Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town

Found this interesting Japanese Gourmet Town, Manpuku on Level 3 of the new Tampines 1 Mall while trying to join the excitement of the opening of this new mall and to visit the new Japanese clothing store, UNIQLO located at Tampines 1 Mall too. Its a lovely find! Look at the many cute and interesting food representations of the Japanese cuisines they have inside.

The concept is similar to The Marche @ Hereen/Vivocity or Shokudo @ basement of Raffles City, that is to say, they gather a few food stalls/restaurants and have all housed within a concept food mart where one can walk around and purchase food at the same food mart. They make use of a food stored value card to accumulate your purchases and then bill you at the exit.

Stored value food cards and Reservation Signs to reserve your table

For Manpuku, the concept is a really strong Japanese flavour with the place like a Japanese town decorated with sakuras, Japanese sake barrels, wooden Japanese signboards and such. The stalls feature affordable food from 10 restaurants, some of which are famous brands which began in Japan since 1920s -1930s.


Ted ordered the Shio Cha-shu Ramen @ $10.80 from Aoba Hokkaido Ramen which is famous in Hokkaido and has over 60 years of history. The soul of the ramen is the soup stock. Its really fanastic and does not contain any MSG as I did not feel thirsty after that. The Shio Ramen broth is painstakingly boiled from pork and chicken. The average-quality of the noodles is greatly enhanced by the delicious salt broth. The pork slice is thick and goes very well with the noodles.


Craving for rice sets, I ordered the Oyako Don @ $6.80 and potato croquette @ $4.80 for two pieces from Asakusa Tei (whose specialty are the fried items like agemono, tonkatsu and tempura) located just beside the Toku Toku handmade Udon Noodles. Unable to resist the tempting food next door, I also ordered the Tem-musubi (tempura sushi) from Toku Toku, which is an interesting tempura wrapped in a seaweed sushi for $2.50. I will have to get my hands on the handmade udon claypot sets from Toku Toku the next time I visit this place again as they also look really delicious!

To complete my Japanese meal, I also went for some fresh salmon sashimi (@ $8) offered from Umi, the sashimi stall just directly opposite Asakusa Tei. To my delight, the sashimi were really fresh and soft! And at such a great reasonable price! Understand the sashimi are also all airflown fresh from Japan. No wonder its great taste!

View of Azabu Sabo Dessert

Ted and me had a wonderful meal. Seated just in front of the Japanese dessert stall Kyoto Sabo, we fell prey to it when the waitress came by our table and told us to place our last orders before 9pm. So finally we ended our lovely evening with a Macha Parfait (red bean and green tea ice-cream fruit parfait $5.80) which was really sweet and icy cold. This one is a special recommendation from me to all those who have a sweet tooth like me!

There are still a few other stalls but pity we had too little time that evening to try all. Believe all Japanese food lovers will enjoy the food there as much as we did, given the many choices and good quality food offerings.

Manpuku is at 10 Tampines Central 1 #03-16/17/18 Tampines 1, Singapore 529536. Tampines 1 Mall is located just at the exit of Tampines MRT Station.

Foong Kee

Just wanna recommend this stall tucked in the hustle and bustle of the city.. in the laid-back and colourful pre-war shop houses along Keong Siak Steet (near Chinatown).

I have been patronising Foong Kee during lunchtime for the past one year. Usually you will have to wait for at least half an hour during lunch peak hour when its packed with the office crowd. So its best to come early (around 11:30am to 12 noon) just to beat the crowd!

My usual meal is the mixed Char Siew and Roast Pork rice (S$3.50). The Char Siew and Roast Pork is juicy, tender and tastes sweet (probably well marinated with some honey seasoning). Both are well barbequed and served in quite a big chunk with juicy fat. The Pork also blends very well with the delicious specially concocted sourish-chilly sauce (unfortunately only very little of the sauce is served). Side dishes such as brewed soup (like the 'old yellow cucumber' soup, wanton/dumpling soup etc) and vegetables are also available at the stall.

In my opinion, this place serves one of the few good and tantalising Char Siew and Roast Meat in Singapore!

For your information, this stall was featured in Singapore Sunday Times newspaper a few years back for being one of the best Wanton Noodle in the country. The owner of the stall is an ex-shoe salesman who had several years of experience as a kitchen helper. He found his niche and perfected his skills in roasting char siew/roast meat through trial and error. Definitely worth a try!

Foong Kee is at 6 Keong Siak Street, Singapore. Opens: 11.30am to 8pm, closed on Sundays.

Le Grenier A Pain boulangerie

Visited the revamped Sembawang Shopping Centre and had another great find – Le Grenier A Pain boulangerie over the weekends. You cant miss the bakery as its located right at the entrance of the mall. And this bakery is as its name suggests, “Une autre boulangerie” – is really a different bakery! The fact that it dares to be at Sembawang already makes it stand out.

This French bakery was opened in December 2008, brought in here by an Indonesian Chinese who had a taste of this famous bakery during his trip to France and decided to bring this great bakery to Singapore. The press had a coverage of this bakery before but I did not pay special attention till I went there over the weekends and noticed this pleasant shop of bread and pastries with a strong Parisian flavour.

This lovely bakery boasting of delicious and enticing bread and sweet pastries is already a famous name back in Paris and the French regions. The master pastry chef who is also the founder of the Le Grenier A Pain bakery chain is Mr Michel Galloyer. He teaches pastry in France and has taught pastry chefs from numerous countries. With lots of teaching experiences and awards under his belt, it is no wonder the bread and pastries he turns out are so wonderful!

Fondant Paradiz

The special mention goes to the Fondant Paradiz (something like a Chocolate muffin topped with a layer of crispy chocolate). This was recommended by the staff as we were walking around the shop and wondering what to choose from the rows and rows of delicious and lovely aromatic bread and pastries. The helpful staff suggested we try this so we did. We ate it there at the small café inside the boulangerie and the staff baked it hot for us which was wonderful! Its also available in blueberry flavour and the cost is not expensive at about S$5 each. Their french baguettes are traditionally made and supposedly wonderful too. The bread they sell is very aromatic and unusually baked with ham and cheese, hazel nuts etc. Many selections are available there if you are looking for great French bread and sweet pastries.

I would definitely go there again to pick up some lovely pastries and maybe for a cup of coffee too! Le Grenier A Pain is at #01-01 Sembawang Shopping Centre, Singapore.