Zero.Zero @ The Central

[This was a HungryGoWhere food tasting / review session with the HungryGoWhere folks.]

Zero.Zero, the moment you walk in has a warm cosy feel to it. If you are a woody/brown person the deco here would please you from the start. I like the deco that makes you very comfortable. Probably because I like the earthy tones.



Zero.Zero is by the same people behind Tao's Restaurant. They serve fusion food that's quite reasonably priced and of quite good quality too.



There are a few sections in the restaurant. There are a few private rooms, an open place where you can hold private corporate events and also the above, two long parallel tables where I was told, people hold intimate wedding banquet for close family and friends.



This was the Zero Signature Set that we tried that night.  It's a picked 1 dish from each section style of ordering. 

When you are ordering food, there's a guy who comes with a iPad to take your orders. Take a peep into his iPad like we did. It's quite a cool app that you can view photos of the dishes that you want to order!

Here's the amuse bouche and the 5 courses that I had. 

Amuse Bouche

We started with a shot glass of icy plum juice. It was served on a wooden container that's filled with ice. The slightly sourish taste activates your saliva glands and you can't wait to have your meal!


We had 3 little creations for the Amuse Bouche. What was served to us that night was a potato croquet, mini or shall I say micro toast with foie gras on it and seared scallop on watermelon. The potato was nice, but I could not appreciate the foie gras.


While I did not really like the toast and foie gras because of a personal bias, I really like the seared scallops on watermelon. It has a refreshing feel to it.

Cold Dish

There were 5 choice for the cold dish and I chose the Smoked Duck Breast with Apple Slices. The slightly salty smoked duck goes well with the apple slices that was crunchy and sweet.

I like how the crunchy and sweet apple slices went with the salty tender yet a little chewy duck meat. If you like you could also pour the shot glass of apple puree over it. The slightly acidic puree will cut through the sweetness and saltiness of the dish, but I prefer it just the apple slices and duck.



I borrowed my neighbour's dish to take a photo too. If you don't like duck, try the Maguro Tataki Carpaccio. Looks quite good doesn't it?

Side Dish

For my side dish, I chose the Stewed Beef Tendon. Most of us ordered this because we all heard it's once of the best dishes around.

It is really very good. The tendon had been braised till they just dissolves in your mouth. The braise is very nice too and the 2 bread sticks can be used to soak up the sauce. I would love to have 2 portions of this!


This was also a 'neighbour's dish' that I borrow to photograph.
It's the Grilled Escargot with Cheese.


Someone thought of trying Sake and was introduced this Sakura Sake.

Oooo. This very different indeed. It's fragrant and very sweet!
You might forget this is sake and down the whole bottle!

Soup

For the soup, I had the Japanese Clear Fish Soup. I chose this because I saw on the menu that the rest of the soup were cream based and did not feel like having a heavy soup. The soup was all right. Light and tasty, but a little forgettable. ;-)


The neighbour's Cream of Mushroom Soup with Truffle Oil. He seemed to enjoy it, so I guess it was good.

Main Course

Everyone heard that this was the best, and almost everyone who liked beef ordered it. It's 'Beef Loin on Houba Leaf'.  The beef was placed on the houba leaf and it's on top of a very heated stone. Very hot stone!

Houba or some spell it as Hoba Leaf is a species of Magnolia that's grown in the higher altitude forest in Japan.


The beef is only lightly sprinkled with salt and pepper. One of the reasons why the place is called Zero.zero is that they want you to try dishes as it is, with minimal flavouring.

The beef loin was good! The leaf was slightly crackling all the time, and it also gave a slight burnt aroma while you cook it.  The leaf acted like a 'non stick' layer that prevented the beef from sticking on the stone. Cook the beef according to the done-ness you like.

I would highly recommend you to try this!


If beef is not your thing, maybe you can try what another neighbour tried, this was the Pan Roasted Duck Confit with Mustard Cream.

Dessert

I heard everyone said the Zeromisu was excellent, but I wanted to try their Vanilla Mille Feuille, Zero Style. It was I guess all right.


OK, I confess. I ordered this because it comes with a scoop of ice cream!

It was a good meal and also to meet up with some HungryGoWhere reviewers. The neighbour that I was talking about, he looked so familiar, but both of us can't figure out where and when we met!

I think a 5 course meal for $89.80++ was a good deal. The food's of a certain quality too. It's a nice place to bring your date for a meal with a view (depending on where you are seated). I read of a review by a lone diner (on HungryGoWhere) too that says it's a nice place to eat alone.

Hint: There are a few credit cards that either give you a 1-for-1 or 50% off this set meal. Read other reviews on the HungryGoWhere site for the offer updates. ;-)

Read more reviews of this place at the HungryGoWhere site:
http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Zero_Zero/


Zero.Zero
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#04-86 The Central,
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6224 4139
Hours: Daily 11:30 am - 10:00 pm

Freshness Burger @ The Central, Clarke Quay

Since the arrival of Freshness Burger in Singapore, many folks have been raving about it. My colleagues and I decided to try it out to see.




We saw on their website that they have a few branches. We went to the branch nearest to us, which is at The Central, just above Clarke Quay MRT Station. When we got there, we had a trouble looking for it! We walked around the inside of the building. Ask the security guard who gave us a blank look.

We finally found it. It's facing Eu Tong Set Street. The entrance is 'outside'.  If you are inside the the mall, you won't be able to find it!




Healthy meals? If you have been reading about them, they advertise themselves as "Fresh and Organic". We were curious to find out!




It has this cafe feel. On each table, there was a tiny vase with fresh bright flowers! This little touch really cheer people up and make waiting more bearable. Yes, be prepared to wait for your burger!

You place your order at the counter and after paying, you will be served your drinks first together with a plastic tag with your order number. We noticed there was this lady who was walking around clearing the tables and at the same time arranging the plastic order tag to face outside every 20 seconds or so! (So that the servers can see the number easily) Every time you touch it, she will come back and rearrange it neatly. They employed a perfectionist with obsession for tidiness! We found it hilarious.

Avocado Salad

One of our colleague HY, who is the ultra healthy type ordered the Avocado Salad. Lots of red juicy tomatoes on top the chunky avocado pieces. Those bits on top are onions. HY said the salad was nice.

Tofu Burger

HY also ordered the Tofu Burger. It was a piece of soft tofu instead of a meat patty. It looks nice but it is almost impossible to eat it like a usual burger. It was too soft!

HY said luckily she had the fork from the salad. She ate it layer by layer using the fork. Other than the mess, she said she enjoyed her burger.

Classic WW Burger

Another colleague, ET who has been eating here and said the only thing to order here is the Classic WW Burger. He said it's the best tasting burger here and the only one that would fill you up.

We soon found out why. Our burgers were puny! His burger was the largest. If you want to be feel full, you got to order this expensive - $10.90 burger. You get a double patty and double cheese as well.

Freshness Burger

I ordered the burger named after the shop. Freshness Burger. ($6.80 - set meal with fries and a small drink) I am sorry to say, it's a bit too healthy for my liking. It's non greasy and a very healthy tasting patty. 

It's also quite small. The tomato slice was thick though. From the photo, you can see the size of the burger is about the same as the circumference of the tomato :-)

You should try the bun though. Probably something  you would not get elsewhere. The bun's yellowish because it's made with pumpkin! We wondered if all the burgers are like that so we flipped each others burger and realized not every burger had the pumpkin bun.

Teriyaki Burger

A colleague who many of you might know him as Old Cat ordered the Teriyaki Burger complained! He kept complaining about the size. (He said 'jiak buay pa'!)

We did not ask him how it tasted, but we could tell that he liked it. (judging from his smile while he was eating it). It does look very puny doesn't it?

Fried Potatoes

Most of us ordered set meals. It came with a side, which was the 'fried potatoes' and a drink. On their website, they stated that their potatoes are from their farm in Hokkaido.

How special? It was rather healthy tasting, i.e. not very oily. I found it a bit plain because I think no or very little salt was used. I don't eat enough potatoes to tell the difference from usual one. Guys and gals who are watching their weight can have this.

The drinks

The hot drinks come in a very nice cup! I liked the sugar cubes! It reminds me of sugus!




My set came with a softdrink.




HY had the Yuja Cha. (Citron./Yuzu Tea)
She said it was good. We should have ordered this instead of our soft drinks!


So did what did we think of this place? The burgers are OK, but they are too small. They taste healthy, so it's for those who prefer healthier burgers. If you are into meaty, stronger flavour burgers, go elsewhere.

Be prepared to wait too. They say it's because they only start making it after you placed your order. Many places do that too. (If you don't know, McDonald's burger are also made when you order it for some time now. Subway is made to order and it is quite fast too.)

Just don't think of them as fast food, but a sit down cafe, then your perception of it might be better. We like how the restaurant looked. It was calming and relaxing. The flowers on each table was a nice touch.

We would like to try the ones in Japan to compare. Heard that it's a bit different. The ones here probably suited to local taste?



Freshness Burger
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-30 The Central
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6222 2528

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant @ The Central

It was one of those days that I was quite stuffed after having afternoon tea and I have a dinner appointment. We have a once a month company wide TGIF (Thank God Is Fridays) tea sessions at 3:30 PM where everyone in the company gets together for some catered nibbling and drinks. I met Momo for dinner with a very full stomach.

Wondering where to have dinner, we narrow the selection to Japanese food. Momo thought of Watami. We have not eaten at Watami for some time. Watami has been gaining popularity and we had to wait a while before getting out seats. (It was expected since it was a Friday night.)

The wait to get in was long, but food was served rather quickly after we ordered. Our dinner, or rather it was mostly Momo's dinner follows:
(I slowly nibbled everything away though I was full!)

Mixed Sashimi Rice

This was the Mixed Sashimi Rice ($13.80) that Momo ordered. The rice was Sakura flower rice. Quite interesting, but Momo asked, how to sakura flower taste like? We don't know. She said the overall dish was good and satisfying (because of the sashimi).

Looking at the prawns now, I feel like having some as I typed this!

Chashu with Negi

The Chashu with Negi  ($7.80) seems a bit small. It was normal only, nothing really to shout about.

Watami Salad

One of our favourite here. The Watami Salad ($8.80)
Our favourite of the night. We polished it clean and stop short of licking the bowl!



The dressing and the salad with lots of fresh salad, cold chicken, smashed tuna was so appetizing.
I am not turning vegetarian, but the salad was so much nicer than the chashu!


Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant @ The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street, The Central,
#03-82/83/85/102/108/109
Singapore 059817

Tel: (65) 6323 3398
Fax: (65) 6323 3378
Hours: 11.30am to 11pm

Waraku @ The Central

Remember a few weeks ago, I posted about the 100% rebate vouchers from Waraku? We went back to use up the vouchers. There was around $290 worth of vouchers that we got from the last meal here.

We went back there to celebrate another friend's birthday. There was again, around 15 of us. Remember, half of us did not really liked the food here the last time? This time however, we thought it was quite nice. We wondered if it's because we all ordered totally different food or the chef had changed or maybe the chefs were all very happy that day.

Or was it just because we went earlier than usual, not during the peak lunch hour, so there was no mad rush for the kitchen. Oh well....

There's 15 people who ordered lots of different things. Here's only some of the dishes that was near where I sat.

The sashimi that the couple in front of me ate.



The beef paper hot pot.  Everytime we are here, so many people order this!
I must try this the next time, I wonder why they all liked it so much.



I had the katsu stuff. I misread what was on the menu and was surprised it was so huge. I thought it was just a bowl of soupy soba and the fried pork. There's even a bowl of rice and a quite nice potato salad!

It's good that you have friends to help you 'share the calories'. hehe..



The fried stuff's not bad. The sauce that you dip the pork was particularly tasty. It's sesame paste and it's just so fragrant. Guess what I did? I took some soba, drained it and stir it into the leftover sesame paste sauce. :-)



The sushi is just too pretty to ignore. :-)



Momo had the cold noodles. She liked it. The cold noodles dipping sauce is a more diluted version of the sauce I had.

We concluded the sesame paste based sauces are all lovely.



We shared a few things. This is the  Yakiniku Salad. This is salad for meat lovers it seems.:-p



Yes, as you can see from the photo below, we are a noisy bunch of people. Eating, talking, laughing, joking, teasing.... In this tiny island where everyone is so stressed up, meeting with friends to eat and laugh is highly recommended for sanity. LOL

This time for the so called 'cake', we had the ice cream cakes slices in the dessert menu. This is one of the two plates of cakes.  Happy Birthday Mr AO.



We used up all the vouchers and had to top up around $5 each because we spent more than the vouchers. ;-)

We wonder when the next time such deals will come again. 


Waraku @ The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-89/97/98
The Central
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6327-8860

Ice Cream Toast @ Ya Kun - The Central

After the lunch that we had on Saturday, some friends just had to have the coffee fix. You can clearly see those who are having caffeine withdrawal. haha... So we all went to Ya Kun for drinks.

After we were seated, one friend volunteered to take our orders and we all decided to be naughty. All of us came out with a different combination of drinks for our order taking friend. All the 'si', 'siu tai', 'gao', 'po', 'kosong' etc.. you know what I mean ya?

I think there was like 8 different kinds of order. For me, I had Milo Peng Si, Siu Tai. Does it even exist? Well, it does! The taste? Err... I would say I should have ordered Milo Peng Gao instead.

Another friend who had this reputation of ordering lots of things, 'did it again'. Half way through our drinks, he excused himself, and surprised us by ordering 4 plates of Ice Cream Toast!

Thanks to him, here's an all ice cream toast post today.
1. Chocolate Ice Cream Toast.



2. Raspberry Ice Cream Toast.



3. Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Toast



4. Durian Ice Cream Toast.



We are all so 'old school' eh?

I hope you all had a good day of rest today. It's so nice to have a day off on a weekday. ;-)



To all Muslim readers, a very Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Maaf Zahir dan Batin.


This stall that we had our drinks and ice cream toast:
Ya Kun @ The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-31
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6534 7332

Hours: Daily, 7.30am to 10.30pm

Waraku @ The Central

This was Saturday's lunch. It was to celebrate two of our friend's birthday. The organizer was brilliant! Found a deal that was incredible!It was a 100% rebate in dining vouchers when you use OCBC's credit cards.



There was like 16 of us, so we occupied a super long table and ordered many different things. The most popular was the paper hot pots. This was Momo's Beef Hotpot.



I had the Chirashi Rice. Not too bad.



I think this is Teriyaki Chicken of one of our friends sitting in front of me. ;-)
A few people also ordered noodles dishes that comes in huge oversized bowls. LOL..



Anyway, I did not take the photos of all the food the 16 of us ate. It would be an overkill.

But I did take photos of the 2 little ice cream cakes for the birthday girls.
This is the Raspberry and Vanilla Ice Cream.



Green tea ice cream. Both ladies are forever 18. :-p



OK, the deal was real. After the organizer paid, he got what he paid back in vouchers.  They were in $2 and $5, but mostly in $2.



See how thick the stack is?! We will be coming back to use it. :-)
Guess what? We have 3 more friend's birthday next month. We shall use this vouchers for it. It's as if we prepaid next month's lunch. (Do we sound cheap? haha)



(A few of us think different branches have different standard. We like the one at Starhub centre better, but we can only use the vouchers at The Central's branch. Hmmm...)


Waraku @ The Central
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#03-89/97/98
The Central
Singapore 059817

Tel: 6327-8860