Kki Sweets

The first thought that I had when I stepped into Kki Sweets was, this place is so Muji-esque. Light wood with gentle lighting, so welcoming and warm. 

You have to place an order first before they will allocate a seat to you. 

I ordered the Little Red Riding Hood ($9.80), which consists of a dark chocolate mousse with a raspberry centre. No doubt, the dessert looked dainty and exquisite (look at that beautiful shine). There was also nothing to complain about the taste- rich, smooth dark chocolate, with a tinge of raspberry. But I can't help but feel that this is a little overpriced. Perhaps I was looking at a dessert that would surprise me, like the desserts at Mad About Sucre.

Kki Sweets 
#02-01 School of The Arts
1 Zubir Said Drive
Tel No: 6225 6650 

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Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Cafe

This is one of my favourite places that I dined at this year. 

Stuttgart is in Southwest Germany and is known for its automative industry. Both Porsche and Mercedes-Benz have their headquarters in Stuttgart. Blackforest is a large forested mountain range in Southwest Germany. 

I love the decor here- it's almost being teleported to another country!

As we ordered the platter, we were served with an enormous pile of mashed potato and sauerkraut. Sauerkraut is an acquired taste- I am fine with it in small doses but not too much please.

As part of the set, pieces of toasted garlic bread were served.

Here is the platter which is good for 8 people to share. If you can't decide what to get, I recommend that you get this- you get to try a bit of everything without having to be overwhelmed by too much of one thing.

The platter consisted of one Pork Knuckle, one Gockele Chicken, Speciality Sausages, and ham. The Pork Knuckle was, if I may describe it as such, ridiculously crispy and juicy. The Gockele Chicken was a spring chicken seasoned and roasted with herb butter. It didn't leave a strong impression on me. The sausages were firm and flavourful. Lastly, the thick slab was ham was chewy. It's a meat overdose but it's worth it!

There was no better way to round off the meal with the best blackforest cake I have eaten in Singapore. If you do not order a blackforest cake when you are here, you have wasted your trip. The Signature Black Forest Cake ($12) while a tad expensive was totally worth it- the robustness of the kirsch soaking the abundant cherries, together with the chocolately goodness, was simply divine.

I met a German friend recently, who was extremely kind and brought items from a Christmas Market in Germany to Singapore. A trip to Germany is certainly in order!

Stuttgart Blackforest Boutique S-Cafe 
9 Bras Basah Road
Rendezvous Hotel
Tel No: 6336 8675 

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Concetto by Savuer

By the same folks who brought you Saveur, this time we have Concetto by Savuer, a place that serves Italian dishes. The idea behind is this place is to use cooking techniques usually found in higher end restaurants at affordable prices.

I always liked the idea of an open kitchen concept, as long as it doesn't make me smell like I walked through oily fumes. 

I ordered a Crab Risotto ($13.90). Those who ordered the same dish before me cautioned that the portion would be rather small. But when mine came, they said the portion actually looked larger than theirs. Not sure if it's an issue of consistency or an issue of their hallucination.

Tastefully plated, the colours of the ingredients make the otherwise plain looking risotto look appetising. The crispy rice crackers added another dimension to the otherwise mushy dish. Considering the price, the crab was also adequate. The cream of the risotto can get a little overwhelming after a while though.

Yet another example of exquisite plating- the beautiful Tiramisu ($10.90) was really a deconstruction of the good ol' tiramisu. It's almost like dissecting something during biology class and then leaving it in full sight for all. Nice to look at, but not my favourite. I prefer eating the Tiramisu with all the layers together, as opposed of eating a deconstructed version where you can't really enjoy the taste of everything coming together.

Service was polite, prices reasonable. Common complaint at our table was that portions were a little small.

Concetto by Savuer
The Cathay
2 Handy Road
#01-11/12 

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Kith Cafe (Park Mall)

Somehow, brunch always goes right with this particular friend. Once, it was at Wild Honey where I had the insanely good Tunisian breakfast, another time it was at Penny University which had affordable brunch options. This time, we found ourselves at Park Mall. 

I had the Chicken Mushroom Sandwich ($12). My philosophy towards dishes containing mushrooms is give me plenty of them, sautee them well and the rest doesn't matter anymore. Indeed, the mushrooms were lovely and the grilled chicken was juicy. The thing that was unfortunately wrong in this dish- the chips! Been kept for too long and tasted a little stale. 

You may have to share tables with others as the queue list can get quite long- if you are okay with sharing (indirectly) you life stories with the stranger next to you or listening to that stranger's life stories (i heard that they are doing theatre studies), then why not! 

Kith Cafe 

Park Mall

9 Penang Road

#01-01E

Tel No: 6 338 8611 

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The Cathay Restaurant

I never knew that The Cathay Restaurant was so popular. By 10.30 am, we were told that there was no more space on the reservation list for 12.30 p.m. 

Interesting to note that in 1940 when the restaurant first started, it served European fare.

We ordered the Preserved Egg with Lean Meat Porridge ($5). It was enough for two to share.

I always judge a dim sum restaurant based on the egg tarts. The Baked Mini Egg Tarts (3 for $3.90) were mediocre at best. The egg portion lacked flavour and the crust did not have the melt-in-your-mouth kind of consistency that good egg tarts have. 

The Baked BBQ Pork with Honey Pastry ($3.90) was pretty ordinary as well.

The Steamed Fresh Prawn Dumpling ($5.60) and the Steamed Siew Mai with Crab Roe ($5.20) were pretty decent though. The prawns for the Har Gow were succulent and the skin could hardly contain the burst of juice.

The Steamed Char Siew Rice Roll and the Steamed Prawn Rice Roll were pretty ordinary too.

The Fried Carrot with Bean Sprout and XO Chilli Sauce ($10) was recommended to us by the waitress. It was something different from what we would order from the dim sum repertoire. Spicy and flavourful, this dish was pretty good.

Service was a complete letdown. Either get a new teapot or get new waitresses who know how to handle teapots. The first time some waitress poured tea, it made the entire area around the cup wet. The next time the same waitress poured tea, somehow it went into our Fried Carrot dish. It's okay to drip tea on our table but totally not okay to accidentally pour tea into our food and not feel apologetic about it. Wrong orders were taken as well.

Average dim sum, won't be coming back again.

The Cathay Restaurant
The Cathay
2 Handy Road
#02-01
Tel: 6 732 7888 

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Cafe Cartel (Plaza Singapura)

If you have bought the Groupon for Cafe Cartel, be ready to brace yourself for long queues. The number of Groupons bought so far (12631 at time of publishing blog post) is a good indication on how long you would have to queue. Go as early as possible. When we went at 6pm, there were still many seats around. By 7pm, there was a long queue snaking outside the restaurant. 

The two things that I really associate with Cafe Cartel is: 1) Free bread and 2) Half price cakes after 9 pm (or is it 9.30 pm?). So it's rather sad that free bread is no longer served. 

I decided to go for the Seafood Fiesta ($15.50). Rather neat plating. I took a bite of the rice and declared it good. It was flavourful rice mixed with some fruits such as strawberries and apples. The salad was ordinary. 

The seafood was an utter miss though. The deep fried prawns were over deep-fried and resulted in the bread crumb layer being bitter and the prawn being hard. The scallops were obviously the frozen kind you buy from supermarkets so I can't say anything about that. The fish was salty. 

The worst part of the meal was finding a strand of brown hair (I do not have brown hair) stuck in my rice. I always look at my food when I eat and I think that's a good habit because I have spotted plastic bits, metal wires, those silvery kind of ribbon in my food before. I left that part of the rice totally untouched. 

If you are looking for something more worth your buck, you might want to try the St Louis Pork Ribs. You can choose the sauce and I think the honey glaze is pretty good. The pork rib is also meaty and while I found it a little dry, my friend was okay with it.

I won't say that the food here is great for sure. Service is pretty average. In any case, the service, the concept and the food at Cartel Bistro (112 Katong) just seemed a lot better.

Cafe Cartel
Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road
#01-32/33/35

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Tao's Restaurant

We were looking for somewhere nice to go and Tao's Restaurant appeared at the top of the list. We were particularly attracted by the fact that it was $21.80++ for lunch, 6 course meal. Sounds like a great deal, doesn't it? Modern interior with interesting lights. Here's the menu. (Click here.)

The fare here is fusion and the name Tao comes from 陶瓷 Tao Ci (pottery plates), which is the whole dining concept over here.

The starter was Bacon & Mushroom Gratin. I couldn't really taste the mushroom possibly because it generally had a mushy texture. That said, I nearly finished the entire plate even though I'm not a fan of cheese. The only reason why that could have happened was because of the fluffy bread! 

The bread was so thick, so warm and lightly toasted, it was totally perfect with the gratin.

The Prawn Roll with Pork Floss had mango sauce drizzled over it with small pieces of prawns which had a good bite to it. The saltiness of the pork floss together with the sweetness of the mango sauce made this a rather delightful dish, although at risk of shifting the focus away from the prawns!

At this juncture, the Iced Rose Apple Tea was served. I liked this tea very much. It was cooling, refreshing and  not too sweet. The little tea cups they provided also gave a longer break in between each dish as you had to keep refilling it! After you are done (or maybe even before!), you can open the container and eat the little pieces of apples. 

The Cream of Mushroom was pretty good too. The last time that I tasted mushroom soup that was worth noting was at The Handburger. This is slightly more dilute, but still with mushroom chunks. While I prefer the one at The Handburger, I find this mushroom soup decent.

The main I ordered was Grilled Sea Bass with Japanese Sauce. The sauce was compatible with the fish but the fish was a little hard, probably overcooked. 

Dessert was unfortunately a complete letdown. The Tiramisu had too thick a layer of cream. There was also no distinct coffee liquor flavour in the soaked biscuit fingers. 

Overall, I think it's worth it to come here for decent food and a nice experience overall. Plates were cleared quickly, just like how food was served efficiently too.

Tao's Restaurant
PoMo
1 Selegie Road
#B1-19
Tel No: 6339 8858 

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Kim Dae Mun

Tired of eating at Plaza Singapura, I googled for food around the area. We ended up at Kim Dae Mun, located in the food court of Concorde Hotel. When we reached around 610pm, we were the first in the queue. By the time we finished at around 645pm, there was already a queue formed. The good thing about the food court in the evening is that it's very easy to find a seat. 

To view the variety of dishes, please click on the photos above and below to view their enlarged forms. 

I ordered the Spicy Shredded Chicken Set ($6.50). You could choose a side dish (kimchi, anchovies or cucumbers). I got the anchovies. There is a very generous portion of chicken on the hotplate and they make it an effort to inform you that they use water and not oil on the hotplate. The chicken is very tender. Below that mountain of chicken is some veggies to soothe your guilt of eating so much meat. I like the sweet and mildy spicy sauce and it goes great with rice. The anchovies were also very appetising. 

Yes, the food here is not bad. But I have tasted similar Korean food at some food places at similar prices. But if you are in the area and craving budget Korean food, you can drop by!

Kim Dae Mun Korean Cuisine

Concorde Hotel 
100 Orchard Road
Food Court at Level 1

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Riverside Indonesian BBQ

Since the chicken-egg problem has puzzled people over centuries, to decide which came first, just grab a heap of salt and randomly throw it to see whether it lands on the chicken or the egg!

I have a love-hate relationship with the Ayam Panggang ($5.50, takeaway) at Riverside Indonesian BBQ. Love it, because of the sweet black sauce. Hate it because of the inconsistencies. In the years I have eaten here, there are two things that keep changing- price and consistency of the food. The price seems to be hiking all the time. That's secondary, as long as the food remains good.

But the food quality here seems to be fluctuating all the time as well. I have eaten the Ayam Panggang close to 10 times and from my memories, the standards from the last two times and today's are different. While the egg the last two times was too salty and the chicken was fine, the chicken was salty today and the egg was fine.

Anyway, the chicken (disregarding the saltiness) is super yummy! The chicken is large (compared to those scrawny chickens you get in other places), with tender meat, but a little too charred for my liking (but don't take that as a bad point, because it's meant to be grilled). And I like the black sauce the most, goes great with both the chicken and the rice. The chilli with ikan billis is pretty good because of the sweetness, although it's not spicy at all.

The day both the chicken and egg cease to be salty, I'll head down to buy some 4D or Toto!


Riverside Indonesian BBQ
Plaza Singapura
68 Orchard Road Level 6
Kopitiam Food Court
Tel No: +65 6883 1440

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Straits Cafe @ Hotel Rendezvous (Part II)

Like a dutiful blogger, I have been posting frequently for the last month. However, school work has kicked in, like an atomic bomb or like a tsunami- ruthless and swift. I know my analogies are really bad but that's about as good as I can manage. So, I'm just going to do this post really quickly since people love going to buffets around Chinese New Year! (p.s. I know the pictures look kind of weird coloured. That's because I took them with my phone.)

Anyway, I went to Hotel Rendezvous for their buffet again. Please click here for review of my first trip there. Things have changed since then. The renovations are now over and you no longer need to pass through a maze in order to get to the restaurant.

Evidently, Chinese New Year is now the restaurant's focal concern. Look at the roast chicken, BBQ pork ribs basking in the sun- okay fine, basking under artificial light. The BBQ pork ribs were sweet and juicy.

Even their decorations reflect Chinese New Year- addition of spring rolls, jellyfish etc at the salad station. Pretty ordinary food. Wished they had yusheng or something along those lines.

There are Chinese New Year goodies at the dessert station. There's nian gao, peanut cookie etc. Just wondering why there weren't pineapple tarts.

Oh here's just an obligatory picture of the dessert station, just because it looks good.

Like the first time I had buffet here, the food in general is pretty good. But here are the misses- sushi rice was too hard, durian cake didn't have rich durian taste and grass jelly was too hard. There are some stuff you can't miss though- the prata, famous laksa, chocolate cake (according to my friend, "omg, you have to try this. it's so so rich!" At $43 per person after taxes and service charge, this place, even with its misses, is still a pretty good place for buffet.

Straits Cafe @ Hotel Rendezvous 
9 Bras Basah Road
1F Rendezvous Hotel
Singapore
Tel No: +65 6336 0220

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Strictly Pancakes

I went to Strictly Pancakes on my own  (yes, I'm a loner) on a Friday afternoon. By the way, just a mini rant, I'm hoping one day servers will stop giving me the pitiful look and say, "Oh.. for one..." Anyway, there was no space for me. But I have been wanting to come to Strictly Pancakes for so long, that it just didn't make sense if I didn't try it, even with the negative reviews online. So, I decided to make do with sitting outside. 

I ordered a Garlic Buttered Prawns ($14++), which according to the description, is a medium stack served with prawns buttered generously with garlic and cherry tomato salad on the side for an aromatic, mouth-watering treat. Buttered generously, yes. (Just look that pancakes swimming in the sea of butter!) Prawns were small and there were only a few, although the prawns were chewy and fresh. Truth to be said, I actually prefer Mcdonald's pancakes. The pancakes here are fluffy, but they are a little dry. 

I'm pretty sure the butter and garlic is supposed to seep into the pancake but it sounded a little too overwhelming and I decided to pour some maple syrup over it instead. The sweetness reduced some of the gelatness of the garlic butter. And needless to say, I didn't apply any of the butter provided. Butter + more butter = ?? 

Service wise, I didn't get the poor service that many people got but it was not like their service was anything to shout about- decent I guess. I wouldn't pay this price to eat pancakes there again. I'd rather go to Mcdonald's and then add whatever stuff I want to it- probably at half the price. But for the novelty, and for satisfying my long-time craving, fine. 

Strictly Pancakes 

44A Prinsep Street
Singapore 188674
Tel: 6333 4202

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Trattoria Lafiandra

Well, the Restaurant Week in Singapore was a bit of a letdown overall. There's always a basis for comparison. And here, I'm comparing it to the Restaurant Week in Boston, where I chomped away at a few places, including Atlantic Fish Company, probably one of the best food I've eaten, that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

If the standard of the food today I had at Trattoria Lafiandra today was anything to go by, it's still a long way to go for a Restaurant Week of world class standards. In the first place, it's so difficult to get a reservation and card holders have special priority, while the rest of us are left trying to take the leftovers of other's- eating's supposed to be an inclusive affair, no? In any case, the menu has very limited options as well- things that normally don't appear on the menu- an attempt at saving costs?

Pumpkin soup was not overly creamy and sweet.

This was the linguine with fish. I suspect the fish must have been swimming somewhere else in the Atlantic ocean, because I only ate two minute pieces of fish, and spent the rest of the time hoping that some fish would miraculously swim to me. The sauces and linguine were cooked well, but this feels like a slipshod attempt in cooking something with fish as its focal concern. In any case, the fish was soft and very ordinary.

Panna cotta was the only dessert option available. And I don't eat panna cotta because of its overwhelming sugar and milk. But that's my personal bias, so don't take my word for it.

Overall, this place has a nice atmosphere. The service wasn't as bad as what other reviewers had described, perhaps because we had different servers. But the selection and quality of the food was a letdown- better luck next time!

Trattoria Lafiandra

71 Bras Basah Road

#01-02

Singapore Art Museum

Tel: +65 6884 4035

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Novus Restaurant & Bar

The lack of updates have been partly due to the amount of crap load I have on my hands now. But anyway, since it's Restaurant Week, it's about time to try some good food.

Novus is conveniently located in the National Museum, with a very cosy interior. I loved the effort put into the details of the decor of the restaurant- the black and white photographs, the mirrors, the lighting- perfect!

So, this was the three-course meal that I decided to get! Their attention to detail is impeccable. They would put these mini cards on your table so that you know the process that went into preparing the dish, as well as the ingredients.

A bread basket is served first. For me, as long as you serve bread that doesn't taste like overnight bread, with a soft and cushiony interior, I will give full marks for bread.

There was the mushroom soup, which had a dense mushroomy texture, but the picture looked a little too gross, so there, no pictures for mushroom soup.

This wasn't on the menu, but apparently is tuna with sea urchin plus a list of other things. Most importantly of all, wasabi. I do not like wasabi. Period.

This was the stuffed rolled organic chicken. I love mushrooms and this dish was a real treat for me because of the congregation of the mushrooms. However, I have to say that it was a little confusing how I should be eating this dish, plus the sauce was a little too salty. There were two pieces of chicken which was moist, apparently due to their i-do-not-know-what technology. I would have preferred mashed potatoes instead of aerated potato creme. Although I reckon that the aerated potato creme would have made the dish less dense, it didn't appear to perform that very function.

You should have seen my jaw drop when this came as dessert. Seriously, I'm supposed to swallow all of this alone? I mean, I'm a chocolate lover. But this amount of chocolate is enough to leave me in a sugar coma for quite some time.

Anyway, this was the Chocolate Test. And it's interesting how the chocolates play with your tastebuds. You're supposed to eat it from left to right, so that it gets increasingly bitter. The fun part (okay, not that fun) is that it alternates between warm, hot, cold and different textures. I'm sure lots of thought went into presenting the dessert this way.

You know how people say that the first and last always matter the most? These two, unfortunately, felt like a birthday cake full with whipped cream smashed into my face. The first had this weird taste which I have no clue what it is. And the last was dehydrated chocolate, which tasted like.. vacuum food for astronauts.

The in between were your usual chocolate suspects which was nothing out of the ordinary, but decent desserts.

Overall, $40++ is an okay deal for this restaurant week menu, although I probably wouldn't spend this kind of money on this kind of food again. Service was excellent, and they gave us each a cupcake which was in a little box, very much like the takeaway boxes in US.

Novus Restaurant & Bar

93 Stamford Road, #01-02

National Museum of Singapore
Tel: +65 6336 8770

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