avenue 10, #02-23 Hougang Mall, Singapore

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

Tonkichi - Commendable Jap Food

Where do you go when you need groceries (read diapers, milk power...), good selection of food and shopping under 1 roof?

The answer is obvious - Suntec City.

From the throngs of traffic leading to their carpark, you can be assured that many Singaporeans feel the same way.

The family feels like eating japanese tonight. Mr HB recommended Tonkichi after his dinner with his biz associate.
The restaurant was pretty crowded on this Sunday night.
We took quite a bit of time to run thru the menu as this is our first visit (with the exception of Mr HB).

After what seemed like forever (it prbly appeared so to the wait staff as they attempt to take our orders at least twice), we finally decided on the following
1. Una Ju - grilled eel on rice
2. Teriyaki chicken with sashimi
3. Curry Udon with Tonjuri (miso soup with condiments)
4. Tonjiru Udon
5. Unagi and Tempura
6. Crispy Salmon Roll

My order of Una Ju was pretty good. The grilled eel was nicely done, tender and drizzled in sweet teriyaki sauce. yummy....
Rice is of good quality which enhances the bite factor when eaten with the eel.

Chawanmushi is light and fragrant and miso soup packs in taste and has the oomph (as opposed to diluted watery miso soup).

Salmon slices used in the salmon roll are fresh and the salmon skin embedded in the sushi rice together with wasabi mayonnise gives a good crunch and taste to the roll.

I was unable to pick off the other plates due to a fussy son that needs to be pacified but according to Mr HB the sashimi was fresh and the teriyaki chicken was tasty.

The tonjiru is flavourful with lots of ingredients.Overall, I would say that the family had an delicious dinner at Tonkichi.

p.s.I did notice that there are quite a no. of pages dedicated to Fried food in the menu and only after my dinner and reading the reviews on HGW did I realise that they specialise in Tonkatsu.

Oh well, guess I can only try it on my next visit.

Tonkichi
3 Temasek Boulevard, #B1-009 Suntec City Mall, Singapore

Ichiban Ramen - Instant Noodles in Disguise

This was the first meal we have in Sunway Pyramid and it was a take away as my elder kid was crying from a tummy ache, so we gathered we had to go back to the hotel for her to rest while we eat.

We order 2 Chicken Katsu Ramen to go and left hastily once we lay our hands on the food.

The staff have nicely packed the soup and the noodles and chicken chop separately so that it will not be soggy when we eat.
Afer settling down the kid briefly, we sat down for our ramen. The noodles looked like a thicker cousin of instant noodles and indeed tasted like one. The soup looked thick and does taste thick but the taste is not those you call a good ramen stock. It's somewhat salty and lacking in the essential taste in the "good soup" department.

The chicken chop did some saving grace for the ramen. It was properly grilled and well seasoned to bring out the flavours of the chicken.

Ichiban Ramen
3 Jalan PJS 11/15,
LL2.31 Sunway Pyramid,
Bandar Sunway,
Petaling Jaya, Petaling,
Kuala Lumpur

Tampopo Restaurant - Come here for your Jap fix

I brought Mr HB here for his ramen fix upon an ex-colleague's recommendation.
It has since become a place for our japanese fix (for various jap food) other than Iciban.

The black pig ramen was somthing that had our attention and made it to our order list during our first visit, I ordered the Hokkido street ramen.
The soup of the ramen was tasty and flavourful, delicious.Mr HB commented that the black pig was tender and melt in your mouth. This was then recommended to our family during our subsequent visits.

After tasting such good ramen, we had to return, no?
The next visit was with the family. This time I decided to try the Katsu Set. The pork fillet was battered and fried to a good crisp while retaining the tenderness of the meat beyond the batter. The set comes with miso soup, rice and fruits.
Definately value for money.

It was during this visit that Mr HB fell in love....with the Salmon Chirashi. Thick slices of salmon together with a few slices of tamago sets his heart racing.
This has since became his staple order whenever we visit.

After hearing him rave about it for the longest, I decided I have to seek out my "rival". But alas, I was also captivated by this dish. The salmon slices are really generous and fresh, together with the lightly vinegared rice....lovely combination. The thought of sinking my teeth into the wonderful salmon leaves my imagination running wild....

On one occassion, we also tried the light chiffon cheesecake. This is supposed to be the first in SG. On first bite, it seems to be a rather ordinary sponge cake. But the taste slowly works into you. The cheese is light and does not make you overly sick and the cream adds flavour and taste to the cake. I can definately down a few more of these during our future visits.

Must Tries: Salmon Chirashi, Black Pig Ramen

Tampopo Restaurant
177 River Valley Road,
#01-23/24 Liang Court Shopping Centre,
Singapore