The Soup Spoon

I've always had a soft spot for soup. Whenever I crave for soup, I'll think of Mos Burger's corn soup or Sizzler's mushroom soup... at least that's before I discovered The Soup Spoon.

A few months ago, my friend brought me to The Soup Spoon at Raffles City and my liking for soup increased by a few more notches! I wanted to try their famous pumpkin soup but it was out of stock so I settled for their mushroom soup, which was yummy and very filling! Subsequently, I went back to try their pumpkin soup and I was convinced that The Soup Spoon has got to be one of my favourite 'fast food' restaurants in Singapore (:

Last week, Jeffrey and I went to The Soup Spoon at Vivo City to try two new flavours of soup.

We usually opt for their set meal, which consists of a soup, half a sandwich/ wrap and a beverage. He chose to have chicken soup (not captured), which didn't have a creamy base, and half a tuna sandwich and ice lemon tea. Jeffrey commented that he prefers having clear soups to creamy soups, so I guess he made the right choice this time.

As I was feeling exceptionally adventurous that day, I decided to go for their soup bowl with puffy bread! This was the first time I'd a puffy bread soup bowl so I didn't really know how to eat the puff and soup in a non-messy way. Flakes of puff littered my plate and everything became quite messy! =( Nevertheless, I managed to finish my complementary bun as well as the ENTIRE puffy top! Whoohoo. What a delightful meal (:

I wasn't too sure if I could chose their 'normal' soup to fill the soup bowl so I just picked peppery mushroom soup, which was one of the few options that were listed under the puffy soup bowl section. Frankly, I didn't enjoy the peppery mushroom soup as much as their normal mushroom soup because it tasted a tad too fusion for my liking. The broth was thick but it was also semi-clear, so it was somewhat straddling both soup types =S I think I would stick to their 'normal range' of soups in future.

In my opinion, I think The Soup Spoon is definitely an up & coming fast food restaurant that serves quality food at reasonable prices. I'm looking forward to trying more flavours! =)

The Patissier

To make up for the extremely disappointing birthday dinner with my family, LPP & Jeffrey bought me an immensely satisfying chocolate cake from The Patissier! =) My good friend, Kathleen, highy recommended the double chocolate pralines cake, which I placed an order for in the end and I didn't regret choosing that cake! It's probably THE best praline cake that I've tasted thus far. Chocolate lovers, please order this to try! It's REALLY good! =) I'm looking forward to trying other cakes from The Patissier but since their cakes are awfully expensive, I'll only order cakes from them for special occasions! (:

Sakura

Hello! (:

This post will feature the final meal of my week-long birthday feast. To be frank, I was very reluctant to go to Sakura for my birthday meal because I've read terrible reviews about that place but since Gumtoo was very determined to give it a shot, my family went to the Sakura outlet at Clementi Woods to celebrate my birthday.

Sakura was packed with (hungry) diners and the entire restaurant felt like an overcrowded foodcourt. If one were to be positive, one could say that the atmosphere was very lively but personally, I didn't like being enveloped in chaos and noise. Although there was quite a wide variety of food on display, the presentation was an eyesore and it made me very averse to trying certain dishes. Frankly speaking, I think this will by my first and last time visiting Sakura.

Jade, my sister who's usually not very particular with food, made me take this photo to illustrate the lack of quality control. As you can see, the sushi rice has been disproportionately placed and the sushi tasted pretty bland =(

LPP and Gumtoo shared two plates of seafood, which probably wasn't enough to make up for our $26++/pax buffet charge:

Various types of seafood

Prawns

Satay (which Jade said wasn't properly cooked)

Mixed vegetables, tasteless fried rice, stewed beef (probably the best dish of the night), cold spaghetti

Lots of mixed vegetables

Mixed vegetables, fried spring roll, crab claw, white-noodle soup

More fried rice, pasta, hidden stewed beef and vegetables

Pizza, sushi and a very thin slice of mashed potato (don't ask me why it's not mashed)

Fried spring roll, crab claw, sushi, pizza, potato wedges

Yam paste (which was surprisingly decent)

Egg tart and bread & butter pudding

Bread & butter pudding (probably the worst I've ever tasted)

Pulut Hitam (still passable)

I honestly doubt that I would ever return to Sakura. I hope that Gumtoo is convinced that the food is substandard and that she won't want to go back to Sakura again too. Well, I guess LPP's right in a way when he said "sometimes, you have to taste the bad so that you know how to distinguish and appreciate the good". Enough bad-tasting food this year, bring on the good food please! (:

Dim Joy

Hello! (:

Chinese New Year is just around the corner! I can't believe the first month of January flew by so quickly. At present, I'm busy sampling all the lovely CNY goodies that my parents kindly and diligently bring home from wherever they get them from. So far, most of the goodies are pretty up-to-standard so I'm pleased!

Anyway, Jeffrey and I headed to Chinatown area again last week to meet Regina for some dimsum at Dim Joy.
Dim Joy is located at 80 Neil Road. It occupies the corner of a relatively long row of shophouses.

I especially liked their menu because they provided a snapshot of every single dish available! =) As I'm a pretty visual person, I appreciated having photos of dishes to help me decide what to order.

They're pretty into prmoting proper chopsticks skills. If you look closely, you can see that there are instructions on how to hold chopsticks properly printed on the paper chopsticks holder.

Beef brisket with egg noodles ($7.60). This was exceptionally well done! We loved the texture of the egg noodles and the sauce that came with it.

A huge pot of century egg with lean pork congee ($9). The thing I like most about this dish is its presentation. It looks like a tiny witch cauldron! The congee wasn't as flavourful as I expected it to be and it was a tad too runny for my liking. It would be perfect for those who like their porridge to be light and not-so-filling.

King shrimp har gao ($4). Because of its name, I expected the prawns to be larger than usual but they were pretty normal. The overall taste of these har gaos was also average.

Barbecued pork & celery in rice roll ($5). Apart from the wonderful sauce, the rest of the dish was only average.

Shrimp & chive in rice roll ($5). Like the other rice roll dish, this was only average. I think the best rice roll dish that I've tasted so far is Hua Ting's scallops in rice roll.

Panfried radish cake ($3). These pieces were significantly smaller than those served at Crystal Jade but there was a very subtle oomph to this dish that distinguishes it from the other carrot cakes that we've had.

Siew Mai ($3.60). Pretty average so there's nothing much to rave about.

Custard buns ($3). These were a great disappointment. Like many of the other custard buns served in Chinese restaurants, these also contained salted egg yolk but the custard wasn't flowy like the others. Instead, it was pretty hard and it made the entire bun taste artificial =(

Lingan egg tarts ($3.60). These were the highlight of our meal! They tasted so good, we couldn't resist ordering another plate! I suggest ordering two plates at one go because they need more time to prepare this dish since they make it on the spot upon demand. They are served piping hot and everything is perfect (: I've not tasted another egg tart that can beat this, at least not yet.

Mango snow pearl ($5.60). I ended up eating most of this dish because both Regina & Jeffrey disliked them! They're like mochis with sour-ish mango filling. Dim Joy has an extensive dessert menu so I suggest forgoing this option because it's not exactly the ideal choice for people who dislike sour stuff.

In sum, the trip to Dim Joy was fulfilling and all of us felt extremely stuffed by the end of lunch. Thank you Regina for treating us! (: I'll definitely go back for more dim sum in future!

Al Dente Trattoria

Last Friday, Jeffrey and I met up with our common friend, Eugene, for dinner cum my belated birthday celebration at Al Dente Trattoria, which is an Italian restaurant at Holland Village.

As it was a Friday night, the restaurant was pretty crowded but thankfully, we were able to secure a table without having to wait too long.

Eugene ordered spinach ravioli ($22), which he commented was pretty okay except that the portion wasn't as big as he expected it to be. I guess the dish would have been more filling if the tomato base was substituted with cream sauce.

Jeffrey had his usual carbonara spaghetti ($18), which looked pretty decent to me. Personally, I feel that carbonara is the safest dish amongst all the pasta/ spaghetti dishes because it can never go too wrong (unless the cream sauce turns out to be disgustingly thick or pathetically watery).
I chose to have one of their recommended items - spaghetti arragosta ($28) - which was spaghetti with mushrooms, crab meat and zucchini served with light cream sauce. I was very pleased with my dish because it was much better than I'd expected (:

As Eugene and Jeffrey weren't full after having their spaghetti, they shared a $10 promotional haiwaiian pizza! =) The pizza's slightly smaller than usual but it was sufficient for them to 'top up' their hungry tummies after a long day of work.

After filling our tummies, we stayed at the restaurant for about another hour to chat and catch up with each other. It was nice being able to chill and hang out at such a casual dining place on a Friday night. Thanks Eugene for remembering my birthday and treating me to dinner! (:

Graze

To some people, Wednesday is known as the 'hump day' because once you get past Wednesday, the weekend comes into sight and you start to feel slightly better. For me, my 'hump day' is Thursday because it is the longest day of my week. Unfortunately, my birthday fell on a Thursday so I had to get through a long day of lessons before celebrating my birthday proper. However, my last lesson of the day was cancelled because my facilitator wasn't feeling well so I managed to get out of school before sunset! =)

Initially, we wanted to go to Mietta's for dinner but we were told that they no longer have dine-in and they only do catering! =S We sourced for another restaurant that we thought would be nice to have a relaxing and chillax birthday celebration and ended up making a reservation for Graze.

It was my first time visiting Rochester Park and I didn't expect to see a row of old-colonial-houses-turned-restaurants. It reminded me of a quieter and more private version of the Dempsey area.
We had the option of sitting outdoors (where movies are screened silently) or indoors. As it was pretty warm, we chose to sit indoors. Apparently we were the only ones who opted to sit indoors because the rest of their diners sat outdoors! The good thing is that we had the entire indoor area to ourselves.
Their interior of Graze gives off a very homely feeling, probably because of the woody furniture and warm lighting. If you notice, you'll see that they deliberately placed at least three different kinds of chair at each table! I thought it was an interesting idea but I pity the person who has to sit on the steel-y chair as it looks quite uncomfortable.

The table setting's pretty normal but their knives are pretty unique because they naturally point downwards! I think all knives should be designed this way because it's easier to hold.

I've no idea how we ended up with sparkling water ($9) instead of the usual iced water but I'm glad we were given this because it tastes pretty nice! (: It's like tasteless sprite.

Complimentary bread. Nothing to rave about as it was only average.

Caesar salad ($11) for starters. They were very generous with the caesar sauce and leaves but bacon pieces were a little too overcooked and hard. We found this dish very palatable.

As I'm a big fan of pumpkins, I was thrilled to see pumpkin ravioli ($27) on the menu! (: To be frank, I expected to see a few pieces of normal sized ravioli pieces but instead, I was served two big pieces of ravioli stacked on top of each other! Each ravioli was stuffed with pumpkin cubes and other vegetables and these ingredients literally spilled out when I cut the ravioli open. Despite the abundance of ingredients, I found the ravioli slightly lacking in taste. Perhaps I will go for something more 'Australian' in future if and when I return to Graze.

Jeffrey ordered a spring chicken ($29), which he said was the best fried chicken that he has had. He liked it so much that he named it "high class KFC chicken", which is actually a compliment because Jeffrey adores KFC.

The best course of this meal is undoubtedly dessert! (: I wanted to order their dessert platter, which consists of a small portion of every single dessert on their menu but I figured that the both of us wouldn't be able to finish all of it so the sensible part of me decided to forgo that option. We chose to have Black and White ($18), otherwise known as the pudding plate. Apart from the two tiny globs of vanilla and chocolate icecream, we had chocolate lava cake (black) and flowy custard pudding (white). Seriously, this was nothing short of awesome and everyone should try it! Upon eating it, you'll feel instantaneously happier and the world will seem like a finer and dandier place to live in. You MUST try it!

Graze is definitely a good place to go if you want to unwind after a long day. The ambience is lovely and the staff are attentive but non-intrusive. I'm glad I celebrated my birthday there!Thanks Jeffrey for celebrating my birthday with me (: (: (:

Greenhouse

A few days ago, I went for my first Ladies' Night buffet at Greenhouse at Ritz Carlton Hotel. Prior to this visit, I've never been to Grenehouse nor have I attended any function at Ritz. Ritz Carlton, in my opinion, is an extremely up-market hotel so I never thought much about dining there because I know the experience would probably cost quite a bit. My best friend, Joanne, and I took advantage of their 1-for-1 Ladies' Night dinner buffet promotion to celebrate my birthday and to catch up over dinner.

We were given a table at the far end of the restaurant, which was pretty alright because it was quieter and we could talk without worrying about whether we were disturbing others or whether they were eavesdropping on us. The only downside to our table was that we didnt' have much lighting! We finally couldn't take the darkness and asked for a candle to be placed on our table.

Anyhow, the buffet spread was pretty big. There was a bread corner, Japanese food counter, Indian food counter, salad and sides corner, roasted meat corner, on-the-spot-noodles-corner, a round about cooked food display counter, a crepe and ice-cream corner as well as a dessert bar. There's definitely sufficient variety to cater to people with different tastes so that's a plus point for this particular buffet.

Here are some photos which I managed to snap (the later photos were taken with flash because there was hardly any light at our table after sunset!).

Salmon sashimi. The slices were thick and fresh! (: I loved having this as my starter!

Clockwise from left: calamari salad, smoked salmon on plate (yum!), goose liver, fruit salad, fried ngoh hiang.

Clockwise from left: Fruit salad, Indian styled potatoes and vegetables, lettuce with roe and dressing, sauteed mushrooms

Clockwise from left: oyster, vegetable salad, Japanese-styled salad, roasted meat, tuna on plate

Clockwise from left: tamago sushi, Indian styled fish (yum!), cod fish, broccoli, fried noodles (yumyum!)

Clockwise from left: Creme brulee (yum!), white chocolate, mango with coconut milk sago (yum!), lime flavoured mousse on sponge cake

Clockwise from left: milk chocolate with praline (yum!), chocolate mousse (yumyum!), creme brulee (yum!), tiramisu

Mango with coconut milk sago (yumyum! but a bit filling though), raspberry sponge cake, dark chocolate cake with crunchy base (base was a bit too hard)

Lemon-y mousse with whipped cream topping (it was shockingly sour!), chocolate coated strawberries and marshmellows

Best dessert of the night: crepe with strawberry slices and (choice of) icecream

On the whole, I thought that the meal was quite worth it given the 1-for-1 offer but I don't think I would pay the actual price to dine there because the quality wasn't as good as I expected it to be. Joanne commented that the standard of their cooked food was extremely disappointing and I have to agree with her though I think that their fried noodles were fantastic! =) Thanks Joanne for treating me to dinner and for spending time with me! =) I'd a great time and I hope you did too! (: