Journey to the far East: Tampines 1 Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town

The reason why I travelled all the way to the far east was because of this tart. After reading about it in the Posh Nosh section of Urban, I had to go and try it for myself. Since I have been swin(e)dled of my electives (quote from Annalisa), and having lots of time on my hands and nothing better to do, I decided to go and see what all the fuss about Tampines 1 was about. I decided to try the Handmade Udon and Tempura set ($10.80++) from the Toku Toku udon stall inside Manpuku, simply cos it was handmade and I saw their cooker with special noodle ladles.The udon was pretty good - but I'm no udon expert. It's firm and chewy, but I thought it would have been much better if it was colder. My supposedly cold udon was pretty near room temperature.

The tempura was passable - the tempura ended up looking very jaundiced, probably cos of the oil they were cooking it in. I got a piece of prawn (not bad, not that fresh but still passable), huge piece of eggplant, mushroom and pumpkin.

Pretty expensive for the stuff you're getting.

And finally,the tart that made me crawl across half the island to eat...

Perhaps it's cos the woman from Urban raved so much about this tart, I had quite high expectations. I thought that strawberry and chocolate will always be a winning combination, but not so for this tart. There's way too much whipped cream insdie, which I don't eat. It really looks like a piece of art when it's in the display, but taste wise, it's nothing fantastic, especially if you're paying $8++ for a tart that's 50% whipped cream. The chocolate mousse was quite creamy and not too sweet, tart base nice and thin, but just that there was so little strawberries (cos it was mostly cream). They were having a promo - a cup of tea for $1 with any fruit tart. Of course, since Manpuku doesn't serve water (since it's essentially a foodcourt), I happily got my cup of tea. I chose the one inside the pink box (it's green tea with rose I think). You can get as many free refills as you want.
Sadly, the tart fell way short of my expectations. Perhaps the other tarts like honeydew, blueberry, mango and grapefruit would have tasted better, but for the moment, I'm not going to part with any more $8++ for cream.

Verdict? The tarts look waaaay better than they taste. At least for the strawberry chocolate one!

Overall, I don't think that it's worth it for me to trudge all the Tampines 1, unless I'm insanely bored with myself, need to charge my car battery or have a super long holiday.

The reviews on hungrygowhere are terrible! I suppose for these kind of gimmicky food court and pseudo0-restaurant things, I've lowered my standards and expectations. This will be an 'approaching expectations'.

And look at the horrendously huge hoard of people queueing to get into Manpuku o_O It was a weekday somemore! Lucky we decided to have an early dinner. I suppose if you live so far north and so far east, it's find to go to Manpuku, but for the other half of people living on the other side of the island, don't bother trudging over you wont find spectacular food at Manpuku.

Manpuku Japanese Gourmet Town

10 Tampines Central 1

#03-16/19
Tel: 6789 6810