Fisherman’s Market (The Central)

Fisherman’s Market is the first restaurant by the well established Japanese company Create Restaurants to open outside of Japan. Create Restaurants has portfolio of over 110 food concepts and it chose Singapore to open its first restaurant outside of Japan.

Fisherman’s Market is a all you can eat seafood buffet concept. Located at Clarke Quay (The Central), it has a total floor space of 10,000 sq ft spread across 2 levels. The first level is for a la carte patrons while the second level is for the buffet which can seats 300 patrons.

Notice that their logo seems to be a crab. Think they chose the right symbol. Will explain why at the end of the post.

Buffet Menu

If you are observant, you would have noticed that their menu has changed slightly. Their price has changed to $44.90 and cheese fondue is no longer in the menu. It was only when I was inside then I realised there was no cheese fondue after enquiring with a staff. Was disappointing, as I had wanted to try it! Moreover, I did not see any blue crab cocktail or crepes ….I am assuming that they all ran out whenever I check the counters out as it is clearly stated in the menu. But it adds up to the disappointment.

Anyway I arrived at 7pm on a Saturday and it was about 50% occupied.

Sashimi and Cold Food

Dishes were missing such as  blue crab cocktail. The Sashimi were not cold and firm enough, might have been left out for too long.

Oysters, Prawns and Mussels

The mussels were fresh, but the prawns were not. The meat of the prawn was not firm and the shell stuck to its shell. Normally, in a buffet I would have polished off quite a number of prawn sadly, this was not the case. My favourite among the 3 was the Oysters! The oysters were fat and juicy, very fresh. Just a drop of Tobasco sauce and light squeeze 0f lemon will be sufficient. Ate 11 pieces of it!

Hot Food

Pizzas

Crabs, Pork ribs

The Hot Food Section is where you can find the pizzas, spaghetti, chilli crab, black pepper crab and pork ribs. Items such as chilli crab, black pepper crab and pork ribs gets polished off as soon as it is served. It was not easy getting any of these 3 items. Well, a tip you are better off waiting for either of the crabs compared to the pork rib. The pork rib was plain in taste, not fragrant not well marinated.

Pepper Crab 

Chilli Crab

It is not easy to land our hands on the crab pincers. As before the crab was served there was already people waiting for the crabs and whoever was there first almost always aim for the pincers first. The Pepper and Chilli Crab was delicious. We were quite lucky that we managed to get several helpings of crab pincers! The first few servings, the crab was fresh, its meat was easily pulled out, firm, sweet and absorbed the sauce. But towards the next few servings, the crab meat stuck to the shell and was not as fresh. Also, it was quite obvious that  the crabs have been put on diet. Despite these, the crabs (pincers) was one of the best dishes.

The rest of the food was average, so it will be just pictures and 1 or 2 liners.

Teppanyaki and Tempera

Sushi

Sushi was average and the rice breaks up easily.

Fruits

Dessert

Chocolate Fondue

There is a machine for you to make DIY ice cream next to the chocolate fondue.

Overall, my take is that most of the food are really just average with the exception of Pepper Crabs, Chilli Crabs and Oysters. No wonder their logo is a crab logo. The rest, I did not really have a second helping of it. Also, I never got to try some of the items such as Blue Crab Cocktail and Pasta Vongole Bianca despite going back to search for it several times. To add on to the disappointment, cheese fondue was taken off the menu. Moreover, we had to wait 25 minutes for the bill to arrive despite asking for it twice! If you go there make sure you get the crabs and oysters!

 Fisherman’s Market (The Central)
 The Central @ Clarke Quay 
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-15 & 02-17
Tel: 6221 3177
Opening Hours: Daily 11am–11pm (1st Floor, Ala–carte) 
                          5pm–11pm (2nd Floor, Buffet)
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/fishermans.market.SG 

Lian Huat Heng Cantonese Roast Duck

Lian Huat Heng Cantonese Roast Duck is located at a corner of ‘Good Time Coffee Shop‘.Have always noticed that alot of patrons in the coffee shop always seems to order from Lian Huat Heng Cantonese Roast Duck. Hence, decided to give this stall a try on 2 occasions.

On both occasions, there was a short queue at the stall.

Roast Pork & Char Siew Rice

On the first occasion, I ordered the Roast Pork & Char Siew Rice. It does not look very presentable does it? Well do not let its appearance fool you. The rice grains were slightly hard, it help that sauce was added as it help soften the rice. The roast pork  was crispy and not too fatty. Delicious and fragrant. The char siew fared even better. Slightly charred parts providing a crispy and crackling layer at some parts. It was well marinated. Moreover, each piece was sliced such that it was not too thin. A bonus, each order comes with a bowl of soup! Why is it a bonus? Well, like any other roasted meat or chicken rice stall, free soup is given. But this free soup comes along with sichuan vegetable 四川菜 (zha cai) and even pork meat that is with soft bones/cartilage! The soup is salty, but well the ingredients inside was good!

Roasted Duck & Char Siew Rice

On the 2nd occasion, I ordered the Roasted Duck & Char Siew Rice. Similar comments for the rice and char siew as above. The roasted duck was disappointing.  Skin was not crispy. Although meat was tough and dry, it was flavourful.

Again, the soup comes along with sichuan vegetable 四川菜 (zha cai) and even pork meat that is with soft bones/cartilage! To me, I have always prefer pork meat that comes along with the soft bones/cartilage compare to those without.(wonder if I am lucky or all their pork comes with soft bones). A sides note, I have noticed that some people’s soup had duck wing or duck leg.

Overall, cheap and good. I am sure I will continue eating here and maybe one day I will be lucky and get the soup with duck leg =)

Lian Huat Heng Cantonese Roast Duck
Good Time Coffee Shop
Blk 1 Rochor Road
#01-612 Rochor Centre
Tel: 9018 9409 
Opening Hours: Daily 10am – 7pm

Bakerzin (Northpoint)

Bakerzin is well known for its cakes. Recently, there was a Groupon deal that would allow 50% savings when dining at Bakerzin. With this voucher, this is the best time to try its main course.

I think many people had the same idea (in purchasing the voucher and trying out the main course). Went to Bakerzin during Friday for dinner at Northpoint. Despite arriving at 630pm, it was packed and there was a queue. Four groups in front, luckily 2 groups in front got impatient and left the queue. In the end, we waited 25 minutes before we got a seat.

Filled to the brim.

Bakerzin Menu Cover

We had a hard time deciding what to order.

Meal-Box Menu (a)

In the end, decided to order the Meal-Box set as it seems most value for money. Moreover, most people ordered the Meal-Box set. Or to put it simply, I was greedy. The Meal-Box comes with cold drink, bread, soup, salad/potato and even cake of the day!

Diners at Bakerzin can help themselves to free flow of Artisan Bread along with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. But the bread was too hard. Nothing fantastic.

Meal-Box Menu (b)

Bratwurst Linguini Meal-Box $21.90

I ordered the Bratwurst Linguini Meal-Box. As it was full house, I was informed that I had to wait around 20 minutes. When the order arrived, I was delighted by the amount of food. The bread was rock hard. Even harder than the free flow of bread they had. The soup was good! Tomato based soup with lots of other ingredients inside that I had no idea. But the angular container made it hard to scoop the remaining soup into the spoon. Potato salad was too dry. Despite both of us being crazy fans of potato, the fact that we were not ‘fighting’ to finish this speak volumes.

The main dish which was the Bratwurst Linguini added on to the disappointment. It was too dry. I did not finish it, not even half of it.. To add on to the disappointment, by the time our orders were served, the cake of the day was changed from Chocolate Etoile to New York Cheese Cake. I am not a fan of cheese cake nor am I a fan of the strawberry glaze on top.

Meal-Box Menu (c)

Carbonara Meal-Box $18.90

The difference between the Bratwurst Linguini Meal-Box and Carbonara Meal-Box was that instead of the potato it comes with green salad and of course, the main dish was different. Carbonara was dry and starchy. Towards the 3rd and 4th mouthful, you would have started feeling sick of eating it. Moreover, the bacon was very salty.

Overall, the food was disappointing. Bakerzin is better off doing what it does best in, serving cakes. By serving such lousy main course, it runs the risk of eroding its own brand image. Staff wise, it was clearly under staffed. Despite a long queue outside, there were several tables left uncleaned due to the lack of staff. But kudos to the staff as I notice they were always smiling. I will not be back anytime soon in as far as I am concern. The only time I will be back will be for the cakes, which I find over-priced.
*I heard that the warm chocolate cake is a must try. Any one has tried it   before?* 

Bakerzin (Northpoint)
930 Yishun Ave 2
#01-44/45 Northpoint Shopping Centre
Tel: 6755 8122
Opening Hours: Sun–Thu 10.30am – 10pm 
                                 Fri–Sat & PH Eve: 10.30am – 11pm
Website: http://www.bakerzin.com 
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Bakerzin