Keisuke Ramen at Clarke Quay

Finally I have the time to write down about this place HAHAHA. I've been dragging a lot time (probably 2 weeks?) cause my life schedule is kinda hectic =(

WARNING!

This post contains lots of words and only 4 pictures as this is a reminder story for me that there is still awesome restaurant with awesome service out there. So don't complain that it's so wordy. I've warned you. LOL

Here it goes =)

Probably a lot of you have been here and know that this place has legit good ramen, however, I really want to write down this post to remind me how good is the service given to me and my boyfriend when we visited this place.

To be very honest, we did not know this place even existed (sorry not sorry, but both of us really haven't been exploring restaurant HAHA) I know that there are few eateries at Clarke Quay, but did not expect a Japanese ramen place to be there; cause you know Clarke Quay is drinking place and I did not associate drinking with ramen. Anyway, doesn't really matter. What matter most is the food quality and the service as well as the pricing of the food and beverage.

We knew this place thanks to the $10 voucher given to us by doing CapitaLand survey (we got 2 pieces! Woohoo!!) Just because I didn't know what to have for dinner, my boyfriend suggested we tried out the ramen place. It took us around 5 mins to find the place (mind you, it's because both of us kinda lost in this area) 

When we reached to the restaurant, we was taken aback as there was long queue (which we never expect) so we waited around 10 to 15mins. Well at least at the front queue, we managed to grab a seat and also drinks (provided at the entrance area, self-service for the water). After the wait, we were seated inside at the corner where we can see this huge bell in the middle for decoration purpose LOL

Right after seated the below catch my attention (although I know this is common haha). We ordered two ramen (to be honest I really forgotten which one my boyfriend ordered cause it's been too LONG !) and also ordered Sakura Cola. Picture below =)

Complimentary egg 😃

Lovely Sakura Cola =)

I have to be honest, for the Sakura Cola, it tasted just okay for me. I don't really know how to explain the taste, but it just doesn't taste like the normal Cola. It's bit sweeter and I can taste a bit sour plum? which I know is a bit weird HAHAHA. This is just for one time experience, as I was curious to know the taste and there will be no second time of ordering this. I rather just drink water LOL

As for the ramen, I swear I've forgotten what my boyfriend ordered (perhaps when we visit another time, I'll look up the name in the menu and then update it here. IF I remember ! HAHA) Meanwhile for me, I ordered the Miso Lobster ramen with egg (Ajitsuke Tamago, not the normal hard boiled egg). I can tell you it taste so good !! I finish the whole bowl by myself 😆

Meanwhile for my boyfriend, oh dear, so much drama !! Let me start narrating the drama HAHA

So he ordered the ramen and when it was served, I took picture (as usual). Right after that, he taste a spoonful of soup and gave me weird face and said "this is so bland!" I was quite curious so I took a sip (after tasted my ramen soup) and I definitely agree with him. At first we thought that it was like that, however, my boyfriend still doubting. In the end, we called one of the staffs and asked her if its normal.

She asked if we usually have stronger taste buds (meaning if you like more salty/spicy). If yes, we should not choose normal taste (there are three categories; less, normal, more (something like that, can't really remember). Thank God that she is quite understanding, and she took the bowl away.

However, on very next minute, the chef suddenly came out from the kitchen and apologized to us. He mentioned that it was their mistake that the ramen was bland. They eventually changed a new one to us and voila, tasted so much better !! My boyfriend enjoyed the meal to the last drop of the soup 😂 You can see the proof at my Instagram highlight.

The experience is definitely really good as they really care about customer feedback and immediately act on it. I know for someone who is little peanut like me, one complaint will just be another one customer lost, and it won't affect their business profit. I really appreciate the kind gesture of changing the ramen. What even surprised me more is that they actually let us eat it for FREE !! YES FREE !! The restaurant didn't charged us any single cent for the ramen that was being exchanged. I was shocked when I was leaving the restaurant and still could not believe it.

The final receipt ! At the end of the day, they only charged us one ramen and one cola =)

This is another reason why I bother to write so much word (sorry if you're looking for recommendation and I bore you with all these drama HAHAHA) and only 4 (YES 4. You can count it) pictures posted =)

I just want to write this down so I can remember there's this restaurant named Keisuke Ramen at Clarke Quay that still care about their customer although they are busy af !!

The address as per below:
3C River Valley Road,
#01-07 The Cannery, Clarke Quay
Singapore 179022

Opening hour - 6PM to 5AM daily
Nearest MRT - Clarke Quay

翠華 Tsui Wah Singapore

The new hype in town is this restaurant from Hong Kong, 翠華 Tsui Wah !!

Managed to visit on Sunday for brunch (we were there at 10.22am and started queuing LOL) Since it’s still fresh in town there’s no doubt that you will have long queue even before the opening hours. By 10.45am, one of the employees started to distribute fan (you can see picture below) for all the customers while another one started to take queue number (asking you how many pax and your name)

The Free Fan !! LOL

I did not manage to take the interior of the restaurant but I did snap few pictures of the menu (though it might not be that clear). Scroll below to see the picture =)

For this time, we ordered just 2 main and 1 dessert and a drink (both of us ordered the same stuff but it's not their specialty, which is milk-tea, because we had Gongcha yesterday so enough with milk-tea haha)

The dishes we ordered were Kagoshima-Style Braised Pork Cartilage with Tossed Instant Noddles, King Prawn in XO Sauce with Tossed Noodles, and Savory French Toast Bites served with Vanilla Ice-cream. Overall, the food was okay (not like wow! Delicious!!) but still acceptable. 

The King prawn was very fresh, but the noodle is too dry for me; so I added almost half bowl of the soup to the noodle LOL.

King Prawn in XO Sauce with Tossed Noodles, $11

My boyfriend had the other main and he really likes it. The pork cartilage is cooked to perfect tenderness and the noodle is not too soggy (it is like Maggie noodle LOL)

Kagoshima-Style Braised Pork Cartilage with Tossed Instant Noddles, $9.50

As for dessert, we had the French Toast. We waited for quite a long time (almost 30mins 😭😭) The table beside us ordered the Crispy Bun with Condensed Milk (one of their signatures), but eventually, they gave up and just canceled the order. The main reason why it was late (as per the employee) is because the vanilla ice-cream is not available anymore! Hence, they asked if it was okay to switch it to matcha which is totally fine with us =) When it was served, I was quite perplexed cause the ice-cream doesn't look like matcha ice-cream 😅 

 French Toast with Vanilla Ice-Cream, $9.50

The Yuen Yeung (coffee and tea) is mixed to perfection !! Love it so much that I don't mind to go back there again to have it HAHAHA

 Yuen Yeung, $4

To be honest, while I was waiting, I checked the review on their Facebook page (you can click here) and I was quite surprised as there are few 1star rated (mostly because of the waiting time for the food). But hey, let's be fair to the team too as it is still newly operated and all the operation might still be trial and error. 

Though we waited quite long for the dessert, the food is still good anyway (not that when it comes out the ice-cream melted and the toast tasted bad) so I will still give four-star =)

PS: THANK GOD they kept my boyfriend sling bag !! He left it at the restaurant and just realized it after 15mins later 😌😌 

Location :

翠華 Tsui Wah Singapore

Address - 3A River Valley Road, Clarke Quay #01-03, Singapore 179020

Opening hour - 11am - 11pm

{Review} The Brew Orchestra

Finally I got the time to pin down my thoughts about this cafe. Last visited this place was like two weeks ago when we went JB. Since JB has been quite popular with the cafe-hopping scenario, I asked my boyfriend to drive us to The Brew Orchestra.

We were quite expectant to taste the food and coffee as there were quite a number of reviews saying this place is really good (looking from their Facebook page). We were quite famished too cause we had our breakfast around 8am at the resort and did not have anything else after. It took us around 1 hour to reach this place after checking out from the resort (read about it here).

The place looks cozy and comfortable. When we visited it was around 2pm, and only a few table was taken so it’s quite quiet =) We were greeted by friendly staff and decided to sit at the long table which is right in front of the coffee bar area ~

Long table, the entrance is on the left on this picture =)
You can see there's a glass panel with the handle.

The bar area =)

Looking at the menu, they had quite a various items that are interesting. When I took the menu picture, the staffs keep on glancing to me as if I’m weirdo LOL

Because I work in printing industry, looking at their menu makes me a bit sad as I felt they can do much better for their menu presentation =(

Beverage Menu

Food Menu

Since both of us needed caffeine shot (we did not have any coffee for one day and both of us are craving for it LOL), we ordered Caffee Latte and Hazelnut Latte. Both our latte taste okay. He doesn't like my Hazelnut latte as it is too sweet for him 😄

Caffe Latte - RM12.00

Hazelnut Latte - RM14.00

As for the food, I decided to go with Egg Benedict (most recommended in the review) and my boyfriend ordered Sakura Ebi & Tobiko Pasta. We ordered Balsamic Grilled Mushroom for sharing as well (effect of being too hungry; ordered every single thing that I feel like eating) We almost ordered more but I managed to stop cause we experienced quite few times ordering too much food and end up we are always forcing our self to finish it 😆

FINALLY THE FOOD COME !!

They served the mushroom in a small bowl and next moment I knew, this is slightly over-priced. We can cook this our self too !!! Button mushroom sliced to small slices with balsamic oil and chopped condiment such as basil or rosemary to enhance the fragrance. 

Presentation wise - normal

Taste wise - normal

Portion vs Price - not worth it =( slightly overpriced?

Balsamic Grilled Mushroom - RM10.00

To be very frank, the egg benedict is just so so, not as great as many has written down on the review of the Facebook. I’m sorry to say but it really just tastes nothing special and no wow-factor 😞 My expectation was crushed but at least it makes me full (yeah just full not satisfied 😔) IMHO, the hollandaise sauce should be the wow factor, but nah I don't get it from here.

Presentation wise - okay

Taste wise - normal

Portion vs Price - reasonable

Egg Benedict Deluxe - RM22.00

Meanwhile for the pasta, it's not bad, but it's too salty for me. My other half likes it so much though cause of the overflowing tobiko (probably this is the reason why it's salty. Hahaha !!)

Presentation wise - okay

Taste wise - too salty for me 😔

Portion vs Price - worth the price ~

Sakura Ebi & Tobiko - RM 21.00

Overall experience? Was okay (thanks to the atmosphere of the cafe)

Will I come back? Probably meh as I prefer to try out different place
Worth to spend your money here? Maybe once in a while when you're feeling rich LOL

Let me know in the comment section if you have tried other items from this cafe or you disagree with me for this post =) 

Location –

19, Jalan Molek 1/5C

Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru

{Review} - Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh

There are two types of Bak Kut Teh that I've tried in life, the herbal and the pepper based soup (I think there are only two types hor, if got any others please do let me know haha)

I've been craving for the herbal-based soup bak kut teh (BKT) since I came to Singapore as I'm used to the taste when I was still at Malaysia. The BKT at Singapore mostly is pepper-based which to be honest I don't like it at all 😞😢

After long searching, lo and behold I managed to find it (thanks to boyfriend as well 😂) and satisfy my craving!! Although I'm quite sad that they don't have 肉圓 (rou yan, meatballs), but happy that they have 三辰肉 (pork belly, but if you literally translated it, three layer meat LOL sinful sia!!) I said this as the last round I went JB to have BKT, I don’t have the chance to have pork belly (you can find the review here)

We ordered for two pax with two rice (the amount of rice is too generous that I can’t finish it. In the end, almost half of my portion gone to my boyfriend so he’s eating 1 and ½ bowl 😂)

The soup taste is heavenly good (as I can’t find one like this in Singapore for the past 3 years) so I might be overly happy describing this food =p We got 10 slices of pork ribs (yeah I literally count how many both of us eaten) and few slices of  pork belly (I did not count this LOL)

Bak Kut Teh for two pax =)

We ordered a portion of youtiao (Chinese fried churros or doughnut) and a portion of braised peanuts (man I love this so much that I just keep on eating and then regretting it after I’m full cause I might have pimples on the next day HAHAHAHA)

Braised peanuts

Youtiao 

Why youtiao? Don’t ask me sia cause to be honest I don’t know but I think it just a culture thing. We will soak it in the BKT soup (yeah we literally just throwing it in every 3-4 pieces) and when it’s soaked with the soup we will eat it. The combination of the soup and doughnut is just perfect =) I don’t touch my rice mainly because of this reason LOL

As for the peanuts, it’s just a condiment too. Don’t even know the reason why people order this when they have BKT or other dish such as kway chap. The peanut texture is so soft and the taste is just nice, not too salty =)

Will I go back to this place? Definitely YES !

Is it worth the price? Absolutely YES !

Cost for this meal - S$19.40 (2 pax)

Location -

Leong Kee (Klang) Bak Kut Teh

251 Geylang Road, 389309

Out from Singapore for 3 Days 2 Nights ! Desaru, Malaysia !!

Finally I gotten the chance to visit Desaru ! This visit is special for me as I am not exploring to the famous Desaru fruit farm or Ostrich farm or to see fireflies at night. It's a 3 days 2 nights trip, what did I do if I didn't visited those places which a lot people recommend?

Basically, first day when we reached Desaru, we just chilled. The second day is race day (scroll below to read more on this) with seafood night and the last day is purely chill, shopping at JB and went for a cafe tasting 😋

So, let's begin the journey !!

I shall start with what we did when we reached Johor. We decided to have lunch at Hwa Mei Bak Kut Teh (华美) which is located around 10mins from the Johor Custom. It's bit tricky though as the shop is located in a very small corner of the road.

The BKT shop)

I thought it will be those traditional served BKT (in one big hot pot with all the meat inside), but I was wrong. To be honest, I'm quite a bit disappointed as this is not as what I expected, but it's okay as the taste is still the herbal BKT that I miss so much. Three of us ordered one big bowl of pork ribs, small bowl of organs (I did not touch any of it)

Food that we ordered on for our lunch

For three rice and three drinks with all the food we ordered total spent was RM50.00 (inclusive of 6% GST), in SGD it's around $17 (conversion rate of 2.95). Below is the snap of the dish individually, see if you are tempted by them. If yes, then give it a try. No harm in trying eh =p

Big portion of Pork Ribs cost RM18.00

Preserved vege (Mei Cai) small size - RM7.00

The organs (😨) small bowl - RM12.00

After the lunch, we headed to Desaru straight away. It was quite smooth journey and it took us around 1 hour 15mins following Google maps (distance at 76.4km). Weather was good as well !

Looks cloudy on the beginning of the journey =(

The cloud decided to spread out and giving me nice view to take pic =)

So how did we end up choosing Desaru for our weekend getaway?

I decided to join my boyfriend for Desaru trip as I am rooting for him and his friend as they joined 113 Desaru Johor - 113 Triathlon (2km Swim, 90km Cycle, 21km Run) held at Lotus Desaru Beach Resort on the 5th May. I never see him in the race and decided to give it a try =) Plus I never visited Desaru, so why not !

Few pictures taken using Huawei P20 Pro.

I've labelled the picture so you can read each description below 😊

1. The banner spotted on the road before turning in to the resort
2. The start line of 113 Triathlon, the Elite (approx. 5 persons only) will get to start first
3. The beach to swim
4. 113 Triathlon route map
5. Route map for three categories (113 Triathlon, 113 Sprint, and 113 Mini)
6. Finishing line !

Although the race is at Lotus, we decided to stay at Sand & Sandals Resort & Spa as suggested by my boyfriend's cousin. It's also because I saw the room pictures from the cousin and fall in love with it. Lotus was quite an old establishment and the room might not be that clean as well, hence we decided to top up few dollars more.

After the race, the guys totally knocked out and rest for another few hours before we went to have our seafood night at Sengat Seafood Restaurant, which is 30mins (31.1km) drive from the place we stayed. Good food however location wise is totally unpredictable (we thought we were LOST!) but all in all, it's worth the experience =)

And on the very final day, we just chill at the beach/pool and checked out at 1pm and went for shopping at JB ~

Instagram worthy? 😂

I'll wrap up my stories on this entry. There are quite few stories that I will write more linking up to this trip and I'll update all the links here, so stay tuned !

»»—— To see the review for the place we stay, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review for the seafood place, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review for the cafe we visited this time at Johor, you can click here 😄

»»—— To see the review during the race of the 113 Triathlon by my boyfriend, you can click here 😄

Tonkotsu Kazan Ramen - Volcano Ramen !

Disclaimer: This is not sponsored post and everything written here is just imho ! 

Maybe all of you heard about this restaurant before, but to be honest, yesterday was my first try ever at this restaurant and I'm quite impressed by the food quality !!

Menu front cover =)

The interior view of the restaurant from my seat
(right view) 

The interior view of the restaurant from my seat (left view)

Don't be deceived from the picture I posted above as if there's no one visiting as it just happened I had the chance to take those without any human in it 😂 There were quite few tables taken when we went and it was around 8pm.

The moment I stepped into the restaurant, I knew what to order ! (the curry smell tempted me so much and FYI, I am not really into curry food). I ordered the S-size of Kazan curry. If you are big eater, you can try the normal size. I ordered the small size. It comes with rice to!! (the item that helps me to make decision to order small size)

First page of the menu =)

Kazan Curry S-size

Looks quite fancy eh ! So, basically there are 5 steps you need to follow (but the employee helps us anyway as the red lid color was hot! haha)

5 steps ! 

Basically, they will pour the curry (just the right amount) to let it cook on the pot and they will close the lid. Few moment later, you can see the steam coming up from the top lid !

See the vapor

The waitress pouring in more curry

The moment the lid was opened!

Yummy food revealed !!

The curry flavor is the typical Japanese curry and slightly spicy. It was okay for me as I can eat really spicy food. There are 3-4 pieces of the meat (charsiew) with lots of vege (spring onion, beansprout, carrot, onion, and cabbage). The noodle is different from the other ramen in the menu. It's slightly thicker (hopefully you can see it from the below image)

Cheese added =D

The other food we ordered was the Shio Tonkotsu Ramen set, ordered by my beloved boyfriend (he had the craving from the afternoon! haha) I only tasted a bit of the soup (too engrossed with my curry 😅) and it was good !!

Shio Tonkotsu Ramen set (ramen + 5pcs of gyoza)

The gyoza is definitely one of the best I ever tasted in Singapore. The skin that wrapped the meat is thin and not easily torn when you picked them up to eat. The meat is slightly juicy and sweet!

See the skin texture of the gyoza ♡＾▽＾♡

I will definitely be back to this restaurant to try their other menu !! They had few branches in Singapore and other countries such as Indonesia (Jakarta) and Thailand (Bangkok). The one I visited yesterday was at Liang Court (177 River Valley Road, #01-10 Liang Court, 179030)

Visit their instagram if you want to have more details: tonkotsukazan (https://www.instagram.com/tonkotsukazan/)