Dinner at Kazokutei @ Bishan Junction8

Do you have a kid or kids who always eats the same food all the time? Well I do. My one will always choose Udon over anything else. I wonder if she'll one day get sick of it. Coz I sure am!!

So there's this restaurant at Bishan Junction8 Shopping Center called Kazokutei that sells authentic handmade Japanese udon.  Price is pretty reasonable with most items being under $15.

The Udon served here is of the thinner variety.  But even though it's thin it still retains the chewy texture that Udon is known for.  

Baby girl had the Koku Udon ($7.90++). It's basically plain udon a hot seaweed soy broth with one slice of Japanese fish cake. The broth was tasty and comforting.  You can add on a side dish to your meal for a price.  She opted for the Chawanmushi ($3++), Japanese egg custard, which is her second or is it her first favourite food?  I don't know, can't keep track.  The Chawanmushi here is really good. It was smooth and savoury with a hint of umami which seemed to taste a bit like crab. 

I opted for the Tsukemen ($12.90++) which is Udon served with a warm dipping sauce. You can choose from 3 different dipping sauces: Black Tonkatsu, Spicy Tonkatsu, or Nutty Miso. I opted for the spiciness and it was really good. It was spicy but not blow your head off spicy. The only thing I don't like is the layer of oil that coats your lips.  With the udon there was some shredded sweet prom, 2 prawn tempura, half a marinated egg and some veggies. 

The curious thing was that there was a free upsize for the Tsukemen Udon. You could choose from Medium, Large or XLarge which, if I remembered correctly was about 320g of noodles. So me being the glutton I am and Caelyn being the Udon lover, I chose the XLarge :) and um...it was a bit too much for us >_<. 

Anyway service was good, friendly and welcoming and no doubt Carlyn will be asking us to eat there again...and again...and again.  

Just look at this happy face...and the size of that bowl!

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Lunch at Kazokutei at Bishan Junction 8

This restaurant specialises in Udon and according to their website is a well known chain of Udon restaurant in Osaka and I must say their udon is pretty good. Most of the time they will have some lunch time promotions which is value for money.

Today with some friends, we ordered the following:

Pork Kimchi Nabeyaki Lunch Set for $13.90. Add $1.80 for a drink. It doesn't look anything like the menu, but luckily it was very tasty. Despite the lack of redness in the soup usually associated with Kimchi soup, you can definitely taste the kimchi subtly which I quite liked. The soup was rich in flavour and was generous in ingredients. So a thumbs up from me! 

A bit misleading no? Thought this is how Nabeyaki is supposed to be served, instead we had ours in a hot stone bowl with everything already added inside.

Salmon Wapa Gohan Set with drink ($14.90). None of us was really too sure what Wapa Gohan meant (is it like Oppa Gangnam Style? :p ) From the picture it looked a bit like oyakodon with chopped up salmon bits in it, which is basically what it was. It was served in a steamer basket which I thought was quite cute and came with a side of mixed tempura and miso soup.

Ramen Champion at Changi Airport T3

The Ramen here is super slurpalicious. The broth is rich and aromatic, and the accompanying noodles were springy and just plain old delicious. It really took me back to our time in Tokyo a few years ago.

The concept is interesting with 4 different 'stations', each representing the ramen creation from each chef.

Seafood Ramen

Sorry I can't remember what this was. I love the eggs!

The last one is the Spicy RiKi Ramen with miso broth. This was our favourite.  The broth was really flavourful. Plus the noodles were the thicker kind and had the consistency of udon. Double thumbs up as the spiciness didnt over power the soup but thumbs down for too much garlic, I didnt know that mound on the top was garlic, I though it was miso! Entirely my fault for not realising and mixing it all into the soup.

$1.50 sushi plates at Nihon Mura, City Square Mall

I guess since Sushi Express at Somerset opened their $1.50 sushi deals it wasn't long before someone else would copy the concept. 

It is dirt cheap to sell sushi at this price and most people would probably think that the quality wouldnt be good. I've made a blog post on Sushi Express previously here and the verdict for it was extremely worth going.  Nihon Mura one however sadly can't compare...at... all....

What's wrong with it you might be asking,  well I'll tell you. First of all we had gotten to the place at about 2pm and the first thing we noticed was the variety on the conveyer wasn't much. And secondly there isnt any free green tea like at Sushi Express, drinks are all charged at $1.50 (which ok is reasonable and nice that there's other drinks apart from green tea), and 2 packets of green tea is $1.50.  The sushi quality also isn't there. And more shocking was when I saw a plate of the red colour octopus...there was only 1 piece for $1.50!! What a rip off!!

Below is a poster they've put up outside the restaurant.  Unless you read the fine print you'll be thinking it's false advertising.  They show a plate of sashimi with 6 slices but what you get is only 3 slices and other sushi like the Ikura Gunkan or Salmon roe one wasnt even on the belt.

What is nice and different is they had cold soba and cold udon which you dont get at Sushi Express. But it's not enough of a reason to go back for me.

Sushi Express @ 313 Somerset

This is my new favourite sushi place! It's fantastically cheap - every plate at $1.50, but not only is it cheap, it's very tasty too!

There are ample seating as they made a really long snaking conveyer belt so as to maximise seating. Most seats are facing the conveyer belt with not as many booth seating. So if you are coming in a group and would prefer a booth seat, be sure to come much earlier than the lunch or dinner crowd.  We came on a Friday and came at 11.30, there was hardly anyone inside at that time. But even as the time progressed I was surprised that there wasn't a queue outside.

They don't only offer sushi on the belt, they had cheesecake (which wasnt that good), chocolate mud cake, mango pudding...

They also dont charge for the wet napkins like many other places do.

Thumbs up and will definitely be going there again!

Post-Edit: We went back again on a Sunday night around 6.30pm. It was a full house and we noticed the offerrings on the conveyer belt was a bit scarce. Although as time progressed they did do a pretty gpod job at refilling.  You just have to be patient and let the belt go aroumd a few times before you get more choices. There were a few differences this time though, perhaps due to it being a full house,  they gave this ticket stating the time you arrived and the time they expect you to finish by. They only gave us 40mins which I felt was pushing it a little. Even places with express buffets give 60mins. But the time limit was not really enforced perhaps because after a while there were more vacant tables. I do wonder what they would do though. Quietly ask you to finish up or what. Maybe they'd keep an eye on those who arent really eating and who are just sitting around chit chatting. So it's not a really good place for people who want to hang around chit chatting and taking their time to eat. 

Secondly I noticed the sushi with the raw scallop on it that I'd eaten at lunch only came as a single portion, but at lunch was 2 portions.

Collins Grill and Bento @ Hougang St 11 Foodloft

So glad this shop opened nearby. It sells inexpensive western and Japanese food. Western one is so so only but the Japanese menu, taste and quality is so much better than those you find at typical food courts. All 3 dishes below only came to a total of $14. Bargain! And let me tell ya, the Udon soup on the right, they used the good japanese udon that has that slight chewy texture, not the cheaper version you can find in the cheaper normal supermarket fridge. The curry was really good too. The only really bad food at this joint, and it's been twice already so I know it's not a  one off, is the corn. It's overcooked and very very tasteless! I'm a corn lover and both times unfortunately I couldn't even finish the corn...that's how bad it is.....The Aglio Olio spaghetti accompanying the grilled black pepper chicken was overcooked - so was not al dente. My guess is the noodles have been cooked earlier and have been sitting around too long. They should perhaps cook it less than al dente earlier, then finish it off when they get an order.

Japanese Ebi (prawn) curry rice, Udon soup, Grilled Black Pepper Chicken with Aglio Olio spaghetti, corn and coleslaw.