Hyde & Co

Gf brought me to Hyde & Co for lunch.

The Big Ben ($17 candied turkey bacon/ $21 smoked salmon)- Mushroom duxelle, poached eggs, chipotle, hollandaise, served on a brioche toast. I chose the candied turkey bacon, it taste a lot less smokey then your usual bacon and it was slightly sweet. Duxelle is a paste made with mushrooms, onions, herbs and sauted in butter. It helped give moisture to the toast along with the hollandaise sauce. The egg was disappointing, it was overcooked. The garnish felt quite out of place. Potatao was well cooked.

Ondeh Ondeh French Toast ($12)- Brioche french toast, grated pandan coconut, gula melaka sauce, vanilla bean ice cream. Thick slice of toast with bits of  grated cocnut, chocolate chips, rich gula melaka sauce and creamy cool vanilla ice cream. Felt that the toast was a little too thick so it was quite dry but luckily there was the ice cream that helped give it moisture. This was one filing dessert.

If you're not a bread person like myself I would recommend you to dine during dinner time instead of lunch.

Rate:
The Big Ben: 6/10 ☺
Ondeh Ondeh French Toast: 6/10 ☺

BRIDGE - Restaurant & Bar

Ed and I met Putri for brunch at Bridge. It is a restaurant during day time and a bar during night but you could start drinking at anytime of the day. Of course it's not advisable if you have to get back to work after eating or if you're driving. Here they serve modern european food. Their brunch menu is super short, just one page- 10 mains and 4 desserts.

So there's a blackboard at the restaurant where you can order a brunch set which is not stated in the menu. There's also the salted egg and truffle custard croissant.

Salted Egg Croissant ($5.90). I FINALLY tried their salted egg croissant but it felt so...... meh. I was expecting more hahah cause a lot people were talking about it. I defintely prefer BreadTalk's croissant more than theirs. Bridge's croissant was flaky and buttery which was nice but the salted egg was not as sweet as what I would prefer. But it is good for people who really like savoury more than sweet taste of salted egg. 

BRIDGE Benedict ($20)- Homemade brioche muffin, Black Forest ham, bacon, cherry vine tomatoes, poached eggs, champagne hollandaise, sabaco, mesclun with truffle honey vinaigrette. You can never go wrong with the classic eggs benedict. Couldn't really taste the champagne in the hollandaise.

A-S-S ($18)- Avocado scramble, sourdough, smoked salmon, tomato and corn salsa, mozarella, tobiko cream. Putri ordered this and couldn't finish it. At first I could not processed that this dish was actually called ass until Ed pointed out. The avocado was creamy with the salty smoky salmon. This dish is perfect for people who like avocado as the taste is quite prominent. 

62˚C Egg ($19)- Sous vide egg, truffle mash potato, sauteed wild mushrooms, chicken jus, prosciutto di parma, sourdough, seasonal truffle slices. I love the truffle mash potato, you could really taste the truffle. I also love looking at that yolk flow. Even though this dish looked small it  was quite filling. I finished everything except for the bread which I ate half. Overall it's a very earthy dish with the mushrooms that went well with the salty parma ham.

Truffle Honey French Toast ($18)- Berries, vanilla sour cream, cinnamon sugar, truffle honey, ice cream. There was a hint of truffle smell that came from this dish. Again you could taste the truffle from the honey truffle. I somehow felt that the toast tasted very normal but overall the presentation was pretty nice.

What I liked most about this place is their truffle mash potatoes since I kind of like truffle taste. Also they don't charge GST, only service charge.

Rate:
Salted Egg Croissant: 6/10 ☺
BRIDGE Benedict: 7/10 ☺
A-S-S: 6/10 ☺
62˚C Egg: 7.5/10 ☺
Truffle Honey French Toast: 6.5/10 ☺

L'eclair by Sarah Michelle

Went to L'eclair by Sarah Michelle with zq somewhere in December. It's started by two female-Sarah and Michelle, hence the name.

Signature Chicken Bacon Pie with a mini salad ($12). The pie was really good. The pastry was perfect- sweet and buttery which went well with the savoury creamy filling where you could taste the smoky bacon. The salad dressed in balsamic with cherry tomatoes, sliced almond, dried cranberries was refreshing. Both of us really like LOVE the pie!

I got the Speculoos ($7.50?)- Speculoos cream, craquelin choux, chocolate snowman. The snowman looks really cute like a plastic toy but in fact it's made out of chocolate. The speculoos cream in the eclair was thick with hints of speculoos. Not my kind of eclair. I prefer those with cream that are more lighter. But I like the slightly sweet, crackly and crunchy top on this eclair which provided some texture.
For drinks, I had Iced Matcha Latte ($6). I think I should have gotten the hot one instead as there were chunks of undissolved matcha powder in the tea which made it hard to drink.

The eclair's filling...

Zq got the Ispahan ($8.50) Light rose cream, cut lychees, fresh raspberries. I like their rose petal decoration with the shiny sparkle on their pink sugar topping that zq noticed. The cream for this was lighter which was good. There were also chunks of lychee.
For drinks she got the Earl Grey Latte ($5.50). It was really nice, warm, milky with the taste of earl grey.

Rate:
Signature Chicken Bacon Pie: 10/10 ☺

Speculoos: 5.5/10 ☺

Iced Matcha Latte: 5/10 ☺
Ispahan: 6/10 ☺
Earl Grey Latte: 7/10 ☺

Les Patisseries

Went to Les Patisseries with Ger and KY.

Truffle Fries w/ Grated Cheese ($8.50). Perfectly fried fries drizzled with truffle oil and topped with cheese. I like that the truffle was not too heavy but yet too too mild that it can't be detected.

Truffle Baked Mushroom Pasta ($9.90) The truffle taste here was stronger then the fries however I think it lacks sauce and seasoning. I like the charred taste on some parts of the cheese.

Salted Caramel Waffle ($9.90). The warm waffles were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. The cold vanilla ice cream goes well with the warm waffles. The caramel sauce was sweet and slightly salty.

Rate:
Truffle Fries w/ Grated Cheese: 6/10 ☺
Truffle Baked Mushroom Pasta: 5/10 ☺
Salted Caramel Waffle: 6.5 ☺

Kokomama

Went to Kokomama for some more bingsu adventure. At there they sells a variety of cuisines: French- pastries like croissant, Japanese- rice bowls, local- eg kopi and waffle, Asian fusion- eg Tom yum pasta and also Korean- bingsu.

We ordered two bingsu in total. Mango Bingsu ($12.90)- Fine, shaved, slightly milky ice with sweet mango cubes, flavored mochi and a scoop of creamy and sweet mango ice cream. Nice and refreshing. 

Matcha Bingsu ($12.90)- Fine, shaved, slightly milky ice with bitter matcha powder, mochi, nuts, sweet red bean paste and a scoop of matcha ice cream that tasted really really weird. Quite bitter for my taste buds but if you like bitter matcha then it's perfect for you.

Rate:
Mango Bingsu: 6.5/10 ☺
Matcha Bingsu: 5/10 ☺

Five & Dime

Came to Five & Dime with ger and ky because I wanted to try their Lava Cake.

Asari Clams ($10)- Japanese asari clams in our signature sake and bonito infused broth. At first glance, the broth looks quite plian so we were surprised when we took a sip. It was flavourful and had the taste of the clams. The clams were well cooked and sweet.

Mentaiko Pasta ($18)- Spaghetti tossed in creamy mentaiko, topped with more cod fish roe. I love mentaiko so if I see it on a menu, it is a must order for me. Mentaiko was indeed creamy and rich. Heaven in my mouth but I think it is a little to rich for a person to finish it.

Cajun Chicken ($18)- Boneless grilled cajun-spiced chicken thigh with creamy mash and steamed corn. Ky ordered this. Tender chicken with mashed potato underneath. The mashed potato had some lumps but tasted buttery and creamy. Dressing on the salad tasted weird, not something I would try again.

Golden Custard Lava Cake ($12)- Molten chocolate lava cake with a salted egg yolk custard center. Finally the moment I've been waiting for.... tadah! Their lava cake with salted egg yolk. The salted egg yolk custard by itself was good- sweet, salty and eggy. With the chocolate cake, the salted egg yolk taste is subdued and what you get is a balanced chocolate taste.

Rate:
Asari Clams: 6.5/10 ☺
Mentaiko Pasta: 7.5/10 ☺
Cajun Chicken: 6/10 ☺
Golden Custard Lava Cake: 7.5/10 ☺

Yellow Cup (Cental Square)

Came to Yellow Cup Coffee with GF. The yellow apparently is meant to be gold, implying they serve gold standard coffee.

Matcha Latte ($6.90). The green tea flavor and the milk was prominent with a perfect balance of sweet and bitterness. It's like a nice drink to get before you go to bed. I also like the cute bear latte art that was made.

So sad, the bear is gone. Here you can see that their cups have the words 'Yellow Cup Coffee' imprinted on it. At the cafe there is a shelf filled with yellow objects like that flower in the picture that you can use to take pictures or play with. They also do serve food like Cabonara Pasta ($10), Waffles ($6) and Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwich ($8).

Rate:
Matcha Latte: 8/10☺

One Ice Cafe

Discover One Ice Cafe while I was walking around JCube.

Every table has their menu. After ordering they give a device to let you know when to collect your food.

Patbingsu ($6.80)- Shaved Milk Ice, Azuki Beans, Almond, Cornflakes, Rice Cake, Jelly, Vanilla Ice Cream. Ice were very fine and very slight milky yet sweet. Beans were sweet but wished they were softer. Dind't find any almond in it. Cornflakes is a good add on, provided lots of crunch. For the rice cake, they made it themselves. I think they made it using the muah chee recipe. It was chewy. (Actually I ordered this flavor as it had rice cake in it) Jelly was plain so I think it was there to add texture. Vanilla ice cream was sweet but after a while I wasn't sure which was sweeter. The ice cream or the shaved ice.

Rate:
Patbingsu: 6.5/10 ☺

Cafe Insadong

Came to Cafe Insadong with gf. This cafe is quite unique as it is not only offers dessert but art and elegani as well.

Injeolmi Toast with Ice Cream ($6). After my first encounter with injeolmi I began to fall in love with it. So when I saw that they had injeolmi toast I knew I had to order it. For ice cream there were a few selection- vanilla, chocolate, matcha(+$0.50), salted caramel(+$0.50) and a few others that I can't recall. Being a salted caramel lover it was no hassle picking my ice cream flavor. Two pieces of toast with gooey rice cake in the middle, dusted with soy powder, topped with salted caramel ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce and almond flakes. To be honest, it was a little disappointing. The salted caramel did not taste salted nor caramel-like. It was a little sticky in texture and maybe tasted a little like butterscotch? The toast with the rice cake was too chewy for me as well.

Red bean and Sweet Potato Patbingsu ($9). The shaved ice was really fine. Much more then the one I had at Bing Go Jung which were like the ones you get in your usual Ice Kachang. Somehow I didn't really like the sweet potato which felt quite heavy maybe because its a starch.I think this bingsu was a little sweet for me and gf. What I like here was the mochi.

Overall, I really like the presentation of the food. The service staff was also quite friendly when we asked for recommendation.

Rate:
Injeolmi Toast with Ice Cream: 5/10 ☺
Red bean and Sweet Potato Patbingsu: 5/10 ☺

J Café – Singapore’s Local Delights

Went to J Cafe with Hazel, Raihah, JY, Elton and Eugenia for dinner.

J Cafe is one of JUMBO Group's dinning concept. Here they offer not only local food but western as well.

The front view of the restaurant.

There were lots of fishes in the pond swimming here and there.

We went in to the cafe and got a table. Above you can see there are three buttons. One of which you can press to call the waiter over.

Ice Teh ($2)- Ice milk tea. It was thick and quite sweet. A little less sweet and it would've been perfect.

Hazel and I ordered Carbonara ($9.80)- egg, cheese, bacon, black pepper, mushroom, cream and spaghetti. The carbonara was good like Hazel said. Well seasoned, slightly creamy and not too thick. Bacon was a little chewy with a slight smoky taste, pasta was al dente and the mushroom was earthy.

Eugenia ordered Hainanese Chicken Rice ($7.80)- chicken, cucumber, pickled vegetables, soup, rice, chilli, black sauce and some green stuff. Didn't try it but Eugenia said it was okay and that the chili was super spicy. I tried the chili sauce too and I totally agree with her.

Raihah ordered Ice Kacang ($3.50) with extra syrup- shaved ice, assorted syrup, corn and cubes of black jelly.

At J Cafe, I really like the relaxed atmosphere with the cool breeze. You also have a view of people playing golf while having your meal and if you're an NSRCC member, you get a 10% discount.

Rate:

Ice Teh: 6/10 ☺
Carbonara: 7.5/10 ☺

TWG Tea (Orchard)

TWG actually stands for The Wellbeing Group. TWG tea offers more than 1,000 types of tea blends, pastries and tea-infuse delicacies. 

Seb, GF and I walked in and waited a while before getting a table. We looked through the tea selection and were pretty much overwhelmed. There were just so many types of teas to choose from.

I decided to ask the waitress for recommendation and she recommended me to have the Silver Moon Tea which I ordered. GF ordered Chocolate Tea and Seb ordered French Earl Tea. The teas we ordered were $11 each.

Front to Back: Silver Moon Tea, French Earl Grey and Chocolate Tea

The tea that I ordered tasted the best out of the three. It's green tea accented with grand berry and vanilla bouquet plus a hint of spice. Tasted like green tea with hints of strawberries. The Chocolate Tea only had the aroma like chocolate but taste wise, it tasted like black tea with a barely detectable chocolate taste. French Earl Grey was flowery but not to my liking.

Front to Back, Left to Right: Napoleon Tea & Caramel, Earl Grey & Chocolate, Vanilla Bourbon & Kaya and Moroccan Mint Tea.

We also ordered macarons ($2/each) which are infused with their signature teas. Napoleon Tea & Caramel was my favorite (cause I love caramel) followed by Vanilla Bourbon Tea & Kaya (which tasted like sweet milk), Earl Grey & Chocolate (floral chocolatey taste), and Moroccan Mint (had the cooling mint taste). The macarons have a hard shell but when you bite it, it's actually pretty soft and then it becomes a little chewy with the filling.

TWG is a place where you can be to look classy and spend your afternoon away by sipping on teas, eating desserts and chatting with your friends.

Rate:
Overall: 7/10 ☺

Quarter to Three

Quarter to Three is a cafe at Tanjong Pagar which sells your usual selections- cakes, sandwiches, coffee etc...

WX, KY and I went there after dinner for dessert! Actually I wanted to try Drury Lane (which is a few blocks away) but after contemplating we decided on Quarter to Three.

 Saw that they had a new item which sounded delicious so we ordered it.

Brownie Waffle with Ice Cream ($10.90). It was good. Warm cake-like chocolate brownie/waffle with the coldness of the vanilla ice cream was so yummy. Strawberries were more on the acidic side than sweet, but the ice cream and chocolate sauce helped balance it. Overall we liked it but we think that the items they sell are a little on the pricey side .

Rate:
Brownie Waffle with Ice Cream : 7/10 ☺

Bread and Hearth

Went with zq to Bread and Hearth cause she won a free meal. 

Bread & Hearth specializes in handcrafted artisan bread. All their bread and pastry are baked using the traditional European methods which they sell at an affordable price like Le Croissant ($2.80), Brioche ($2.80) and Blueberry Danish ($3.80).

Le croissant - made with Normandy butter. It was flaky with lots of layers and quite buttery.

Mocha. Wasn't expecting any coffee art so I was pleasantly surprise. The warm cup of mocha had a good balance of  coffee and chocolate.

Bread & Hearth is a nice little place to hang out with friends and enjoy yummy affordable breads.

Rate:
Le Croissant : 7/10 ☺
Mocha: 7.5/10 ☺

Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf is located at Temasek Polytechnic inside the Temasek Culinary Academy(TCA) building. Sugarloaf is a casual bistro-cafe which serves pastries, cakes, mains and beverages. When you step in to Sugarloaf a resounding 'Welcome to Sugarloaf!' can be heard.

The Mudslide Cookie ($2)- a super rich chocolate cookie with chocolate chips and chocolate chunks, about 55% chocolate. I love the cookie, chocolatey but yet not so sweet. The cookie is also chewy, something like subway cookie except a bit more dense and less sweet.The chocolate is really rich so you should share it with another person. 

The Chocolate Eclair ($2.50)-choux pastry filled with a chocolate cream and topped with well tempered chocolate ganache and tiny ball decoration . The filling inside was chocolate cream which was light and a little chocolatey. The eclair also look pretty with the decoration on top of it.

Strawberry Tart ($3)-lovely strawberries with pistachio nuts on top of a savoury tart. 

The Mango Mousse Cake ($3)-alternate layers of mango mousse and sponge cake. The acidity from the mango bits in the mango mousse and sweetness from the thin layer of cake was a nice combination. The dark chocolate decoration on it also complimented the cake.

Rate:

Mudslide Cookie- 7/10 ☺

Chocolate Eclair- 7.5/10 ☺

Strawberry Tart- 6/10 ☺

Mango Mousse Cake- 5.5/10 ☺