Of donuts, zombie sheep and Korean food

I'm pretty sure most of you have heard of Dunkin' Donuts. For years this franchise was the to-go place for specialty donuts. But now, a challenger has arrived! Presenting...Big Apple Donuts!

Located at the Curve just behind TGIF, this place has been attracting customers ever since it opened. One glance at the variety of donuts on offer would convince you to at least buy one donut and sink your teeth into it. But once you do that, one donut might not satisfy your mounting cravings! Be warned! LOL!

Wei Siong and I dropped by to grab a quick bite to eat last Sat. This being the second time we had donuts from here, we decided that one definitely wasn't enough and we got ourselves a box of six.

Clockwise from top left, Bananarama, Homer, Iceberg, WitNut (x2) and Say Cheese

I choose Bananarama (chocolate topping with a creamy banana center), WitNut (white chocolate topping with peanut butter filling) and Say Cheese (imported cheese shavings with white chocolate topping).

The Bananarama was pretty good with the chocolate topping meshing well with the banana cream while the Say Cheese proved to be surprisingly tasty as the mixture of (salty) cheese went well with the (sweet) white chocolate. But the star has to be the WitNut. Smooth white chocolate and creamy oozing peanut butter won over my taste buds there and then. Heck it even beat out the Duran Duran from my first foray at Big Apple!

Wei Siong had nothing but praises for his selections too. So all was good. We then proceeded to watch...zombie sheep devouring hapless humans.

Imagine Dawn of the Dead with the zombies replaced by sheep with the gore turned up a couple of notches and you'll have Black Sheep. With special effects provided by Weta Workshop and a generous helping of comedy, this film is great! Of course the amount of gore makes this film unsuitable for those who can't stand the sight of blood. But for those zombie movie fans, go and catch this while it's still showing!

Prime says show me the buffet!

So after 90 minutes (approximately) of zombie sheep action, we walked over to the latest restaurant to open at the Curve. Presenting...Shilla Korean Buffet!

As was with the case with Big Apple, this was our second time here. This time around we had extra company which included Jasmine and her family plus a family friend. Would the experience this time around live up to the first time?

Oysters as appetizers

Complimentary cheese baked scallops with fish roe. They didn't serve this the first time around.

Assorted ebiko sushi, whitefish sashimi, smoked salmon, steamed prawns and California maki

As befitting any self-respecting buffet, Shilla provided an array of both raw and cooked seafood. There was also sushi, maki and sashimi provided. Most people would start comparing this place to Shogun as Shogun's menu is also a mish-mash of Japanese, Korean and local favourites.

The sashimi at Shilla consists only of red tuna and whitefish. The salmon they offer is smoked, so I'm not sure whether that qualifies as sashimi or not. Shilla loses out to Shogun on variety here but trumps Shogun in terms of freshness and size. The whitefish and red tuna here taste fresher and you get bigger slices. It's comparable to Shogun when it first opened, but sadly Shogun's standard has dropped since then.

As for the sushi and maki, they were average, on par with Shogun. Once again though, if you are looking for many varieties of sushi and maki, you're better off dining at Shogun.

Shilla beats out Shogun in the shellfish area by offering raw oysters, something which Shogun doesn't have. However if you are expecting 5-star hotel quality oysters, this is definitely not it. For starters the oysters aren't laid upon a bed of ice. In our hot and humid weather, this is a big no no as they'll lose their freshness quickly. The result? Oysters with a strong briny taste (seng in Cantonese). Make no mistake, the oysters have not gone bad, it's just that they are not as succulent and tasty. Strangely the cheese baked scallops and oysters had the same strong briny taste too. Freshness problems? And I can't shake the feeling that the raw oysters were much better the first time around...even though they weren't on ice then too.

The large prawns however saved the day as they were fresh, crunchy and certainly not overcooked. Served cold, the prawns helped wash the briny taste of the shellfish away. The prawns here are a tad bigger than those served at Shogun too. They also have shrimp served in a spicy sauce if you don't want to get your hands dirty peeling prawn shells.

Beef ribs

More beef ribs, with beef bulgogi in the background

Grilled chicken, beef slices and (sliced) beef ribs

Moving on to more hearty fare, we come to the meat section. Korean food emphasises a lot on beef and Shilla does not disappoint. The star of their meat section has got to be the beef ribs, both stewed and grilled types. The ribs are tender and infused with flavour (which resembles char siew slightly). The grilled beef slices this time around failed to pass the mark, being slightly burnt, lacking in taste and overly tough. Totally opposite from the first time. The grilled chicken is a new addition to the menu, and it's just average (it tastes like the beef ribs, so I guess they used the same or a similar marinade).

Crabstick roll and prawn tempura!

Shilla does have a small selection of tempura. The prawn tempura is a regular on the menu and it's great (especially when it's freshly fried). The batter is full of flavour, which means you can skip the tempura sauce. The prawns could have been bigger though. The crabstick roll is another new addition (they call it crab meat roll...lol) and it's surprisingly tasty. Just imagine a crabstick wrapped in cheese and seaweed and coated with batter. The mixed vegetable tempura from our last visit was missing and its absence was sorely felt.

Noodles with black bean sauce

I presume that both the noodles with black bean sauce and the anniversary noodles are unique Korean dishes. Didn't partake of any, but Wei Siong preferred the noodle dish above as the anniversary noodles were pretty bland. And yes, Shilla does have kimchi. A couple of types too. Be warned that their traditional kimchi (red in colour) is coloured red for a reason. It is extremely spicy!

Tea is served!

The standout in Shilla's dessert section is the chocolate fondue (fountain). Kids would have tonnes of fun here (adults too I reckon). The only drawback is...you only get three types of fruits to dip into the chocolate fountain. They served kiwi, honeydew and mini tomatoes (so uh...tomatoes are fruits or vegetables?) this time around. Well I suppose you could always dip the cakes into the chocolate fountain or cover your ice cream with melted chocolate for variety. =P

We did notice Koreans dining here, so I guess this means the Korean food served here is authentic. Ever seen any Japanese customers at Shogun? =P The original price is RM56++ per adult for dinner, but when they opened they had this 15% off the total bill promotion going on until end of September. That promotion has been replaced by their Ramadan promotion which cuts the price down to RM46++ per adult. So if you peeps wanna give this place a shot, now would be the best time to do it.

I would give Shilla a 7/10 for this second visit. They definitely need to hire more wait staff as it's plain to see that the current amount of staff can't cope with the increasing crowd. Even the manager had to step in to collect dishes and serve tea. Also, the quality of some of the food offerings appear to have deteriorated. The first visit here would have gotten a rating of 8/10, honestly.

Would I return? Yes, just to give this place another shot after all the hype has died down. I just hope their food quality doesn't decrease further as the amount of customers increase. Oh yeah before I forget, Shilla is located just above Eden at the Curve.