Ban Mian + Maki-San + Tai Parfait

Ever since school have started, I have lesser time to go hunt for good food BUT today I managed to have some better food besides the boring school food. :")

Anyway, just a few more days and my partner in crime (Vanessa) will be taking her 'A' Levels soon!! Wishing her all the best & that she will get super good grades hehe. Just ONE more month and she will be here sharing her food posts! And we will also be able to go café hopping together too hehe. #CANNOTWAIT

So anyway today I had lunch at Kapitians @ Tampines One with my friends to have this really good ban mian!! That store has got to be my favourite ban mian store in Singapore heh. It was during lunch hour so there was a really long queue ... But it was quite fast!

 

Got my favourite mee hoon kueh while my friends got the usual ban mian

(Pork - $4.20, Meatball - $5)

Had dinner @ Maki-San with my friend. Initially wanted to have their sushi but then I suddenly wanted to try their salad so why not right? Haha.

 

Little-San ($8.90), Big-san salad ($9.90)

 

Got sweet thai chili sauce for the dressing and it was good! The salad I made (tofu, tamago, sweet corn, shredded chicken, broccoli, almond flakes etc.) with the sauce went super well together that I couldn't stop eating LOL.

 

After that we headed to Bugis and decided to have Tai Parfait.

The first time I tried was with the cream and the filing inside was matcha which was bitter ... BUT I decided to give matcha a try again haha.

 

 

Chocolate Banana & Banana Caramel with soft serve ice cream ($5.50 each)

 

Their ice cream was good but it was a really messy affair because the ice cream kept dripping everywhere oops.

Anyway, the matcha filing was not bitter anymore and it tasted yummy! :P

You people reading this must at least try this once! Haha.

 

Artisan Boulangerie Co.

School has just started and even though only 2 days of school has passed, I was so grateful that Wednesday was a public holiday because I was really super tired.
So my friend and I decided to have some nice brunch & watch a movie to help unwind ourselves ~

We decided to visit the recently opened Artisan Boulangerie Co. @ i12.
And here's what we ordered:

Roasted Chicken Baguette ($11.50)

 

This bread was super hard to cut into and to chew also. So if you have difficulties chewing, I suggest you to skip this.

Despite the toughness, the bread and the black pepper chicken still went well together. 

The chicken was not too hard and it was good. 

Chicken pie ($9.50)

 

The pie itself was quite thick which I like and the chicken fillings inside tasted like a good old bowl of creamy chicken soup to me haha.

Will like it more if it was warmer.

 

 

We only tried 2 dishes and I would definitely return to try their other dishes especially their brunch menu. Not only that, there is no service charge & GST so it is definitely a bonus hehe. :)

 

Their website: http://artisanbakery.com.sg/

Tim Ho Wan

Had dinner @ Tim Ho Wan today at the newly opened mall called "Aperia". But there are only a few shops opened there, almost 3/4 of the shops are not opened yet lol.
From the outside, the Tim Ho Wan outlet looks really big but when we were inside, it was actually quite small ... Which made my father quite unhappy because he HATES congested places.

Okay so let's just talk about their food now:
Of course what's Tim Ho Wan without their famous baked BBQ pork buns right?

Baked bun with BBQ pork (3 pieces) ($4.50)

 

The pork inside was juicy and really satisfying. And it is not like those overly sweetened pork you normally find in those baked bbq pork pastries.

The bun was sweet and got the crunchy effect! Hehe omg it was really goooooooood.

Just look @ that juicy pork!

 

Chef's Recommendation:

Ordered all 3 dishes!

 

Crispy Seafood Rice Hor Fun ($6.80)

 

A really unique dish, the first time I came across such a dish!

So we poured the gravy all over the crispy hor fun and then it became soggy.

Did not really taste like those typical brown hor fun ... But it was still not bad.

Fried Sweet Potato Flour with Apple and Diced Chicken ($5)

 

Had half of this and I don't really understand the combination of this dish? Not a fan.

Pan Fried Dumplings with Leek ($4.50)

 

The meat inside was salty and a little bit to the tasteless side. It also does not taste like your normal fried dumplings with the distinctive meat fillings.

 

Steamed Spinach Dumpling with Shrimp ($3.80)

 

This was my 2nd favourite dish! The shrimp inside was fat & juicy and everything just complements each other really well. :)

Pan Fried Carrot Cake ($4.50)

 

Tasted so-so only.

I think other restaurants can do it better.

Glutinous Rice with Lotus Leaf ($5)

 

First mouth and I was overwhelmed with the lotus taste??!?! I was shocked at first cause I was wondering why it tasted like a flower LOL.

But the meat inside was yummy. :)

The other dishes that I did not (really) try cause I was not interested.

 

In Tim Ho Wan, their tables are always very close to each other, making the whole place quite cramped which is not comfortable at all. Not only that, it is very very noisy so the dining experience there was not really a pleasant one.

However, the food was not too bad so I think it made up for the tight architecture.

 

Their website: http://www.timhowan.com/about-us/

Locations: Plaza Singapura

Toa Payoh Hersing Centre

Bedok Mall

Westgate

Lavender Aperia

Ice Cube Cafe

At 12.30am, my friends and I had a sudden craving for waffles so we decided to have supper @ Ice Cube Café! Well actually it was like the only desserts café that we managed to find that is still opened at midnight LOL.

They had A LOT of food to choose from - waffles, crepes, brownies, mud pies and even pastas!
After quite some time, we finally decided on ordering one waffle & one crepe.

Waffle with green tea & gold mine ice cream with chocolate syrup ($12.90??)

 

The gold mine ice cream is vanilla with golden oreo mixed into it.

Their ice cream were really delicious especially the gold mine flavour. Their green tea ice cream was not too sweet and did not have the bitter taste that you normally can taste in green tea.

However, I found the waffle to be average only, nothing much to rave about.

Crepe filled with brownies & peanuts with caramel ice cream and maple syrup ($8.90)

 

This tasted like the Jollibean peanut pancakes??

Like literally you just add ice cream to the Jollibean pancake and you get this! (Just that this is like 2x/3x the price LOL)

 

Overall, the ice cream is definitely worth trying!

Their waffles are not too bad, I mean what can go wrong with waffles & ice cream right?

 

Their website: http://www.ice3cafe.com/index.php?route=common/home

Location: 11 Kensington Park Rd (Serangoon Gardens)

Opening hours: Mon to Thurs - 4pm to 1am

Friday & Saturday - 4pm to 2am

Sunday: 2pm to 1am

Quick update for the past few days

Just going to be posting some pictures of food that I've eaten for the past few days. Not going to elaborate on them much because I don't think they are very interesting to read about haha.

So on Saturday, my family went to the Marine Parade hawker centre to have the dim sum from "Neptune Hong Kong Snacks".
Have been patronising that store for quite a long time because obviously, their food is good. A pity they do not have custard buns and their menu is pretty traditional. Simple & cheap.

Did not really order much and they sold out on egg tarts on that day. :(

 

The next day we went to Canton Paradise @ il2 for dinner. My second sister really love that restaurant, their food is not bad but I still cannot understand why she is so in love with it.

 

So anyway, our MUST order is definitely their meat platter which consists of roasted pork & duck and BBQ pork! You can always order them separately too.

 

Looks super delicious right?! So juicy & fleshy LOL

 

The other dishes that we ordered:

Pork belly, XO carrot cake, Steamed tofu with minced meat and Kang Kong

 

These other dishes were not bad overall, but nothing much to rave about.

We also ordered some soup which I cannot remember the name and it was good!! I think all their soups are worth trying so do order if you are there!

 

Jump forward to Tuesday, I had supper with my friends at Chomp Chomp (Serangoon Gardens) after about a year? Kind of miss their hawker food so it was worth the midnight charge for the cab ride back home lol.

 

Good old hawker food.

Hopefully these food will continue being part of Singapore's culture and will not be gone anytime soon. :(

 

Weren't satisfied so we ordered another plate of fried oyster omelette! Yummy.

 

Fei Fei Wanton Mee @ Joo Chiat

Just had lunch @ Fei Fei Wanton Mee with my friend! Fei Fei wanton mee is quite popular and many youngsters like to have supper there as their shop is always open 24/7.
There is another Fei Fei shop (used to be rivals) across the road next to them but it has recently closed down.

I live just 3 minutes away from Fei Fei but the funny thing is I rarely eat there cause I think their standards have dropped for the past few years and their prices have increased quite a bit.

Chicken mee ($5)

 

Just this small bowl cost me $5 and for that price you pay for a bowl of noodles, it better keep you full! But sadly, this bowl did not satisfy my tummy much.

Anyway to my surprise, their noodles were quite good, it had a springy and chewy texture and they gave quite a reasonable amount of chicken pieces.

 

My friend had the usual wanton mee which was $4. Both of us dislike their wantons because we think it taste weird. To me, their wantons have too much pepper and salt. 

My friend didn't know there were other variations to choose from so she just bought the wanton mee HAHA how blur can she get?

 

Location: 64 Joo Chiat Place (nearest bus stop only have bus 33)

Opening hours: 24/7

Windowsill Pies & Swee Choon Tim Sum Restaurant

Yesterday my friend and I have decided to have sweets for lunch and something heavy for dinner.
Hence, we chose Windowsill Pies and Swee Choon!

We travelled to Lavender by train and exited from Exit B. From there, we walked for about 10 minutes before finally reaching Windowsill Pies.
We reached there at around 12.45pm and there were only two customers. However, soon after we bought our pies, the crowd starting coming in!

Here's what we have ordered:

 

From left to right:

S'mores

Coconut Lime Vodka

White Chocolate Pudding with Truffle (??)

Banana Almond Brittle

 

My favourite was definitely the S'mores pie. The chocolate pudding was not too sweet and it has a sticky texture but it does not irritate your mouth (if you get what I mean haha). However, the biscuits on top was kind of tasteless?

 

Next up we have the Coconut Lime Vodka which I must say was my LEAST favourite. It was unbelievably sour and sweet to me and I only had three to four bites (forced to) of it.

But my friend said it was not bad. So if you have a sour tooth, then please do try it!

 

The White Chocolate Pudding pie was not bad. The white chocolate was quite sweet but you won't really get sick of it. However, I think it is still better to share it with someone.

 

Lastly it was the Banana Almond Brittle which both my friend and I have agreed that it was good.

I liked the salted caramel nuts inside, think it really went well with the whole pie!

Could not really taste the banana though, but my friend said she tasted it so ... Yup.

 

Their website: http://windowsillpies.sg/

Location: 78 Horne Road (Lavender MRT)

Opening hours: Tues to Thurs - 11am to 9.30pm

Friday - 11am to 10.30pm

Saturday - 10am to 10.30pm

Sunday - 10am to 9.30pm

Closed on Mondays

 

Here's a cute soft toy bear for you:

 

 

 

Headed to Swee Choon at around 6pm and the place was packed but there were still some available seats!

 

What we had:

 

 

Not going to elaborate on every single dish because to me, most dim sum taste the same.

However, there are of course some dishes that stood out here in Swee Choon.

If you are going there for the first time, you MUST try their famous custard buns, egg tarts, and chee cheong fan!

 

Those are personally my favourite but I also absolutely adore their yam fritters, layer pancake, onion pancake and carrot cake!

 

For dessert, we shared the yam paste dessert.

One of their popular desserts. Must try!

 

We spent about $31 at Windowsill Pies and $36 at Swee Choon.

For a good and affordable dim sum dinner, I'll definitely recommend Swee Choon!

 

Their website: http://www.sweechoon.com/

Location: 191 Jalan Besar (Farrer Park MRT)

Opening hours: Open daily from 6pm to 6am

Closed on Tuesdays

Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant

Had dinner with my family yesterday at Lai Huat Sambal Fish Restaurant @ Upper East Coast.
We have been frequently dining at this restaurant for the past 2 years ever since it opened in 2012. And I am glad to say that their food has been consistently good especially their Emperor's chicken dish!

As the name of the restaurant suggests, their most popular dish is of course their fried sambal fish. Strangely though, we have never ordered that dish probably cause we think that the other dishes are more appealing haha.

So here's what we ordered:

 

Boss Mee Sua

 

This is one of their specialty if I am not mistaken. So the mee sua is supposed to be mixed with the sauce for it to be become soft but if you prefer it to have the crispy texture, then just mix a few rounds will do!

This is worth the try, so do order!

 

Emperor's Chicken

 

A must order.

It is super tender and soft and the sauce goes perfectly well with the meat! :P

Fish Maw Soup

 

Sister's favourite soup, she always must order this.

Taste almost like shark fin but this is a less guilty dish without having to eat the poor shark!

Prawn Fritters with fruits and mayo dressing

 

Can't really see the prawns and this is not a good picture but still posting this because it's good!

A good combination of sweet and sour without overpowering the prawns.

Sambal Kang Kong

 

What can go wrong with sambal kang kong?

Hor Fun

 

Noodles and sauce were thick, yummy!

 

Their website: http://laihuatsambalfish.com.sg/index.html

Location: 17 Upper East Coast Road

 

The restaurant itself is not very big with limited amount of tables. So if you are going for dinner on a weekend, making a reservation will be wise! Oh and they do delivery too for a minimum order of $40 and $5 delivery charge.

Sushi Tei @ Big Splash

Was supposed to have dinner at Old Town White Coffee but my parents & I could not decide what to order because the food was not very appealing. So we left and headed to Sushi Tei oops.

Sushi Tei has got to be one of my family's favourite Japanese restaurant, we always frequent there! Oh and not to forget Ichiban Boshi too. Both places serve really good sushi and their food are heavenly!! :)

I'll always have their sushi and these were what I ordered:

What can go wrong with sushi right?

 

Enjoyed all of these especially the ones wrapped with the beancurd skin hehe.

And I ordered the pork sushi and I was really amazed because I rarely come across pork sushi, like seriously pork sushi??? And I absolutely love PORK!

 

Here's a closer look of the pork sushi:

 

A pity that the sauce was SUPER salty but the pork slices were yummy so I'll definitely still order this the next time!

 

Phoenix Roll

 

A definite must order whenever we are here.

Avocado, fat unagi and crispy king prawn in one sushi roll - superb combination!

Lobster Salad Roll

 

My big sister ordered this. It was my first time trying it and I found it average only.

I guess the lobster salad did not really appeal to my taste buds.

 

The other dishes that my family members had:

 

 

The bill was around $140 in total! For a family of five, I think the price was quite reasonable and also because the food here is really great!

 

Their website: http://www.sushitei.com/index/index.aspx

They have plenty of outlets all around Singapore so you can easily pop by to one any time!

Rich and Good Cake shop

My sister's friend bought for us the famous swiss rolls from the Rich and Good Cake shop and I was sooooo happy when I saw the two boxes in my fridge!! That's because I have been longing to try their much raved about swiss rolls! :P

So she bought for us the most popular flavour which is kaya and another flavour which is mango!

Kaya Swiss Roll

 

This was seriously super good! It was soft and it kind of melts in my mouth??

The kaya was not too sweet and had a nice balance of flavour. YUM!

Mango Swiss Roll

 

I did not feel anything special about this. Didn't like the cream inside.

 

 

They have many different flavours to choose from but after reading many reviews, I think their kaya, durian and strawberry flavours are the most popular! So do buy at least one of those flavours if you visit their shop!

 

Location: 24 Kandahar Street

Opening Hours: Mon to Sat - 8.30am to 5.00pm
Sun & Public Holidays - Open ad-hoc

Thai Express

TGIF!! My friends & I have decided to head over to JCube to ice skate & to watch the horror movie Annabelle.
After that, we had dinner at Thai Express. Their service was quite slow but the staff were pretty friendly so I shall not complain.

The food we ordered:

Poo Nim Ob Woon Sen - Glass noodle with black pepper soft shell crab in claypot ($16.90)

 

I ordered this and it was not too bad. The soft shell crab was tasty but I could not taste the black pepper. Glass noodles were cooked well but a tad too salty.

The downside of this dish was that there were wayyyyy too much garlic & ginger in the claypot!

 

Kaeng Daeng Gai  - Chicken with potato in red curry ($10.90)

 

My friend ordered this and the curry was really spicy with a kick!

SHIOK!

Sen Lek Neua - Stick noodle with sliced beef in beef broth ($12.90)

 

My other friend had this and I forgot to ask him how it tasted haha oops.

But he did not complain about the dish except that there were too many vegetables. So I think it should be good!

 

Their website: http://thaiexpress.com.sg/

 

Nam Nam Noodle Bar

Continuing from the previous post, we headed to Orchard to shop and while shopping, we decided to each buy a cookie from Ben's Cookies to try!
Being a dark chocolate lover, I had the dark chocolate & ginger cookie. The ginger taste was really strong and hence, the whole cookie literally just tasted like ginger. There were bits and pieces of dark chocolate but it was too little. Thus, unless you are a really big fan of ginger cookies, I would suggest leaving this out!
My friend bought the white chocolate chunk cookie and she said it was yummy! Had a bite and it was indeed good. Not too sweet also.

After that, we had dinner at Nam Nam Noodle Bar. Have been wanting to try that place for ages after hearing quite a few good reviews about their food.

 

We had:

 

Dry Spicy Yellow Curry Duck Noodle ($9.90)

 

The curry smell was heavenly and the duck had a nice bite to it. However, the noodles tasted quite bland and hard.

Pho Beef Steak Slices ($8.90)

 

My friend who had this said the beef was too hard and the broth had nothing special about it.

Crispy Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab with pickles ($6.90)

 

This was superb! However, I found it a bit salty at some parts.

But overall, it is still worth the order!

 

Even though the food were not up to our expectations, we will still return to try their other small plates and toasted baguettes since they look really appealing! :P

 

Their website: http://namnamnoodlebar.com.sg/