Artisan Boulangerie Co. (Great World City)

I needed to go to the bank, and since banks operates office hours, it had to be done at lunch time. So I dragged my slacker buddies J and FQ to Great World City with me during lunch. They browsed for lunch place, while I settled my banking stuff.

I, have a weakness, for soups. Despite a bad experience with tomato soup Lynn and I had once, I still do order tomato soups occasionally (whereas Lynn have sworn off tomato soup ever since). ABC's tomato soup was thick and tangy, and I liked it. Warms the belly. The crusty bread that came with it was so so though.

Tomato soup

J ordered the portabello sandwich. It looked good!! She liked it, and gave me a mouth to try. The mushroom was thick and juicy. Perfect for mushroom lovers, or vegetarians who wants a 'burger'. I went for my usual Eggs Benedict, with smoked salmon instead of canadian bacon. The poached eggs were nice and runny, the hollandaise sauce tangy and creamy. I don't think I'll ever criticise eggs benedicts anywhere, unless some joint try to be funny and give me overcooked eggs.

Portabello sandwich

Smoked salmon Eggs Benedict

FQ, our breakfast lover, went for the ABC breakfast. Scrambled eggs, bacon, sauteed mushrooms and side salad. As if it wasn't big enough, it had three chunks of crusty bread served at the side. He was happy, and really enjoyed his breakfast for lunch. The eggs were creamy and perfect. Bacon, if I didn't recall wrongly, was a little on the too salty side. Other than that, it was a plate of happiness.

ABC breakfast

Bread for ABC breakfast

Overall we liked it. I guess if you're a bread lover or a breakfast lover, this is a nice place to chill and chat. The water, salt, pepper etc are all self-serviced, which is sometimes a good thing since you don't have to spend your time trying to get the servers' attention. They have ALOT of baked goods options, breads, tarts, cakes etc, which we didn't try. Only downside was we got a sofa seat. Although nice to chill, it was a little difficult to eat a proper meal from a low coffee table. 

Artisan Boulangerie Co.

#01-23, Great World City
Singapore 237994
Ph: +65 6887 4062
Open Daily from 10 am to 10 pm

Lenu (Vivocity)

It was a Friday night after our weekly swimming session, and we arrived at Vivocity pretty late (for a Friday) at 8 plus pm. Took a while to find a parking lot, and found that almost every eatery had long queues. We initially wanted to go for steamboat at Jpot but was informed of a roughly 45 minutes wait. Post-swimming, not good. We were ravenous.

So we roamed, and spotted the pretty empty Lenu. JP said it is pretty good, so we decided, why not? I was so hungry I really could eat anything at the moment. So we got a table immediately, browsed through the menu briefly, and off the few of them went to off to place order at the counter while I did the lazy girl thing and just waited at the table.

The rest returned with our drinks and starters, that they grabbed off the fridge at the counter. We munched on the cold starters while waiting for our noodles. Cold marinated cucumbers (凉拌黄瓜) was cold and crunchy, perfectly seasoned. The pickled cherry tomatoes I liked less, but that's because I personally don't like pickled stuff. The rest of them liked it anyhow.

凉拌黄瓜

For noodles I opted for the one with everything. Mixed beef brisket, shank, tendon with thin noodles. Nice rich beef broth, with tender beef pieces. The noodles were springy, just the way I like. Only problem? Serving may be a little too small for a post-swim dinner. But the hot soupy noodles really hits the spot, after a cold swim. Plus it was a rainy night too, hence the whole package was ideal.

Mixed beef brisket, shank, tendon with thin noodles

I liked Lenu for the lack of crowd, but still decent food. It's not lavish like some of my meals can be, but still satisfying. Great for those wanna-treat-yourself-but-not-too-expensive meals.

Laman's Delight

So we just had an unsatisfying dinner at Kuro Kin. We needed a good dessert to bring up the happiness level of the day. Roamed through Pasarbella, and chanced upon this little cake shop. They sell Russian homemade cakes. All cake flavors had small cuts left out for sampling. After trying out all, we settled for Walnut and Naomi, with a cup of tea each. This little shop only had one table of its own, and we decided that was a nice place to sit and chat, since it was pretty late and the common areas of Pasarbella were sort of in the dark with some of the lights off.

What I really loved about Laman's Delight, is the wholesomeness of the cakes. In this day and age where cafes and cupcake shops are popping up everywhere, desserts tend to come all fancy and over-the-top. In contrast, Laman's Delight serve up good ol' old-fashioned homemade buttercream cakes, which really hits the spot. And they do not scrimp on the ingredients. Walnut was really chock full with chopped walnuts in every bite. And it was a lot of bite as it was a very huge slice of cake, despite looking innocently small in the picture. When we were served our cakes, we regretted ordering two instead of one, because of limited stomach space.

Walnut

Naomi was a slightly alcoholic chocolate cake. I cannot remember which alcohol it was, but it wasn't overwhelming, and lent a very good overall flavor to the cake. The chocolate was rich, with additional shaved chocolate on top. Yet it wasn't overly sweet. We really liked it.

Naomi

Pity I'm blogging this in retrospect. Else I would have requested this for my birthday cake! Haaa. Too late, but it's ok. It's good to remember good food. Unlike the unattractive dinner we had, this is what will really draw me back to the Grandstand.

Laman's Delight

PasarBella @ The Grandstand Bukit Timah

200 Turf Club Road

Singapore 287994
Tel: 9735 0071

Kuro Kin

This was one of those deals. We've actually reduced getting those now, since most of these deals tend to be mediocre. But this particular one screamed at us with it's promise of wagyu beef and Iberico pork. It was the the Grandstand (the old turf club), which required a bit of navigation to arrive at.

We started off the meal with our favourite swordfish sashimi. It was cut too thick, and wasn't very juicy. It had, however, a very nice milky taste to it. Wished it was cut thinner. Really, when it comes to sashimi, it isn't the thicker the better! There has to be the perfect thickness! Too thin, you don't enjoy the fish. Too thick, the texture gets thrown off balance.

Swordfish sashimi

The supposed star was the Kagoshima wagyu beef tenderloin, served very interestingly on a leaf over a mini grill with fire. The beef was kept warm, but not overly cooked. There's a small smear of miso somewhere on the leaf. The deal had an option for an additional 200g beef at a discounted price, and I believe we went for that. The beef was nice, but not super blissful. We ate it, didn't hate it, but wasn't all that impressed.

Kagoshima wagyu beef tenderloin

The Iberico pork tenderloin was served as a cutlet. It was a little on the dry side, and the crumbs not as light as some other cutlet joints'. The garlic rice was also pretty normal. It wasn't very garlicky, but was still a decent Japanese fried rice. The onigiri was an add-on order on our part, because we enjoyed the one at Yakinikutei-Aochan so much. But theirs was a little on the disappointing side.

Iberico pork tenderloin

Garlic rice

Onigiri

Overall, it was a disappointing meal since we went with such high expectations for the beef and the pork. And the inaccessible location doesn't help in encouraging a return visit.


Kuro Kin
200 Turf Club Road #01-27,

The Grandstand, 

Singapore 287994
Tel: 6462 1213

Doodle and switch (Millenia Walk)

It was a planned dinner date with the hubs and his siblings, and we had initially wanted to go to Loving Hut at Suntec City for vegetarian food. Turned out Suntec was in the midst of renovations at that wing, so we had to change dinner location last minute. Because I'm such an idiotic driver, I had decided to park at Millenia Walk thinking it'll be less crowded than Suntec City and hence less stressful. I was right, and since I was there, I snooped around for potential dinner places and found this little pasta shop called Doodle and Switch. It had vegetarian options, so I suggested to the rest, who said ok and I got us a table.

Doodle and Switch is a pretty self-serviced joint, where you place order at the counter, grab your drinks, sides and soups yourself. The pasta is then served to you when ready. What's cool is that on top of their interestingly named pastas (or should I say hilariously named), you have the option to DIY your own pasta choosing your pasta type, sauce and condiments.

For sides they have a small variety and we settled for citrus glazed chicken wings and truffle fries. For a small top-up you get a set meal with the soup of the day and a drink. The fries had no truffle taste at all, and the chicken wasn't fabulous. Soup was had a very canned and instant feel to it.

Truffle fries

Citrus glazed wings

Soup of the day

Pasta-wise, I think the customization is a nice option. Look at the amount of rocket that W had piled on her aglio olio. She loves rockets. The western flavors were pretty ok. Not something I will intentionally go back for, but ok. The laksa was interesting. Cream based laksa flavor, in a thicker pasta sauce setting. G liked it enough.

DIY Aglio Olio

Laksa Lips

Carbonara

Prawn Star

Streets of Galbratar

DIY Tom Yam

Given the limited vegetarian options in Millenia Walk, I guess Doodle and Switch works when you just need a quick bite to fill your tummy. Don't expect top-notch service though, they are pretty much self service. The boy roaming the tables had a very blur look to him.


Doodle and Switch
9 Raffles Boulevard

#01-88/89 

Singapore 039596
Tel: 6336 5606