The same night of cake adventure hunting before we went to Grand Hyatt’s Mezza9. My secret food partner and i went in to Marriot pastry shop at the lobby to inquire whether they have any promotions for their cakes, but they only have half price for their pastries. And the staff were already packing up, so there’s only a few selections left.
Banana Muffin ($1.50 after half price) Such a big muffin for only $1.50, grab one after 9pm!
Muffin ($1.50 after half price) We brought two muffin since there were two types left.
Almond Crossiant ($1.75 after half price) The nice look of the almond chips on the crossiant is what tempted us to bring it home.
Total bill for 2 muffins and 1 crossiant is $4.98 after half price promotion. Reasonably cheap for hotel standards pastries, sorry for the lack of details because we had the cakes from Mezza9 and were too full for the pastries here. My secret food partner took it home, and they were gone in an instant.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Wessex village, a tranquil and peaceful estate in the leafy Portsdown Road area is no stranger to the art scene in Singapore. Recently, with the entry of some new restaurants, it is slowly becoming the “It” place to be.
This will be good news for my fellow “west-erners” since LIC always lament the fact that the east side has more good food. With Holland Village, Chips Bee garden, Greenwood Avenue, Sunset way, Rochester Park, and now Wessex Village, who says there isn’t good places to chill in the West!
But this may not be music to the ears to some others, people who enjoyed the quaint environment and would rather preferred Wessex Village not to become the next Dempsey, over-rated and over-populated.
Have no fret about that, because currently in Wessex Village, there is only Pietrasanta an Italian restaurant, Laurent’s Cafe & Chocolate Bar, Klee a cocktail bar, and Colbar a very old-school coffee shop.
My friend and i explored the serene area, we checked out Pietrasanta but my friend wasn’t in the mood for Italian delights, but the place looks great and will definitely try it the next time round.
We decided on Cicada, an art centric casual restaurant lounge.
Nestled amid lush green vegetations, Wessex Village is a colonial style residential area surrounded by open space and trees to provide a soothing and relaxing ambience.
The building structure there are mostly colonial style, and this is the same for Cicada in a colonial type of bungalow building.
Al fresco area in Cicada is also spacious and roomy, which makes it a great place for friends to chill out under the the natural environment surrounded by greens, the village feel.
A large group of Caucasians chilling out, but don’t be quite mistaken by this scene. According to the manager Ronald, their main customers are actually locals and not Caucasians, and most of them are people from other area rather than the residents in Wessex estate.
Seafood Mango Salad ($13.90) Marinated seafood and honey balsamic dressing makes up the Seafood Mango Salad. The mango is sweet, and the prawn springy. The greens together with the sweet honey balsamic dressing opens up your taste bud for the meal.
Sauteed Organic Mushrooms ($5.90) Mushrooms are always a tricky dish, cook for too long and the mushroom becomes over-cooked, while finish it too early the mushroom will fail to absorb the essence of the other ingredients.
The Sauteed Organic mushrooms have a slight hint of white wine, wild herbs and tomato taste.
Smoothie Oreo ($12) The Oreo Smoothie isn’t good enough, the oreo bits are left too big to go through the straw, usually they will be crushed and mixed with milk. We gave the feedback and the manager Ronald told us the reason was due to fault in the blender that day.
However it is still quite unforgivable as this is a restaurant after all, and the least they can do is to notified us about the problem which unfortunately, they didn’t.
Butter Croissant toast with smoked salmon ($13.90) The butter croissant toast besides with the smoked salmon, comes with alternatives in ham, bacon or sausages. The greens in the toast complement the smoked salmon salty taste.
However, we lamented the fact that the croissant toast is not cripsy enough, the bread is too soft, and same for the green. We felt that it will be better if there is crunchier greens like cucumber added in, for a more complete taste.
The mayonnaise sauce also threatens to spoil the smoked salmon, fresh avocado sauce will perhaps be a better option to go along with the smoked salmon. The sandwich is an otherwise good and hearty dish, if Cicada can improve on the small issues.
Penne Pasta with seafood ($24.50) The most expensive pasta on the menu, no doubt so with the ocean prawn, scallops and calamari in spicy marinara sauce. Different type of pasta suits different type of base, tomato base spaghetti is the only choice to go with it. Well for a spicier version, the penne pasta works well.
The first savor of the Penne pasta with seafood is excellent, the spicy sauce together with the oceanic taste floods our taste bud. However, the dish seems to lack in something, because after a while we got a little sick of the dish as it starts to be overwhelming.
Cicada Club Sandwich ($15.90) The Cicada Club sandwich consists of bacon, lettuce, tomato, weisswurst sausage in focaccia bun. The bacon and sausage is decent, but again the use of mayo sauce here doesn’t quite complement the ingredients. Mayo will be better off when paired up with fried stuff.
Total Bill is $96.90 for the 2 of us. I think we sort of over-ordered given we had two appetizer, two sandwich, a pasta and a drink. The sandwich ranges in the tens, while pastas are in tens to twenty. The drink is definitely no go, while the sandwiches can really be better. And for once, i didn’t have any room for desserts.
I checked out the dinner menu as well, while lunch at Cicada is causal and simple food, dinner is more sophisticated with more selections of mains in the high twenty range. According to the manager, the atmosphere for dinner is more romantic and the area more closed up for more coziness.
We found the day-time area to be too ‘open’. Cicada should be going for the french open space concept, but this does not really encourage longer stay because the space is too bare and open. We believed that a more enclosed area, using different type of curtains can just do the trick.
All in all, Cicada promises a lot with its art-centric causal restaurant tag, but we ended up quite disappointed. Cicada certainly can be better, and hopefully the next time i dropped by Wessex, it will be a very different Cicada.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
” The next time, hopefully a very different Cicada “
One Twenty Six is a relatively new and swanky restaurant located at the now half year old rejuvenated Big Splash. Run by the same team behind One Rochester, the waterfront restaurant has a lot to live up to if it is to impress. Situated directly in front of the East Coast coastline, One Twenty Six boasts 2 seating arrangements. One alfresco seating and the other which is the usual fine dining establishment. In other words, the place is chic and demands at least a visit to see what the woo ha is a all about.
First off, let me apologise for the badly taken photos of the restaurant, the place definitely looks much better when you actually see it. And it is advisable to visit it at night when it is cooler since afternoons tend to heat the primarily glass made restaurant up quite a bit.
Complimentary Bread - To its credit, the place serves good bread which is made in house. They are all served warm and definitely gives the impression of being in a fine dining restaurant with its soft, fluffy and fragrant bread. Some had hazelnuts baked into them while others had raisins and hints of coffee. Add a dash of butter and its practically a meal on its own, if you are here for lunch, my advice is to ask for as much bread as possible if you are a big eater. That's my advice, take it if you like, ignore it at your own peril.
Salmon Roll/Seasoned Baby Octopus On Bed of Mesclun Salad with Japanese Dressing/Mediterranean Caprese Salad - All of the above starters had a fresh and satisfying taste about it to usher in the actual meal. The seasoned baby octopus was soft and sweet while the salmon was light and fresh. The caprese salad tastes like a cross between fish cakes and cheese with its tangy texture and milky taste but is still pretty good in the grand scheme of things.
Capellini Arrabiatta With Prawns - This main course packs quite a punch as it is very spicy albeit still maintaining a sweet tomato taste. The pasta itself tastes like a cross between chinese bee hoon and pasta with its fine strands but is definitely softer and more springy then the usual bee hoon strands. The prawns are juicy, sweet and crunchy as well. Overall, its a good filling course for people who like it spicy.
Oven Roasted Spatchcock, fork mash potato with sage jus - Spatch cock actually refers to the way the chicken is prepared. In this sense, it means the chicken is spread flat and roasted. A taste reveals an aromatic peppery taste and tender juicy meat. Pity the serving size was rather small though.
Pan Fried Sea Bass with potatoes and foam - In all honesty, the sea bass was rather thin and small. It was pan fried rather well despite the small serving. Crispy skin with a cheesy tasting foam around it. The meat itself retained much of its natural flavors and was sweet.
Roasted Lamb Loin - The lamb was done medium rare and very nice indeed. My tasting reveals well marinated and juicy meat which went well with the stew-like bed of greens below. Due to some technical issues, the waitress accidentally gave too much pepper to the dish but still, it turned out to be my favorite item at the restaurant so far.
Tiramisu/Rum and raisin nougat - While the main courses and starters might be hit or miss items, the desserts definitely had no such issue. Made fresh and sold on the day, the desserts differ daily for the lunch menu. The tiramisu had a good balance of cheese, rum and cake which helped bring out the flavors of each section. One of the better tiramisu's i've had but thats my opinion while the nougat was an interesting mixture of raisins, rum and ice cream which is very different. Nougat being nougat, i'd expected a cake or cookie like texture but this tasted more like ice cream and it melts albeit slowly. The taste of rum is strong but thats the way i like it.
All set lunches come with a choice of coffee or tea and i must say, they serve rather good coffee. Without the sourish taste that accompanies most gourmet coffees, this one was sightly bitter, strong and quite high on the acidity scale if i'm not wrong. I had the impression that it was also smooth and its something i wouldn't miss ordering if i'm here.
Portion size aside, the lunches offer a nice variety of choices to choose from and differs weekly so you'll rarely get the same choices twice. Judging by the way the restaurant cooked the lamb, i'll brave the storm and say that they probably do good in their meats (lamb and beef) but thats to be decided after i do try their 200 day old aged wagyu beef. The view and location is nice but slightly warm during noon. The service is good and friendly and their desserts are above average. Looking forward to try their degustation menu.
People always say, never eat cakes after 9.30pm! But who cares about the calories that comes along with the sinful indulgence? LIC says, have your cake and eat it! Especially since premium hotel cakes are going at half price after 9.30pm!
My secret food partner and i decided to go on a cake-hunt as we recalled that some hotels have half price promotions on their cakes after a certain timing. We went to Marriot hotel first, after which we found ourselves at Grand Hyatt, Mezza9.
Tiramisu ($7, half price $3.5) The Tiramisu here is reasonably moist, laced with a hint of coffee flavor that doesn’t overpower the sweet mascarpone. I like the subtle taste, as some tiramisu has a very strong wine taste.
Black Forest ($5, half price $2.5) The huge cherry on top of the Black Forest was what tempted my secret food partner to buy it. Ttogether with the chocolate shavings by the side, its a delight to look at and eat. At such a huge slice, even at its original price of $5 its worth a try.
Strawberry Cheesecake ($5, half price $2.5) Classic baked cheese cake with a strawberry jelly topping complete with ginormous (gigantic & enormous) strawberries! The oreo cookie base makes us felt like we were eating a cheesecake duo, we can taste the classic cheese cake flavor, and if eaten together with the oreo base, the taste becomes oreo cheesecake!
The Strawberry cheesecake itself was very filling though, creamy and rich!
Caramel cake ($4, half price $2) We came to a common consent that the caramel cake is our least favourite among the four cakes. For one, it doesn’t have the caramel taste, rather there’s a strong hint of coffee. If you like coffee cake, this is probably the one to get.
Nevertheless, it look pretty and its the cheapest at $2 after half price promotion!
Croissants ($2, half price $1) Besides the cakes, the baking items are also at half price after 8.30pm. We got the croissants for a dollar after promotion.
Total Bill is a mere $11.50 for 4 slices of cakes and 1 bread. The cakes at Mezza9 although not in the excellent league, but its definitely your premium hotel cakes after all, and at half price promotions they are certainly a steal!
Takeaway temptations, bring home Mezza9 freshly homemade products and enjoy half prices on bakery items from 8.30pm and sliced cakes from 9.30pm daily. 15% discount is also offered for whole akes from 9.30pm.
LIC will be looking to explore many more hotels to enjoy the half price promotions! Cakes and more cakes!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
An Outing with the GAGA Girls and their Lovable male Pals last nite.... In order to continue the SAGA of the GAGA Girl's Famous "Ha Ha Ha n Hee Hee Hee" we have decided to choose a place less prone to be starred at when we share our nonsensical thoughts louder then usual.
Brotzeit seemed like just the place. First the environment is NICE AND FRIENDLY... You can chill out or party there... makes no difference... The ambience is just so amiable With the beautiful long stretch of high bar side seats to the log like tables and the out door high bar tables to suit every needs.
Just what needs are we talking about? There had been a theory going around:
BAR SIDE SEATS = Available and Looking
LOG TABLE SEATS = Available but I'm With Friends.. So not free.
OUTDOOR HIGH BAR TABLEs = Not Available and We want some personal time.
So next time choose your seats carefully.
Now to the Food and Beer......
The GAGA Girls Loved White Wine which I have to say i'm not such a big fan of it.... But they love the Sauvignon Blanc the best and I believed if you look close enough in the bottle, you might find a baby fish swimming in it... Perhaps thats why I always felt it was fishy to taste... BTW the GAGA Girls are CRAZY DRINKERS.... They way they drink.. I'm sure I can be a fish monger soon. The other drink we tried was the mango beer.. It was a hue darker with a nice mango aroma not to mention a sparkle of zesty note to the taste.
We also tried dessert and the chocolate creme is the best. Its actually creme, coated with dark chocolate and has cherries inside. Its creamy and smooth texture makes the extra calories so worth it. The chocolate was of just the right sweetness and it simply melts in your mouth. As you dig deeper, you will find layers of soaked cherries which is rather delightful.
I must mention about the service. The waiters are so helpful, and not to mention Sooo Cute Looking.... Quite an eyeful i must say... They are prompt, friendly and sure knows what their specialities are. I can't help but feel so AT HOME in this restaurant.. Perhaps bring some cute waiters Home.... Oooppss.......
A must go.. especially single and available girls who enjoy good food, good drink and a good eyeful of cute waiters.....
Island cafe at the Tangs shopping mall at Vivocity. You might find the association of Island cafe and Tangs weird, isn’t Tangs the fashion lifestyle retailer? What does Island cafe has to do with it?
Recently we have seen the rebranding of Tangs, from the old perception of Tangs is a boring place to shop, to the new image of a hip and lifestyle concept retailer store.
Naturally, Tangs wanted its customers to stay longer in its shopping mall, so it came out with Island Cafe for its customers to enjoy a little meal in between their shopping sprees. Tangs is not the first to come out with such ideas by combing food and shopping, think PS cafe and you will get the idea.
Island Cafe features a medley of local and regional favourite food, with choices like curry chicken, laksa, showing evidence of the “asian-ness”
The place at Vivocity is at ground floor within their shopping area. Exuding a rustic and tropical feel, there’s a cozy ambience factor with the small enclosed area.
Having heard about Island Cafe, naturally i was curious about how it’s like as i have never come here before. We decided to give the place a try while we are at Vivocity.
One look at the menu though, i immediately regretted coming in. Reason is simple, the menu selection is too little seriously. They got two choices of starters with the crab bisque as one. Two sandwiches, and two pizzas to choose from. There is four main course selection, laksa, curry chicken, green curry marinara, and black pepper aglio olio. And thats it!
We didn’t quite fancy the items available on the menu, but since we were there already, we just ordered their Guacamole & seafood pizza to share among the three of us.
Guacamole & seafood pizza ($12) Guacamole, prawns, crabmeat, tomatoes, tomatoes paste and mozzarella make up the Gucamole & seafood Pizza. It comes in two price, $9 for the 5.5″ snack size, and $12 for the 8″ meat size.
The pizza is all right i guess, quite cheesy, with the pizza base thin. But i suppose at $12, you can easily find better pizzas around for a bigger size.
Total Bill is $14.04 for one pizza. I definitely will not go back to Island Cafe because the selections are simply too few and too little. Prices are acceptable considering its a cafe, but most of the choices seems more like hawker-type of food.
Besides the one located within Tangs at Vivocity, there’s also another Island Cafe at Tangs in Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.
So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!
The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.
The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.
Mee Sua ($3.50) The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.
We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.
Egg Omelette ($8) $8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.
Crab Bee Hoon ($38) The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?
But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.
The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.
Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.
I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
I came here with popeye after our weekday lazy afternoon shopping spree..
It was one of those places where we always remind ourselves we will go but will never go.. So today, It was pretty much after lunch time and there was no queue, so we went in... The deco was ok... a little too dim for my liking and the sits are tight... We sat on the corner and the table was STICKY.. yes quote me STICKY...
The service was ok.. with many waiters and waitresses walking around however none have got attention for me...
I ordered this nice drink, something with lemon grass and found it pretty refreshing and amazing.. Though it reminds me of TomYum soup, it was something different and I would say special. Popeye ordered the french toast which looked rather Normal and slumpy and it taste great! Not too oily but creamy butter makes it savoury and they give you a jar of honey for you to drizzle on top... TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. As a kiasu singaporean on a shopping spree.. I WAS DELIGHTED...
I ordered PorkChops Sandwich and it was so NICE.... Pork was soft and chewie and the sauce is yummy... It was really fabulous.... If you want yummy high tea.. this is surely the place to go..... Recharge the leg power for more CHEAP CHEAP BIG SALE... Yeah!!!!!
Today I brought my dad and mum out to TOWN for shopping.. Though they are not so IN... I've decided to show them the Hang Out Place for the Youngsters.. as what they always call us..
After the much shocking experience with jap fashion, everywhere piercings and pacifiers, I thought i should bring them back to earth for a while and there we are.. the most decent looking, normal chinese cafe... the XW Cafe...
Serving HongKong styled cuisines, My dad and mum heaved a sigh of relieve and then they got another shock.... My dad's Ice Kopi came in a metal mug... He can't help but have to hum the jian yu feng yun song... (Famous Movie starring Chow Yuan Fatt in jail).
My mum then ordered her favourite PorK Chop and its really true.... Hong Kong style PORK CHOP really nice.... Dad Ordered the nominal HorFun, perhaps coz he wants to have some fun... But boy.. its yummy. It came with 5 huge prawns all fresh and so crunchy.... The prawn juice pratically squirts out when i chew on it....Of Course.. I make sure i look gracious and very high class when i wipe the juice from my mouth.. heehee! I ordered this french toast thingee and it appeared as a cube of bread... But boy.. the maple syrup and the cold storage butter goes so well with the pipping hot french toast... As u slice the toast, the maple syrup drools down the side.. Can you imagine that....... Sooo Soooo Tantalizing....
When i finally manage to slice a nice piece and savour it in my mouth.. stars laterally appeared.. I'm not sure if its the yummy sensation or the low blood pressure.. but gosh I REALLY SEE STARs.... Since then I've decided that I'll BE BACK........
The price is reasonable and its a wonderful place to hang out with young or the NOT SO YOUNG Pals... Includes mum n dad.... NOT TO BE MISSED.....
It was another fabulous nite out with my GAGA pals.. and guess what... we decided to rave it out the gangster way....
I was actually hoping to find a xiao ma ge mannequin inside.. But don't have leh.... Only could find some really sissy waiters... (oops) Like those in the movie.... (Movie Star ok)!
The deco of the place was CHIC... Too CHIC to be like the famous HongKong Gangster movie starring Chow Yuan Fatt... The Black mirriory Like finishes are simply too fabulous.. I mean you can detect stucked veg in between your teeth everywhere u turn.... Its what i call customer concious designs. The place was huge with a nice view of the sea and smooching couples.... but one thing you must really do.. Thats to check out the LOO... aka TOOLET... It took me like 5 minutes to find it.... There are mirriors everywhere and its so camoflaged i almost peed on the washing basin...
NOW I KNOW WHY IT IS CALLED BOSSES.... In the event you need to hide... u can just camoflaged yourself or hide in some hidden space like the toolet and wait it out.. Your enemy can NEVER find you.... CHECKING THE TOILET IS A SUPER MUST....
Now we come to the food.. I pretty like the idea that they serve an excellent selection of teas.. If you are just feeling chatty, you could ask the waitress whats this tea for and what that tea is used to.. and soon you'll find yourself in a TCM class...
We ordered so much food but there are a few I must mention. 1st there this duck on fruit platter and boy... Its so good.. refreshingly sinless... Judging by the small strips of duck meat on top of this fruit platter, we won't get high cholestrol perhaps will only be overworked as we try to out eat all the others GRACEFULLY.... And theres this fried brinjal or eggplant.... its soft and crispy and very healthy.. Yum Yum... The fried noodles are great too... and not to forget the soup in which the serving is so huge.. One serving and there goes half my stomach.... Not to forget Cold Chickens.... So tender and soft and its COOL... really really nice..
Overall It was an intriguing experience... and its simply too fabulous for the GAGA Girls as in such an environment we are not frowned upon when we do the loud Ooohsss and Aaahhhss and the HA HA HA and the OH MY GOD! THIS IS GREAT.....
Its a experience of the lifetime... Be BOLD.. Try to be a Big Boss... You just never know what you never know....
1=SGD 0.0587
The same night of cake adventure hunting before we went to Grand Hyatt’s Mezza9. My secret food partner and i went in to Marriot pastry shop at the lobby to inquire whether they have any promotions for their cakes, but they only have half price for their pastries. And the staff were already packing up, so there’s only a few selections left.
Banana Muffin ($1.50 after half price)
Such a big muffin for only $1.50, grab one after 9pm!
Muffin ($1.50 after half price)
We brought two muffin since there were two types left.
Almond Crossiant ($1.75 after half price)
The nice look of the almond chips on the crossiant is what tempted us to bring it home.
Total bill for 2 muffins and 1 crossiant is $4.98 after half price promotion. Reasonably cheap for hotel standards pastries, sorry for the lack of details because we had the cakes from Mezza9 and were too full for the pastries here. My secret food partner took it home, and they were gone in an instant.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Wessex village, a tranquil and peaceful estate in the leafy Portsdown Road area is no stranger to the art scene in Singapore. Recently, with the entry of some new restaurants, it is slowly becoming the “It” place to be.
This will be good news for my fellow “west-erners” since LIC always lament the fact that the east side has more good food. With Holland Village, Chips Bee garden, Greenwood Avenue, Sunset way, Rochester Park, and now Wessex Village, who says there isn’t good places to chill in the West!
But this may not be music to the ears to some others, people who enjoyed the quaint environment and would rather preferred Wessex Village not to become the next Dempsey, over-rated and over-populated.
Have no fret about that, because currently in Wessex Village, there is only Pietrasanta an Italian restaurant, Laurent’s Cafe & Chocolate Bar, Klee a cocktail bar, and Colbar a very old-school coffee shop.
My friend and i explored the serene area, we checked out Pietrasanta but my friend wasn’t in the mood for Italian delights, but the place looks great and will definitely try it the next time round.
We decided on Cicada, an art centric casual restaurant lounge.
Nestled amid lush green vegetations, Wessex Village is a colonial style residential area surrounded by open space and trees to provide a soothing and relaxing ambience.
The building structure there are mostly colonial style, and this is the same for Cicada in a colonial type of bungalow building.
Al fresco area in Cicada is also spacious and roomy, which makes it a great place for friends to chill out under the the natural environment surrounded by greens, the village feel.
A large group of Caucasians chilling out, but don’t be quite mistaken by this scene. According to the manager Ronald, their main customers are actually locals and not Caucasians, and most of them are people from other area rather than the residents in Wessex estate.
Seafood Mango Salad ($13.90)
Marinated seafood and honey balsamic dressing makes up the Seafood Mango Salad. The mango is sweet, and the prawn springy. The greens together with the sweet honey balsamic dressing opens up your taste bud for the meal.
Sauteed Organic Mushrooms ($5.90)
Mushrooms are always a tricky dish, cook for too long and the mushroom becomes over-cooked, while finish it too early the mushroom will fail to absorb the essence of the other ingredients.
The Sauteed Organic mushrooms have a slight hint of white wine, wild herbs and tomato taste.
Smoothie Oreo ($12)
The Oreo Smoothie isn’t good enough, the oreo bits are left too big to go through the straw, usually they will be crushed and mixed with milk. We gave the feedback and the manager Ronald told us the reason was due to fault in the blender that day.
However it is still quite unforgivable as this is a restaurant after all, and the least they can do is to notified us about the problem which unfortunately, they didn’t.
Butter Croissant toast with smoked salmon ($13.90)
The butter croissant toast besides with the smoked salmon, comes with alternatives in ham, bacon or sausages. The greens in the toast complement the smoked salmon salty taste.
However, we lamented the fact that the croissant toast is not cripsy enough, the bread is too soft, and same for the green. We felt that it will be better if there is crunchier greens like cucumber added in, for a more complete taste.
The mayonnaise sauce also threatens to spoil the smoked salmon, fresh avocado sauce will perhaps be a better option to go along with the smoked salmon. The sandwich is an otherwise good and hearty dish, if Cicada can improve on the small issues.
Penne Pasta with seafood ($24.50)
The most expensive pasta on the menu, no doubt so with the ocean prawn, scallops and calamari in spicy marinara sauce. Different type of pasta suits different type of base, tomato base spaghetti is the only choice to go with it. Well for a spicier version, the penne pasta works well.
The first savor of the Penne pasta with seafood is excellent, the spicy sauce together with the oceanic taste floods our taste bud. However, the dish seems to lack in something, because after a while we got a little sick of the dish as it starts to be overwhelming.
Cicada Club Sandwich ($15.90)
The Cicada Club sandwich consists of bacon, lettuce, tomato, weisswurst sausage in focaccia bun. The bacon and sausage is decent, but again the use of mayo sauce here doesn’t quite complement the ingredients. Mayo will be better off when paired up with fried stuff.
Total Bill is $96.90 for the 2 of us. I think we sort of over-ordered given we had two appetizer, two sandwich, a pasta and a drink. The sandwich ranges in the tens, while pastas are in tens to twenty. The drink is definitely no go, while the sandwiches can really be better. And for once, i didn’t have any room for desserts.
I checked out the dinner menu as well, while lunch at Cicada is causal and simple food, dinner is more sophisticated with more selections of mains in the high twenty range. According to the manager, the atmosphere for dinner is more romantic and the area more closed up for more coziness.
We found the day-time area to be too ‘open’. Cicada should be going for the french open space concept, but this does not really encourage longer stay because the space is too bare and open. We believed that a more enclosed area, using different type of curtains can just do the trick.
All in all, Cicada promises a lot with its art-centric causal restaurant tag, but we ended up quite disappointed. Cicada certainly can be better, and hopefully the next time i dropped by Wessex, it will be a very different Cicada.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
” The next time, hopefully a very different Cicada “
Rating given:
One Twenty Six is a relatively new and swanky restaurant located at the now half year old rejuvenated Big Splash. Run by the same team behind One Rochester, the waterfront restaurant has a lot to live up to if it is to impress. Situated directly in front of the East Coast coastline, One Twenty Six boasts 2 seating arrangements. One alfresco seating and the other which is the usual fine dining establishment. In other words, the place is chic and demands at least a visit to see what the woo ha is a all about.
First off, let me apologise for the badly taken photos of the restaurant, the place definitely looks much better when you actually see it. And it is advisable to visit it at night when it is cooler since afternoons tend to heat the primarily glass made restaurant up quite a bit.
Complimentary Bread - To its credit, the place serves good bread which is made in house. They are all served warm and definitely gives the impression of being in a fine dining restaurant with its soft, fluffy and fragrant bread. Some had hazelnuts baked into them while others had raisins and hints of coffee. Add a dash of butter and its practically a meal on its own, if you are here for lunch, my advice is to ask for as much bread as possible if you are a big eater. That's my advice, take it if you like, ignore it at your own peril.
Salmon Roll/Seasoned Baby Octopus On Bed of Mesclun Salad with Japanese Dressing/Mediterranean Caprese Salad - All of the above starters had a fresh and satisfying taste about it to usher in the actual meal. The seasoned baby octopus was soft and sweet while the salmon was light and fresh. The caprese salad tastes like a cross between fish cakes and cheese with its tangy texture and milky taste but is still pretty good in the grand scheme of things.
Capellini Arrabiatta With Prawns - This main course packs quite a punch as it is very spicy albeit still maintaining a sweet tomato taste. The pasta itself tastes like a cross between chinese bee hoon and pasta with its fine strands but is definitely softer and more springy then the usual bee hoon strands. The prawns are juicy, sweet and crunchy as well. Overall, its a good filling course for people who like it spicy.
Oven Roasted Spatchcock, fork mash potato with sage jus - Spatch cock actually refers to the way the chicken is prepared. In this sense, it means the chicken is spread flat and roasted. A taste reveals an aromatic peppery taste and tender juicy meat. Pity the serving size was rather small though.
Pan Fried Sea Bass with potatoes and foam - In all honesty, the sea bass was rather thin and small. It was pan fried rather well despite the small serving. Crispy skin with a cheesy tasting foam around it. The meat itself retained much of its natural flavors and was sweet.
Roasted Lamb Loin - The lamb was done medium rare and very nice indeed. My tasting reveals well marinated and juicy meat which went well with the stew-like bed of greens below. Due to some technical issues, the waitress accidentally gave too much pepper to the dish but still, it turned out to be my favorite item at the restaurant so far.
Tiramisu/Rum and raisin nougat - While the main courses and starters might be hit or miss items, the desserts definitely had no such issue. Made fresh and sold on the day, the desserts differ daily for the lunch menu. The tiramisu had a good balance of cheese, rum and cake which helped bring out the flavors of each section. One of the better tiramisu's i've had but thats my opinion while the nougat was an interesting mixture of raisins, rum and ice cream which is very different. Nougat being nougat, i'd expected a cake or cookie like texture but this tasted more like ice cream and it melts albeit slowly. The taste of rum is strong but thats the way i like it.
All set lunches come with a choice of coffee or tea and i must say, they serve rather good coffee. Without the sourish taste that accompanies most gourmet coffees, this one was sightly bitter, strong and quite high on the acidity scale if i'm not wrong. I had the impression that it was also smooth and its something i wouldn't miss ordering if i'm here.
Portion size aside, the lunches offer a nice variety of choices to choose from and differs weekly so you'll rarely get the same choices twice. Judging by the way the restaurant cooked the lamb, i'll brave the storm and say that they probably do good in their meats (lamb and beef) but thats to be decided after i do try their 200 day old aged wagyu beef. The view and location is nice but slightly warm during noon. The service is good and friendly and their desserts are above average. Looking forward to try their degustation menu.
Rating given:
People always say, never eat cakes after 9.30pm! But who cares about the calories that comes along with the sinful indulgence? LIC says, have your cake and eat it! Especially since premium hotel cakes are going at half price after 9.30pm!
My secret food partner and i decided to go on a cake-hunt as we recalled that some hotels have half price promotions on their cakes after a certain timing. We went to Marriot hotel first, after which we found ourselves at Grand Hyatt, Mezza9.
Tiramisu ($7, half price $3.5)
The Tiramisu here is reasonably moist, laced with a hint of coffee flavor that doesn’t overpower the sweet mascarpone. I like the subtle taste, as some tiramisu has a very strong wine taste.
Black Forest ($5, half price $2.5)
The huge cherry on top of the Black Forest was what tempted my secret food partner to buy it. Ttogether with the chocolate shavings by the side, its a delight to look at and eat. At such a huge slice, even at its original price of $5 its worth a try.
Strawberry Cheesecake ($5, half price $2.5)
Classic baked cheese cake with a strawberry jelly topping complete with ginormous (gigantic & enormous) strawberries! The oreo cookie base makes us felt like we were eating a cheesecake duo, we can taste the classic cheese cake flavor, and if eaten together with the oreo base, the taste becomes oreo cheesecake!
The Strawberry cheesecake itself was very filling though, creamy and rich!
Caramel cake ($4, half price $2)
We came to a common consent that the caramel cake is our least favourite among the four cakes. For one, it doesn’t have the caramel taste, rather there’s a strong hint of coffee. If you like coffee cake, this is probably the one to get.
Nevertheless, it look pretty and its the cheapest at $2 after half price promotion!
Croissants ($2, half price $1)
Besides the cakes, the baking items are also at half price after 8.30pm. We got the croissants for a dollar after promotion.
Total Bill is a mere $11.50 for 4 slices of cakes and 1 bread. The cakes at Mezza9 although not in the excellent league, but its definitely your premium hotel cakes after all, and at half price promotions they are certainly a steal!
Takeaway temptations, bring home Mezza9 freshly homemade products and enjoy half prices on bakery items from 8.30pm and sliced cakes from 9.30pm daily. 15% discount is also offered for whole akes from 9.30pm.
LIC will be looking to explore many more hotels to enjoy the half price promotions! Cakes and more cakes!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
” More cakes, more cakes! “
Rating given:
An Outing with the GAGA Girls and their Lovable male Pals last nite.... In order to continue the SAGA of the GAGA Girl's Famous "Ha Ha Ha n Hee Hee Hee" we have decided to choose a place less prone to be starred at when we share our nonsensical thoughts louder then usual.
Brotzeit seemed like just the place. First the environment is NICE AND FRIENDLY... You can chill out or party there... makes no difference... The ambience is just so amiable With the beautiful long stretch of high bar side seats to the log like tables and the out door high bar tables to suit every needs.
Just what needs are we talking about? There had been a theory going around:
BAR SIDE SEATS = Available and Looking
LOG TABLE SEATS = Available but I'm With Friends.. So not free.
OUTDOOR HIGH BAR TABLEs = Not Available and We want some personal time.
So next time choose your seats carefully.
Now to the Food and Beer......
The GAGA Girls Loved White Wine which I have to say i'm not such a big fan of it.... But they love the Sauvignon Blanc the best and I believed if you look close enough in the bottle, you might find a baby fish swimming in it... Perhaps thats why I always felt it was fishy to taste... BTW the GAGA Girls are CRAZY DRINKERS.... They way they drink.. I'm sure I can be a fish monger soon. The other drink we tried was the mango beer.. It was a hue darker with a nice mango aroma not to mention a sparkle of zesty note to the taste.
We also tried dessert and the chocolate creme is the best. Its actually creme, coated with dark chocolate and has cherries inside. Its creamy and smooth texture makes the extra calories so worth it. The chocolate was of just the right sweetness and it simply melts in your mouth. As you dig deeper, you will find layers of soaked cherries which is rather delightful.
I must mention about the service. The waiters are so helpful, and not to mention Sooo Cute Looking.... Quite an eyeful i must say... They are prompt, friendly and sure knows what their specialities are. I can't help but feel so AT HOME in this restaurant.. Perhaps bring some cute waiters Home.... Oooppss.......
A must go.. especially single and available girls who enjoy good food, good drink and a good eyeful of cute waiters.....
GIRLS RULEZ!!!!!!
Rating given:
Island cafe at the Tangs shopping mall at Vivocity. You might find the association of Island cafe and Tangs weird, isn’t Tangs the fashion lifestyle retailer? What does Island cafe has to do with it?
Recently we have seen the rebranding of Tangs, from the old perception of Tangs is a boring place to shop, to the new image of a hip and lifestyle concept retailer store.
Naturally, Tangs wanted its customers to stay longer in its shopping mall, so it came out with Island Cafe for its customers to enjoy a little meal in between their shopping sprees. Tangs is not the first to come out with such ideas by combing food and shopping, think PS cafe and you will get the idea.
Island Cafe features a medley of local and regional favourite food, with choices like curry chicken, laksa, showing evidence of the “asian-ness”
The place at Vivocity is at ground floor within their shopping area. Exuding a rustic and tropical feel, there’s a cozy ambience factor with the small enclosed area.
Having heard about Island Cafe, naturally i was curious about how it’s like as i have never come here before. We decided to give the place a try while we are at Vivocity.
One look at the menu though, i immediately regretted coming in. Reason is simple, the menu selection is too little seriously. They got two choices of starters with the crab bisque as one. Two sandwiches, and two pizzas to choose from. There is four main course selection, laksa, curry chicken, green curry marinara, and black pepper aglio olio. And thats it!
We didn’t quite fancy the items available on the menu, but since we were there already, we just ordered their Guacamole & seafood pizza to share among the three of us.
Guacamole & seafood pizza ($12)
Guacamole, prawns, crabmeat, tomatoes, tomatoes paste and mozzarella make up the Gucamole & seafood Pizza. It comes in two price, $9 for the 5.5″ snack size, and $12 for the 8″ meat size.
The pizza is all right i guess, quite cheesy, with the pizza base thin. But i suppose at $12, you can easily find better pizzas around for a bigger size.
Total Bill is $14.04 for one pizza. I definitely will not go back to Island Cafe because the selections are simply too few and too little. Prices are acceptable considering its a cafe, but most of the choices seems more like hawker-type of food.
Besides the one located within Tangs at Vivocity, there’s also another Island Cafe at Tangs in Orchard.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
Seng Kee Black Herbal Chicken Soup is located just opposite Kembangan MRT station. I happened to chance upon this zi-char restaurant because my friends had cravings for their mee-sua.
So another venture into the east side of Singapore for LIC, as i stay in the west and the east is so far away. But there are simple too much good food in the area, so you will be seeing more food from the east in the future!
The zi-char store has all of its seat on the street, its rather cooling but when bad weather comes then it will be very difficult as i don’t think there are much shelter from rain.
The store has quite a few selections of fish available for customers to choose, and with the method of cooking the fish. But we didn’t have any fish because we ordered crab already.
Mee Sua ($3.50)
The rendition of Mee sua at Seng Kee comes in a stronger flavour than the normal ones, with ingredients like pig kidneys, mushroom in it. The mee sua is smooth and silky to the mouth.
We had 5 bowls for each of us, and i saw most tables ordering this dish and at $3.50 its definitely worth a try.
Egg Omelette ($8)
$8 for an egg omelette dish at a zi-char store might be a tad too expensive, if I’m not wrong egg dishes usually are about 6 bucks? Nevertheless, the egg omelette is quite good and we finish it very fast.
Crab Bee Hoon ($38)
The crab bee hoon is usually done in soup, but here at Seng Kee they do it “dry”. We were quite shocked at the size of the crab when it came because usually crabs at zi-char stores goes in the region of $30 for 1kg?
But the one that we had is $38, and the small crab that we had is definitely not 1kg. I felt ripped off as the price tag is certainly too expensive for the size of the crab.
The bee hoon is not bad though, as it absorbs all the essence of the crab and all the juicy wet part is at the bottom of the bee hoon.
Total bill including drinks for 5 person comes up to $76.80. At initial look, for a zi-char store and considering we had 5 person, its definitely not expensive. But, looking at the amount of food that we had, the crab bee hoon was definitely over-priced.
I’m not too sure about their other dishes as i have not tried them and it will not be fair to judge base on this experience. But their mee sua is worth a try, do give their crab bee hoon a miss.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words. Food, my dear, is what they call an adventure!
Rating given:
I came here with popeye after our weekday lazy afternoon shopping spree..
It was one of those places where we always remind ourselves we will go but will never go.. So today, It was pretty much after lunch time and there was no queue, so we went in... The deco was ok... a little too dim for my liking and the sits are tight... We sat on the corner and the table was STICKY.. yes quote me STICKY...
The service was ok.. with many waiters and waitresses walking around however none have got attention for me...
I ordered this nice drink, something with lemon grass and found it pretty refreshing and amazing.. Though it reminds me of TomYum soup, it was something different and I would say special. Popeye ordered the french toast which looked rather Normal and slumpy and it taste great! Not too oily but creamy butter makes it savoury and they give you a jar of honey for you to drizzle on top... TAKE AS MUCH AS YOU WANT. As a kiasu singaporean on a shopping spree.. I WAS DELIGHTED...
I ordered PorkChops Sandwich and it was so NICE.... Pork was soft and chewie and the sauce is yummy... It was really fabulous.... If you want yummy high tea.. this is surely the place to go..... Recharge the leg power for more CHEAP CHEAP BIG SALE... Yeah!!!!!
Rating given:
Dear Diary,
Today I brought my dad and mum out to TOWN for shopping.. Though they are not so IN... I've decided to show them the Hang Out Place for the Youngsters.. as what they always call us..
After the much shocking experience with jap fashion, everywhere piercings and pacifiers, I thought i should bring them back to earth for a while and there we are.. the most decent looking, normal chinese cafe... the XW Cafe...
Serving HongKong styled cuisines, My dad and mum heaved a sigh of relieve and then they got another shock.... My dad's Ice Kopi came in a metal mug... He can't help but have to hum the jian yu feng yun song... (Famous Movie starring Chow Yuan Fatt in jail).
My mum then ordered her favourite PorK Chop and its really true.... Hong Kong style PORK CHOP really nice.... Dad Ordered the nominal HorFun, perhaps coz he wants to have some fun... But boy.. its yummy. It came with 5 huge prawns all fresh and so crunchy.... The prawn juice pratically squirts out when i chew on it....Of Course.. I make sure i look gracious and very high class when i wipe the juice from my mouth.. heehee! I ordered this french toast thingee and it appeared as a cube of bread... But boy.. the maple syrup and the cold storage butter goes so well with the pipping hot french toast... As u slice the toast, the maple syrup drools down the side.. Can you imagine that....... Sooo Soooo Tantalizing....
When i finally manage to slice a nice piece and savour it in my mouth.. stars laterally appeared.. I'm not sure if its the yummy sensation or the low blood pressure.. but gosh I REALLY SEE STARs.... Since then I've decided that I'll BE BACK........
The price is reasonable and its a wonderful place to hang out with young or the NOT SO YOUNG Pals... Includes mum n dad.... NOT TO BE MISSED.....
Rating given:
It was another fabulous nite out with my GAGA pals.. and guess what... we decided to rave it out the gangster way....
I was actually hoping to find a xiao ma ge mannequin inside.. But don't have leh.... Only could find some really sissy waiters... (oops) Like those in the movie.... (Movie Star ok)!
The deco of the place was CHIC... Too CHIC to be like the famous HongKong Gangster movie starring Chow Yuan Fatt... The Black mirriory Like finishes are simply too fabulous.. I mean you can detect stucked veg in between your teeth everywhere u turn.... Its what i call customer concious designs. The place was huge with a nice view of the sea and smooching couples.... but one thing you must really do.. Thats to check out the LOO... aka TOOLET... It took me like 5 minutes to find it.... There are mirriors everywhere and its so camoflaged i almost peed on the washing basin...
NOW I KNOW WHY IT IS CALLED BOSSES.... In the event you need to hide... u can just camoflaged yourself or hide in some hidden space like the toolet and wait it out.. Your enemy can NEVER find you.... CHECKING THE TOILET IS A SUPER MUST....
Now we come to the food.. I pretty like the idea that they serve an excellent selection of teas.. If you are just feeling chatty, you could ask the waitress whats this tea for and what that tea is used to.. and soon you'll find yourself in a TCM class...
We ordered so much food but there are a few I must mention. 1st there this duck on fruit platter and boy... Its so good.. refreshingly sinless... Judging by the small strips of duck meat on top of this fruit platter, we won't get high cholestrol perhaps will only be overworked as we try to out eat all the others GRACEFULLY.... And theres this fried brinjal or eggplant.... its soft and crispy and very healthy.. Yum Yum... The fried noodles are great too... and not to forget the soup in which the serving is so huge.. One serving and there goes half my stomach.... Not to forget Cold Chickens.... So tender and soft and its COOL... really really nice..
Overall It was an intriguing experience... and its simply too fabulous for the GAGA Girls as in such an environment we are not frowned upon when we do the loud Ooohsss and Aaahhhss and the HA HA HA and the OH MY GOD! THIS IS GREAT.....
Its a experience of the lifetime... Be BOLD.. Try to be a Big Boss... You just never know what you never know....
Rating given: