Loysel’s Toy

Situated away from the hustle and bustle of the city and near the greenery and river is Loysel’s Toy. It is near the city centre but is at such an obscure location that there is almost no chance of just “happening to chance upon it while out shopping”. And that makes it an ideal place for brunch!

Big L Breakfast

Hot Chocolate

The Big L Breakfast ($15) consisted of toast, chicken sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes, bacon, salad and poached eggs. One word could described the Big L Breakfast – bland. The chicken sausage and mushrooms were bland, under-seasoned and simply lacking in any taste. No doubt the bacon was salty, it was lacking in any fragrance. The mushrooms were dry. The entire dish was lacking some kind of sauce to tie it all together. The accompanying bread lacked the aroma and crunch of toast. On the whole, a rather disappointing breakfast.

The Hot Chocolate was decent, though not spectacular. It was like a good cup of warm, soothing milo and perhaps the most tasty item in our brunch.

Loysel’s Toy
66 Kampong Bugis

La Fondue

Classic Swiss Cheese Fondue

Arguably the most well-known cheese fondue specialty restaurant in Singapore is La Fondue. It is perhaps the 1st restaurant that comes to mind when we talk about cheese fondue in Singapore. Hence, it was quite surprising to find that we were the only customers during the entire lunch service. It just appeared like we had reserved the entire restaurant.

With a wide range of various cheese fondues, we went for the conservative option of the Classic Swiss Cheese Fondue – gruyere, emmentaler swiss cheese, garlic, white wine & kirshwasser, served with sausages, ham, seasonal vegetables and bread. If you are a cheese lover, you would definitely love this. Rich, cheesy, thick, decadent and viscous – we simply adore dipping the accompaniments into the warm bubbling cheese and seeing the strands of cheese twine around our food and forks. You could taste the exquisiteness of the cheese fondue. It wasn’t cheap mediocre cheese. But one of standard quality which was so comforting. Every mouth was full of cheesy goodness.

La Fondue
Dempsey Hill Green
25 Dempsey Road.

Penny University

One of the more popular brunch places in the East has got to be Penny University. It was a pretty small cafe though, which probably explained for the long waiting list.

Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon

For $12, the Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon was definitely worth every penny! There was a decent serving of poached eggs and smoked salmon, atop the sourdough toasts. The homemade hollandaise sauce was smooth, rich and slightly buttery. The poached eggs were bit undercooked though, with the egg whites a tad too raw. The smoked salmon wasn’t too salty. The thin slices easily disintegrated in our mouths. The sourdough toasts were fluffy, not too starchy or heavy. Due to the thin layer of jam, it was more towards being sweet than sour.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

The Flourless Chocolate Cake ($8.50) was very dense and packed full of chocolately goodness. The crust was very crumbly and generously dusted and covered with cocoa powder. The chocolate cake was akin to a slab of chocolate fudge. Decadent, smooth and bitter sweet chocolate to satisfy the chocoholics in us.

Penny University
402 East Coast Road

The Providore

Lobster Mac & Cheese

1st look at The Providore’s Lobster Mac & Cheese ($22.50) and we immediately knew that it would not be up to our expectations. There was just a serious lack of cheese in the dish. And true enough, The Providore’s version of the American comfort food was on the creamy side and seriously lacked a good punch of cheesiness. The sauce was also too liquid-like. It would have been better if the sauce was thicker and more viscous, with the cheese binding the macaroni pieces together. In this case, it seemed like the macaroni was just mixed into the cream sauce. Macaroni wise, it was cooked al-dente. The best part of the dish were the generous chunks of lobster – fresh, slightly sweet, with a chewy texture.

The Providore
#02-05, Mandarin Gallery
333A Orchard Road

Toby’s Estate

Brunch at Toby’s Estate!

Toby’s Estate

Situated amongst the private condos at Roberston quay is Toby’s Estate – a name synonymous with good coffee and all-day-breakfast.

Toby’s Breakfast

We went for the crowd favourite’s Toby’s Breakfast ($18) – bard laid eggs (poached), espresso maple bacon, roasted cherry tomatoes, sauteed mixed mushrooms, brioche toast and classic hollandaise sauce (+$2). It was a pretty sight – a hearty breakfast full of colours and flavours. The espresso maple bacon was pretty unique – on 1st bite, the saltiness was pretty mild but there was a strong charred fragrance. With each gradual chew, the saltiness started to intensify. Complementing the bacon and mushrooms together with the bread  significantly reduced the saltiness. The hollandaise sauce was smooth, creamy and buttery, but not overly rich. The poached eggs were perhaps the most disappointing element of the breakfast. It was overcooked and the egg yolk had already tended towards a slightly solid curd, rather than it being an oozy liquid. And sadly, the lettuce which was placed beneath all the elements had turned into a soggy mess after absorbed all the oil from the bacon and mushrooms.

On the whole, it was still a delightful fulfilling breakfast set from Toby’s Estate.

Toby’s Estate
#01-03/04, 8 Rodyk Street

Strangers’ Reunion

Baked Eggs in Shakshuka

Brunch session at Strangers’ Reunion saw us trying the Baked Eggs in Shakshuka ($17). Shakshuka is a Tunisian/Moroccan dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, onions, and various spices. This dish was more soupy than we thought, as we had expected a thicker and more gooey gravy. The middle-easten origins were quite evident as the shakshuka was accentuated with lots of spices, with the sour tomato-based sauce forming the backdrop. The eggs were pretty raw – on the surface, the egg white seemed cooked, but within the soup, the egg white were still in its original raw colourless form. It seemed like the egg was only cracked and added onto the shakshuka after the dish was removed from the oven. Still, the soupy shakshuka did make an interesting middle-eastern flavoured dip for the accompanying bread.

Matcha Azuki

Be it brunch, lunch or dinner, we can never escape the temptations of having a cake to end our meal. The Matcha Azuki ($7.50) wasn’t too sweet though, as it exhibited the characteristic bitter green tea flavours. This cake consisted of alternating layers of matcha sponge and matcha cream. It was rather light, typical of a Japanese-inspired cake. The red beans embedded in the matcha cream provided that slight additional crunch and sweetness to the cake. Overall, there wasn’t much surprises to the cake – a straightforward matcha cake, everything that you can expect.

Strangers’ Reunion
33/35/37 Kampong Bahru Road

Nine-thirty by Awfully Chocolate

The now-defunct Loola’s at Esplanade Mall has revamped and transformed into the current Nine-thirty, also by the folks from Awfully Chocolate. On top of the usual sweet offerings from Awfully Chocolate, Nine-thirty offers the usual western fare, including pastas, salads and some small bites.

Tandoori Chicken Salad

There wasn’t sufficient dressing in the Tandoori Chicken Salad ($12) to tie the entire salad together. The salad was pretty boring and uninteresting. The slices of tandoori chicken tasted purely like grilled chicken, with no tinge of tandoori flavours.

Pink Salmon

The pink sauce in the Pink Salmon ($18) was rather imbalanced as the sour, acidic tanginess of the tomatoes greatly overpowered any creamy milkiness. This resulted in the pink sauce tasting like any red tomato based sauce. There wasn’t any depth in this sauce, as all we could taste is the sour acidity from the tomatoes. The salmon was lightly seared, very lightly as there was hardly any charred crust or caramelization on the surface. When we cut apart the salmon, the centre of the salmon was only half cooked, resulting in a pink, rubbery texture – almost like salmon sashimi. Typically, for fresh salmon sashimi, upon contact with our body heat, will melt and soften in our mouth cavities. In this case, the centre of this seared salmon wasn’t that delicate, yet wasn’t tender and flaky like a fully-cooked salmon. This was just a very awkward, neither here nor there, piece of salmon fillet. In our opinion, we will never try this again.

(clockwise from top left) White Chocolate Butterscotch Block, Hei Ice Cream and Hazelnut Crumble

At the end of the day, the best offerings that Nine-thirty can offer remains to be the signature desserts from Awfully Chocolate. Our favourite dessert of the night was the Hazelnut Crumble ($7), with its thick rich hazelnut chocolate layer and the crunchy bittersweet dark chocolate cookie base. The crumble combined the sticky and dense hazelnut fudge together with the crumbly and crunchy cookie base, great combination. We didn’t enjoy the White Chocolate Butterscotch Block ($7.50 per 100g) as the white chocolate coating the entire cake was a bit too creamy and had gotten slightly too cloyingly sweet. We did enjoy the salted butterscotch drizzle. It was thick, gooey and sticky, with a balance between saltiness and sweetness. And finally, Awfully Chocolate’s signature Hei ice cream – the rich, dark chocolate ice cream was very strong in flavours, dense in texture and simply finger licking good.

Nine-thirty by Awfully Chocolate
#02-14, Esplanade Mall
8 Raffles Avenue

Slappy Cakes

Fancy some Do-It-Yourself pancakes without the hassle of preparing the ingredients or dread the post-cooking cleaning chore? Head down to Slappy Cakes – a newly opened Oregon-originated pancake house, brought in by the folks at TungLok.

Slappy Cakes

Slappy Cakes goes by a DIY concept, where each table is fitted with a griddle and diners are allowed to cook their own pancakes. There are 5 different batter flavours, including buttermilk, peanut butter, zucchini, whole grain and chocolate. The batter is freshly made everyday and comes in a squeeze bottle ($8 per bottle), which makes around 5-8 pancakes, depending on the size of the pancakes. Besides the batter, you can also customize the pancakes from a range of “fixings” and “toppings”:

Fixings (ranged from $1.50 to $3):
Sweet – blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, sea coconut, dried pineapple, banana, shredded coconut, toasted almonds, hazelnuts, pecan nuts and granola
Savoury – brie, blue cheese, pork sausage, cheddar cheese, chopped scallions, crispy bacon, honey ham and roasted mushrooms

Toppings (ranged from $1.50 to $3):
100% maple syrup, lavender honey, homemade chocolate hazelnut spread, coconut peanut butter, greek yoghurt, mango jam, pineapple jam, raspberry jam, lemon curd and whipped cream

Griddle + Peanut Butter Batter + Cheddar Cheese + Pork Sausage + Homemade Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

There are absolutely no limitations nor constraints to the combinations of batters, fixings and toppings. That’s the beauty of DIY – where you get to customize and create your very own pancake. For us, we chose a peanut butter batter with cheddar cheese, pork sausage and the homemade chocolate hazelnut spread. With the griddle warmed up, it was time for some DIY action.

Squeezing out the batter

The batter comes in a easy to squeeze plastic bottle, which allows both adults and kids to conveniently dispense the batter onto the griddle in whatever shape and size.

Pancakes in the Making

At the same time, you can also add in the fixings or toppings into the pancake during the cooking process. We added the cheddar cheese to allow it to melt into the pancake and also additional black pepper for seasoning. Once little bubbling holes start to appear in the pancake, flipping to the other side is a breeze as the griddle has a non-stick coating. Once both sides turned to a beautiful shade of golden brown, it is time to eat!

Pancakes!

Apart from the DIY fun, the pancakes turned out pretty decent too! The cooking process released a peanut butter fragrance into the air. We could also adequately control the texture and taste of our pancakes! Though the peanut butter aroma was quite evident, the taste was not that strong. But our pancakes did turn out soft, light and fluffy! No difference from any professional chef! We could probably do with a little more cheese for that extra goodness, but the addition of black pepper was a great choice as it enhanced the taste of the pancakes. The homemade chocolate hazelnut spread, after being left on the heat for a while, turned into a viscous, chocolately goodness.

Great concept and great food.

Slappy Cakes
#01-20/21, The Grandstand
200 Turf Club Road

SUR | Nuevo Latino Kitchen

Nuevo Latino is used to describe a new type of cuisine that blends ingredients from Latin America, Europe and the United States to create an exciting and original fusion. Sounds interesting, and off to SUR we went!

Arepitas – Rumbera and Reina Pepiada

For our mini Arepitas, we chose the Rumbera (Pork Loin and Gouda Cheese) and the Reina Pepiada (Avocado and Chicken Salad). The corn arepita wasn’t too dense, was still rather light in terms of texture. Though we suspect that the corn cake had been deep fried, it wasn’t too oily to turn us off. In fact, we enjoyed the slight crisp to it and the taste of corn was well-balanced. The avocado and chicken salad was cold and refreshing with the tender chicken chunks and the mushy avocado. The pork loin was very tender and the semi-melted gouda cheese tied the entire arepita together, providing that additional gooey goodness and cheesiness.

Torta de Maiz

The Torta de Maiz was a mushroom ragout, with twice-baked corn souffle and queso fresco. The corn souffle was very heavy in texture, it was more like a muffin and less of a souffle. The souffle exuded a subtle sweetness and fragrance. There was a generous serving of mushrooms! Earthly, savoury and well-seasoned – we enjoyed the mushroom ragout. The queso fresco, a traditional Mexican cheese, provided that extra kick in saltiness.

SUR|Nuevo Latino Kitchen
#01-01, 13 North Canal Road

Muchachos

Muchachos

New burritos joint Muchachos has opened at Keong Saik Street!

Starting from the extreme right of the counter, customers get to customize and build their burritos, staring from size, carbs, proteins, fats and finally salsa:

Sizes:
Burrito ($12) – Original San Franciscan silver bullet
Burritino ($9) – Beast Jr. for ladies

Carbs:
Rice – Texas long-grain tossed with cilantro and lime
Beans – Black turtle beans simmered with avocado leaves
Refried beans – Mashed pinto beans fried in bacon fat

Proteins:
Pollo Asado – Chicken thigh grilled over an open flame
Carne Asada – Skirt steak seared medium rare with a pink centre
Carnitas – Pork butt slow cooked in its own lard
Barbacoa – Lamb shoulder oven-braised until meltingly tender
Pescado – Whitefish fillet battered

Fats:
Sour cream – Whipped
Cheese – Freshly grated blend of mild cheddar and monterey jack
Guacamole – Made with real Californian Hass avocados

Salsas:
Pico de Gallo – Tomato, white onion, jalapeno chile
Salsa verde – Tomatillo, garlic, serrano chile
Salsa de Pina – Pineapple, red onion, habanero chile

Burrito in the making

Our Burritino consisted of “beans and refried beans”, “pollo asado”, “cheese” and “salsa de pina”. Before topping the salsa de pina, our burrito was steamed again in a customized steamer.

Burritino

Unwrapped Burritino

The Burrito looked like a bigger than usual Chinese popiah. It was generously jam-packed with the 5 different toppings. But probably the biggest downside of this burrito was the lack of seasoning and flavours. Based on the different textures of the mushy mashed pinto beans, the tender chicken cubes, the crunchy turtle beans and the slightly melted gooey cheese, we could differentiate the different toppings. However, the taste of each individual topping didn’t stand out, and was on the whole, rather bland. In fact, the only outstanding taste was that from the pineapples – the sour, tongue prickling tangy characteristic taste of pineapples. What was sorely lacking was a spicy kick with an overall savouriness.

Muchachos
22 Keong Saik Street

Gastronomia

Crodo – The Croissant Donut

The croissant-donut hybrid craze has descended to Singapore! Known as Cronuts in the United States or Crodos in Singapore, these hybrids are basically croissant dough fried like a doughnut, and may further be enhanced with chocolate or custard etc. We tried Gastronomia’s Chocolate Crodo which essentially looked like a croissant, shaped into a donut. The Crodo was very oily and greasy, which completely turned us off. There was so much oil left on our finger tips and every bite of the Crodo left our mouths with an oily taste and smell. There was minimal chocolate stuffed within the Crodo.

We absolutely do not understand the craze about these croissant-donuts.

Gastronomia
#01-01 Cluny Court
501 Bukit Timah Road

Pasar Bella – A Farmers’ Market

Pasar Bella

After months of anticipation, Pasar Bella has finally opened at The Grandstand! Spanning a total indoor area of around 30000 square feet, with more than 30 permanent and weekend traders, Pasar Bella is Singapore’s answer to the concept of farmers’ market found commonly in Europe and USA.

The most important to remember before heading to Pasar Bella is to go with an empty stomach, as 90% of the stalls sells food, drinks or fresh produce.

Le Patio

Le Patio

Nutella Crepe

We were enticed by the enormous tube of Nutella on the counters of Le Patio and promptly ordered the Nutella Crepe ($3.50). We were slightly disappointed with the crepe. The crepe itself was bland and seemingly just a doughy mixture. The Nutella wasn’t sufficient enough to satisfy us. On the whole, the Nutella crepe was pretty amateurish and underwhelming.

Nibbles by Rabbit Carrot Gun

Scone

Our next stop was Nibbles by Rabbit Carrot Gun. Touted to be the stall that sells authentic British snacks, Nibbles sells quiches, pies, cakes and most importantly, scones! Priced at $4.50 each, the scone was pretty expensive. Unfortunately, the standard didn’t match up to the price. The scone was tasteless, floury and lacking in aroma. The inner core was clumpy and a little damp – making the scone pretty heavy and hard to swallow.

Huber’s Deli

Huber’s Deli

Chicken Cheese

Perhaps one of the more popular stalls was Huber’s Deli, evident from the number of people carrying the Huber’s Deli takeaway boxes. Coupled with the fact that Huber Deli’s hotdogs were grilled on the spot, it is no wonder many visitors were enthralled by the aroma and looks of the hotdogs. We ordered the Chicken Cheese ($7.80), with pickles, gruyere cheese, parsley, spices and sauce. The cheese was slightly charred; though the cheese wasn’t particularly salty or strong in flavours, the spices atop the cheese did add some extra flavour to it. We felt that the cheese could have been a little more melted, which would then provide this extra gooeyness. There was also cheese inside the hotdog, which was like the extra burst of surprise. The hotdog was, as usual, of high standards from Huber’s Deli. Authentically meaty and juicy! In addition, the bread had been toasted and hence exuded a fragrance crisp. Thankfully, Huber’s Deli didn’t disappoint!

Dutch Colony Coffee Co.

Seasalt Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake

Our final conquer of the day was the Seasalt Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake ($5.50) from Frootkeyk, which is sold at the Dutch Colony Coffee Co. We especially enjoyed the peanut butter as it provided that salty, nutty fragrance to the cake. The peanut butter also increased the moistness of the cake. The combination of peanut butter and chocolate can never go wrong.

Pasar Bella
200 Turf Club Road
Bukit Timah

Park

A new steel and glass structure has popped out near the Holland Village MRT station. And this structure, equipped with solar panels, houses a new Western alfresco cafe – Park.

Truffle Mac n Cheese

The Truffle Mac and Cheese was pretty impressive. The cheesy sauce was rich and was generously coating every piece of macaroni. It wasn’t artificially salted, it was just hard core cheesiness. The macaroni was cooked al dente and had thoroughly absorbed the flavours of the cheese. However, we couldn’t tell the presence of truffles. But regardless of that, this Mac and Cheese was still a decent rendition of the American classic.

Park
#01-01, 281 Holland Avenue

Eighteen Chefs

Eighteen Chefs

Walking past Eighteen Chefs, we were attracted by the huge wallpaper of the Double Cheese Baked Rice. The advertisement was certainly effective as almost every table had ordered a cheese baked pasta/rice.

Double Cheese Baked Pasta, in red and white sauce, with mushrooms

Our Double Cheese Baked Pasta, in red and white sauce, with mushrooms didn’t look all that attractive and appetizing compared to the advertisement. It looked pretty amateurish, perhaps almost reflective of the affordable price we were paying. The Double Cheese Baked Pasta was supposed to consist of a dual layer of nacho cheese and mozzarella cheese, but we couldn’t tell any difference. The cheese topping was just a thin, soft and mushy mash of cheese. There wasn’t any charred fragrance or crisp on the top layer. Beneath the thin and almost non-existent dual layer cheese was spaghetti in a rather soupy red and white sauce. We were expecting and hoping for penne like pasta fused together by thick, viscous and rich cheesy sauce. Instead, the long spaghetti strands were swimming around in a soupy and milky sauce. The mushrooms were common button mushrooms.

Having tried baked pasta/rice from many eateries, this Double Cheese Baked Pasta from Eighteen Chefs has got to rank right at the bottom of our list.

Eighteen Chefs
#02-K1/K6, Tiong Bahru Plaza
302 Tiong Bahru Road

Morsels

Morsels

Morsels literally means a small piece of food, reflecting on the owners’ style of offering small sharing dishes to be shared with friends. Everything at Morsels is painstakingly made from scratch. There’s no particular well-defined cuisine, thus allowing the owners to fully exhibit their creativity.

Morsels

Like many other new bistros, Morsels adopted an open kitchen concept. We were seated at the bar stools by the hot open kitchen, and was really witnessing the entire cooking and serving process.

Hokkaido scallop ceviche, plums, tobiko, cilantro, red onion, homemade tortilla chips

Hokkaido scallop ceviche, plums, tobiko, cilantro, red onion, homemade tortilla chips ($17) – This was our first attempt trying ceviche. Ceviche is essentially a seafood dish consisting of thin slices of raw fish/prawns/scallops marinated in acidic citrus juices. The citrus acid cooks the seafood, altering the structure of the proteins, making it more opaque and firmer, almost like it has been cooked with heat. We didn’t quite appreciate the ceviche. No doubt there were multi layers of taste (sour tomatoes, tangy plums and the sweet red onions) and the tobiko with its characteristics exploding bursts, we couldn’t quite accept that queer raw taste of scallops. We have definitely tried scallop sashimi before, but the scallop ceviche exuded a lingering raw seafood taste which didn’t go well with us. Instead, we preferred the tortilla chips – crispy, fragrant, without being overly oily.

Grilled octopus, squid ink risotto, salted egg yolk sauce, tobiko, wasabi sprouts

We did however enjoy the Grilled octopus, squid ink risotto, salted egg yolk sauce, tobiko, wasabi sprouts ($26). The texture of the risotto was well grasped. Individual rice grains had a slight crunch, with the risotto coming together as a sticky, thick concoction. There wasn’t an overpowering taste of squid ink though. We found the addition of the salted egg yolk sauce creative, but the effects weren’t as strong as we imagined. The egg yolk sauce was grainy, with the taste of butter/milk somehow overshadowing the savouriness from the salted egg yolk. The grilled slices of octopus were the stars of this dish. It had a smoky taste, while still retaining the sweetness. While the outer parts of the squid were slightly charred, the octopus itself was towards the soft side, almost losing the typical chewiness of octopus.

Morsels
35 Mayo Street