Chameleon Japanese Restaurant
11 Unity Street #01-17
Singapore 237995

Chameleon Japanese restaurant

Chameleon Japanese restaurant

The Chameleon restaurant is located behind the Robertson Walk shopping complex, one of several restaurants on a large square that is also accessible from the river walk behind. The square is patrolled by marketers who do their best to draw you into the restaurants (be warned if you’re just browsing), but don’t seem to be affiliated to any particular one.

We chose this place for a restaurant mainly for speed and proximity to our hotel, and the Chameleon as its Japanese menu looked quite good.

Tori kara age

Looking just for some quick food, I chose tori kara age and a grapefruit juice. As you can see from the picture, the serving was fairly generous and came with a slice of lemon on the side. The chicken pieces had a slightly spicy coating and were just a little bit too dry for my taste, but otherwise inoffensive. The grapefruit juice was very good – not too sweet and with a nice amount of ice.

Cost & Conclusion: I was not the one to pay the bill. The service was friendly and prompt. Overall I would say the food here was uninspiring, but generally inoffensive. An acceptable alternative if you’re in the area and want something quick.

Other photos:

The Park Hotel Clarke Quay located close to the restaurant

Robertson Walk shopping complex - Fraser Place

Quayside Seafood Restaurant
Blk 3A Clarke Quay, Alfresco
Singapore 179021
http://www.quaysidedining.com

View from the restaurant

Another view

The Quayside seafood restaurant is located on the waterfront near Clark Quay, which is to say, right in the tourist trap area. This doesn’t necessarily mean bad food, but it does mean very high prices. This particular restaurant had a range of fish and seafood available live in tanks, which meant it was possible to choose which fish, lobster or crab you wanted before it was cooked. A bit gruesome, but at least you’ve a good idea that it is fresh. Most of the seafood is local. I did note, however, Scottish bamboo clams (razor clams) on the menu, so at least some of it is imported from afar.

Chilli crab

There were five of us for dinner, and we ended up selecting a range of different dishes from the menu to share. Amongst these was a chilli crab ($36 per kg, $46.80 in total), which was reportedly excellent. I didn’t try it myself, finding the selection process just a bit too gruesome for my taste that evening, but those who partook came away very happy. We also had a tofu dish with vegetables ($16), which was quite good and surprisingly hot.

Scallops with vegetables

Another option was scallops with vegetables ($22). This dish I wasn’t so impressed by as the scallops had little flavour (they might have been better pan seared with some balsamic). The “drunken prawns” ($48) were also quite average – prawns steamed with some sort of alcohol. Horfun noodles with seafood ($22) I found to be a bit slimy in texture for my taste. As drinks we took two tiger beers ($18), and orange juice ($7), calamansi ($4) and a small bottle of water ($7).

The service was friendly and efficient, and the surroundings very pleasant with a nice view accross the water. On a balmy Singapore evening, it is really a very pleasant place to eat.

Cost & conclusion: The total for the five of us was $190.30 plus 10% service charge and 7% GST (food is the one thing in Singapore where the GST is not already included in the price), bringing the total to $223.90.  Even considering that we were right in the middle of a tourist trap area, I found this to be very overpriced with most dishes not at all spectacular. After paying the bill, I was given a $50 voucher for a discount on another visit – but I don’t think I’ll be returning any time soon. Not terribly far away one can get better food at a price (even tourist prices) that beats the benefit of a $50 discount at this place.  Still, the surroundings are pleasant and if you’re keen on a quayside venue, the food here is at least likely to be fresh.

Z’en Japanese Cuisine
#01-75 UE Square
205 River Valley Road
Singapore 238275

Z'en Japanese Cuisine in Singapore

Having arrived in Singapore in the morning, and spent the afternoon in business meetings, we decided to eat quickly at Z’en Japanese Cuisine restaurant that evening. In fact we chose this restaurant mainly for its proximity to our hotel, as we were quite tired by that point. The choice turned out to be quite a good one though. I ordered a plate of tempura shrimp and vegetables. As you can see from the picture, it was a very generous plate!

Tempura

Close-up

The tempura was very nicely done – crispy and not at all greasy. The vegetables were perhaps just a little undercooked though, being a bit too crunchy. Besides that small complaint, it was a decent meal and served quickly as hoped. To drink, I had a grapefruit juice which was served with a good amount of ice and, happily, was not over-sweet.

Cost & conclusion: I was not the one who paid the bill. The service was friendly and quick, and the surroundings quite pleasant (we ate outside on the terrace, enjoying the warm Singapore evening). Worth a try if you’re in the area.

Brizo Restaurant
Park Hotel Clarke Quay
1 Unity Street Singapore 237893
http://www.parkhotelgroup.com/phcq/Lifestyle/Dining/Brizo/tabid/436/Default.aspx

Park Hotel Clarke Quay

Nasi goreng

I had lunch in the Park Hotel’s Brizo restaurant. The Park Hotel Clarke Quay is located at the historic Singapore River and close to the Central Business District. Choosing from the à la carte menu, I selected nasi goreng. This arrived with a very nice presentation of the rice topped by a fried egg. There were small skewers of cured fish with a satay sauce, and fried vegetables on the side, all accompanied by some prawn crackers. Happily, the dish was as good as its presentation suggested it might be. The fish with satay sauce was nicely hot and very tasty, whilst the rice was similarly flavourful without any sign of being greasy. It isn’t exactly nasi goreng as I know it, but it was a very acceptable take on this classic dish.

Cost & conclusion: It was $16 plus GST/taxes (about 17%). Really an excellent lunch and worth trying if you stay in this hotel.

Some photos:

The bedroom at Park Hotel Clarke Quay

View from the bedroom

Qantas A380 meal in Premium Economy London Heathrow to Singapore

London to Singapore

Qantas Airbus A380 double deck

Inside the A380 in Economy Premium

Qantas A380

My flight this time was on a Qantas Airbus A380. My first flight on this aircraft, which was sadly in premium economy only. As you can see from the photos, the premium economy cabin looks quite good – with wide seats and a respectable amount of legroom. BUT (and its a big but) be aware that the seats in economy do not recline by much. It isn’t just a matter of not having a flat recline, but that you can only recline by a few centimetres – in fact, if there is any extra recline above standard economy class, it is not noticable. So forget about getting any sleep on board in this class, or even really having a comfortable position from which to read a book. There really isn’t enough room for getting much work done with a laptop either – which really makes this class of travel a big waste of money (none of the reasons for paying extra apply here – unless it’s just some burning desire to be seated on the upper deck).

As for the food, well, let’s say it wasn’t really anything to write home about. I had fish (cod, I think, but I’m not prepared to swear to it) that was covered in some green crusty stuff that didn’t have much flavour. This was accompanied by some roast potatoes and courgettes, which were OK if uninspiring. Alongside this, there was a rather plain salad and a bread roll, plastic-wrapped crackers with butter. Now, if we were comparing this to Eurostar or even to my recent experience of Lufthansa’s offering on a recent long-haul flight in business class, then I could say that I did quite well on this Qantas flight. But that’s comparing against the lowest of the low. Overall, the food onboard the Qantas A380 was edible, but certainly not worth buying a higher class ticket for.

The meal

Average food...

The rest of my experience on the A380 was quite good. It was a very new aircraft so still had that showroom “new car” smell to it. And I would say that it was quieter and had noticably better air quality than other, older, widebodies like the Boeing 747. So if you happen to be travelling on a route that has an A380 flying, its worth your while to try it. Just don’t get suckered into premium economy – this is NOT a business class alternative, and for the “extra” you get over standard economy (which as far as I can tell is nothing except a slightly wider seat) is is absolutely not worth wasting your money.