The Tiramisu Hero, Jalan Besar - Terrific Décor, Mediocre Tiramisu.

If there was ever a restaurant/cafe best described as "style over substance," The Tiramisu Hero would be it. Located in the up-and-coming gastronomic neighborhood of Jalan Besar, this cafe specializes in - what else? - Tiramisu. Decor is quirky and homey, and yet somewhat strangely romantic. It's a very nice place to impress a date, or to just relax and spend a couple of hours in air-conditioned comfort. There's even a mascot: His name is Sir Antonio.


The Tiramisu comes in two sizes - MommaHero ($7.50 for normal flavours, $9.50 for premium flavours), and PapaHero ($17/$21) (MommaHero is just about right for one person). There are a dozen or so flavours, some of which are mighty interesting - for example, Milo, Horlicks and even Durian. We play it safe and go for Chocolate and Lemon Lavender.


With so much effort spent on branding, a killer website, and gorgeous decoration, it's a shame then that the Tiramisu itself is mediocre at best.

For starters, both our jars had no booze. Apparently only the original and Baileys flavours come with booze - the other jars are all non-alcoholic. Is it possible to add alcohol to the non-alcoholic flavours? We don't know, because it wasn't clear on the menu and it wasn't suggested by the waitress. But fine, chalk this one down to us not being "in the know."

Secondly, the savoiardi/ladies fingers were exceedingly dry, having obviously not been soaked in espresso/any form of liquid long enough. Or at all. It follows, then, that the fingers had no coffee taste ... or any other taste.



So ... all style, no substance, and a bit of a pricey disappointment, then (The cafe also serves up an assortment of hot dishes, but we didn't try any of them as we were here for dessert).

The Tiramisu Hero is at 121 Tyrwhitt Road; open 11am-10pm daily. Non-Halal.

Fancy Shinkansen/Space Shuttle/Train Conveyor Belt at Genki Sushi!

Quick mid-week video minipost! Finally got around visiting Genki Sushi to check out their fancy sushi delivery system. You place your orders on an iPad and instead of a waitress serving your sushi it zips right to you on a motorized shinkansen / space shuttle conveyor belt. Awesome sauce!


Sushi itself is pretty par for the course for conveyor belt sushi chains in this part of the world - that is to say, reasonably cheap ($2.30 for two salmon belly nigiri) but honestly not very good. But of course you get what you pay for, and it is pretty fun watching the shuttle arrive.

Genki Sushi has three outlets - Orchar Central, Chinatown Point and Bugis+. Non-Halal.

Goku Raku Ultimate Ramen at Paradigm Mall, Kelana Jaya

KL's Ramen Craze seems to have plateaued off a little with a slowing down of new entrants into the market of late. Only time will tell when the next Japanese Ramen Chef decides to set up shop in our corner of the woods; in the meantime we're going to review a Ramen place that we had never gotten round to eating at - until now!


It's in a corner of the somewhat maze-like Paradigm Mall in Kelana Jaya, and has a pretty par for the course decor. The Ramen served here is of the horikiri style, whatever that means, and was developed by Chef Teruhisa Shimizu over in Japan.


The gyoza we ordered was pretty interesting in that it comes with all the rice web attached. This crispy layer tastes not unlike roti tissue without the sugar. It's an interesting, solid and very competent take on gyoza.


Moving on to the ramen! Confusingly, Large and Regular sizes on the menu both cost the same and are 'exactly the same' (according to our waiter). So you only get a choice of Large/Regular vs Small, despite there being three sizes listed. I settle down with a Large/Regular Ultimate Tonkotsu Ramen (MYR 21.90), which comes with the works - egg, bamboo shoots, seaweed, chashu, bean sprouts and spring onions.


We also try small portions of the Tonkotsu-Miso Ramen (MYR 15.90) and the Shoyo-Miso Ramen (MYR 14.90). All three of these bowls had just the right amount of noodles, and a very well cooked, melt-in-your mouth chashu (roast pork). However, the soups were nowhere near hot enough - they were bordering on lukewarm - and all three were pretty weak and lacking in depth and flavor.


The Rainbow Tsukemen (MYR 18.90, small) was even more disappointing. We thought that the dipping sauce was too weak and tasteless, and barely finished half of the noodles. Check out that overcooked egg, too!


At MYR 108.45 for four people after service charge and taxes, we thought that the ramen here simply isn't good enough to stand with the other bigger ramen chains in town, and will almost certainly not be back for another try.

Goku Raku Ramen has two outlets in KL - Paradigm Mall and Mid Valley. At time of writing SGD 1.00 is MYR 2.42. Non Halal.

Sin Heng (Herbal style) Claypot Bak Kut Teh

Generally speaking, Bak Kut Teh comes in two main varieties - the "Singapore style," which is relatively clear soup with loads of garlic and white pepper, and the Herbal soup style which (as its' name suggests, is a darker, stronger and thicker soup). Which style you prefer probably heavily depends on which soup you grew up drinking; since the darling and I grew up in Malaysia, we prefer the KL style.

Which is sort of a bummer in Singapore because we haven't really found any good herbal-style places so far. A friend of ours suggested Sin Heng Claypot Bak Kut Teh over on Joo Chiat Road, and since it was only about a 10 minute bus ride away, we pay a visit to see if it's any good.


The claypot BKT (without any spare parts) costs SGD12 and comes with a solid amount of meat for two average eaters. It's predominantly pork ribs; which are pretty tender without falling off the bone easily. However, we found that the soup was subpar, tasting of herbs and pepper and nothing else - in our opinion, a good BKT soup should also have a strong porky taste.


The egg fuyong with prawn (SGD7) is decently sized, and is pretty par for the course. Could perhaps use a tad bit more seasoning, though.


Kai Lan is also SGD7 ... normally we don't like ordering vegetables at restaurants because of the huge mark-up on the (extremely cheap) base cost of the greens, but with so much meat we felt compelled to order it.

Sin Heng is on 439, Joo Chiat Road. It's not within walking distance from an MRT station so you'll have to take a bus, or drive. In our opinion it's not good enough to really travel to eat on purpose, but as the restaurant is open til 4am in the mornings, it's available if you live nearby and need to satisfy a BKT craving :) Closed on Mondays. Non-halal.

Pasta Fresca da Salvatore and Udders Ice Cream (Upper East Coast Road)

To take advantage of the numerous higher-end landed properties and condominiums along Upper East Coast Road, quite a number of restaurants and eateries have sprouted up serving a mixture of Indian and European delights. Case in point: Pasta Fresca de Salvatore Italian Restaurant.


Opening up with the Parma Ham and Melone (SGD16.90). Having first tried this starter in Nairobi, I find that the version served here in Pasta Fresca is mediocre in comparison. The melon slices were (relatively) dry, and the ham tasted like it hadn't been properly stored before being sliced and served.


For mains, I order the Lasagne Gratinate All'Emiliana (SGD18.40) off the "recommended dishes" portion of the menu, and it turns out pretty bad. Soggy, mushy pasta sheets and bland, poorly cooked-and-put-together meat/sauce - it's pretty shocking that the chefs didn't pay better attention to a dish they recommend. It tasted like it had been fully cooked in the morning and left lying around all day before being microwaved and served up for dinner.


The Pizza Capricciosa (SGD19.90) at least was decent. Heaped with pork salami, ham, artichokes, mushrooms, anchovies and olives, the ingredients on the pizza complemented each other pretty well. I also especially liked the chilli flakes that were served on the side. Crust could have been better though - was sort of an "I can't decide" compromise between thin, crunchy/crispy dough, and fluffier, pan pizza-style dough.


Taking a page out of Eat Drink KL's three-restaurants-per-post book, a short walk away is Udders Ice Cream. This no-frills ice cream shop also has an upstairs seating area and is almost always packed past 8pm.


With a host of fancy self-made flavours such as Lychee Martini, Lemoncello Sorbet (with alcohol!), Mao Shan Wang Durian and Gila Melaka, you'd be hard pressed to find these same combinations elsewhere.

We settle for a double scoop of Snickers Mars Honeycomb Vanilla and Orange Choc Bitters in a cone. The former is rather lacklustre, but the latter ranks among the best ice creams I've ever tasted. Dark, bitter and smooth rich Belgian chocolate Ice Cream spiced with Triple Sec (orange liqeur), I'll definitely be re-ordering this one the next time I'm here.


Pasta Fresca and Udders Ice Cream are 77 and 87 (respectively), Upper East Coast Road. It's not within walking distance from any MRT station, so you'll have to either take a cab, or Bus service #16 from Bedok Interchange. Non-halal.

Ramen Champion's Bario and Iroha (Bugis+)

Ramen Champion, in a nutshell, is a Ramen Food Court. There are two shops in Singapore so far - the one in Changi Airport's T3 has four shops which we covered in two previous posts here and here.

The outlet in Bugis+ (formerly known as Illuma) is much bigger, better decorated, and houses six separate Ramen chefs. Ikkousha and Gantetsu also have their presence in Changi, so today we'll be sampling two of the other bowls of noodles.


Chef Kiyoshi Kurihara's Menya Iroha is perhaps the most decorated of all the chefs here, having won the People's Choice award at the Tokyo Ramen Show for an impressive three years running (2009, 2010 and 2011).

We try his recommended Black Negitama Ramen (SGD14.95, regular), which is a thick shoyu based broth. Surprisingly, the broth doesn't really gel with our tastes. There's a lot of black pepper in it, which does overpower the taste of the other ingredients, and we're not really big fans of thick soups.


We then move on Makoto Iwasaki's Ramen Bario. The noodles served here are Jiroken (Jiro style) - which is so different from other ramen shops that some purists even insist on calling it just "Jiro" (without the "ramen").

So what's the deal? Well, for starters the noodles are thick - almost udon-like. There's also a HUGE amount of it, with an equally huge serving of bean sprouts. This particular Ajitama Ramen (SGD14.50) has won awards for being the "Ramen that Most Young Men Like" (I'm sure that sounds better in Japanese); regular Joe's who don't have a teenage appetite will find it likely impossible to polish off the whole bowl.

Taste wise it's pretty good and very porky. Shame that the quantity of meat doesn't match the huge serving of vegetables and noodles.


Unfortunately I can't imagine myself ordering either ramen bowl again in the near future. For Iroha, it's simply a matter of preferences; I prefer my broth more soupy rather than thick. I enjoyed Bario's taste more; but the humongous serving size means that guilt kicks in because I can barely polish off half the bowl.

Ramen Champion is on the 4th floor of the Bugis+ Shopping Mall. Non-halal.

Our Ramen Rankings:
Superb!: Ippudo & Santouka
Delicious!: Nantsuttei, Tampopo & Keisuke Tonkotsu King
Solid: Shin-Sapporo, Keisuke, Gantetsu, Gensuke, Riki, Ikkousha & Bario
Below Average: Marutama, Menya Musashi & Menya Iroha

Menya Musashi's Curry Ramen (ION Orchard)

Quick and Short update - Menya Musashi has opened a new outlet in ION Orchard!

Unlike the branch over at Raffles City, there isn't much of a queue for the ION Branch - possibly because not many people know about it yet?

Anyways, the flyer outside caught my eye because, well ... Curry Ramen? That would be a definite first for me, so the darling and I give this joint a second shot!


The Curry Ramen is ... interesting. Instead of your typical cha shu it comes with shabu shabu-style sweet pork slices, in a watered down and yet still starchy-bordering-on-slimy curry sauce. It tastes good but I still don't like the texture of the broth.


In our previous visit we didn't at all get used to the starchy/slimy broth, and nothing has changed since that visit. The darling's white cha shu ramen was also, in our opinion, tasty, but the soup broth just didn't sit well with us.


At almost SGD40 for the two of us (including gyoza and two cups of houjicha), the pricing is a little on the low side when it comes to these Japanese Ramen joints. Pity that the style of broth isn't compatible with our taste buds!

Our Ramen Rankings:
Superb!: Ippudo & Santouka
Delicious!: Nantsuttei, Tampopo & Keisuke Tonkotsu King
Solid: Shin-Sapporo, Keisuke, Gantetsu, Gensuke, Riki, Ikkousha & Bario
Below Average: Marutama, Menya Musashi & Menya Iroha

Apologies for the poor quality of photos in the post, but we didn't have our normal cameras with us.

A Malaysian's Take on the Malaysian Food Street (Resorts World Sentosa)

Ask a Singaporean and a Malaysian which country's Street (Hawker) Food is better, and chances are they will be in huge disagreement. We always see strong opinions on food, particularly when discussing which is better. Or discussing the origins of certain types of food (Bak Kut Teh, anyone?). My take on the matter is that your taste buds grow accustomed to whatever food you grow up eating, so you'd naturally have a preference for your home country's cuisine.

For what it's worth, Reuters just released an article on Top 10 cities for street food, in which Singapore is ranked #2, and Penang #3. Take that how you will :)

Anyways, having spent over two decades in Malaysia, my taste buds remain firmly entrenched in Malaysia-taste land. So I'm not too sure why it took me so long to come to the Malaysian Food Street in Resorts World Sentosa to get my makan on.


Opened half a year ago, the place is set up a little like a food court. Similar to Lot 10's Hutong Food Court, each stall is a branch/outlet of some well-known hawker from various places in Malaysia.


Lim Brothers' Char Koay Teow is first up. I was a bit hesitant while ordering because the ... Chef (for lack of a better word) was cooking something like half a dozen plates at a time - which is normally a pretty big red flag for good CKT. It turns out to be pretty decent, though, and you get a much larger portion that you normally get in Penang. At SGD5 per plate, prices are reasonable, too.


Up next we try Ah Mei Hokkien Prawn Mee - SGD5 per bowl, add $1 for pork ribs. Fragrant and sweet, with quite a nice flavorful prawn broth, slurping up the noodles reminded me of every trip back to Penang to visit the grandma and tour the city eating different hawker food. Looking back over the years I'm not sure whether the former or the latter was my primary motivation for the visits :)


Two years ago the darling and I went to Melaka to eat Chicken Rice Ball and we were very unimpressed. That sentiment hasn't changed much when trying the offering here in Singapore. It's the cheapest dish of the day at SGD4, and the chicken is pretty smooth (if served a little too cold), but the rice ball itself tastes too much like the Nasi Impit you eat with Ketupat.


I'm not sure which shop was 'chosen' to represent Klang Bak Kut Teh, but it does a horrendous job at flying the flag. SGD6.50 gets you a bowl of herbal soup (all herbs, no porky taste) with a few miserable pieces of dry and flavorless pork. A huge shame that RWS couldn't get any of the "real" BKT shops in Klang to come open shop here and had to settle for this pretender instead.


There are quite a few other stalls like Ampang Yong Tao Foo, KL Fried Hokkien Mee, etc, but two stomachs can only eat so much food at one sitting. We did manage to find room for some Penang Cendol (SGD2.50). We thought that it was a little too sweet (too much gula melaka, too little coconut milk), and the ice shavings were too "big" such that we ended up needing to "crunch" ice bits in our mouths. Not fun.


Some hits and misses overall; I think when eating your home food in a foreign country, you have to give some slack (you wouldn't go to the UK and expect perfect nasi lemak, would you?), so in that respect I would say generally speaking the food here doesn't disappoint.

Except for the Bak Kut Teh, which you should avoid at all costs, because it will disappoint.

Malaysian Food Street is located at The Bull Ring - which is that row of shops directly circling the big rotating "Universal" globe at the entrance to Universal Studios. It's easiest to drive or take a cab here, but if you're public transport-ing, take the MRT to Vivocity and then the Sentosa Express monorail to the Watefront Station. Non halal.

Steak on a Budget at Aston's Specialities (Changi T1)

Aston's is perhaps one of Singapore's most famous names in the business of making steak. Not because they're the best, but because they're (perhaps) the cheapest. I mean sure, you'd probably be able to get cheap meat in some random food court somewhere, but not in a nice, comfortable air-conditioned joint.


We're trying the Changi Airport T1 outlet. It's cool, nicely decorated, pleasant - and the service sucks. Both of us asked for warm water, but we were served only one glass. I mean, does it take a fine dining restaurant waitress to realize that two people should have two glasses?

Later on in the night we also asked for tomato ketchup from a different waiter ... which never arrived.

Anyhow, the Mushroom Soup (SGD3.50) was rather ... mediocre. All cream taste with just a few bits of mushroom floating around. To top it off, the starch wasn't even dissolved properly, with small lumps of it floating around.


The Lemon Lime Chicken (SGD6.50) tasted pretty good. Despite what the name says, that sauce is more of a plum sauce rather than lemon and/or lime. Coleslaw and Onion Rings were just "OK."


Each main course comes with a choice of two side dishes - there's about a dozen different ones to choose from. I ordered my Prime Rib Eye (SGD13.90) with garden greens and mashed potato, both of which were also just "OK."


The rib-eye itself, however, was atrocious. Is it too much to ask for some salt and pepper on the meat? It was also very chewy, and the thicker half of the steak was nowhere near the medium-rare that I ordered.

Don't take my word for it though ... see for yourself: would this qualify as medium rare?


Perhaps it was just an off day for the chef, but for a restaurant that specializes in steak, such a mistake is hardly acceptable. The only reason I didn't bother sending it back to the kitchen, was because it was so bland and tough anyways.

Having tried Aston's I still maintain that for steak on a budget, doing it yourself is still the way to go. You won't get the "charred" taste using a grill pan at home, but you'll be surprised how good it actually tastes.

Aston's is Non-Halal.

Pasta de Waraku - Japanese-style Pasta!

The darling and I frequent Changi Airport quite often - thanks to its' relative proximity, and multiple dining options available to the public. I've never done a proper count, but there could easily be three dozen or more separate eateries. Best part is that unlike other airports, prices aren't inflated at all. In fact, retail outlets can even be cheaper than elsewhere thanks to the 7% GST absorption.

Eating at the same joints over and over again can be a bit tiring though, so we venture into a Japanese pasta eatery named Pasta de Waraku. Located at the public areas of Terminal 2, the place offers up a myriad of different pasta dishes - some more Japanified than others.


Each pasta order comes with a mini salad bowl that can at best be described as mediocre. It's got your usual mix of salad greens, a (sour!) cherry tomato, and Wafu (sour/salty vinaigrette) dressing.

For starters, we try the Meatball Teriyaki (SGD8.80 for a half-dozen), which actually tasted pretty good. I'd wager they prepare it almost exactly the same as a Hamburg Steak.


The Fried Potato with Cheese Sauce (SGD4.80) was a little lacklustre, though. Fried potatoes. With nacho cheese sauce. Yes, it tastes exactly like what you'd imagine.

Pasta-wise, the Spaghetti alla Bolognese (SGD14.80) was way too watery for my tastes. I like my bolognese Meaty; this one was just weak and wimpy. As is the case with most mass-market pasta joints, the pasta itself was also overcooked - soft and devoid of that al dente slight chewiness.


The Prawn Spicy Carbonara (SGD16.80) comes with an extremely generous serving of large, fresh, springy prawns. Too bad, then, that the rest of the dish is lacklustre. I think you should also be able to see just how watery the carbonara sauce was. It felt more like carbonara-based soup rather than a real pasta sauce.


Overall, we probably would not return. Prices aren't low enough to accept the unimpressive food, especially when there are so many other superior dining options nearby.

Pasta de Waraku has three outlets around the City - Terminal 2, The Central and Square 2. Non-halal.

Abalone Groupon at "Award winning" Tonny Restaurant

I'm always very wary of buying any dining deals off Groupon (or any of the hundred other competing deals/coupon sites). After all, if a restaurant is worth its' salt, why would it need to slash 75% off its' menu prices to try and get customers? And, more importantly, at those 75% discounted prices, can the restaurant even put out a quality meal?

Putting aside all the other problems plaguing Groupon as a company, the darling and I try our luck with "award winning celebrity chef Tonny Chan's" Tonny Restaurant's Five Course Abalone Set Meal Groupon ($24 per person, $48 value).

We start off with the Crispy Yam with Truffle Oil, $12 if ordered off the Ala Carte menu. We thought that the slight hint of truffle oil was nowhere near strong enough, and that overall the yam shavings suffered from a lack of moisture. It's not fun having to wash down the yam towards the end with liberal gulps of Chinese Tea.


The Double boiled soup with Hong Kong Wonton was actually quite good. Had a very nice and strong chicken flavor to it, although perhaps the Chef could have served more than one wonton?


Butter Sauced Escargot and Fish Fillet was somewhat lacklustre. The fish fillet was well battered & crispy, but the butter-based sauce was mediocre at best.


For the highlight of the night, we're served the Braised Fresh Abalone (Ten Heads with Brocolli and Fried Rice). Ten head abalone means each is about 60gm (very small), which is perhaps to be expected given the price of the meal. What we didn't expect was just how horrible the fried rice was - soggy and tasteless with zero hint of wok hei.


The dessert - Chilled Lemon Grass with Snow Fungus - nothing noteworthy.


The food we had wasn't close to being a fulfilling meal, so we also add on a Roasted Spring Chicken for $20, which was sort of nice, crispy, and well-seasoned.


Which again, brings me back to the main problems I think restaurants (and probably other business as well) have when using Groupon as a marketing tool. The huge 75% "loss" you have to take means that you probably end up putting out a sub-standard and/or cheap meal with cheap ingredients.

The peril of this route, is that customers try, end up unimpressed, and never come back. Some of these customers (like yours truly) might even end up blogging about it! I think that Chef Tonny should have really put more effort into this menu - even if it means taking a (potentially sizeable) loss, as good food should mean return business at the full menu price.

Tonny Restaurant is at 325 Joo Chiat Road. One major drawback is the lack of parking around the area, so it might make more sense to take a cab if you live nearby. Non halal.

Ramen King Keisuke Takeda's Ramen Restaurant in Singapore!

** Update ** We've made a second trip to Keisuke - check out our full thoughts on the Ramen King's other broths by following this link!

Continuing our Ramen exploration in Singapore, we turn our attention now to Keisuke Ramen over in Parco, Millenia Walk. This joint is TV Tokyo's 2011 "Ramen King" Keisuke Takeda's first venture here, and much has been said about his prawn-based soup stock (which takes a few hundred ama ebi, or sweet shrimp, to make).

Except that you can't have this prawn-based ramen any longer. Apparently the story goes that the locals "didn't know how to appreciate" the soup base - saying it was little different than our local prawn noodle - so the chef decided to just stop cooking & serving it. As the saying goes, "Pearls before Swine" :P


You can, however, still have a choice of tonkotsu, shoyu, shio, (spicy) miso ... and Crab Stock bases for your ramen. You can also choose how tasty you want your broth to be, how hard you want your noodles, and which toppings to exclude.


Gyoza (SGD5.00) was pretty par for the course. I'm not sure why I always tend to order gyoza with ramen - it's possibly because almost every ramen shop I've ever gone to also serves gyoza on the side. Or because, as a KK boy, it's very similar to one of our staple foods - the pot sticker a.k.a. Wo Tieh.


Anyways my Shoyu Ramen with ChaShu was très disappointing. The meat was a little dry and not anywhere near as flavorful and tender as most other competing shops, and the soup base was just overpoweringly salty. From the soy sauce. Yes yes, I know I did order soy sauce-based soup, but it's suppose to be the *base* and not the *only flavour*.


I'll reserve final judgement for when the darling comes back from KL/JB so that we can try the tonkotsu and crab broths as well, but first impressions are that it absolutely does not live up to expectations.

Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo is on the 3rd floor of PARCO in Millenia Walk. Non-Halal.