Carpenter and Cook

Well, two girls on holiday and with nothing to do. We decided to go cafe hunting!

We like pies, tarts, dessert and vintage so Carpenter and Cook is for us, we were there pretty early, we were one of the first few customers, quite place, I like the ambience.

The place is a little deserted and hard to get to by public transport (we were almost lost) but once you're on the right row of shops, you will not miss out this cute shop front at Lorong Kilat.

Definitely took many pictures! Did you see those cute plates? I want to bring those floral plates home! 

We spent nearly 2.5-3hours there catching up with the times & also totally in awe with the interior, even their toilet sink is special, the table that holds the sink is actually the table of a vintage sewing machine. Most (almost everything) of their decor is also for sale, such as mirrors, typewriters, weighing scale etc.

   I like the store front, there are also old school tables and chairs on the outside, it's really pretty and you won't miss it while walking down the path. We took so many pictures and we were so into the decor. 

We had a hard time choosing between seating at the sofa area or stools, because every corner looks so cosy and nice. Finally decided with this, and to be honest, I was so afraid the chair was going to break under my weight! Thank god it didn't :)

We got a Bacon & Onion Quiche. It has a really smooth texture and very eggy, a little on the pricey side, it's $7 each and there wasn't really many bacon bits, maybe it was because we got the very first piece (more crust, less filling) - but still yummy & buttery!

Valrhona Sea Salt Caramel Tart, it's salty, bitter, sweet all at the same time. I hope you can see the layering of caramel & chocolate in the picture. I like my desserts sweet :)

The lemon cream tart was just fine, a tad too sour for me to take it, if you love sour stuff, this will be refreshing! My friend liked it, so go ahead and order this if you want something sweet & sour for your taste buds.

There are also many other pictures, too many to post. I like their flooring as well, looks peranakan. A really pretty place, beautiful interior, I wouldn't mind coming again despite it being quite a hassle with public transport, and I wished they made the Passion-fruit Meringue Tart on that day I was there, I heard it's too awesome to miss!

Carpenter and Cook:

19 Lorong Kilat, #01-06 

Singapore 598120

 

Tuesday-Friday: 12:00pm - 10:00pm

Saturday: 10:00am - 10:00pm

Sunday: 10:00am - 7:00pm

(Closed on Mondays)

Tel: +65 6463 3648

Bad quality pictures :(

I have no idea why the quality of the pictures here is so bad? I think it's the camera? 

I'm using the iPhone 4S to capture all my pictures, I should really experiment with real cameras right! I'm sorry hahaha shall try out soon and test the quality ^^ 

For better looking pictures, view my Instagram account: @rachaelwong

Shall update again in a few days, next up: 

HOTPOT BUFFET eat all you can for an affordable price, stay tuned!

Thai Express | Thai Food

Thai Express! 

Ordered the Red curry with home made Thai Pita bread - something like our Roti Prata. Taste is alright but it's pretty oily(see picture) but the presentation is nice. I wanted to have something more Thai, like their Phad Thai or the Woon Sen which I love but time to try something new as well!

Also got the Thai Chendol, I think it's $6.80! It's quite a thirst quencher, sweet coconut milk with green jelly, red ruby (yay) and jackfruit on top! It looks pretty messy in the picture right :( but that was how it was served. Messy but yummy. 

We also ordered another dish - Basil beef rice! I didn't try it because I don't really eat beef but my other diners said its spicy!!! That dish was a "2-chili" dish (they will state the level of spiciness in the menu, just beside the name of the dish)

(photo credits to Yuewen)

And a dessert but I don't really like it, rather diluted & doesn't look like the picture on the menu :( but the red chewy jelly is so unique and bouncy texture- quite expensive though for a small cup! 

Service quite alright just that they are a little slow when we called for the bill and we saw the staff playing around while clearing the other tables, splattering water around and laughing, when the restaurant is like so busy :((

My diners said we should try another Thai restaurant which is much nicer/authentic, shall blog about it when I go there! 

Ambience: 6/10

Food: 6/10

Service: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

302 Tiong Bahru Road

Tiong Bahru Plaza

#02-09/10

+65 6276 7005

11:30am-10:00pm Daily

   

HOOD BAR & CAFE

It was a FRIDAY, my girl friend and I went to a place she wanted to go to, Hood Bar & Cafe, which was located at bugis+.

We had dinner there, she ordered a mojito I've no idea what it was but she likes the drink :)

Got their 99 balloon pizza (pepperoni with cheese and chili) I tried a little and kinda spicy cos' I accidentally ate the chili part but the crust is crispy I can practically hear her crunching on them *cracking sound* so if you like crispy thin crust, you can order their pizzas, there are other flavors, I think the char siew one looks so good.

We also got their prawn paste wings (har-cheong gai that we all love and always order when we are eating in a Chinese restaurant or Zi-char) - not too bad, 8 pieces for $12 but I think the taste is not too prominent to taste like those ordered from Chinese stalls, they were served pipping hot & quite crispy though, and they do have chili sauce dips for you.

I decided to get their 10" dawgs. Mine was Purple Haze Dawg, you get to choose if you want beef, pork or lamb meat. I got the pork.

The dawg is 10 inches man, it's like 25cm, the entire length of a small ruler, thick as well, & topped with mushrooms and cheese, could do with more mushrooms and cheese though!  

Although I almost couldn't finished it, the fries that came along with it was awesome!!! we were contemplating whether to order more of their fries, thick cut, crispy outside and soft on the inside😋 Fries is a must when you go there okay...🍴

Overall, it's great experience, there's also entertainment, at about 7:30pm, there were two singers up on stage and started to sing, various kinds of songs sang, Cantonese, English and Chinese, you can also dedicate songs to your love ones/friends etc. 

You can also throw darts, they've this virtual machine thing for you to throw magnetic darts! Come early and request to seat at the bean bags area if you'd like :)

Ambience: 7/10

Food: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Overall: 7/10

Hood Bar and Cafe - Live Music

201 Victoria Street #05-07, S188067

Bugis+

+65 6221 8845

Monday - Tuesday 5pm-1am

Wednesday - Friday 5pm-3am

Saturday 12pm-3am

Sunday 12pm-1am

Hoshino Coffee | Japanese Fushion Food

Whee! Continuing with my food journey!

Headed to "Hoshino Coffee" last week we beat the queue, usually it is like very crowded and the queue would be crazy!

My friend ordered the Tomato omelette with prawns & I tried a little, yummy but a little sour! Prawns look fresh and crisp though, heard the pair beside us repeating how good the tomato omelette was too!

(picture credits to Lorraine)

I got a ice matcha latte with matcha softee, super milky not too sweet, with the softee (soft serve/ice cream), yay icy, creamy + milky! Worth the try if you like green tea! You can also try their drip coffee since they are famous for it! 

And of course, DESSERT! We both love creme brûlée so we got one serving of creme brûlée with vanilla softee! Yummy but I always like my creme brûlée to be hot & warm, not cold like how Hoshino does it, plus theirs is not melt-in-your-mouth kind of creme brûlée, it was like a pudding instead, I want a warm melt-in-my-mouth kind of texture. Nice try though!

I would love to try the soufflé some other time! - when its less crowded with a short I mean :) 

Ambience: 6/10

Food: 6/10

Service: 6/10

Overall: 6/10

68 Orchard Road

Plaza Singapura (New Wing)

#03-84

+65 6338 3277

11:30am-10:00pm daily

WATAMI Japanese Casual Restaurant

Still in my Japanese food craze.

This time my dining companion is my polytechnic classmate, close friend, Abi😋 We decided to head to the somewhat still considered newly opened mall near Buona Vista Mrt station, The Star Vista! I go there for service very Sunday as well, so it's not relatively "new" to me in the sense. 

But still have not explored everywhere yet. Watami is located at Level 2, just visible once you go up the escalator fon the sheltered area all the way from the train station, easily spotted & accessible as well. 

We wanted to go for Coco Ichibanya, for curry rice but decided to go for Watami instead, Watami do have a queue sometimes and it happens that there's NO queue at all today, so why not! :)

When we entered, we were immediately guided to our table at the side, nice place, we had a very quiet dinner as there was no one at all, only 2 other tables were occupied.

When we wanted to place our orders, the staff took quite a while to respond although there are no other customers requiring their attention, we had high patience level so it's fine, just that every time we tried call them, we were required to use call out many times with big hand gestures to alert them, once my friend had to walk to them personally for some attention, and they told her to "wait".

That aside, Abi ordered the Chicken Katsu Don and I got the Hire Katsu Tamago Toji. Both were served on a sizzling hotplate but now was cooked in front of me, using the potable gas stove so it was quite unique, seeing the egg and salty broth bubbling and creating a nice aroma, Abi's one came cooked and without the gas stove, I wondered why, because the table beside had the Chicken Katsu Don as well and had the gas stove, nevertheless, it was great experience.

Broth was slightly too salty for our liking and I tried her Chicken pieces, not bad, more tender than my pork loin though. 

We were feeling sooo full half way through and the portion is huge, for me at least, if you are a big eater, you will like Watami! I would suggest you and your companion share a portion first if both of you are small eaters, like me.

There's always room for dessert right? We ordered the Matcha Parfait (Green tea ice cream with cream and kanten-white jelly, with red bean toppings & not forgetting our favorite riceballs)

This was like the "highlight" of the meal for me, I love ice cream, I love matcha, totally great, portion was so small though, the both of us gobbled everything up in no time! It is $3.80 per portion, well worth it. 

Except to note: sadly the picture and the real thing is totally different, the vanilla soft serve cream shown on the menu was high, higher than the matcha ice cream, but the real thing is different, still nice though, just a tad disappointed with the great difference in illustration and actual dish. 

The Star Vista (near Buona Vista Mrt station)

Watami Japanese Casual Restaurant 

#02-16 

11:30AM-10:00PM

FIG & OLIVE

Family time again :)

This time we headed to Fig & Olive in Jurong point, to have dinner.

Ordered a few mains, as they were having a 1-for-1 deal, if you want to go for a simple westernize meal and save money at the same time, you can head to Fig & Olive while they still have the promotion going on. That's if taste and quality of the food is no biggie to you..

Tomato based Pasta with roasted chicken with mushroom sauce -

Personally I feel the tomato sauce is a tad too sour and the pasta is dry, like it has been cooked and left there until someone orders it and they will topped it off with sauce and out of the kitchen the dish go.

Chicken is quite tender but slightly chewy, and we did not finish it.

Grilled Chicken Pasta with Mushrooms in Carbonara Sauce 

Grilled chicken with tomato sauce, carbonara pasta and baked potatoes

The good thing about this restaurant is that they allow a "refill" of the carbonara sauce, the pasta was dry in all cases, so we asked if we could have more sauce, the staff gladly took our plates into the kitchen and returned with more cream sauce on our pasta, a plus point! 

I love the baked potatoes that comes as a side on the third dish (last picture), soft and the skin was still intact, I love potato skin, the creamy sauce on the potato was great as well. 

Overall experience was alright but I do not think I will go back on purpose (like to hold gatherings here, suggest or meet friends for dinner here) 

Personal opinion/verdict:-

Food: 6/10

Service: 7/10

Ambience: 6/10

If you want a simple meal that's affordable and is not particular or picky over the taste, you might consider coming here :)

Jurong Point

Fig & Olive

JP2 #B1-62/63

10:30AM-10:30PM