[Food Review] The Reading Room

The Reading Room is an unassuming cafe quietly stowed away on the streets of Bukit Pasoh. Endless shelves of books towering over comfortable cushioned chairs makes it a cozy cafe to snuggle up with a book and a cup of coffee by day. By night, it becomes a relaxing chill out bar.

 

A wide variety of books spanning every genre and category can be found here, some books belong to the owner, Jake and some were donated by others.  From children's books to love poetry. From chick-lit to serious political literature. There's genre for everyone.

Be sure to spot some vintage knick knacks at some corners too.

The food menu is here also made from a book cover.

Besides this interesting and unique concept of a book cafe, The Reading Room also offers some very honest, simple yet wholesome, comfort food for everyone to enjoy.

  

Bruschetta using fresh ingredients: tomatoes, crushed garlic, onions, artisan Italian cheese and drizzled with TRR's homemade balsamic dressing. Crunchy and fresh, this was a perfect starter for our meal.

Portobello mushroom fries deep fried with their own seasoning served with mayo. Perfectly fried with a crisp fluffy batter, I loved how huge the mushroom slices were, giving an almost meaty bite. 

Aussie Lot Burger. A 180g beef patty is topped with pineapple, sweet onion chutney, fried egg, lettuce, onion, tomato, tomato sauce, homemade mayo and bacon. This was our favourite dish of the night, beef patty was cooked to a juicy medium rare accompanied by home made fries from Holland. Yes, fries are imported from Holland and they are sweeter as compared to USA potatoes. 

150g minute steak imported from New Zealand with Holland fries again. Served with home made french butter and herbs. Yet again, another simple, uncomplicated dish which is nevertheless very tantalizing to the palettes.

Home made Tiramisu. This was subtly sweet with intense notes of coffee beautifully blended with mascarpone cheese and topped with whipped cream. It totally blew us away that we finished all of it.

We were very impressed with the interior of the cafe and I loved how they have created such a nice ambience with towering bookshelves and interesting knick knacks.

If you are around the area, craving for a coffee in the day or a couple of drinks and a wholesome dinner at night, check out The Reading Room.

Many thanks to Jake for the wonderful hospitality.

The Reading Room

19 Bukit Pasoh Road

Singapore

T: 6220 9019

Website: https://www.facebook.com/TheReadingRoom.com.sg

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[Food Review] K Cook Korean BBQ- Value for money Korean BBQ!

Joining the latest Korean trend is K Cook Korean BBQ, one of the latest establishments in Singapore located in Orchard Road!

It serves a DIY Korean BBQ style buffet at a cost that would not burn a hole in your pockets! Value for money starting from as low as $14.90.

The above picture is the entrance to K Cook.

Their outdoor area is spacious and very well ventilated, check out their super big ceiling fan. Enjoy the view of the city's skyline at the window seats. We were recommended the outdoor seats by the friendly Korean staff as there might be strong BBQ smell indoors.

Indoor seating area is air conditioned for those who would prefer to escape the mid day heat. 

The food and drinks station.

The cooked food section. Chicken stew, glass noodles. Korean rice cake, Korean pancakes, Kimchi soup, chicken wings, pork bulgogi are available. I loved BBQ restaurants that serve cooked food because that means I can get to munch a little bit to fill up my famished stomach while waiting for the raw food to be BBQ-ed.

K Cook really ensures that you will not be hungry the minute you step in!

 Fruits and vegetables section. They have potato salad too!

Salad dressing for the salad.

4 types of beef to choose from. Marinated beef short ribs, beef bulgogi, beef plate eye and marinated beef plate eye. I was told that the native Koreans like having their meat plain and un-marinated whereas most Singaporeans like having their meat marinated, therefore the selection of marinated meat is more than the plain ones to cater to Singaporeans' palettes.

Pork Belly, Pork Collar, Marinated pork collar and chicken.

Vegatables and Korean sauces to accompany the BBQ meat. For me, i super love wrapping the BBQ meat with lettuce. Must add garlic, onions, chilli, Korean bean paste and Kimchi inside too.

The Kimchi here is also fine tuned to Singaporeans' tastes. It's sweeter and less sourish compared to the original ones. 

Drinks station, Korean Barley Tea and ice water. Besides these, they also have soft drinks.

We were recommended by the staff to try this alcoholic beverage which is Korean Plum Liquor. It has a sweet and slightly sourish fruity taste and around 14% alcohol content. Tastes a little bit like Choya. 

Do note that the alcoholic beverages are not included in the buffet.

A table full of food! 

Love the beef plate eye and the very tantalizing beef bulgogi.

Very impressed by the flat and wide pan used for BBQing the food. It doesn't char the food and it's non stick, the pieces of meat won't stick to the pan no matter how dry. It's non greasy and non smoky too!

I would say it's one of the best BBQ joints i've been to, most that i visited were actually quite smoky and my clothes would stink of BBQ smoke but it doesn't happen here. What's more, you don't have to oil the pan to cook the food, thus, it really feels much healthier to be dining here. 

The pan is very easily cleaned with water too and the waiters will go around the tables cleaning the pan when they spot dirty ones.

Prawns and seafood were fresh and succulent.

My way and also the Korean way of eating their BBQ meat. Dip the meat in some of the Korean bean paste, add some garlic, onions, vegetables, wrap it up and dump the whole thing into your mouth. Haha, I love how crunchy the lettuce is and everything just bursts into flavour when bitten.

Another thing i learnt when I was in Korea earlier this year was to fry rice with the remaining ingredients left on the BBQ pan/stove. (I was in Korea for 2 weeks and I ate BBQ almost EVERYDAY consecutively, couldn't believe i could do this but I did it and still loving BBQ).

Must make sure the restaurant serves rice.

 Just take a bowl of rice, put it on the pan, add some Korean bean paste, kimchi, leftover meat/prawns etc. (use scissors provided to cut the veggies and meat into small pieces). Fry everything together for about 3-5 minutes, add a dash of soya sauce and pepper to taste and there you have, very tasty Korean fried rice which I absolutely enjoy!!! Do try it, it's simple and very delicious.

It was a Monday and the restaurant was almost filled to the brim. We foresee that this restaurant is going to be a hit so do make reservations before coming!

Hope you will enjoy K Cook as much as we did :)

K Cook Korean BBQ Buffet

181 Orchard Road, Orchard Central #07-01, Singapore 238896

Tel: +65 6884 7282

https://www.facebook.com/kcooksg

Buffet Price

Lunch

Mon to Fri (11.30am-3pm): Adult $14.90++ Child $8.90++

Weekends, PH & PH eve (11.30am-5pm): Adult $24.90++ Child $18.90++

Dinner

Mon to Thur (5.30pm-10pm): Adult $24.90++ Child: $18.90++

Fri to Sun, PH & PH eve (5pm-10pm): Adult $26.90++ Child $18.90++

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[Food Review] Azmaya Shabu Shabu

Azmaya is a Japanese izakaya restaurant located at Robertson Quay opened by a group of Japanese serving authentic Shabu Shabu. They are actually a very popular chain restaurant in Japan and have many many outlets all over Japan. So glad that they opened one in Singapore too!

 Place was crowded and filled with people, be sure to call for reservations to avoid disappointment.

We were efficiently served by the Japanese staff working here and they highly recommended a few of their specialties for us to try.

Edamame was the first to be served on our table.

Seasoned cucumbers came next, these were very crunchy and fresh.

Sashimi platter came next, these were incredibly fresh too as they were directly imported from Japan along with most of the other food served here.

Grilled Squid. This was grilled to perfection leaving a little of the charred taste. Texture was succulent and chewy.

Ebi and vegetables tempura!

The highlight of Azmaya is their Shabu Shabu. There were many kinds of soup bases to choose from and we were recommended the soy milk soup which is good for skin, i believe ladies would love this soup loaded with nutrition. It is rich in polyphenol and finishes off with a slight hint of chicken flavour.

The other soup base we had was the Spicy Korean Soup, this has much more flavour than the latter. Kimchi flavoured and mildly spicy. A very good contrast to the latter.

The star dish is their A5 Wagyu Sirloin. Thinly sliced, beautifully and evenly marbled, this is incredibly FRESH and MELTS IN THE MOUTH!!! 

The key to cooking this is not to overcook it. Simply dip it into the boiling broth for a few seconds, for me i like it in medium and i dip it for about 10-15 seconds each time. We were very impressed with the quality of this.

Accompanying the beef was some fresh vegetables consisting of mushrooms, cabbages, carrots, leek and vermicelli. I felt very healthy having this meal.

 Goma or Sesame Sauce compliments the Wagyu beef very well.

Ponzu sauce which is sourish and citrusy is also available here as well.

Our table full of yummy and nutritious food.

For an authentic Japanese Shabu Shabu dining experience, be sure to visit Azmaya, you will not be disppointed with their quality food here as well as the great hospitality of the staff.

Azmaya 東屋

Address: 30 Robertson Quay #01-12/13, Singapore 238251

Contact: +65 6737 6863 

Website: http://kthsg-shop.com/azmaya/

Opening Hours: Tue - Sun 5pm - 1am

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