Gyoza no Ohsho is a nondescript eatery tucked away in one of the less traversed corners of town. Popular among the working crowd looking for an affordable meal, Gyoza no Ohsho serves an excellent gyoza.

We went for a serving of pan fried gyoza ($5) and deep fried gyoza ($5). Was contemplating between this or the gyoza + ramen set ($17), but seeing that it was meant for tea break (we had a curry puff earlier), we decided to settle for a lighter meal.

Look at how perfect these deep fried gyozas are. Eating these golden brown treats can be quite an addictive affair. Unlike other gyoza places where there's black vinegar or some kind of special dipping sauce, over here you have to concoct your own sauce because the 'pre-mix' is kind of bland. We went for everything -- white vinegar, soy sauce, chilli paste and chili oil!

The minced pork filling was very juicy and flavorful. Could have given us more filling though. The Tenshinhan (Crab meat and egg with thickened sauce on rice) looks quite good though, we need to try that next time!

Conveniently located near the CIQ and City Square, Kam Long Curry Fish Head is one of the best eats in JB. Well-known for being cheap and good, the queue at this stall can get pretty insane. Even though it opens till 430pm, the fish head curry usually sells out by 2pm.

Look at how cheap the portions are. For RM22 (currently S$7.33), you get half a fish head, lots of vegetables and a bubbling clay pot full of one of the most lemak curry we've ever tasted. The fish meat was firm and there was no fishy aftertaste.


Sher kept insisting that small was more than enough for two (she read from some other blogger's review). But the guy sitting opposite us (be prepared to share table) was having a medium all to himself. Maybe our stomachs were full from the buffet breakfast earlier, and so we almost couldn't finish the whole pot of curry. We think the medium pot would suffice 2 starving customers for lunch.

Even so long after opening, popularity hasn't waned. We arrived 15mins before opening and the queue was already insane. Couldn't make it for the first seating ):

Tendon only has two items on their menu. We went for the special ($13.90) which comes which 2 prawns, 2 chickens, 2 long beans, 1 mushroom, 1 corn and 1 pumpkin tempura. It's so much more worth it than the all vegetable set!

Served with the tendon is a bowl of miso soup and chawanmushi. This was silky smooth and had a lot of ingredients.

Not too long later, our tendon was served. The perfectly crisp tempura was stacked on top of the rice and nestled somewhere in between was the runny egg (which was also lightly coated in tempura batter). Even though the tempura already had some 'tendon' sauce on it, it wasn't enough for us so we had to drizzle more on! The portion was so huge, Sher couldn't even touch her rice.

The eponymous gimbap looks pretty on the plate. Taste-wise, it was quite authentic: the beef bulgogi was tender and the pickles were fragrant. S isn't a huge fan of this though -- he claims it tastes 'plasticky'.

Next up was the Doenjangmari soup noodles. Basically, the stock was made from fermented beanpaste and was quite spicy. Besides the noodles (which were very similar to ban mian), there were just a couple of mushrooms and zucchini. Not particularly satisfying.

To go, we had a buckwheat tea, the safest of the tea options on the menu. If you are feeling adventurous, you can go for the more exotic names: omija, esel, doraji etc.

Spizza Mercato is located at the newly opened Capitol Piazza. With weekday lunch and dinner sets offering good value, its no surprise that Spizza is almost always packed. We dropped by for the dinner set for 2, whereby at $29.90 (Mon-Thu only), we had a choice of 2 drinks, 2 appetizers, and 1 pizza (should be the 12 inch one). S was dying to try the parma ham, which left us with limited choice - we went for the Isabella -- tomato, mozzarella, parama ham, rucola salad and parmesan cheese.

We decided to go for 1 soup and 1 salad. Our soup was a tasty and rustic cream of wild mushroom soup. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the portion was actually quite huge (enough for 2). On the side was some lightly toasted bread.

Our salad was the classic cesare salad -- chicken breast, crispy croutons, crisp lettuce and shaved parmesan cheese! It was very filling and by the time we were done, there was hardly any space left for the pizza.

Last but not least, the pizza came with tons of rocket veges! We were shocked by the size of it as this meal could probably feed 3 (We initially wanted to dabao half the pizza back). Sher didnt really like the rocket salad. Other than that, the saltiness of the paper-thin parma ham contrasted well with the freshly baked pizza.

While Spizza is a great place to chill out on a weekday night, they also offer lunch sets ($12 for pasta or pizza) that might appeal to the office crowd looking for a special treat. We might be back to try the pasta!

Spizza Mercato

Address: Capitol Piazza, 13 Stamford Road, #B2-52

Opening Hours:11:30-14:30, 17:30-22:00, Mon-Thu; 11:00-22:00, Fri-Sun

Damage: from $18 per pax

Sher went for the soupy version of prawn mee ($4) because she loves the deliciously rich stock. It is so red because all the goodness have been extracted from the prawn shells and prawns heads and gone into the soup. Although the broth is loaded with oil and cholesterol, we slurped up every drop of it.

S went for the dry prawn and pork rib combo ($5 for small). The dry version comes in a delicious chili sauce and deep fried shallots. The pork ribs were fork tender, albeit on the fatty side. Served separately is a small bowl of prawn stock.

The smallest portion is actually not very substantial. We were left craving for more. On hindsight, since were already survived the queue, we should have gone for the larger portion instead. Also on a side note, the popiah ($1.50) from a nearby stall was quite good -- we liked the pleasantly crispy popiah skin.