Rip-off

Run by the same people from Ishiya Stone Grill just two doors away, we came to this sister restaurant without much expectation. Being a sucker for new (Japanese) restaurants, I told myself I’ve to give this place a fair go. The wagyu beef has sufficient marbling but they were too thinly sliced, I couldn’t feel the meat’s texture in my mouth. Chicken and pork were nicely marinated and tender. Portions here are pathetically small for its price although I’ve to admit that the beef are of high quality (from your usual fare to grade 8 marble) and fresh. But $6.50 for a tiny little piece of eggplant, hello?! There are heaps of other Japanese/Korean grill restaurants around that serves better food at reasonable price.

What delivery service are we talking about?

What delivery service is that when you've to walk downstairs to collect your food? Mind you, where I live has more than 50 restaurants and takeaways, I wouldn't have paid the extra dollars for delivery service if I could be bothered getting out of my PJs on a hungover Saturday.

From this website, I ordered some dumplings and rice noodle from Yum Cha Express. I was told over the phone that it'll take approximately an hour but I didn't hear from them until 1 hour and 40 minutes later. The headquarter rang me and told me to collect my food downstairs. I told them to buzz me and come up and this is what he replied

"it's not possible because the driver can't find a park"

Fine! I went downstairs to collect my food. Surprise, surprise: all the sauces that came with the dumplings were spilled; dumplings were cold and the most shocking thing - the beef balls weren't cooked at all! Unbelievable!

Cheap Thrill

Walk through the grandiose chinese red door and there’s really nothing so posh about this place. This canteen-like restaurant serves buffet style all-you-can-eat/drink hotpot with just 20 dollars. With 5 dollars extra, you’re entitled to their peking duck. It’s good value for money because on top of the usual hotpot ingredients, there are also a variety of entrées, hot dishes and xiao long pau (shanghainese pork dumplings). The ‘mouth-watering chicken (Sichuan chicken in peanut chilli oil) was pretty impressive; I had two big serves of that. The hotpot soup was tasty, however, the basic ingredient for hotpot like mushrooms and beef balls were not available. Oh well, with 20 bucks for entrée, hot dishes, hotpot, side dishes, dessert and drinks (wide range of bottled drinks in the fridge), I shouldn’t expect too much.