One-Ninety

Hello! (:

I'm back from Malaysia! (: As much as I dislike the toilets, I enjoyed being one of the chaperones on this trip because I not only got to spend more time with some of my kids, I also got to know some colleagues better! Am grateful for this opportunity to travel with them!

Anyhow, I'll do a quick post on my pre-departure meal at One-Ninety on the Sunday before I left for Malaysia! How we came to dine at One-Ninety is something that has been happening quite often of late so it's nothing very novel to us by now. Basically, I was looking for nice lunch/ brunch places for the both of us to visit and I chanced upon a cnn page that recommended One-Ninety's Sunday Brunch so we trooped down to have it!

The buffet spread at One-Ninety can (almost) rival Melt's and both of us liked the layout of the restaurant because the food bars were spread out along the perimeters of the restaurant. It's actually quite a good strategy to make diners walk around to view the food because they can use that opportunity to stretch their legs a little.

We opted for the non-alcoholic brunch option which costs $108++/ pax, which is pricier than Melt's, but it was worth every cent in our humble opinion! Okay time for some photos!

I deliberately placed this photo as the first because my kids mentioned that they know (and bother remembering) that Jeffrey ALWAYS has salad to start his buffet and guess what - they're absolutely right. From left to right in clockwise direction: Smoked salmon, three-layer pork, a tiny crouton and leafy salad vegetables.

They have a dimsum corner and all we took were two puny siew mais because we didn't feel like having the others!

I spotted MANY people having this peking duck roll so I told Jeffrey to get two so that we could have them. I made him eat my duck skin/ meat so that I could just indulge in the soft skin with sweet sauce and a thin strip of cucumber! I love eating duckless savoury 'crepe' (:

Oh one thing I absolutely ADORE about One-Ninety is that it serves gloriously good carbo-dishes! Just check the following out:

Piping hot creamy mushroom risotto

On-the-spot pick-and-mix spaghetti/ penne. We chose to have penne in garlic cream sauce with some mushrooms and it was yummy!

Dumpling/ Wantan noodles - the soup is surprisingly good!

Laksa which was aromatic and flavourful! =)

Oh and being the true blue Singaporean I am, I took LOBSTERS from the seafood section so that I could feel a tad better about paying so much for our meal!

Remember how I had just said that Bar and Billard Room is one of the few buffet restaurants that serves hummus? I literally had to eat my words when I stood in front of One-Ninety's extensive salad bar because it had almost every kind of appetizer you can possibly want! From left to right in clockwise direction: sauteed mushrooms, hummus with crackers, couscous, vegetables with carrots.

From left to right in clockwise direction: cooked salmon, something fried which I forgot, potato gratin, potato wedges, fish and smoked salmon.

More food from the 'grilled food section' (from left to right in clockwise direction): grilled vegetables, warm sauteed mushrooms, potato wedges, potato gratin, cauliflower with melted cheese.

From left to right in clockwise direction: cut up sausages from the 'grilled food section' and sushi (there is a Japanese section with quite a bit of sashimi and sushi to choose from!)

The only problem with having a wide variety of dishes is that one can NEVER sample everything! And One-Ninety's dessert bar is definitely problematic to me! Because I can't eat everything due to the lack of tummy space, I picked and chose those which I thought I HAD to try and captured some of them in photos:

From left to right in clockwise direction: chocolate tart, chocolate mousse, strawberry shortcake, some dessert which tastes like biscuit and creame, bread and butter pudding (yum!)

From left to right in clockwise direction: carrot cake, raspberry tart, chocolate truffle cake (which tastes a little denser than Cedele's famous chocolate truffle cake) and moist chocolate cake (which is DA BOMB if you ask me, LOVE it!).

Managed to scoop a nice spherical scoop of vanilla bean icecream for Jeffrey and myself to share (:

If you're ravenous or in a mood to try many different types of food, I would strongly recommend you to make a trip down to One-Ninety on Sunday for their Sunday brunch! One thing to note is that you should try to make a reservation as they tend to be very popular!

Alright that's all for now (: Time to head to bed. Goodnight!

Bar & Billard Room

HELLO EVERYONE! (:

Though there's still quite a lot of school-related things to settle tomorrow (in fact, I'm dedicating my entire day to three school activities tomorrow), I'm feeling pretty happy that the weekend has finally arrived! I doubt I'll be able to have my usual 'good-food-lunch' Saturday tomorrow since I'll be busy with school so we'll probably have to postpone it to Sunday!

If you're looking for a nice place to go for a scrumptious buffet lunch, you may wish to visit Bar & Billard Room located inside Raffles Hotel! Jeffrey and I went there last week and it blew our minds away!

Honestly I wasn't expecting too much because I didn't think that the spread would be wide or the food too tasty; I thought people went there for the ambience and relaxed atmosphere more than anything else but I was proven wrong!

Not only does Bar and Billard Room enchant its patrons with its tall ceilings distinctive colonial-style interior, it also serves a surprisingly extensive spread of tantalizing dishes!

I've been drinking a lot of tea since a couple of weeks ago when I lost my voice and developed a bad bout of cough because the warm tea helps to sooth my chest a little so I instinctively ordered a pot of tea when I sat down at our table! Bar and Billard serves TWG tea and I can't emphasize how good it tastes! Everyone should try TWG tea once in their lives! (:

I don't think I need to tell you whose plate this belongs to. I can't believe he took NUTS for his appetizers instead of having other things!

From top left in clockwise direction: Salad leaves, bread with butter, HUMMUS (omgosh I ate SO MUCH of this!), two types of smoked salmon and seafood salad (yum!). I must stress that there was a 'mediterranean' corner where they serve different types of dips as well as other mediterranean-ish starters! I felt like I was in heaven because I could eat all the dips that were present! =) What was lacking was some warm pita bread and I would REALLY be in heaven!

From top left in clockwise direction: black cod fish in cream sauce (yumyum!) and two types of warm cheesy dishes (I think there were a total of 5 or 6 warm cheesy dishes available!) - potato dumplings with cheese and eggplant with cheese. Everything on this plate except the eggplant dish, which was too dry for my liking, was good!
From top left in clockwise direction: seafood salad, black cod fish in cream sauce, rather authentic tasting Vietnamese springroll, quite a huge serving of two types of smoked salmon.

There was a pasta station (which I initially mistook for a omelette station) and Jeffrey and I ordered our preferred pastas:

I chose to have the ribbon pasta in cream sauce with mushroom and spinach while

Jeffrey chose to have 'carbonara' - spaghetti with ham and mushroom in cream sauce. Both were okay but I preferred mine because somehow the cream sauce was creamier and thicker!

Jeffrey first took this plate of fragrant white rice (which tasted quite different from the normal white rice that we have, not that it's particularly good or bad but there's a distinct difference) with a small piece of steak (left), some lagsane as well as another small piece of meat. All dishes were generally above average in terms of quality so I don't think anything that you pick off the counter can go really wrong.

He then went to get his second plate of rice and embellished it with some chicken, tiger prawns, ratatouille (which he unfortunately didn't fancy) and potato dumplings in cream sauce and somehow CONVINCED me that I should try their 'special' white rice so I went to get this:

White rice with more black cod fish in cream sauce with asparagus (yes, again!), more hummus and snapper with beans (okay this wasn't too good so please avoid it in future). I must agree with him that the rice tasted different from the usual rice we have! It's slightly softer yet it has a subtle grainy texture, something like a Chinese version of Basmati rice! You won't regret trying it!

There was basically way too much food for us to try all and because I feel compelled to try most desserts on display, I'd to stop eating savoury food and start treating myself to the lovely petite items at the dessert counter!

From top left in clockwise direction: tiramisu (which was only okay), mango with sago (superb!), creme brulee (yum!), bread & butter pudding (to die for!)

From top left in clockwise direction: melon, chocolate eclair, mashed potato with mushrooms and a layer of cheese, apples! Oh before I go on, I must say that Bar & Billard has an amazing variety of fresh fruits available! There are AT LEAST 7 types of fresh fruits which is way more than the usual that are served at other buffets. Fruit lovers will definitely like the fruit bar!

Chocolate mousse cake that will appeal to all chocolate-lovers!

Another platter of desserts (from top left in clockwise direction): cheesecake (yummy!), lemon meringue, chocolate cake, strawberry shortcake (too little strawberrries!)

Oh and to end off our meal, we'd a scoop-the-nicest-scoop-of-icecream-challenge! =D There were only two flavours - vanilla and chocolate - available so each of us scooped one! I don't think you need clues to guess who scooped which flavour! Both scoops of icecream tasted pretty good so we polished them off!

If you had to choose between Tiffin Room or Bar & Billard Room for an afternoon meal with family or pals, I would certainly recommend the latter! Lunch at Bar & Billard Room costs $58++/pax and I think it's quite worth it - foodwise and ambience wise. Give it a go if you're thinking of a having a nice chill-out meal this weekend!

Alright I won't be updating this space till next weekend because I'll be away during the coming week! Please take care and have a great weekend and following week ahead! (:

TWG

Hello everyone! (:

Last weekend, I ate at TWG (Marina Bay Sands Outlet) for the first time with two of my sisters and Mum because we were there to watch Lion King (which was superb by the way!). Frankly, I didn't know that there was a TWG outlet at MBS because I was under the impression that the only TWG outlet in Singapore was the one at Ion. Anyhow, we managed to get a table for four before the musical, which was great because we were afraid that we would not be able to get a table since it was Mother's Day weekend and TWG doesn't accept reservations. TWG lovers would be glad to know that a larger TWG outlet will be opening soon at MBS so look out for it if you're interested!

A cute sugar container. This particular TWG outlet is quite small and it's located on a raised platform near the Gondola area.

One of our teapots! This pot contained TWG's signature 1837 Black 3005 Tea ($11) which suited my sister's and my taste. Really love the strong taste of tea leaves! It's perfect for people who don't like very 'floral' tasting tea.

A spoonful of sugar in a shallow cup of tea =)

As one of my sisters wasn't feeling very hungry, she decided to go for something lighter: Scottish salmon with sourcream and toast ($28). I think she liked it quite a bit so if you are craving a small sandwich or something to just nibble on, this may be one dish that you would want to order.

Mum decided to go for the Roasted Apricot Cod ($26), which was tender but not filling! The portion is way too small for someone who has an average appetite but I guess it's pretty okay otherwise.

My other sister ordered the veal medallion ($28), which was also petite in portion size but pretty decent otherwise. The sauce was above average and the meat wasn't too hard.

I chose to have the Chai Sea Bass ($30) because I love the taste of Chai but unfortunately, the chai taste wasn't noticeable! =( I liked the sidedish of mashed pumpkin though! This was pretty average on the whole.

Because we were slightly pressed for time due to the slow service (that is expected of tea places), we only had the chance to share one dessert: Chocolate Fondant with one scoop of tea-flavoured icecream ($12). The chocolate fondant tasted more like thick chocolate cake-tart and it really didn't impress my sisters much. As for me, I felt that it was an average piece of chocolate cake-tart and it's nothing to scream about. Maybe I'll try other desserts in future.

I think one should definitely consider TWG if one would love to have a long chat with friends over GOOD quality tea and some nice desserts (: Their main dishes aren't spectacularly good but they make for a relatively decent meal.

Alright that's all for now (: Will update again soon! Take care everyone!

Cafe Swiss

Hello everyone (:

I've decided to take a little break from work tonight to blog about my trip to Cafe Swiss a few weeks ago because I don't wish to neglect this space! Also, my afternoon trip to Food from the Heart with my kids somewhat reminded me of how fortunate I am to be able to indulge in good food every weekend and I am very thankful for that. Food is really one of my greatest passions in life and I feel happy whenever I get the chance to think about/ talk/ look at/ eat food.

Anyway, we went to Cafe Swiss for their weekend (Asian) lunch buffet which costs $40++/pax. My previous trip to Cafe Swiss was pretty memorable because of freeflow movenpick icecream! =P I also remember the food being above average so I didn't mind going back again.

Unfortunately, I felt that our lunch this time round wasn't as great as the previous and I don't think my judgement is partial because I am certain that the spread isn't as wide and the quality of food didn't measure up to what we had the previous time round.

As usual, Jeffrey had his plate of raw vegetables and some cold side dishes for starters.

I decided to be a tad more adventurous and went for a spread of appetizers (from left in clockwise direction): salmon with roe, cheese with vegetable bits, prawn, olive and pasta salad, sweet potato salad and corn! (: Loved everything on this plate! Had a few rounds of these dishes!

Savoury selections (from left in clockwise direction): fish fillet with sauce, fried udon (yummy!), something which I have completely forgotten (whoops) and prawns in cream sauce (not bad!).

More savoury stuff (from left in clockwise direction): stewed potatoes, asparagus with mushrooms, cauliflower in cream sauce, more prawns and vegetables in cream sauce.

This plate obviously belongs to Jeffrey because there's a piece of meat (I think it's chicken) smacked right in the middle of this photo! There's also saffron rice (yumyum!) and some other kinds of meat on his plate which he claimed were all pretty good so you may wish to go for the meat!

And because I couldn't resist having more udon, I helped myself to a heap of it, along with a chunk of fish fillet (:

What would have been my favourite dessert: chocolate bread & butter pudding (which wasn't really good at all! bleah)

After my less than delightful experience with the bread and butter pudding, I decided to treat myself to a whole range of other desserts to cheer myself up (from left, in clockwise direction): some cake that tastes slightly like banana cake, pound cake with a blackberry on top, chocolate tart with raspberry (yum), chocolate mousse cake (not bad).

Perhaps the most interesting 'dish' I had that day was strawberry chocolate fondue! =) I was intrigued when I saw the PINK mountain of chocolate and instinctively I KNEW I had to try it. Turns out that it didn't taste too bad! (: Should have had more of strawberry chocolate fondue instead of bread and butter pudding!

On the whole, I felt that lunch was pretty decent but I wouldn't recommend it as a 'must try' restaurant. If you want a slow, relaxed lunch with a relatively quiet environment, then Cafe Swiss may be one place you would like to keep in mind. Other than that, I think for $40++/ pax, there are other restaurants that you can go to! (:

Alright that's all for now (: Have a great weekend ahead! (: