Japanese food & movie night @ Coex Mall (Sushi O' and Megabox), Gangnam, Seoul

Friday night in Seoul was our date night (and also the last day of Panda's business trip). Since he was yearning to catch a movie in Seoul, I checked with my close friend who is working in Gangnam on some of the possible cinemas that have English movies. She suggested Megabox Coex, which is located inside Coex Mall, a newly renovated underground shopping mall in Gangnam. At least, Megabox Coex (16 halls) is known to show more updated English movies (with Korean subtititles). The only flaw is that, the website is in Korean, so, either you need someones help to translate, or diligently do the translation yourself beforehand. It is probably easier to just purchase the tickets on the spot as some staff are able to speak English. Movie tickets are prices reasonably even on a Friday night!

Tangy, refreshing salad and a mini bowl of Udon as starters

Since our movie was at 11 pm, we had ample time for dinner. The problem is, most kitchens in Coex Mall are close by 9.30 pm. We decided to try out Sushi O', a Japanese restaurant which was still open and accepting customers (although Japanese food was not exactly on our itinerary during our visit to Korea). We ordered the couple set because we were attracted to the presentation of sushi on the special wooden stand ;p. For starters, there was a bowl of salad which Panda loved so much because of the special citrus dressing used. The mini bowl of Udon was really delicious and flavourful..so colourful to just look at it!

The well-presented sushi set for two :)

A really friendly server helped us with this photo!

L: Breaded (not tempura battered) shrimp. Unfortunately there was no tempura shrimp in the menu; R: Salmon sushi with octopus, good stuff! 

We had a regular popcorn to share during the movie. Nothing to shout about though. In fact, those that I used to have from GSC or TVG Malaysia were way better in terms of flavour. The cinema (seats, screen) were just alright, again, nothing if compared to the cinema in Siam Paragon, Thailand. We took a cab back to the hotel as it was way past midnight. It was a lovely night out in Seoul :)

Megabox Coex

Address: 513 Yeongdong-daero, Gangnam-gu, 서울특별시 South Korea

Directions: Samseong Station (Seoul Subway Line 2), Exit 5 or 6. COEX is directly connected to the station (adapted from Official Korea Tourism).

You might also like:

Visit Seoul 2015: One week travel guide

Fried mung bean pancakes or bindatteok @ Gwangjang Market, Seoul

Famous chicken dakgalbi @ Yoogane, Myeongdong, Seoul

If you think the poisonous puffer fish can't be eaten, think again @ Geumsu Bokkuk, Gangnam, Seoul

Jjampong, jjangmyeon and tangsuyuk @ Andongjang Chinese Restaurant, Seoul

The best chicken ginseng soup (samgyetang) @ Korea Samgyetang VS Tosokchon, Seoul

Korea Pork BBQ @ Palsaek Samgyeopsal, Seoul, Korea

Cafe hopping in Seoul @ Seoul, Korea

Sanmotoonge 'Coffee Prince' Cafe @ Buam-dong, Seoul, Korea

Street food in Korea @ Seoul, Korea

My Korea shopping haul @ Seoul, Korea

The free 'hanbok' experience @ Myeongdong Tourist Information Centre, Seoul

Noodles for everyone @ Wagamama, Earls Court, London, UK

Ramen-inspired cuisine (and some other Asian-Western fusion stuff). Long tables. Open kitchen. There's a reason why Wagamama is an award-winning restaurant with franchises in over 17 countries! Another awesome reason to be staying near Earls Court Road-Lots of restaurants and fast food. We had dinner there on our last night. Sis and hub met us there after work. Seems like eating in a food court of school cafeteria with those long tables. Never mind that though….Loved their menu with plenty of options. We had a hard time choosing and decided to go with whatever my sis suggested.

Wagamama Pad Thai £9.95

Prawn curry lomen £11.50

Pork ramen £9.25

Grilled duck ramen £12.95

Ginger chicken udon £9.50

Of all the noodles ordered, I personally like mine the best, Prawn Curry Lomen which was basically prawn in spicy coconut soup with ramen noodles. The curry was surprisingly quite thick and rich with coconut milk, tasty and spicy as well. Grilled prawns were fresh too although the ramen serving was way to big for me. I had a hard time finishing all the noodles but still managed to finish it (lols). Tasted the ramen broth (miso broth) from the grilled pork ramen and grilled duck ramen which were the same broth used. They were really generous with the huge slices of pork! The pad thai was not really authentic and probably an adapted version for the British with lots of vegetables though it has the wok-hei taste, which is a good thing. Also, the rice noodles used were the thicker ones compared to the usual noodles used for pad thai in Canada. The ramen soup were just ok for me (not a big fan of miso soup and for me it tasted more or less the same). Oh, and the green tea is served for free! 

Coconut & toasted sesame mochi ice cream £4.95

Although we were already so full with the large servings, we still decided to order their mochi ice cream. The coconut ones were just ok, not much of coconut taste to it but we all agreed that the toasted sesame mochi was better (and we ordered more of the coconut ones….@__@). Overall, food was good, quick serving and price acceptable. If you're looking for Asian food, Wagamama is the place to be without spending a bomb on it. 

Tips: In London, it is not obligatory to tip the servers. Check the receipt (cheque) beforehand, and if you see a service charge of usually between 10 to 12.5 %, you have a choice to pay and if not, you can request it to be removed from the cheque and then tip the server according to your preference. 

Address: 180 Earls Court Rd, SW5 9QG
Website: Wagamama



Other places in London that you might be interested with:
The Proposal @ The Strand Dining Rooms, London, UK
Discovering the royal palace & Chinese food @ Middlesex, UK
Old-style trolley dimsum @ New World, Chinatown, London
The English Breakfast @ London
Shrimp dumplings and Laksa @ Momo Cafe, Staines, London, UK
A Pork-y affair @ Pig's Ears, London, UK

freakZspeaks had a party @ Assinoboine Hall, Saskatoon, SK

 

Entering another decade..yeehaa ! Gathered with a couple of close friends and had some good finger-licking food. Sister in London, UK delivered a surprised birthday cake from Crave, Saskatoon. Awesome choice! Delivered with ice packs at the sides…totally a surprise! 'Good-looking, tall' (white horse prince kinda look) 6' cake; red velvet with cream cheese. People here lurveee super sweet stuff; too sweet for me but the combination tasted superb. Cream cheese was really good and fresh. Its more like a combination of icing and cream cheese which I felt was not too heavy. Easily can be ordered online. Probably they are more famous for their cupcakes but can easily turn your favourite cupcake into a cake, like the one I had!

Address : Crave Cupcakes, 802A Broadway Avenue, Saskatoon, SK
Website : Crave Cupcakes

I also ordered some cakepops from Sweet T's Cakepops and Cupcakes. Just couldn't resist the cute-looking little thingy. Cakepops are homemade by Tanya; a nice lady who definitely had a passion for baking and probably one of the best cakepop-ers in town! Sold by the dozens, there's plenty of flavors to choose from, starting from $ 20/dozen. Everything can be personalized! Had the white and purple color cakepops; coconut cake dip in white chocolate for the whites and red velvet for the purple. While the red velvet is….red velvet, the coconut flavored cake with white chocolate was totally amazing! Never really had coconut cake before; hence was trying to be adventurous when I ordered it and was glad I made the right choice! Easy communication with Tanya via her facebook page. Check her out!

Website : Sweet T's Cakepops and Cupcakes

Since I wanted to hang out with some friends without the need to do much washing after the party, I ordered some finger food from Izumi.I had the sushi party tray (80 pieces) $ 60, which I thought would be just nice for that amount of people. Not the prettiest-looking tray but with a variety of rolls. Came with little containers of pickled sweet ginger and wasabi. The sushi was just okay, the consistency of the rice was not really good in my opinion and the rolls were a bit crude, and not well-compacted. Probably because they were trying to stuff more ingredients in each of the rolls. Also explains why instead of 'a' party tray, it became a big party tray and a smaller tray (because everything couldn't fit into one). Definitely can be improved! 

Party tray (regular rolls-80 pieces) $ 60

The second portion of the party tray…ummm...

I was dying to try out their Korean fried chicken or 'chi-mek' (chicken and beer) in Korea. Since probably they are the only restaurant in Toon-town that has them, it was totally worth trying. It didn't come cheap though; the original fried chicken was $21.95 while the sweet and spicy version was $ 22.95. Amount would be enough probably for 2-3 people. I ordered one each since we had like 8 people. Not sure about other fried chicken joints, but Korean fried chicken are fried twice; hence the crunchiness of it. It's usually eaten with pickled radish as sides. The sweet and spicy fried chicken was to-die-for. Eventhough it was not as crispy as the original ones (since it was sitting in a box for about an hour before that), the sauce coating the chicken was superbly tasty. None of us had these before but we totally agreed on this (another item to add to my must-eat-list in Korea). I'm pretty sure it would have tasted even better if you had it dine-in. I would definitely be back for more of their fried chicken!

Korean sweet and spicy fried chicken $ 22.95

Korean fried chicken $ 21.95

Address : Izumi Japanese and Korean Restaurant (only pick-up and dine-in)

Website : Izumi Japanese and Korean Restaurant 

Hors d'Oeuvre Quartet $ 12.99 (regular price)

Had some fancy little pastries from M&M Meat shops. Frozen pastries, easily baked and good for parties. Four different varieties in a box of 40 pieces; Roasted Red Pepper with Asiago Cheese Puffs, Mushroom and Leek Triangles, Caramelized Onion and Three Cheese Crescents, and Spinach with Feta Cheese Puff.

Overall, it was a nice little gathering; nothing fancy but we had a good time :) Cheers to myself for a great year ahead!

All-you-can-eat supper@ Smiley's, Saskatoon, SK

I'm not sure whats with me and buffets (we seem to click quite well ;p). Anyways, for a small place like Saskatoon, the number of buffets in town will definitely burn someone's goal to slim down. Reviews on Smiley's have been a mixed so I decided to try it out myself. For a dinner buffet at $16.95, I would say this is definitely cheaper than the whole lot out there. A huge building that also caters for events, banquets and of course, the daily buffet.  Reminded me much of a hotel buffet.

They have the usual salad bar with quite a variety of items. Although I didn't really try anything from there, the items looked fresh even though it was close to closing hours.

I was actually quite surprised with their hot buffet as I did not really expect much from this buffet. The variety of items they have was quite impressive. Friday was seafood buffet, so probably that was why there were so many variety of seafood; mussels, shrimp, fish filets, squid etc. Their Asian spread was also quite acceptable; maybe not the best Asian food in town but they covered the noodles, fried rice, pork roll, egg roll and even Vietnamese cold rolls with peanut sauce. A newer addition was the sushi bar with a few types of sushi offered; sushi were well-made and presented in a neat fashion (although I'm not sure what they do with leftovers!). And then of course, the much talked-about Smiley's Gourmet Fried Chicken. I honestly think it was quite good. Chicken was quite fresh, crunchy, and not too salty like KFC's. I was contemplating to whether have seconds but was just too full @__@

Eat eat eat with sunbae

Ok, the pics are not doing justice to the real thing but the stuffed zucchini at the top pic tasted awesome. I'm pretty sure its stuffed with fish and shrimp. Zucchini was a little bit mushy but this item reminded me of 'yong tau foo' (tofu/vege stuffed with fish meat).

One of the better dishes : Mussels ! Loved this!

Sushi

What I had on my plate - First round ;p

They have a huge assortment of desserts at their dessert bar; I'm pretty sure you will not be able to try all of them. Apart from pop and slushies (which I think there's additional charges), the rest of the items included frozen yoghurt and vanilla ice cream (with toppings!), assorted cakes and cookies, coconut bun and custard bun, English toffee pudding and rice pudding. One thing that I definitely like was their coconut bun and custard bun. Its really hard to get this kind of buns in Saskatoon because no one thought of opening a bun bakery (@__@, last spotted were some assortment of buns at the Asian Market on Clarence). Totally fell in love with these buns. They were freshly baked, soft with lots of coconut filling. Even the custard bun was pretty impressive, a little bit crispy on the top and tasted super good (maybe I'm being biased coz I love bread and buns ;p)

Left : Coconut bun, Right : Custard bun

Ok, not really presentable coz I took a bite and then snap a photo but there was lots of coconut filling that I just had to show you. 

I did not take any photos of their desserts because I did not touch any apart from their frozen yoghurt. One thing lacking in this buffet is the aesthetics of food presentation. Although there were lots of variety, the desserts did not look quite tempting to the point I was wondering whether they were left overs from events or banquets that they hosted. I'm sure they will taste good though (can't really go wrong with desserts I guess).

Will I be back ? Yup, probably. And I think Friday will be my favourite day because its seafood buffet. They have specials everyday so, it will be better if you check out what features they have for the day. We were there quite late so servers were quite attentive since there were already not many customers around. 

Address : 702 Circle Drive East Saskatoon, SK S7K3T7

Opening hours : Dinner buffet at 4.00-8.00pm

Website : Smiley's Buffet and Catering

(Revisit) Dinner Jap-buffet @ New Island Sushi, Saskatoon, SK

Since we were so impressed by New Island Sushi the last time we were there (blog post), we decided to give the dinner buffet a shot as well. It's $5 more compared to lunch but it's still cheaper than the dinner buffet in Nagoya or Go For Sushi. Here's the cheating part; if you are a sashimi-lover, you have to pay an additional $5/person (!!), which will then make it the most expensive dinner buffet compared to the rest. Also, make sure you go with everyone that eats sashimi, since they are going to charge the additional price / person at the table...smart 'ey. Anyways, those highlighted yellow are the extra things they have for dinner as compared to the lunch buffet…

Mango salad : I dunno why but we both loved this salad. Mango, vege, fish roe and dressing seemed very good combination 

Seaweed salad topped with fish roe : This is super tasty. Refreshing and healthy ?

Grilled shrimp - skip this. nothing special, really

Im pretty sure this is salmon belly teriyaki. Sinfully good though with lots of fats, and if you like deep-fried stuff

Salmon asparagus roll : small piece of thing but my friend said it was good.

Dim sum / steamed dumplings : Looked nice from the outside. Honestly one of the worst I've ever tasted. I reckoned eating those frozen dumplings from Superstore or Asian groceries tasted better.

The tiniest (cute though) ever siu mai (pork dumpling) that I've seen.

Tiger roll : Not sure what is the filling, but its slightly spicy and tasted like a mixture of crumbs, crabmeat or salmon. 

Slice beef with enoki mushroom. Good stuff.

Must-not-miss tempura-s! Shrimp was scrawny during the first order but look at the second one (right), super huge and with lots of fried batter.

Overall, food was good ( despite some people saying its not authentic Japanese!), serving was fast and waiters were attentive. Some might not like the fact that the sushis are smaller than the usual size that you get from Umi Sushi or other places but I think its ok (why stuff yourself silly with all the carbo @__@). If you prefer more of the authentic stuff like sashimi/salmon/teriyaki, you can try the dinner. If not, I think its not much of a difference compared to lunch. Desserts are the same for both. So I'll probably just stick with lunch the next time around! lols

All-you-can-eat Jap buffet @ New Island Sushi, Saskatoon, SK

After last week disappointing sushi lunch buffet at Nagoya-owner change ? different chef ? trying too hard to be like Go For Sushi ? Expecting too much since the previous visit for their dinner buffet was good ? (Check out my previous post on their dinner buffet), I couldn't wait to try out the 'best' sushi buffet in Saskatoon as reviewed by many people. My friend had a visitor from BC, so we decided to try this place out together. I will let the pictures do the talking. Photos were not of the best quality since it was taken with my S3 in a very quick manner (since there were sooo many little plates and bowls being served and everyone's waiting to chomp then down). 

Bottom half is sakura sushi; apparently one of the more famous items as I see many tables having this. One of my favourite!

Restaurant was full when we got there (place not as big as Go For Sushi or Nagoya) but we were seated within 10 minutes. Ambience was just ok; but the cubicles gave more privacy.

First look on the menu and I already got excited because what I have been craving for, were all there (tempura, udon and green tea ice cream-all three not offered in Nagoya's lunch !). Anyways, we ordered a variety of stuff and many had pictures on the menu in case you have no idea what is that. First up was the teriyaki beef, which totally did not look tempting and came in a really miserable looking portion. But thats the good part I guess, so that you will not have to stuff yourself silly if its not nice. Just pass this, nothing spectacular.

Grilled beef….just skip this...

Japanese curry chicken. Miserable looking for tasted ok

Then came the japanese curry chicken; something not offered in other sushi buffets. Portion was small but surprisingly, it tasted good as it was crispy and yet with the taste of the japanese curry. I kinda like this but it was gone within a few seconds (#regret should have ordered a second piece) lols...Another good part of this restaurant is that they offer stir-fry udon, udon soup, and fried rice from the menu. So, it came hot and thankfully, it came in small portions. Picture above was the seafood udon while below was the spicy seafood udon ( ok, basically they are the same thing with the exception of some sriracha chilli sauce mix in the soup to make it spicy @__@).  Very little udon ( good so that you are not stuffed with carbs) and came with generous slices of fishball, crab meat and prawns. We also ordered unagi don ( rice with grilled eel with teriyaki sauce). I did not get to try this unfortunately but it did look presentable. You can also order the sushi version.

Spicy seafood udon soup. Small bowl, sriracha-kind-of-spicy, tasted ok.

Unagi don

Finally the sushi we ordered arrived. Some of them was not presented in a very organized way since we ordered only a few of each; so one big plate and a variety of sushi. Loved the sakura sushi ( bottom right) which is basically little lumps of sushi rice with salmon encircling it and topped with japanese mayo and fish roe. I used to order this alot when back in Malaysia. Overall, the sushi were quite fresh, presentable and nicely shaped. Awesomely good with wasabi and pickled ginger.

Loved their mango maki rolls ( which what some other friends kept recommending me before this) and its totally superb (yup, just mango and crispy crumbs). Something not common in other japanese restaurant I would say and I have no idea who started this creation but it was definitely something good! We ordered this twice :)

I realized lots of tables were ordering shrimp tempura and that was what I came here for anyways ( so disappointed that Nagoya do not even offer tempura in their lunch menu). Satisfied my cravings here with some super crispy (but oily) shrimp, squid and stuffed eggplant tempuras.

They had their own fare of chinese food as well such as the won ton soup and sweet and sour chicken ; which I think you should just pass these since I think any Chinese restaurants would have served better ones. They also had dumplings, shrimp dumplings and siu mai newly added in their menu but unfortunately, after ordering them for 3 times and reminded the servers, none of them came. Ah well, if they didn't have it, they should have just informed us @_@

Wan ton soup. Skip this. 

Weird sweet and sour chicken. Chinese restaurants can do better

More maki rolls such as shrimp tempura rolls, mango rolls (again!) and white dragon roll. ALL of them were super delicious and their rolls were not as crude as Nagoya's. Look at the pretty platter of salmon sushi, unagi and more sakura sushi. They were definitely worth ordering and I could see the tables around me ordered more or less the same items as well. 

My favourites. Mango roll and tempura roll!

Done with sushis and tempuras. Next up was dessert. Other sushi buffets that I've gone to usually have a self-service dessert counter but not here. Their dessert options were limited; vanilla, green tea, red bean and mango ice cream and fried banana. Thats it. I'm not complaining though because even with their limited choices, they had the best dessert compared to the rest of the sushi buffets. We had 17 scoops of ice cream (#sugaroverload) to be shared among the 4 of us and I also had a piece of fried banana ( super oily though). Which flavor was the best ? I'm not entirely sure because I thought all 4 was pretty good especially the green tea and red bean. Mango was ok but my friends said it tasted weird.

Overall, after trying four different japanese restaurants in Saskatoon ( of which 3 buffets and 1 ala-carte), I vote this restaurant to be the best. Location is slightly further away from the rest but totally worth it. Servers were quite efficient even on a busy Saturday ( we did not meet with terrible service as some others had reviewed-apart from the 'lost' dumplings!). For lunch, it was $14.99. Now I feel tempted to see what they have to offer for their dinner buffet;P. 

Address : 2036 Quebec Avenue, Saskatoon, SK S7K1W5

Website : New Island Sushi