Forty Five at the Ritz Carlton Hotel (Tokyo)

Four out of the five dining experiences at the new Ritz Carlton Hotel in MidTown Roppongi are located at the 45th floor of the MidTown Tower (the lone one, the Ritz Carlton Café and Deli, is located at the ground floor near the alternative entrance to the hotel and close by the main portal to the shopping complex); one of these dining places is "45" (Forty Five), located adjacent to the Lobby Lounge and Bar.

Last night (Friday night, April 13, 2007) at a glance from the Lounge area, the restaurant looked elegant with dim lighting and darkened interior. On a gorgeous sunny day like

buzz at Alila Jakarta (Indonesia)

Buzz is Alila Jakarta's restaurant cum coffee shop located at the lobby area. Service was good, but food took way too long to arrive. Even our drinks took some time to come out: we actually had to summon the waiters to remind him about the drinks. When the fruit juice finally came, it was lukewarm and watered down. I had to send it back to have it re-done.

The Nasi Goreng, a typical Indonesian hotels' staple and perhaps the best-known Indonesian food known to all foreigners, was not good at all. How can an

Melt at the Mandarin Oriental (Singapore)

The (Mandarin) Oriental at the Marina recently reopened after a few months of renovation. I squeezed in a last day visit to the hotel and ate at the coffee shop, called Melt. The place offered practically every popular food from different ethnicities: Nasi Goreng (Indonesia); Tom Yum Khoong (Thailand); Hainanese Chicken Rice (Singapore); Hamburger (America) and Sushi/Sashimi (Japan). A group of friends from different cultures need not worry about not finding what they like in the menu. The place tries to please everyone.

I just ordered the Tom Yum Khoong (the mildest sort was still very spicy) and the Hainanese Chicken Rice, both having big servings. The Tom Yum Khoong was

Straits Kitchen at the Grand Hyatt (Singapore)

By the time I checked into the Grand Hyatt Singapore, the hotel's coffee shop had gone through a renovation and re-opened as the current Straits Kitchen. Not having been to Singapore and/or stayed at this hotel for more than a decade, I had no recollection of how the coffee shop used to be, but the renovated version sure looked alive.

There are many stations for both western fare and different ethnic food, but most of the taste was mediocre at best. The exception goes for the South Asian