A nice piece of Crystal or is it Jade?

Crystal Jade, a group of restaurants, that has established its pressence in most of the Asia countries, was established in Singapore and has grown to be one of Singapore's leading F&B company.

It has been one of my family's favourite eating outlet for the past few years and I believe that this chain of restaurants needs no further introduction. The branch that we visited this time was the one at Suntec.

Food
Smoked Sliced Goose with Lemon and Mango

Presentation:
Six slices of goose meat were placed in a star shape on top of the mango slices and had lemon poured over sauces. The sauce is slightly thick, which I believe is cooked with corn-starch flour before pouring over the dish.

Taste
The texture of the goose meat is tender and the meat goes very well with the mango and the sauce. Though it is lemon sauce, it is not too sour. In fact it brings a little sweetness to the dish too and it goes well with the mango.
This dish should be tried by stacking the goose meat on top of the mango, the taste is simply marvellous. The taste becomes rather complex, having the smoky taste while the mango provides sweetness and the sauce gives its a little sourish flavour. Some of the more traditional chinese food lovers may only like taking the goose meat slice alone.
No matter how this dish is taken, the dish will definitely receive another order from me again.

Recommended Dish


Double Boiled Traditional Chicken Roots with Ginger and Chinese Herbs

Presentation
As with many chinese soups, they come in a big bowl which is sufficient for many people around the table to share. The soup contains a lot of chinese herbs, from red dates(紅棗) to 淮山 and 枸杞子, chicken and ginger. Most of the chinese herbs were relatively common and can be found in those traditional chinese medical hall. The soup looks rather thick but is in fact not so. However one thing was that the chicken pieces was not a lot.

Taste
The essence of all the herbs and chinese are in the soup. The soup is very tasty and the soup i believe would have been boiled for at least 4 hours in order to reach this taste. Due to the many herbs and long hours in simmering the soup, the taste has been made very complex. The ginger gave the soup a little spicy taste, but this is very welcomed. Chinese believed that ginger soup is good for warming the body especially during the winter times.

Recommended Dish


Crystal Jade's Service Attitude
The service is strictly Welcome, order, deliver, billing and goodbye. It can be said that there is nothing special in the service they deliver. However the captains that takes the order do give some recommendation and also tells us if there are any promotion to any items. As we had been to this restaurant a few times, some of the captains do recognise us and do chat to us when our meal is over, but this is not apparent to the other customers.
Service to top up water, clear table and replace cutleries are very quick, even the dishes comes out very quickly.

Crystal Jade's Cleanliness
Good cleanliness. Nothing less, as expected of a restaurant.

Rating
Food Presentation: 3/5
Food Taste: 4/5
Service attitude: 3.5/5
Cleanliness: 4/5
Value for Money: 3.5/5
This is a restaurant chain that we had went back a number of times because of the food. If you are hungry, just go in and order the food. Once the 1st dish comes to you, the rest will follow suit very quickly. Fast service too but it is definitely not the place where you can sit and talk after the meal. Strictly for meals only.

Recommended

Jap Food @ Ichiban Boshi

Wandering around the circle route in Suntec, i walked aimlessly looking for food. So many restaurants past me till this one: Ichiban Boshi Japanese Restaurant. It the typical sushi japanese restaurant.

Getting a seat is quick since i am just alone. Got a counter seat so i can see the sushi chef do their stuff. Here's what i ordered: Kajiki Sashimi, Hamachi Sashimi, Assorted Seafood Maki, Cha-Soba and Tempura Ice-cream.

Food
Assorted Seafood Maki:

Presentation:
The Maki contains chopped small pieces of salmon, tuna and tako. Wrapped around by seaweed, rice and vegetable leaves. Sesame seeds were sprinkled on top for the added fragrance. Due to the small individual pieces of seafood, each cut maki is relatively untidy.

Taste:
Surprisingly, the small pieces of seafood did not drop when the maki was picked up by the chopstick. However, the taste of all the salmon, tuna and tako, clashes with each other. There was not a very distinct taste with each type of meat doing its own magic. Sometimes mixing too many good things together works the other way.

Kajiki Sashimi:

Presentation:
The Kajiki Sashimi comes nicely presented on a plate of ice so that the Kajiki will retain its freshness.

Taste:
The Kajiki is served too cold and lacks the sweetness of a fresh sashimi. The meat texture is spongy and is typical that of a swordfish which has been stored for a few days in the fridge.

Hamachi Sashimi:

Presentation:
To preserve the freshness of the Hamachi, the slices are placed on a plate of ice. Though the slices are placed presentably, the thickness of the slices are not uniform. This is a big taboo for slicing sashimi. The difference in thickness are quite drastic.

Taste:
The Hamachi taste too cold and the sweetness of the hamachi is not found. One slice was even so thick that I had problems biting through it. This is one of my favourite sashimi but it just disappoints me.

Cha-Soba:

Presentation:
The soba served is typical of those served in most japanese restaurants, with the soba served on top of a small pile of ice. It also comes with a small cup of soy sauce. Spring onions are placed on the cover of the cup.

Taste:
Some of the soba strands sticks together and could only be separated after dipping into the soy sauce, which is normal. The soba texture is quite rough and is of a dull green colour. As for the taste, there is none and only saltiness after dipping into the soy sauce.

Tempura Ice-cream:

Presentation:
The ice-cream was served in a very simple manner with strawberry jam spreaded on the ice-cream. The ice-cream crust is fried till golden-brown, but the ice-cream itself still maintains its frozen state.

Taste:
The crust is oily as expected from the deep fry. Besides being oily, the crust is too thick and a lot of times, it feels like eating oily deep fried crust with a cold interior. The vanila ice-cream flavour is totally covered up by the crust. The strawberry jam goes quite well with the crust. Just imagine eating french toast with strawberry jam.

Ichiban Boshi Service Attitude:
The waitress and waiter were very friendly. Whenever i requested for service and they are not able to give their attention to me immediately, they always tell me in a very courteous manner to give her a minute. The waitress that served me also come and asked if I am ok with the meal. I also saw another waiter explaining about their voucher system and recommending what would be a better choice for their current order items.

It was also noted that the items on the belt had a "I'm Raw" tag for food items that are raw. This is quite a considerate effort on the restaurant's part to notify patrons of the raw contents.

Ichiban Boshi Cleanliness:
Nothing much can be said about the cleanliness as the tables, chairs and utensils are clean.

Ratings:
Food Presenstation: 3/5
Food Taste: 2.5/5
Service Attitude: 3.5/5
Cleanliness: 3.5/5
Ichiban Boshi is a good place to hang out with friends to talk, although it is not a place to go for the food. The ambience is nice and the service staff are very friendly.