Sakura International Buffet @ Clementi Woods Park

Buffets are well loved by many, especially Singaporeans, with the dining concept of free flow of food and beverages. At Sakaru International Buffet Restaurant, they cater specifically to the buffet crowd.

I've been to Sakura Restaurant once, a few years back that is, and in my vague recollect, it was decent. This time around at Sakura, there were a lot of hit and misses. Too many, in fact.


Trays of cooked food welcome you as you step foot into the restaurant. Fried rice and noodles are the staples here, accompanied by various meat and vegetables cooked with a variety of methods.

(Clockwise) Siew Mai, Mushrooms, Teriyaki Chicken, Beef

The teriyaki chicken was tasty and flavourful - not too tough chicken meat, teriyaki flavors and sesame seeds strewn on top on it. The beef, on the other hand, was another story, it was tough and rubbery.

The siew mai's skin was too thick, resulting in a floury taste in your mouth as you chewed on it. The mushrooms were alright, nothing too special.

The soft shell crab was off quality, far off from the real deal. However, the fish fillets, which I think are dory fillets, were not too bad. They are quite generous with the fish over here, steaming the fillets in a light soy sauce gravy, hong kong style, and serving them in whole fillets in a tray. The refills here are a little slow though.

The dining area was separately into many sections, and in fact two floors to be exact. Here at the fried section, they offer many deep fried sides.

At the local delights area, I tried the steamed chicken and the fried tau pok and egg. The chicken was too tough and cold while the tau pok, I felt, was too bland.

A grilling station is present as well, with selections such as salmon steak, steaks, skewered scallops, satays and etc. There will be cloth pegs on your table with your table no. on them, you can then use them to order these things as they're cooked a la minute.

The scallops were flavoursome, fleshy but a tad dry. The salmon steak was too thin and overcooked. You could hardly taste the actual salmon with the strong grilled taste on the outside, resulting in a tough surface as well.

The lotus bun is something worth recommending, I loved how smooth the paste was and the sweetness was just right.

Once you're done exploring with the first floor of the dining area, don't forget there's a second floor! The desserts and japanese foods are served up on the second floor. This concept of a second floor is rather weird I feel, and it isn't customer friendly because you might leave without knowing there's a second floor of food!

The sushis are of acceptable quality and quantity. You can find most of your common sushis here. The sashimi section do not come in second too, they have a wide selection of raw fishes, octopus and prawns.

 A chocolate fondue is found on the second floor as well. Good quality chocolate wasn't used here, disappointed, but I don't blame them.

A whole molten chocolate cake is for your taking here. The molten chocolate was average, enough only for a mild chocolate satisfaction.

I concluded lunch by trying one of these and they salvaged the lunch a little. Sweet surprise because I wasn't expecting much out of these jellies. They were very nice with the different fruit flavours in them, real fruit juice must have been incorporated to manufacture a taste so similar to the fruit itself. They were konnyaku jelly, my new favourites for jellies.

Overall, a wide array of food, drinks and desserts, however the quality of the food was lacking tremendously. I would have preferred quality over quantity.

How about you? Have you tried any Sakura outlets around the island too? Do leave a comment to let me know your views or experiences. Thank you.


Sakura International Buffet (Clementi)
Clementi Wood Park

93A Clementi Rd

Daily: 12pm - 2.30pm, 6pm -9.30pm
Tel: 6474 8197

Ichiban Boshi II : AMK Hub

Ichiban Boshi's Salmon Sukiyaki is good. I recommend it.

I've visited Ichiban Boshi at Ang Mo Kio Hub for a number of times, but this is my 2nd review on its food so I've put part II. I had the Don Don Gozen the other time. Therefore, I decided to try something else and picked the Salmon Sukiyak.

I'm a salmon lover, so I don't know if my tastebuds are biased towards this. But what I do know, is that I've just discovered a new way to eat salmon. Eat it medium rare.

Yeah, you heard me. Medium rare; semi cooked and dipped into some raw egg. I loved it. It melted like warm butter in my mouth. It might not be the cheapest meal out there, but the salmon at Ichiban is fresh and thus worth paying for it.

Ichiban Boshi

53 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
#02-01 AMK Hub
Tel: (65) 6555-1617
Daily: 10.00am - 10.00pm
(Last Order: 9.30pm)

Watami

50% off your bill in the form of cash back vouchers at any Watami branch now when you show your Friends of Japan charity card. (scroll to the bottom of the link) A perfectly reasonable reason to dine at Watami, and my family and I had lunch there last Sunday.

It was my first time dining at Watami, and sadly, I did not have a pleasant first-time dining experience there.

We were having a late lunch so while we were placing our orders and the waiter told us that my mom's order would take 25mins to prepare, we decided to change orders. And after roughly 30mins of waiting, our orders didn't arrive. Not even one. Apparently there was some hiccups in the kitchen, but the waiter didn't not approach us to tell us that we'll have to wait longer. No doubt everyone was hungry and as the saying goes, 'a hungry man is an angry man.' So everybody was quite irritated by the time our orders finally arrived.

My dad's Hire Katsu Tamago Toji came first. I did not have a taste of it but it looks pretty delicious.

My mom's Unagi and Tofu Tamago Toji came soon after, I too did not have a taste of this so I can't comment. But as they say, 'a picture speaks a thousand words'. I'll let you be the judge, based on my photo.

My Ishiyaki Kaiden Omelette Rice came last. It is essentially just rice, seafood and an omelette topped with kimchi sauce in a hot stone bowl. Oh, and there's cheese too, under the kimchi sauce.

Everything taste extra good when you're hungry right? I don't know how true this is, but I was famished and it tasted good even though, if my taste buds and memory don't fail me, I could only taste the kimchi sauce throughout. I couldn't really taste anything else.

My first-time experience wasn't such a good one and the meals there are quite expensive compared to its cheaper sibling, Ichiban Boshi - they are under the same corporation. Therefore, I won't dine at Watami given a choice, I'm not sure if you would?

Watami

Junction 8,
9 Bishan place
#01-33
Tel: 62583577
11.30am - 11pm daily

Ichiban Boshi

Don Don Gozen

Yes, you must have noticed, if you are a reader of my blog before this post, that I have revamped my blog with a new template, added a blog roll and organised my labels.

Somehow I felt Gustatory Explorer wasn't food blog-ish enough with the previous template and it wasn't very user friendly as well. So well, I changed it and I'm loving the new look, hope you do too!

Okay, back to the salmon sashimi don and unagi don set meal (Don Don Gozen) photo above. -points up- My sister had a $30 voucher that could be used any Ichiban Boshi outlets and so we went there to have lunch last Saturday with my mom and I.

I must confess, I forgot to take down the name of the dishes. So let's just name what we see in the photos shall we? A picture speaks a thousand words yes.

I had the salmon sashimi don and unagi don you see above (Don Don Gozen). It came with tempura soft shell crab, chawanmushi, watermelon and a bowl of miso soup.

The grilled unagi and egg made a great combination. The onions also added sweetness to the dish. I was half filled by the time i finished this.

The soft shell crab was delicious as it was nicely fried with a thin coat of batter and it was not too oily.

The salmon sashimi slices in the don were fresh and good, but they added sliced red chilli on top to garnish the dish and there was a bowl of rice underneath so I couldn't really taste the salmon once they all came together. I was really filled by the time I finished this.

The set meal's value for money and I suggest 2 people can share this unless you're very hungry.

Before my order came, my sister ordered a tuna sushi. If you look carefully, the tuna were very slightly broiled with a blow torch on the surface. It was tasty with a hint of charred-ness.

We ordered fried salmon skin as well. It was kinda of a snack-side, great for anyone craving for something crispy and fried.

Mom ordered a deep fried chicken breast with ginger gravy/sauce. I had a piece of her chicken and I felt the chicken was a little tough, the ginger gravy compensated a little for it.

It was a really filling lunch with 2 bowls of rice, but Saturday's lunch was good.

Oh, one more thing. Patrons at Ichiban Sushi will get double the amount of reward stamps from now till the end of May because:

Ten major Japanese F&B groups in Singapore have set aside their rivalry and come together to help raise at least S$250,000 for the March Japanese earthquake and tsunami relief efforts. (click picture for bigger version).

They have launched a "Friends of Japan" privilege card (S$5) that will give 10% discounts and promotions for the month of May 2011. All proceeds will go to the Singapore Red Cross in aid of the Tsunami Disaster Relief 2011.

The collaboration involves over 35 brands and 100 restaurants across Singapore. They also applauded the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority (AVA)'s work in making sure all food imports from Japan are safe for consumption.

The “Friends of Japan” charity card is available at these outlets until May 15:

1) Bachmann Japanese Restaurant
a) Ajisen
b) Botejyu
c) Aoba Hokkaido Ramen
d) Kura Sapporo Ramen
e) Ajino Chanpon
f) Kazokutei

2) Creative Food Concept Pte Ltd
a) Tampopo
b) Tampopo Grand
c) Tarafuku

3) RE&S
a) Cz’zar Singapore inspired cuisine
b) Green Pumpkin Japanese Bakery Café
c) Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant
d) Ichiban Sushi Japanese Restaurant
e) Kabe no Ana
f) Kuriya Penthouse
g) Kuriya Dining
h) Kuriya Fish Market
i) Men-ichi Japanese Ramen
j) Shimbashi Soba
k) Tontei Pork Restaurant
l) Yaki-Yaki Bo Teppanyaki Restaurant
m) Nakatsu Cabbage Yaki
n) Otsu Kushi Yaki

4) Suntory Food and Beverages International
a) Japanese Dining Sun
b) Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Café

5) Tatsuya

6) Watami

(Taken from Camemberu)

This is great news for friends who love japanese food! Because now you can eat and help others at the same time. Please do help to support the people of Japan! Do note that the “Friends of Japan” charity card is available at these outlets until May 15.

Ichiban Boshi

53 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
#02-01 AMK Hub
Tel: (65) 6555-1617
Daily: 10.00am - 10.00pm
(Last Order: 9.30pm)

**Edited on 23 May - Found out the set meal that is value for money is called Don Don Gozen.