Genki Sushi

make your order on an ipad, and your food arrives on a lil bullet train on a conveyer belt! how cute is that!!! :D hehe.

yep i think coming to genki sushi is a lot about the whole experience - it's pretty fun! the quality of the food is not bad, but i would say the selection is pretty limited.

we were absolutely starving when we reached the restaurant!!!!! because there was a queue as well (they dont take reservations), so we had to wait pretty long before going in. started ordering massive amounts of food. first ordered the inari ($1.80), a hot favourite among us. loved the light sweetness of the beancurd skin.

we were on a sashimi craze, and ordered several portions of the salmon nigiri ($2.30) and also the sake oyako don ($7.80). the sashimi was pretty fresh, and gosh, i have to say the sake oyako don is the most value-for-money sashimi rice ever!!! :D now i know where to go for affordable and good sashimi rice. there was quite a generous portion of sashimi!

we also ordered the chicken teriyaki don ($5.80). i feel like i havent eaten this dish for the longest time! haha, it was pretty good!

i loved my soft shell crab handroll ($3.80)! the crab was fried to a delicate crisp :)

i think this was the salmon belly nigiri ($2.30). not too sure actually. but should be? IT WAS LOVELY! :D one grade higher than normal salmon sashimi, this was seared lightly on the top, and the belly fats lent an additional flavour to the dish. dont worry, it's healthy fats ;)

finally, we had the takoyaki ($3.80). it came piping hot on the inside, and i'm always so fascinated by the fish flakes on top! haha they can move! lol.

Genki Sushi

Orchard Central #03-32

Tel.: +65 6238 0900

Daily 11.30am-10pm

Flam's

flam, short for flammekueche, is a traditional french dish: a thin crust dough, creamy base of yogurt and spices, sweetened by a touch of creme fraiche (gahh i've always wanted to buy this ingredient but still have not gotten down to doing it!) and chopped beech smoked bacon. sounds interesting eh? it's like the french version of thin crust pizza. and for the hungry people to take note, it is baked in less than 3 minutes! which means that it can be served super duper fast :D when i went there, it was pretty empty, so we really didnt wait long for our food. good thing, especially since we were starving. we ordered 4 flams, and they served two first, told us to eat it while it was hot and they would pop the next two in the oven when we were halfway through with the first round so that we could eat them fresh. thumbs up! :)

from their traditional flam's selection, we ordered the fresh mushroom gratinee ($16). fresh mushroom slices, emmental cheese and small bacon strips - i loved how light and healthy this dish felt.

the other flams we ordered were all from their signature selection. the french ($18) was one of the chef's recommendations, and was richer than the other flam we had. topped with french camembert, it was creamy and slightly buttery. the walnuts provided a wonderful contrast, both in terms of texture and taste, and balanced out the milkiness of the cheese beautifully.

the parmentiere ($19) was another rich flam, just look at the amount of cheese! i felt the minced beef was a little dry though. i would have liked it better if there was a tad more juice/sauce.

probably my favourite of the lot was the chicken tarragon ($17). i wonder why the photo looks so green? haha anyway, there was a generous topping of tender roasted chicken breast and fresh mushroom slices that made a delightful combination. i couldnt really taste the whole grain mustard unfortunately! but i still loved it anyway.

one thing about flams is that they have lots of onions!!!! -.- haha as in i do eat onions, but i kinda felt they were an overkill here. it was really a lot. and in every single flam. after awhile i couldnt take it anymore and i just took them all out. anyway, this was a pretty interesting experience. didnt know that there were pizza-like food in france as well! haha.

Flam's

Orchard Central #02-30

Tel.: +65 6884 4202

Sun-Thu 11.30am-10.30pm

Fri & Sat 11.30am-11pm

Bilbao Restaurant & Gastrobar

my family has a funny habit of visiting places repeatedly within a short period of time. just so you know, we visited tripleone somerset once a week for three consecutive weeks (this being our third visit) to explore the different restaurants there. oh btw, for those who drive, you'll be glad to know that parking there is pretty affordable compared to other carparks in the orchard road area, which is one of the reasons why we frequented that place so much :P haha.

we were first attracted to bilbao's by the really friendly service staff (possibly the boss) who came out to greet us with enthusiasm when we just walked past during our first visit at applebee's. because of that, we decided that we had to visit this place again for a meal (:

the day we went there, they were having a special promotion where the saffron rice with seafood was going at a heavily discounted price of $10 per portion, compared to the original price of $50! definitely, the portion was significantly smaller, but considering we were not very hungry then, the two small plates we got were just enough to satisfy the five of us. the rice was fragrant, scented with the saffron spice, and there was a variety of seafood on each plate like prawns, mussels, clams and cuttlefish. since it was going at just $10, we obviously didn't expect much seafood, but i would think that the $50 version has much more.

before that, the meal kicked off with a complimentary plate of crusty, yet fluffy, bread, with pieces of ham inside! (: the ham added a surprise element to this appetizer, and the sauce that came with it was really interesting, i'm not entirely sure what it is. but it tasted like a very light kind of cream sauce.

we ordered a couple of tapas. sorry for the awful picture quality. i didn't have my camera with me (how on earth could i forget?!) so i had to use my phone, and the lighting was pretty bad. anyway, we had the basque sausages slow cooked in white wine ($9). this was perhaps the weirdest dish we had that day. the sausages were really quite odd! the texture was sort of chunky and gritty, definitely unlike the sausages we're used to. i also felt that the white wine sauce could have been tastier, because it tasted pretty average to me.

we had intended to order another dish, but instead what we were served was the prawns with garlic tapas. the smell was delicious, and so we decided not to pursue our original order haha (: the prawns were fresh and cooked perfectly, the fragrance of the garlic infused into the meat. simple and yummy.

the meatballs madrid style ($25) came recommended by food reviews, and it didn't disappoint. lovely minced meat rolled into balls of tasty goodness. there was very little sauce, and the meatballs tasted great already without it, but as usual i tried to pour as much sauce as i could on my meatballs, and they complemented it perfectly. the only possible gripe i could have was...i wanted more!! haha.

the oxtail stew in red wine sauce ($38) totally didn't look like a stew at all! where was all the soup/sauce? haha. despite its appearance though, it was a lovely dish :D the meat was so tender and soft that it just fell off the bone. sooo yummy (:

and to round off our meal, we ordered the platter of desserts ($20), which is a sample of the desserts on their menu. actually the only thing i tried was the apple tart, which was a soft baked apple on a crusty tart which was pretty yummy! i ALMOST tried the cheesecake before yi yelped with shock when she put it in her mouth. i practically dropped my fork when she did that. anyway, it totally put me off it, and to add on, i gave it a sniff and it smelled pretty odd? :/ usually cheesecakes are made from the soft and sweet types of cheese, whereas this one smelled of really strong cheese, the savoury kind. seemed really weird, i refused to eat it. the custard was said to be quite nice too, although i didn't try it because i was too full already.

altogether a pretty decent meal (:

Bilbao Restaurant and Gastrobar

Tripleone Somerset #02-16

Tel.: +65 6737 0150

Mon-Sat: 12pm-3pm

6pm-11pm

Italiannies

tripleone somerset does have quite a few interesting food places that i want to check out! the last time i went there, i walked past italiannies and i was totally drawn towards the restaurant by the gorgeous looking cakes on display. ironically, when i actually ate in the restaurant this time, i didn't try the desserts because we were just way too full. oh dear, i need to stop eating so much. arghhhhhh. 

one of the factors that enticed me as well were the interesting drinks on the menu! and the best part was that we went there during the happy hour (after 7pm if im not wrong), so the cocktails were going at $12.90 and house pours at $7.90 (i think!! i can't really remember :P) PLUS finger food as well. awesome much! :D i ordered rome, which is that funny green-coloured drink. omg weirddddddd. when i first saw my drink, i was really apprehensive. but actually i think out of all the cocktails, mine tasted best. i'm still getting used to the taste of alcohol, don't really like too much of it yucks :/ rome was a blend of melon liqueur and passion fruit flavour. i liked how the passion fruit added a fresh zest to the drink, which would have otherwise been to sweet. this was the case of the tennesea peach where i think the cranberry and alcohol just made it sorta unbearable. the red sangria was definitely stronger than the one we had at applebee's haha. definitely better in terms of the authenticity, but then again, i preferred the taste of the less alcoholic version. haha. all the drinks here seemed to have a pretty high alcoholic content, but for some amazing reason, i felt the effects less than what i would usually feel for lower-content alcoholic drinks. hmmm. haha usually my eyelids would start drooping, *yawns*

anyway, like i mentioned, the cocktails & house pours come with finger food during happy hour. we could just help ourselves to the thin-crust pizza at the bar. there were whole pizzas there! woohoo! :D and since all five of us ordered drinks, they served a pile of the pizzas to us. whee :D i have no idea what was on these pizzas, but the red one tasted somewhat like seafood (i liked the crispy bits on top!) and the green one was probably some basil or spinach pizza. immersed with some crushed garlic (i think) and with pine nuts scattered on top, it was really yummy ;)

and they served bread with olive oil as well! there were two kinds of bread - one was the grainy version with different kinds of nuts and stuff embedded in it, while the other was white bread. the bread was soft, but i felt that they could either have had a softer crust, or if not, toast it to make the crust crispy. instead it was somewhere in between, where the crust was slightly tough. anyway, i enjoyed it (: and all these were even before the main dishes arrived! i was half full already.

first up was our appetizer of roasted tomato with spicy calamari ($14.90). the size of the appetizer was HUGE. omg, it could well have been served as a main meal on its own. i loved the mushy sun-dried tomatoes that were infused with a nice smokey flavour and there was such a generous amount of sauce for the whole dish, which i mopped up with a hidden slice of bread under all the calamari. the squid was fresh and springy, and the cannellini beans (finally i know what they are!!!) were delicious.

then we had our humongously-sized curry puff. just kidding, it was the beef calzone ($18.90) which was probably my favourite dish of the day (: i loved the mix of ingredients, from the ooooooozy mozzarella cheese, blend of mushrooms, ham, salami, olives and artichokes encased in a light crust. yummy! i felt that the crust could have been crisper, but i liked the pastry anyway (: and it came topped with a wonderfully tasting tomato paste as well :D

we also ordered the pork chop with garlic and sage ($22.90) which came lightly breaded (great! not too oily) and covered with a lovely tasting sauce. i enjoyed the roasted vegetables that came with it as well. so fragrant (: i think they do their tomatoes here really nicely!

and i was so excited to create my own ravioli ($18.80)!! i thought it was damn cool! xD haha. first you get to chose the type of ravioli (i selected the white truffles with parmigiano reggiano) and sauce (spicy chili and parma ham). yeah well, okie i'm super blur. i never realised that parmigiano reggiano was a type of cheese. zomg. it was super duper cheesy. we had a hard time finishing it cos it was really rich. but the flavour of the truffles was AWESOME. this is actually the first time i could actually taste it properly. normally it is too subtle and i would not be able to tell the difference, but i think the combination of flavours this time really allowed the truffles to shine :D all in all, this was a delicious dish, if not for the overwhelming richness of the cheese. (:

Italiannies

TripleOne Somerset #01-02

Tel.: +65 6736 4211

Sun-Thu: 12pm - 10.45pm last call

Fri- Sat 12pm - 11.45pm last call

Applebee's

i've taken the bus past this place a few times a week and keep wanting to check it out! (: it's located in TripleOneSomerset - one of the few restaurants there! i think that place looks quite nice! :D but it's mostly offices, and not much retail/f&b. there are two jap restaurants there which didn't look very appealing, but i would love to check out the italian & spanish restaurants there! wait for the reviews!! soon, hopefully ;)

as always, when i see nachos, I HAVE TO ORDER THEM :D heehee. the chili cheese nachos ($16.80) looked rather disappointing when they first arrived. i mean, the colour didn't look very appetizing somehow. they looked kinda pale! but they tasted surprisingly good! :D they were not all crispy, in fact, quite a number of them were a bit soggy, but it was cos they were drenched in sauce which i looooooved (: i really liked the taste of the beans! normally i don't like the beans they serve in spanish restaurants and stuff, but this time they tasted really nice, and the jalepenos added a wonderful kick to this dish (: slightly sour and spicy, they were really yummy! but i don't understand why people say jalepenos are the spiciest kind of chili!! O.O so far all those which i've tried are not really spicy. definitely not the level of chili padi. but anyway, i like :D

the other appetizer we ordered was the mozarella sticks ($9.80). a crispy layer of golden breadcrumbs on the outside with cheese oozing out with every bit, ooh gosh :D they tasted great on their own, and with the salsa dip as well! (:

i had a difficult time trying to decide between the fiesta lime chicken and the margherita grilled chicken, cos i thought both pictures looked scrumptious! :D in the end, we chose the margherita grilled chicken ($22.80), which turned out to be...not so outstanding. the chicken was a tad dry. but the sauce was pretty interesting, i liked the freshness which the tomatoes added to the dish (:

the applebee's honey bbq double-glazed babyback ribs ($29.80) were quite nice! generously covered with a layer of smoky bbq sauce and the meat was tender (although not the falling-off-the-bone texture which is the epitome of all ribs :D but still decent!).

and we drank sangria! :D hmm somehow i always had the impression that sangria was really alcoholic. like from my past experiences of drinking it. but for those at applebee's, it tasted almost like fruit juice? haha! there was almost no hint of alcohol at all. but they tasted really yummy! (: (: we ordered the kiwi-melon sangria which was really refreshing! i loved the taste of the kiwi :D and the white peach sangria as well! initially i liked the peach sangria more. but after drinking it for awhile, i actually preferred the kiwi-melon sangria for its lighter, fruiter taste (: the peach one was slightly too sweet after awhile. the best thing? they were going at 1-for-1 haha. the original price was $19.90 each, which is exxxx :/

haha yupp that's it! oh gosh, nowadays im in a super lazy mood to write. need to get back my momentum!! (:

Applebee's

TripleOneSomerset #01-11/12

Tel.: +65 6735 9671

Sun–Thu: 11am – 10pm

Fri–Sat: 11am – 12am

Cold Rock Ice Creamery

i was so saddddd! i wanted to eat at cold stone creamery that day when i went to orchard central. i've been taking the bus past that place almost everyday and i start drooling (kidding :P) whenever i see it. zomg!!!! initially when i walked past it before dinner, it was still quite empty. but after that when we walked back at around 8.30pm the queue was freaking long :O:O boohoo :( it was really ridiculously long that we ended up not buying it :'( so sad. i really hope i can try it sometime soon. there are so many ice cream places i wanna try out!!! i will pace myself this summer holidays :P haha. practice my self-restraint O.O

so since i had already set my mind on eating ice cream, I JUST HAD TO HAVE IT! so debbie and i headed next door to 313@somerset for cold rock instead. oh wells......i guess it's still ice cream. and it was quite nice. but so expensive :( cos i was greedy. i didn't realise that the kiddie size would be just nice. so we each ordered a regular-sized cup of ice cream. which turned out to be way more than we could finish, especially since we had dinner already.

the kiddie cup is $4.50 i think, while the regular cup is $6.50. toppings are $1 each. and you can order up to two flavours! :D i ordered the cheesecake & hazelnut flavours mixed with tim tam! :D :D yumm! i couldnt really taste the hazelnut though cos the cheesecake kinda overwhelmed it >.< debbie ordered cake mix and chocolate i think, with cookie dough.

ice cream makes us happy! (:

Cold Rock Ice Creamery

313@Somerset #02-50

Tel.: +65 6238 7475

Sun-Thurs 10am-10pm

Sat, Eve of PH, PH 10am-11pm

Everything with Fries

ohmy. the name sounds sinful enough already, doesn't it? :P well, i have been wanting to try this place for a really long time and SINCE IT'S SUMMER......it's time to indulge a bit heehee. they have  a set which includes a burger, your choice of fries and drink for $9.90. since the place is called 'everything with fries' you wouldn't expect them to have just one type of fries right?! so....there are five different varieties of fries to chose from! :D original, curry, salt & vinegar, garlic and sour cream & onion.

somehow i think the menu at the orchard central branch appears different from those at the other branches? or maybe they changed it recently, because when i read all the other reviews on EwF, the stuff they ordered didn't seem to be on the menu when i visited the place. so anyhoo, i ordered the char shu burger (i think!! shucks i can't remember the name. price on its own is $7.90) and sour cream & onion fries. oh yes, the meal comes with coleslaw as well. quite a pathetic amount though. but the amount of fries was overwhelming. it took up more than half my tray! i didn't exactly find it very spectacular. i would have preferred if the taste was more infused into the fries. because i think they just sprinkle the flavouring on top, it doesn't really stick to the fries and so some fries don't really taste the way they should? i would say that they pale greatly in comparison with sour cream & onion pringles! :/ poor imitation... but the burger was not bad! i liked the soft bun which was tasty on its own. the meat was fairly tender, especially the parts near the fatty area.

i can't remember what was the name of the burger debbie ordered :P but it was the first item on the menu haha. and she ordered garlic fries! yummmmm! it was better than my sour cream fries i think. slightly tastier.

but considering that this place is EwF, i felt that their fries could have been tastier!

Everything with Fries

Orchard Central #01-24/25

Other outlets at Joo Chiat & Holland Village

Tel.: +65 6634 8358

Sun–Thu 11am – 10pm

Fri–Sat 11am – 11pm

Greenhouse Cafe

i totally wanted to sit at this seat in greenhouse cafe! but it was taken when i went there xP so cute right! this cafe has a really interesting concept - it's actually located within a florist store! Pocket Full of Posies + Greenhouse Cafe.

the NZ Sirloin Steak ($22.90) was nicely done and drizzled with a red wine black pepper sauce/ mushroom brown sauce.

i loved the montana grilled chicken ($16) - it was grilled perfectly till the meat was tender and springy, and the special honey mustard sauce was wonderful! sweet and sour, it was so nice (:

i ate the freshly baked italian lagsane ($13.90). minced beef layered between layers of lagsane skin and covered with an oozy layer of mozzarella cheese (: comfort food :D

the ham & cheese fettuccine carbonara ($14.90) was done al dente, with each strand springy and coated with the cheesy sauce. but i can never finish a whole plate myself.

the drinks were supposed to be a special feature of the restaurant! - supposedly flower drinks! was it meant to be real? that's what i thought :( i but i was disappointed. all were simply overly-sweet drinks (after stirring) which didnt taste all that great. the exception would probably be the ice blended marguerite which i liked because of the lychee.

Greenhouse Cafe

313@Somerset #01-35/37

Tel.: +65 6836 6346

Sun-Thu: 11am-10.30pm

Fri-Sat: 11am-11.30pm

Friends and TGIF

FINALLY, L came down from Malaysia to visit us (after so long!!). My secondary four life was such a pleasure thanks to these three wonderful friends of mine :D We had a really fun time catching up over dinner at T.G.I Fridays (: D, L, V - I love you :D I’m really going to miss L when she goes to UK!!! >.< One of the sad things about growing up…I hope we’ll have more chances to continue meeting up in the future no matter how busy we are! :D

Okay, enough of sadness. On to dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s! (: We ordered two appetizers and two main courses to share among the four of us. For some weird reason, our main courses arrived before our appetizer…? O.O We started to attack the fries first, and luckily our main courses arrived soon after (:

1. Nachos! :D My favourite! And,  I was disappointed ): This and the buffalo boneless chicken were my choices, and both were kind of sad -.- When we ordered the nachos, the waitress asked us whether we wanted the regular or party size. She told us that the regular was 6 pieces of nachos, while the party was 12 pieces. We were basically à :O 12 pieces of nachos for a party size? Hardly party-like right?! Don’t nachos usually come in a plateful?? We were thinking that the six pieces we ordered better be worth it, since they cost $10.50!! Well…they were…normal. Nothing special, I’m sure I’ve eaten much better tasting nachos elsewhere!

2. Doesn’t this look like a chinese dish? It was the buffalo boneless chicken, with huge sticks of celery by the side. The Buffalo sauce was interesting, a spicy, sweet, sour sauce that was tangy and appetizing. However, the bits of chicken were neither succulent nor crispy, as promised by the menu. Instead, i found the meat inside rather tough and dry.

3. The chicken fingers were generally alright! I liked the honey mustard dressing that came with it! (: I dipped everything inside, the buffalo wings, nachos, etc. YUMMM!

Lastly, we had the california club sandwich, which was HUGE! How can one person finish that entire sandwich alone?? Anyway, we shared it among ourselves, and the waitress kindly consented to cut it into four portions for us (: I liked the sandwich the most! The bread was so tasty and it came chock-full of ingredients - Monterey Jack cheese (whatever that is), ham, bacon, veggies, smoked turkey breast, tomatoes, and generous dollops of mayo and guacamole. ooh, lovely! (:

 

And…our work of art ;D we were too full to finish the last chicken finger. And so our depiction of Mr Pringles came about (: Isn’t he cute? (:

T.G.I. Friday’s

The Heeren 

#01-K5, 260 Orchard Road

Tel.: +65 6737 4223

Sun-Thu: 11am-12mn

Fri & Sat: 11am-2am

Friends & T.G.I. Fridays

FINALLY, L came down from Malaysia to visit us (after so long!!). My secondary four life was such a pleasure thanks to these three wonderful friends of mine :D We had a really fun time catching up over dinner at T.G.I Fridays (: D, L, V - I love you :D I’m really going to miss L when she goes to UK!!! >.< One of the sad things about growing up…I hope we’ll have more chances to continue meeting up in the future no matter how busy we are! :D

Okay, enough of sadness. On to dinner at T.G.I. Friday’s! (: We ordered two appetizers and two main courses to share among the four of us. For some weird reason, our main courses arrived before our appetizer…? O.O We started to attack the fries first, and luckily our main courses arrived soon after (:

1. Nachos! :D My favourite! And,  I was disappointed ): This and the buffalo boneless chicken were my choices, and both were kind of sad -.- When we ordered the nachos, the waitress asked us whether we wanted the regular or party size. She told us that the regular was 6 pieces of nachos, while the party was 12 pieces. We were basically à :O 12 pieces of nachos for a party size? Hardly party-like right?! Don’t nachos usually come in a plateful?? We were thinking that the six pieces we ordered better be worth it, since they cost $10.50!! Well…they were…normal. Nothing special, I’m sure I’ve eaten much better tasting nachos elsewhere!

2. Doesn’t this look like a chinese dish? It was the buffalo boneless chicken, with huge sticks of celery by the side. The Buffalo sauce was interesting, a spicy, sweet, sour sauce that was tangy and appetizing. However, the bits of chicken were neither succulent nor crispy, as promised by the menu. Instead, i found the meat inside rather tough and dry.

3. The chicken fingers were generally alright! I liked the honey mustard dressing that came with it! (: I dipped everything inside, the buffalo wings, nachos, etc. YUMMM!

Lastly, we had the california club sandwich, which was HUGE! How can one person finish that entire sandwich alone?? Anyway, we shared it among ourselves, and the waitress kindly consented to cut it into four portions for us (: I liked the sandwich the most! The bread was so tasty and it came chock-full of ingredients - Monterey Jack cheese (whatever that is), ham, bacon, veggies, smoked turkey breast, tomatoes, and generous dollops of mayo and guacamole. ooh, lovely! (:

 

And…our work of art ;D we were too full to finish the last chicken finger. And so our depiction of Mr Pringles came about (: Isn’t he cute? (:

T.G.I. Friday’s

The Heeren 

#01-K5, 260 Orchard Road

Tel.: +65 6737 4223

Sun-Thu: 11am-12mn

Fri & Sat: 11am-2am