👍 Wide range of Japanese food types under one roof means that there's something for everyone.
👎 Doesn't live up to the "Tsukiji" name; Food's generally just mediocre.
Right off the bat, let's get this out of the way: Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant (Orchard Central) is in no way related to the Tsukiji Fish Market in Tokyo. But of course you knew that already.
What the Restaurant lacks in a legitimate link to the fish market, it makes up for in variety, though: It's sort of a "dining hall" concept with a few different kitchens offering up different types of Japanese cuisine. There's a sushi/sashimi kitchen, a tempura kitchen, a steak kitchen, a ramen kitchen and an omakase (sushi) kitchen. Naturally, you can order from any of the kitchens, making a huge variety of Japanese cuisine available. In theory, having dedicated kitchens for each cuisine type should improve food quality, so let's have a closer look!
From the aforementioned Tsukiji Fish Market, we order their flagship 7-kinds sashimi boat (s$39.80). The boat comes with generously-portioned slices of the usual suspects - salmon, akami (tuna), swordfish and yellowtail - and some slightly more imaginative morsels of scallops, uni (sea urchin) and prawn. Overall we quite liked the balance between price, quality, portion size and choice of fish. The akami, especially, was quite a bit better than what you normally get with lower end sushi / sashimi places.
Our choices went a little downhill from there, though. We ordered a Wagyu Roast Beef Donburi (s$18.80) from the Steak kitchen's menu, and it was a mediocre mess of seemingly low-grade, insufficiently seasoned roast beef. Although I did quite like the ponzu-based sauce.
The Ebi Anago Tempura Donburi (Tendon, s$18.80) was similarly mediocre. Although the ingredients used were pretty good, and the tempura technique wasn't bad - just the right balance of flour, with the right amount of crisp - the bowl was really lacking in flavour due to the chef's stinginess with the sauce (as you can probably see from the photo). The number of items - prawn, fish, sea eel, etc - you get with the bowl makes it pretty good value, though!
To conclude, Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant (again, no relation to the fish market in Tokyo) serves up a large variety of so-so food. It's probably not the best choice along Orchard Road if you've got a craving for a specific Japanese Food type (for example Ramen), but if you're in a large group, the restaurant might be good enough to satisfy (barely) everyone's palettes.
Tsukiji Fish Market Restaurant is on the 12th Floor of Orchard Central (take a lift to the 11th floor and then an escalator to the 12th). Reservations not accepted. Non-halal.
👍 Wide range of seafood and seafood-themed dishes and cuisines. Food's generally pretty good!
👎 Location's inconvenient with no wheels. A little pricey at s$88++ per person.
The Kitchen Table is W Hotel Singapore's buffet / all purpose restaurant, serving up breakfast, lunch, dinner, and brunch (on weekends). On Friday - Sunday nights their dinner goes ocean-themed with their "Seafood from the Heart" buffet spread. It's a pretty expensive dinner, so without further ado let's see if the food justifies the s$103.58 per person (after service charge and taxes) price tag!
The cold seafood station is small, but makes up for it with a solid variety of alaskan king crab, prawns, mussels, lobster, crab claws, and langoustine / scampi. The Friday night dining crowd is sparse, which means that there's plenty of each to go around.
The neighbouring sushi station does quadruple duty with oysters, a whole poached salmon, and ceviche mixed up a la minute as well. The sushi is pretty crappy, and the salmon's a little plain, but the ceviche's mixed up to order so you can tell the chef to adjust the condiments to your tastes.
Salad and cold cuts are pretty par for the course for hotel restaurant buffets, with a decent variety of smoked fish, ham, salmon gravadlax, air-dried beef, etc.
The indian station was one of the better ones, in our opinions, serving up tandoori lobsters and a whole tandoori red snapper in addition to the normal spread of briyanis, dhalls, curries and assorted breads. The snapper, being a large fish, has somewhat firm, but delicious-tasting flesh. We also really enjoyed the tandoori lobsters, flavoured and cooked to perfection!
The hot food line has decent, if not mind-blowing, variety, with around a dozen or so different dishes including a whole salmon, black pepper dungeness crab, baked lobsters with cheese and sambal stingray. The overall taste of the dishes were pretty good, but quality suffers from the fact that the dining room is less then half full: People aren't eating the food quickly enough, so it gets left out for a long time. Long enough, in fact, for some dishes to actually cool down to almost room temperature!
No such problem with the baked lobsters with cheese sauce, of course: It's one of the few dishes that gets snapped up pretty quickly after each replenish.
There's also a noodles & dim-sum station. We tried both: The laksa which pretty damn good; but the dim sum was over-steamed and limp and soggy.
The final desserts station has a chocolate fountain, and individual-sized portions of assorted cakes, desserts, macarons, cookies and a surprisingly wide variety of nyonya kuih. We quite like that even the cakes are individually-portioned, so you don't get the aesthetic problems of serving a full sized cake (and then having the guests really mess it up).
Overall, we really liked the abundance of seafood available throughout the whole buffet line, and also some of the novel (to us, anyway) flavours like the tandoori lobster. What we didn't really like was some of the hot dishes being left out on the line for way too long. We also thought that while the food was generally "not bad," there weren't really any standout "oh so delicious" dishes. To us, we think it's a little much to ask a diner to drive (or UberGrab) all the way out to Sentosa Cove, and pay a hundred bucks for this dinner, when there are countless other hotel buffets in Singapore that are better, cheaper, more convenient, or all three.
👍 Steak is amazing; "Classic NY steakhouse" experience without flying to the US.
👎 Upmarket ambience also means upmarket price; Side dishes are just par for the course.
Any steak lover worth his (or her) salt knows of Peter Luger Steakhouse: The iconic, legendary, New York steakhouse that opened more than 130 years ago. The story goes that after working there for 40 years, one of Peter Luger's head waiters - Wolfgang Zwiener - decided not to retire, but to instead open his own restaurant as a blatant copy of as an homage to his old employer's place.
What this means is that you get pretty much the same dry aged, USDA Prime porterhouse, blasted under a 400+°C broiler twice (the second time sliced, with melted butter), before being served sizzling at the table. You also get most of the iconic appetizers and sides - for example thick cut bacon, creamed spinach, and onion rings.
"With more than 4 decades of experience (at Peter Luger), Wolfgang Zwiener didn't duplicate an exceptional steakhouse, he improved on it to make Wolfgang's Steakhouse exceptional." (Wolfgang Steakhouse's Website)
The improvements to the original are a more upmarket positioning (thick, luxurious white tablecloths and far more comfortable chairs), slightly expanded menu offerings, and a greatly expanded wine and spirits list. Oh, and a free baguette and mini onion loaf.
We were really tempted to go for the thick cut sizzling bacon (s$12 per slice), but decided to save stomach room for the steak by ordering two lobster bisques (s$22 each) instead. The bisque/broth is extremely flavourful, with strong lobster flavours and just the right touch of salt.
After we're done with the soups, we didn't have to wait too long before the sound (and aroma) of sizzling butter heralded the arrival of our Porterhouse for Two (s$185) - Medium Rare. As is the case with good meat, no sauces or fancy seasonings needed: just salt and some clarified butter.
Oh, and having a steak served on a (really) hot plate is pretty awesome because the meat takes a while to cool down (even in the cold, air conditioned dining room)
The porterhouse, of course, is two steaks in one: An NY Strip (Striploin) and a smaller Filet (Filet Mignon / Tenderloin). In theory the NY Strip side is a little chewier and stringier (but with better flavour), whereas the tenderloin is tender but can lack flavour. No such flavour issues here, though - the dry aging process ensures that the tenderloin has plenty strong beefy notes while still maintaining an unbelievably tender texture.
Needless to say, the crust on the steak is terrific, and the meat's cut thick enough to still have a wonderful, juicy, pink, delicious centre. Sure, other cooking methods such as sous vide can get visually superior ("pink from edge to edge") results, but in my opinion, dry cooking methods still taste best. The only thing missing, perhaps, was a hint of smoke from a wood fire, which is of course unobtainable from gas flame or electric broilers.
For our sides - the Creamed Spinach (s$15) was pretty nice, especially since there isn't an overload of cream like how some other places do it. The lobster mac n' cheese (s$25), however, was a little underwhelming and not particularly worth the (carbohydrate) calories.
Overall, we really enjoyed our dinner, even if the price is quite a bit more upmarket than the original Peter Luger in New York. Do note that Wolfgang only stocks and serves one kind of meat (USDA Prime), so if you're looking to do a comparative tasting between Australian Grain Fed steers vs Japanese Wagyu vs English Grass Fed cows, you'd be better off in one of the more "modern" steakhouses like Cut or Sear @ 50RP.
Wolfgang Steakhouse is on the 2nd floor of Intercontinental Hotel, Robertson Quay. Reservations recommended; Non-halal.
For this dish to be Irish, beer must be added to the stew. Another successful stew experimental dish which have immediate approval.
Ingredients
1 sliced Brown Onion
1kg Lamb Cubes (Beef)
900ml Stock (Chicken/Beef/Vegetable)
400ml Beer (We tried Guinness)
250ml Filtered water
0.5 teaspoon of Thyme Leaves
3 Bay Leaves
500g Carrots
500g Potatoes
1 teaspoons of ground Black Pepper
2 tablespoons of Flour (mixed with some Filtered Water)
Garnish with chopped Coriander and Parsley
Step 1: Heat pan and sauté Brown Onions until caramelized.
Step 2: Add in the Lamb Cubes sauté until slightly brown then pour in the Beef Stock, Beer, Filtered Water, Thyme leaves, Bay leaves and bring it to a boil. Reduce to low heat, and let it simmer gently for 10mins. Skim off all the impurities from the surface.
Step 3: Add in Potatoes, Carrots, ground Black Pepper and further simmer for another 30mins.
Step 4: Lastly, add flour and simmer for 10mins to thicken the stew.
Setp 5: Garnish and serve with Rice or Bread.
Give this recipe a try and hope you like it too.
Notes:
- Fish Stock & White Wine ratio can be adjusted to your liking.
👍 Amazing ambience, nice selection of teas, buffet spread to fill up large tummies.
👎 A little pricey for smaller appetites; local flavour scones were interesting but a bit dry.
Brasserie Les Saveurs is the French, all-day-dining restaurant of the St Regis Singapore. Between lunch and dinner services the restaurant pushes out Afternoon Tea: Your choice of TWG teas (including a blend specifically created for the St Regis chain), scones, sandwiches and pastries served on a three-tiered silver stand, waffles and crepes prepared a la minute, and a mini buffet spread to fill up any stomach space you have left.
Thanks to a wide range of credit card / dining card discounts available, per-pax nett prices are s$48 (weekdays) or s$52 (weekends). Let's find out if the experience is worth the money!
Brasserie Les Savuers' ambience is, of course, amazing. It's classy, it's comfortable, the air conditioning is great, and the live pianist almost never takes a break. Chairs are comfy, too, making the dining room a perfect place to catch up and chit chat for two hours over scones and coffee.
The buffet spread itself, isn't really all that great. There's a half-dozen (or so) cold items like Alaskan crab salad and an assortment of cold cuts, and an assortment of different bread. There's also a waffle and crepe station (not pictured).
Over on the desserts section, a chocolate fountain takes center stage, accompanied by a few cakes and pastries, some fruits, and 4 ice cream flavours.
Finally - there's a small cheese cart with some common cheeses (and their accompaniments).
Overall, the buffet spread won't win any "best buffet" awards, but the focus really is on the afternoon tea spread. We really dig the shiny silver three-tiered stand (and teapot). Starting from the bottom, the sandwiches were okay, the scones were a bit dry (and we didn't really appreciate the pandan and salted egg ones), but the desserts were pretty good.
Speaking of that silver teapot, there's a wide range of TWG teas, but they're not free flow: You only pick one tea, and the waiters come round with refills of hot water.
Our final verdict, then? Considering the buffet spread, waffles & crepes station, and cheese cart, the pricing actually is pretty reasonable. For comparison, TWG's Parisian Tea Set is s$40 nett without any of these 'extras,' and in our opinion is far less attractive place to eat.
Taste-wise the food isn't the greatest, but in our opinions the ambience more than makes up for it; and this might be our default afternoon tea spot for now whenever we're in the mood to splurge a little!
Greetings from the land down under! Well, not quite -- we're already unfortunately back to the daily grind back home, looking forward to our next holiday!
Ahem. Anyway we spent a (relatively) short eight days in the Australian South East, landing in Melbourne and then slowly making our way up to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road. Without further ado, do check out our video highlights reel below!
So on to a quick breakdown of things we did, places we visited and things we ate!
Day 0: Overnight flight from Singapore to Melbourne.
- Parents: Singapore Airlines First Class (80,000 KrisFlyer miles + s$56.60/person).
- The rest: Singapore Airlines Economy Class (s$811.20/person).
Thoughts: Singapore Airlines First Class is as awesome as ever, with superb dining options and extravagant service. Economy class is, well, economy class. And the darling's recline button was broken both ways, which sucked quite a bit.
Day 1: A victorian suite, pho, and the world's best pizza.
- Car: Apex Car Rentals, s$85/day for a mid-size SUV, aud500 insurance excess.
- Hotel: The Hotel Windsor, s$554/day for the Victorian Suite
- Lunch: Pho Dzung City Noodle Shop.
- Afternoon: Ran some errands (moneychanger), did some shopping at target, and explored the city a bit before resting in the hotel.
- Dinner: Explored the Crown Entertainment complex and had the "world's best pizza" at Gradi.
Thoughts: The Windsor has a great location and the suite is huge, but the hotel is quite a bit overdue for an overhaul. Gradi was expensive and a little disappointing; but I understand from Melbourne natives that I should have visited the Brunswick branch instead.
Day 2: A market, a garden and an art gallery.
- Morning: Coffee and Bratwurst at the Queen Victoria Markets. Followed by oysters and shopping. And calamari, fish, and chips at Funk Fish.
- Afternoon: We started off touring the Royal Botanical Gardens before a bout of rain sent us scurrying to the free exhibits in the nearby National Gallery of Victoria.
- Dinner: Explored the South Bank and settled in for lamb shanks, paella and pork cheeks at The Bohemian.
Thoughts: It's awesome that the entire CBD has free-of-charge tram transport (and not only just for tourists). More cities should do this.
Day 3: Great Ocean Road, Day 1
- Morning: Checked out of the hotel, visited a long lost friend, and found out that shaved fresh black winter truffle over steak tastes awesome.
- Afternoon: Great Ocean Road Day 1, unfortunately having the time to make only one stop at Bell's Beach, home of the world's longest continually running surf competition.
- Evening: Checked into the semi-AirBnB/semi-hotel Seafarer's Getaway. s$311/night nets you a comfortable beach-view villa which comfortably sleeps 5 adults. Dinner was a forgettable fish & chips shop in the nearby Apollo Bay.
Thoughts: I didn't know until this trip that Australia (particularly the south-western corners) is a pretty solid Truffle Producer. Had always thought that truffles only come from France and other European countries.
Day 4: Great Ocean Road, Part Deux
- Morning: Bacon and eggs (self-catered) in the villa, followed by a detour to the Cape Otway Lightstation.
- Afternoon: The 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, The London Arch and The Grotto. Self-catered ham sandwiches in the car.
- Evening: Drove to our accommodation for the night: Rosa's Apartment in Mt. Gambier, which must be the best value (s$200) AirBnB that we've ever stayed in.
- Dinner: Some forgettable indian restaurant in the town.
Thoughts: It's pretty surprising that despite having an entire day on the road, we didn't really get to stop at that many places. Probably because we had to spend quite a bit of time on the road ...
Day 5: Great Ocean Road --> Adelaide
- Morning: Bacon and eggs (self-catered, again) in the apartment, followed by a visit to the Blue Lake and Umpherston Sinkhole.
- Afternoon: Finished off the additional ~5 hour drive to Adelaide, stopping halfway to have sandwiches (meh) and coffee (awesome) at the Henry and Rose in Keith.
- Evening: AirBnB/Stayz - Neo Apartment in the City, which is roomy, has a kick-ass location (right next to the Adelaide Markets) but is perhaps getting a tad bit run down. s$266/night.
- Dinner: Shopping at the Rundle Mall, followed by forgettable kebabs somewhere nearby.
Thoughts: 3d/2n to do the drive from Melbourne to Adelaide is a bit rushed. With around ~5hours of driving a day (most of it in daylight), we really didn't have the time to stop at all the places we wanted to stop at, or to really explore. If we were to do it again we'd do at least 4d/3n, and maybe even 5d/4n.
Day 6: Got on a plane, waited around a bit and jumped off at 12,000 feet
- All Day: Skydiving with SA Skydiving at Langhorne Creek.
- Dinner: Self-catered with steak, chicken wings, bread and vegetables bought from the Adelaide Market.
Thoughts: Skydiving is the bomb! Definitely should be on anyone's bucket list (unless you've got a deathly fear of heights). Not exactly a cheap hobby, though: aud409 for a 12,000ft tandem jump (including transport to-and-from Adelaide and a lunch of sausages and bread).
Day 7: Did some cosplay, went up a stage, and got a piece of paper from an old man.
- Breakfast: Group breakfast at Luigi Delicatessen, which serves up an awesome breakfast platter. And great coffee, of course.
- Morning: Graduation from the University of Adelaide.
- Lunch: Porchetta, Ribs and Pasta at Borsa Pasta Cucina.
- Evening: Adelaide Markets (again) followed by more self-catered steak and vegetables.
Thoughts: It really did feel that there were more foreign students graduating than local ones ...
Day 8: Two-dollar ketchup, a garden and a museum.
- Breakfast: Dim Sum at the Star House Chinese Restaurant. "OK" food, two dollars for ketchup.
- The rest of the day: A short detour to the Botanical gardens, followed by the Art Gallery of South Australia and the South Australian Museum. We then returned the car at the Adelaide Airport and took a s$100 Virgin Australia flight to Melbourne.
- Melbourne: Dinner at P.J.O'Brien's (awesome Irish Stew) and a short overnight at Cilom's Airport Lodge (s$159) before heading back to Singapore / KL.
Thoughts: The last day of a holiday is the crappiest one, especially once you start checking out of hotels and returning rental cars.
If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking around, and do let us know in the comments if you've got any questions!
In March 2017, Singapore Airlines announced a revision to their Redemption Chart. And naturally, by "revision," they effectively meant "to increase the cost (in miles) for redemption flight tickets." The old and new redemption charts can be found on their website here and here respectively.
Having said that, we feel that it's actually a pretty fair revision, because Singapore Airlines also eliminated fuel and insurance surcharges. So redemption tickets now cost more miles, but less cash.
So with the new redemption charts, how much is a single KrisFlyer mile worth? As with our previous analysis, it really depends on which flights (and to a larger extent, which class of travel) you're flying on.
As expected, Economy redemptions are really poor value - as low as 0.6¢ per mile! In most cases you would be better off just paying the full cash fare to your destination. Of course there are exceptions where it could make sense: For example, perhaps the Economy Super Saver or Saver cash fare isn't available for the dates that you want to fly, or perhaps you have a small number of miles that are going to expire soon anyway.
Premium Economy redemptions are a little better - around 2-3¢ per mile. At this value point, the decision to spend miles instead of cash starts to make a little more economic sense. Singapore Airlines' Premium Economy class isn't really that great, though - but that's a discussion for another day.
Business Class redemptions seem to hover around a value of 3-4¢ per mile: a significant reduction from the 4-8¢ per mile values in the old redemption table.
And as expected, First / Suites Class redemptions continue to give the best bang for your mile at around 5-7¢ each.
So to conclude, the value of a single KrisFlyer mile ranges from around 1-7¢ per mile depending on which flight/class you fly on. The ¢ per mile figures are still pretty solid for Business and First Class flights, but if your mileage earning and redemption patterns normally allow you only to buy Economy and Premium Economy flights, it could be worth re-evaluating whether 'playing the mileage game' still makes sense for you.
One caveat: The number of miles required for redemption tickets are fixed, but the cash fares vary according to promotion periods, availability of cheaper fare buckets (e.g. the economy super saver buckets), etc, so these ¢ per mile values should only be taken as a rough guideline.
Hopefully this post has helped you. And if you've decided to continue playing this mileage game, good luck and have fun with your next Singapore Airlines Suites Class Redemption flight, whenever that is!!
Let's get this out of the way first: Equinox is probably the restaurant with the best view in all of Singapore (If you know of a food joint with a better view we'd love to hear it in the comments). The magnificent view makes it a pretty romantic place to dine at, although the dining room can be a little loud and boisterous.
The darling and I are more interested in how good the food is, though, so we place our orders and hope it lives up to the view!
First up, a complimentary canapé. I think it's testament to just how crappy a food writer I am that I don't remember what ingredient was used to make the chip. Oops! I do recall that it had a miso paste and a block of yuzu jelly, and that it was pretty good though!
Bread-wise we get a so-so slice of (cold) sourdough toast and some unsalted butter.
The first of our starters is out next: Burrata ($22) - Iberico Ham sitting on fresh cheese, with green peas, lemon, and rosemary bread crumbs. Burrata's got an amazing creamy texture, but can be a little bland, so we're pretty happy with the accompanying salt and fat from the ham.
The Seared Foie Gras ($34) is a hefty portion of fattened goose liver, accompanied by roasted apricots, ginger marmalade, and toasted seed granola. As always, it's hard to get foie gras really wrong, so we're quite satisfied (although the liver could have perhaps benefited from a stronger sear).
On to the main courses, then, starting with a 300gm Ranger's Valley, Black Onyx, Grain Fed New York Strip Steak ($90, marble score 3), served with roasted bone marrow. The steak was fine: cooked to our requested medium-rare temperature, but without that crust that you get from dedicated steakhouses like Morton's. It was also a tad bit under-seasoned on its own, but that's probably because it's served with your choice of sauce (we went with the black truffle butter).
You also get a choice of side dish: We chose the mac & cheese, which was nice, cheesy and creamy.
Our second choice of main course was the Lamb Saddle ($70) with provencal terrine, green olives, spinach and tomato fondue, also requested medium rare. The lamb was juicy and tender and terrifically delicious with the gravy; sadly we weren't as mesmerized by the (in our opinion) too-strong tomato flavour in the vegetables.
Oh and one common minor criticism: The knives that we had were really due for some sharpening.
Being quite stuffed we decided to share something tart after all that meat: The Blackberry Trifle ($22) which comes with mascarpone jelly, meringue, and elderflower ice cream. It was quite delicious and also rather pretty looking.
To finish - petit fours (caramel chocolates) which were really a tad bit too sweet.
As Equinox doesn't serve free water (boo), we paid $5 each for warm, filtered water - bringing the total to $248++ for two. In our opinions the food and the view don't justify the price tag if you pay full price. However, you can get a pretty nice discount via via various promos (e.g. OCBC 25% off, Amex Platinum 50% off with 2 diners) which increases the value proposition by quite a bit.
Equinox Restaurant is on the 70th Floor of Swissôtel The Stamford. Reservations recommended; Non-halal. Oh, do note that the restaurant levies a s$20++ surcharge for securing a table by the window.
This dish is a balance of texture and taste. One of my successful experimental fish dish which have immediate approval and request to have it cooked again soon.
Ingredients
2 Fish Fillet (Red Grouper, Cod, etc)
300ml of Fish Stock
300ml White Wine / Cooking Sake
2 diced in cubes Water Chestnut
2 tablespoons of diced in cubes Yellow Onion
1 tablesppon of diced in cubes Ginger
Garnish with
2 tablespoons of Ikura
Chopped Coriander and Parsley
Drizzle some Olive Oil
Serve with
Grilled Asparagus
Step 1: Bring the Fish Stock to a simmer.
Step 2: Add in Fish Fillet skin side down and let it simmer for 5mins with the lid on.
Step 3: Turn the Fish and add in Onion, Water Chestnut and White Wine. Continue to let it simmer for another 5mins with the lid on.
Step 4: Lastly, when the Fish is cooked, transfer the fish to a serving plate. Pour the sauce over the fish. Arrange the Grilled Asparagus. Garnish it with Ikura, Coriander, Parsley. Drizzle some Olive Oil and serve immediately.
Give this recipe a try and hope you like it too.
Notes:
- Fish Stock & White Wine ratio can be adjusted to your liking.
