Dozo @ Valley Point Shopping Centre

The interior of Dozo is gives one a feeling of relaxed extravagance with its rich colours and intricate wallpapers and curtains to match. I have been to it twice, once last year and again this year for the birthday celebration of my friend who loves Dozo for what it offers.

We were served in a private room which I really appreciate, and were seated in a long table that had small white vases with long fried noodles of various sizes and taste. The noodles were really interesting. They looked almost like twigs and we might have mistaken them for decoration had we not been informed that they were actually edible snacks for us to munch on while we wait for the food to arrive.  

Service was splendid in Dozo, the waiter explained to us about each dish and taught us the best way to consume them.

 

Dozo serves a 6-course (lunch) fusion Japanese Western cuisine at $39.80++ per person. It is quite value for money of course, considering that they serve 6-course meals. But I would prefer having the option of ala carte which would be more affordable for me. But the food is pretty worth the price if you have the money to splurge. 

First we were served with complimentary glasses of yuzu sorbet (to whet our appetites I presume). It was very cold and refreshing.

Next was our starter. The Chef’s Selection of Assorted Platter which consisted of roasted foie gras, scallops with foam and asparagus, and smoked salmon with cream. We were advised to start with from scallop, then foie gras next, and finally the salmon. I thought the scallop and foam was a very interesting combination, really reminded me of the sea when I was eating it, and the asparagus added a nice crunch to it. As for the foie gras, it is the only place I have tried foie gras from apart from the plane, so I can’t quite comment on it, but it was pretty good to me. Glides on smoothly and melts in my tongue, and the taste is pretty agreeable for a liver, and I’m the kind of person who can’t stand internal organs at all. The smoked salmon was alright, nothing to shout about.  Overall, the flavours of the dish were well-balanced.

 

Next up was the cold dish. What I would highly recommend is the Platter of Air Flown Seasonal Sashimi, which was really fresh. The shrimp sashimi was especially sweet, once you get over the enormous shrimp head staring at you. 

 Side dish was Gratinated Escargot topped with Yuzu Butter for me both times I visited. First I had the one baked in the shell with the butter, before having the rest baked in cheese. Thumbs up for the escargot, juicy and well-seasoned.  

For soup most of us had Crab Bisque Cappuccino Style which we were advised to drink straight from the cup like cappuccino, and it tasted really thick and creamy, full of crab goodness. Other soups in the menu just couldn't compare with this.

A must-try for crab lovers!

Now on to the main course. The first time I went I tried Lobster Gratin, Pumpkin Puree and Asparagus Tips. Nice presentation, and the lobster was well-seasoned. The second time I had Beef Tenderloin on “Pu-Ye” and Granite Hot Stone. Now food that requires cooking always makes me slightly nervous as I want my food to be well-cooked, not charred. But I got through it with no accident, thankfully. All of us agreed that the sauce served alongside it tasted kind of weird. Actually, even the beef itself wasn’t that great, maybe the taste of pu-ye just couldn’t agree with us. 

The second last course was drinks served in pretty glass teapots and cups. The first time I went I had Iced Fruity Refresher, which was saccharine. The second time I had Hot Roselle Rhythm, which tasted sour. But I do think the Hot Roselle Rhythm tasted better than Fruity Refresher which was a little too sugary for me. 

Finally, dessert. Dozo’s Freshly Baked Warm Chocolate was served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, and the two is a heavenly combination of sweet oozing chocolatey warmth and ice-cream cold. Yum. The Espresso Crème Brulee was very unique.   The coffee foam on top added a bitter twang to the syrupy sweetness of the crème brulee, which makes it not overly sweet. 

Overall, this restaurant has a great presentation of delicious food and wonderful service to boot, together with the luxurious ambience; we all felt like rich upper-class ladies. 

 Food:　★★★★☆
Ambience:　★★★★☆
Service:　★★★★★

Dozo

491 River Valley Road  S(248371)

(+65) 6838 6966

Lunch 1130 - 230pm / Dinner 5.00 - 10.00pm, Daily

Ootoya and Cold Stone Surprise

For Prise's birthday we went to Ootoya at Orchard Central, having heard rave reviews of it and its famous queue. In the almost deserted Orchard Central, it is about the only place where there is a long human queue. We went prepared for the queue and did wait for around 20 minutes to half an hour before we were seated. Was the food worth the wait? Pretty much worth it! Though I'm not a big fan of salads, they have enough meat for meat lovers to overlook the abundance of greens. Also, the price is pretty reasonable for the number of side dishes they serve.


Charcoal grilled chicken salad set

Charcoal grilled pork set

Charcoal grilled mackerel set

Food: ★★★★☆
Ambience:　★★★☆☆
Service:　★★★☆☆

Ootoya (大戸屋) 
181 Orchard Road #08-12 Orchard Central S(238886)
(+65) 6884 8901
12pm – 9.30pm, Daily

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After our dinner we went to Cold Stone Creamery and gave Prise a little surprise as we bade her to wait at a seat for us while we queued for her. We took a little long to choose the ice-creams for we were too busy tasting ice-creams despite already having our orders in mind. In the end, after an enjoyable session of tasting, we made our orders. Oreo Overload and Peanut Butter Cup Perfection. I think Peanut Butter Cup Perfection is only perfect to Jingfang, both Prise and I couldn't stand the peanut butter taste. Don't get me wrong, we love peanut butter, but it just tastes weird as an ice-cream. We very much prefer our conservative choice of Oreo Overload.

Anyway, what was our surprise for Prise? Well, we got a candle from the cashier and after much difficulty, Jingfang finally lit it. I can never light a candle I am so afraid of fire. Thank god for her.

Food: ★★★★☆
Ambience:　★★☆☆☆　(Too noisy with the servers singing)
Service:　★★★★☆

Cold Stone Creamery 
181 Orchard Central #01-10  S(238896)
(+65) 6238 9060
11.00am – 11.00pm, Daily

HK ~ Food-loving Shopaholic Paradise

Needless to say, HK is a place of great shopping and marvelous food, especially for lovers of dim sum like me. I’m seriously considering moving to HK for a few years just for the food. Further, being a HK drama addict, being there, all the run-down places of HK like Tsim Sha Tsui and Mongkok appeared really quaint to me instead, and I absolutely adored the thriving crowds around us. 

All the lovely familar brands!

The traffic was a bit of a killer though. Quite literally. We took a night rider that sent us from the airport to our hotel in Mongkok, and it was a Too Fast Too Furious experience. I didn’t know that buses could race like a sports car till I took the rollercoaster of a bus ride. At first we just joked that maybe the bus driver was in a rush to get home, but soon we realized that all the vehicles behaved the same across HK. The minute the traffic lights turned green, they would speed off. Even at sharp bends, they could curve in so neatly and swiftly we could barely tell what kind of vehicle that zoomed past us. No wonder so many people seem to die from traffic accidents in HK dramas. We behaved like good pedestrians that we are not in SG, not even daring to rush to cross the roads when the green man is flashing. 

I applaud the two amazingly brave souls who still dared to stroll along the side of the road!

Tiger Airways was late, so we arrived in HK later than expected, unfortunately, and most shops were already closed. Our stomachs led us to a nice shop that specialized in beef brisket noodles, and I noted instantly that it is a relatively famous shop, since the owners took many photos with mini starlets that only a HK dramaholic like me would know. 

The noodles were really good, from beef brisket to wanton. Dazzling selection, and each noodle had its own unique great taste.

After that we went to have dessert at a dessert place that is supposed to have many branches throughout HK. I forgot to take a picture of the shop front. I liked the mango dessert, but it was a little too mango-ey and heaty. 

Waving our spoons joyfully over a sweet array of rainbow.

The next morning we had dim sum for breakfast! The dim sum restaurant was interesting. There wasn’t any menu to choose from; instead trolleys containing dim sum went round the restaurant. Apparently this is the style of a traditional yum cha house. So we just snatched whatever delicious-looking dim sum there is from the dim sum trolleys that aunties were pushing around. It was quite a risk as half the time we didn’t know what we put into our mouths. But the dim sum was really good. Pity I didn’t take good note of the restaurant, silly me.

We did most of our shopping in H&M, I am ashamed to say, but the 3 level H&M was totally a wonder for us. We spent like 3 hours inside and came out armed with many bags. H&M’s fashion seems to be localized across the world; I have been to H&M in UK and in Japan, and I wasn’t at all impressed by it. But the H&M in HK blew our socks off. Not that we wore any in the first place. On a side note, I was really excited when H&M was going to come to SG after this trip to HK, but the H&M in SG was such a disappointment. All the styles on display are just mundane, and on the pricey side, unlike in HK.

Satisfied shoppers

We visited The Peak after our shopping spree. It wasn’t that impressive, but was terribly cold at the top.

Tram to the Peak.

Our freezing expressions.

After visiting The Peak, we had dinner at a Michelin standard restaurant, Yung Kee. It is famed for their roast goose, and so we tried the roast goose, on top of other dishes. I had wanted suckling pig actually, but it was all sold out. So I had roast goose with barbequed pork instead, a wonderful fattening combination. Look at the glossy shine over the roast goose skin~

Yung Kee @ 32-40 Wellington Street, Central, Hong Kong

After our heavy dinner, we had some light dessert – pudding! Egg pudding was rather odd. Tasted really like egg. But the milk pudding was so smooth and sweet. Very refreshing.

The next day, we had breakfast at a shop near our hotel. My breakfast consisted of buttered toasted bread, which was oozing with condensed milk goodness.

Yummy!

After our breakfast, we visited the Avenue of Stars along Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront promenade which was modeled after the Hollywood Walk of Fame with all the famous HK stars’ handprints on the ground. 

Charmed by Chow Yun Fat's handprints.

Posing as celebs works well with sunglasses.

Lights! Sound! Action!

When night fell we went to a Tim Ho Wan – Another Michelin star dim sum shop and waited for hours just to get a seat inside the tiny cramped shop. But the food was worth it. Really awesome dim sum at low prices.

Shop 8, 2-20 Kwong Wa Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon

<3 the juicy vegetable dumplings at the top and crispy beancurd skin prawn dumplings on the left!

 

After that we had dessert once again, and the desserts were awesome as expected. I had mango pudding topped with soy bean ice cream which tasted rather like Mr Bean’s ice cream.

On the final day we just had a few hours before going to the airport to do some last minute shopping at Ladies’ Market and some random HK shopping malls which we found pretty good bargain buys. Just before our shopping, we had to charge our energy with breakfast, of course. We had instant noodles! At a random shop again, but it was so good. I was fortunate to order the best, chili satay sauce noodles with luncheon meat.Yum. 

Instant smiley noodles on the right!

Oily yummy side dish - crispy crunchy you tiao wrapped in thin strips of chee cheong fun! Why don't they sell this in SG!?

Lastly, because I forgot to mention, our Cityview hotel room. It was so tiny that we could barely squeeze pass the bed to get to the desk , but still looked pretty elegant, and also boasted a large flat screen TV. The attached bathroom had a bath too, which we totally made use of to pamper our tired legs by drawing a foot bath! Complete with tea, it was total luxury.

Our luxurious footbath.

Tea Cosy ~ Ten Thousand Angels

Tea Cosy is a dining and retail store in level 5 of Plaza Singapura which has a romantic English ambience with its delicately carved angels sprawled all across the shop and soft music serenading one’s ears in the background. If any serene angel happens to catch your eyes whilst you are dining you can actually purchase them. I was so tempted to buy some for they are so dainty and elegant. So far, I have only gone there for dessert, and I would like to try its main courses one day since my sister gave a thumbs-up for it.

The 5 piece miniature cake taster plate was served in exquisite white plates placed on a silver 2-tiered server, which evokes a touch of class and elegance. But while the miniature cakes weren’t bad, they weren’t particularly memorable. Yet they do provide a good variety if you are spoilt for choice.

Their buttered scones are simply the best. The scones were crusty and fragrant, and they all but melted in my mouth. The buttery taste of the scones was good and rich. <3 the scones so much! 

For drinks I ordered Peppermint Cool, which was some peppermint milky drink with marshmallows in it and sugar frosting all around the glass rim. Sounds and looks good, but tasted kind of weird. Perhaps it was too minty and not sweet enough.

My sis and cousin!

I think it’s a perfect place for couples or girls' night out, especially since people often mistake it as a shop selling angel figurines and quirky furniture, which made the shop less well known than it deserves to be. But the fact that there is no crowd in Tea Cosy makes it even more alluring to me, as the relative quiet adds to the tranquility in the quaint little café.

 Food:　★★★☆☆
Ambience:　★★★★★
Service: ★★★☆☆

Tea Cosy
#05-10, Plaza Singapura 68 Orchard Road, S(238839) 
(+65) 6341 9318
Sun - Thur: 11am - 9.30pm. Fri - Sat: 11am - 10.30pm