Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Restaurant Week - Il Lido


Il Lido is a really beautiful restaurant perched on the shoulders of Sentosa overlooking the sea and the nice green golf course. Headed down for lunch on a week end and it was surprisingly empty; Il Lido is a star restaurant on diningcity (i.e. lunch is $45++)



Bread roll with balsamic, pretty boring. 


 Amuse bouche was an interesting cold cantoloupe soup. I found it a bit too sweet and the soup came off like a dessert. Would have prefer more acidity or spice. 


Wild prawn salad with artichoke cream was delicate and fresh. Nicely done.


Crab Cappelletti - best dish of the meal. The pasta was fresh and cooked perfectly, well paired with the sweet morsels of crab meat. If only I had a full serving of this. 




Pan Roasted Wild Snapper was presented beautifully. Everything was done competently but I found the dish quite boring. 


Tiramisu for dessert. Unfortunately not great, I like my tiramisu with a kick and this was nothing more than a mere nudge (and probably in the wrong direction).

This is my 4th restaurant week and I am starting to feel fatigue - it seems like deals might not be as great as it seems. Next restaurant weeks, I think I might just stick to places I know are winners 


Il Lido
27 Bukit Manis Road (Sentosa Golf Club)
099892 Singapore



Monday, November 26, 2012

Canton Paradise


The Paradise group of restaurants have always been one of my favorite chinese restaurant chains; gone are the days when we only had crystal jade. 


Headed down to Canton Paradise at I12 Katong one weekend for dimsum.


The congee was delightfully creamy and tasty.


Tiny eggtarts (quite pricey at $1.20 each given that you can pop one into your mouth), done quite nicely.





Dimsum is never complete without an order of custard bun. The ones here were good but I still prefer those at Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck.

Overall, dimsum here is decent. Service was pretty inconsistent though, some of the servers were super blur (i.e. mixing up our orders a few times)


Canton Paradise
i12 Katong
#B1-15 
6344 8201


Saturday, November 24, 2012

Halia Restaurant

Wedding location scouting brought us to  brunch at  Halia restaurant (we wanted to check out Villa Halia next door) 


Located in the heart of the botanic gardens, Halia is undeniably scenic.




Food itself though was disappointing. Maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff, after all Halia is known for fusion food eh. 
The American-  scrambled eggs, hash brown, bacon, pork sausage, tomatoes and Brioche. A huge portion and a grease bomb. Everything was just a tad too oily and left us feeling uncomfortably full 


The Halia infused teas were quite good though.
And...wedding location scouting is tiring.

Halia
1 Cluny Court
Singapore Botanic Gardens
6476 6711


Monday, November 19, 2012

Spizza

Spizza, to me is seriously under-rated. Yes its a pizza chain but the food here is pretty darn good!
Pizzas here in general have a nice not too thick crust and chewy centre.


My favorite is the Quinta, with mozzarella, black truffle paste and egg. You know how an egg on a pizza just makes it 10 times better, add the irresistible aroma of the black truffle and you have a winner!





I like the chicken wings, hot and crispy goodness.


Spizza





Sunday, November 18, 2012

Skyve Elementary Bistro & Bar

Why are nice brunch places always so far away? 
Skyve for example, is at Winstedt road, where is that I am not sure but I know I have to cab there.

I like Skyve, it is spacious, bright and cheery. I like that the familiar items on the branch menu are done with a slight twist, jolting you out of your comfort zone but only by that much.


The eggs ben for example, was cooked sous-vide style and served with corn and portobello mushroom.
Well I hate corn but that aside, the eggs were so soft and runny and I love the salad of rocket leaves.


Ricotta pancakes with banana and almond, another classic dish with a slight twist. The pancakes were good, if you like yours slightly dense. 

Prices were very reasonable and overall, I was very happy with brunch here. 



Skyve Elementary Bistro and Bar
10 Winstedt Road, Blk E #01-17 
+65 6225 6690 


Friday, November 16, 2012

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Now that Tiong Bahru Bakery has opened a new branch in Raffles City, it is so much easy to grab a good cup of coffee and sinful pastries. 


So much to choose from! But we finally settled on these



The squid ink bread was ridiculously soft, I was so surprised when I poked it and realized how squishy it was! For some reason, it looked really hard in the display. For those who are wondering how squid ink bread taste like, very muted but pleasant. Do try! The sandwich, with ham was delightfully salty. 


The star of the bakery, in my opinion kouign amann. No doubt deserving its spot in I.S' top 50 things to eat in Singapore. One sweet, sticky, flaky pastry perfect with coffee. 


The croissant was another winner. Intricate layers of pastry, melt in your mouth without the need for any butter. The skill of the baker really came true.

Cant say the same about desserts though, the lemon tart was wayyy too hard and made eating a chore.


Thursday, November 15, 2012

Itacho Sushi


Itacho sushi is one of my favorite restaurant branches, one of those "never fail to have a good meal" places. 


I love the 60c salmon skin sushi, sooo cheap and good! 
These babies come out at certain timings so the trick is to shamelessly ask constantly if its available. Too bad they just lowered the limit/pax. 





Wkday lunchsets are very value for money. Chirashi don for ~$12, topped with salmon, crab meat and tuna :)

The only thing I hate about Itacho is the loooong queue. So, come prepared to queue. 


Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Eggs and Berries

I love Changi City Point. It is not too crowded with tons of food options. 
As we all know the East is where brunch places start to taper off, it is ridiculous how hard is it to find a decent brunch place around these areas. Unfortunately Eggs and Berries is not one of them.

Eggs and Berries operates under the Food Junction name and serves all day brunch. 
Prices are pretty good (about ~$12/dish) and portions are pretty big.


Corned beef hash with scramble eggs. HUGE portion of corned beef and served with a side of pancakes. Quite a strange combi. Sadly, the hash was too salty and eggs overcooked though the pancakes were decent. 
Another plus pt about the pancakes, they were served with 3 different types of syrup (chocolate, maple and raspberry). 


Eggs benedict with rosti. 
In addition to the hollandaise sauce, the eggs ben was served with a strange brown gravy. 
Not too appetizing I must say.

Eggs and Berries
5 Changi Business Park Central 1,
#01-37/38, Changi City Point






Sunday, November 11, 2012

Bruno's Pizzeria and Grill


We heard many good things about Bruno's and was not disappointed.
Rustic, homely italian restaurant that does not go lightly on flavors nor portions. Just the kind I like!

Pasta with truffle. and look at that amount of shaved truffle on top! 
You can imagine the aroma of this dish


linguine with scallops and pink sauce

Squid ink pasta with seafood. Huge fresh prawns, served with the flavorful sauce and pasta. 
Bruno's is really generous with ingredients, def value-for-money.

risotto with procini mushrooms and white truffle oil.
Delightfully creamy and cheesy

Risotto with seafood
Filled to the brim with fresh seafood (and we couldnt resist adding foie gras)


Warm lava chocolate cake
As long as the chocolate oozes out when you cut open the cake and the vanilla ice cream is decent, you cant go wrong with this dessert. And Bruno's does not. 

Overall, Bruno's serves wonderful Italian food at decent prices and very large portions. Not something you find very often in Singapore. Will definitely come back to try the other dishes. 


Bruno's Pizzeria and Grill
338 Tanjong Katong Rd
6440 4525 (Reservations are a must)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Revisit: Artichoke Cafe

I first blogged about this place here and here and it might have been because we were sitting under the hot sun that morning but we were not very satisfied with our dishes. Perhaps the dishes took too much of a Moroccan route this time, just out of our comfort zone.


Smoke salmon on flat bread with beetroot. Visually stunning but the beetroot juice made the bread soggy and turned everything purple. Not too appetizing after a while.


Scrambled eggs with some kind of minced meat sauce.
A rather pedestrian dish. 

dont think i will be coming back anytime soon

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Bali

Trip to Bali in May. We stayed at Amana Villa which was one of the loveliest experiences I had. Private villa with our own wading pool, insanely awesome toilet and the friendliest butler. 
We had a lot of fun choosing breakfast everyday. 


Soft and fluffy banana pancakes :)
The boy had the poached eggs. 

Nasi goreng with a perfect sunnyside egg the next morning.
Thick french toast


The villa also presented the boy with a birthday cake :)
Hmm A for effort in frosting I guess? haha
Great food, great service and the perfect room. Amana Villa is located right in the heart of Seminyak and I highly recommend it. 

Made Warung is a local establishment, specializing in Indonesian delicacy. 




The fish above was delightfully fresh and sweet. 




Visited a coffee plantation where we got to try vanilla coffee, lemongrass tea and many other concoctions. Also the kopi luwak which is supposedly the best (and most expensive) coffee in the world.Very very fragrant, definite must try, for the bragging rights if nothing else.










Thursday, November 1, 2012

Brasserie Les Saveurs

Sunday brunch at St Regis, now that is a dream yes?
A once in a lifetime experience I must say, and at $170++ (free flow of champagne n juice) it is probably really a once in a lifetime.

I got my moneys worth by drinking at least 7 glasses of champagne, I never had such a giddy bunch yet haha. Alcohol goggles aside, I did think that even at $200 a pop, this was worth it. For a buffet, the quality of ingredients used were amazing - best of the best and so darn fresh. Add the attentive service and a live band crooning jazz and you have one heavenly brunch.


Oysters were amazing. 3 different types, fresh plump and juicy. Perfect with a squirt of lemon and a sprinkle of tabasco 

Couldnt resist 


The best dish hands down was the pan seared foie gras. I lost track of how many of these sinful bites we gobbled. This was cooked on order (somewhat like the omelette stations) and we went so far as to inform them chef to "keep a constant flow coming". They were of course too classy to adhere to our request. 


Other than the usual spreads, we were also served a stream of delicious appetizers. Including this wonderful egg custard with cavier. Love the plating.


We were also entitled to 1 main course (think steak, cod, lamb) and eggs done in any style. 

Like most adventures in life, a $200 buffet is something that everyone should experience, at least once in your life.


Brasserie Les Saveurs
29 Tanglin Road
The St. Regis Singapore
Tel: +65 6506 6888
Sunday Champagne Brunch
$138++ (Non-alcohol)
$170++ Free flow Perrier-Jouet Grand Brut & juices