Japanese Food in a European-style Cafe: Ma Maison, Parco Millenia Walk.

Ma Maison Restaurant and Cafe sort of advertises itself as French Japanese Fusion. Which in my opinion isn't quite accurate. The layout & deco of the restaurant does have very strong European influences, but the majority of the menu is firmly entrenched in Japanese Cafe territory.


Take, for example, this Omu Rice (SGD14.80), which you can order with a choice of several different sauces. We went with the "regular" brown sauce. The Omelette was nice and fluffy (like scrambled egg), and generously layered over tomato rice with bits of chicken. Nothing fusion about this dish, it was most certainly Japanese.


Same story with the Tonkatsu Set (SGD19.50). For a jack-of-all-trades type of cafe we're pretty impressed with the crispiness of the deep fried pork loin, although it does fall a little short of the dedicated tonkatsu joints like Saboten.


No fresh sesame seeds to grind here, just a straight-up tonkatsu sauce. And a salt crystal grinder for extra taste - which we didn't need as the food's plenty tasty already.


Ginger Ale - SGD4.00. I'll never understand why we all let restaurants get away with charging four times the price of a canned drink just because it's served with a glass full of ice (yes, I'm guilty of this all the time).


Overall at slightly over SGD20 per person, Ma Maison serves up some nice solid Japanese cafe fare in a very nice & pleasing environment - perfect to take a date. Music was soothing and chosen well to suit the decorations, too ... although the standard Japanese-style shouts of "いらっしゃいませ" every time a patron walks in is a little at odds with the ambience.

Ma Maison has three outlets - Bugis Junction, The Central, and Parco @ Millenia Walk. Non-Halal.

Travelling to the Airport ... for dinner? Awesome とんかつ (tonkatsu) at Saboten, Changi T1!

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"Let's go to the airport for some dinner" are words that you probably don't hear every day. Unless, like us, you live only a couple of stations away on the MRT. Which is a shame, though, because especially in a high volume, busy airport like Changi International, there's bound to be a couple of solid restaurants. Case in point - Saboten on the first floor of Terminal 1, which serves some of the best とんかつ (tonkatsu) we've ever had!


Perfectly situated on the first floor overlooking the check in counters, it's a perfect chill-out joint where you can relax and do some people watching. Yes, there are some drawbacks: for example it's pretty noisy with frequent announcements over the P.A. and other random airport noises, but I'm willing to overlook many comforts as long as the food's good!

The darling and I place our orders and sit back to wait. First off, the shredded lettuce. It's served with two dressings - a citrusy orange soy sauce dressing and a sesame one. I'm pleasantly surprised that the bowls were all pre-refrigerated to keep the lettuce cold as you eat. Definitely a very neat touch that more restaurants should emulate.


The tonkatsu sauce doesn't come completely pre-made: you have to grind your own sesame seeds with the provided mortar-and-pestle (kind of), for maximum fresh sesame taste.


On to the main courses then! I have the Saboten Special Set (SGD25.00) which comes with a prawn, mini pork loin cutlet, mini pork tenderloin cutlet and potato salad croquette. The cutlets are superb! Light, crispy and flaky breadcrumb/flaked battered, To nitpick I'd say that the pork could perhaps be slightly more moist and tender, but that's a very, very small nitpick.


Since the special set already has pretty much everything, our second choice is the Loin Katsu Curry (SGD19.50). It's the same awesome flaky crispy battered pork loin cutlet, drenched with Japanese-style curry. The curry is solid but not spectacular though, and it pretty quickly soaks into the katsu's batter, so I'd recommend just sticking to the normal, un-currie'd stuff.

Both sets come with free flow miso soup and rice, refilled as many times as you want - which I again thought was a nice touch. Oh, and a scoop of green tea ice cream at the end, too.


So in conclusion, an awesome tonkatsu joint with very reasonable prices - highly recommended! If you live along the eastern half of the green line, it is totally worth a SGD1.50 MRT trip down to Changi T1 just for dinner. The only downside, perhaps, is that Saboten doesn't really serve anything else other than various types of deep fried meats, so it won't work out for you if your dining partner(s) are in the mood for sushi.