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Saturday, May 24, 2014

Rakuchi Japanese Restaurant (Oasia Hotel) - Set Lunches

Had lunch with some friends at Rakuchi Japanese Restaurant Restaurant.  They have a few branches in Singapore and we went to the branch at Oasia Hotel, Novena.

This was the entrance.  It wasn't too crowded, about 3/4 full.  The restaurant has a seating capacity of about 40-50 max, not very big.


The menus are displayed outside and we were told that there were decent set lunches.  I took some photographs of the sets.  You can see the prices.

Kushiyaki - $26.60 (before taxes)

Wagyu Steak Set - $38.60 - I think this was available for dinner as well.

A sumptious spread for $48 - available for dinner

Alright, back to the set lunches, which were less expensive.  This set (assorted semi-grilled sushi) for $28.60.

Other lunch sets, all for $26.60.  The sets all come with salad and sesame ice-cream.

Let's Get On With The Eating
Now, let's get on with the actual eating please.  Chopsticks.

The side salad to start with.

Sashami to start with.  The fish was fresh, though the portion size wasn't very big.  Still, it was sufficient. There was a lot of food to come.

Kushiyaki - Grilled Skewer Set
Nice presentation and good taste.  Some of the meat was a bit fatty, but you could take out the fat strips, so that was fine.

A closer look at the 3 grilled skewers.  Definitely very tasty.

This was the Tokubetsu Set, same price.  Very pretty presentation, a work of art!

Overall, it was a good lunch. Given lunch prices nowadays, I think the cost per person wasn't unreasonable, given the ambience, setting and food served.  Would I go there again?  Yes, if I wanted a nice Japanese lunch.

Safe Travels!


Saturday, May 17, 2014

Platypus & MunMun Street Cafe Bukit Timah Plaza

Today, we stopped by Bukit Timah plaza to take a look. This shopping centre is rather old but it doesn't look run-down.  In fact, it looked pretty good for its age.   I like the spacious centre.  It also has a large NTUC Finest, over two levels in the basement.

That is a Subway on the ground level.


We headed to 2nd level to try the Platypus Family Kitchen.  It was an open seating area.  Rather crowded. We had to wait a little while to get seats.


They had daily set meals, as well as weekday hot dog madness.  Didn't look too expensive.

Daily Hot Dog Deals.

A view of the seating area.  Good business.

Place your orders at the counter and then wait for the orders to be served. We decided to just try two servings of pasta, since we have not been here before.  The receipt can be seen below.

This was the Creamy Tomato Meatball.  A rather sophisticated tasting dish, with some mint.  A bit too flavourful for my kids, though they ate up most of it because they were hungry.  Portion size was decent.

The Chicken Pomodoro Risotto.  No mint this time.  It was served with some chicken on top.  Taste was not too bad, though my kids didn't like this dish.

Overall, the place was alright.  Prices were acceptable and the cooking wasn't too bad, if you are into pastas and stuff.  However, we decided to go elsewhere to look for more food.  We found this munmunstreetcafe on the ground floor selling local fare and it was also quite crowded.  So we decided to try.


This was the menu.  Local offerings, including some sets.

The eatery was just beside the escalator.  You order your food from this small counter.  A lot of activity happening in a small space.

We got a bowl of chicken porridge, which the kids enjoyed.

Also a teriyaki chicken rice, which cost $4.50.  The serving wasn't very big but good enough.  A decent portion of meat.

We ordered the French Toast set, which came with 2 boiled eggs and coffee.

The total bill came to less than $14, not bad given the food we had.  It was a satisfying meal.

After the meals, we walked around a bit more and came across this famous nonya store.  The queues were long and seating area completely full.  I noticed all the newspaper and magazine articles and I assume this store has a good name.  My wife bought some onde-onde to takeaway, they tasted ok. ($3 for 3 pieces)


Safe Travels!

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Fly Scoot - $65Mil loss

Scoot's $65 Mil loss. Oh dear. The competition is cut throat. Our experience with Scoot has been ok so far. Fares are cheap.



Hope they can turn the company around.

Safe travels!

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

JS 1394 Cabin Junior Suite Voyager of the Seas

Pictures of our Cabin JS 1394.  Aft cabin with a gorgeous balcony on the 10th deck.  We were on a 14N sailing out of Sydney, to New Zealand.  This was a fabulous cabin to have for 14Ns. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The fabulous balcony was especially useful for this cruise because the ship sailed through various Sounds in New Zealand.  We could enjoy the breathtaking views from the comfort of our balcony.


Just look at how big the balcony space was.

Insider the cabin, we had just arrived.  Good space in a cruise cabin for a family of 2 adults and 2 kids.

The Sofa would become a sofa bed.

The JS had coffee making facilities.




The balcony.  Our kids spent a lot of time playing in the balcony.

Kids having a loving moment.

At least they are not fighting all the time.

Early morning and the kids were still asleep.  This was the sofa bed.

We were on Deck 10.  This was the sight that greeted us when we looked down to the Deck 9 cabin.  They belonged to the Royal Family Suite which was located below us.

You can see the balcony of another Royal Family Suite on the right of this picture.

We would often order room service for the kids and ourselves.  Here they were enjoying breakfast.


Kids were playing some funny game.


My kids spent many hours playing in the balcony.  I would go to the Promenade Cafe to get them freshly baked cheese pizza. They loved it.

Beautiful views.

Enjoying the delicious pizza.


The power sockets.

Power sockets.

Safe Travels!

Back to the landing page of our 14N Australia and New Zealand cruise on the Voyager of the Seas.

Other landing pages:
1. Adventure of the Seas 13N Cruise to Iceland and Norway
2. Celebrity Silhouette Mediterranean & Adriatic Seas cruise 
3. Norwegian Jade Cruise to Greece and Turkey