Ellenborough Market Cafe

Hello! (:

Jeffrey & I had a great and eventful long weekend! =) We did quite a lot of things including watching the first two episodes of Boys Over Flowers! I hope that we'll manage to find time to continue watching this korean series because it supposedly gets better after the first part.

Anyway, we kicked start our weekend with a visit to Ellenborough Market Cafe! =) I can't help but associate the name of this cafe to Borough Market in London. Whenever I think of Borough Market, I think of the glorious amount of food that's available there (: Thankfully, Ellenborough Market serves quite a good spread of food so we weren't disappointed! :)
The seating capacity at Ellenborough was unexpectedly large. There were two food sections and we happened to sit at the intersection so we didn't have to walk too far to get to either food section.

The interior decoration was very 1960s-coffeeshop-ish. There were 'marble' tables with wooden/ rattan-looking chairs and rattan blinds. The atmosphere was relaxed and it was as if everyone was dining in a place that is infused with a slight and subtle nostalgia for the past.

A typical table setting as well as other diners indulging in good local cuisine.

I've come to realise that people generally eat in the 'standard' order, i.e. appetizers first followed by mains then desserts, even at buffets! Of course there's definitely more room for mix&match at buffets and our eating order gets considerably jumbled up after the first dish but in general, most people still start their meals with some sort of appetizer (or at least we do) and end it with something sweet (:

Here are some photos of the dishes that we tried:

Pasta salad and fresh romaine lettuce

Fresh romaine lettuce, tomatoes, different types of beans, pasta sald, fruit salad (mixed with some kinda rojak sauce, very yummy)

Kueh pie tee and prawns (Jeffrey said that the prawns were 'above average', which explains why we saw some guy carrying a plate full of prawns to his table)

Salmon sashimi and sushi (Their sushi was very disappointing. We tried quite a few different ones and concluded that they tasted below average.)

More sushi and some kinda fried dumpling (thankfully the fried dumpling was GOOD!)

More salmon sashimi, sushi and fried sweet potato roll! (The fried sweet potato roll was extremely tasty! You should definitely try it, especially if it's freshly cooked!)

Spring rolls, sushi, and char kway teow. (Jeffrey and I were amazed that they served delicious char kway teow! This is the first buffet that serves char kway teow as an alternative carbohydrate. We loved it!)

How can I resist trying their traditional laksa? (: It definitely isn't as good as katong laksa but it's enough to satisfy my laksa curiousity for that day.

More char kway teow and other kinds of meat (which can't be seen)

Broccoli, spring roll, steamed fish and a small clump of char kway teow (we could only take a small clump here because the cook was busy cooking a new batch as the old one had been fully consumed by char kway teow lovers like us)

Jeffrey's favourite three-layered pork! (:

Durian Pengyat i.e. smashed durian paste. Along with char kway teow, this was another rare dish that was on the buffet spread! =) This was the first time I was having durian pengyat and it was mindblowingly awesome! =) I had three bowls of this yummy gooey dish!

Bread and butter pudding and apple crumble covered in vanilla sauce. (Unfortunately, both were merely average so there's nothing to rave about.)

More durian pengyat, chocolate hazelnut cake and mango cheese cake. The cakes were pretty alright. Jeffrey refused to try the durian pengyat even though I kept urging him to. Heh.

Chocolate covered marshmellows and more bread & butter pudding!

There were 4 kinds of Chinese desserts: burbur hitam, some yellow cereal paste thingy, cheng teng and bobochacha. I opted for bobochacha cos I didn't feel like eating the rest. It tasted surprisingly good! I should have tried the others as well but unfortunately I didn't have enough stomach room for them!

Four chocolate covered yummy things to end off our meal! (:

We paid $31/person (before GST & service charge), which is roughly $36/ person after GST & service charge. There wasn't any discount because it was the day before a public holiday (Hari Raya). The quality of food definitely justifies the price paid and we'll definitely go back there again in future (: