Wandering Fel

Not like other vegetarian restaurants, Elemen does not offer ala carte menu. Instead, it offers two kind of set meal, a 5-course set at  SGD 26.80 per person and 8-course set at SGD 32.80 per person. Both sets start with the same appetiser from Elemen. While it looks simple, the taste of the tomato and the cucumbers are so fresh and sweet. Kinda makes me wonder why I used to hate veggies when I was little. 

Next, since I chose for a 5-course set lunch, I had to chose between salad and soup. I am always a fan of mushroom soup so I was so delightful when I saw wild mushroom cream soup as one of the choices available for the soup. 

It got pretty difficult to choose once you are deciding for the mains because all the dishes look so good. After a moment of deliberation, my colleague decided to go for mushroom risotto with black truffle which to me looks a tad too dry for risotto. But other than the texture, the risotto taste quite good but it's probably not suitable for you if you don't really like the strong smell of the mushroom. 

However, I had to give more thumbs up to the main dish that I ordered, quinoa brown rice sizzlling inside a hot stone bowl. I just become a fan of quinoa because my tummy can withstand hunger better after I consume quinoa. I think my stomach is confused on what is this new type of diet that I eat and since quinoa is supposedly a complex carb (not like white rice), stomach needs more time to digest while suffering confusion. The thing is, quinoa is still considered pretty rare (you will not see them as part of mixed rice menu yet, I suppose) and kinda pricey in Singapore. I suppose I had to find alternatives somehow. 

The beverages section from Elemen is actually quite fancy with many beautiful drinks. I am such a weakling against gimmicky drinks and since I don't drink this kind of drink on daily basis anyway, I suppose it's fine to drink these weirdly colored drink once in a while? My colleague did give me a look when I ordered this Iced Coconut Mint. The blue color "supposedly" come out from the butterfly pea flower but to be honest with you I am pretty skeptical about the uhh, supposedly natural coloring used to create this beautiful drink. Taste good by the way, so you probably won't lose anything. LOL. 

Desserts section is composed of both heavy and light kind of desserts. If you still have some space left in your belly, you may want to order the heavy dessert, sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream on top of it. It tastes like what sticky date pudding is expected to taste which is sweeeeeettttt. I don't think this is the kind of dessert that you would like to finish by yourself. 

If you, like me, are already full from the greedy order of previous courses, you may want to opt for lighter dessert such as snow chrysanthemum with grass jelly. Definitely taste lighter compared to the sticky date pudding. If I eat the sticky date pudding first before this, I would probably feel that this dessert is bland. Hahaha.

Elemen is located at:

9 Raffles Boulevard, 

#01-75A/76 Millenia Walk

Yayoi specialises in "Teishoku" which means Japanese set meal. The set meal usually comes with soup, rice and pickles. The concept of Teishoku originated from the set meal served at Zen temples in Japan and it then spread into most Japanese restaurants and cafeterias in the modern days. This explains why every Teishoku in Yayoi came with this bowl of veggies (there's another one for pickles). 

A bowl of rice (which you can choose whether you want to eat white or mixed grain rice). The rice served at Yayoi is free flow but I am not quite sure if that's limited to the white rice only. If you'd like to eat healthier, I personally do find the mixed grain rice to be quite good. 

The set meal which I took picture earlier belongs to my rice-loving lunch buddy and her Chicken Teriyaki Teishoku does look so yummy. Although it kinda confuses me why chicken teriyaki is served with mayonnaise which is usually served with chicken karage instead. But who am I to question this concept? Hahaha. 

Meanwhile, I chose the Saba Teishoku. I kinda regret ordering saba fish though because its smell lingers until the end of office hour. Thankfully there is no important meeting or discussion happening after the lunch. Next time, I should probably just stick to Salmon Teishoku instead. 

Oh right, if you don't know what kind of fish Saba is, it is actually mackerel. It's very popular fish served in both Japanese and Korean restaurants. However, I heard story about Saba being the popular choice of fish amongst the poor during the historical period in both countries though. Not sure how true is that story. Hahaha. 

Yayoi is located at: 

9 Raffles Boulevard #01-03/04/05

Millenia Walk 

Opening hours: 

Daily 11AM - 9.30PM

Tengawa Hokkaido White Curry only serves three kind of dishes and all come with the Hokkaido white curry. So you better eat any one of the ebi fry, the hamburg (which I think is pork) and chicken katsu. 

All sets come with chawanmushi and miso soup. 

There is a jar of vegetables on each table and a note saying that customers can request for more rice or miso soup if they want to. The vegetables are of course free to consume as well. 

We decided to share one set each since the only difference between each set is just the main dish served with the rice and white curry. This is the crunchy chicken katsu white curry (SGD 15.80). Since white curry supposedly originated from Hokkaido, I kinda expect them to have a quite strong milky taste and creamy texture. While the white curry sauce served by Tengawa Hokkaido White Curry is creamy, it lacks oomph. Up to the point my dining buddy said that it tastes bland. The chicken katsu is nicely fried though. 

The white curry served for the Hamburg (SGD 15.80) is the same as the one served for the chicken katsu. Hamburg is one of those dishes that I don't think you will get wrong so yeah the hamburg is okay. The restaurant got more crowded around 7-ish but I am not sure how long they can last with only three dishes on the menu. 

Tengawa Hokkaido White Curry is located at: 

Millenia Walk #02-16

9 Raffles Boulevard

Nearest MRT: Promenade MRT

Opening hours:

Daily 11.30AM to 10PM