Jewel Cafe

Food here was pretty good!

Menu was asian-fusion whats not and may sound confusing but what we had were decidedly tasty and familiar.

The Umami Prawn Capellini - I am drawn to anything on that menu that describe itself as Umami. This pasta had a Japanese twist with bonito flakes, seaweed and roe. Nicee

Chilli crab linguine came complete with mantou, a tad too watery but heyyy mantou!

The surprising star of the meal was the apple crumble. Melt in your mouth butter crumbs with a dollop of good vanilla ice cream was the perfect sweet end to our meal


129 Rangoon Road 
Singapore 218 407 
 6298 9216

Kilo by Pact

Wow, this place serves great food. Kilo by Pact is a concept store, selling clothes, food and drinks located in a nondescript corner in the maze known as Orchard Central. (Even the sales assistant two stores away didn't know where Kilo was when i tried asking for directions)

Food here is fusion style, with strong Japanese influence. 

Baby Eggplant - donburi sauce, marscapone cheese and tempura flakes

Crispy calamari

The eggplant was awesome, very complex dish with several layers and texture. Sounded weird on paper (cheese and eggplant?) but tasted damm kickass

Blue cheese figs with bacon and walnuts. Another dish with intense flavours and extremely delicious.

Mentaiko pasta- much milder than I expected. I thought the flavours were a bit muted after those intense appetisers but still pretty tasty.

Kilo's smashburger - with 2 patties, tomatoes, cheese on a brioche bun. Sounds awesome on the menu and in reality disappointing. The burger was tiny (2 patties? More like 1 patty divided into 2) and the meat just average tasting. 

My favourite dish - ebiko capellini with roe. Perfectly al dente, light (even with the cream sauce) and very tasty. The fresh prawns and roe was the icing on this dish. 

This place serves great food, stick to the appetisers and you will be set.

81 Orchard Rd 

#02-16/17/18/19

 Orchard Central Singapore 238896
6884 7560

Miam Miam

Strange name for a strange cafe (French-Japanese cuisine) I can't quite fathom what would be on the menu.

Squid Ink black rice and egg. (How is this french?) But the egg was really fluffy and the rice flavourful.

Miam Miam Spagetti (wait should this place be italian-japanese instead?) 

Spagetti topped with bacon, spinach, tomato and yes that perfect runny egg. Break, stir and eat.  Pretty delicious.

Desserts were disappointing, we had the pancake which was more like a dry dense cake.

Overall, a nice casual dining place with reasonable prices. no complains.

#02-14 Bugis Junction, 200 Victoria Street

Singapore 188021

6837-0301

Ambush

There are a lot of cute fusion restaurants, with largely confusing but very reasonably priced menus popping out eh. This place in particular reminds me of Miam Miam and Hoshino Coffee.

So we went in purely because the queue here was the shortest and hey the name's cute.

So this is a fast casual European dining restaurant and the menu is divided into the more popular European cuisine meaning one can find Belgium, French, Spanish, German and Italian food here.

From the Spanish section - the Ambush Paella ($14.20),  featuring bacon, mussels and clams. A bit too wet but nonetheless tasty. 

From the italian menu , scallops and spaghetti in squid ink ($14.80).

Value-for-money food, targeted at the younger crowd so no complains here. Weirdly, I sense a Japanese influence over some of the dishes (flying fish roe, seaweed on pasta etc). Confusing but maybe fusion is the new casual dining thing, Im probably too old for this.

68 Orchard Road,The Atrium, #04-64/66,
Singapore 238839

Vineyard @ Hortpark

One of several restaurants we visited in a bid to find the perfect venue for our wedding. 

Unfortunately this was not the place. 

Venue-wise, Vineyard had a lovely location, with the sprawling hort park outside perfect for solemnization. The restaurant itself was too small for us though.

That aside, food was average to below average with really sloppy service (spilled wine, absent-minded waiters, error in bill etc)

 Short ribs that were not fall off bones soft so nothing much to say other than I have had better (apologize for the grainy photos, the lightning was bad)

 Same goes for the duck confit

 Vineyard's menu is a mis-match of cuisine  from italian to thai and perhaps that lies its problem, sometimes I think its better to just specialize in something rather than attempt it all eh? A pretty place to dine in but alas food not quite up to standard.

Keong Saik Snacks by Jason Atherton

Another celebrity chef, another casual hip dining place. Got to try them all yes?

Keong Saik Snacks has all the makings of the place to be at - tiny (hence exclusive), located next to a secret bar(!) and on the painfully chic Keong Saik Street. 

And as expected as these places, portions are small, prices are not.

DIY tuna tartare was fun to eat, served with tiny cups of condiments, mix everything up and choose how you want your tartare to taste. 

Garlic chilli fries - pretty tasty

Kimchi burger - didnt taste much kimchi in the burger but was not too bad. Tiny though!

Best dish of the night was the special of that night -Guinness beef pot pie. Break apart the flaky buttery pastry and you are greeted with a (tiny) potful of smokey tender flavorful beef stew. How I wish the portions were bigger! 

Keong Saik Snacks
49 Keong Saik Road

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

Restaurant Week : Table at 7

For a restaurant week diningcity starr restaurant, I was really disappointed with the menu at Table at 7

Portions were tiny and food was mediocre. 

The steak was about half the size of Trattoria Lafiandra's, did not taste as good and cost $15++ more (similar 3 course meal too) 

THere are some who avoid Restaurant Week because they believe that some restaurants make use of this opportunity to test new dishes which may or may not be well received. I think this was the case here. While I am not sure if a normal meal at Table at 7 will be of a similar quality, I am not eager to find out. I did go check out their menu for Restaurant Week this year and it looks much better - 5 course and truffles to boot. 

Coastal Settlement

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Old school to the max, my mum was gushing about all her "childhood relics" on display. 

Coastal Settlement is one of those places that illustrates how Singaporeans will go to great lengths to eat good food. Located in a mother-ulu part of changi village, do drive or cab there.

I appreciate the ode to our past and it was a fun place to eat at

Couldnt resist ordering the truffle fries, the truffle flavor was disappointingly absent though. 

The salad came in a cute cannister for tossing but so tiny portion wise.

Thankfully, the rest of the other dishes were pretty good.

The bangers and mash featuring some delightfully creamy mash

Thick chunky fries and a huge juicy burger that hits the spot

Always a good dish for sharing. Thin crispy pizzas.

The must-order dish would have to be the portobello fries, esp if your a fan of mushrooms. Umami-ness  of the thick portobello together with tangy mayo is just delicious.

The Coastal Settlement

200 Netheravon Road

6475 0200

 (do call beforehand, the place gets booked for events sometimes)

Sky on 57

To celebrate our 5th anniversary (!!! half a decade!!) we decided to try out one of the celebrity restaurants at Marina Bay Sands.

Sky on 57 by Justin Quek, because we wanted a meal with a view.

So, the view was fantastic. Located on the sky garden of MBS, we had a splendid view of the city landscape and CBD area. Really pretty.

Bread choices include the onion, cheese bun, focaccia and sour dough. I think this was the onion.

Unfortunately the bread wasnt served warm so it wasnt really good.

An array of keropok was also served, this was actually really good.

Very fresh and crispy and super addictive. 

Sky on 57 being a Asian/Fusion restaurant, so there were quite alot of interesting items on the menu. Though not sure how much people are willing to pay for laksa (albeit with lobster). 

Anyway, I got the Asia tasting menu while the boy decided on ala carte options.

Ala Carte : Foie Gras Xiao Long bao.

While this was decent, I didnt really think it was anything spectacular. I think if you had gave me the XLBs from Ding tai fung, I wouldnt have been able to tell the difference.

Set: Mushroom Cappuccino 

Served in a cute little espresso cup. Thought it was decent but again, nothing fantastic.

Slightly too watery, I like my mushroom soup chunky.

Ala Carte: Trio of Seafood

This dish was beautifully presented. The steamed escargot in spinach leaf and the fresh oyster in yuzu dressing was great. The oyster was particular good, very fresh with that salty salmon roe. 

The Foie Gras Parfait (why is this even included in a dish called trio of seafood? ) failed to impress. 

I have never been a fan of foie gras and this was too creamy for me.

Set: King Scallop with braised leeks.

Ahh this scallop was huge, fresh, sweet and juicy.  Scallops + bacon = winning combi. No complains here.

Ala carte: Tenderloin with lobster 

Ahhh the beef, tender and juicy. Very flavorful and the presentation! 

The beef and lobster was paired with this Asian-inspired sauce which was so savory and flavorful that I kept stealing it. 

Set: Aged Beef

In comparison, my beef wasnt that fantastic. It was still yummy but perhaps the quality of meat wasnt as good as the one on the ala carte. The presentation was still excellent though.
I cant get over the tiny vegetables!
why is the bak choy so small! How do i get my hands on those tiny carrots?!

Set: Palette cleanser of lime sorbet with vodka emulsion.
Very light and tart. Served its purpose I guess

The symphony of dessert was gorgeous. Pretty as a picture, I couldnt bear to eat it!
We were told to eat it in a clockwise direction, starting from the peach sorbet.

The Pandan and Gula Java macaroon was excellent. Hands down the star of the show.
Sweet, salty with that tinge of caramel and that delightful pandan essence. So Asian yet not so at the same time. Even though I was beyond stuffed, I would gladly wolf down about 5 more.
The banana fritter (or goreng pisang) was fantastic as well. Very light and crispy batter. Its amazing how they managed to take a simple hawker desert  and just elevate to something so much more.

I was pretty glad I stopped the boy from ordering more deserts because they decided to shove more desserts to us.

Dough cakes with chocolate sauce which was sinfully good.

And a much needed fruit platter.

View from the top:

Singapore can be so beautiful sometimes.

Yes I do have a love-hate relationship with my homeland.

So would I come here again? Well...maybe for the desserts and the set lunches (which are very reasonably priced). The dinner menu was overpriced to me, food was decent but not THAT fantastic and def not worth our $400.  Service did not match up to expectations as well, given that Sky is meant to be a fine-dining restaurant. 

PS. Justin Quek came out in the middle of our meal to mingle with the tai-tais and some media people. I was honestly surprised that he would be in the kitchen. 

You can view more of my photos on our flickr page

Sky on 57

Tower one, sky park level 57

Marina Bay Sands

Dress code: Smart casual

Tel: 6688 8857 

( be warned, reservations can be a bitch)