Birthday celebration with Hubby at Kuriya Penthouse

Kuriya Penthouse is my fave restaurant of the year so I had planned to give hubby a treat at this place since 2 months ago. I made reservations with them via email and enquired about what they can do for birthday boy. They offered to custom make a small cake (choice of 3 flavors) with a short message at a reasonable price of $6.00++. They promised to make it a surprise for hubby. I chose the Lychee flavor over mango & chocolate cos hubby like fruity flavor stuffs. And so we waited for D day to come.

It is a warm and sunny day and I took a few shots of the roof top garden before entering the restaurant.

The rather small and intimate dining area...they have allocated a 'window seat' for us as requested on my email.

View from our table 

The only restaurant in SG to provide dedicated 'bag stool' for patrons...

The table setting...

The food menu...they have separate menus for food and drinks. Check my previous post for drinks menu photos and more photos of the entire restaurant.

For drinks, hubby picked a sweet Plum wine 八岐の梅酒 $8.00++ recommended by the staffs. He had it 'on the rock' and he enjoyed sipping it with the huge ball of ice.

                                               I had the Lime juice $4.50++, tasted alright..

For mains I chose the Noodle set $42.00++...choice of Udon (hot/cold) served with Starter, Assorted appetizer plate, Tekka maki, Assorted tempura, Chawanmushi, Dessert & Coffee/Tea.

The starter of the day was Edamame tofu...nice and light taste with soy sauce and wasabi.

My assorted appetizer plate consists of 5 items and a special sauce.

Edamame, prawn and tamago. One word to describe it...fresh!

Fried fish cubes in japanese vinegar...fish was deep fried so it was a bit hard...tasted good with the vinegar sauce which isn't sour at all...nice.

Salmon sashimi...fresh too!

Tori karaage...the chicken was crispy and juicy, not overcooked. The broccoli has a special beany tasting paste on top..yummy too.

Potato salad...has ample topping of tobiko...yums.

Tuna Tekka maki 鉄火巻...the tuna is fresh but I find that they put in a little too much wasabi...I'm not a fan of wasabi so I didn't enjoy this dish as much. Hubby loves it.

Assorted tempura, fresh ingredients were used so the veggies were crunchy and still moist inside. I especially liked the sweet potato tempura...it is very sweet. The Ebi was fresh and juicy too...great dish.

My Udon in hot soup....the udon is not the typical thick and chewy type sold in supermarkets. This one seem to be handmade as the thinner strands of noodle varies in thickness. I only had this once when in Japan. The udon was springy and smooth in texture, the soup has the light japanese soy taste and blends well with the simple garnishes of egg strips and spring onions. Another satisfying dish!

The Chawanmushi, smooth and soft steam egg custard with mushroom, chicken and prawn meat...nicely done.

Last but not least, our Dessert of the day...Fresh fruits with jelly and custard pudding & mini Lychee mousse cake. The pudding was quite buttery so I didn't finish it but I polished off the rest.

 The bite sized Lychee mousse cake was not very sweet...not bad.

Hubby's food choice Beef shabu shabu set $45.00++, served with Starter, 2 kinds of Sashimi, Chawanmushi, Miso soup, rice & pickles, dessert and coffee/tea.

2 kinds of sashimi

Pickles, sesame dipping sauce & miso soup

Beef slices with vege 

Smokin' hot...

Hubby's verdict...the beef was good, very tender and the soup base was nice as well. He polished off everything in the set meal too.

Now comes the surprise...the customized birthday cake...drum roll....

Tata...the cake arrives with a sculpted ice-dome cover over it...looks very impressive! My money well spent...grin :D

The customized birthday message 

Top view 

We broke the ice to get to the cake...this lychee cake is the same one as the Dessert of the day..with extra fruits topping and a white chocolate birthday message.

After having the cake, we finished off the meal with a cup of coffee.

Another excellent dining experience with Kuriya Penthouse...I wished I could say we will be back again but the restaurant is ceasing its operations on 15 June 2013. So sad to see it go :(



Kuriya Penthouse 

Lunch: 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Dinner: 6:30pm – 10:00pm

#12-02 Orchard Central, 181 Orchard Road
Singapore 238896

Tel: 6509 4222
Email: penthouse@kuriya.com.sg
Website: http://www.kuriyapenthouse.com.sg

Post-show jalan jalan at Marina Bay Sands & Helix bridge

After watching the Dirty Dancing Musical, we decided to take MRT from Promenade station instead of Bayfront which will require us to alight and switch train at Stadium station. Took a few shots of the Helix bridge and the MBS & ArtScience museum.

Indoor shots...

The Shoppes at MBS 

Beoing a certain bag from afar..

Outdoor shots..

LV flagship store & reflections of SG skyline..

Helix bridge 

ArtScience museum 

3 in 1 shot..

Marina Bay Sands
10 Bayfront Avenue,
Singapore 018956

Pre-show dinner at Au Chocolat

Bought tickets to watch the Musical 'Dirty Dancing' last Friday. Decided to eat dinner at Au Chocolat again cos I was craving for their Frozen Hot Chocolate drink...

Foie Gras promo Mon - Wed only..

My hubby and my drink choice...

During my previous visit, my Frozen Hot Chocolate drink $12++, although tasted good, was not very well prepared...the serving portion and presentation was not as good as my friend's one served on a weekday. Today, they redeemed themselves and gave me a huge portion...the huge pile of whipped cream was almost overflowing at the edge! Needless to say, my craving was satisfied.

Hubby ordered the other signature drink Pineapple Pleasure $12++, a concoction of pineapple juice and white chocolate. He said it was not bad.

We ordered the Mushroom bites $14++ for sharing. I had this the previous time and it was good so we had this again. The mushrooms were simmered in red wine sauce...pairs well with the bread and the very tasty tomato & olive jam..yums.

For mains, I had the Au Chocolat Mega Club Sandwich $25++....huge serving of 2x 3-tier tower sandwich with tomato, ham, crispy bacon, egg, portobello mushroom and chicken tenders served with french fries. It was delish but I almost couldn't finish it...had to let go the fries :p

Hubby had the Boeuf Bourguignon $26++, he said the beef stew was nice and tender...goes well with the brioche bread.

We were stuffed after that and didn't order any desserts. Overall dining experience was good...food was good, service was good too...we will be back!


Au Chocolat Pte Ltd. 
Bay Level L1-03, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands

Bistro +65 6688 7227
Confiserie +65 6688 7557

Back to TCC Bugis again

We are back at TCC! My sista's husband has a 50% birthday voucher to be utilized before expiry on end May. We chose Bugis for the convenience of the birthday boy. The decor didn't change and the noisy blender didn't change as well (check my previous post).

GSS promotions

For drinks I ordered twice, Raspberry Orange Iced Tea and Lychee Jazz. The Raspberry drink was good while the Lychee drink was tasteless soda with 2pcs of lychees..not nice.

Raspberry Orange Iced Tea $7.00++

Lychee Jazz $6.60++

I ordered a different salad to try today...Kimchi Prawn Salad..it was delish! The kimchi prawns were very well marinated and the greens was refreshing.

Kimchi Prawn Salad $13.00++

For main dish, I picked the Ocean Sur'fin which I raved about during my previous visit. It tasted good but portion kinda shrank a little...different chef maybe? Nevertheless, I did enjoyed this dish...no complains.

Ocean Sur'fin $23.00++

Our usual practice of ordering appetizers for sharing...this time we chose Potato Wedges w/ Melted Cheese Dip and Mentaiko Shrimp Martini (our all time fave). The potato wedges was nicely done...crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. I'm not a fan of cheese dips so no comments on that. The Shrimp martini met our expectations as usual.

Mentaiko Shrimp Martini $11.80++

Potato wedges $9.90++

Some other drinks and dishes my friends had were...

Crimson Duet $7.80++

Bisque of Forest Mushroom Soup $10.00++

Clam Chowder soup $10.00++

Ribeye Steak $32.00++

And last but not least I ordered a new dessert to try...Puffy Triplets, three profiteroles with rich chocolate ice-cream atop a fine almond-espresso financier. The puffs and ice cream were good accept the espresso brownie cake at the bottom was pretty hard and dry. Overall still a good sweet treat.

Puffy Triplets $12.50++

Service today was unusually slow, we were being informed of a likely long wait for food of at least 20mins for main dishes. We had a change of tables and I guess the serving staffs got confused and delivered the dishes to the wrong table a couple of times. I had to place order with the same guy twice to get my second drink. They keyed in one Clam chowder instead of two we ordered. And, my friend's 'medium rare' steak arrived 'well done' and she had to request for a change and waited for another 20mins. Hmm not so good...


TCC Bugis Junction (Main Boutique)
80 Middle Road #01-92-96 Bugis Junction, S188966
Tel: 6837 2027

Sunday to Thursday & Public Holidays - 8.30am to 11pm
Friday, Saturday & Eve of Public Holidays - 8.30am to 1.30am

Japanese tidbits

My friend's back from another Jap biz trip and has gotten us new stuffs to try...

Assorted KitKat flavors..

Passion fruit flavor KitKat...nice!

Sakura Matcha KitKat...not bad.

And a traditional Kyoto biscuit with modern twist...Chocolate Yatsuhashi biscuit (Matcha flavor). Yatsuhashi is a cinnamon flavored snack that is soft and had similar texture as Mochi. The cinnamon flavored biscuit is nice on its own but tasted weird when paired with matcha chocolate...I can't seem to wrap my mind around that idea. Nonetheless they do have a very nice packaging for visitors to buy back as souvenirs.