Heard many good things about Santouka or らーめん 山頭火 since its opening at Central a couple of months back so popped by for dinner one weekend. Santouka originates from Hokkaido and has a chain of about 50 stores in Japan. Their shio (salted) ramen has been praised by many as one of the best around.
Hidden in an obscure corner of Central just behind Grains, Santouka occupies a small dining area which overlooks Clarke Quay and the river. Sitting capacity probably peaks at about 30 pax so queues are a common sight. Just for the record, I had to wait for a good 25 mins for a table at 745pm on a Saturday evening.
Char Siew Rice Shio - This came as a set consisting of char siew rice, char siew ramen (shio) and an egg. Honestly, the ramen looked like instant noodles to me but thankfully, it tasted a whole lot better - springy and light. The milky pork base broth was rather rich and intense in flavour and had a very distinctive pork taste. Not that its really a good thing though because it made me nauseous after a while. The char siew slices were a little too soft for my liking and it didn't help that they were salty.
The char siew rice was average, but at least the rice helped to neutralise the saltiness of the char siew. As for the egg, I've never eaten such stuff before but I didn't quite take to it as the texture of the egg white was a little jelly like, which turned me off.
Toro Niku Shio Ramen - Toro Niku is precious cheek meat from a pig and is said to have the right amount of fat and tenderness. I agree to a certain extent. Right amount of fat, yes. Tenderness, a little too tender if you ask me. And it was plain salty which made me uneasy after a while. It definitely didn't help that the broth was rich. Salty and milky equals a recipe for nausea, for me at least. As with the char siew shio ramen, the ramen itself was springy and light.
Tokusen Toroniku - This was a side order of the beef cheek, which did seem like a mistake after all. A little too tender and salty, just like the ones that came with the Toro Niku Shio Ramen. And $8 for 6 slices of meat isn't exactly value for money honestly.
Dinner for 2 came up to a nice round figure of $50 and we walked out feeling nauseous. That's too much milky and salty stuff for you. In all fairness, the ramen was actually very decent but I still prefer Tampopo's rendition, if anything, for the pork. For me, once is enough. I really don't fancy queuing up for 30 mins just to have a go at Santouka again.
Singapore Airlines is truly a great way to fly! I agree with Feizhu that they offer excellent in-flight entertainment. I commute to Australia pretty often over the past few yrs and compared to Qantas, their movies and games on offering are very good.
Although leg space is always a problem for me in budget flight, it is not same for me in SQ. One thing I particularly look forward to when I board SQ each time is that they dished out local newspaper on board - TNA and ST!!! Oh and not forgetting local delights like Mee Goreng for return flight.
Sad to say, standard of the Singapore Girl has fallen over the years from looks to service - Blah - but nevertheless they are still a looker compared to the aunties in BA.
Singapore airlines ranks first in my choice of airlines partially because I'm Singaporean! However there's more to Singapore airlines than blind patriotism. Its one of the few airlines that offer inflight entertainment consisting of dozens of movies and games which is guaranteed to occupy you even for the longest of journeys (I used to commute between Canada and Singapore - a 17 hr journey!) Service is decent but leg space loses out to other European/American airlines. I Like the fact that I can custom my meals as well. But do note that it costs quite a bit more than other airlines.
Social Media Breakfast 2: Singapore is held at Cafe Domus, a very cool cafe which operates only when the sun goes down, and party till late night. Luckily for us, SMB main organizer Daryl managed to get the owner of the place to open the place for us.
Cafe Domus is located at 124 Owen Road, the nearest Mrt Station is Farrer Park (NEL). The other shop houses along Owen Road is definitely not what you will expect a cafe like Domus will be located at, the area is more like a industrial area.
From the outside, this is certainly not what i had imagined the place to be like. So imagine the suprise that i got when i stepped to the back of the cafe. Wow! is the word to describe.
It seems that we have been transported into a different world all together, from the bright pink wallpaper of the cafe front with its chandelier, welcome to the natural open-space garden!
The seats are logs in case you didn’t notice, and the small bamboo shoots provided cover from the blazing sun. Mosquito coils are prepared on hand, to prevent any “unpleasant” incidents.
I must admit the place is really quite an eye-opener for me, its unique Al fresco area will be even better during the night, with small candles lit up all over the place, can you imagine how it will be like?
I even climb up the stairs to the upper area where there’s this small area which can seat about 4-5. Great place if you want to spend some time with your love ones and friends.
We had catered food, which was not on the usual menu. But a quick glance at their menu, they have finger food, and also home-made desserts like brownies and cakes.
Cafe Domus also serve alcohol drinks like vodka and martinis, and a wide range of other drinks. Its really a very cool place to chill out with your friends.
And if you are staying nearby, or alone the NEL, there's totally no reason for not visiting the place! Go on check them out, and do remember they only start operations at 7pm till late night.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Coffee Club @ Holland Village is located right at the end of Lorong Mambong, the street that is the heart and soul of Holland Village. Having live in Holland when i was young, the street has since undergo many transformations, and i think most of the shops back then are not there anymore.
After reading Coffee Club’s website, i then realized that they had actually opened their first gourmet coffee house in Holland Village in 1991. But to be honest, i didn’t have any memories of Coffee Club back then.
Today Coffee Club has 21 outlets island-wide, and this is actually the first time i’m stepping into Coffee Club. Can you believe it? Well i been to Coffee Bean, Starbucks, but not Coffee Club.
And i have not went to The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) before either, looks like a visit to TCC is on the cards.
The interior of the Coffee Club at Holland Village is relaxing, and looks great for a chill-out place. Thats exactly the reason that prompted my friend and i here.
There’s also al fresco area for those who like to stay out of the air-condition.
Iced Mocha ($6.90) My friend had the iced mocha, like i mentioned previously in the Cedele post, i’m not a big fan of mocha, i rather spend the money on desserts, but my friend find the mocha to be all right.
Vienna Chocolate Cake ($5) This, is what i’ll spend on my money on when i frequent coffee houses and cafes. Seriously i wont spend 6-7 bucks on a cup of coffee, partly because i don’t drink much coffee also. I love desserts, give me desserts everyday!
The Vienna Chocolate cake by its account, isn’t that great, there’s nothing special about the cake, well except its chocolate.
But to be fair, at 5 bucks a slice, it is really quite worth the money if you often have cravings for cakes, like me.
Total Bill was $14 for one mocha and one cake after the 17% you-know-what. The ambience of Coffee Club at Holland Village branch was excellent for a chill-out place, my friend and i were there chatting for about two hours, and there wasn’t much crowd around.
The menu for their main course looks tempting, in the dollar sense its quite reasonable. But i’m quite skeptical about the quality of the food in coffee houses. We’ll see how it goes then. Maybe when i’m low on budget, i’ll give their mains a try. Until then, chill-out!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
While Frolick has been making waves in Holland Village, Yoguru has been garnering their own horde of fans over at the other side of the island at Kallang Leisure Park.
They have position themselves their yoghurt as the healthy non-fat choice of dessert with no preservatives and addictives added, which I reckon will strike a chord with all the health conscious. Produced fresh right in their store daily, Yoguru’s menu currently only consist of two flavours, Original and YoguBliss – the latter a fruity mix of Dragonfruit & Pomegranate which are famed for their anti-oxidants.
If one is in a dilemma of which flavour to savour, fret not as Yoguru offers a choice of both flavours in one serving – think of it as “Twist” from McDonalds – where one gets to sample and enjoy both flavours at the same time! Texture wise, Yoguru’s yoghurt is rather creamy and smooth, but I reckon Frolick’s version is silkier. Taste wise I always associate Original flavoured yoghurt as sour – somewhere along those produced by Yami Yoghurt – but Yoguru’s version was surprisingly sweet, in fact the Original is sweeter than that of YoguBliss which gave me a pretty mixed feeling.
Price starts from $3.30 for a regular serving of Original to $9.30 for a jumbo take home version of the YoguBliss – toppings are charged separately ($1.20 for 1 choice, $1.80 for 2, and $2.20 for 3 toppings). And for those who think that Yoguru’s location isn’t as convenient, you might be pleased to know they have plans to expand to town – so look out for it!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
Cedele by The Bakery Depot was founded by Ms Yeap Cheng Guat in July 1997. After spending many years in the multi-nationals, Ms Yeap decided to put her baking passion to test.
The flagship store in East Coast is the first of many more to come, till date Cedele has 14 outlets island-wide.
Cedele Bakery is known for their wide range of sandwiches, delicious repertoire of bread, and cakes.
There are two outlets in Raffles City (I didn’t know until later), one in basement and another in level 3. A friend and i visited the one at basement of raffles city.
I like their concept of self pick-up for some of the pastries and bread.
For the sandwiches, you get to choose from different type of bread, milk bap, oatbran, country white, wholemeal linseed, and organic wholewheat.
Tuna Salad Sandwich ($6) Savory tuna sandwich with chopped red bell pepper and celery, and finished with a lot of cold fresh lettuce.
My friend chose country white for his bread, but he found it a tad too dry and hard. The fresh lettuces are refreshing and there’s a generous spread of the tuna.
Mocha ($3.50) I’m not really a big fan of mocha, but my friend find it to be all right. And at $3.50, its really cheaper than your Star Bucks and Coffee Bean.
The emphasis for Cedele is more on their bread, sandwiches and pastries. I applause them for their affordable price range for their coffees.
Chocolate Banana Espresso Cake ($6) Melts in your mouth, this is a soft chocolate cake sandwiched with fresh caramelized banana, topped with espresso chocolate frosting, and finished with crunchy walnut strussel, oat strussel.
The banana taste is evident in the Chocolate Banana Espresso cake, and the walnut adds a crunchy bite to the cake. But I’m still not quite convince by chocolate banana cakes. Not that the ones here aren’t good, just that chocolate and banana doesn’t really suits my taste bud.
Total Bill was $18.13 for one sandwich, one drink and one cake. Cedele looks promising with its wide range of sandwiches, and cakes. Furthermore, the drinks like mocha and latte isn’t very expensive, price ranging from 2 bucks to 4-5 bucks. I think i will be back to give their sandwiches and pastries another try.
Just for your information, LIC usually does not like to repeat going to a same restaurant or cafe because he’ll rather spend the money trying out new stuff at other places.
But in the case of Cedele, their prices are quite reasonable and affordable, so yeah, look out for Cedele II!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Popped by Tampopo (タンポポ) for dinner one evening since I was in the vicinity. Tampopo, which means dandelion(a kind of flower) in English, shares the same name with a popular culinary movie in Japan in the mid eighties. The movie focuses on Ramen, which incidentally, is what Tampopo is known for.
Located within Liang Court, Tampopo portrays itself as a casual Japanese diner and shares the premises with Tomton, its sister restaurant which specialises in Kurobuta pork.
Shabu Ramen - Billed as THE ramen to try, as featured in the Straits Times, the shabu ramen had a flavourful soup base with a strong hint of pork yet didn't come across as too overwhelming. According to the menu, the soup is made by boiling pork bones for 2 days, which I guess explains its rich flavour. The ramen was springy with lots of bite while the thinly sliced pork was tender and a tad chewy.
Omelette Rice - The omelette rice, or Omurice, was quite well done in my humble opinion (not that I've tried alot though). Moist and fluffy Japanese rice with a few token pieces of chicken wrapped up in a nice thick layer of soft and milky scrambled eggs.
Special Loin - This is Tomton's specialty and I am most inclined to agree. The meat was lightly breaded and very crispy on the outside yet retaining its tenderness and moisture inside. It tasted fresh with not a bit of the oily residue taste that tends to plague deep fried pork cutlets. Really excellent piece of pork but rather small for $17.
Cheese Chiffon - I ordered this dessert because the other chiffons were sold out. And I actually regretted it as it spoilt what would have been a satisfying meal. The chiffon, though light, was practically tasteless and I certainly didn't appreciate sporadic gratings of cheese which did nothing more than allow the chiffon to live up to its name? Maybe it just didn't do it for me.
I liked the food and $55 for 2 pax isn't too expensive a price to pay. There is a wee bit of a ventilation problem there so you might walk out faintly smelling of food. The place can get crowded so going early especially on weekends is recommended.
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie, an online blog pastisserie selling exclusive gourmet pastry. Most of the pastries there are in limited quantity, but they definitely do not lose out in quality.
We had the chance to sample the Rocky Road Mousse Cake as one of my friend ordered it from Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie for Petrina’s birthday while we were at Peach Garden celebrating.
Crunchy walnuts and chewy marshmallow in every bite awashed with thick creamy chocolate ganache!
Our Rocky Road Mousse cake is the round 7 inch which can serve 8-10 people and it comes at a price of $38. There are even different flavours of marshmallows inside the cake!
Maybe i’m a little behind time, but this is actually the first time that i had a cake which is filled with marshmallows in between, and the result is wow!
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie doesn’t have many variety of cakes available, but for the lack in choices, the ones that they offer certainly are excellent and is priced reasonably. I’ll be looking to get other cakes from them soon. So stop getting your cakes from boring places you-know-where (i’m not naming the bakeries)
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant @ OCBC Centre 33rd Floor is co-owned by Angela Ho and Veronica Tan, former managers of the established Hua Ting restaurant. The pair struck out on their own in 2002, and the rest like they say, were history. Peach Garden is now one of the Chinese restaurants on the radar of corporates.
Located at the 33rd floor, the restaurant offers diners a splendid bird’s eye view of the Singapore River and the city area.
The modern contemporary Chinese decor will make diner feel right at home.
It will be highly recommended for customers to make a reservation before going, as the window seats are usually taken up. One of the waitress greeted us at the main lobby on the ground floor, after checking our reservations, we were guided up to 33rd floor.
Peach Garden is popular for their Cantonese dishes, and dim sum. The selection for dim sum isn’t wide with 23 different types, however for what they lacked in variety, they make it up in quality.
Most of the dim-sum comes in basket of 3 each, but as we got 8 person, they were flexible to allow us order 8 pieces of dim-sum instead. So i’ll be putting the price for all the dim sum here for per piece rather than per basket.
Baked BBQ pork pastry ($1.30) The baked BBQ pork pastry, or more commonly known as char-siew sou, i find it to be quite all right, but the others didn’t like it because they had better ones at Yan ting @ St Regis before.
Baked Mini Egg Tart ($1.30) The baked mini egg tarts were fine, the skin was crispy, and the egg filling is just nice. However at $1.30 each, they are terribly expensive since i had better and bigger egg tarts at much cheaper price before.
Steamed Fresh Prawn Dumpling ($1.60) The steamed fresh prawn dumpling, or more affectionately known as har-gau. The ones at Peach Garden has a wholesome shrimp wrapped within the skin of the dumpling.
But at $1.60 for each har-gau, they are priced slightly higher than your normal ones at other places.
Steamed Siew Mai with Phoenix prawn ($1.60) The rendition of siew mai or pork dumpling is redefined at Peach Garden. Whereas your typical siew mai taste mainly of pork, the ones here has a phoenix prawn, which gives the siew mai a prawnier taste.
Steamed BBQ pork bun ($1.20) I always love to eat steamed BBQ pork buns from chinese dim sum restaurant, well because they are not the same as the ones you get from outside.
The ones in restaurants are usually consist of three parts, i’ll tear off each part and slowly savour the sweet char-siew with the bun.
Fried Carrot cake with X.O sauce ($8) When you read fried carrot cake, please erase off all of whatever memories you had of carrot cake. Now when we are talking about fried carrot cake with X.O sauce here, its not your ordinary black or white char-kway in the hawker centre.
The carrot cake here is slightly crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. But i couldn’t taste much of the X.O sauce, and at $8 per small serving, i find it to be quite on the high side.
Steamed yolk cream bun ($1.20) The signature dim-sum of Peach Garden, its delicious steamed yolk cream bun. The beautiful golden yellow custard filling oozes out when i prise it open.
Steamed rice roll with prawn ($4.50) The steamed rice roll with prawn, or your Chee Cheong Fun is served in two versions, one with prawn at $4.50, and the other steamed rice roll with chicken at $4.
The Chee Cheong Fun was quite disappointing here, it didn’t taste as well i thought it will, its quite ordinary to tell the truth.
Boiled porridge with century egg and pork ($3.80) The boiled porridge with century egg and pork is one of the disappointment for the meal at Peach Garden. Too salty, we ordered 4 bowls and almost couldn’t finish it.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao with Conpoy ($1.30) I’m not really a big fan of Xiao Long Bao, i guess the ones here are average, a couple of us didn’t really find it to be good.
Baked Spare Rib with BBQ Sauce ($7 per piece) The signature baked spare rib with BBQ sauce comes at a hefty price, at $7 per piece, you can easily have a plate of spare ribs elsewhere.
But to be fair, the presentation of the spare rib was done nicely, and the rib is bigger than your normal ribs, with the BBQ sauce combining well with spare ribs.
There were difference in portions of the ribs, so depending on your luck, some of us got slightly bigger ribs with more meat, while some got thinner ribs.
Total Bill was $178.20 for 8 person, after a 15% credit card discount. The price comes much cheaper than i had expected so it was a surprise, and if you do not included the $7 spare ribs, it will be roughly $16 for person instead of about $22.
Results were mixed, some like me found it to be quite good, while others find that Peach Garden didn’t match their expectations. I guess everybody has different taste buds, but personally, i find Peach Garden to be quite good, the price may be slightly above average, but given a rationale person taking the menu and not over-ordering, the result is good dim sum at reasonable price.
Service-wise we also encountered mixed results. The waitress were way too fast in serving the dim-sum. As the table was all food bloggers, all of us were busy taking photos of the food, and before we managed to finish taking the photo of one dim sum, the other dim sum was served.
I felt that the waitress should have taken note that we were not ready for the serving of the other dim sum, but sad to say they failed to do so. Also, they missed out our order of Xiao Long Bao and the ribs, and also forgot to bring us our additional order of the har-gau.
But they did slightly make up when they helped us putting the birthday cake (one of us birthday celebration) into a beautiful plate, and they also provide a knife which had remote control to play birthday song music.
All in all, at 33rd floor offering a wonderful view of the city, the quite reasonable pricing of the dim-sum, it offers me an excuse to revisit Peach Garden again. And Peach Garden has two other outlets at Novena and Thomson Plaza!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Contemporary Cantonese cuisine, with splendid bird’s eye view of the city “
1=SGD 0.0587
Heard many good things about Santouka or らーめん 山頭火 since its opening at Central a couple of months back so popped by for dinner one weekend. Santouka originates from Hokkaido and has a chain of about 50 stores in Japan. Their shio (salted) ramen has been praised by many as one of the best around.
Hidden in an obscure corner of Central just behind Grains, Santouka occupies a small dining area which overlooks Clarke Quay and the river. Sitting capacity probably peaks at about 30 pax so queues are a common sight. Just for the record, I had to wait for a good 25 mins for a table at 745pm on a Saturday evening.
Char Siew Rice Shio - This came as a set consisting of char siew rice, char siew ramen (shio) and an egg. Honestly, the ramen looked like instant noodles to me but thankfully, it tasted a whole lot better - springy and light. The milky pork base broth was rather rich and intense in flavour and had a very distinctive pork taste. Not that its really a good thing though because it made me nauseous after a while. The char siew slices were a little too soft for my liking and it didn't help that they were salty.
The char siew rice was average, but at least the rice helped to neutralise the saltiness of the char siew. As for the egg, I've never eaten such stuff before but I didn't quite take to it as the texture of the egg white was a little jelly like, which turned me off.
Toro Niku Shio Ramen - Toro Niku is precious cheek meat from a pig and is said to have the right amount of fat and tenderness. I agree to a certain extent. Right amount of fat, yes. Tenderness, a little too tender if you ask me. And it was plain salty which made me uneasy after a while. It definitely didn't help that the broth was rich. Salty and milky equals a recipe for nausea, for me at least. As with the char siew shio ramen, the ramen itself was springy and light.
Tokusen Toroniku - This was a side order of the beef cheek, which did seem like a mistake after all. A little too tender and salty, just like the ones that came with the Toro Niku Shio Ramen. And $8 for 6 slices of meat isn't exactly value for money honestly.
Dinner for 2 came up to a nice round figure of $50 and we walked out feeling nauseous. That's too much milky and salty stuff for you. In all fairness, the ramen was actually very decent but I still prefer Tampopo's rendition, if anything, for the pork. For me, once is enough. I really don't fancy queuing up for 30 mins just to have a go at Santouka again.
See all my pictures here.
Rating given:
Singapore Airlines is truly a great way to fly! I agree with Feizhu that they offer excellent in-flight entertainment. I commute to Australia pretty often over the past few yrs and compared to Qantas, their movies and games on offering are very good.
Although leg space is always a problem for me in budget flight, it is not same for me in SQ. One thing I particularly look forward to when I board SQ each time is that they dished out local newspaper on board - TNA and ST!!! Oh and not forgetting local delights like Mee Goreng for return flight.
Sad to say, standard of the Singapore Girl has fallen over the years from looks to service - Blah - but nevertheless they are still a looker compared to the aunties in BA.
Rating given:
Singapore airlines ranks first in my choice of airlines partially because I'm Singaporean! However there's more to Singapore airlines than blind patriotism. Its one of the few airlines that offer inflight entertainment consisting of dozens of movies and games which is guaranteed to occupy you even for the longest of journeys (I used to commute between Canada and Singapore - a 17 hr journey!)
Service is decent but leg space loses out to other European/American airlines. I Like the fact that I can custom my meals as well.
But do note that it costs quite a bit more than other airlines.
Rating given:
Social Media Breakfast 2: Singapore is held at Cafe Domus, a very cool cafe which operates only when the sun goes down, and party till late night. Luckily for us, SMB main organizer Daryl managed to get the owner of the place to open the place for us.
Cafe Domus is located at 124 Owen Road, the nearest Mrt Station is Farrer Park (NEL). The other shop houses along Owen Road is definitely not what you will expect a cafe like Domus will be located at, the area is more like a industrial area.
From the outside, this is certainly not what i had imagined the place to be like. So imagine the suprise that i got when i stepped to the back of the cafe. Wow! is the word to describe.
It seems that we have been transported into a different world all together, from the bright pink wallpaper of the cafe front with its chandelier, welcome to the natural open-space garden!
The seats are logs in case you didn’t notice, and the small bamboo shoots provided cover from the blazing sun. Mosquito coils are prepared on hand, to prevent any “unpleasant” incidents.
I must admit the place is really quite an eye-opener for me, its unique Al fresco area will be even better during the night, with small candles lit up all over the place, can you imagine how it will be like?
I even climb up the stairs to the upper area where there’s this small area which can seat about 4-5. Great place if you want to spend some time with your love ones and friends.
We had catered food, which was not on the usual menu. But a quick glance at their menu, they have finger food, and also home-made desserts like brownies and cakes.
Cafe Domus also serve alcohol drinks like vodka and martinis, and a wide range of other drinks. Its really a very cool place to chill out with your friends.
And if you are staying nearby, or alone the NEL, there's totally no reason for not visiting the place! Go on check them out, and do remember they only start operations at 7pm till late night.
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
Rating given:
Coffee Club @ Holland Village is located right at the end of Lorong Mambong, the street that is the heart and soul of Holland Village. Having live in Holland when i was young, the street has since undergo many transformations, and i think most of the shops back then are not there anymore.
After reading Coffee Club’s website, i then realized that they had actually opened their first gourmet coffee house in Holland Village in 1991. But to be honest, i didn’t have any memories of Coffee Club back then.
Today Coffee Club has 21 outlets island-wide, and this is actually the first time i’m stepping into Coffee Club. Can you believe it? Well i been to Coffee Bean, Starbucks, but not Coffee Club.
And i have not went to The Coffee Connoisseur (TCC) before either, looks like a visit to TCC is on the cards.
The interior of the Coffee Club at Holland Village is relaxing, and looks great for a chill-out place. Thats exactly the reason that prompted my friend and i here.
There’s also al fresco area for those who like to stay out of the air-condition.
Iced Mocha ($6.90)
My friend had the iced mocha, like i mentioned previously in the Cedele post, i’m not a big fan of mocha, i rather spend the money on desserts, but my friend find the mocha to be all right.
Vienna Chocolate Cake ($5)
This, is what i’ll spend on my money on when i frequent coffee houses and cafes. Seriously i wont spend 6-7 bucks on a cup of coffee, partly because i don’t drink much coffee also. I love desserts, give me desserts everyday!
The Vienna Chocolate cake by its account, isn’t that great, there’s nothing special about the cake, well except its chocolate.
But to be fair, at 5 bucks a slice, it is really quite worth the money if you often have cravings for cakes, like me.
Total Bill was $14 for one mocha and one cake after the 17% you-know-what. The ambience of Coffee Club at Holland Village branch was excellent for a chill-out place, my friend and i were there chatting for about two hours, and there wasn’t much crowd around.
The menu for their main course looks tempting, in the dollar sense its quite reasonable. But i’m quite skeptical about the quality of the food in coffee houses. We’ll see how it goes then. Maybe when i’m low on budget, i’ll give their mains a try. Until then, chill-out!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Chill, chill, chill-out! “
Rating given:
While Frolick has been making waves in Holland Village, Yoguru has been garnering their own horde of fans over at the other side of the island at Kallang Leisure Park.
They have position themselves their yoghurt as the healthy non-fat choice of dessert with no preservatives and addictives added, which I reckon will strike a chord with all the health conscious. Produced fresh right in their store daily, Yoguru’s menu currently only consist of two flavours, Original and YoguBliss – the latter a fruity mix of Dragonfruit & Pomegranate which are famed for their anti-oxidants.
If one is in a dilemma of which flavour to savour, fret not as Yoguru offers a choice of both flavours in one serving – think of it as “Twist” from McDonalds – where one gets to sample and enjoy both flavours at the same time! Texture wise, Yoguru’s yoghurt is rather creamy and smooth, but I reckon Frolick’s version is silkier. Taste wise I always associate Original flavoured yoghurt as sour – somewhere along those produced by Yami Yoghurt – but Yoguru’s version was surprisingly sweet, in fact the Original is sweeter than that of YoguBliss which gave me a pretty mixed feeling.
Price starts from $3.30 for a regular serving of Original to $9.30 for a jumbo take home version of the YoguBliss – toppings are charged separately ($1.20 for 1 choice, $1.80 for 2, and $2.20 for 3 toppings). And for those who think that Yoguru’s location isn’t as convenient, you might be pleased to know they have plans to expand to town – so look out for it!
You can view more photos and other reviews @ His Food Blog.
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Cedele by The Bakery Depot was founded by Ms Yeap Cheng Guat in July 1997. After spending many years in the multi-nationals, Ms Yeap decided to put her baking passion to test.
The flagship store in East Coast is the first of many more to come, till date Cedele has 14 outlets island-wide.
Cedele Bakery is known for their wide range of sandwiches, delicious repertoire of bread, and cakes.
There are two outlets in Raffles City (I didn’t know until later), one in basement and another in level 3. A friend and i visited the one at basement of raffles city.
I like their concept of self pick-up for some of the pastries and bread.
For the sandwiches, you get to choose from different type of bread, milk bap, oatbran, country white, wholemeal linseed, and organic wholewheat.
Tuna Salad Sandwich ($6)
Savory tuna sandwich with chopped red bell pepper and celery, and finished with a lot of cold fresh lettuce.
My friend chose country white for his bread, but he found it a tad too dry and hard. The fresh lettuces are refreshing and there’s a generous spread of the tuna.
Mocha ($3.50)
I’m not really a big fan of mocha, but my friend find it to be all right. And at $3.50, its really cheaper than your Star Bucks and Coffee Bean.
The emphasis for Cedele is more on their bread, sandwiches and pastries. I applause them for their affordable price range for their coffees.
Chocolate Banana Espresso Cake ($6)
Melts in your mouth, this is a soft chocolate cake sandwiched with fresh caramelized banana, topped with espresso chocolate frosting, and finished with crunchy walnut strussel, oat strussel.
The banana taste is evident in the Chocolate Banana Espresso cake, and the walnut adds a crunchy bite to the cake. But I’m still not quite convince by chocolate banana cakes. Not that the ones here aren’t good, just that chocolate and banana doesn’t really suits my taste bud.
Total Bill was $18.13 for one sandwich, one drink and one cake. Cedele looks promising with its wide range of sandwiches, and cakes. Furthermore, the drinks like mocha and latte isn’t very expensive, price ranging from 2 bucks to 4-5 bucks. I think i will be back to give their sandwiches and pastries another try.
Just for your information, LIC usually does not like to repeat going to a same restaurant or cafe because he’ll rather spend the money trying out new stuff at other places.
But in the case of Cedele, their prices are quite reasonable and affordable, so yeah, look out for Cedele II!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” The Bread bakery cafe “
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Popped by Tampopo (タンポポ) for dinner one evening since I was in the vicinity. Tampopo, which means dandelion(a kind of flower) in English, shares the same name with a popular culinary movie in Japan in the mid eighties. The movie focuses on Ramen, which incidentally, is what Tampopo is known for.
Located within Liang Court, Tampopo portrays itself as a casual Japanese diner and shares the premises with Tomton, its sister restaurant which specialises in Kurobuta pork.
Shabu Ramen - Billed as THE ramen to try, as featured in the Straits Times, the shabu ramen had a flavourful soup base with a strong hint of pork yet didn't come across as too overwhelming. According to the menu, the soup is made by boiling pork bones for 2 days, which I guess explains its rich flavour. The ramen was springy with lots of bite while the thinly sliced pork was tender and a tad chewy.
Omelette Rice - The omelette rice, or Omurice, was quite well done in my humble opinion (not that I've tried alot though). Moist and fluffy Japanese rice with a few token pieces of chicken wrapped up in a nice thick layer of soft and milky scrambled eggs.
Special Loin - This is Tomton's specialty and I am most inclined to agree. The meat was lightly breaded and very crispy on the outside yet retaining its tenderness and moisture inside. It tasted fresh with not a bit of the oily residue taste that tends to plague deep fried pork cutlets. Really excellent piece of pork but rather small for $17.
Cheese Chiffon - I ordered this dessert because the other chiffons were sold out. And I actually regretted it as it spoilt what would have been a satisfying meal. The chiffon, though light, was practically tasteless and I certainly didn't appreciate sporadic gratings of cheese which did nothing more than allow the chiffon to live up to its name? Maybe it just didn't do it for me.
I liked the food and $55 for 2 pax isn't too expensive a price to pay. There is a wee bit of a ventilation problem there so you might walk out faintly smelling of food. The place can get crowded so going early especially on weekends is recommended.
See all my pictures here.
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Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie, an online blog pastisserie selling exclusive gourmet pastry. Most of the pastries there are in limited quantity, but they definitely do not lose out in quality.
We had the chance to sample the Rocky Road Mousse Cake as one of my friend ordered it from Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie for Petrina’s birthday while we were at Peach Garden celebrating.
Crunchy walnuts and chewy marshmallow in every bite awashed with thick creamy chocolate ganache!
Our Rocky Road Mousse cake is the round 7 inch which can serve 8-10 people and it comes at a price of $38. There are even different flavours of marshmallows inside the cake!
Maybe i’m a little behind time, but this is actually the first time that i had a cake which is filled with marshmallows in between, and the result is wow!
Lil’ Foot Pâtisserie doesn’t have many variety of cakes available, but for the lack in choices, the ones that they offer certainly are excellent and is priced reasonably. I’ll be looking to get other cakes from them soon. So stop getting your cakes from boring places you-know-where (i’m not naming the bakeries)
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
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Peach Garden Chinese Restaurant @ OCBC Centre 33rd Floor is co-owned by Angela Ho and Veronica Tan, former managers of the established Hua Ting restaurant. The pair struck out on their own in 2002, and the rest like they say, were history. Peach Garden is now one of the Chinese restaurants on the radar of corporates.
Located at the 33rd floor, the restaurant offers diners a splendid bird’s eye view of the Singapore River and the city area.
The modern contemporary Chinese decor will make diner feel right at home.
It will be highly recommended for customers to make a reservation before going, as the window seats are usually taken up. One of the waitress greeted us at the main lobby on the ground floor, after checking our reservations, we were guided up to 33rd floor.
Peach Garden is popular for their Cantonese dishes, and dim sum. The selection for dim sum isn’t wide with 23 different types, however for what they lacked in variety, they make it up in quality.
Most of the dim-sum comes in basket of 3 each, but as we got 8 person, they were flexible to allow us order 8 pieces of dim-sum instead. So i’ll be putting the price for all the dim sum here for per piece rather than per basket.
Baked BBQ pork pastry ($1.30)
The baked BBQ pork pastry, or more commonly known as char-siew sou, i find it to be quite all right, but the others didn’t like it because they had better ones at Yan ting @ St Regis before.
Baked Mini Egg Tart ($1.30)
The baked mini egg tarts were fine, the skin was crispy, and the egg filling is just nice. However at $1.30 each, they are terribly expensive since i had better and bigger egg tarts at much cheaper price before.
Steamed Fresh Prawn Dumpling ($1.60)
The steamed fresh prawn dumpling, or more affectionately known as har-gau. The ones at Peach Garden has a wholesome shrimp wrapped within the skin of the dumpling.
But at $1.60 for each har-gau, they are priced slightly higher than your normal ones at other places.
Steamed Siew Mai with Phoenix prawn ($1.60)
The rendition of siew mai or pork dumpling is redefined at Peach Garden. Whereas your typical siew mai taste mainly of pork, the ones here has a phoenix prawn, which gives the siew mai a prawnier taste.
Steamed BBQ pork bun ($1.20)
I always love to eat steamed BBQ pork buns from chinese dim sum restaurant, well because they are not the same as the ones you get from outside.
The ones in restaurants are usually consist of three parts, i’ll tear off each part and slowly savour the sweet char-siew with the bun.
Fried Carrot cake with X.O sauce ($8)
When you read fried carrot cake, please erase off all of whatever memories you had of carrot cake. Now when we are talking about fried carrot cake with X.O sauce here, its not your ordinary black or white char-kway in the hawker centre.
The carrot cake here is slightly crispy on the outside, and very soft on the inside. But i couldn’t taste much of the X.O sauce, and at $8 per small serving, i find it to be quite on the high side.
Steamed yolk cream bun ($1.20)
The signature dim-sum of Peach Garden, its delicious steamed yolk cream bun. The beautiful golden yellow custard filling oozes out when i prise it open.
Steamed rice roll with prawn ($4.50)
The steamed rice roll with prawn, or your Chee Cheong Fun is served in two versions, one with prawn at $4.50, and the other steamed rice roll with chicken at $4.
The Chee Cheong Fun was quite disappointing here, it didn’t taste as well i thought it will, its quite ordinary to tell the truth.
Boiled porridge with century egg and pork ($3.80)
The boiled porridge with century egg and pork is one of the disappointment for the meal at Peach Garden. Too salty, we ordered 4 bowls and almost couldn’t finish it.
Steamed Xiao Long Bao with Conpoy ($1.30)
I’m not really a big fan of Xiao Long Bao, i guess the ones here are average, a couple of us didn’t really find it to be good.
Baked Spare Rib with BBQ Sauce ($7 per piece)
The signature baked spare rib with BBQ sauce comes at a hefty price, at $7 per piece, you can easily have a plate of spare ribs elsewhere.
But to be fair, the presentation of the spare rib was done nicely, and the rib is bigger than your normal ribs, with the BBQ sauce combining well with spare ribs.
There were difference in portions of the ribs, so depending on your luck, some of us got slightly bigger ribs with more meat, while some got thinner ribs.
Total Bill was $178.20 for 8 person, after a 15% credit card discount. The price comes much cheaper than i had expected so it was a surprise, and if you do not included the $7 spare ribs, it will be roughly $16 for person instead of about $22.
Results were mixed, some like me found it to be quite good, while others find that Peach Garden didn’t match their expectations. I guess everybody has different taste buds, but personally, i find Peach Garden to be quite good, the price may be slightly above average, but given a rationale person taking the menu and not over-ordering, the result is good dim sum at reasonable price.
Service-wise we also encountered mixed results. The waitress were way too fast in serving the dim-sum. As the table was all food bloggers, all of us were busy taking photos of the food, and before we managed to finish taking the photo of one dim sum, the other dim sum was served.
I felt that the waitress should have taken note that we were not ready for the serving of the other dim sum, but sad to say they failed to do so. Also, they missed out our order of Xiao Long Bao and the ribs, and also forgot to bring us our additional order of the har-gau.
But they did slightly make up when they helped us putting the birthday cake (one of us birthday celebration) into a beautiful plate, and they also provide a knife which had remote control to play birthday song music.
All in all, at 33rd floor offering a wonderful view of the city, the quite reasonable pricing of the dim-sum, it offers me an excuse to revisit Peach Garden again. And Peach Garden has two other outlets at Novena and Thomson Plaza!
You are always welcome to visit ladyironchef for a full-up on this trip. Whatever written herein are my genuine feelings expressed in words that may be subjected to my personal distortion or biasness. Feel free to furnish me with comments, may it be positive or negative : )
” Contemporary Cantonese cuisine, with splendid bird’s eye view of the city “
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