Thursday, June 29, 2017

Ain Soph Soar Ikebukuro

I've wanted to try this place for quite some time now after watching you tube reviews about this place. 


I visited this restaurant one weekend with Pat and the food was disappointing for the both of us even though the reviews were so good. 

I ordered the pasta lunch which came with a soup and a salad, at 1,680 yen (before tax). The soup was ok but I didn't enjoy the salad. 


My pumpkin pasta which was plain. 

Pat ordered their waffle which didn't taste very good according to her. So it's safe to say that we don't be returning for a second visit. 

After lunch, we went to shop around Sunshine city and saw that the crepe stall there was having a promotion for crepes so we went to queue for some too. While the queue was long, it moved fairly quickly. 




My order of an apple custard crepe. 


After shopping around all the Disney themed and clothes shop, we grabbed dinner at 大阪王将.

We both got the gyoza which to me is one of my favourite here in Japan. 

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Shinasobatanakasekando (志奈そば 田なか セカンド), Akihabara

I haven't been to Akihabara in a very long time.

If it wasn't for Y san who invited me here for ramen, who knows when would be the next time I visit Akihabara.

We visited this ramen shop called Shinasobatanakasekando (志奈そば 田なか セカンド)


Along the way, we passed by this interesting looking anime shrine.


We went all the way there for this special salt based soup ramen.
This is their popular item and they only serve 30 servings of this a day.

While it looks plain, the soup s actually very flavourful and you can request for toppings to go along with your ramen, which I didn't because I just want to enjoy the soup as it is.

The soup was filled with umami flavours from the shrimp, abalone and escargot that were used in preparing the broth.


As you can see, this little ramen shop is pretty popular.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Baru&Bistro*musiQ “mood board”

This is probably one of my favourite lunch places in Marunouchi area.

バールアンドビストロミュージックムードボード 
Baru&Bistro*musiQ “mood board”

This place offers all-you-can-eat-bread and all-you-can-drink option with an order of main meal for lunch.

Look at the beautiful breads that they offer~!!!!! 3

The bread were all super delicious. I couldn't help but keep going back for more. I think I ate about 20 pieces!


My deli plate lunch order (季節のデリプレ-トランチ) which costs 1,480yen. This came with a carrot pottage, carpaccio, salmon tartar, prawn and avocado, quiche and cauliflower cream gratin.


After all those bread that we ate, we ordered dessert too!


Gateau chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and berry compote, 750 yen.

I really love the atmosphere of the restaurant, the food served and the jazzy music they played.

Friday, June 23, 2017

世界の山ちゃん (Yamachan), Ueno

I've always wanted to visit 世界の山ちゃん (Yamachan), which is a famouc chain restaurant from Nagoya  ever since reading about it online years ago.



Finally, visited it for the first time with my colleague before winter ended.
Our drinks~


We both ordered their famous chicken wings, which were delicious!


This other kind of sauce coated wings was also good, but the top one was a lot better!


My fried shrimp~ hahaha......which was covered in shredded cabbage. This tastes good but looks kinda sad cause you can hardly see the prawn.

We were there right when they just opened for dinner time and there were already a queue. So be sure to make a booking before hand or go early if you plan to visit.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

Eating Japan - Snack series 14

1. Morinaga Cacao 70%

Bought this because the was so cold back in January and I was craving for some hot cocoa at night. This one here is perfect! It's bitter cocoa and is therefore has just the right amount of sweetness to it.

Just add this to hot milk and you get a nice thick hot chocolate that tastes similar to those from cafes.

2. Korean seaweed with shrimp powder

Mum gave me a bunch of seaweed packs to bring back to Japan. This one here is covered in shrimp powder and goes really well with rice.

3. Korean seaweed

This is another pack of korean seaweed from mum which could be topped on rice or noodles or just as snacks. They are nicely seasoned.

4. Topvalu chicken nugget

Bought this for supper because it was cold and it's nice to keep the kitchen are smelling nice and slightly warm too ahahhaa...

The nuggets were pretty good actually. I love the fact that I didn't have to fry them but just toast them up in the oven.

5. Hula's potato chips in barbeque flavour

Love these chips~ After a long time, I realised that I relly missed barbeque flavoured chips! 

6. Glico Kajulia strawberry

Interesting strawberry flavoured chips topped with strawberry cream.

7. New Meiji premium galbo

My all time favourite! Lost count of how many packets I have bought~

8. Nissin cultured butter sable

If you like the original coconut sable, you should definitely try this as this ups the flavour a notch!

9. Topvalu Organic chestnuts

Big, plump and delicious! I also liked the fact that they are packed in 3 individual packets.

10. Topvalu Organic peanuts

Bought this because I was looking for peanuts to make some Valentine chocolate. They turned out to be really good just on their own.

11. Kitkat Ginger flavour

This was surprisingly really good, especially on a cold day. I love the taste of the ginger with the chocolate. Gonna buy this again next winter.

12. Healthy club high cacao flavour

In my attempt to get some healthy snacks, I bought this! hahaha....at least it's packed with calcium and iron!

13. Lotus Biscoff and Poppies Caramelito

I've always enjoyed these 2 biscuits and for the longest time I've thought that they tasted really similar. This time I bought both together so that I can taste them properly and try to find the difference. But alas, they both still tastes the same to me hahaha.

14. Oni wa sotto soy bean snack

Bought this packet here in conjunction with setsubun which is a day in Japan where children will throw beans in their homes while shouting "oni wa sotto, fuku wa uchi", which means that the devils should be the house while good luck should come in!

15. Tostitos chunky salsa medium

Inspired by the tortilla chips at the bakeshop, I decided to buy a jar of salsa so that I can enjoy tortilla chips at home whenever I want. This one here is slightly spicy and tastes delicious. If you like sweet tasting salsa, you might to add some sugar to this.

Monday, June 19, 2017

Koiwa Thai food at いなかむら (Inakamura)

My colleagues and I decided to go for Thai food one Friday evening after work. 

We went to いなかむら (Inakamura) at Koiwa which is apparently a pretty famous area for Thai food.

Website: https://tabelog.com/tokyo/A1312/A131204/13120179/

Walked past this cute little shop on the way.

We ordered several items to share at the restaurant.

Love the glass noodle salad. I only wish that it was spicier.

This stupid veg dish here costs 1000yen. Not worth the price paid.

Pad Thai which was ok........ I guess you can get much better ones in any Thai restaurant in Malaysia.

The overall interior of the restaurant.

Prawn cakes which were yummy~

Tom yum kung which was good but lacked the kick in the spice department.

Overall, the food is ok but the entire time when we were having our meal, the waiter who served us kept staring at us and so it was NOT comfortable at all. We couldn't wait to leave right after our meal.

Also because the portions were so small, we left and went to a nearby toriniku restaurant.

I ordered a daikon oden and my colleaugues ordered the shop's famous fried chicken to share.

The leng zhai waiter who cut up the chicken into portions.

A plate of toriniku to share~

Overall, the environment in this place is a lot more relaxing and we could enjoy our meal without someone eyeing us the entire meal.

After that, we decided to walk to Shin-koiwa station instead of taking the train. On the way back, we felt really thirst, probably because of the msg from the Thai food, we stopped by McD for some ice cream.

I had the sakura McFlurry which was good. I enjoyed the crunchy cookie bits with the ice cream.


Shin-koiwa seemed like an interesting place too. There are many shops by the station and a huge shopping alley. Would definitely love to go back to explore more.