Last night, Pretensions got together with some old school friends for a meal and a movie in Orchard Road. Since we were at the Shaw Lido, we decided to go nearby to Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe at Wheelock Place, a place P had once eaten at (and liked) but not for a long time. The dining experience was made somewhat more complicated by the fact that one friend was delayed in the office and could only join us about an hour later.

Sun with Moon was packed when we got there and the front desk person urged us to take a table that would have to be vacated in an hour. We told her that was impossible and that we were prepared to wait (especially since Borders was downstairs) rather than take a limited time table. She agreed to have a table ready for us in 20 minutes and was as good as her word.

Sun with Moon is a trendy place with white plastic/pine wood decor and lots of glass; it attracts a young post-work office crowd on Friday nights. The central area has modern furniture and a video projection of bamboo forests which give it a nice relaxed feel. Sadly, we were ushered through a dark alleyway into the back room which was pretty nondescript and noise levels were quite high. Still, it was Friday night. The restaurant does offer alcohol, as well as virgin versions of cocktails and P's virgin mojito was quite tasty.

P and her friend spent some time poring through a really extensive menu (SWM's major plus point) and decided against some of the weirder sounding fusion dishes. Both of us had the Kamameshi, which was basically japanese rice with various meaty additions cooked in an iron pot. It was served with a teeny hourglass, which we had to watch run out before the dish was ready to eat. P had the Salmon version with salmon meat and roe and it was quite good, especially with addition of the Japanese chilli pepper provided. Her friend's oyster and mushroom Kamameshi was also quite decent.

We had moved onto dessert by the time P's other friend had arrived. P had the apple pie, which would have been better described as an apple danish. Still it was tasty enough, 'tho one could argue that you can't really go wrong with this. P's friend had the Papaya pudding - a half papaya with its insides scooped out and replaced with chilled cream cheese/papaya mixture. P tried a little and felt that the dish had too much cream cheese and too little papaya for her liking. Best described as interesting in flavour, or so P thinks.

Our third person decided to be bold and ordered the Taco Sushi, which looked extremely pretty, but was a rather unhappy marriage between a meatless (lettuce and salsa with fake bacon bits) taco filling in a seaweed rice roll. P's companions described it as weird and she decided to leave it alone. P's friend compensated with an interesting chestnut and sweet potato dessert, which P described as "Purple Play-Doh in a tart shell" but which was apparently quite a nice blend of sweet potato, chinese chestnut, custard and cream. Unfortunately, P forgot to take a picture of the dessert, but has stuck a photo below borrowed from small potato's food blog.

In conclusion, a little gimmicky, but there is some good food on the menu if you order wisely. Prices are also not bad for a Japanese-style place along Orchard Road. Sun with Moon has another branch at the Central, but P has yet to go there.