Food is great, service is poor.

I liked the pho, with its tasty broth and the generous servings of seitan, oyster mushrooms, sprouts and herbs which combine to give a clean-tasting, hearty bowl.

The highlight was the summer roll, which is huge, has a thin rice paper skin, and generous insides which include crunchy vegetables for a nice bite.

The lady at the counter was rude. She took a long time to attend to me while she used her handphone, was unhelpful when I asked about the items on the menu, gave me inaccurate information about the dishes, and became impatient when my favepay couldn’t process the transaction.

So glad that Wafuken has come to Novena! This is one of the tastiest, healthiest salad bowls I’ve had. The sous vide chicken breast is so tender, it almost melts in your mouth, and it’s only $4! The roasted vegetables are well-cooked and seasoned, the ramen egg is of just the right consistency, and the sesame spinach salad is tasty.

Protein: chicken breast ($4)
Sides: roasted vegetables ($2), ramen egg ($2), sesame spinach salad ($2)

Here’s a challenge: try to finish eating this bowl without dropping anything on the table. I couldn’t, it’s such a full bowl with so much fruits and granola! The chia seed parfait is layered at the bottom, but when the acai melts it mixes into the chia seed parfait which is quite yummy. I would prefer this less sweet though. This bowl is big enough for a meal on its own.

Nice thick and fresh cuts of sashimi atop a bed of sushi rice. Not my favourite chirashi don, but it was reasonable at this price.

Qi Ji can always be trusted to serve decent quality popiah. It’s not the best popiah, but it is good, and there’s generally a good amount of vegetables and juicy shrimps. I usually ask for reduced sweet sauce, otherwise it is too sweet.

Interesting dish. The scrambled tofu is not as good as actual scrambled egg, but it’s a good alternative for vegans.

There are several Japanese eateries in Thomson Plaza. I chose Hokkaido-ya because it has chirashi salad, instead of just chirashi don. The chirashi, including the prawn, was fresh. It comes with roasted sesame dressing on the side.

I was surprised at the range of choices – chicken, egg, tuna, cheese, beef or salmon. I liked the good proportion of ingredients compared to rice. In addition to chicken, there’s tamago, pickled radish, ham and crab stick. I didn’t expect the chicken to be spicy and it overwhelmed the taste of the rest of the ingredients, so I’d like to try a non-spicy ingredient next time.

Not many dessert places serve this. Ah Chew serves an excellent version and it’s my favourite of their desserts. I had the hot one and it was thick and smooth, with just the right proportion of egg white and milk, and not too sweet.

Honestly, this didn’t impress me. I think the hype around Munchi Delights is due to its easy availability for delivery on online platforms, and its interesting flavours. However the pancake dough itself is mediocre, and doesn’t have the fragrance or texture of, say, Granny’s Pancake. I usually am delighted to get this part of the pancake where you get a mix of soft dough and crisp crust, but this crust was tough and chewy, not crisp at all.

Although there are supposed to be a variety of skin flavours and a variety of fillings, when I went there was only the original skin and 3 types of fillings available. The lotus biscoff filling is nice but really, you could just buy the jar of biscoff spread.

Overall, it’s an average pancake. It’s ok if you want a pancake and this is the closest you have, but I wouldn’t travel for it.

This isn’t smoked salmon. It’s salmon flakes, possibly from a can. But I liked it anyway, and I think it matches the chee cheong fun better than smoked salmon would. The chee cheong fun is not as silky smooth and thin as the Pek Kio one, but it’s smooth enough and well stuffed. There’s a nice addition of chye poh and tobiko at the side too. Plus, zero queue.

I love this bak chor mee. Every strand of mee pok is slick with vinegar (I chose vinegar, no chilli), yet it’s not too oily. There’s just the right amount of ingredients and noodles, and the soup is brimming with pork bits that make it light and tasty.