Grub

Went to Grub at Bishan Park with my secondary school friends. Actually went there before and didn't like the service. We ordered dessert that never came due to misunderstanding by the kitchen and service staff. No apologise were given and we left in a irritated mood. This time they did not fail to let me down again. Poor service as usual. We had to ask for our menu, ask for ice water trice, ask for dessert thrice and ask for the bill twice. Really leaves you in a bad mood if you were to experience what I had experienced.

Iced Honey Lime Juice ($3). A refreshing drink that was not too acidic or sweet.

Sakura Ebi Pasta ($17)- linguine, fried Sakura Ebi prawns and a hint of mentaiko. There were generous with the Sakura Ebi and prawns. However, I prefer Saveurs' pasta which has more flavour.

Chicken Steak ($15)- grilled chicken thighs, sauteed mushrooms, sweet potato mash. Well cooked chicken with earthy mushroom, savoury sauce and a sweet mash, topped with greens.

Mentaiko Fries ($9)- mentaiko aioli, nori seaweed. Fries that are slightly thicker than McDonald and not too salty, drizzled with mentaiko aioli and topped with nori seaweed. Best thing we ate at Grub. Love the mentaiko aioli and wished there was more!

Slow-Cooked Pork Belly ($15)- sous vide and seared, sauteed leeks, sweet potato mash. Pork was well cooked. Could be easily cut. Sauce was too salty, leeks were perfectly soft and seasoned and the mash was sweet. The savoury sauce went well with the sweet mash but eating the sauce with the pork just made it too salty. My favourite component out of this dish was the leeks.

We also got dessert, Churros ($9)- dark chocolate, tangy creme anglaise. Didn't managed to take a picture as we were all fighting for it because there were only 6 pieces but 7 of us. We were all excited about the churros, hearing praises about it before. We all took our first bite and was utterly disappointed. Sure it was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside but taste wise it was bland. Even with the sugar coated around it there was not much taste. Dipping it with the sauce also did not help much.
Overall we started on a bad note, encounter not so good service and couldn't even end it with a sweet dessert instead, disappointing dessert and another waiting time to get our bill....... Maybe the boss is too focus on his other business that he forgot about this one.

Rate:
Iced Honey Lime Juice: 6/10 ☺
Sakura Ebi Pasta: 6/10 ☺
Chicken Steak: 6.5/10 ☺
Mentaiko Fries: 9/10 ☺
Slow-Cooked Pork Belly: 6/10 ☺
Churros: 5/10 ☺

The Mind Cafe

Went to The Mind Cafe with ger, py, cy and ky.

The Mind Cafe is a place where you can play board games and have food, drinks and snacks.

Soup of the day ($3.90)- Their soup of the day was mushroom soup. The texture looked quite weird, gooey-like. We agreed it tasted like Campbell soup but ger who usually drink Campbell said it's different. Everyone also thought the soup was a little on the salty side except for me.

Ice Summer Fruit Tea ($4.90). Tea with fruit cocktail. Good balance of sweetness and acidity. Initially ordered Hot Aloe Citron Tea and Sparkling Mango but they ran out.

Beef Lasagne ($10.90)- Minced Beef layers in tomato sauce, topped with melted cheese. Surprisingly it tasted better then it looked. You could taste lots of cheese with beef and tomato sauce.

Salmon Spaghetti ($10.90)- Sliced salmon with spaghetti in Tomato pasta sauce. The salmon was cooked all the way through. Wished it was cooked a little less.

Tom Yum Chicken Spaghetti ($10.90)- Our customer favourite. Chicken was cooked and had taste of tom yum. Noodle tasted very cheesy most probably due to the cheese sprinkled on top.

Grilled Tom Yum Chicken with rice ($10.90)- Grilled boneless Chicken Thigh with spicy taste of Thai Tom Yum. Plain rice with tom yum marinated chicken. I like the skin of the chicken more than the meat.

Chicken Karaage ($6.90). Someone should tell them that this is SEAWEED CHICKEN and not chicken KARAAGE. Hahahaha.

Crispy Baked chicken wings ($7.90) . Chicken was really crispy and slightly spicy. But it was a little too spicy for py who can't take spicy food.

Chocolate Melt with Ice Cream ($6.90)- Rich Belgian Chocolate Oozes Out with Each Bite. Quite sad that there was no chocolate lava. But you could see on the inside there was some sort of thick liquid chocolate. Chocolate was ok. Ice cream tasted a little fake weird but still edible.

I doubt I would be back. Beverage service were slow like 20 mins slow. Food was even longer. But well it was a Friday night. But still most tables were playing games with only 1 or 2 having food. Same goes to my friends. The place is also kinda noisy. I would recommend going to this place only if you want to play the board games.

Rate:
Soup of the day: 6/10 ☺
Ice Summer Fruit Tea: 7/10 ☺
Beef Lasagne: 6/10 ☺
Salmon Spaghetti: 5/10 ☺
Tom Yum Chicken Spaghetti: 6/10 ☺
Grilled Tom Yum Chicken with rice: 5.5/10 ☺
Chicken Karaage: 6/10☺
Crispy Baked chicken wings: 6/10☺
Chocolate Melt with Ice Cream: 5/10 ☺

Lighthouse Bistro

Came to Lighthouse Bistro with Chloe, Alex and Ed. They started in 2013 and have recently moved to lavender.

I like their knife, looks unique. On the other hand, I dislike their menu. It's quite disorganized to me. On one side you have the appetizer and the next you suddenly have mocktails and cocktails and then back to food again and finally back to beverages.

Tiger Fish & Fries ($19)- Our signature pairing of pacific sea bass and a tiger beer batter, deep fried and served with straight-cut nori potato fries, accompanied with orange mayo  & greens. The batter was perfectly crispy and you could taste the tiger beer. Could not really taste the seaweed in the fries. The orange mayo was nice, citrus-y and creamy which went well with the fries and fish.

Salted Chocolate & Caramel ($13)- A biscuit base of french chocolate, topped with seventy-two percent cocoa chocolate mousse & creamy caramel, garnished with cookie crumble & garden berries. I love caramel so I liked the topped layer the most which is the caramel. It was sweet and caramel-like. Following that was a dark chocolate mousse. The biscuit base and cookie crumble helped add texture to the dish and the berries helped gave it the acidity and freshness. One thing I was disappointed about was the fact that I couldn't tell that it was salted chocolate.

Rate:
Tiger Fish & Fries: 6/10 ☺
Salted Chocolate & Caramel: 7/10 ☺

49 Seats (Bugis+)

Went to 49 Seats with Zq after our visit to the museum.

49 Seats offers Western Fusion food in a casual seating environment. Orders and payments are made at the cashier.

 Ice Lemon Tea ($3) and Coke Zero ($3). I liked that they came in tin cans. Looks unique.

Cream of Mushroom Soup ($5.90). Hot creamy mushroom-y soup with bits of mushroom and a slice of garlic bread at the side. The bread was nice, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

Prawn Fritters ($9.90). (Frozen) Prawns in a crispy and tasty batter that are deep fried to perfection. 

Tom Yum Seafood Pasta ($14.90). Creamy, slightly spicy (tom yum- like) sauce with al dente pasta and prawns, mussel and clams. Did not like the taste of the sauce. It had some elements of a tom yum but yet it felt like there were too much seasoning inside, that my tongue could not handle.
Old Fashioned Fish and Chips with Tom Yum Sauce ($16.90) with Garden Salad, Fries and sauce on the side. Plain tasting fish in a crispy batter with fries that are not so salty and a salad with a creamy sweet (maybe thousand island) sauce and two halves of a cherry tomato. The sauce tasted much saltier then the seafood pasta sauce, without the creaminess. In the sauce there were mussel and prawns as well. Both zq and I agree that the fish tasted better without the sauce and could use maybe tartar sauce or maybe salt to help elevate the dish. But dipping the fries with the sauce was not bad.

We also got to see some fireworks after our dinner. Zq took pictures while I took a video of it.

Rate:
Cream of Mushroom Soup: 6.5/10 ☺

Prawn Fritters: 6.5/10 ☺

Tom Yum Seafood Pasta: 5.5/10 ☺

Old Fashioned Fish and Chips with Tom Yum Sauce: 5.5/10 ☺

Rise & Grind Coffee Co

Came to Rise & Grind Coffee Co for lunch with Ed on the second last day of their Grand Opening Special.

Their outside dinning area. We thought that door was the main entrance until we read the paper stuck on it that said use the main entrance.

Spaghetti Aglio e Olio ($12)- Bacon, mushroom, asparagus, 64-degree egg. Pasta was al dente but could use more seasoning. Mushroom, asparagus and bacon was flavorful. The addition of sakura shrimp was nice.

Ocean's Thirteen ($17)- Smoked Salmon, poached eggs, asparagus, brioche toast, beetroot yogurt, yuzu hollandaise sauce. With Scrambled Eggs (+$3). I love the presentation, really pretty. The brioche was soft but wished the outside had some crunch. It was a nice combination. Salty smoked salmon, runny eggs, creamy sauce and bits of fish roe that burst in your mouth. Scrambled eggs were well cooked. 

Taken from their fb page 

Complimentary Dessert: Half of RGC Waffles- A choice of vanilla bean/ chocolate/ coconut ice cream with salted caramel sauce. This was the best part of my entire meal. Even though it took 10 mins, it was worth the wait. Warm, soft and flavourful waffle topped with rich coconut ice cream with salted caramel sauce and dust with powdered sugar. The coconut ice cream reminded me of Kueh Bangkit, those melt in your mouth cookies eaten during Chinese New Year. The Salted Caramel Sauce was rich, creamy and salty enough. 

Rate:
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio: 5/10 ☺
Ocean's Thirteen: 6.5/10 ☺
RGC Waffles: 8/10 ☺

GastroSmiths

GastroSmiths started out with a simple menu selling sandwiches and cakes which were all made fresh. But with its rising success they decided to rebrand themseves and started to offer a full dining menu that is influenced by mostly French, Japanese and Italian.

Zq and I came here for their weekday set lunch promotion. 3 courses at $18.90++

Taken from their Facebook page

Each week they offer 1 item from seafood and 1 item from meat which you can choose. The day we came, they had smoked salmon sandwich and steak frites. We obviously chose the steak.

Soup of the Day was Tomato Soup. It was good. Thin consistency, tomatoe-y flavor with a bread on the side. But I'm not fan of tomato soup so I didn't finish it.

Steak Frites. We had ours medium rare. It was well seasoned, juicy and quite easy to chew. Shoestring fries were crispy and sprinkled with salt and pepper. It was a little too salty. Zq love the steak.

Pastry of the Day was Olive Cake with Pistachio and Vanilla Ice Cream. Cake was slightly dense, the pistachio added crunch and the ice cream provided coolness and sweetness. My ice cream fell but nonetheless it still taste good.

We also ordered Caramelized French Brie ($9.50). 3 slices of Brie on a soft, fluffy bread, topped off with brown sugar and torched till caramelized. The Brie had a very mild blue cheese taste which went well with the caramelized sugar.

The server there was really knowlegdeable, friendly and even joked around.

Rate:
Tomato Soup: 6/10 ☺
Steak Frites: 7/10 ☺
Olive Cake with Pistachio and Vanilla Ice Cream: 6.5/10 ☺
Caramelized French Brie: 6.5/10 ☺

The Soup Spoon Union (Raffles City)

So very busy even though it's just the beginning of the year. But I did still had time to go to py's concert- Musical Delights XXXVIII.

The concert was not bad. It was quite cool that they had an organ player (my first time hearing one in real life). Ger and I liked the second half of the concert more as they played pieces which we played before! At the end, SPSB played two encores and one more piece to announce the graduating members which was quite a good idea. 

Now on to the food part. Before we went for py's concert, Jx, Cy, Ger, Marcus and I went to The Soup Spoon Union where it's a combination of The Soup Spoon, The Handburger and Soup Broth Asia Noodle Bar all in one place.

You take the menu at the entrance, get your own table before heading to the cashier to order and make payment.

Here's some of the content inside the menu. Asian noodles, burgers and western soup.

I ordered Stuffed Portobello ($14.80)- Oven-baked portobello mushroom stuffed with spinach, walnuts, parmesan cheese and beancurd, topped with breadcrumbs served with handmade tomato herb sauce on a bed of coral lettuce and a tomato on a toasted spinach with parmesan cheese bun.

The cross section of my Stuffed Portobello. From the bottom- bun, coral lettuce, sliced tomatoes, portobello mushroom, a weird 'patty' made of spinach, beancurd etc and tomato herb sauce. I had no idea what that green thingy was until I look at the description of the burger. The "patty' as I call it was mild in taste probably because of the beancurd and wasn't crispy even though there were bread crumbs. The mushroom was cooked well but would taste better if it was seasoned. Tomato herb sauce was good, it help made it easier to consume the burger.

Cy ordered THB Original ($11.80)- Grilled 150g of 100% NZ grass fed prime beef, sweet onion jam, cheddar cheese, handmade barbeque sauce on a bed of coral lettuce and a tomato on a toasted caramelized onion bun. The sweet onion jam was nice, it tasted like onions but also tasted like chocolate to me. Cy really like the burger. She also upgrade her meal(+$3.90) to get the mushroom soup. The mushroom soup was generous with the amount of mushroom in it. Every scoop would be filled with mushroom. However the soup itself was not flavorful which was quite disappointing. But Marcus and Cy were fine with. Only Ger and I were not.

Marcus and Jx ordered Pulled Pork ($10.80)- Slow-cooked fork tender pulled pork slathered with handmade barbeque sauce topped with crunchy mayoless slaw on a bed of coral lettuce on a toasted rustic bun. The pork was tender but the pork tasted like an Indian dish to me. Jx said that it tasted Chinese while Marcus was fine with it. Jx didn't really like the burger while Marcus said it was acceptable.

Ger ordered Chicken Caesar ($11.80)- Baked chicken thigh wrapped with bacon, fresh mozzarella, sauteed basil pesto mushroom, handmade ceasar dressing on a bed of romaine lettuce and a tomato on a toasted sundried tomato with olive bun. The chicken thigh was bigger then we expected. I like the chicken, it was well seasoned and not overcooked. To me it was the best burger that I tasted that day. If I come here the next time, Chicken Ceasar is what I'll order.

Rate:

Stuffed Portobello: 5/10 ☺
THB Original: 7/10 ☺
Pulled Pork: 6/10 ☺
Chicken Caesar: 8/10 ☺

Eighteen Chef (Ang Mo Kio)

Wanted to try Eighteen Chef for a long time but couldn't get my friends to come with me. But since I'm dinning here means that I finally managed to drag them with me.

Eighteen Chef is run by Benny Se Teo who has been to prison and is now trying to help ex-convicts and delinquents reintegrate back into society through his restaurant.

We looked at the menu and decided to get the student meal ($6.40)- Pasta or Cheese Baked Rice + Ice Lemon Tea + Ice Cream. I went to the counter to place everyone's orders and we waited for our food to arrive.

I ordered Cheese-Baked Rice with Mushrooms and Spicy Garlic sauce. I thought the spicy garlic sauce would be flavorful but in the end it tasted a little like mui fan except with fried rice flavor. PY had the Japanese curry sauce which she liked as it tasted nice and it wasn't too spicy for her.

Lemon Tea. Love the cup used. The drink had a strong tea taste with a mild lemon taste. I prefer to have mine with a strong lemon taste.

Blueberries & Vanilla Ice Cream Waffles (+$4). For additional $4 with the student meal you can choose any waffle from the waffles menu. I shared with PY and we placed our free scoop of chocolate ice cream on the waffle as well. They were good. Warm waffles, tangy blueberry sauce and cold creamy ice cream.

Rate:
Cheese-Baked Rice with Mushrooms and Spicy Garlic sauce: 5/10 ☺
Lemon Tea: 5/10 ☺
Blueberries & Vanilla Ice Cream Waffles: 7/10 ☺

Working Title

Went with zq to working title at around 12pm+. It was kinda awkward maybe because there were only a few people. Anyway, you enter the shop, get a seat and then walk to the front to get the menu.(or whichever order you want)

 

The place has nice decor like the ice cream sandwich poster.

Both of us ordered the Big Papa Rosti Burger set ($11.90)- Rosti, sandiwch between two buns with greens, cheese and tomatoes plus a side of fries and drink. The rosti wasn't nice. Maybe because it's not handmade. The fries came in a cute small tin.

For drinks, I ordered Orange juice(included in the set). It's definitely fresh orange juice as you can taste even some of the orange skin taste. Zq had Apple juice. The orange tasted better in my opinion.

Rate:

Big Papa Rosti Burger set: 5/10 ☺

CIA Top Table

Went to dine at CIA Top Table with my course mates. Only open for lunch from 28 Aug to 7 Nov, 11.30am to 1pm. Reservation required.

We ordered our food and we were given some breads- bread stick, milk bun and ciabatta. The bread stick was nice as it had some crunch. The milk bun was lovely- soft, fluffy and slightly milky. For the ciabatta it was nice, soft and fluffy on the inside. They asked if we wanted more bread and we did! (so greedy of us)

Pan Fried Stingray Cake ($6)-salad greens, Vietnamese herbs and soy lime dressing. Nicely pan fried stingray cake- a little on the spicy side. The salad with the dressing had the right amount of acidity and it goes well together with the cake as it helped mute the spiciness of the cake. Not sure what the sauce on the side was but it complemented the cake well too.

Seafood Salad ($7)- squid, prawns, green papaya and Thai cashew pesto. The prawns and squid was mixed with a nice acidic dressing which was really tasty and refreshing. Even though there were some chili, it wasn't spicy. The papaya salad on the other hand was really disappointing, the dressing did not have enough acidity and the papaya texture was weird like jelly. Such a huge contrast between the seafood and papaya.

Chili Crab Ravioli ($15)- semolina pasta, greens and fried quail egg. The pasta was al dente. There was crab mixture on the inside. However the dish could use more sauce which would give more taste to it. Greens and egg was good. The thing that was disappointing was that it did not taste like chili crab.

Vegetarian Benedict ($9)- poached egg, greens, cheese, baked sweet potatoes, hash brown and hollandaise. Egg was well poached, yolk was still flow-y. Salad was good, nice dressing and fresh greens. Hash brown was not overcook. I think it's one of the nicer main dish I've taste for the day.

After that we were given the dessert menu and also some cookies- Milo macaroon, passion fruit macaroon, matcha cookie and orange Madeline. The macaroon shells were really crispy and hard- not so nice. Taste wise the Milo one was okay but the passion fruit one was a little weird. Matcha cookie had a nice unsweetened matcha flavor, orange Madeline was lovely(nicest out of the 4).

Kalamansi Meringue Tart ($5)- kalamansi custard, coconut graham crust. Kalamansi is actually a type of lime. The tartness of the kalamansi custard works well with the sweet meringue. Very nice.

Kaya Pain Perdu ($5)- kaya cream, salted gula melaka, white pepper ice cream. Pain Perdu is actually french for 'french toast' or if you want direct translation 'lost bread'. So if you did not understand, you wouldn't have known that there would be french toast. The french toast was really yummy- chewy and tasty(wished there was more even though there's already 3 on the plate). Sauce tasted more like coconut than the usual kaya flavor. Was a little disappointed with the ice cream as I could not taste the white pepper, only coconut flavor. Maybe they could rename it to Coconut Pain Perdu.

Warm Jasmine Rice Pudding ($5)-coffee ice cream, coffee glaze. Wished that the rice was cooked more till it was mushy. Didn't like that you could bite each grain of rice. The cream and coffee was good.

Frozen Landscape ($5)- pandan and coconut ice creams, kalamansi and hibiscus sorbets. The pandan ice cream tasted like real pandan instead of artificial pandan flavor(something you don't usually get). Coconut ice cream was nice, creamy, coconut-y and not too sweet. Kalamansi sorbet was refreshingly acidic. Hibiscus sorbet was flowery at the start and slightly bitter at the end. 

We also tried Moscato ($45/bt) which is a sweet white wine. Really nice and sweet. 

Rate: 
Pan Fried Stingray Cake: 8/10 ☺
Seafood Salad: 6/10 ☺
Chili Crab Ravioli: 6/10 ☺
Vegetarian Benedict: 7.5/10☺
Kalamansi Meringue Tart: 8/10 ☺
Kaya Pain Perdu: 8/10 ☺
Warm Jasmine Rice Pudding: 5/10 ☺
Frozen Landscape: 6.5/10 ☺