Ikkousha (Ramen Champion @ Iluma)

Who is the Ultimate Ramen Champion here?

The Challengers - 6 Ramen Iron Chef

Each has their own specialty ramen

Long queue at Bario.  However, I don't really like beansprouts and so I conveniently ordered my ramen from Ikkousha, just situated next to Bario.  No queue!

Ikkousha serves Hakata ramen, a regional version of ramen that came from the Hakata district of Fukuoka city in Kyushu.  I ordered their signature ramen - Hakata Ajitama Ramen ($13+).  Presentation wise, not bad, seems like a fulfilling bowl of ramen with black fungas, Charsu, spring onions and a soft-boiled egg in pork bone broth.  The noodle used are the slightly thinner ones, Charsu is thick but not the melt-in-the-mouth type.  The egg is just ok but not as memorable as the one that I had at Marutama.  :)

Again, like most authentic Japenese Ramen, the broth is very thick but salty.  Did feel thirsty after the meal and I went to Koi immediately after that.  lol...

Would like to check out the other 5 ramen stalls soon!  Which is your favourite ramen stall here?

Tsubohachi (Ebisboshi Shotengai) @ Illuma

Last Friday, I wanted to "bring" my hubby to "Food For Thought" at Queen Street after reading Alvinology's post on this restaurant.  I even looked through their menu online and decided what to order.  We had a bit of problem finding this place as we had not been to 8Q SAM before.  After we had had finally found the place, parked our car and reached the restaurant, we were greatly disappointed that the whole restaurant was hosting a private function.  Hiaz... got to come another time.

In the end, we just walked to the nearby Illuma to have our dinner.

"Inverted Christmas Trees" X'mas Decoration at Illuma

We went to the Japanese food street at the 4th level.  Initially, I thought that the concept is like Manpuku at Tampines One ie when you enter the restaurant, you can order from any of the food stalls inside but I was wrong.  Thus, without giving much thought, we went straight to the first Jap restaurant (Tsubohachi) on the left.  After we entered Tsubohachi, then we realized that the restaurants of "Ebisboshi Shotengai" operate independently.  We can only our food from Tsubohachi.  Tsubohachi also does not have the electronic ordering system that other restaurants along this food street have.

We were greeted warmly by the staff and were brought to the side seats where we need to take off our shoes.  I see no purpose in this as we were not sitting on the floor and it is just normal table setting.  So people, if you are bring your date out and you got hong kong feet or torn socks, make sure you don't choose those seats at the side.

They offer a wide varieties of food and hubby asked a super friendly obasan staff for her recommendation.  Friendly might be too mild a word to describe this obasan.... Haha... when she gave us her recommendations, she was so expressive and can see her love for the food she was recommending.  In the end, we just ordered whatever she recommended to us, even the drinks.  Haha....

Hubby ordered Sake (L) for himself.

 Sake ($16)

Obasan insisted I should try this:
 Plum on the Rock ($8)

She also recommended my hubby to take some kimchi as appetizer which supposedly will go well with his sake.  Kimchi?  Japanese?? 

 Kimchi  ($5)

I love mushroom and thus, I ordered Mushroom Hot Pot for myself.  Not everything inside is mushroom.  I picked up a big chunk of meat and at first I thought it was the monkey head mushroom and was delighted.  However, after I put it in my mouth then I realized it was just chicken meat. 

 Mushroom Hot Pot ($9.80)

 Seafood Ramen ($12.90)
Hubby said for this one, the more he ate, the more it tasted like prawn noodle.

As there was no rice, we also ordered some sushi.

 Sushi Platter for 1 ($9.80)

Total damage for this meal was around $70.
We realized that we were still not full after walking out of the restaurant and I told hubby that I would treat him to tako balls downstairs next to Koi.  Haha... we went to the first level and walked out of the shopping mall, hoping to get some hot delicioius tako balls from Japanese Boat Takoyaki but luck was really not on our side.  The stall was under renovation.

We shopped around Illuma for a while and after that, hubby actually drove to beach road to buy "Tulangs"!!!  He got a sudden strong cravings for that and he just bought a bag of Tulangs home for supper.

Eating Tulangs is really a messy affair.  Eeeek.... Both my hands were "bloody red" from eating the tulangs.

Chef Daniel's Kitchen, Koi, Japan Boat Takoyaki, Paper City Exhibition @ Illuma

Before coming to Chef Daniel's Kitchen, I had already known about its existence in Illuma through many popular food blogs. This time, it was mum who said that she was going to bring us there to try Chef Daniel's food. She had been there once with her friends to try the food (or to see Chef Daniel?) Haha... Chef Daniel is such a familar face who always appear in local Chinese food programmes on TV, many of his supporters (including mum, I guess... ) are happy that he has his own restaurant.

Hubby and I reached there quite early.  He went to Sim Lim Square to get some stuff while I did a bit of window shopping at Illuma first.  It was around 11am and I went to Koi to try out my luck (hopefully no long queue).  So many people were raving about Koi but I had yet to try it out.  Oh yes!  Almost no queue!  I placed my order for hazelnut milk tea and I was given the ticket number 61, with only 4 person before me :)   

The pearls were smaller and very chewy, but after sometimes, I found it a bit tiring to chew the pearls and there were harder than the norm.  The hazelnut milk was nice though, but as I ordered 100% sugar, it ended up a bit too sweet.

Reached the restaurant with my grandma, parents and hubby.  Only a few tables were occupied as we were there before noon.  We checked out the Set Lunch Menu.  Every set comes with a soup of the day, a main course, dessert of the day, 1 drink and free flow of bread!!!  Cost?  Only $10.50 NETT!!  This was so value-for-money!

This is the range of main course that they offered.

Soup of the day - Minestrone Soup

Foccacia Bread, I dipped it with olive oil provided on the table

My Grandma likes to eat fried stuff and she ordered Fish and Chips.

Hubby ordered lamb stewed navarin.  Doesn't look very appetizing and I didn't try it.

Mum ordered Grilled Chicken

I ordered Grilled Sirloin Steak.  It was done just right!  :)

Medium Done

Dad ordered Unagi Don. 

Dessert of the Day - Mango mousse

Overall, the food was really very value for money.  However, during peak hours, the restaurant was fully packed and there was a queue outside the restaurant.  Service was slow during peak and I thought the restuarnat was really understaff.  The staff got to multitask - bringing out the dishes from the kitchen, serving the bread, clear the tables, attend to the queues at the door and attend to the bills.  Sometimes, you could see a table full of dirty dishes not cleared for quite sometime because all the staff was so busy.  My mum said they should engage some aunties to help them clear the tables like those foodcourt. 

Chef Daniel was very busy working in the kitchen.  Mum wouldn't want to miss out the chance to take a photo at his kitchen, with Chef Daniel :P

So was my Grandma...

Located at 7th storey of Illuma at the Skygarden

After a lunch, we continued to walk around the mall.

The arcade... My favourite cartoon charactor - Doraemon!!!

Pikachu - Long time no see :P

Despicable Me again... Look like Francis trying to strangle Agnes!

There was a Paper City exhibition at the mall during the time we were there

Can you see a "man" in the photo below?

Look at the long queue at Koi now.  I think it was a bit crazy, I wouldn't queue so long for this. 

We bought the Japan Boat Takoyaki back.  3 boxes!  Yum Yum!