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Saturday, February 23, 2013

New Restaurant: Ezoca & Quayside Isle restaurants

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! :)

Hope CNY has been good for y'all! Dont feel too guilty about eating too much CNY food, but do make sure you work it off somehow!! Ok let's talk about this Jap restaurant.

The chef helming this restaurant is Chef Morihara. Some may find his name familiar, and that's because he was head chef at the now defunct Inagiku at Fairmont Hotel Singapore. His previous stints include a few Japanese hotels including Marriott, then Four Seasons HK then Marriott Shanghai, and all as head chef. But now, he has his own restaurant to helm, residing in Quayside Isle in Sentosa. The waterfront is amazing at night really. So romantic :) and its kinda good now cos its not terribly crowded? Plus the cold weather now makes it even better!




Our menu for the night at $200/pp

I called to make a reservation and the person who answered my call, if I'm not wrong, is called Kenny. Anyway, he asked if we had any allergies/restrictions then asked if we wanted to pre-order a menu first. And my dad decided on this omakase menu. They also have a beef set or a sushi set menu or alacarte  menu which can be found on their website.


Japanese Fruit Tomato, Asparagus & Steamed Abalone

The tomato tastes normal, isnt as sweet as what I've had. Everything else tasted normal, nothing special. The abalone had this jelly thing on top that was slightly sweet but generally neutral in taste. 3/5



Seared Fatty Tuna Sushi

I'd say this was the best dish of the night for me. Quite good aburi going on here. Nice amt of fat so it really melts in your mouth! 4.5/5


Very cute chopstick holder!


Chef Sashimi Selection

There was red meat tuna, hamachi, amebi, otoro, king salmon, scallop, and forgot what else

Sashimi is supposed to be the chef specialty but my parents and I think that its average. None of the sashimi screams amazing, all relatively neutral in taste. The amebi (prawns) stood out a little more. I enjoyed the pieces of crunchy bamboo shoot more. Decent, but nothing to shout about. 3/5


Steamed Pacific Clams w Sake Broth

Apparently there's no alcohol content in this haha dont ask me why its called sake, Idk. 2 fat juicy clams were given and this soup was a clear tasting, slightly sweet one. Not bad to warm your stomach! 3.7/5


Decor + interior of the restaurant


Charcoal Grilled miso marinated Black Cod

I LOVE cod so I may be biased but this was done quite well imo! The meat could have been a tiny bit softer but overall, I liked it! Its firm but not overly firm (I mean the texture of the fish), miso taste doesnt overpower the fish, so all's good in this one! 4.4/5


Sake + choose your own sake cup (I like this and most authentic Jap restaurants have this!)


Crispy fried Sea Shrimp with American Eggplant

This isnt exactly tempura style cos the batter is thinner and doesnt cover all parts of the prawn. This is more like a soaked tempura in the radish sauce thingy but with a little bit of crispiness still. Interesting new style instead of the usual. 3.4/5

Snow crab & radish steamed with rice and miso soup


Lobster soup

It says on the menu miso soup but the guy told us its lobster soup. Anyhow, this is totally different from the usual miso soup and though I couldnt find lobster bits in it, I think its quite nice!!! Flavourful with miso taste but not v strong like how its like in some Jap restaurants. 3.9/5


I really like eating these!!! So appetising :)


This fried rice was the best dish of the night for my parents but I thought it was um v normal? It barely had any taste for me haha. Okay it did have a subtle aroma that made me finish the bowl of rice so I guess it does have some magic :) The rice is not sticky like how you'd envision Jap rice to be. Crab meat's shredded and distributed quite evenly throughout. I guess this dish is more about clean flavours! 3.5/4


Champagne flavoured chocolate, mixed fruits, ice cream

The chocolate is kinda like the nama chocolate from Royce, totally soft with a layer of "champagne" but honestly the champagne taste is not strong at all though the choc is quite good.

Mixed fruits -> all of the fruits were quite good, rock melon was acceptable, strawberries didnt have much taste though

Ice cream: can choose from a few flavours - green tea, black sesame, salt, cheese, vanilla (?) not sure about the last flavour. But we chose green tea, black sesame and salt. Black sesame as shown here, doesnt have a strong sesame taste at all, its quite muted though there were specks of black sesame here and there.


Salt ice cream

This was only slightly salty so no worries! Do try :)


Green tea

Not a very strong matcha taste


The view at night!


How the row of restaurants look at night


Sabio by the Sea has a nice atmosphere


Here's a list of restaurants there:
European
Brussels Sprouts 
Kebab House
Note di Sicilia
Picotin express
Sabio by the Sea
Solepomodoro Trattoria-Pizzeria

Asian
Ezoca

Others
Cove Stadium (American - opening soon)
Grillado
Kith 
Museo
Paradiso Restaurant & Bar
Quayside Fish Bar & Bistro

Lunchtime parking is free and there's a shuttle bus, Sentosa Bus 3, from Beach Station (drop at Cove Arrival Plaza). Parking there is per entry basis daily and costs $3.21 if I'm not wrong.

Follow the signs to Sentosa Cove/Quayside Isle when you enter Sentosa (ie the blue colour font on the signboards) and then when you reach the Sentosa Cove "entrance" that looks like entrance to a condo, keep left for visitors then turn left at the roundabout! Continue straight down until you see W Hotel then lookout for the carpark on your right!

Ezoca
#01-12 Quayside Isle

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

New Restaurant: Morsels

This new restaurant has been on my radar and I've just been waiting for the chance to visit them! I was actually deciding between a few new restaurants to eat but I chose Morsels in the end and I was extremely happy about my choice! :) 

This restaurant is situated opposite a mosque in an old shophouse at Mayo Street taking over The Black Sheep Cafe. I really really really love the interior of this restaurant and the vibe it exudes! Hands down one of the best ambience I've experienced in a while. Why? Its great for a nice date (ok not so sure abt weekends cos I havent been on weekends yet, but weekday nights certainly! UPDATE: not sure if it'll be as quiet on weekdays since ST featured them!) or for a group gathering!

Here's the menu! On the first "page" is an introduction to the concept behind their restaurant! Everything, everything is homemade! Really applaud this concept of theirs and their creativity. Their dishes are well, I wouldnt call fusion per se, but more of "classic" dishes with a slight spin-off that works. Now that's hard to achieve and the very reason why many scorn fusion food. But the boy and I both feel that theirs is executed nicely :)






I really love the decor


Hokkaido scallop ceviche, plums, tobiko, cilantro, red onion, homemade tortilla chips
$17

This dish was a great great 1st dish! Totally whets your appetite with the sour twang, slight sweetness from the scallops, and well, cos its cold! I adore the tobiko toppings which brought it up a notch further imo. The tortilla chips tastes like the curry puff skin haha. I felt that the ceviche was nicer on its own w/o the chips as you can taste more flavours. 4.5/5


Steamed clams, fig broth, homemade kimchi, pickled wakame, spring onions
$22

WE LOVED THE BROTH. Period.

Okay no kidding, will talk abt this dish. The boy and I both mopped up every last drop of this flavourful, umami packed, delightful broth! I've never tasted something like this before. Ok honestly I cant tell there's fig in the broth. Okay the broth is kinda hard to describe, its like sour (attribute this a little to kimchi) but sweet but not overly so in both departments. The kimchi is not spicy so dont worry, its flavour is very watered down in fact. Clams were sweet tasting! Please use the shell to scoop up some broth and have it tgt w the clams! Just use your hands!! 

The bread given was so damn crispy! It goes beautifully with the broth! Soak it for a tad longer, let it soak up the broth, I promise you (if you like the broth) it'll be great :) 4.8/5



firecracker pork pasta, habanero pesto, sour cream, spring onion
$12

The pork is cooked pulled pork style, comes in shreds and is really soft + flavourful. I would say it pairs well with the pasta, spicy pesto and sour cream! The pesto packs a punch, so those who cant take spicy, you might wanna stay away from this! 4.4/5


Pan-seared snapper, buttermilk miso broth, pickled honshimeiji mushrooms, ikura, radish sprouts
$22

In terms of flavour, this was the "cleanest" out of the lot but nevertheless, simplicity has its merits (not so if you like strong flavours). I like this cos of its clean flavours. The buttermilk miso isnt too strong to overpower the fish's natural taste. Its pan-seared nicely, skin's still crispy. Ikura didnt do much for the dish as a whole but well who doesnt like ikura? 4.3/5




Grilled octopus, squid ink risotto, salted egg sauce, tobiko, wasabi sprouts
$25

I really really loved how they did the octopus here!!!! Totally not like what I've eaten at other restaurants! Its only a tiny bit chewy, with charred crispy sides, the texture's really good! I felt that the squid ink taste isnt the star of this dish cos frankly, cant really taste it, so dont expect much if you're a squid ink lover!! I tried the risotto w/o the salted egg sauce too but no difference! The salted egg yolk sauce steals the show away. The salted egg yolk taste isnt very strong, unlike in custard buns but its definitely there and comes "fleetingly" haha. Its an interesting twist to the usual squid ink dishes. And once again, tobiko does its magic w texture. This is the must-try according to the waiter! 4.4/5

I loved the service here as well. V casual, friendly, prompt! All in all, this is definitely keeper :) The boy loved it as well!!

Morsels
35 Mayo Street
63966302
Tues-Sat 6-10pm
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