I visited their branch located at the 4th floor of City Square Mall. The deco is very well done, with a combination of both modern and classic touches. The walls made up of baskets stand out, as well as the circular motifs around the tables that face the windows.
The Shanghai pan fried dumplings ($5.00) looked a lot better on the menu than they did on the plate. The filling is tasty and releases juice once you bite into the dumpling. The skin was quite disappointing, as it tasted like the typical frozen gyoza you have in most cheap Japanese restaurants. On top of that, the crispy side was too soft and soggy for my liking.
The dish I enjoyed the most was the Crabmeat and pork steamed buns ($9.00). Used to the usual xiaolongbao with pork, this was a refreshing variation to the classic pork filling. I liked the crab texture and delicate flavour of the seafood stock.
One of their signature dishes is without a doubt this Shanghai specialty: the King Sized Nanxiang Crab Roe Steamed Soup bun (6.80). In this case, the bun really just serves the function of holding the steaming hot soup rich with bits of crab roe, which you can pull up by sucking on the straw.
Maybe I'm pretty picky when it comes to zhajiang mien ($7.80), but this was one of the worst I had in Singapore. Most noticeably, what is served is not what's pictured in the menu. The picture shows the tytpical zhajiang mien, with its dense sauce on top. The noodles I was served just had some dry braised pork on top, with some liquid sauce sitting at the bottom. The worst part was that it tasted like what you would be served in a food court. Nothing like the rich and complex flavour of a proper zhajiang mien as it really lacked of a few dimensions.
The same could be said for these beans ($9.80). The worst I had in Singapore, and they also lacked of a tad of salty, or a tad of meaty, or sweet, but anyway something to lift the dish, which had a strong flavour of uncooked beans. It is actually hard to get it so wrong. Quite disappointing.Out of the dishes I tried, the only good ones were the steamed buns and the signature king dumpling. Everything else was what I would define food court standard, and not worth the cost, especially when you consider that the main direct competitor, Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao is far better and cheaper. Unless you are a fan of crabmeat dumplings, I really see no reason to visit this restaurant. Silk Road or Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao will give you far more for your money.
The beautiful interior, which overlooks the inside of the Marina Bay Sands shopping area, is cozy and softly lit. The wooden fired oven stands out behind the busy, dough-manipulating chefs.
The pizza with oven roasted tomatoes, burrata and oregano was by far the best. With a truly simple, fresh and distinct Italian flavour, this pizza stood out from the rest. The straight flavour really brings out the deliciousness of the dough. I will definitely go back for this!
The pizza with fennel sausage, cream and scallions was my wife's favourite. What is common to all the pizzas is the special "Mozza" dough they use. The pizza base is extremely thin and crispy, while the crust is very thick, fat, crispy outside and soft and airy within. The border of the pizza is lightly brushed with olive oil, which gives it that shine and crispness that is unique to Mozza.
The tomato, mozzarella, Parma ham and rocket is an all time classic. The ingrediends were all of good quality, although this was not the best I have eaten of this kind. A more generous dose of mozzarella would have helped bringing this together.
The shop is nicely decorated, and includes a small retail area which sells "modern antiques" such as 25 year old Polaroid cameras, classic telephones, typewriters and various figurines. The merchandise is very colorful and extremely attractive for youngsters to browse. The number of available seats inside the shop is quite limited, so it might be hard to get a seat during peak hours. I was lucky enough to get a seat outside and I ordered two cakes: the Little Red Riding Hood and the cheese soufflé.
This 70% dark chocolate cake tasted as good as it looked. A rich chocolate mousse surrounded a not too sweet raspberry geleé core, while a crunchy based gave a bit of texture to an otherwise all-soft dessert. Good and enjoyable combination overall, but only if you like soft, moussy stuff.
The bottom line is that at Kki you can have amongst the best cakes in Singapore, but as good as it might sound, due to inconsistency in stock and opening hours, it's a bit of a hit an miss that demands a lot of patience and endurance. If you have what it takes, you will be rewarded.
I have been keeping a pack of sun dried tomatoes which I bought in Italy over a year ago, since I never found the inspiration to prepare them. Today, having limited ingredients for the seasoning, I decided to bring them back to life. To do that, I brought some water with a dash of vinegar to the boil and kept the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 10 minutes.
I then let the tomatoes rest on an absorbent surface and squeezed any excess water out of them. I vacuum packed and froze most of the batch, and kept about 4 of them aside to cook this pasta for 2.
Remove head and tail from the sanma, remove the innards and discard them, debone it and put bones, head, tail, the carrot, onion and herbs into a skillet and bring it to a slow simmer. Keep this simmering for over 20 minutes to create the base for your pasta.
In the meantime, wash your basil leaves and blanch them for 10 seconds in a large pot of boiling water. Remove them from the pot and immediately soak them into ice water. Gently squeeze all excess water, then put into a container together with the sun dried tomatoes, and half a garlic clove, finely chopped. Top with a drizzle of olive oil, then gently mash with an immersion blender until you obtain a paste that is not too fine.
Add some freshly ground pepper to your paste, and there should be no need to add salt since generally sun dried tomatoes are already very salty. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, ready for your pasta, do not salt the water and add the linguini (which should usually take about 10-11 minutes to cook). Wash your fish fillets, pat dry them and sprinkle them with salt. Lightly pan fry them on a large frying pan on both sides in abundant olive oil, then remove them and set them aside.
Deglaze the pan with half a glass of white wine. Once the wine evaporates, you should obtain a thick sauce as shown in the picture below. Now your pasta should be almost ready to be removed from the water. Make sure that you drain it 2 minutes before it's ready. 
Add some of the simmering stock to your frying pan, put in the pasta and lightly salt (do not fully salt the pasta, to counter-balance the salty paste that you will combine later) and simmer until the stock is absorbed and your pasta is al dente. When the pasta is ready, remove it from the fire and rapidly stir-in some of the basil-tomato paste.
Arrange on serving plates, topped up with your sanma fillets (filetti di aguglia), and some freshly ground peppercorns. Enjoy the powerful aromas of basil and sun dried tomatoes!
