Symmetry

An impromptu decision to head down to Symmetry for lunch with Willson. Was looking to dig my teeth into those beef ribs and the much missed fried squid in squid ink aioli. I know hoping for the brunch flan was pushing it but alas, turns out that Monday was Monday menu I.e. Non of the above!

So for starters, we shared a crab and corn nugget like dish, highly recommended by the very friendly server.

I loved the greens, the sauce that went very well with the avocado with cheese.

The corn and crab thingy was a little too flour-ish in texture for my liking. I was hoping it was more crab cake-ish where I can taste more of the crab meat than the soft mash-y texture.

For mains, Willson ordered the Reuben. For some reason both of us thought it's a burger, it turned out to be more like a sandwich

And for myself, I settled with a pesto smoked duck pasta since most of the items I wanted were not avail

The pasta was decent but somewhat not satisfying. I was probably craving for meat of some sort. 

But service was a great thumbs up with the very friendly server checking back with me. 

Definitely will be back, probably just not on a Monday! 

Charlotte Grace

Super thankful to Jia-en of Charlotte Grace who did a superb job of creating this Summoners War cupcakes for Bunny's surprise birthday!

All the angel mons, devil mons, energy, scrolls, crystals and manas are all super cute! 

Most importantly, her cupcakes are not just cute, they are also yummy! 

Valentino

The choice of venue for this year's valentines was Valentino. Been quite a while since I visited my once upon favourite Italian restaurant. Once upon simply coz there are just too many restaurants sprouting out but Valentino remains close to heart! 

Still that cozy European house decor...

Being valentines, they were serving set meals at $138 including choice of a starter, pasta, mains and dessert. We later found out they did serve off their regular menu too so we did also also add on the order of a tenderloin in blue cheese sauce.

For starters, we opted for the truffle pate and burrata with cherry tomatoes!

The truffle pate was decent but the burrata was amazing! Loved it! 

For pasta, we ordered the ink fettuccine with crab meat in tomato cream sauce and the pappardelle 

The signature ink fettuccine was a hit with bunny. She loved it! 

I am a pappardelle lover. While this was decent, I was hoping for a slightly more bouncy textured pappardelle. Bunny liked it though.

And for mains, we opted for the sea bass and veal shank

The sea bass was nice. Veal shank too in a tomato base shave.

And our add on order of the tenderloin in blue cheese sauce...

Tasted like how I remembered it did! 

Done medium rare as we ordered. Still wish the blue cheese sauce was thicker or stronger in taste but else it's all still good.

Service at Valentinos was also superb. Always so welcoming and always a hearty good meal!

Dessert was like a parfait with a mixture of some white chocolate and cereals etc!

Tom n Tom

Chilling out together for a catch up after dinner, we wanted a place quiet and opens till late with decent drinks and food around tanjong pagar.

Tom N Tom came to mind! Recall it used to operate 24 hours but now it's only till 12 midnight.

We ordered their thick toast to share...

Garlic and butter

Honey and butter

The garlic and butter one was better. 

Couldn't help but compare the honey and butter one to After You (bkk). After You wins hands down. 

Bunny noticed they have a sweet potato latte and she just had to order it...

Turned out to be a great choice! It was really good! Traces of sweet potato with milk, very yummy! Particularly good for sweet potato lovers! 

Lok Kee

Dinner with mummy at Lok Kee at plaza singapura. Wanted to let her try the London fat duck that was really good when I tried it the last time. Place was packed!

Perhaps because it is CNY, complimentary starters was bak kwa...

My first bak kwa this CNY. 

And I tried this tea under their iced lemon tea section, called the ultraviolet oolong

Wow! So pretty! Inside the yellow cone is actually a small portion of lemonade to be poured into the drink. Overall quite a tasty drink! I really like how tunglok group of restaurants will off n on have some interesting drinks on their menu. Like how Dancing Crab has that really good lavender lemonade drink.

First dish to be served was the London fat duck...

Ordered half a portion. Half came with some sauce and half didn't. Ok, I don't remember how it was served when I came here the last time but I don't like it with sauce. In fact if u ask me, I feel that all places that serve those roast pork or roast duck etc should just serve them with sauce separate to avoid softening the crispy skin! Let customers dip their own sauce. But overall, the duck was still really good.

Next dish to be up was the X.O. Fried crab fries rice ....

We probably shouldn't have ordered this dish but due to some miscommunications between my mum n me, I ended up ordering it despite already vaguely feeling that I must have over ordered even without this dish. Hehe

Anyways, the fried rice was decent.

And I also ordered this chicken dish....

The chicken is cooked in a dry Mala kind of way, it's not so much of 辣，more of 麻. Quite Shiok! And the yellowish yolk like items, they are actually mango purée yolks which are so yummy! They burst in the mouth just like the egg yolk. Good combination with the chicken.

I also ordered the baked oysters with cheese which I felt was decent but not wow-ing

Lacked a certain punch.

Also had the roast pork...

Which was tender and crispy but also, just decent and lacked a certain punch factor.

We ended up ta bao-ing a lot of the items and had no room for dessert! 

Gyoza-ya

After many days of not being able to eat properly, I finally feel slightly better today. Had to head to town to get pants!

In case u've not heard, Chu San is buy long pants day! 长裤长裤，长富常福！

We ended at Ion's gyoza ya for lunch. Not sure if I had previously blogged about this place or was this discovered while my blog went into a hiatus. I love the food here and it's not very expensive.

Of coz, gyoza is their speciality. I'm not super into gyoza but I quite like theirs coz they always have new variety added onto their menu. From the original pork and veg, to crab meat to mentaiko to curry to Mochi!

Today we ordered the mentaiko and the crab...

I like how their crab meat is the real crab meat with the distinct crab meat taste.

The mentaiko is well liked in general by people whom I go with. Coz of the mentaiko sauce.

I super like their broccoli....

It's aburi, topped with bonito. Awesome! Reminds me of lok lok in JB!

I also super love their chicken karage!

I love how crispy the skin is, how tender the chicken is, it's very tasty!

For mains, the popular choice is the super yummy and fragrant garlic fried rice!!

And they have up-sized their portion of fried rice compared to the past - very filling but very good!

Today they have a new item on menu - truffle ramen...

Hmmm... It's not not nice but it's not something I will order again. It came smelling string of truffle but got a bit gerlard along the way.

Overall a very enjoyable meal!

Paris baguette

I have been craving for the cakes from Paris baguette for quite awhile! So despite all the bloated feeling and my almost gorging of charcoal pills and medicines, I went for it!

Their strawberry shortcake and their snowball Camembert cheesecake! 

Both were so divine! So good! The cake was moist and the cream was light yet tasty! 

The Camembert cheesecake was so light, so soft. Really good.

Price was steep. Almost a $9 for a piece of cake. 

But one thing to note, if u want to buy ready of the shelves birthday cake, they are THE place to go. Forget about breadtalk or even the very trusty four leaves (ok, except for coco exotic), Paris baguette whole cakes wins hands down in taste, price and presentation. Their whole cakes are only about $40, sama sama breadtalk! So yeah do grab them before they wake up their idea and increase the price - which will be a very sad thing.

And to add on, service was very sucky. Staffs probably are overworked (I don't know) but there's no service here. Everyone is pulling a black face. There was this poor korean uncle before me who was ordering, can't recall what he ordered and the cashier gave him a straight and black face " don't have the-thing-he-ordered " and then he ordered lemonade and again the staff gave him the same black face "don't have lemonade". 

The Korean uncle LL proceeded to order something else. 

The other servers were all working like we all owe them a living. Hey, I get it that u are working on a semi public holiday but no, we don't owe u a living. U are making a living and if u aren't happy, don't work. Besides, most of the staff there aren't Singaporeans. 

The irony is even when I tried to nicely tell the who-seems-like-korean-manager of the store about the situation, she merely just nodded her head and giving me an expressionless look. My friends wondered if she even understood what I said.

Totts bistro

Wow is this the next big thing? But it's so good!

Earl gray lavender Beancurd! Smooth and not too sweet!

Have this feeling I will be back for more!

Found this at totts bistro at sime Darby centre.

Keisuke Tokyo

Every time I am at this keisuke ramen outlet, without a doubt I will order their crab stock ramen! Taste a lot like crab bisque, super Shiok!

I also like how they offer choice of the texture of noodles! I like mine hard!

Added cheese but don't think I will add it next time. Added seaweed too, the seaweed goes very well with the soup.

Also tried one of their side dish...

Been eyeing this fried chicken dish the past many times I have been here. It's not too bad! Fried chicken with egg mayo as topping.

And last but not least, their complimentary side dish of bean sprouts! 

Seasoned with traces of sesame sauce and some chilli, very yummy! 

Godiva

If you have not tried godiva's chocolate ice cream, you must!

Oh man, this is so good!

Xi Yan

Been awhile since I came back to Xi Yan. Did lunch here today and ordered the few dishes below:

Pregnant (dun remember what) fried rice

Not sure why it is named this way. Haha

Fried rice was decent, not wow-ing though

Jelly fish in sesame sauce

I really like this dish, I guess I really like jelly fish in general. Imperial treasure has a similar dish too. 

Truffle fried eggs with prawn 

I Thot this dish was pretty good. The truffle taste was mild but overall the egg texture was good. The prawn as well.

3 egg spinach

I really like the spinach. It's light and the eggs taste was not overpowering.

Chateraiser

FNot sure how many of you remember, when ion first started, there was a Japanese Swiss roll stall at the basement and they have a very awesome Swiss roll!  But business probably wasn't as good, it closed shop pretty soon. I was pretty disappointed coz it was quite good!

Today as I was at Isetan Shaw, I saw this cream Swiss roll that looks pretty good...

I bought a piece to try. It was indeed pretty good! 

It wasn't too sweet and I really liked the cream. The sponge cake was nice too.

The shop is by the isetan supermarket...