Haru Chazuke Grain Bowl

This is another really old post. Dinner with some old friends and I suggested Haru because I'm a huge fan of rice bowls and chazuke and Haru sounded like a good combination of both.

Tucked away in a quiet corner of the old Singapore Badminton Hall along Guillemard Road, Haru was quite empty when we arrived after work on a week day.

Our friends were late so I ordered a Iced Hojicha Milk Tea while waiting with Stef.

Eventually, they were so late that we decided to go ahead and order first, mostly because I was famished. I chose the popular Poached Lobster Chazuke. Air-flown bamboo lobster with gochujang dressing, hanjuku egg, pickles and nori. Was told to stir the ingredients in the grain bowl first and try some before pouring the bonito kelp broth inside. I love it with the bonito kelp broth! The broth was so light and refreshing, and went perfectly with the items in the grain bowl. 

I would really recommend their grain bowls because it is so warm and hearty!

100 Guillemard Road #01-06 Singapore 399718

12 to 3 pm, 6 pm to 10 pm (closed on Monday)

CreatureS

A very belated birthday lunch with Stef because we were both overseas when it was her birthday and we were just so swamped with work thereafter. Made a reservation for CreatureS for our Sunday lunch, and we arrived in our Grabcar both looking like we just rolled out of bed. Perfect look for a Sunday!

Located in a little shop house near Little India, the deco inside CreatureS was quaint and interesting. The waiter took us to the second level and we settled down in a table by the window. The second level was empty when we arrived but the crowd grew steadily and it was fully packed when we left.

Crayfish Hokkien Mee ($30). I saw this on TX's instagram and wanted to try it because it looked so good! The noodles were fried in a delicious prawn broth, and the crayfish, prawns and squid were so sweet and fresh. The japanese fish roe was a nice touch, and everything went well with the sambal. 

Garden and Crab Risotto ($34). Risotto in crab broth with crabmeat and salted egg. CreatureS was very generous with the crabmeat but I was a little disappointed with the crab broth that tasted a little bland. Might be because our Crayfish Hokkien Mee came first and our taste buds were already pampered by the rich prawn broth in the hokkien mee that we could not taste the lighter fragrance in the risotto.

Coffee and Manuka Honey Latte.

Ended the meal with a slice of Lychee Martini Cake. The cake was light and the lychee bits were so sweet and refreshing. But I really want to know what that blue tinge at the side was and whether it was just food colouring. 

120 Desker Road

Singapore 209639

62916996

Bao Makers and AEIOU cafe, Lavender

Dinner after work with Stef! Picked Bao Makers from the Entertainer App and met at the cozy little restaurant one night after work. The place was not too crowded on a weekday night even though we came in without reservations. Settled down in a corner table and started flipping through the menu excitedly. 

Truffle fries ($5 as an extra to the bao). I could smell the fragrance of truffle oil from the bowl of truffle fries across the aisle without even looking in that direction. It was really so fragrant! I would highly suggest this as a side to the baos. We also had the house salad ($2) as a side to add some veggies into our meal. 

Chilli Crab Bao ($5.80 each). They were very generous with the crab meat - just look at all the crab meat stuffed into the bao! The weird thing about this dish which we found out pretty soon was the bowl of chilli sauce. The depth of the bowl meant that it was virtually impossible to dip my bao into the chilli sauce. I just cannot fit the bao into the bowl to reach the sauce at the bottom. We resorted to pouring the sauce out of the bowl onto our bao (and dripping it everywhere) and using our fork to smear the sauce evenly on our bao.

Salted Egg Shrimp ($5.80 each). As usual, I love everything salted egg so this was a winner for me! I love the juicy crunchy prawns and that thick savoury salted egg sauce.

We left Bao Makers and headed to AEIOU around the corner. There are loads of cafes in this area and I have tried most of them but I have never tried AEIOU before. It was a very interesting cafe and I totally could not tell that it was a cafe from the exterior. Housed in what looked like a hardware shop, AEIOU was quiet, peaceful and serene when we entered. There was a small cake counter at the front with shelves selling various merchandise. The tables and stools were all different! Some tables were traditional wrought iron tables with a glass top (like this one) and others resembled an old-fashioned sewing machine! Very interesting. We had a tiramisu which was served in a Grey Goose bottle and a pot of green tea. 

Both Bao Makers and AEIOU Cafe are easily accessible from Lavender MRT. 

Was a great evening catching up on life, work, and all sorts of random things in general. Till the next dinner! :)

The Bao Makers

78 Horne Road 

Monday to Friday                    12pm to 10pm

Saturday/Public Holidays        11am to 10pm

Sunday                                     11am to 6pm

Phone: 6291 2330

Aeiou Cafe

111 King George's Ave, 208559

Phone:6291 2698

May May, Tras Street and 5 the Moment

Dinner a long while back with Stef and W at May May! Read a lot about their rice bowls served during lunch but haven't had the chance to drop by for lunch yet. Their dinner menu was slightly different and came without the rice bowls but was still delicious nonetheless.

I love dinner dates around the Tanjong Pagar, Tras Street or Keong Saik area. The row of quaint little shop houses are just so much love and a great place to chill over dinner after a hectic day at work. 

5 Spiced Pork Chop with baby corn, potatoes and marmite butter sauce ($28). Extremely fresh and tender pork chop with all that marbly fats. Ok I confess, I ate a bit of the marbly, melt-in-your-mouth fats and left quite a chunk of fats aside. But I truly enjoyed the pork chop because it is so rare to find tender juicy pork chop which was so well-marinated in the delicious marmite butter sauce. I also love the butter poached potatoes!

Lobster Noodles ($32) with rice noodles, lobster, lemon grass, lime and coconut broth. This was a bit like lobster tom yum pho. The rice noodles were thick, similar to what you have in vietnamese pho, and the coconut broth was sour with a strong hint of lemon grass. It was good, but not my favourite dish. And many thanks to Stef for being the best hand model!

Crispy Rice ($28) with scallop, prawns and seafood broth. The crispy rice was served in a large black bowl and the waitress brought a small tea pot filled with seafood broth and poured the broth into the rice before us. I am assuming that this ensured that the rice was not soaked in the broth for too long hence retaining its crispy texture. This was sooooo good! I love the crispy chewy rice grains, the thick fragrant seafood broth (it reminded me of lobster bisque), and the fresh seafood!

We took a short stroll along Tras Street after dinner and found ourselves in front of 5 the Moment. Such a sweet little nostalgic place. The decorations were haphazard and different, like an amalgamation of things from all over the place. There were large princessy white arm chairs, vintage displays, folded metallic chairs and random stuff around the place. We picked the white arm chairs, only because the folded metallic chairs were likely unkind to our aging backs. Had a waffle with Thai Milk Tea ice cream and Cheese Cake ice cream. The waffles were not bad and I liked the Thai Milk Tea ice cream. 

Love the great night chatting about work and school, relaxing over yummy food and just enjoying the moment.

May May:
65 Tras Street 
Mon-Sat 11am-11pm & Sun 11am-5pm 
+65 6221 4698

5 The Moment
73 Tanjong Pagar Road Singapore 088494

Hoshino Coffee, Capitol Piazza

Capitol Piazza is the spanking new mall across the street from Raffles City Shopping Centre. It is a stone throw away from office and we head there whenever we feel like treating ourselves to something nice. The boutiques are generally upscale and not many people actually do their shopping there (or at least that is what I observe from the days and nights I walk through Capitol Piazza to get to and from office).One of the best kept secrets of Capitol Piazza, however, has to be a llao llao outlet without any queue! Omg yes, you read that right, no queue. I love it to bits. I walk over for my lunchtime froyo treat and get myself a petit llao whenever I feel like I need a froyo. There is also Kaiserhaus which serves delicious Austrian fare. 

There is also a Hoshino Coffee in Capitol Piazza and that was where we went for lunch one day for our girly chat session.

I had the Seafood Pasta which was really good! Portions were big and hearty, pasta was al dente, seafood was fresh and the thick tomato base was awesome. Pick this if you prefer strong tastes and something heavy on your palette.

The Hoshino Spaghetti ($14) comes with veggies, sausages, shimeiji, poached egg and al dente spaghetti tossed in a light sauce. I personally prefer the Seafood Pasta but you should definitely go for the Hoshino Spaghetti if you are fond of the Aglio Olio style pasta. 

Pancake Souffle with a side of soft serve. I really really like this! It was fluffy yet thick and went super well with honey and soft serve. 

The Matcha Souffle was much softer and kind of mushy on the inside. I prefer the Pancake Souffle for its chewy texture but I have a friend who is really in love with the soft mushy texture of the Matcha Souffle!

The Hoshino Blend coffee was one of the best black coffee I have ever tried. I am not usually fond of black coffee (I prefer my coffee with milk hence the usual flat whites) but was told that I should definitely try the coffee without milk first before adding some if I wish. I ended up finishing my cup without milk! It was fragrant yet subtly sweet at the same time. The coffee was rather acidic though which was not too good for my stomach.

I returned on other days with some old friends as well as my division and tried the Pancake Souffle with Chocolate Banana and Pancake Souffle with fruits. Both were very good! I have to say, though, that Hoshino's soft serve seems to be consistently in a half-melted state. Or maybe the Pancake Souffle was left sitting out in the open for a while before serving.

Hoshino is a good Japanese cafe with awesome pasta dishes, good coffee, and fantastic desserts. It is a place where you can visit for a full meal followed by desserts or just for desserts after a meal elsewhere. The service crew can be rather stubborn (refusing to provide chocolate sauce for our matcha souffle even if we were willing to pay for it), perhaps for the good of the food. Otherwise, service was decent. I have returned numerous times since the first time I tried Hoshino and I think I will continue to return!

#B2-55 Capitol Piazza (they have other outlets at Plaza Singapura and Suntec)

63845131

J's Restaurant and Tom's Palette

It was a long day at work and I was running late to meet Stef and W. We wanted to try an eatery on the Entertainer App and eventually picked J's Restaurant for its Latin-American food. Tucked in one of the shop houses along Purvis Street, J's was crowded when we arrived and thankfully Stef managed to secure a table on the second floor. I was late again as usual and was counting my lucky stars that we were meeting at Bugis which was not too far from work!

Poppers ($17) - breaded jalapenos stuffed with mozzarella. I'm not too big a fan of jalapenos since they can be a bit too spicy for me but the Poppers were very interesting with thick mozzarella oozing out.

Chicken Quesadillas ($22). Tortilla stuffed with chicken, tomatoes, cheese, onions and guacamole.

Paella with marinated chicken, salmon and tilapia. This was so different from the usual paella that I was used to. The rice grains were moist and mushy, not the usual crispy grains found and it tasted a little like nasi briyani. 

The food was decent but I guess Latin-American fare was not really my kind of thing. We left J's after we were done with dinner and headed to Tom's Palette for ice cream! I had my favourite salted egg ice cream and Granny's favourite! Tom's Palette is always good and I am so glad that this ice cream parlor is still around after so many years!

J's Restaurant

7 Purvis Street #01-01

12 pm to 2: 30 pm, 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm

68874787

Tom's Palette

100 Beach Road
#01-25 Shaw Tower (opposite Ah Loy's Thai)
Mon-Thurs 12-9.30pm Fri-Sat 12-10pm 
Sunday 1-7pm

East 8 New York Fusion Tapas and Bar, Grand Park City Hall

This is truly such an awesome find near the office! I guess I should make the effort to explore the places near the office but lunch is truly too short to indulge in too much yummy food. Seriously, the attack of a food coma is the last thing I need in the office. My thanks to the friends in office who introduced this place to me!

East 8 is located in Grand Park City Hall, at the side facing the church. If you are walking over from City Hall MRT, you would have to walk around the hotel to the other side to locate East 8. East 8's lunch menu was pretty extensive and all items looked equally tempting!

After much deliberation, I chose Norwegian Salmon ($15) because I am generally a fan of salmon. The pan-fried salmon came with mashed potatoes and mixed greens. I love how the slice of salmon was perfectly pan-fried with a nice golden hue yet retaining its moisure within. 

I guess we should have stopped at our mains but we succumbed to some Portobello Fries ($16). The Portobello Mushrooms Fries were so crispy on the outside but when you bit into them, the juice from the mushrooms oozed out steadily. The truffle oil used to prepare the Portobello Fries were also very fragrant. The only downside to this yummy dish was a tummy which subsequently felt full of grease.

The Mascarpone and Matcha Mille Feuille ($15) was lovely! It came with fresh berries, mascarpone and green tea cream in a puff. The puff was light and fluffy while the cream was rich and thick. I'm seriously such a sucker for anything sweet.

I would definitely head back to East 8 again because there were many other items in the lunch menu which caught my eyes!

#01-21 Grand Park City Hall

Mon to Fri: 12:00 - 15:00

Mon to Thur: 17:00 - 23:00

Fri: 17:00 - midnight

Sat: 18:00 - midnight
Closed on Sundays

You can reserve online or call 63388289

Gastrosmiths, Bugis

The Humble Loaf at Katong Shopping Centre has evolved and morphed into Gastrosmiths along Tan Quee Lan Street. I dropped by with SY and Stef one evening after work because the reviews sounded good. We did not make a reservation and was hoping that we need not queue for too long. Thankfully we were early enough to snag a table in a corner of the small cozy restaurant. As the night went on, the restaurant grew steadily more crowded but we were still able to sit around and chat over our meal and dessert.

The menu at Gastrosmiths was pretty extensive with a presentable variety of starters, snacks, mains, and desserts.

We had the Truffle Chopped Egg and Caviar Bruschetta ($12) as a starter. The truffle chopped egg was fantastic! Finely chopped eggs with the pungent aroma of truffle. The eggs slipped down my throat while I chewed happily on the crispy toast. 

Sea salt fries with Truffle Oil ($7.60 + $2 for truffle oil). This was decent. The fries were well-fried but they lacked the fragrance of truffle oil. I am guessing that Gastrosmiths did not fry the fries with sufficient truffle oil. Or perhaps the truffle oil was not fantastic. Either way, the truffle chopped eggs were definitely way more fragrant than the sea salt fries with truffle oil.

We had the Shio Koji Prawn Linguine ($16.50). This was a great pasta dish. Al dente linguine with a robust sweet tomato-based sauce paired with crunchy fresh prawns.

Skate and Cauliflowers texture ($24). It took us a long while to figure out that Skate meant Stingray. We decided to order this because it sounded unique and because a review said that it was good. Ahhh ok I beg to differ unfortunately. I liked the cauliflower mash because it was different from the usual mash that I was used to. But the skate was rather tasteless. I might have enjoyed it better if the skate was marinated before it was grilled. Or perhaps I was just too used to the usual sambal stingray....

We had the Apple Crumble ($12.50) for desserts. It was pretty decent with sweet caramelised apple which were deliciously soft as well as a light honey walnut ice cream. 

Service was good and attentive and the vibe in the restaurant was pretty nice and cozy. I am not sure if I would return though because I was not completely blown away by the food. But I guess this is a nice place for a comfortable chit chat session with good friends over dinner. So nice to hang out with good old friends!

103 Beach Road
63363689
11:30 am to 9:30 pm
Sunday: 11 am to 3 pm

Dulcet & Studio, Liang Court

Dulcet & Studio is a Japanese cafe in Liang Court which is known for their sweet treats. Lynda and I came by for lunch one day and it was such a yummy meal! We placed our orders at the cashier near the door, picked up a little number tag, collected our utensils, and found ourselves a table at the back of the cafe. Our lunch was served shortly after.

We decided to go for their fresh pasta. The menu states that the pasta is made in Hokkaido with high quality ingredients hence the pasta is more chewy and flavorful. With a description like that, how could we not try their pasta? Lynda also tried their pasta previously and provided good reviews, so we decided to go for pasta again that day.  

The Pork Katsu Curry Tagliolini ($15) was yummy and interesting! Such an interesting combination to have pork katsu curry with pasta. The pasta was lightly coated with sweet delicious curry sauce and tasted really good. The Pork Katsu was decent. Definitely not as good as the pork katsu at the usual katsu restaurants but still a good piece of pork katsu nonetheless. 

The Classic Black Pig Bolognese Fettucine was next ($13). The pork was very fresh and the sauce was delicious! This was a simple dish that was done very well. 

We had the Green Tea Chiffon Cake for dessert. The cake was light and refreshing, with pieces of sweet juicy strawberries within. Perfect end for our lunch.

#01-41 Liang Court
63389248

Box n Sticks, Bugis area

Second book club meeting sometime back. Lynda recommended Box n Sticks around the Arab Street area so we came by one day after work. It is a short walk from Bugis MRT Station, in an area which is away from the pubs and bars. Situated on Kandahar Street, Box n Sticks sits beside a number of small cozy restaurants and cafes. It is unpretentious, incredibly homely, and I like the laid back vibe in this place. It was not too crowded when we dropped by after work but a large crowd surged in later in the night.

Lynda made a reservation that night and you probably should too if you are worried that the place happen to be crowded when you visit. The pictures in this post are definitely better, courtesy of Elgin.

I ordered the Asari Aglio Olio (Spicy Level 1) ($13.80). The clams were fresh and sweet, and the linguine was done al dente in garlic and olive oil. I really like it! If you prefer your pasta done light and refreshing, the Asari Aglio Oilo is a good choice. However, if you prefer your pasta creamy, then you should pick the Carbonara instead. 

The Carbonara ($13.80) was delicious, with bacon bits and a poached egg on top. The linguine absorbed the delicious cream and was really tasty! However, if you are not a fan of cream-based pasta or find creamy stuff too heavy, then you might not be able to finish one portion alone.

The Miso Pork Yakitori was too chewy and the pork was not fresh. I have tried better pork yakitori at other yakitori restaurants and this one was unfortunately not up to standard. I would give it a miss in future.

Salmon skin. Crispy and sinful but oh my, so very delicious! This is such an addictive snack and I find myself reaching out for it continuously.

The Signature Buta Kakuni Buns ($8.80 for 3 pieces) were braised pork belly with buns. They look similar to the pork belly buns you find in Chinese restaurants but tasted slightly different. Quite an interesting dish.

Clams were fresh, sweet, and delicious! Garlic gave this dish its distinctive taste and fragrance.

Bacon with Enoki Mushroom. I love Bacon with Enoki Mushroom generally, so I could be biased when I say that this was yummy! I mean, you cannot go wrong with bacon wrapped around crunchy enoki mushroom and grilled to perfection.

We had tiramisu and black sesame ice cream for dessert, Both were yummy sweet treats, perfect to end off the night.

If you are in the Bugis area and would like a nice quiet place for dinner, drop by Box n Sticks for some delicious pasta! 

28 Kandahar Street

63417780

1:30 pm to 10:00 pm