Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint

Started as a stall in a coffeeshop, Kay Lee Roast Meat Joint was put up for sale in 2012. Though the owners received about 70 offers, none met their asking price of $3.5 million. Until two and a half years later when publicly-listed conglomerate Aztech Group bought the roast meat institution in Upper Payer Lebar Road for $4 million. The company's group CE is a long-time customer who wants to preserve a heritage brand and expand the business. Now, it can also be found at Bedok Central, Singtel Comcentre, Tanjong Katong and Ubi. My dining companions and I visited the branch, located on the 2nd floor of Suntec City, for lunch on a weekend. We ordered Three Combination Meats and Canton-style Dumpling Noodles. Tender char siew was the best I have tried (am not a fan of char siew, by the way), though skin of roast duck was not crispy and its meat was a tad tough. Could neither rave about the succulent dumpling and springy noodles, nor fault the roast pork.

Guksu

Met up with two dining companions for dinner on a weekday and was asked to choose between Mad for Garlic and two Korean restaurants, all on the 2nd floor of Suntec City. As I am not a fan of garlic, we checked out the menu for Guksu and Kimchi Korean Restaurant by the same owners. Both had stews and while the former is the first homemade Korean noodle house in Singapore, the latter's offerings included ramyeon and barbequed meats. A dining companion was enticed by the Hankook style hotpots at Guksu, which features a fiercely protected handmade Korean noodles recipe that was passed down two generations since 1945 in its Executive Chef Kang family line, though we did not order that in the end. Were tempted by the Korean fried chicken with options of having them classic (honey mustard sauce), soya or spicy.

Takujo

Heard so much about Singapore's first integrated Japanese emporium in a 34,000 sq ft space on the 1st floor of Marina Square. Emporium Shokuhin features a live seafood market, customised temperature and humidity-controlled beef dry-aging facility, gourmet grocer and 8 unique dining concepts including café and bakery Kohi-Koji (bought and tried its bread, nothing to rave about or fault) and a ready-to-eat section. The 6 restaurants are fine-dining Takujo, gyoza and ramen Burosu Honten, Senmi Sushi, seafood wine bar Umi & Vino, shabu-shabu Tsukeru and yakiniku grill Gyuu. For dinner on a weekend at Takujo, we started with two types of raw oysters – fresh and firm, juicy and sweet, leaving me with no doubt that they were not farmed in freshwater. Kani Zozui, or crab porridge, and grilled scallop was again sweet with a taste of the sea. No complaints about its appetiser of smooth chawanmushi though, and the tender braised black pork belly from the Nimono menu.

Saigon Lotus

We let a friend who was visiting from overseas choose the cuisine for our catch-up over dinner on a weekday and his choice was Vietnamese food. For the convenience of everyone who stays and works all over Singapore, we decided to meet around City Hall MRT Station. So our options were Nam Nam Noodle Bar at Raffles City Shopping Centre or Suntec City, Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats also at Raffles City and Saigon Lotus at Marina Square's Dining Edition. We settled on the latter even though the brightly-coloured place owned by a Vietnamese-Australian was never packed whenever I walked by. The menu cover was made of wood with carvings of its name and drawings. Except for one, the rest of us ordered a set meal each that comes with a dessert or drink. Since there was no more rice paper roll, my entrée was the pork spring roll – nothing impressive. Chose sliced beef noodle over chicken noodle and egg noodle, which I could neither rave about nor fault.

Update: The restaurant has closed.

Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo and Gyoza King

It was way past lunch time but my dining companion and I had not eaten. Since it was a weekend, we were surprised to find an almost empty Ramen Dining Keisuke Tokyo on the 2nd floor of Suntec City. This is by chef-owner Keisuke Takeda who, with 100% of sales generated at Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King last Friday, purchased and donated community notice boards to Tanjong Pagar housing estates as he found some of them too small or damaged. As part of its 3rd anniversary celebration, 350 bowls of ramen were sold at a thank you price of $5 each and bottles of water were distributed to customers queuing in the hot weather. Having tried the pork bone broth at Orchid Hotel's Tonkotsu King as well as the chicken-based soup at 100AM's Ramen Keisuke Tori King, I decided to order the crab stock ramen with egg at Keisuke Tokyo. Relocated from Millenia Walk, this 75-seater restaurant has a private dining room and is the largest in Singapore.

Lady M

There are four branches of Lady M in the United States, three of which are in New York and the other is in Los Angeles, and two in Singapore. Opened last September, the 1st branch at Marina Square's Dining Edition on the 2nd floor has no kitchen space (cakes are apparently too complicated to be prepared with the limited countertop space and instead delivered daily from its central kitchen). The 2nd, a late-night joint, opened recently at One Fullerton. According to the website, it prides itself on creating the freshest and finest cakes and confectionery delights. Combining French pastry techniques with Japanese etiquette of precision, they are handmade following recipes refined over the years to provide the highest quality in taste and appearance. It is known as the original creator of the well-known mille crêpe cake with 20 layers of paper-thin handmade crepe interspersed with light pastry cream – vanilla, chocolate, citron, coconut, green tea, marron and strawberry.

Hamanoya

My dining companions and I met up for late lunch last Sunday. Marina Square's Dining Edition on the 2nd floor was chosen for the many restaurants there (including 2nd branch of SaintMarc Café – its 3rd is slated at nearby Raffles City Shopping Centre), most of which have no other branches in Singapore. Despite so, none had a menu that was exciting enough for one dining companion to enthusiastically say "let's try this" without any hesitation. In the end, we settled on Hamanoya. Cheerful staff greeted us as we stepped into the almost empty place with clean lines in its contemporary chic interior design. Square columns of yellow-orange lights hung above square wooden tables with metal legs, paired with comfortable bench seats and cushioned chairs with backrest.

Muthu’s Curry

Muthu's Curry at Suntec City is my favourite Indian restaurant because it is not only conveniently located in a shopping mall, but also serves consistently good food at reasonable prices. However, renovations at Suntec City have made manoeuvring around the once familiar shopping mall confusing and I have not visited in a long while. Started as Muthu Makan shop on Klang Road in 1969, Muthu's Curry has a branch at Race Course Road in Little India and another in Dempsey Hill. When I finally dropped by the renovated restaurant after a more-than-one-year hiatus, it was almost empty. Possibly because I was there on a weekday for early dinner or that it faced stiff competition from other restaurants also located at basement around the Fountain of Wealth. Sitting at one of the bench seats, I ordered mostly the usual and tried its Lamb Chops for the first time. No Fish Head Curry but Tandoori Chicken, Masala Prawns and Biryani Rice served with vegetables.