SYUN - Contemporary Japanese Restaurant

At the recent highly anticipated G Restaurant Awards 2015, SYUN was awarded the best newcomer (Asian) restaurant. This is indeed a reassuring note for celebrity chef Hal Yamashita, whose restaurant is only 5-month-old in Singapore. Chef Yamashita hails from Kobe, Hyogo prefecture and his style of cooking is highly influenced by Kobe's fusion of techniques that allowed him to create his very own style.

We shall explore why this restaurant was deserving of the prestigious award. This would be based from a recent visit to the restaurant. Don't get me wrong, it is not that the food here was very expensive, but it was because during lunch, the items served were very limited to lunch sets only.

The grand entrance into SYUN. There is a little path
across the miniature Japanese garden. 

Simple yet modern layout. I like the 'gold' colour leaf which was used to rest the
chopsticks. 

Very attractive plates which I presumed was from Japan. 

Green Salad with Yuzu Ginger Dressing. The salad was fresh and it came with
the set but I was more attracted to the plate. 

Unagi and Foie Gras Teriyaki Jyu ($48).
Now, this was a very generous serving of Unagi and a thick slab of foie gras! The Unagi
was very well marinated in its sauce. The tender meat just melts in the mouth! This was
likewise for the foie gras, which just melted in the mouth with its distinct creamy flavour.

Bara Chirashi Sushi Jyu ($32).
Look at this piece of art. And the amount of sashimi toppings! You might think
that was probably just the top layer which was thin, but wait till you see the
subsequent pic. The sashimi was ultra fresh as fresh, and that went without
saying of course.  

See, what did I say? I think the rice was probably more expensive than the
sashimi hence the chef decided to give less rice and more sashimi. Well, this was
hell of a great value for money Chirashi I ever had!

The accompanying miso soup and chawanmushi. The soup was not too salty
which was to my liking. As for the chawanmushi, it was one of the silkiest
smooth and tasty egg curd I had thus far. 

I must say that I am hooked to this fine dining Japanese restaurant and the overall dining experience here was memorable as well. I will definitely want to try their dinner soon, which have more options.

SYUN

Festive Walk, Resort World Sentosa 

Tel: 6557 6688

Opening Hours:

Lunch:
12pm-3:00pm
(Tues-Sun, last order at 2:30pm)

Dinner:
6pm - 11:00pm
(Tues-Sun, last order at 10:30pm)

Close every Monday

SYUN Restaurant Webpage                   

Forest 森 - The Contemporary Chinese Dining

The Resort World Sentosa presents quite a number of fine dining helmed by celebrity chefs. In one recent food adventure, I had visited the Forest restaurant for a taste of their Sunday 8-course lunch. Priced at $78++ per pax, the set lunch comprises 13 dishes in tasting portion. This was much to my delight as I love varieties of food. Overall, I would say that the dining experience here was very pleasant, with attentive and efficient staff. I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking.

Entrance to the Restaurant. Sam Leong is featured prominently in the poster
but the actual person was not at the restaurant that day.

This is their distinctive theatre kitchen where diners get unobstructed
view of the chefs as they create their wonderful dishes

The menu actually did come with a glass of house wine. As I
don't really drink wine, I asked if they have any non-alcoholic
option, and they offered the lemongrass drink with sago seed. 

Chef Special soup of the day. This is essentially winter melon soup with chicken.
It was a great tasting soup, flavourful and without any hint of MSG ( I hope ).

Baby Abalone with Sichuan "Ma La" Sauce. The sauce doesn't really taste
anything like Sichuan sauce and the green apple salad tasted
more like a Thai recipe instead.

Tuna Tartar marinated with fresh Mango served
in a cone. This is a rather interesting piece of appetiser. I cant tell if
the cone is charcoal based or squid ink (or maybe
it's just black colour). The taste was rather good though.

Vietnamese Roll with a slice of lobster in X.O sauce ( right),
Deep Fried New Zealand Cod Fillet with salt and pepper (left).
The taste was rather ordinary for the Vietnamese roll. As for the
cod fillet, it was fried to the right crisp and the fillet was well cooked, with
its moist retained. 

Steamed Chawanmushi with Foie Gras (right), deep fried shrimp ball
in spicy mayonnaise (left). As you can see, the highlight of this duo is the chawanmushi.
The accompanying deep fried fish skin was a great addition to the silk smooth egg curdle. 

Steamed King Prawn with glass vermicili. The prawn was sweet
and succulent, as if it had just been fished out of the ocean! 

Pan-fried Lamb Chop with Cumin Powder in green curry sauce. Now, for those who knew me,
I was hardly a fan of lamb because I didn't like the aftertaste. For this particular dish, I finish
everything on the plate though. The chef had skilfully removed the strong lamb smell,
much to my delight. For those wondering what was the piece of orangey slab, that
was actually Chinese-style carrot cake. 

The lamb was very tender and well cooked, as seen from the picture.

Braised Ee-fu noodles with dried scallop and crab meat. Now towards
the end, I was getting quite full. Luckily this was only two mouthfuls of carbo at most. 

Japanese Pearl Rice with Prawn in chicken broth. Another two mouthful
of carbo to end the course. This particular dish is very average and nothing to shout about.

Forest Deligtht.Yummy dessert to end off everything. The mango pomelo
was a great taste rinser

The restaurant is relatively crowded on Sundays, hence do place reservations
to avoid disappointment. 

Forest Restaurant

Equarius Hotel Lobby, Resort World Sentosa 

Tel: 6557 6688

Opening Hours:

Breakfast:
7:30-10:30m
(Daily, walk-ins only)

Lunch:
12pm-2:30pm
(Mon-Sat, last order at 2:15pm)

Dinner:
6pm - 10:30pm
(Daily, last order at 10:15pm)

Sunday Lunch:
12pm-3pm
(last order 2:45pm)

Forest Restaurant Webpage                   

Asia Grand Restaurant - Where Grand Food are Served...

There had been quite a hype on this unique award-winning Cantonese restaurant, and yet I had only finally decided to give this place a try recently during lunch. Located right on the ground level of Odeon Tower, this restaurant was easy to locate and fairly accessible.

Entrance of Asia Grand Restaurant

The restaurant was not big and there was a certain charm to the interior design. I felt at home quite instantly.

Interior

Grand Chandelier

 Servers were attentive and warned against ordering too much. I ordered a mixture of dim sum and main dishes from the ala carte menu. While waiting, I feasted on the pickled fish cake, which whetted my appetite further.

Pickled Fish Cake Appetiser

Food came rather randomly which was OK for me but I do know of people who would be mindful of the order food should be served. The dim sum dishes which i ordered were quite decent. The Char Siew polo bun is worth special mention here. It has a crispy layer which was not too sweet which coated the Char Siew filled fluffy bun.

Char Siew Polo Bun ( $4.80 for 3 pcs)

Generous Char Siew Filling and Crispy Sugary Coating
on top of the bun

The Siew Mai is decent as well and taste like the way it should in top dim sum restaurants.

Siew Mai ( $5.80 for 4 pcs)

The Scallop Dumpling was a great change from the usual Har Gau.

Steamed Scallop Dumpling ( $5.80 for 3 pcs)

The roast pork was lean and skin was crispy. The only complaint was that there was an strong pork aftertaste, which was typical of those imported from Australia.

Roast Crispy Pork ($12 per order)

Lean and Crispy indeed!

As with all Cantonese restaurant, one litmus test would be the soup. Grand Palace indeed passed the test with flying colours. Though a tad on the salty side, this pot of gem was bursting with the sweet seafood flavour.

Melon Soup With Seafood ( $12 per order)

Look at the amount of ingredients within!

The baked crab with cheese sounds like an appetising sin but taste wise its quite ordinary really.

Stuffed Crab Shell ( $20 per order)

Generous Crab meat filling baked with Cheese

The healthy bean curd with mushroom and crab meat tasted slightly on the bland side but I did like the fresh soya bean taste of it.

Beancurd with Mushroom and Crab Meat ($14 per portion) 

Two type of beans were used as one can see from the pic. 

The pork ribs with sweet and sour sauce was one of the best I had tasted. The meat was well marinated and tender. I couldn't stop helping myself to it one piece after another.

Pork Ribs with Sweet and Sour Sauce ( $24 per order)

Lunch came to an end eventually and I was too stuffed to try their dessert. Overall Grand Asia had live up to it's expectations. My soul, needless to say, was nourished too.

Asia Grand

331 North Beach Road

#01-02 Odeon Towers S(188720)

Tel: 68870010

Opening Hours:

Mon to Sat: 1130 - 2230

Sun & PH: 1000 - 2230 

Asia Grand Restaurant Webpage

Ryoshisushi Ikeike Maru @ Meidi-ya - Quick Fix Sushi Bar

Good conveyor belt sushi are hard to find these days. And how do you know if a sushi joint is really decent? Look at the type of customers it attracts! Ryoshisushi Ikeikemaru Sushi is frequently visited by the Japanese and of course, the locals. Since its first opening in 2012, it had attracted a steady stream of customers, which was hardly surprising given the relatively fresh food served and its pocket-friendliness.  

Entrance to Ryoshisushi Ikeikemaru Sushi at near Meidi-ya
Supermart.

Before I display the list of sushi and food that I had, let me explain how the pricing in this place works. The food items were categorised by plate colours, and the pricing was as listed below:

Green   : $1.80       Yellow : $2.80

Red      : $3.80        Silver  : $4.80

Golden : $5.80        Black  : $6.80

Conveyor Belt Sushi that offers Spacious Seating as well.  

Sushi Chef in Action

The price of food would also be in multiples of the plate colours. For example, say if there was an item that cost $20.40, that would mean 3 black plates. Ordering of the food could be done through the serves via the menu, or one could just pick any favorites from the moving conveyor belt. Overall dining experience in this restaurant was OK. For those on a rush and craving for good sushi, this could be one good quick fix instead of heading to the usual conveyor belt chains. 

Aburi Salmon ($2.80). Used to come in pair for the same price, but had
shrunk to 1 piece instead

Sashimi Sushi ( i can't recall the name) ($5.80)
Well, if i can't remember, this was probably forgettable :-)

Salmon Head Miso Soup ($4.80)
Very big portion of soup here. To some, this could be a main course by
itself.

Natto Maki ($1.80).
A perennial favourite that can't really go wrong.

Teriyaki Meat Ball ($1.80).
The meat ball taste like flour ball. Don't
expect getting the Tori-Q type of meatballs.

Itako Sushi ($3.80)
Another can't go wrong option. 

Raw Oyster Sushi ($4.80)
 This was worth ordering. The oysters were
very succulent and fresh.

Hokkaido Fish Cake ($5.80)
 This was so-so. Looking at the colour, one
could tell that it was a bit over fried.

Green Tea Ice Shavings with Red Bean ($5.80)
Green tea syrup with condensed milk and topped
with that one single scoop of red beans.

Ryoshisushi Ikeike Maru

B1 Liang Court

177 River Valley Road

Tel: 6337 1022

Opening Hours:

Daily from 10:00 am - 10:00 pm

Ryoshisushi Ikeike Maru Webpage