Taan @ Liang Siah Street: Kushiyaki buffet with a characteristic charm

  As a new eatery some four months old at the point of this writing, Taan can be described as an unpretentious and quirky venture. The kushiyaki restaurant bills itself as being probably the first in Singapore to offer Chinese, Japanese and Local skewers; and does indeed serve quite a variety of meaty skewered treats originating from the aforementioned regions. Whilst variety is always a plus point when it comes to buffets, especially at such bargain prices as the below $30s offered by Taan, taste also ever important. So how does Taan fair in taste? Read on to find out...

Ambience:

  Taan presents itself as a small and somewhat outlandish shop-house along Liang Siah Street. Right upon entry, you are greeted by the likes of Godzilla and Ultraman in the form of simple toys and movie posters nostalgic of 60s Japan. 

The decors feel like a true fan's homage to the pop culture of the period and place. These are paired with the stores own adorable dinosaur like mascot characters painted onto the walls and a bit of local styled decorations here and there, including a mini fountain for fend shui. In a way, just as their the menu tries to blend a mix of different cultures together, so does the stores layout and decorations. On top of that, the staff provided an excellence service experience, offering what I could only detect as their earnest recommendations to our orders and displayed attentive and friendly attitudes. Together, they create a welcoming and charming atmosphere that gives the restaurant a uniquely memorable character.   

Quality & Taste:

  True to its respectful homage of Japanese culture, the store uses a charcoal grill designed specifically for kushiyaki grilling, giving most of their dishes an evenly spread, bare-smokey flavor, complete with a light char. This makes for a great dining experience especially with some beer which, kudos to Taan, is charged at reasonable prices of 6 dollars for a half pint and 50% off the second beer during happy hours.

The Chef hard at work

  Unfortunately, many of the meats were likely prepared naked-that is to say plain and in its natural flavor-without much seasoning, spices nor sauces; lacked a good oil brushing during grilling. Whilst serving food in such a way does indeed prove testament to the freshness of ones ingredients and provide a richly purist experience in some cases-such as in a steakhouse where the meat is preferably served medium rare to rare with a pinch of salt to bring out all the natural goodness of the beef cuts-the charcoal grilled style of cooking used in kushiyaki doesn't exactly pair well which such a practice as it tends to heat out a good chunk of the food's natural moisture and oils, causing some of the items to end up tasting too dry, almost like a drought in ones mouth. 

A slight char makes it all the more yummy

Beef, having lower concentration of natural oils came out especially dry

  Although the over-dryness does deal quite a blow to the taste of some dishes, it can easily be remedied with a light oil brushing or even simply providing some wedges of lemon to pair with their skewers. Considering that the store is relatively new at the point of this writing, I am confident that they will make gradual improvements over time as I am honestly quite impressed with their attention to customer satisfaction and providing quality services. Not to mention that despite the over-dryness, most of the meats were of good quality and freshness. Whilst some of the meat skewers now can only be described as mediocre, many of them could just as easily be described as great with but a few simple improvements here and there.

  Beyond that, there were some surprising highlights amongst the items we ordered. These included the Mouth-Watering Chicken, a Sichuan appetizer that whets the appetite and leaves you drooling for more-hence its name; Taan quite competently captured the fragrant spiciness of the dish and its balance between hot and cold as a spicy dish served chilled.

It even looks mouth-watering!

  Another must order would be the enoki mushrooms. Wrapped in foil and grilled with oyster sauce and some minced meat, the light saltiness sinks deliciously into the natural moisture of the enoki mushrooms and makes for quite a delightful flavor.

One of the best dishes here looking sweet and juicy

  Some other dishes we tried include their selection of satay and seafood items which were decent though not wowing. The two deserts though were quite the treat. Both their cheesecake and creme brulee had a decent balance and just enough sweetness to satisfy ones sugary cravings after a filling meal. 

The Cheesecake wasn't too rich, but it was smooth and silky in texture

Value:

  Priced at no more than 30 dollars per pax, Taan is great value for money when considering the dishes they offer for the buffet, which include slightly more costly items like beef tendon and saba fish, which many other buffets within the price range choose not to include. Not to mention the huge variety of both skewered and non skewered items on the buffet, including a range of starters and deserts. They do normally charge for water which may be a slight turn-off for some but their green tea is a good alternative with free-refills and does help in quenching one's thirst after too many skewers of barbecued food.

Conclusion:

  Taan is a great addition to the buffet scene around the bugis area and holds its own with a unique character against the other established steamboat and grill buffets around the area. Although, it has room for improvement like many other stores, it seems to hold quite a bit of potential and I will definitely be visiting again sometime soon. The place is quirky and comfortable to dine in with a commendable selection of buffet items, most of which fall in the slightly above average to above average range of taste. Paired with a reasonable price tag, I can definitely recommend Taan to anyone looking to satisfy their Kushiyaki cravings or just trying it out for the first time.

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	7.4	A little shy of great but good stuff nonetheless
Value (15%)	8	Very reasonable pricing for the quality offered
Ambience & others (10%)	8	A charming place with a character of its own and great service nets Taan much deserved praise
Total	7.5	A good buffet with lots of potential to be a great one

Taan is good for: 

• After work colleague gatherings over beer
• Gathering for friends or introducing Kushiyaki to friends
• Anyone craving Kushiyaki and wanting to make the most of their money 

Address: 

30 Liang Seah Street

Singapore

6837 0085

Opening Hours:

4:00pm - 2:00am

Price: 

~$30 per pax

Godzilla seems to have eaten too much good meats and cant stand up on its two legs anymore...

Good o'l satay

marinated wings: one of the juicier options on the menu

chicken with leek: a kushiyaki classic done just right

creme brulee with coconut

The Corner Place Korean BBQ: Seoooul Good!

By Arthur

Intro:

It has been a while since our last post but I finally got the time to make a new entry.  This time, I visited Corner Place Korean BBQ and as the name states, its a Korean barbecue restaurant.  The place serves ala carte orders of meat on weekday lunch hours and all you can eat buffet on weekends and weekday nights.  The Buffet also includes soft drinks and hot drinks. I went for the buffet lunch on a Saturday and I can say at this point of writing that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. 

Ambience:

The Restaurant is situated quite prominently in Marina Square's food court and can be seen to the right of the escalator on that floor. 

Quite a striking entrance that should be hard to miss.

Overall, the Restaurant has decent lighting with a few Korean decors here and there to make it feel more like an authentic dining experience.  The music playing was at a decent volume and they mostly played Korean songs so it kind of helps with the authenticity, not to mention a flat screen television mounted on the wall which plays only a Korean variety channel. 

A few Korean themed decors here and there.

The Restaurant is designed with a lot of room for movement which is definitely a bonus considering that you'll moving between your seat and the buffet counter area quite often.  Similarly, their seats and tables are also comfortably sized.  

Well sized tables make for comfortable dining experiences.

Food and Value:

When it comes to something like Korean Barbecue, the quality and taste of the restaurant boils down to the freshness of the ingredients they use and the quality of their marinates since the actual cooking is done by customers themselves.  In both these aspects, The Corner Place does fairly well. 

The place offers a decent spread of raw meats and Vegetables coupled with a few cooked selections like Korean glass noodles, seaweed soup and fried wings. I won't be covering the cooked stuff too much since they are not the focus here, but they were generally of decent quality. 

Korean Glass noodles, very nice

In the department of vegetables, there's not much to say.  The Restaurant offers the usual fare of lettuce, beansprouts, enoki mushrooms and so on; most were crunchy fresh, and juicy.  

Don't Judge...Onion addiction is a serious problem

In terms of the meat however, the Restaurant offers a more than decent selection of very fresh cuts.  All the non-marinated meats were sliced finely but not too thin, making it both easy to control when cooking and easy to bite into for a flavorful burst when eating them.  

Blood and Fats cooked out of the Pork. If this doesn't prove how fresh it is, I don't know what does.

Tilted design helps much of the unhealthy oils to flow down to the left during cooking making for a healthier meal.

Although slightly tough to bite through, the Pork Collar had a good balance of sweet and salty, which were brought out well by its chewy texture.  The result is a succulent and inviting taste which seems to get more and more aromatic with each bite in your mouth; the small amount of natural juices that seeps through ones taste-buds and then down one's throat is really quite delightful.  This experience cannot be had if not for the freshness and decent quality of the Pork Collar used. Also, the tilted design of the restaurants barbecue pans meant that almost of the fats would glide off to a grease collector at the side during cooking, resulting in a leaner taste and less guilt when eating pork cuts.

Under the selection of pork, there were also Bacon and Pork Belly provided.  Again both were very fresh and the bacon...well its bacon, you really cant go wrong with good bacon :)

It took some time to roll these, but it was well worth it.

Keep them away from the hottest part of the pan so that they can cook slowly for maximum flavor.

I tried wrapping the bacon strips around some enoki mushrooms and they turned out great.  As expected, the simpler and more delicate flavor of the mushrooms really complimented the smokier and heavier flavor of the bacon.  Do try this. 

A little messy.

One of the two chicken choices served came with a marinate that had a strong hint of garlic.  It had a sweetness that is similar to terriyaki. The meat was mostly tender and fatty.  It was tasty but also a little greasy.

Greens make everything better

Wrapping the Chicken in Lettuce helped to balance out the grease with a watery and crunchy taste that pairs off well.  It also rejuvenates one's appetite after so many mouthfuls of smoky, heavily flavored meats.  Each bite offers an ever so faint resistance from the lettuce followed by a crunchy texture that leads into a release of refreshing, dew like water that pairs off with a slightly greasy, sweet and fragrant bite of the garlic marinated chicken.

The only area which I felt the store did not do so well in was their beef.  It was marinated in the standard bulgoggi style expected of Korean Barbecues, but the meat was too tough and of lower quality.  Basically, you should not be expecting the natural, juicy sweetness from each bite that one would get from choice cuts.  This is expected though since it is a buffet after all and beef is not exactly the cheapest meat.

Conclusion:

Overall, the meat that this Restaurant offers is generally fresh and well flavored, be it through the use of marinates or appropriate cut sizes, making for delicious rounds of barbecued meat with a lasting aftertaste.

In terms of Value, the Restaurant scores slightly above average.  The quality of the food used is quite good for its price range but there are some similarly priced Restaurants that provide a greater variety, which seems to be this one's only shortcoming. One thing I want to mention though is the excellent service I experienced. The staff were friendly and especially attentive.  At no point did I have to request a change in foil.  The staff would automatically change them once they noticed some char on them.  They were also very polite, responding calmly and patiently when a friend i went with had spilled over a drink by accident.

Charred foils beware, none shall escape the watchful eye of great Restaurant Staff.

Overall, The Corner Place Korean BBQ gets it right in many areas and it would be a shame for any Korean BBQ or buffet lovers in general to pass off a visit to this place.  It may not be the best one around but it certainly is great.  Amongst the better few Korean barbecues in Singapore, it can at least boast to be in a more accessible area than many others since it is situated in Marina Square Mall instead of more isolated shop houses and the like. 

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	7.8	Their beef pulls down the score ever so slightly but everything else is just great. Amongst the most quality meat between Korean Barbecues I've tried.
Value (15%)	7.5	Variety could have been better but still great value for money overall
Ambience & others (10%)	7.0	Decent atmosphere with some authentic decors.
Total	7.7	Great Restaurant that is well worth a try

Address: 
6 Raffles Boulevard
Marina Square #04-102
(Within Food Court)

Opening Hours: 1130-2200, Mon to Sun

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/MyTheCornerPlaceKoreanBBQ

Quality Cafe @ Quality Hotel Marlow: Quality asian cuisine at a quality price

Intro:

In my opinion, it takes quite a bit of guts to include the word "quality" in your brand name considering how it would likely invites scrutiny of self praise if anything at all were sub-par. It takes even more guts then to be the first to invite a pair of amateur bloggers for a food tasting session. Quality Cafe is one such Restaurant/Hotel which dares to do such things; and having accepted their invite, I can only say that the "Quality" in their name is not one of self praise or cockiness, instead it feels more like a founded confidence, one which I thoroughly enjoyed in my dining experience.

Ambience:

There's not too much to say here. The Restaurant's layout is everything you would expect from a hotel, a clean, classy design finished with warm lighting. The main buffet spread is concentrated right in the middle of the Restaurant with ample walking space. There is also a side counter which served freshly made Laksa and Popiah. 

Feels like a hotel hallway decoration but its actually a piece on the Restaurant wall

Neat Layout

Quality and Taste:

Quality Cafe serves a large variety of Asian dishes in a buffet format with a certain emphasis on their authentic Taiwanese porridge.

I started the buffet with a bowl of porridge and some side dishes. The porridge was not what I expected it to be. It did not carry that subtle sweetness that truly makes a bowl of porridge Taiwanese. It's texture was done right though, with a good ratio of rice and water that made it light easy to swallow. 

Porridge and some sides

There was a huge selection of condiments which included traditional favorites like the salted egg and pickled vegetables to very Singaporean choices like Ikan Bilis, these complemented the lightly flavored porridge well.

Top up with whatever you prefer

As for the Other dishes, the Restaurant does a generally decent job with them. The Mutton in particular was especially tender and flavorful and the same goes for their braised duck. I quite liked their Popiah too which had a good balance of crunch and softness in its texture. Surprisingly, for a buffet of such low prices, there was also chilli crab available, although it was not nearly as good as those served by even the less popular seafood Restaurants. The crab was not inedible per say but not quite fresh and the taste of the chilli sauce was unapparent and weak.

Caution! tasty popiah creation in process

Its really quite good

Mediocre chilli crab

One specific dish made me quite upset. Their chicken, which was done ala chicken rice style had that peculiar stench common of such styled steamed chicken which had been left out for too long or not freshly prepared. Although this may not be a problem for everyone, the more sensitive will likely be put off by it too. 

Value:

The Buffet which I went for, the Taiwan Porridge Buffet Dinner is priced at 20.80 for adults on weekdays and 22.80 on weekends. Considering the variable spread of dishes available (those I have mentioned consists of less than 50% whats available) and decent quality, the buffet is a steal. You will likely be quite satisfied with your experience eating here.

Conclusion:

In general, Quality Buffet has a spread that is above average in both quality and variety. It's definitely not the best buffet around but its probably amongst the top few I have tried in Singapore for such a price range. It will serve well for a family meal and the average foodie. It may not be the best place to go for a large group gathering due to the quiet vibe of the Restaurant even when it was fully packed.

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality & Taste(75%)	7.4	Some inconsistency but dishes were generally above average.
Value (15%)	8.0	A heavy hitter for such a price range
Ambience & others (10%)	7.5	Lives up to Hotel standards
Total	7.5	A good restaurant that's worth a try

Address: 201 Balestier Road Singapore 329926 (Within Quality Hotel Marlow)

Opening Hours:
Lunch from 1130hrs to 2.30hrs
Dinner from 1800hrs to 2000hrs Supper from 2030hrs to 0030hrs

Have you eaten here before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

New York Grand Kitchen: authencity at good value (Closed)

Intro:

A new review at last....

Anyways, this time we went to New York Grand Kitchen, a relatively new shop that has opened up along the shop lanes around the fountain of wealth at Suntec City. And as you can probably tell by the title of this post, the eatery was an especially good overall package.

Even the sign is Grand

Ambience:

The first thing you'll notice about New York Grand is its beautifully minimalist and chic theme. With a clean-cut color scheme and simplistic design, the restaurant more than successfully creates the upper-middle class like deli-restaurant feel that was common in 90's New York. Even the staff don fashion which speak of such chic classiness. Overall, the layout is classy but also very welcoming, a good atmosphere with music softly blended in that should be enjoyable for family and friend groups alike.

Simple but eye catching decors

minimalist lighting design that blends nicely into the ceiling

Taste, Quality & value:

I ordered the rotisserie chicken and pork chop with cranberry sauce, which in line with their minimalist theme was presented cleanly on a rectangular board.

All their meals come with a free all you can eat deli bar, so I'll begin the review with those. Basically, for a free throw in, the deli bar was surprisingly good. The food offered very basic flavors that were brought out with light seasoning to a truly American style. Each of the dishes were truly appetizers, with their light flavors helping to work up my palate and appetite for the main course. Generally, it was acceptably well done. It helps too that they have nacho and dips. Yummy.

A good variety at the deli section

The Manhattan clam chowder was pretty good

Perfection-unlimited nachos and dip!!!

My appetizer before the course

The main course falls a bit short of expectations. The pork chop was generally tasteful and succulent but had an obvious lack of freshness with a tendency to leave a subtle smell behind.The chicken too was not especially fresh and one could taste the impurity of water in the meat, left over from defrosting.

Whilst the chicken was well roasted, with the skin being deliciously juicy and fragrant to chew, the lack of marination resulted in a very dry and flavorless meat as most of the taste had been cooked out of the chicken and onto its skin. This would not have been as bad if the sauce were properly done. The Cranberry sauce was surprisingly blend and felt like a really cheap but fresh serving of homemade jam. It was also cold instead of warm or at room temperature which felt like a weird mix with the warm chicken. Generally, the chicken was not too bad but not too good either. To give a relative comparison, its a little like the chicken from Kenny Rogers, but without the power of a herb-filled marinate to boost its flavors ever so slightly.

The exposed meat looks dry even in the picture but the skin is glistening with tastiness

Considering the generous portions and all you can eat deli with pretty good dishes, a price tag of $19.00 for what I ordered, or $17.00 for a half chicken set is pretty decent. Add in the inviting ambience and satisfying service and you have a pretty good bargain. Value is no doubt the biggest advantage of this restaurant and makes it a destination to note for frequent visits with groups.

Conclusion:

New York Grand, while delivering well on its design and concept and execution, falls slightly short on what matters the most, its main courses. With only slightly above mediocre main courses, this place may not be for the die-hard food critics or more particular diners. However, great value paired with pretty good deli-bar makes it a good choice for groups and casual foodies alike; and if you fall within this category like we do, the place is very much worth your attention. Give it a try, its unlikely that you'll be disappointed.

Have you eaten here before? What was your experience like? We're interested -do share with us in the comments below!

FOODIE’S RATING
Quality, Taste and Presentation (75%)	7.2	Good food in general but overall score suffers from the weak-flavored chicken
Value (15%)	8.0	Great value considering the complimentary buffet deli's quality spread
Ambience & others (10%)	7.5	Comfortable ambience that should sit well with most
Total	~7.4	Good dining experience that is well worth trying

Address:
#B1-133 #B1-172, Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard

Opening hours:

10:00-22:00 daily