Chapter 55

This is a new western restaurant that opened up at what we called a jinxed location at Tiong Bahru. It's predecessors were mostly overpriced, lousy food and dodgy-ly decorated food places that we didn't bother giving a second chance. And all of them closed down for obvious reasons. So we were quite curious to see the renovations going on for Chapter 55. And even more excited to see the sign that says "one-for-one weekday lunch". =)

So on day 2 of opening, we went to check out the lunch. To be clear to readers, the one-for-one does not apply to the entire menu. But quite a decent selection of the menu falls under the one-for-one deal. And as expected, its the cheapest items that you get free. So if you chose 4 dishes, the 2 cheapest comes free. And the eligible items are not limited to main courses. It is applicable to some appetisers too. But bear in mind since appetisers are generally cheaper than main courses, if you want to be really 'worth it' about it, may not be the best option.

The truffle fries does not fall under the one-for-one, but we decided to order it anyway. They are pretty good fries! Crispy shoe string fries with fluffy centre, I loved them! Down side is the truffle oil are not mixed in very evenly, so you get that occasional fry that is uber fragrant, the rest are just regular very nice fries.

Truffle fries

Their pastas were served pretty quickly. The vongole smelled amazing when it arrived. E thoroughly enjoyed it. J found her mushroom Aglio Olio a tiny bit on the bland side, but she still liked it anyway.

Vongole

Mushroom aglio olio

The non pasta mains. Goodness. 30 minutes after ordering, no sign of FQ and my food! After several times badgering the waiter, we finally got our food a good 45-50 minutes after ordering. Bad! But I chalked it up as teething problem on the kitchen's part. It's day 2 of operation after all. My sea bass was very nicely done and the mash potato puree was an interesting touch.

Sea bass

We didn't really liked their coffee. It was too bitter, and J said that was over burnt coffee. Not that I know anything about coffee...

Latte

The most impressive thing about them? The gelato counter. Their flavors are interesting enough, and seems to change often enough for you to want to sample quite frequently. It's so nice to have a gelato place within walking distance from work for horribly hot days!

Gelato!

We went back on a separate occasion one week later, because S wanted to go. This time round I thought the kitchen should have sorted out its teething problem. And initially, I was impressed by my beef lasagne that arrived 10 minutes after ordering. But wait. We ordered TWO beef lasagne. And the second one didn't arrive til more than 30 minutes later. Guess the first one was a wrong delivery from another table. Oops. So needless to say, by the time the others' food arrived, I had long finished my lasagne. But timing aside, the lasagne IS very nice. The tomato sauce was perfect, only complain is the serving size is a little on the small side. NOT ENOUGH!!

Beef lasagne

We tried their buffalo wings this time round. Pretty good. Unfortunately my wing was slightly pink near the bone, something I feedback to the lady boss. She took the feedback very good-naturedly.

Buffalo wings

We also got fried calamari this time. Nice! The batter is not overly thick, and the squid cooked just right. Not too soft, not to chewy. Perfect.

Calamari

E tried the breaded pork ribs. It turned out just to be a deep fried pork cutlet. Nothing amazing. And if I didn't remember wrongly, it could do with a little more seasoning. But this was 5 months ago. I may have remembered wrongly. Hahaha

Breaded pork ribs

Overall I do like their food. It's the waiting times that is keeping me away. JK have been back twice for their dinner now, and both his wife and him loved it. He swears by their pizzas, which I haven't try. Maybe 5 months on, their kitchen speed have improved. Maybe it's time to give them another chance one fine day. For now, I'm quite happy to stop by occasionally for gelato. =D They're always quite full when I drop by, so I think this joint is here to stay and break that chain of 'unlucky' eateries to occupy that 'cursed' space. 

Chapter 55

55 Tiong Bahru Road, #01-37,
Singapore
Tel: 6221 2219

Toby's - The Dessert Asylum

We happened to be in the far east (Marine Parade) to attend a wake, and decided to hunt for dinner somewhere nearby. I suggested Parkway Parade since it was nearby, and in no time, we had parked and started looking for dinner places. I did scan the website on the ride there to try to find suitable eating places. Hubby rejected most of those I suggested, but he spotted Toby's bright signage from from far away and dragged me over to check it out. Turns out the menu seems pretty alright, something I wasn't able to tell from it's name on the website. I honestly thought it was just a dessert place.

The menu is actually quite playful with cartoons all over, and somehow a little reminiscent of NYDC's format and variety. I was actually tempted by many items ranging from pasta to pizza to pies. I finally decided on what I want, and added on a set meal. The set meal came with a soup of the day, which in this case, was a mushroom soup. Portion wasn't huge, but its nice to see a non-campbell mushroom soup, served with a super well toasted slice of bread (which really, is more like a cookie given how toasted it is.).

Mushroom soup

My final decision was the beef lasagne, which for some reason was served with a buttered toast on it. The toast was totally out of place, but I dutifully ate it before digging into the pasta. The pasta is actually pretty alright. The sauce well flavoured, the pasta cooked right, the whole combination is pretty decent.

Beef lasagne

Hubby was hungry and straight up ordered a pizza and a pasta. The mushroom and spinach pizza had a generous scatter of spinach leaves and toasted almonds. I liked the pizza, and helped eat one, maybe two slices. That's because he was too full from his pasta and couldn't finish the pizza. There was something he didn't quite like in the vegetarian spaghetti but I can't remember what it is. Oh! I think it was the greens in the pasta. I was pretty sure they were spinach but he said they tasted weird and left them all behind.

Mushroom and spinach pizza

Vegetarian spaghetti

Ironically, we had no space for desserts. The food isn't too bad, but wasn't so amazing that I will drive all the way back to the east for it. But if I happen to be in the locality, I will probably want to return to try their desserts.

Toby's - The Dessert Asylum
80 Marine Parade Road, 

#02-68/69/70 

Parkway Parade
Singapore 449269
+65 6346 2435
enquiry@tobys.com.sg

Verve Pizza Bar (Marina Bay)

My family and I went for the Cavalier show at Marina. After the show, we wanted a simple dinner before heading home. Since we all parked at the open carpark beside the show stage, the most accessible place to dine was actually Verve Pizza Bar, right beside the carpark. Moreover, it seemed to be vegetarian friendly enough, so we settled for there. Since all the seating is alfresco, and it's pretty late at night, and I didn't bring my camera and had to rely on my phone camera, I apologise for the poor photos.

First up, french fries. No truffles, no garlic. Just good ol' fries. Ordered more for my nephew's benefit than ours, but he didn't eat alot of it so we gained from him. Regular fries, not much I can comment on.

Fries

My mom and I shared a somewhat interesting sounding pizza. Enzo - peking duck pizza. How fusion is that? Turns out it wasn't very Chinese flavoured after all. But the influence is there. Sweetish sauce, duck meat pieces, and topped with cucumber and spring onions. My mom enjoyed it, I found it not bad.

Enzo - Peking duck pizza

When there's my bro and me, there's always fried chicken wings. We CANNOT resist. But their's were so-so. Crispy, yes. Seasoned, yes. That's about it. It wasn't those super nice ones. But it's not bad. It's very hard to make bad fried chicken wings... agree?

Fried chicken wings

The hubby went for the Franucci, a tomato, mozzarella, basil pizza. It looked good! He polished the entire pizza off alone, which is impressive by itself. Then he amazed us further by ordering a pasta, and finished that too! I tried a mouthful of his pasta, which I forgot to take a photo of. I like it! Their pasta are homemade fresh pasta. The texture is nowhere like those dried kinds we get in supermarkets and find in almost 90% of the restaurants in Singapore. I love fresh pasta!

Franucci - tomato mozzarella basil pizza

And of course I managed to forget to take photo of my sis-in-law's pasta before she mixed it. But here's a look at their yummy fresh pasta. Urgh, the poor lighting is soooo not helping the food look nice. Ok, and my poor photography skills.

Aglio olio linguini

I like their pizzas for the thin-crusts, and love their homemade pastas. Overall, we liked it. In fact, so much so that the hubby asked me a few weeks later where else got sell pizza and pasta like the one we ate after Cavalier one. You see, he doesn't remember places very well, so it's no surprise he forgot the name. For him to actually remember the food he ate after Cavalier, it goes to shows how much he enjoyed it. 

Verve Pizza bar

11 Marina Boulevard
Ground Floor
Marina Bay City Gallery
Singapore 018940

Ristorante da Valentino

It's my birthday!!! And the hubby and I arranged to have dinner together. But he didn't mention where we were going. Knowing how bochap he usually is, I was expecting one of the usual places we go. To my surprise, he didn't say anything, just asked me to get in the car when he picked me up. I fell asleep, and woke up to find myself in The Grandstand. Still he kept mum about where we're having dinner. He couldn't find the place and we were staring at the directory. I asked him which restaurant he still kept quiet. Just dragged me all around the Grandstand, until we found the restaurant at some ulu corner with it's main entrance from the outside of the mall. And no signboard. It was until he spotted the menu with the restaurant name on it then he was sure he got the right place.

So here we are at Ristorante da Valentino. A quaint little Italian restaurant hidden at one corner at a mall in the middle of nowhere. He actually found it by random search online. After we browsed through the menu, the server came by and gave us a verbal commentary of the specials, of which I understood only parts of. But one of the recommended starters was something he described and sounded like 'mozzarella with tomatoes'. Hey, that sounds like Caprese salad and I like that! So we went with that (without even knowing the price actually).

When it arrived, the waiter let me take a photo of the whole plate, before he divided it into two side plates for us. And that's the moment that I was blown away, and HAD to immediately google what I thought I heard the dish is called. And I found it. That's a Burrata cheese. Something I've never heard of before this point in time, but something that replaced Buffalo mozzarella as my favourite cheese from this point forth. Imagine the freshness of Buffalo mozzarella. Now, keep that same taste in your head, but imagine a creamier, richer version. That, is Burrata. It was sooooo creamy... I looooove it. Totally. And the accompanying cherry tomatoes were so sweet and juicy, complementing the Burrata so well. I was totally in love with the whole dish.

Burrata cheese

I wanted a mushroom soup so we got mushroom soup. Theirs was served in a cup, and it was the velvety, mushroomy kind. As opposed to chunky or creamy kind, if you get my drift. Nice warm start to the meal. But pales in comparison to that amazing salad I just had. And what's Italian food without good crusty Italian bread? We were given three crusty rolls to go with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Hubby stopped at one so I polished off two. Yum. I love bread.

Mushroom soup

Crusty Italian bread

The hubby went for a Spinach lasagne. It's creamy and fragrant. I tried a bit of it and I liked it. The pasta was perfectly cooked, and the sauce perfect. But it was a little to rich for the hubby and he struggled through the second half of it. He never really did well with cream based food.

Spinach lasagne

I greedily went for the Carbonara. This was a REAL carbonara. Made with mainly eggs and lots of cheese, very little (if any) cream. It was RICH! I did enjoy the 'realness' of it, but I found the pasta a little too al dente to my liking. I would have preferred the pasta be cooked that little bit longer. So actually, I found myself liking my hubby's dish more...

Carbonara

Overall, I enjoyed the dinner. I'm not sure if the Burrata totally skewed my impression of this place to a highly positive bias. That may well be, because now as I'm writing, I remember I didn't enjoy the Carbonara. But it's a nice cosy place for that special occasion. In fact, we were almost the only Singaporeans in that restaurant. Almost all other guests were Caucasians! Guess that speaks volumes about its authenticity.

Ristorante da Valentino

200 Turf Club Road, #01-19
Singapore 287994
Tel: 6462 0555
Email: ristvale(@)singnet.com.sg
SMS - 9463 8033

Ah Bong's Italian

Tiong Bahru is a very interesting place nowadays. Home to the old school Tiong Bahru Market and small Chinese restaurants and the famed Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh. Here in Tiong Bahru you still can find small eateries known as 小吃店, which are dying off in Singapore because the government have limited granting licenses for these eateries due to hygiene reasons. This small shops supposedly don't have the piping systems in place for food processes.

In the midst of all these old shop houses, Tiong Bahru also boast many hipster cafes such as Tiong Bahru Bakery and Dripz. And one particular 小吃店 goes through a transformation. Small eating house with a few hawker stalls by day, it transforms into a pizza parlour by night known as Two-Face Pizza. But today I'm not talking about the transformation nor the pizza. I'm focusing on one of the hawker stalls. In the face of dying traditions, a young fella stepped in and went to set up a hawker business. What's more interesting is, he is not selling traditional hawker food. He is selling Italian food, in a hawker fashion.

For Italian food, the prices weren't expensive. $6-7 for a plate of pasta. The menu changes daily, so check back often, or check their facebook. On the day I went, I had the Chorizo bolognaise. It was served in a traditional 'chicken' plate. Cute. The serving isn't huge, but with the minced chorizo and peas, it was good enough for me. Our intern had the aglio olio which only had some mushrooms. She's, um, still growing I presume, and found the portion not quite enough. The young chef came over and chatted with us and asked how the food is. When we feedback on the portion, he said that was 150g pasta each. I'm presuming he meant cooked weight. For me, I liked my bolognaise. The pasta was perfectly al dente, the sauce rich and delicious. Maaaybe a little more will be nice.

Chorizo bolognaise

Because those who had the aglio olio were so unsatisfied, we ordered the Expresso creme brulee. It's actually not bad. The coffee flavor wasn't overpowering, and the sugar crust was beautifully crunchy. Although I did find the custard not quite rich enough. It felt a little... thin...

Expresso Creme brulee

Broke through the beautiful sugar crust

I do admire the guy for braving the hawker industry with real 'ang moh' food. Not the usual 'western food' you see in kopitiams that serves asian flavored chicken chops with fries and call that western. And to do all that in his tiny stall area, I'm impressed. To tell the truth, we haven't really gone back there for lunch. The portion is probably one deterrent. The space constraint is another. The eating house doesn't have a whole lot of seats and can get quite warm in the afternoon.

Ah Bong's Italian

56 Eng Hoon St, #01-46
Singapore
Tel: 9650 6194

The Wine Company (Sentosa Boardwalk)

I've spotted this joint a few times walking in and out of Sentosa from Vivocity. It faces the sea, and looked like a nice place to chill with the hubby during sunset. So one fine day, we decided we'll go 'pak tor' there. Unfortunately, we chose a slightly overcast day and the hubby decided that sitting outdoor was risky. Moreover it was one of those incredibly humid August evening and the indoor air-conditioning was welcomed.

First up, truffle fries. I like that theirs were slightly more thick cut than the usual shoe string fries. I like my fries thick and fluffy, which was how theirs was. However, theirs were a little oily, and there wasn't a lot of truffle flavor.

Truffle fries

Lynn told me their chicken liver pate was very good. I could find it nowhere in the menu, except as one of the options for the bruschetta. So we ordered the tomato and the mushroom for the hubby, while I get the chicken liver pate. Indeed, their pate was creamy, livery and yummy. I just wished that it was a dish by itself.

Bruschetta - roma tomatoes, mushroom and brie, chicken liver pate

Remembering the fabulous crab pasta from Riccioti, I ordered the crab spaghetti and was sorely disappointed. The pasta was too undercooked (mind you, I know al-dente. Theirs' was definitely undercooked) and the tomato sauce waaaaay too tangy. That said, they were very generous with the sweet crab meat. In the end I picked through to get all the crab, and gave up on the pasta and sauce.

Crab spaghetti

Hubby got the mushroom risotto. As he is usually not big on rich dishes, he enjoyed maybe the first three mouthfuls? Then he got sick and finished the rest without much comments. But risotto are always like that, very rich. So he typically never liked them.

Mushroom risotto

We didn't get any wine despite being in a Wine Company. Hubby wasn't in the mood for it. We also weren't impressed by the food. And being 1 of the only 2 tables in the restaurant was pretty awkward. I'm pretty sure we won't be back in the recent future. 

The Provision Shop

LF suddenly asked me if I wanna join her and SH for lunch one day. Considering I finished my breakfast at about 11am, her lunch invitation at 11.30am was a little early. But I decided that sure, I can tag along and see what small meal I can get.

It was a good 10-15 minutes walk from our lab to the Provision Shop. The cafe is a very small place, with limited seating capacity. So in a way it was good we went early before it became crowded. The menu is pretty small, with a few sandwiches, a few brunch food, and a few pastas. Both of them opted for Eggs Benedict with salmon. The bread, though what I would call 'square bread', was thick and crusty and seemed homemade. The eggs were poached beautifully, and smothered in the hollandaise sauce. And they were really generous with their salmon. All for a pretty affordable price.

Eggs Benedict with salmon

Because of my late breakfast, I was too full for a full lunch. So I opted for a Perogie. With ham, onions and cheese, what's there to not love about it? But it was really quite small, so I think I was hungry in about 2 hours. But that's my own fault for having a late breakfast.

Perogie

I was so happy with the meal that I mentioned it to E when I returned. And another fine afternoon, when we happened to be free for a longer than usual lunch, a bunch of us trooped over for lunch. This time, many of us went for their pastas, which are homemade! I love homemade pastas!!!

The lagsane was a little sadly small. But since it was HY who ordered it, it's ok, since she's not a huge eater. And that mountain of greens piled on the lasagne suits healthy her fine. The carbonara looked a little pale, in my opinion, and a little too watery. AF didn't comment much on it, so I wasn't sure if he liked it or not. I vaguely remember him saying it wasn't filling enough....

Lasagne

Carbonara

I actually liked my beef ragu pasta very much. The ragu tasted fabulous, and I loved the texture of the homemade pasta. And I guess with the beef chunks inside, this plate was a lot more filling than the watered down carbonara and the small lasagne, so I must say I was pretty satisfied.

Beef ragu pasta

If I return, it's most probably for the pasta. I'm such a sucker for the homemade stuff. But then, I'm such a sucker for so many things. Haha!! But do take note of the small capacity, and the fact that you will leave smelling like the cafe due to not so impressive ventilation.


The Provision Shop
Blk 3 Everton Park #01-79
Singapore
Tel: 6225 9931

Riccioti (Star Vista)

So it was Commencement Day! And because I've been allocated to the evening session, we decided to go Star Vista for dinner before the ceremony. Because the hubby is vegetarian, I decided on Riccioti. There's always vegetarian options in Italian joints.

Lynn and XP met us at the restaurant, because XP was graduating too! Because of time constraints, we decided on our orders pretty fast. In fact, I went ahead and ordered for XP even though he hadn't arrive yet. We've eaten together often enough that I know what he likes.

For starters, we went for mushroom bruschetta. Nice change from the usual tomato, served on crusty bread with slices of parmesan. We found out these aren't easy to bite into two, so we just shoved the entire thing into our mouths.

Funghi bruschetta

Lynn and I decided to share a pasta and a main course. So for pasta we chose Linguine al granchio. I liked it, alot! It was a mixture of cream and tomato based sauce. Richness from the cream, tartness from the tomato to balance out the rich, and voila, you have a delicious winner that doesn't overwhelm you with too much richness. And the shreds of crab meat inside the sauce was a winner too! I really liked this dish, as it appealed to my cream+pasta+crab craving all at one shot.

Linguine al granchio

For XP I ordered him a salmon pasta. Because he like fish in general. It was served in the same tomato+cream sauce, making it an equal winner. With flakes of salmon, he enjoyed it very much as well.

Tagliette salmone

The hubby got Spaghetti Pomodoro. Spaghetti in tomato based pasta sauce. No frills. It was in reality the best way to taste the original flavors of the sauces, although I tend to be swayed by frillier alternatives. He liked it fine, so I guess Riccioti's tomato sauce agrees with him.

Spaghetti Pomodoro

The main course that Lynn and I shared was the boneless grilled half chicken. I was amazed. It was really boneless except for the wings. The meat was tender, juicy and well seasoned. The lack of bones made for an exceptionally easy to eat meal, with little need to dissect anything. The dissection part is what turns me away from most roast or grilled chicken so Riccioti scored with their boneless verison. The mash potatoes, however, were a little on the dry side.

Boneless grilled half chicken

For a place I randomly picked off the mall directory, I was actually very pleased with the food. I really liked their pasta and their chicken, and I believe I will be back to try their pizza. They have another branch nearer to my workplace. I may very well end up there soon enough.

Riccioti

1, Vista Exchange Green,
#01-33 # 01-K2,
The Star Vista
Singapore 138617
Tel:(65) 6694 4101

Fax:(65) 6694 4102

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