After a really dissatisfying dinner, we decided to stroll around to make some space for another meal :p
Mongkok Dim Sum caught our attention with steam bellowing out within their glass windows.
Dim sum!! And so we made the decision to cross the road :p
Simple pleasures
I was in the east to visit a colleague, and so hubby decided to come over to the east for dinner 🙂 While I was having a blast at Ms L’s place, hubby endured a 1.5 hours bus ride 😮
Luckily, there was a cafe nearby, so we took a quick walk over to Penny University!
This place was rather popular when the cafe culture started in Singapore a while ago, but we never got around to come here. Simply because it’s in the East and we are very North people. Haha…
A very simple place with smooth lighting, and soft music. One thing good here is that there are newspapers and magazines lying around which also means that they expect you to nua here… 🙂
Romantic decor
Yet another late afternoon meeting in this area, so off to The Lokal we went! Ms J was visiting here on a super regular basis previously, so we figured that the food must be pretty good 🙂
This place is right at the corner of a small side road so its easy to miss. Once inside, the front part of the restaurant is a bar and the rear is the dining section. There is soft lighting and smooth music to accompany the diners to give a very romantic feel to the whole place.
While waiting for hubby to arrive, I had a freshly squeezed yummilicious Pink Grapefruit ($6++)!
It was rather difficult to catch the attention of the staff though, as I was seated in a corner on the sofa and the place was basically empty at 6.15pm.
Hoshino Pot-Baked Curry Rice
It seems like Plaza Singapura is gettung quite deserted during weekdays evening!
Close to 8pm and there were hardly any queue at any of the restaurants and cafe on a Tuesday evening. We decided to try Hoshino Coffee, as it was previously always super crowded.
Despite not being full house, it was very difficult to get the attention of the staff. They might have preassigned duties for the evening, as one of the waiters spotted us, gave us a glare and continued with refilling of his water. Sheesh! Finally, another waitress came along to bring us to one of the empty tables.
Lunch spread!
After our mini brunch (actually we had wanted to come straight from home, but alas, this place only opens from 11.30am, and we were really getting hungry), we made our way to You Huak Restaurant (友发餐室, better known as Sembawang White Beeboon! We made sure to reach slightly before 11.30am, because we were worried about the crazy crowds, especially when it was showcased in the newspapers a few weeks ago (when they announced another branch at Punggol).
We managed to reach around 11.25am and got the last table! So happy that we did not have to queue 🙂 Seems like they opened much earlier today, as some of the people were almost done with their food. We were just settling down and browsing the menu when, just like magic, at 11.30am sharp, a queue suddenly formed, stretching the entire length of the shop 😮
We settled for White Beehoon ($8 for medium size), Sambal Pedas (臭豆, $7 for small size), Sambal Lala ($8 for small size), and my favourite Sour Plum drink ($2.20), while hubby had mineral water as usual ($1.20).
Food arrived rather quickly, just like the previous few times that we were here. While the beehoon was still delicious, we felt that the rich seafood gravy was too little today, and was not enough to give the beehoon a really good soak. Today’s sambal lala was alright, and I still think the version at Causarina Road is the best! The pedas was delicious as usual 🙂 I just hope that the standards will not keep sliding…
If you are thinking of trying the beehoon here, it would be best to come before 11.30am, or at odd hours like 3pm, to avoid the crazy queues. But if the queue is really too long, there are still many other food options nearby… In fact, the restaurant next door offers its own version of “wet white beehoon”, but this version is definitely not comparable.
Note: There is no GST or service charge.
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Wonderful 5oz
We are finally visiting this place together!
Here for a quick brunch, as we had other plans for lunch 🙂 It was fairly quiet on a late Sunday morning, and we were not sure if it was because of the location, or that the nearby church was temporarily not in service due to cracks formation caused by the building of the Thomson line, hence the lack of crowd or simply because of the seemingly rather expensive food prices, as compared to the few nearby cafes!
The entire place had a white and brown theme, and had floor to ceiling windows covering an entire side of the cafe, so it felt very bright and clean. This cafe also encourages sharing of tables, as they had a huge sharing table (able to sit 12-16 people), and the remaining tables probably can seat around 8 people each. Not a bad place to chill out for an hour or so.
Our dinner spread
We have been seeing people post pictures of food from FIX and figured that we should give it a try 🙂
This is a cafe that is found inside the HomeTeam NS-JOM Clubhouse (something like SAFRA Clubhouse but its for the Police and SCDF personnel). It is an overhead-bridge-walk over PIE from Toa Payoh Central. If you come from the Balestier side, it is quite near from Wheeler’s Yard.
Despite being an open-air venue, the fans were strong enough for us to remained cool throughout the meal. In fact, it was rather windy! The decorations were also quite interesting, with metal pipes as design for the bar counter, and metal scaffoldings between benches. Above us were lightings made with bicycle wheels! Situated next to the pool, it was quite a lovely place to hang out for a few hours.
Got latte art for matcha but no art for latte
Since we just had dinner at nex, we decided to stroll here after dinner (after seeing on Google Maps that it wasn’t that far away from nex)… It was about 15 minutes of a not-very-long-walk into the very-quiet-but-not-that-creepy neighbourhood before we finally reached this place!
We had been here before but that was quite a long while ago, and we actually came here in a cab so we had no idea how loooong the walk would be!
There were no seats for 2 when we arrived, so we were first in the queue. We were offered the big table when the next 2 couples arrived, so we all shared the same table. Thankfully, everyone were quite considerate so there weren’t overly loud conversations 🙂
It was also lucky that we arrived a few minutes earlier, for a snaking queue suddenly formed right after we were seated! Guess 9pm was a good time for some coffee and cakes, huh?
Beautiful latte art
We were in the area again and wondering what’s new for dinner. And as usual, I noticed some gorgeous waffles photos on Instagram, and checked that a new cafe has just opened along Kim Keat Road, near to Balestier-Whampoa area. This is just at the end of the road from Wheeler’s Yard!
Nestled within Hanson Court (a block of revamped studio apartments), Regroup x Scoop Therapy is a duel Cafe & Ice Cream Bar concept, which is also the 3rd branch from the very popular Group Therapy Coffee. The entire cafe is behind a glass wall and the glassed space welcomes much natural sunlight and the whimsical décor within complements the colourfulness of their homemade ice cream. There are a couple of alfresco seats but I seriously doubt anyone would want to sit so near the road.
Chef Paul-san with fresh sushi
It was our long-awaited Omakase dinner at Sakari!
Located at Orchid Hotel (where the famous Teppei and its infamous queue was also located), we had previously came here once for omakase dinner, also organized by Ms J. This time however, we had specially requested for pitan tofu, with the tofu homemade by Chef Paul-san, so we were totally looking forward to it!
We had also requested for the $120 omakase instead of the $100 one, so we were looking forward to even better food this time round 🙂 Just a disclaimer that since J was a super regular customer, we might have gotten a discount for the omakase. Also, J said that there is always something new that she has yet to try whenever she comes here (and it appears to be at least once a week), each omakase meal is different.
Eat.Eat.Walk.Walk . 吃吃走走 