Wee Nam Kee

One of the popular Chicken Rice players in Singapore, Wee Nam Kee is currently located in Marina Square at the 4th Level just opposite of Food Gallerie. I have patronized Wee Nam Kee in the earlier days when they were still located in Novena, opposite the 7 Day Adventist Church and everytime without fail it was always packed with people. They have left a great impression for preparing delicious chicken rice and tasty soup that comes with the set.

Wee Nam Kee

The facade of Wee Nam Kee in Marina Square is outstanding as it gives a old school feel of visiting coffeeshop with iron grills, faint wooden classic doors with stone tables / chairs.

Could not decide to have either the roasted or steamed chicken? That is why we bought the two kinds, each at a quarter. Having a good last impression of their steamed chicken, I was quite excited to have visited Wee Nam Kee again. The steamed chicken was drenched with light soy sauce and with the fragrance of sesame oil, decorated with Chinese parsley. Meat was tender and smooth. However, there was not any "wow" factor somehow. What could have went wrong?

Quarter Steamed Chicken - $8.50

Roasted chicken on the other hand was dry on its skin and was not too appetizing with its presentation even though meat is as tender. Perhaps the only thing in the chicken rice set that I like most is their soup.

Quarter Roasted Chicken - $8.50

Rice

Though decent, Ma Po minced meat with beancurd was not spicy enough to live up to its name.

"Ma Po" Minced Meat Beancurd - $10

Going to the greens, we had You Miao. It was a simple dish that rounds up a healthier meal.

You Miao 

It was good to know how their standards have been ever since my last try out. Currently my preferred chicken rice stall's position still remains as it is.


Rating: 3 / 5

Wee Nam Kee
Location: 6 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square #04-102B, Marina Square, Singapore 039594

Tsukeru at Emporium Shokuhin

We got so excited about Marina Square's latest renovation as there is a Singapore first integrated Japanese Emporium featuring aged beef facility, live seafood, Japanese Grocer and multiple Japanese restaurants.

Tsukeru - Shabu Shabu

Dining Concept is modernly furnished with wooden hanging lamps and despite having flooring, cupboards, tables and chairs in wood, it does give a classy Japanese touch in the atmosphere.

Dining Interior

No worries if you are dining at Tsukeru for the first time as their friendly staffs are always ready to assist you. There is a side drawer at every table that contains the electronic menu as well as ordering system in an Ipad Mini. We got our orders through the staff on service and it was all sent to the kitchen without hassle.

Mini Ipad Ordering

Since Tsukeru specialised in serving Shabu Shabu, it would be best to grab their specially concocted sauce here for additional taste! Range of sauce is pretty interesting which also includes our local sambal chilli sauce despite its a Japanese Restaurant. You can also find mustard, ponzhu sauce, spring onions, corriander leaves etc.

Sauces Counter

Hotpots are individual and you get to choose your broth base from Asian and Japanese Cuisine such as Tom Yum, Ginseng Chicken, Tomato for example. I have been missing konbu seaweed for sometime and since it was Tsukeru's recommended broth, I looked no further and decided the base.

Tsukeru Konbu Seaweed Broth - $6

Thankfully, the pot of broth was not just only filled with liquid. Big pieces of Konbu were given and I was relieved as it was since a good long time I had them!

Konbu Seaweed

We decided to ditch the usual Asian Broth we normally get in the hawkers and decided on Tonkotsu Miso Soup. At the first round of the soup, it was on a salty side till the servers came around topping up the soup promptly and eventually the taste of broth get bland.

Tonkotsu Miso - $7

While the man could not do without a bowl of steam rice at $3 for his dinner, I got my carbo fixed with their Inaniwa Udon. These cream colored Udon are dried and thinner than the usual Udons we had.

Inaniwa Udon (Dry) - $6

We had the platter of 2 consisting of prawns, dumplings and 3 kinds of prime meat, including Wagyu beef and Kurobuta.

Meat & Seafood Platter for 2 - $68

Prawns were fresh and in an acceptable size. Shells in its mid body had been removed.

Fresh!

Kurobuta Pork Belly

Beef

Beef

Balancing out the meat intake, we had ourselves the healthier choice - Vegetable Platter at $15 which consist of tomatos, radish, seaweed, cabbages, lettuce and bamboo shoots.

Vegetable Platter - $15

With induction cooking, my pot boiled in a while. I particularly like their seaweed from the vegetable platter but do note that it will change your soup into purple color.

Konbu Seaweed Soup Broth with Items all in

Condiments to pair up with my Shabu Shabu meal.

Condiments

Since their Sapporo draft beer is 1 for 1, we have ourselves a cup each washing down the dinner.

Sapporo Premium Beer draft 1 for 1 - $9

Total bill for 2 is $134.88 after GST and Service Charge. It was a good experience enjoying Shabu Shabu with premium meat and a good range of self selected sauce. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Tsukeru
Location: Emporium Shokuhin, Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard #01-18 Singapore 039594

Website

Pacific Marketplace

We chanced upon the spacious and classy environment of Pacific Marketplace as we came up from the carpark and had it marked on our schedules for the next meeting place sometimes back. Pacific Marketplace is a gourmet grocery and cafe offering pastries, coffees, sandwiches, chocolates as well as a fair range of cakes. It serves as a casual or business meeting place for its ambiance and lights is calm.

Entrance

Dining Area

Dining Area

Menu were all written on in chalkboard which was placed above the counter or there are ipads available for us to read their digitized menu. However, there is no Ipad ordering system, we still need some physical touch with the humans for order taking.

Counter with Menu on Chalk board

Our meetup kicked off pretty fast with the greens. Nicoise Salad consisted of green beans, olives, seared tuna, potatoes, hard boiled eggs, and Dijion vinaigrette was added separately base on our likings.

Nicoise Salad - $11.80

 One of the ought to try from their menu is their supermuffin. There are 5 unique choices of muffins with quirky names such as Chicken Run, The Hulk, Minotaur and krrish but we had chosen that most appeals to us, Ms Piggy. It was served on a ceremic black classy plate wrapped in baking paper with salad as sides. A fusion of English Muffin and Char Siew Bao is what I would describe. Given its savoury crusty exterior encasing the juicy pork collar meat in the seasoning mixture of Oyster Sauce, Hoisin sauce and shaoxing rice wine, a cut into them would just let out a aromatic gush into our nose. The traditional chinese barbequed pork fillings was generous and moist and with its crust mixed in salted egg yolk giving a buttery fragrance to the overall. It does really live up to its name sake, Super Muffin!

Ms Piggy - $7

Yummy!

Pan Pacific is highly raved for their butchery products as they contain no preservative, artificial colors and flavorings. Also they are known for using prime selected meats, quality is maintained and also one of the important factors why they are so popular.


Nods to the European Cuisine, Pacific Marketplace has introduced handcrafted sausages into their dinner menu using original recipes developed by a line of artisan germans. One of the highlights includes the English Bangers and Mash which is served with green peas, mesclun salad, mashed potatoes, country gravy and English Mustard to go along with the juicy and pork sausages.

English Bangers and Mash - $24

Close up

Sausage Platter came in an interesting combination of pork, veal bratwurst with muncher Weisswurste and Nurnberger served wutg nesckun salad, toasted rye bread, and german or mashed potatoes. As some of us is not having beef, we have replaced them with other flavour and we opted for german potatoes.

Wursteplatte (Sausage Platter) - $24

Overall, I'm pretty drawn to their environment and its really a good meeting place if you want to move away from the crowd for a simple yet savoury bite. Our only peeve was that the ordering service was below expectations with server forgetting food of our orders, furthermore with little knowledge of what is on the menu. Other than that,  the rest is all fine! I will like to make a return trip to have a try on the rest of the Super Muffins!

Rating: 3 / 5

Pacific Marketplace
Location: Pan Pacific Hotel Singapore, 7 Raffles Boulevard Lobby Singapore 039595

Suki-ya

Eat all you can at the house of Sukiyaki and Shabu shabu at an affordable price.

Sukiya

Interior dining was welcoming with round table and cushioned seats for groups dining under warm orange lighting. Walkways were spacious and dining area was divided into sectors.

Dining Environment

For those who like Japanese Hot Pot style for sukiyaki and shabu shabu may want to consider their buffet. Drinks are not included in their "All You Can Eat" menu but can be upgraded at a charge with unlimited flow.

All You Can Eat

Free Flow of Honey Lemon

A detailed piece of instruction was placed on the dining table for diners' understanding and to properly enjoy the process of sukiyaki as well as shabu shabu. Even the types of broth was stated in the paper when it comes to pairing the sauces. This really give an overall idea!

Instructions

There are only an island of self serving counters, front and back for diners to pick noodles, processed food, sauces as well as vegetables. Though the spread may not be that extensive as most buffet restaurant but it was all good enough.

Self Help Station - Vegetables

Plates were all laid out on the dining table and no extras were given.

Desserts

Under the healthy bar section, do pick the items up.

Healthy Bar

If you are going to take their cheese balls, be careful when they were ready to be served.

Be Careful of Scalding Hot Cheese!

Tubs of sauces as well as condiments were laid up

Sauce Bar

This is really spicy!

Chilli

Miso-Tare (Soy Bean Paste)

There are 6 types of soup broth for diners to choose from, sukiyaki, laksa, kimchi, tonyu miso, butaniku and shabu shabu. We had chosen laksa and Sukiyaki for the base. The pot was placed on an induction cooker with controllers by the side of the table.

Laksa was fragrant and thick which fills the stomach easily whereas sukiyaki sauce was a combination of sweet and salty taste, more towards my likings.

Laksa and Sukiyaki Broth

Each tray comes with 5 pieces of sliced pork, they were in thin slices. 3 kinds of meat, pork, beef and chicken were available. However one can opt for unlimited wagyu beef at an additional of $10.

Sliced Pork

Do remember to take your cooked meat pieces and dipped into the raw eggs to enjoy!

Egg

You can order and take as many servings as you want but do keep in mind that patrons are reminded not to waste food, if not there will be a wastage charges at the end of the total bill.

Reminder

Shrooms are fresh, very suitable to soaked in the pot of sukiyaki broth.

Shrooms

Tau Pok for the Laksa

There are no rice to pair with the sukiyaki items but they do have udons, ramen as well as vermicelli to fill your stomach a little.

Udon, Vermicelli and vegetables

And Ta-da we have our laksa and sukiyaki pot filled with items.

Hot Pot filled!

Toppings selection for ice cream was rather limited with rainbow rice, chocolate rice, cornflakes and peanuts.

Toppings for the Ice Cream

Only vanilla ice cream was available at the time of visit and be prepared to dispense your own ice cream from the machine! Though it was chilled, the ice cream mixture was not served in its best condition for its base had melted very quickly.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Besides having ice cream as dessert, here's another alternative!

Desserts

Fresh fruits like watermelon were also available.

Fruits

Overall, service was abit lacking here and there - they seems to be understaffed.  We were frantically waving countless times to catch attention. Other than that, I would say that Suki-ya is a good gathering place for groups to catch up while enjoying their buffet meals.

Rating: 3 / 5

Suki-ya
Location: Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard #02-18B/183C Singapore 039594
Website