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.

Flammeküche (French "Pizza") at Flam's (Orchard Central)

Right off the bat, let me first say that describing a French food (Flammeküche or Tarte Flambée) with an Italian word (Pizza) is perhaps not the most politically (foodiecally?) correct way to go about things. So if you're reading this and you're French, no offense is intended. It's just that calling the Flammeküche a "French Pizza" seems like the easiest way to describe it in our neck of the woods :)

The Flammeküche originated from the region of Alsace in the North-East of France, and is traditionally, a very thin crust with lots of onions and bacon (or pork fat) on a crème fraîche-based sauce. The folks over at Flam's brought this Alsatian specialty to our shores about two months ago, naturally with a number of different toppings available on offer :)


It's hard to imagine the restaurant decor being any less French. Maybe it's because we're used to equating French food with Fine Dining; Flam's is much more casual. With bright orange sofa seating and lots of wood everywhere, it's not what you'd call cozy, but it does gel with that whole Pizza vibe.

Oops, I meant Flammeküche, of course!

Anyways, because the Flammeküches are so thin, they only need to be popped into the oven for something like 3 minutes before they're served. We started off with The French (SGD18.00), which is Camembert (cheese), walnuts and chives added to the basic bacon and onions. Having such a thin crust does mean that we can enjoy the taste of the liberally-sprinkled ingredients.


The Fresh Mushroom (SGD14.00) also comes loaded with slices of mushrooms. We're not 100% sure what mushrooms they were (tasted like shiitake). For those of us with normal appetites, one Flam per person is probably just about enough.


There are a bunch of sweet Flams on the menu too (for dessert) - we try The Banana Chocolate (SGD6.50) - a half-sized Flam that as its name suggests, comes with slices of Banana and chocolate chips. No bacon and onion on this pie, thankfully!


If you're in a particularly hungry mood, Flam's offers up "all you can eat"s for about SGD25 a mouth, which comes with a salad and non stop Flams until you throw in the towel.

So is a Flammeküche a "French Pizza?" Not really, in my opinion. There's no cheese topping, and the sauce is cream based and not tomato based. Nevertheless if you're in the area, the ingredients are fresh and the Flams are pretty good. Good value for money, too, especially if you're a big enough eater to take advantage of the "all you can eat" offering.

Flam's is on the second floor of Orchard Central. Non-halal.

Menya Musashi Ramen at Raffles City

** Update ** We've given Menya Musashi another try - this time at the new ION Orchard outlet. Find out if we've changed our minds!

Would you line up for an hour for food? Because it certainly seems like you'd need that amount of time standing in line at Menya Musashi Ramen over at Raffles City. During peak periods, at least. This fairly late entrant to the Singapore/Malaysia Ramen market originates from Tokyo, where it's gotten hugely positive raves & reviews since its' opening in the 1990's.

Like pretty much every other ramen restaurant once it's opened shop in our borders, there's a strict kitchen | seating/dining area segregation; no chance of sitting at the counter and chatting up the chef while he cooks up your noodles, sadly.


This particular outlet in Singapore is surprisingly sparse on the choices. You do get a choice of 3 soups - white, black and red - but they're basically the same pork-based soup (white), with a choice of added fried garlic oil (black), or chili oil (red). No choosing how well done you want your noodles to be, either.

Oh, in our customary fashion of trying a new ramen place we also try the gyoza at SGD5.90 which was decent.


I go for the Black soup base with Kakuni (Braised Pork) instead of the usual cha shu. At SGD14.90, it's very similarly priced to the competition.

Unfortunately I thought the ramen wasn't really to my tastes. The noodles were a bit soggy for my liking (I prefer a firmer, more al dente bite), and the soup was too thick and oily - bordering on being an (oily/greasy) gravy, really.


The darling was also somewhat disappointed with her Tsukemen (Red, SGD14.90). The Tsukemen "style" is where you have a dry bowl of noodles, and you dip it into a sauce/soup before slurping/eating. We felt that for dipping, the red soup was not strong tasting or concentrated enough. The cha shu is good though; and if you're a big eater you can "upsize" your order of noodles up to a whopping 5 times portion.


Also, we thought that the egg was overcooked - bordering on being hard boiled.


At the end of the meal we were rather let down. Perhaps the overall taste of both types of ramen just didn't gel with our tastes & preferences. Add in the upwards-of-45-minute queue times and we have to say that it isn't worth the wait at all. 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