Donq Bakery @ Takashimaya

A new bakery at the basement of Takashimaya!!

Quite pricey... just these 2 already cost $5.20.

Spinach sausage bun, one of their best-sellers but I didn't really like it... a bit sick of sasuage bun.

I prefer this one - apple sweet potato bun.  Nice!  

Baikohken Ramen 梅光軒 @ Takashimaya

I was surprised that there was no queue at all on a weekday afternoon around 2pm.  My previous trip with hubby here, we saw a long queue outside the restaurant.  I quickly scanned through the menu that was put on the wall and decided to order Shoyu Ramen with 2 pieces of Char Siew.  I walked into the restaurant, wanted to put down my bag, but the staff told me to go over to the cashier counter to make my payment first.  I told her my order and she said the portion might be too big for me.  I replied, only 2 pieces of Char Siew right?  She looked at me again and said the Char Siew portion would be very big.  Ok, I would order the smaller portion with one piece of Char Siew. 

 Condiments at the table

 My bowl of ramen was served very shortly.  Where is the Char Siew?

 There you are!  You can see the size of the char siew relative to the bowl?  I guess Baikohken is one of the most value-for-money ramen you can find in Singapore.  My bowl of ramen cost $10.50 nett.  However, a pity that the char siew was not very tender.

 The ramen are thick and curly type.  However, I think taste-wise, it was just average.

Tsuru-koshi Udon @ Takashimaya

Before going to East Ocean Teochew Restaurant for the longevity buns, hubby and I had our lunch at Tsuru-koshi Udon at Takashimaya Japanese food .

I ordered the same type of Kakiage Udon as the previous time, which was like a year ago?  But the price had increased since last visit.
($9.50)

 Mentaiko Cream Udon ($10)

Hubby didn't like the creamy taste.

Longevity Buns from East Ocean Teochew Restaurant

Sister-in-law ordered longevity buns from East Ocean Teochew Restaurant for my mother-in-law this year.  Last year, I ordered from D'Bun from Joo Chiat.  The restaurant was relocated to Takashimaya and we went to collect the longevity buns in the afternoon.

Since we were not having our dinner here, we had the longevity buns take-away.

Nice and creative packaging.

I took a peek before bringing it to the in-laws' place.

At my in-law's place

There was actually a surprise element in the big longevity bun.  Heehee....

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More mini buns inside the big bun! 

My parents-in-law, posing for "cake"-cutting.

Tsuru-koshi Udon @ Takashimaya

We went to Tsuru-koshi at Takashimaya Japanese food hall at the basement for dinner after we had bought the Nespresso Machine.

Hubby ordered the Pork Udon - $9

I ordered the Kakiage Udon when I saw many customers had this on their table - $8

The udon was firm and the broth, though a bit salty but quite tasty.

2 big pieces of Kakiage

Onsen Tamago - $1

Fisherios Fish and Chips @ Ngee Ann City

Ordered their beer battered fish and chips.  When the staff asked me whether I wanted to top up ie change the fish from dory to cod fish and add in a soup of the day and a soft drink, I said "Yes" without thinking.  Thus, from the $7.90 beer battered dory, I had the $12.90 combo set.  However, sad to say, I didn't enjoy this meal very much.  When the dish was served, I thought it looked quite decent.  However, as I used my knife to cut the fish, the oil oozed out.  The fried fish was really really very oily and after finishing the meal, I got this queasy feeling.  Would like to check out the Mignon's Steak just opposite the next time.

Beer Battered Fish and Chips (Cod Fish)

Tonkichi @ Takashimaya

Tonkichi is famous for their tonkatsu (Deep fried pork cutlets) and it is said to be very authentic. Many Japanese visit this restaurant at Takashimaya and thus, it must be really good right? This was not the first time we came here. Both of us had good memory of our first visit at this restaurant and we decided to revisit it :) Last week was really a very busy week for both hubby and myself and thus, we deserve to give ourselves a real treat! :D

Add the brown sauce to the seeds and the dip is ready!

Francis' order - Black Pig Katsu

My order:  Hire Katsu Set (4 pieces)

Hire Katsu got almost no fats and is very tender.  If you like the pork to be a bit fatty and chewy, then choose the Rosu Katsu Set.

Although deep fried, the pork cutlet was not at all oily.  It was very well breaded and had a nice crisp.

Very satisfying meal... Oiishi! :)

Romankan Yokohama @ Takashimaya

I had made an appointment for hair treatment at Takashimaya at 11am.  This was the first time that I went to the Taka branch for my treatment.  My hair treatment package was bought at Wheelock Place branch and all along I went there for treatment.  However, due to busy work schedule (excuse?), I had not done my treatment for almost 3 months.  When I first bought the package, I was quite diligent to go for treatment once a week as at that time, I thought my hair loss problem was quite serious.  However, as my hair condition started to improve, I became quite slack and from once a week treatment to once in 2 weeks, to once in a month and finally once in 3 months.  Haha....  I think I am too ashamed to face my hair consultant at Wheelock Place and thus, I booked my appointment at Taka branch.  The night before, I actually had everything planned for the day ie after hair treatment, I would go to Tampopo for lunch (craving for ramen and Tonkatsu) and after that I would go shopping at Taka to use up my $100 vouchers which I had almost forgotten.

Hair mask

Infra

Usually the whole treatment will take about 2 hours.  Beside reading magazine, I can now play with my iphone to pass time.  I can even go online to chat with my hubby who is now in US on facebook chat!  Another good reason why I like iphone better now!  :)

After that, I went to Tampopo as planned.  However, even at 1.30pm, there was a long queue outside the restaurant.  I did join the queue for a while but it seemed that the queue was not moving after 5 minutes so I gave up.  As I would be dining alone, I don't think it made much sense for me to queue.  Thus, I walked to the Taka food hall at the basement and found this counter restaurant Romankan Yokohama.  Looking through their menu, I think their specialty is deep fried pork or chicken.  There were 2 service staff at the counter.  Both are "aunties" and one of them was dressed in those Japanese maid costume.  Erm.. a bit weird right?  But they are really very friendly people.

Deep fried pork cutlet set ($13)

Close-up

Oh well, the pork cutlet satisfied my craving a bit although I was still thinking of having a hot bowl of ramen.  The portion was rather generous, both the pork cutlet and the shredded cabbages.  It was quite value for money.  However, do not compare this with Tonkichi or you will be very much disappointed.  I felt that the meat was quite tough (but still acceptable) and also wondered why they gave me so much shredded cabbages.  They didn't provide me with mayonaise to mix with the cabbages and I didn't know they actually serve mayonaise until the guy sitting opposite me asked the staff for it.  I put some of the brown sauce on the cabbage but it made the salad tasted weird.  However, it was too late when I realized that they had mayo as I was already full.  Thus, about half of the tasteless shredded cabbages had gone to waste.  By the way, they do serve ice-water which I also realized later.  I paid for another $1.70 for a cup of ice-lemon tea.

After this heavy lunch, it was time to shop.  How did I utilize my vouchers?

Lavender diffuser ($71 after 10% discount).  I had wanted to buy something like this for quite some time but the cost factor was a concern.  Now, since I was "desperately" trying to use up my vouchers, I bought this without much hesitation.  :)  Today is also the last day for Body Shop shower gels sales.  Bought 3 bottles for my parents.  Didn't buy any for myself as I still have 4 bottles at home :P

PS:  Still craving for a good bowl of ramen.  Should I go Liang Court tomorrow?  Hmm....

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

Our first "Tai-Tai" Meet-up of the year!!! This place was suggested by Ruijun as she is the birthday girl of the month.  Rated "Gold Plate Award" by "Women's Weekly" as "All-Time Favourite:  Best For Girls Get Together", the tea lounge is indeed popular amongst "Tai-Tai" get together for an afternoon of scones and cakes.  We reached the place around 11.30am and it was pretty crowded with most of the tables occupied.  4 of us ordered the 3-course set meal.  Only Shili ordered ala-carte which seems to be a wrong choice.   

Birthday girl - Ruijun (Centre) with Shili and Joyce

Lijuan and Me :)

Shili's ala-carte main course.  Egg wrapped in smoked salmon.  Not too sure how many eggs were used to whipped up this dish?  Told her that she better not take any more egg this week.  Anyway, she didn't manage to finish up the eggs.  =P

Ruijun and Lijuan ordered this:

Joyce and I ordered this smoked salmon pasta:

We topped up $2 from our set meal so that we could try these delicious cakes from the counter.  If not, our dessert from our set meal will be just normal fruit cake.  One good thing about dining with 4 or 5 good friends is that we can all order different items from the menu and we can try a bit here and there =P  The Cheese Cake proved to be the winner as it was finished up first, followed by the Plum and Prune Cake (lower left).  Surprising, the Matcha Cake which I ordered disappointed us.  The green tea favour was not strong enough and it was too moist at the centre.  We didn't manage to finish this one.

Traditional Scones with butter, jam and cream

The rest like the scones but I prefered the cakes, so I only took one small piece.

This meal cost $162 for 5 of us.  Although it is rather on the steep side, but most importantly, we enjoyed the companies of one another :)  Looking forward to next month's gathering!

Takashimaya Department Store
391 Orchard Road, Level 2
Singapore 238873