Cherry Garden @ Mandarin Oriental Singapore

Cherry Garden is a favourite Cantonese restaurant among Singaporeans, and is situated in the 5 stars hotel Mandarin Oriental.



Famous for its Cantonese fares, the food is here a notch better than most Cantonese restaurant. Good ambience too.



The restaurant is decorated with red and black colours. It is usually quite empty on weekend nights but crowded on weekday evenings.





Food are served in beautiful chinese wares with Chinese calligraphy.



Appetizer from the chef - is a jelly cube of several vegetables.



Drunken chicken in hua diao and rose dew chinese wine - the wine is chilled into little bits of jello. Chicken is juicy and fresh. Enjoyed this dish.



Crisp fried scallops with salted egg yolk and crispy Asian spice crumbs - it is basically like cereal prawns, except that here it is scallop. This is very very good. The scallops are big and the crumbs are not too dry yet retains crunchiness.



Double boiled Yellow cucumber soup. Pipping hot.



Steamed cod fish with homemade soya sauce. I love eating cod fish. It's oily, soft and have this unique taste to it. The fish is pan fried in the special soya sauce, making it very tender yet firm.



Deep fried King prawn in garlic premium soya sauce - prawn is crunchy due to its freshness. The soya sauce has coated the shell and outer flesh, adding savouriness to the sweetness of the prawn.



Pan fried beef cubes with sliced garlic in black pepper sauce - Black pepper sauce was not over powering. Beef cubes are tender too. Great with white rice.



Cream of almond with crispy deep fried rice dumpling.

Overall, an enjoyable dinner at Cherry Garden. Great service with great food. Will definitely return again.


Cherry Garden
Level 5, Mandarin Oriental Singapore,
Marina Square,
5 Raffles Avenue
Tel: 6885 3538

The Nautilus Project @ ION Orchard

The Nautilus Project opened its door last Friday 21 Aug at ION Orchard. The restaurant is operated by the Prime Society group which operated the steak house restaurant at Dempsey.



The interior of the restaurant looks like... VivoCity. Is quite big actually, and the tables are spaced out quite far from one another.



From the restaurant, you have a great view of Orchard Road. The big TV screen is next to the restaurant too.



Marinated Mussels with spicy Chorizo sausages, mint couscous, zhoug and pita bread. Zhoug is actually a condiment from Yemen, made from chilli, coriander, garlic etc.

Between the starter and mains, I think we waited for 30 minutes. The wait is too long, but I guess the kitchen needs time to adjust since this is their 3rd day of operation.



Nautilus Soup Kettle - Mussels, Grouper, Salmon, Crab, Pipis with Clam Chowder and crusty French bread. I kindda like the clam chowder, thick and tasty. Too bad it's lukewarm.



Roasted Grouper Fillet with garam masala potatoes, kaffir lime and coconut sauce - love the potatoes. The fish was also very fresh.



Ice-Cream cobbler wiht honeycomb brittle, ginger nuts, caramel and cocoa whip. This is a good dessert. One of their signatures.



Grilled pineapple cutlet with mango spring roll, white rum, coconut sorbet and fairy floss Don't really like this, as the spring roll had this overnight oil taste to it.

The waitress said that their seafood is delivered fresh from Australia and New Zealand. Find the seafood quite good quality, but really find the waiting time for the food too long. Not only our table, but saw some black faces from other tables too.


The Nautilus Project - Fishtaurant & Ice Bar
2 Orchard Turn
#04-09 ION Orchard

Umami Dining Lounge @ Liang Court

Liang Court now boasts new shops and restaurants after a major renovation which was completed early this year.



The walls are beautifully decorated with waves of woods. Very interesting interior design.



The interior is quite dark, so good for couples or business dinner.



This is the Japanese disco club next door, all under the same management. But my mission is for the dinner. So here comes the food!



Rolled Omelette with Truffle Oil - very unique. Omelette is done Japanese style, with the fragrant truffle oil.




Deep Fried Dried Cuttlefish - Good appetizer. Flavour of cuttlefish is intense and the batter is crispy and light.



Grilled black cod wrapped in lettuce leaf - Cod is smooth and very tasty. Fresh crispy lettuce adds a crunchy dimension to the cod.



Mini wagyu beef burgers - The wagyu beef is flavourful, but it's too small lah.



Braised beef tongue - I guess not many people dare to eat beef tongue, but the tongue here is chewey and soft. Braised for many hours.



Garlic fried rice



Cold garlic udon with herring caviar - It's suppose to be their specialty, but tasted weird for me.



Tempura - Skip this.



Parma Ham roll



Tempura sushi and California Sushi - Sushi is ok.



Real wasabi

Some hits and misses from this restaurant. As they are quite new, think there are still rooms for improvement.


Umami Dining Lounge
177 River Valley Road,
#01-30 Liang Court,
Tel : 6333 1100

Heaven's Loft

According to media reports, Heaven's Loft recruited 2 chefs to head its kitchen - Belgian pastry chef Geert Renmans and Chef Gary Kwang formerly from Tower Club.



It's actually quite empty on a Saturday 8pm. But Orchard Central itself is also quite empty as compared to Orchard ION and even Centerpoint



This wall mural at the far end of the restaurant caught the attention of my eyes. Adam and Eve?



Soup of the Day - Complain that the soup was lukewarm. Creamy soup should be served pipping hot.



Marinated Crabmeat - Crab meat over a wedge of watermelon. The crabmeat was ok, not very fresh. Watermelon was a weird addition to the dish. But still quite ok.



Fillet Mignon served over a bed of mashed potatos and some grilled vegetables.



Beer battered fish and chips. Again, the fish is not as hot as it should be. Feels like they have been left at a side for 15 mins before serving.



Instead of the desserts, we ordered the Banana Split made from Ben's & Jerry ice-cream. Quite ordinary. Nothing spectacular.


Heaven's Loft
181 Orchard Road
#08-01 Orchard Central
Tel: 6884 9505

Visitation? Time-sharing? Why Not Memory Time?

In the course of handling numerous family law cases and mediating such cases for other attorneys, I talk with people who get hung up on the semantics of referring to time with the children as "visitation." Others hate to refer to it as "timesharing" or "parenting time." Arguments usually go something like, "I'm not a babysitter or some visitor, it should not be "visitation." Likewise, I hear, "My kids are not condos, why should it be called timesharing?" or "I don't stop being a parent just because I am not with my kids, why call it parenting time?" The fact of the matter is that in the event of a divorce or two-household (or more) family, the court has got to delineate how the child's time will be divided between (or among) the litigants. Moreover, other than whatever slight ego-bruise someone gets from whichever term the court uses, the main thing is that you get to spend time with your kids.

I was fortunate enough that my parents never got divorced (as a matter of fact come November they will celebrate forty-six years together). However, when I was about thirteen, my mom took a job that required her to work on Saturdays. Since I could not drive yet, this left me and my dad home by ourselves. It became a tradition that we would fix Polish sausage with grilled peppers & onions, watch old war movies or Westerns and discuss politics & history. My dad and I were pretty different when I was growing up. He was more of an outdoorsman, while I was more of bookworm and a geek (surprise!). Nevertheless, we found a way to connect in a way that really seemed kind of inconsequential at the time. Looking back on those times twenty-plus years later, those are some of my favorite memories. Just me & dad visiting together over lunch and old movies, sharing time, parent & child. I really don't care what you call the time we spent. To me, it was pretty awesome.

Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!

Happy 44th Birthday Singapore!

Hokkaido Sandwich & Sashimi Deli

Opened by the owner of M Hotel's Hokkaido Sushi Restaurant, the Hokkaido Sandwich & Sashimi Deli is located below The Sail, next to One Raffles Quay.




The deli is quite small. Seats are pretty cramp. Portions are quite small. (But big on price).



Ordered Salmon + Swordfish Chirashi, and Tuna + Swordfish Chirashi



Plus sun dried sakura prawn salad and grilled sun dried puffer fish



This is Japanese style Apple Cider. Tasted like Zapple, but with alcohol.



Salmon + Swordfish Chirashi - It's amazing how thick and fresh the sashimi are. Sweet and smooth.



Tuna + Swordfish Chirashi - The swordfish is sweet. No stale taste or smell. Tuna is fat and oily. The cold rice underneath it goes well with the sashimi fish.



Miso Soup



sun dried sakura prawn salad - Was quite small portion. The Sakura prawns was not as good as in other Japanese restaurants.



Grilled sun dried puffer fish - This is the star of the restaurant. It's salty, sweet and has this smoked taste. Very very addicitive.



Look at the golden brown texture of the puffer fish. One of the best I have ever eaten.


Hokkaido Sandwich & Sashimi Deli
4 Marina Boulevard
#01-33 The Sail @ Marina Bay
Tel: 6509 0685