Food Review: The Ship
When Nex Mall just opened, Caroline and a friend came over to visit and see for themselves what all the hoo-hah was about. As we walked past The Ship, the two girls broke into stories of nostalgia of the days when their parents would bring them to this restaurant in Scotts Road. They urged me to try it and last weekend, the bf and I finally did so :)
Stepping into the restaurant, we were greeted by nautical-themed decorations, and I’ll fully admit that the nail fanatic in me thinking of how perfect it would be to wear China Glaze’s Anchors Away collection into this restaurant, or do one inspired by this decor! haha.
For a Western-styled restaurant, the portions aren’t as huge as say Billy Bombers (gave in the past – now they’ve become stingy and miserly.). However, the prices for their set lunch is simply delightful. My sirloin steak with anchovy butter was $16.90, whilst the boyfriend’s fried chicken with thai chilli sauce was about $11-12.90, I can’t exactly remember which. The staff were extremely friendly and accomodating – even though their soup of the day was Cream of Mushroom, which my bf is allergic to, they suggested a change to french onion soup instead, instead of depriving us of a chance to enjoy their set lunch :)
Our French Onion soup was lovely – the taste wasn’t too saturated, it wasn’t overly salty as some places tend to make it… I guess my only complaint would be that the bread served alongside it tasted like stale airplane bread. Had they lightly warmed the bread prior to serving, it would’ve been tons better!
I absolutely LOVED my sirloin steak, it was tender, juicy and the anchovy butter (still cold) complimented my steak to perfection. My bf’s fried chicken tasted really yummy as well, and we enjoyed the potato salad that was served with it.
The set was supposed to be served with a blueberry cheesecake for dessert as well, but since they ran out of it on that day, we had something else, which I can’t remember and forgot to take a picture of. We also had a choice of either coffee or tea.
All in all, it was really an enjoyable experience, and I’m torn between The Ship and Tao’s to bring my family to when I get my first paycheck :D It’s coming by the end of this month and I cannot wait to lay my hands on it! haha.
Eating my way through the Day
If it’s one thing I’ve never been able to do, it’s been a diet. With all the wondrous food available on our tiny island, it’s quite an impossible feat for one such as me who just loves to eat.
Ever since I came back from Hokkaido, I’ve been hankering for the smooth and silky beancurd we all know and love as tau huay. Though my favourite has always been Rocher Tau huay that’s near Prinsep Street (opposite the old Paradiz Centre, now known as Pomo), we decided to head somewhere closeby to quickly settle my cravings. Since I insisted on having it no matter what, we had it for a light lunch.
Seeing that it was a weekend, we decided against travelling all the way for Rocher Tau Huay and settled on somewhere closer to home. Selegie Tau Huay (Boon Keng Mrt) met our cravings perfectly, and we found it quite comparable to Rocher Tau Huay. Pictured above is my boyfriend’s bowl (cold + tau sar glutinous rice balls) and mine (hot + black sesame glutinous rice balls). I love that this combines my love for glutinous rice balls (ah balling) and tau huay!
The next day, we had dinner at Nex Mall, which is fast becoming my go-to place simply because it’s just a 10 minute walk from my place. This time, we chose to eat at Ichiban Boshi, our favourite place for sushi.
Behold! My horrendous eyebags! I quite liked the decor of the restaurant, unlike its other outlets at Ang Mo Kio Hub and Toa Payoh, I think this Ichiban Boshi was slightly more spacious and afforded more privacy. As usual, we ordered some pretty weird sushi (as Ichiban always comes up with these fascinatingly weird combinations that turn out yummy) and consumed our favourites as well.
As is our usual practice, my boyfriend ordered one of their sets (which is always value for money) and I ordered loads of sushi for us to share. Like Ippudo, Ichiban often has seasonal specials so we love going back regularly to check out what’s new. Compared to the other sushi places I’ve tried, Ichiban definitely ranks as one of the top for value for money bento sets + a menu that never fails to surprise :)
We decided to explore Nex further since we had some time before going off to meet some friends, and it was my first time up on the highest floor of Nex, the rooftop garden. It really looked very pretty at night and I thought that the little LED lights they used suited the place and made it very nice to look at, without being excessively glaring.
Undeniably, the children were well amused by the water-themed playground, as they frolicked in the water while giggling happily. Without their whining and screaming, children can truly be a joy to watch!
Unlike the water theme-playground at vivocity, where very gentle streams of water shoot up from the ground, the one at Nex is slightly more thrilling as it offloads a huge bucketful of water on whoever happens to be nearby. Be prepared to get wet if you walk too near the playground!
To our disappointment, the dog park was really v sad and relatively pathetic. It’s really more of a place for the kids to run about than for dogs to play, as advertised. That said, I like how they’re rejuvenating the traditional playground for kids nowadays. Kids sure are lucky! :)
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Food Review: Men-ichi Ramen Restaurant
Since the bf was booking in to work late, we decided to meet up for lunch at Nex Mall @ Serangoon. I’d only had one bowl of soba during my entire trip in Hokkaido, so I wasn’t adverse to trying out this new Japanese ramen place in the Japanese Restaurant enclave located at Nex, on the same level that has Ding Tai Feng.
I generally liked the decor of the place, with the red tables and black furniture, but my boyfriend was pretty much freaked by the endless rows of fa cai mao lining the walls (he was the one sitting facing them haha). He commented that it was a pretty weird name for a restaurant, Men-ichi, as if they were saying Men are Good/Best (ichi)… I laughed and then looked at the Japanese characters – directly translated it actually means mian (noodle) best (ichi), so perhaps they should’ve named the restaurant Best Noodle or Best Ramen (though it might sound too similar to Best Denki). Or maybe their boss is a very patriarchal man who has fun with wordplay, I wouldn’t know!
Compared to other ramen shops I’ve been to, such as Ippudo and Ajisen, Men-ichi had quite a large variety of soups for you to choose from. There was tonkotsu, shoyu, miso, spicy and even tomato! As neither of us are ardent fans of tomatoes like Caroline is (that girl merrily consumes all our tomatoes on a regular basis when we eat out), we refrained from choosing that option. Instead, I went for tonkotsu char siew ramen, whilst the boyfriend went for a shoyu ramen set that included fried rice and gyoza.
(left) the menu showing what i picked, (right) the actual item
I thought it was pretty clever of them to use the same background for both the menu and the tables they had, it definitely contributed towards making their served items look more similar to the menu! The seaweed was the normal cheap seaweed you buy that comes in long packets (4 each), not the traditional Japanese seaweed. The tonkotsu soup was definitely very good, upon tasting it both the bf and I were definitely pleased. According to the Men-ichi website, they boil the tonkotsu soup over 14 hours, and it truly shows results! Very unlike the processed tasting soup some ramen places have. However, halfway through my meal I began to feel slightly unhealthy, as one can tell that they use a lot of lard in making the soup. The char siew and egg were perfectly done, though I’d note that the char siew was more fatty than I’ve had at other places, which some people prefer. Overall, extremely delicious and I would definitely order it again!
As he was starving, my bf opted for the set, which looked deceptively small, but was extremely filling. His bowl of ramen was slightly smaller than mine, and saltier, but less savoury as it was shoyu (soy sauce) flavour. Both of us loved the fried rice, which had eggs, some meat and a nice kick to it. I didn’t try the gyoza but he said it was pretty good so I’ll trust him on that! His ramen didn’t come with the aji tamago (watery egg / half boiled egg you see in my ramen) so he added it on for $1 (a full egg, not half).
In total we paid about $38 inclusive of GST. Ramen on its own costs anywhere from $12 upwards, and sets are more expensive.
Men-ichi in a nutshell:
- Food: Great! We loved it as it was very yummy and good quantity for our $$. We would definitely eat there again. 4.5/5
- Ambiance: It’s not too noisy, the seats are comfortable, the only detracting factor would be the endless rows of fa cai mao staring at you while you eat. 7/10
- Cost: Moderately expensive, but the food was good. 7/10
- Service: The staff were attentive, they were competently bilingual, polite and even asked whether the food was to our satisfaction. Simple things like that made us happy. 9/10
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Light & Bouncy Hair!
For someone who treasures their long tresses as dearly as I do, going to the hair dresser is an annual event that I mostly dread. Hairdressers either chop off too much, layer too thinly or attempt to hard-sell me various hair products that cost a bomb, making it an altogether awkward and uncomfortable experience. Today however, was really quite different! Having had a good experience at Supercuts @ Cineleisure once before when I went with some friends from university, I decided to try out Supercuts at the new Nex Mall near my house. With 50% off all hair services, I decided to take the plunge.
voila!
For a price of $22 (after 50% off), this haircut was inclusive of the following services:
- Shampoo (during which my hairstylist Belle gave me a wondrously relaxing head massage) – 10 mins
- Rinse (another head massage!) – 5 mins
- Cut – 30 mins
- Rinse – 5 mins
- Blow Dry & Styling – 25 mins
Total time spent: 1 hour 15 mins
I have to say, I was extremely pleased with the result! Not to mention that Belle was very friendly throughout the haircut, as were all the other stylists at Supercuts. I noticed many of the customers chatting happily with their hairstylists, and despite the fact that there were many customers, each hairstylist only served one customer at a time, which is quite unusual – even at Cineleisure my hairstylist would zip around serving a few customers at a time. The great service was definitely something I loved about this place, plus the fact that Belle took that extra half an hour to style my hair to show me what type of styling would suit my face best AND explained to me how to recreate this look in the comfort of my home, really convinced me that Supercuts at Nex Mall was a hair salon worth going back to :) Personally, I really love this look & hopefully I’ll be able to keep it as such for as long as possible. I also signed up for a hair package of 3 haircuts + 2 free haircuts = $135 ($27 per haircut) that’s available for this month only.
The 50% off all hair services promo is available til 19th Jan 2011. It also includes colour & chemical treatments.
A basic women’s haircut will take 45mins-1 hour depending on hair length. A men’s haircut will take approximately 30-45 mins. The cost of a haircut is dependent on hair length – my hair was considered extra long (original length almost reached my elbows)
Supercuts prioritizes those who have made an appointment, they can be contacted at 6634 4466. Opening hours: Mon-Fri 10am-9pm, weekends & Public holidays: 10am-7pm
With my bouncy, wonderful hair, my head felt unbelievably light and I enjoyed strolling around the mall, which is about 90% open now! I can’t wait for the Shaw Movie Theatre to open tomorrow, 8 of its 10 brand-new theatres are opening, and given that Shaw is looking to compete with movie giants GV and Cathay, I’m sure they’ll find great ways to attract customers. I’ve been hearing rumours that they might have an opening discount special for movie tickets! It’ll be a great excuse to catch a movie later this week :)
I was also pleased to note that there are two coffee outlets at Nex, both of which are my absolute favourites – Spinelli’s and Starbucks. (sorry coffee bean!) Spinelli’s I love because of their Original Spin, and to celebrate the coming Christmas season, they’ve introduced a Gingerbread Spin which I’ll probably try later in the month! Seeing that Starbucks was extremely crowded today (and well, there’s a free coffee offer tomorrow! look at our sidebar!), I decided to sit down at Spinelli’s for a quiet read.
Vikram Seth was my date today :)
I love these bumming around days. It’s sad that with job interviews coming up, they’re coming to an end. But I shall enjoy them to the fullest while I can!
Nex at Serangoon Open Today!
With post-exam celebrations and slothful days in mind, today I’m spending my day with the bf (who took leave, how sweet of him!) with a yummylicious breakfast before going to explore the Nex mall that has just opened in Serangoon. Granted, not every single shop has been opened, but Isetan is opening its doors today and I can’t wait to just spy on what shops have decided to settle in our humble heartland area, especially since I’ve heard that 90% of the space has already been leased out!
I’m rather excited about Isetan because it’s bringing in exclusive brands from Japan – I’m always willing and eager to check out new styles of clothing! Plus, with the dog walk on the topmost floor of the mall, I’m sure there will be plenty of pet shops in the mall as well :) Once Sparky grows up to his mature size, we’ll definitely be bringing him there! I’m sure dog lovers will enjoy a walk in the dogwalk looking at the various different breeds of their neighbours, it’s a great way to bond the community over a common love for the friendly animal known as man’s best friend .
With 600,00 sq ft of space, the Nex Mall can hold as many shops as Orchard Ion, and is the biggest mall in the North-East area! Though I’m sure it’ll be as packed as Tampines Mall in the near future, the convenience of the 24 hour Fairprice and the Shaw Movie Theatre outweighs the possible negative outcomes that comes with the building of this mall. My home’s property value is definitely going up! whee! :)
Our Quirky Loves
