Wild Honey @ Scotts Square

The family went for brunch at Wild Honey one fine Sunday morning. One good thing about the Scotts Square branch is that they take reservations! No snaking queues for the aged parents. 

The interior looked quite cozy, though we chose to sit outside. It was a cool day so the heat didn't get to us. With the breeze and laid-back feel outdoors, it definitely didn't feel like we were in Singapore! (Minus the view of Orchard Road, haha!) 

 

The sis had the French-Pressed Coffee, which was good. 

The classic English breakfast $22 - (hidden) scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled tomato, potatoes, mushrooms and giant baked beans. This satisfied. 

The Mocha tasted a bit strange, perhaps not sweet and chocolatey enough. I liked the heart though.

 

Boulevard St. Michel $22 - We really like the thick fluffy French toast, the blob on the left is a parmesan-crusted poached egg, while that on the right is a spinach and cheese souffle. I really liked the sauce on top, a wonderfully tangy and appetizing mix of tomatoes, onions, and unknown spices. The tomatoes were so juicy they spurted when you sink your teeth into them.

 

What was meant as desserts but actually arrived first. Scones (my favourite!) with raspberry jam and butter and apple tea bread (somewhat of a mix between cake and bread).   

 Norwegian ($26) - essentially two poached eggs wrapped with smoked salmon sitting on top of giant slabs of avocado, drizzled with hollandaise sauce and salmon roe, on whole-wheat brioche.

Tunisian - Another signature, comes in a pan of shakshouka (tomato, onion, red pepper and chili), 2 sunny side ups and Chorizo sausage. Goes well with bread. 

 

We had no issues with the service. Although we were seated outdoors, the service staff came around regularly to check on whether we needed water refills so we could catch their attention fairly easily while having the privacy to ourselves.

Wild Honey
Scotts Square #03-01
Tel: 6636 1816
Open Sundays to Thursdays from 9am to 9pm;
Fridays to Saturdays from 9am to 10pm

Oriole Cafe & Bar

 Had wanted to try this place ever since I saw on LadyIronChef that they had the "best fish and chips" in Singapore. Came here on Saturday night, and ordered the said dish, and satisfied my craving for pasta by ordering the garlic prawn pasta ($16).

Pardon the diluted colours of the photos, light conditions were bad at night, and the photo quality becomes pixelated under low light conditions. Anyway, the pasta was far too hard for my liking. This was slightly spicy, which was good. But the texture of the pasta really made it hard to chew and swallow. If you want garlic prawn pasta, the best bet would still be the one from Coffee Club. 

The fish 'n chips ($13; i think?) was mediocre. I don't know what LIC saw in this, no offence. At best this was not the slightest bit fishy, the meat was firm, amount of flour not too much. But I found it so-so; similar quality could be found somewhere else.

 

The live band started playing at 10pm, and it's good if you have nothing to say to your dinner partner and just enjoy the food and music. But if you're there for a catch up session, be prepared to shout across the table to make yourself heard - the volume of the music does not make for meaningful conversations to be carried out, unless you choose to sit outdoors.

Tried their chocolate mud cake the last time I was here, expecting it to be a lava cake. I could only  blame it on my false expectations, because it was not a lava cake, but a normal chocolate cake. It was a bit dry on the inside, though the chocolate was good.

 

Nevertheless, reading about reviews that raved about this place, I would still probably come back to try again, their brunch and coffee seem like a good choice to start with.

How much was spent: Around $20? I really can't remember :X

Would I go back again? Yes, but I probably won't order the above items again.

96 Somerset Road #01-01 Pan Pacific Serviced Suites

Tel: +65 6238 8348

Noodle Place Restaurant @ Centrepoint

On Wednesday Drumstick and I went in search of the authentic Hong Kong wanton noodles. (or rather, I dragged her along to hunt for it). Reviews by a certain food blog suggested that it may be at this place, so off we went.

When we reached I suddenly remembered that I had been into this restaurant before, a few years ago. Though I forgot what I had ordered then, my conclusion with my friends that time was that it's unlikely we would come back to this restaurant again because they offered similar fare to Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure and the latter two were much better.

That food blog rated their char siew as 4/5 so we decided to give it a try too! I'm not much of a fan of char siew until I tried some really good ones at a roadside eatery, before then I used to order wanton mee without char siew at hawker centres, and until recently I also didn't like char siew bao until I got addicted to those by Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure. So we ordered their char siew with honey sauce ($12+). I found it slightly too tough, could be more tender, though it was well marinated and I liked the taste of honey sweetness and the meat. It was too much for the two of us to finish though, so we had half of this take-away.

We also ordered their signature congee ($11) - There's a lot of ingredients inside; when I asked the waitress what this consisted, she rattled a whole list of ingredients and I interrupted her, "oh okokok we'll have this then". Haha! This had chicken pieces, fish maw, meat ball, egg, prawn, jelly fish, cuttlefish and some other stuff inside. Delicious, I must say. It's a nice surprise to find out what you can find inside.

 

Then comes the wanton noodles (dry; $8)! I had forgotten how the Crystal Jade ones tasted like, so I had no basis for comparison. However, I must say that this was slightly disappointing. The wantons were just too small. I remember having a bowl of wanton mee in Hong Kong, just $2, but the wantons were just made of fresh succulent prawns, so tasty for just SGD2.00!

I don't think I would come back here often, but if you're ever in the area and craving for Chinese food but Crystal Jade and Imperial Treasure (or maybe Paradise Dynasty?) are too far, this may be the place to satisfy your craving. 

How much was spent: $20 per pax
Would I come back again? : Maybe.
Rating: 3/5

Address: 176 Orchard Road
Centrepoint #01-53/56
Singapore 238843
Tel: 67333171

Jones the Grocer @ Mandarin Gallery

Since I have received a request from a friend to post more entries on this food blog (happiness!), I am encouraged to be more diligent in the updating.

Remember the time I went with the sister to have brunch at Imperial Treasure? Well, after shopping and walking around at Orchard Road, we got really tired and wanted to sit down and have tea or desserts. We decided on Jones the Grocer since both of us haven't tried that before, and for a moment we couldn't really think of any other places so we settled on this.

I came to know of this place by working on another cafe in the same building (some of you might know), and I always wanted to try it out someday, but knowing it's really pricey, I never really got around to trying it. It's a gourmet food retailer, selling cheeses, gourmet pastas and so on - gosh, one bottle of pasta sauce costs $19!!! That's crazy. For me, at least.

Anyway, it was not that crowded when we reached there around 4 plus 5pm. We were still full from lunch and we ordered small bites to share.

 

The wide variety of cheeses in the glass case behind there reminds me of times in Europe and Scandinavia

I saw "tapas" on the menu and decided to order it since I didn't have the chance to try it when I was in Spain (yes how silly right I know). It listed a whole chunk of food and I thought since tapas refers to a wide variety of appetizers or snacks, the entire chunk would be included in the $12. Who was I kidding? This is definitely a higher-end-than-usual restaurant for me. The waiter then explained that each row of words was a separate dish, haha! So we chose the smoked salmon with avocado one. 

Reading food reviews from other blogs, it seems like this place is known for their over-priced and under-portioned dishes (LadyIronChef), and my! When our dish came, I raised my eyebrows. 

Tapas $12 - Smoked Salmon with Avocado and Crème Fraîche on Foccacia

  
As good as it tasted - the avocado and sour cream was a good combination with the smoked salmon - I don't really think it's worth the money. I can simply buy the ingredients from NTUC and make it myself! Normally I don't really fancy smoked salmon unless they're soaked in mayonnaise and sometimes they can be really fishy, but this combination was refreshing.

 Mudslide Mocha - Not bad.

They also have main courses like Confit Chicken ($27) and Jones Open Wagyu Beef Burger ($27) if you're going there for lunch or dinner.



How much was spent: Around $12 per pax
Would I go back? Maybe only...



Address: 333A Orchard Road #04-21/23 Mandarin Gallery 

Tel: +65 6836 6372