Eggs Benny with smoked salmon - expressoLAB

It was a last minute decision to visit this cafe along Bali Lane. Their menu is quite common, with the usual all-day breakfast sets. We ordered the Big Breakie which consists of the usual scrambled eggs, sausages, ham etc. and Eggs Benny with smoked salmon.

What surprised us was the crispiness of the toasted brioche! It was really the star of the entire dish. Both Big Breakie and Eggs Benny come with toatsted brioche.

Big Breakie

Eggs Benny with smoked salmon

The hollandaise sauce for the egg's benedict was not really well done, and the serving for the sauce was too little. The poached egg itself was too well done.

They seem to specialise in coffee, but the mocha didn't really leave a deep impression for me.

Mocha

Nonetheless, I still think we can go back for the toatest brioche. And their deco is quite homey, so it is a good place to chill out.

Visit them at 13 Bali Lane, Singapore 189849 or their website.

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Fried Rice - Ding Tai Fung

It was long time ago when I first visited Ding Tai Fung at Jurong Point. I remember I was impressed by their good service, as compared to Crystal Jade.

But since they recently opened at Chinatown Point, which is nearby my workplace, I paid them a visit when I did not want to eat the usual stuff for lunch.

Turns out that their fried rice is actually quite nice.

Pork Fried Rice

The serving is a little too large for normal eaters, so it's a good dish for sharing. The fried rice is juicy enough, and tasteful. It is not the normal dry and bland fried rice you get at kopitiam. I was worried that the pork cutlet is too hard to chew, but turns out that it is very juicy and soft, so it goes very well with the fried rice.

Their xiao long bao is not that impressive, or at least it will not be the factor that make me revisit the restaurant. But they indeed have very good service, when they specially replace 1 piece of xiao long bao for us when the waiter accidentally spoilt 1 when serving.

Xiao Long Bao

Lastly, their beef noodle is quite average. The soup base is not bad, but the beef is not really up to expectation. I like the soup base being not too heavy compared to other beef noodle soup I have tried, but the meat is a little too hard.

Beef Noodle

Overall, I will still recommend this restaurant for their good service and tasty fried rice.

Visit their website for their various store locations.

Truffled Ravioli and others - Group Therapy

We have been going back to Group Therapy, hoping to catch the homey beef stew again. Sadly, the dish never made it to the menu anymore when we were back. But we found another dish that is as fantastic as the beef stew! That is the Truffled Ravioli!

I remember when we were there for the beef stew, we smelled of truffle from another table. I guess it was the Truffled Ravioli. When we made another trip to the cafe, we decided to order this dish too. It is indeed a very tasty dish!

Ravioli seems to be quite uncommon in Singapore, or at least I haven't seen it at major eateries. So this dish is purely truffle oil + tomato sauce + Ravioli, and it still tastes good. They sprinkled quite a lot of parmesan cheese on top so it can get a little "cheesy". Perhaps it is a good dish to share with someone else.

Truffle Ravioli

We also ordered another dish from the all-day breakfast menu: Poached Eggs. Essentially it is the commonly known egg's benedict topped with smoked salmon.

Poached Eggs with Smoked Salmon

According to Sam who has tasted fantastic egg's benedict elsewhere, this dish is quite decently done, at least the poached egg and hollandaise sauce are quite authentic.

We are definitely going back for more!

Visit them at 40 Duxton Road #02-01, Singapore 089504 or their website.

Tontoro is no dolphin - Ajisen Ramen

This is another place that I visit very often, although their price is not cheap at all, but I just love their tontoro ramen. When I first saw the menu, I thought it's dolphin meat because the kanji was dolphin in Chinese. Sorry for my ignorance, it's actually pork. Why I love it so much? Because the ramen is not too soft and not too hard. They give a generous serving of pork, really generous. If you eat a piece of it with a spoonful ramen, you usually have a lot of leftover meat. The soup is nice too, just a bit too much of ajinomoto sometimes.

Their side dishes are quite good too, like prawn mayonnaise and soft shell crab. Their prawn is really quite big and fresh, and it will not go wrong with mayonnaise. The soft shell crab is crispy and not too fishy.

Tontoro ramen

Soft shell crab

Prawn mayonnaise

Visit them at their outlets listed on their website.

Pear tart, what? - Drips Bakery Cafe

That's our last stop of our "A Day As A Tourist In Singapore Part 2" (what is this? Visit my Exploration Blog.) and I'm surprised that I could still fit in another half a pear tart. Why? Because the tart was just nice. I seldom eat tarts, especially fruit tarts. And even if I did, they were usually apple tarts. But pear tart? This is like the first time I try it, and Drips' turns out to be quite nice! The pear was a little too sweet if eaten separately, but I love the crust. It's not too sweet and it's crusty, if you get what I mean. I supposed the pear is to be eaten together with the crust so that the crust's taste neutralizes the pear's taste, but I couldn't pick up both together with the small fork, so yeah, maybe you should just use your hand.

Pear tart

We also ordered iced apple infused, which we thought was apple juice, but it's actually apple tea. Sam didn't really like it but I thought it's quite refreshing, because I've never had apple tea before.

Iced apple infused

It's one of a few cafes around the vicinity, but it appears that they have the most businesses, I guess they have other desserts that are nice, so perhaps it's worth to give it a second try next time, with a less full stomach. =)

Visit them at 82 Tiong Poh Road #01-05, Singapore 160082 or their website.


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Homey beef stew - Group Therapy

It's such a funny name, but it's indeed therapeutic. Why? Because of their beef shank stew. I had no expectation about the quality of the food before I was there. It turns out that they just surprised me with their homey beef shank stew, which I miss a lot just hours after having it. Based on my experience, their sauce DOES NOT contain MSG, and they are very generous with the beef serving and rice. I shared it with Sam and I still can't really finish half of it, that is really quite a big portion. It just tastes homey, like you know, the taste you would get from home-cooked food.

Homey beef shank stew

Their caramel cappucino was unique too, at least according to Sam who is more experienced with coffee. I can't really tell how good it tastes, but it's worth trying.

Caramel cappucino and the $1.00 plain water

One thing about them is, they lay out bottles of plain water on the table, and having gone to 40hands which also does the same, we thought that it's free flow. Turns out that they actually charged us $1.00 for that. )= Well, good that we finished the bottle. Remember to refrain from taking the bottle if you don't want to pay extra $1.00.

The place is quite hidden, so use your food sense to find them. =)

Visit them at 40 Duxton Road #02-01, Singapore 089504 or their website.


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Wonderful muffin - Shots

I heard it's quite a popular place, and I know why now. I only managed to order a decadent chocolate chunk (muffin) and orange blossom smoothie, but these are enough to convince me why this place is popular.

I've never tried a muffin so soft before, and it's chocolate taste is not too overwhelming. Just nice. And I think it's considered affordable ($4.90) as compared to other desserts elsewhere.

Decadent chocolate chunk

About their orange blossom smoothie, it tastes like half-molten ice cream! Very refreshing especially on a hot afternoon.

A wonderful afternoon spent with great desserts.

Visit them at 8 Ann Siang Hill Singapore 069788 or their website.


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