Koma

With so many of my new feeds featuring this Impressive Modern Japanese Dining Eating place in Marina Bay Sands, I'm kind of shaken to visit it. Making reservations was not easy either, it took us a month to have booked a seat from KOMA for a weekend slot.

Koma

KOMA, an original concept from TAO Group, is a Japanese restaurant and sushi bar offering a modern interpretation of Japanese cuisine.  We make our entrance through the distinct 20m passageway into the holding area. These orange arches are reminiscent of the famous rows of Torri Gates of Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto.

Good news for Sake Lovers, this restaurant also comprises both bar and lounge that serves an extensive selection of over 30 types of sake sourced from across Japan.

Holding Area

As we strolled into the restaurant, walking over the traditional Japanese footbridge with the gigantic 2.5m Japanese Bronze Bell hanging, overlooking the reflective pond. The first step into the 230 seat restaurant, including bar and lounge was breathtaking. For all i know, this stunning environment was thoughtfully designed by reowned Amercian from Rockwell Group.

Japanese Food Bridge

The interior was gorgeous and the designs were dramatic. The voluptuous and oversized lanterns were part of the ornaments that gave the restaurant that WOW Factor.

Take my breath away

The soaring high ceiling was adorned with modern Japanese decorations and if you notice, there is a private dining area at the mezzanine and an oversize sushi bar below it.

An overview view from the spiral stairs

Zooming into the semi-private dining area located on the mezzanine floor: it offers both a wide view of the lower floor dining area as well as the beautifully decorated air space created. 

Private Dining Area at the Mezzanine 

This private dining room definitely stands up on its own to provide a different level of environment for the diners' gathering. 

An overview of the Restaurant from the Private Dining Area at the Mezzanine

Glass owls were placed at some parts of KOMA too. These Owls represent good luck and is considered auspicious character in Japanese Culture.

Wide View from the Japanese Foot Bridge

Look at the lovely hand folded cranes, let's make a guess what are they for?

Origami Cranes

Have you guessed them right?

Skipping the conventional use of chopsticks rest, Koma has replaced them by using the hand-folded traditional Japanese origami cranes. 

Unconventional Way of Chopstick Rest

We ordered a 3-course Lunch Set at $68 ++ per pax and since we are in a group of 4, we get to try 4 different kind of items each from the courses.

Appetizers

The Crispy Chicken is a version of Chicken Karaage coated with crispy rice and sprinkled with some truffle oil. The tomato ponzu dipping sauce aids in elevating its taste. These chicken was placed on a bed of crispy rice too that added color contrast on the dish, thus enhancing the presentation of the dish.

Crispy Chicken

The Agedashi Tofu was served with half immersing in umadashi sauce and these 2 blocks of Tofu were stacked with crispy fried eel, topped with grated radish as well as spring onion, not forgetting the Hot Spring Egg that is "swimming" in the sauce too.

Agedashi Tofu & Eel with Hot Spring Egg

Thin strips of beef were served in Yuzu Ponzu, sesame oil and topped with shredded scallion, green chilli, finished off by sprinkling some roasted sesame seeds. Love such simplicity yet addictive to the palates with its zesty taste that excites one for more. 

Wagyu Beef Tataki

Here's what you have from the assortment: Eggplant, cauliflower, sweet potato and shrimp. This tempura was perfectly fried without leaving you any greasiness. Radish and tempura dipping sauce were provided for the pairing.

Assorted Tempura

A LA Carte

We ordered some ala carte orders on top of our usual 3 courses meal.

These Crispy Tokyo Gyoza was made up of chicken, cabbage as well as miso served with a sauce that reminds me of Korean Bean paste. 

Crispy Tokyo Gyoza - $12

It comes in a plate of 5 and slightly charred at the sides of the gyoza skin. A good point was that it was not oily.

Charred Gyoza Skin

Apart from the Gyoza, we ordered skewers from their Robata Grill menu. Generally the skewers were pretty decent. 

Shitake Mushrooms were coated with Kabayaki sauce and sprinkled with bonito flakes while Negima refers to Chicken thigh with Tokyo negi (leeks). The asparagus remained its juiciness with hints of salt and peppery taste. For the Unagi, it was coated with Kabayaki sauce coupled with Japanese sansho as its condiments. Last but not least, the grilled lamb chop was good to go with the cilantro and mint sauce.

Skewers - Shitake $8, Negima $9, Asparagus $9, Unagi $15, Lamb Chop $20

Main Course

All main courses come with rice in our Lunch Set Menu and using the Japanese Rice, this fried rice dish had the presence of aromatic Truffle perfume. The dish was then decorated by the lush greens from the broccoli and brown mushrooms stems.

Truffle Fried Rice

Truffle Fried Rice set was completed with a bowl of Miso Soup.

 

Miso Soup

It won't go wrong ordering their Miso Marinated Black Cod as main dish pairing with the bowl of white steamed rice. The tasty use of burnt Jalapeno vinaigrette accompanied by the refreshing fresh beets and charred edges of the Cod made a delighting dish. 

Miso Marinated Black Cod 2 Pieces

I'm a fish lover and this Pan Seared Barramundi was well served with its top layer of crispy fish skin coupled with Sansho sauce, decked up by a bed of beansprouts and green dragon vegetables. Yums!

Pan Seared Barramundi 

While the last Main Dish we had was the Korean kind of Barbecued Beef Short Rib that was served with korean big head beansprouts. The short ribs were cut into uniform strips and were well marinated.

Barbecued Beef Short Rib

Enjoy the Beef Short Ribs by doing the korean way of wrapping them with the refreshing gem lettuce and big head beansprouts. A dash of kojijan (Korean Fermented Condiment) would make your experience on this dish complete. 

Wrapping In Gem Lettuce

Desserts

The last course of our meal was exciting too while we got flabbergasted by the creation of these desserts.

While the Menu offers 3 standard kinds of desserts, one of our dessert item was repeated.

The Japanese Cheese Cake was light tasting with bottom made up by biscuits crumbs, an indication of the usual old school digestive biscuits. While the top portion was embellished by attractive bright colors from  slices of strawberries not forgetting the accompanying raspberry sorbet and sauce which perked up our last dish!

Japanese Cheese Cake

Impressive creation where everything on the plate is edible including the pot. This dessert is an illustration of the Bonsai plant, made up by molten dark chocolate, sponge cake, a scoop of Vanilla ice cream and crunchy praline. The chocolate was both rich and bitter while the sweetness from scoop of Vanilla ice cream blends in well altogether.

Bonsai

Summing up our meal courses,  Staff of Koma had combined 2 desserts (Lemon Yuzu & Bonsai) onto a plate with their welcome message. If you are wondering how do they expect us to eat the entire lemon, you are tricked by their aesthetic looking dish too.

The Lemon Ponzu was artistically created exactly like a raw lemon. Crack open into the lemon to find luscious lemon mousse and mix them together to the yuzu jam and cacao crumble. The citrus gave a spike to our taste buds and the chilly ice makes the combination wonderful. 

Welcoming to Koma with 2 kinds of Desserts (Lemon Yuzu and Bonsai)

The trip to Koma was spectacular and upon entrance, it gave diners a feel of being instantly transported to Kyoto at the instance. While the place is instagrammable, do take more pictures when you are there. Food is decent and the tweaking of food recipe gives bits of surprise to the diner. If you like little surprises, you will enjoy their food apart from their astounding environment.

If you are celebrating an occasion or bringing your date there, do remember to make reservations in advance. 

Rating: 4 .25 / 5

Koma
Location: Marina Bay Sands , 2 Bayfront Avenue, #B1-67 Singapore 018972
Website

Jin Yu Man Tang Dessert (South Bridge)

We spotted Jin Yu Man Tang Dessert Shop while having our Breakfast at the opposite shophouse in Hola Breakfast and decided to make it a point to visit after our meal.

Jin Yu Man Tang

The Interior was modernly furnished with wooden printed boards hanging on the wall stating some of the dessert items they offered. Jin Yu Man Tang offers a wide variety of desserts, which amazed me. They also sell snacks like Soya Sauce Chee Cheong Fun, Hong Kong Style Curry Fish Ball Etc. 

Interior

Wooden Menu?

Here's the relaxing corner in the shop. You may want to try sitting on the swing and do some Instagram-worthy pictures.

Swing

The Signature Ginger Milk Pudding (Original Taste) is only available for dine-in customers only as these are made to order. The server will pour special milk into your bowl of ginger mixture and ask you to wait for about 5 minutes for the Milk Pudding to be formed.

Signature Ginger Milk Pudding ( Original Taste) 招牌姜撞奶 （原味） - $4.20

Every spoonful of the Pudding was silky and smooth, packed full of ginger spice and fragrance. This hot dessert is good if you want to warm your tummy.

When Ginger Milk Pudding is formed

One of the traditional desserts commonly found in most dessert places. The bowl of BO BO Cha Cha was milky and filled of coconut fragrance.

BO-BO Cha Cha 摩摩喳喳 - $3.50

Mango Sago Pomelo is one of the popular Singaporean choices for dessert. Besides the usually fresh mangoes cubes and sago, their version comes with grapefruit pulp which complemented the original sweet taste of the dessert.

Mango Sago Pomelo 杨枝甘露 - $5.20

Milk Pudding is not every common item in the dessert stall and its wobbly creamy taste makes it special. The smooth silky pudding is simply yummy.

Shun De Double Layer Milk Pudding 顺德双皮奶 (原味) - $3.60

Their extensive menu has amazed me, Jin Yu Man Tang Dessert is now on my list of dessert places to visit if I'm looking for some refreshment after meals.

Rating: 3 / 5

Jin Yu Man Tang Dessert (South Bridge)
Location: 291 South Bridge Rd, Singapore 058836

Chef Minh Vietnamese Pho

While we observed the expansion of the Vietnamese community in our surroundings, it is no doubt that we get to enjoy more of their cultural food from the food stalls too. Nowadays, having Banh Mi and Vietnamese Pho stalls around is pretty common.

Chef Minh Vietnamese Pho was recently shown in the media as this stall was opened by a Vietnamese Chef from Five-Star Hotel. The news was viral and throughout the opening of this renovated coffee shop, there is always a long queue lined up in from of his stall.

Stall of Chef Minh Vietnamese Pho

The Summer Rolls get sold out quickly and I was lucky to have them during my 5th visit to the bustling coffee shop. (Yeah, keep on trying.) In fact, this dish is my essential order whenever it comes to Vietnamese cuisine. The rolls were wrapped in translucent rice paper with prawns, pork belly, vermicelli, fresh lettuce and cucumber strips. These appetizers can just never be completed without dipping into the classic hoisin peanut sauce that brings out the umami flavours.

Summer Roll (2 Pcs) - $4

The Signature Pho Beef Combo has a bit of everything in the bowl. It has honeycomb tripe, beef slices, shank, handmade beef balls and tendon soaked in the tasty beef broth with the rice noodles (pho).

Signature Pho Beef Combo - $6.50

The broth has hints of sweetness from the meat as well as the yellow onions coupled with some herbs from the Thai Basil. The light and refreshing taste of the broth is simply refreshing especially when you squeeze the lime in it.

A better view of the ingredients in the Signature Pho Beef Combo

If you prefer just to enjoy the beef slices, it will be best to go for their Pho Beef Shank. The bowl of thin rice noodles is hearty and rich in flavours too.

Pho Beef Shank - $6 

Slices of beef shank were thinly sliced like the Japanese Shabu Shabu. This made it extremely easy to eat. The skill in cooking had brought out not only the tenderness but also the flavours in the beef.

Slices of Bee Shank

If you prefer something springy with your bowl of soupy thin noodles, why not consider their Pho with Handmade Beef Balls? The textural bite with the broth is not bad too.

Pho Handmade Beef Balls - $5.50

Chef Minh has put in a good effort to make these bowls of Vietnamese Pho affordable in the heartlands. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Chef Minh Vietnamese Pho
Location: 279 Bukit Batok East Ave 3, Singapore 650279

Lion City Claypot Frog Porridge 狮城田鸡粥

With the recent relaxing of Covid rules, Geylang starts to gain back its life again, especially the eateries in the area that was struggling throughout the pandemic period. My initial intention to Geylang was to patronise some Taiwanese Snacks Eateries but only to realize that the shop had closed down for good. 

While along the walk to the intended place, the aroma of the fried oysters caught my appetite. 

Geylang Lor 9 Fresh Frog Porridge

Since it was sharing the same coffee shop as the popular Lion City Claypot Frog Porridge, we took the chance to have that for a meal. After browsing through my article, I realised that my last visit to the place was about 7 years back ~ that was a long time ago.

The Coffee Shop

I took the opportunity to order some "starters" while waiting for our "Main Course". 

Fried Oyster - $5 

The Fried Oyster has a good ratio of starchy portion to charred areas. What I love about that was that it was loaded with Chinese parsley that enhances the taste. 

A piece of Fried Oyster Egg

Dipping these oysters into the chilli help to cover up some of the seafood smell and that actually goes well with everything.

Fried Oyster

After ordering the porridge, we placed the number tag on our table so that its visible to the server to get our orders to our table.

For the Servers

Simply love the consistency of their porridge, smooth and creamy, loaded with lots of chopped spring onions.

Claypot Porridge - $3

The sweet black sauce with spring onion and ginger slices is actually my all-time favourite.  If you prefer to have some spicy flavours for the frog leg, you may want to order their Dry Chilli Frog Leg instead.

Ginger Spring Onion Frog Leg - $23

The meat is fresh and tender. The bite on the meat was definitely springy and the sweet sauce coating in its condiments were yummy.

Frog Leg Meat

Even without the frog leg, I can solely have the porridge with the ginger spring onion sauce for a meal.

My Individual Serving

With a few reputable competitors around, I still find that the Lion City Claypot Frog Porridge at Geylang Lorong 9 still serve deserves my visit all this while. The service still remain as efficient with food served in an orderly manner.

---

Posted on 18th April 2015

Talking about the food in Geylang Lorong 9, it is obviously known for its Beef Kway Teow and Frog Porridge which are just located opposite each other separated by a road. If you are preparing to have both for dinner, do not worry about making two trips as whatever you ordered from the Beef Kway Teow territory can be served to the Frog Porridge territory and vice versa.

Having Frog Porridge from Lion City Claypot is top of my choice whenever I think of having such porridge, however if you are driving there it may be a little challenging as parking lots are limited.

Geylang Lorong 9

Fried Oysters can be ordered too if you like. For those who do may feel hungry after the frog porridge, it is recommended to order their Beef Kway Teow over the plate of Oysters.

Oyster - $5

As a fried oyster lover, I find that this dish was rather average, nothing much to rave about.

Close up

Lion City Claypot is rather popular and finally after about 30 minutes of waiting, our dinner is here. Slices of ginger were added with cut spring onions were added in reduce the smell.

The meat was tender and for those who have not tried before, it texture was similar to chicken but on a delicate side.

Ginger and Spring Onion Frog - $22

Close up

Porridge was thick and gooey, topped with chopped fresh green onions and this pot of cantonese style plain porridge was at its best consumption when you scoop some fragrant gravy from the frog leg claypot. As they are placed in the scalding hot claypot, do remember to be careful during handling.

Plain Porridge - $4 (Large)

Out of the few Frog Porridge places in Geylang, the crowd of Lion City best explains its popularity and the standard of food. However, as compared to my previous visits, they have not been maintaining the standards.


Rating: 3.5 / 5

Lion City Claypot Frog Porridge
Location: 235 Geylang Road Singapore 389294

Yan Palace

The hungry mates were searching for some decent dim sum and we decided to visit Yan Palace in Warren Golf & Country Club.

Entrance to Yan Palace

The entire place was like a wedding ballroom, filled with traditional Chinese big round tables that can accommodate at least 10 pax per table.

Dining Floor

The place was absolutely crowded and we can see that it's a good place for family and group meals. Though it was a Chinese restaurant, the dim sum was served individually by the servers. If you do prefer those push cart dim sum, you won't get to see any here.

Dining Floor

We started off with Prawn Balls with Mango whereby the almond flakes were of the outer crust. I thought this was quite special, soft on the inner side and crunchy on the outer.

Prawn Balls with Mango (Almond Flakes) 杏片百花球 - $6.60

The core of the ball contains a piece of mango surrounded by prawn meats. It would taste better if there were more flavours from the mango as well as the prawns.

Take a look at the Prawn Ball with Mango Fillings

The portion is small and if you intend to share, you may want to order another bowl. Pork porridge with century egg was smooth and topped with some fried crackers.

Pork Porridge with Century Egg 皮蛋瘦肉粥 - $5.50

Cheong Fun or the thickness of rice roll were on the thicker side with prawns encased. The taste was common. Perhaps the recent chains of CCF Stall popping out in coffeeshop did have a better standard than this.

Steamed “Cheong Fun” (Prawns)  鲜虾滑肠粉 -$6.00

The braised Ee Fu Noodles were disappointing, there were only slices of mushrooms as ingredients and the noodles were a tad on the dry side, not worth the price we were paying for.

Braised Ee-Fu Noodles 干烧伊府面 - $16

While this dish was quite popular and sold out fast, it was also only limited to Sunday and Public Holidays only. The taste was definitely up to the mark, and every piece of pork trotters was soaked up to the expected flavour. The claypot dish comes with a braised hard-boiled egg. All was good but a downside was that everything in the pot was dark and the gingers too, thus many times I had mistaken the gingers as pork too.

Pork Trotters in Vinegar Sauce 猪脚醋- $10

The crusty external layer and a smooth mashy yam with some mango and lychee within. It was not too sweet but the combination of 3 items has nothing stand up in the taste.

Deep Fried Yam Ball with Lychee 峰巢炸双荔 - $5.50

The Steamed Chicken Claws were not so spicy. However, we can taste the paper and chilli within.

Steamed Chicken Claws in Spicy Sauce 桂林蒸凤爪 - $4.80

The prawns were big and plump, however, the taste was lacking here.

Steamed Prawn Dumplings 'Ha Kow' 水晶鲜虾饺 - $6

The glutinous rice comes in a basket of 3 wrapped in lotus leaf. It is easily unwrapped with the use of the hand.

Glutinous Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf 珍珠糯米鸡 - $5.50

The glutinous rice was hot, occupying the bottom and top layer of the food with chicken meat and salted egg yolk pieces sandwiched in between. It tasted good initially but the strong frozen chicken taste had ruined it all.

Unwrapped from Lotus Leaf

The Steamed Pork Dumplings came in a basket of 5. They were topped with egg roe and tasted rather ordinary. 

Steamed Pork Dumplings 'Siew Mai' 蟹黄蒸烧卖 - $5.50

The pork belly was well braised and was on the dry side. This is a lean version of Pork Belly. No doubt it was well braised but I do prefer the traditional pork belly with a good ratio of meat to fats. 

Pork Belly with Steamed Buns 五香扣肉包 - $16

The standard of Dim Sum was average for us with most of the items tasted on the bland side. Service-wise, it was pretty ordinary and nothing to shout about altogether.

Rating: 3 / 5

Yan Palace
Location:  Warren Golf & Country Club, 81 Choa Chu Kang Walk, Singapore 688263