Sunday, December 29, 2013

Our very own restaurant week


This year, we decided to organise our very own Restaurant Week, hosted by a friend who watches too much master chef. 

On the menu - steak, salmon and alcohol


The meat - before and after



Home-cooked meals are the best, especially when with your friends/family.
The best thing on the table were those roasted whole garlic (little aluminium balls ), so sweet and soft, darn good when spread on bread.

Thankful for such wonderful people in my life :)


Saturday, December 28, 2013

Restaurant Week - Bar-Roque Grill



This Oct, we only attended one restaurant week dinner, yup the novelty of Restauarant week has really started to die out - generally not very value-for-money and shitty service.

The good thing about Bar-Roque is that we are given a choice between aka-carte and the restaurant week menu, yay for flexibility! The restaurant week sets weren't that bad actually, items from the menu and at quite a good value but we also wanted to try the chicken here. 

The restaurant is decorated with a heavy touch- true to the "Bar-roque" style with tapestry and paintings resulting in a dark and almost sensual vibe? Too bad for food photographers. Alas the tables were too close together, something very clearly felt during the busyness of restaurant week. 

 Starter - tomato soup. Pretty one-note.


 Main - The Ravioles "Royan" - one hella of a messy looking dish made of pasta, mushroom and other mixed vegetables spattered in a thick creamy sauce. It was very rich and pretty delicious. Such a comforting and sinful dish


Free range chicken was super moist, sweet and very good. My only grouse - why the bird so small!  


Desert was a lovely apple pie, the crust especially was flakey and buttery. One of the better apple pies out there.

Overall I thought the food here was decent but we did lucked out on the orders. Some of my dining companions ordered the steak and were disappointed so stick with the house speciality. One major letdown was the service, not sure if its the restaurant week curse but only the manager seemed to be doing a good job with the rest of the wait staff just ambling around, messing up our orders (or asking us to repeat our orders 1 hr after we had ordered).

Perhaps it will be better on a normal day.


165 Tanjong Pagar, #01-00 Amara Hotel, Singapore 088539
6444-9672



Thursday, December 26, 2013

Soi Thai Kitchen



Basically the same concept as Nakhon Kitchen - good thai food, reasonable prices, neighbourhood location. As with Nakhon, be prepared to wait.


I liked the tom yum soup, decently spicy without overshadowing the ingredients.

 Cant get enough of papaya salad now, but unfortunately can't be compared to Som Tum






 Overall, I thought the food here was pretty good. Would like to come back to try the fish, looked pretty good on neighbouring tables. And always, yay to more good food in the east.

The only disappointment was the mango sticky rice; the mango was so sour the whole dish was almost inedible. When we provided feedback, the answer was "oh because mango is not in season now" ok, acceptable reason I guess but the main question would be, if its not in season, why serve it?




Blk 824 Tampines St 81 #01-28
Singapore 520824
T: 6784 2421




Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Common Man Coffee Roasters


I love this place, so much so that I have been here twice in a very short period of time (quite a feat considering I like going to different places for brunch, there are way too many cafes to try in Singapore)

Fresh, wholesome ingredient, great use of spices and every dish I tried was flavourful. Plus I like the plates :)

Fresh brew + latte. The coffee here is good but inconsistent in my opinion. The coffee tasted much better on my first visit, whilst my cup the 2nd time around was too sour.

 Common Man full breakfast- A giant plate with the full works (bacon, spinach, eggs, beans, mushrooms etc. The beans here had a nice roasted taste, nothing like the nasty canned ones



Eggs ben with ox cheeks was gorgeous. Perfectly poached eggs with that melt-in-your mouth cheeks and rocket. One of the best eggs ben in town.

 The turkish version of the common man breakfast-  pita bread paired with the most delicious hummus and a phyllo-wrapped egg (too cute). Very tasty dish and a twist from the usual breakfast items.



The vegetarian version featured basically everything I love - eggs, spinach, halloumi (mmm),mushrooms and avocado. We rarely find food that is healthy and delicious but at Common Man, I must say one will have plenty of such choices.

Only drawback is this place is darn crowded, yes we all know a good thing when we see one.
Be prepared to queue.




Common Man Coffee Roasters
#01-00, 22 Martin Road





Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Domvs, The Italian Restaurant


I was lucky enough to have won a dinner for 2 via a giveaway at Domvs.
Located at Sheraton Towers, my first impression as I stepped into the restaurant was how dated it looked; amidst the plethora of modern Italian cuisine found locally, it was no surprise that the restaurant was pretty empty.

That said, the food was good.

Started off with some bread - standard dinner roll and crispy flat bread. Nothing to shout about but hey warm bread! (Nothing is worse than going to a swanky restaurant and getting served cold bread)


Our starters - pan seared foie gras and beef carpaccio. Both were nicely done but give me foie gras any day.





Made the correct choice of the lamb for my main. Nicely seasoned and perfectly done ( I love my meat medium rare), am usually not the biggest fan of lamb but this was pretty darn good.


Chocolate lava cake for desert, twas ok but I definitely had better.

Overall, I thought the food and service was above average. There's just something lacking here - personality? character?  Just one of those meals where you walk away feeling satisfied but forget about it 3 days later.


Sheraton Towers
39 Scotts Road, Singapore 228230
6839 5622

Friday, December 13, 2013

Sept 2013- Bangkok Eats


Finally a trip to Som Tum Nua, I always hesitated to go in due to the long queue ( no messing around with my shopping time in bangkok!) But the restaurant is pretty huge and we got a seat within minutes.


Chicken wings were great and as mentioned I prefer this over Greyhound's, a definite must-try! 


I loveeee fish and devoured this entirely. So crispy and fresh! 


I have never had mango salad before but one has to order the signature dish right? This version som tim comes with salted egg, strange but welcomed cos I love me some salted eggs. And wow, sensory overload, sweet spicy sour crunchy all at once and so fresh and tasty. (My face was literally like the emoticon with hearts in my eyes). Will never look at Mango salad the same way again. 
Must, must order! 



Mr Jone's orphanage! Such a lovely lovely place, straight out of a fairy tale. 




The cakes and coffee were average though I was very amused by the coffee art - hi smirky face!


Couldn't resist taking pictures of the extensive goods on display


Som Tum Nua 
392/14 Soi Siam Square, Rama 1 Road


Jones Orphanage
Seen Space, Thonglor 13

Monday, December 9, 2013

Greyhound Cafe, Siam Center


Greyhound Cafe in Bangkok is one of those well-loved by Singaporeans places (we actually visited all these places this trip just to find out what the fuss was about)

Greyhound is a stylish place - think Project Shop cafe at Paragon with the staff in funky slogan tees and/or suits. 


The famed Greyhound chicken wings - tiny wings marinated in fish sauce and fried to perfection, these tasted great! Very addictive but I prefer the wings from Som Tum.



Squid ink burger was pretty disappointing, nothing like the squid ink bun at tiong bahru bakery. In fact if not for the colour, it would have been just an ordinary bun.  




Corned beef spagetti - I am biased cos I loveee corned beef but this was a really good pasta dish. Al dente and very flavourful.


Siam Center 
3rd Floor
(This place is pretty popular so be prepared to wait during peak hours) 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Sept Bangkok Diary



So yes, we took yet another trip to Bangkok this year, I can never get tired of this city. Good food, shopping and entertainment - a pity about the unrest now though.

Must-eat coconut ice cream at CTC - I heard its made its way to Singapore, wonder if its any good

Kick-ass duck noodles at CTC, the broth is so intense and flavourful - i made the mistake of putting way too much chilli oil and drowned myself in water whilst eating this but still soo good




Eating way too much mango sticky rice.  My favourite is still the one at CTC from a small little push cart in the middle of the market though we did manage to try 2 supposedly famous versions this time round - the one from tango mango was disappointing, all style and no substance. The take-away from Mae Varee ( Thong Lo BTS) was pretty good, I liked the tri-colored rice though not too sure why its famous, I mean most of the mango sticky rice from roadside stalls tasted pretty similar too

Peaceful demonstration against the building of a dam, Thais are so politically active, even young kids were getting involved, painting signs and what not.

 The hotel breakfast- we stayed at Holiday Inn Express near National Stadium BTS and its a pretty damm awesome hotel. Extremely near the BTS and a 10 mins walk away from Siam station, room was small but clean and nice. And while the breakfast spread was small, everything tasted great. Will definitely stay here again, just for that great location.



Another food pitstop - pad thai and oyster omelette










Monday, December 2, 2013

Revisit: Chikuwa Tei



Still THE chirashi to beat in my opinion. The perfect thickness and the perfect amount of fish, only no uni this time round :( 



 Super generous serving of foie gras here at only $20. Perfectly cooked too!


   9 Mohamed Sultan Road
#01-01Singapore 238969
T: 6738 9395



Thursday, November 28, 2013

Addictions Cafe




So after months of wedding venue searching, it ends here finally! (With less than 8 mths before the big day, talk about cutting it close).

We love this place because of the huge event space + tent age which mean that we get to have that outdoor wedding we always wanted without having to worry about wet weather plans. Bonus is the pretty water feature and the separate area for solemnisation. 

Cons - Pretty pricey overall and not great service. 


Venue aside we did come down for a meal before deciding whether we wanted the place. Fortunately, the food was good. 




Short ribs - tender and flavourful though of course can't be compared to the awesome one at Bistro Du Vin




Lamb burger with sweet potato crisps. I dont usually take lamb but this was good, none of that gamey smell. The meat was moist and savoury and I couldn't stop eating the crisps.

 Stick date pudding was so-so, too dense that it came out more like a cake


22 Dempsey Road
64765961