Kki @ Ann Siang

I'm trying to post more regularly on my food escapades. In a way, it's good to keep track where all those calories and blubber on your body came from. 

Before Miss Masters scooted off to London for her further studies, we grabbed her for a lunch followed by desserts at Ann Siang Hill.

I've been wanting to try Kki (ケーキ: "cake" in Japanese) for quite some time now. The previous times I dropped by the Little Drom Store (Retro lifestyle store that Kki shares a shop space with), Kki was filled with customers. It's a small place, with only about 5 small tables. 

We were greeted with a fine whiff of batter fragrance when we entered the cafe. The delicious display of cakes made me palpitate with anticipation. I'm not much of a desserts person, but who can resist such delicate presentations of hand-made goodness?

There isn't a wide variety of cakes, but being our first time and not done my due research, we were at a loss as to what to order. We settled on Emily (the red coloured leaf-shaped cake) and the chocolate-coloured dome-shaped cake.

Wrong choice of Emily!!! I had a hard time swallowing it. Miss Masters puts it aptly, it was as though we were eating butter. The dome-shaped cake is tiramisu. Not too bad, but not fantastic.

 Ordered tea to go along with it. All in all, I'm a sucker for such tea places. It's also a plus point that the Little Drom Store sells retro eye candy! Nice to look but not value-for-money to buy if you know of cheaper places. Although the cakes we chose this time were below expectations, I'm eager to visit this place again and give it another go.

Amount spent per pax: $5
Will I go back again? Yes.


7 Ann Siang Hill
Singapore 069791
Tel: 6225 6650
Open 12pm - 7pm (Sun to Fri)
12pm - 4pm (Sat)
Closed on Mondays

Heirloom & Caramel @ Shaw Towers

 After lunch on a Friday at Raffles City,  Miss Y and I decided to go in search of desserts, and we thought of this place because a) Miss Y has always wanted to try this, b) She missed her chance to try because she was on exchange when Miss M and Miss X brought me here to celebrate my birthday 2 years ago and c) It has indeed been 2 years since I dined here.

Caramel Cafe is a quirky cafe located at Shaw Towers (where another of my favourite eatery is). Eclectic furniture? Check. Vintage items for sale? Check. Cosy feeling? Check. Affordable pricing? Check. Main courses and desserts/drinks? Check. There, just my kind of place :)

 

The furniture looks like they're second-hand and hand-painted again. I like

how everything doesn't look like a set together, but fits well with one another

anyway. There's harmony in the mismatch.

 

Take a look at their menu! Their range of pastas, though not wide, should be 

able to please, and I like their selection of coffees, hot teas and cold drinks. 

 

Vintage items for sale! How nice. 

 

Our hot pomelo tea came in this dainty, pretty tea set. 

I'm a sucker for "packaging" like this :)

 

Bread pudding with ice cream. 

 I love the colours! 

Colourful, retro, whimsical decor, cosy ambience perfect for an afternoon tea and chat with your friends - what's not to like about this place? They serve pastas, salads, sandwiches, and cupcakes as well. Haven't tried their mains before, shall go back there one day to have a meal. For the 2 times that I was there, we ordered Vita-Plum, which is an interesting and refreshing mix of Vitagen and plum juice. Worth a try!

How much was spent: $9 per pax
Would I go back again? Definitely!

Address: 100 Beach Road, #01-50/52 Shaw Towers, Singapore
Tel: +65 6295 2188
Opening Hours
Mon–Thu: 12pm – 8pm
Fri–Sat: 12pm – 10pm
(Closed on Sun & PH)

Tea Cosy @ Plaza Singapura

Came to this tea place twice in the month of December, once with Miss MB and once with the sister. Have always passed by this place at P.S. with nary a glance (as I do with most shops in P.S.) until Miss Doraemon recommended this place to us for a gathering. It was a pity she couldn't join us that day though. 

Anyway, if you like angels, like to have tea (though they serve main courses as well), like a central location like Dhoby Ghaut, this is the place for you. Tea Cosy is made up of the cafe, a furniture shop as well as selling ornaments of angels. I like the ambience here, it's not too noisy even when it's filled with people, and the service staff are polite.

Ordered their Flower Power ($6.90 for a pot), a caffeine-free tea that claims to "relax the mind and bring comfort to the stomach". I wondered if it was a placebo effect, but my tummy did feel more settled down after drinking the tea. Miss MB ordered Sakura ($6.90), and we both agreed that Flower Power was the better choice.

Tea Cosy Decadent salad $16.95 -  A really decadent salad judging by its hefty price tag. Besides the herbivorous food there were also grilled prawns, and foie gras cubes. Of course, the foie gras cubes were minute but it was good to satisfy the palate. After all, we don't get to foie gras very often, do we?

English Scones ($6.95 for 3), with a choice of blueberry, strawberry jam or maple syrup. Blueberry jam is their recommendation. I loved the scones! Perhaps I was still longing for it after my Cameron Highlands trip where we had the loveliest strawberry scones, these tasted really good as well.

Lychee Breeze ($5.95) -  An average lychee drink, tasted like what you could make at home with canned lychees or get it at coffee shops.

Turkish Apple  $4.50 - Caffeine-free as well, tastes like apple tea. The flavour ran out after the first pour, whereas for Flower Power, it lasted quite a few rounds of refill. Perhaps that's also one of the differences between premium and non-premium teas; the premium ones are stronger to taste, and thicker.

Ebony & Ivory ($8.95) - Such pretty names, though some would say it's gimmicky, and I don't deny, but girls/ladies usually fall for this, isn't it? Chocolate fudge brownies with vanilla ice cream. Their vanilla ice cream tastes different from the usual ones we eat, I don't know what exactly is the taste, but it was good.

A nice place to chill and chit-chat with your friends, spend a quiet afternoon in town. They offer a fair selection of appetizers, salads, soups, main courses, teas, desserts and other drinks. I'll be back next time to try their mains!

How much was spent per pax: On average $20 per pax each time
Would I go back again? Yes!

Address: 68 Orchard Road #05-10 Plaza Singapura

Tel: +65 6341 9318

Shots @ Ann Siang Hill

Tucked away on a little street of Ann Siang Hill is a coffee hideout called Shots. Was exploring around the area with Mr. Physics and he recommended that we go to this cafe for a cuppa coffee. I love this kind of cozy little cafes!

 

Very charming and cozy interior with tasteful art pieces hung along the walls, photography magazines on racks for browsing, youngsters playing Monopoly Deal (haha my favourite as well) and chilling out. 

 Besides coffee and desserts they serve main courses like pizza/pasta and sandwiches as well.

Chocolate lava cake $6.50 - Moist on the inside, a decent chocolate cake, though the lava is nowhere to be seen. I'm fussy when it comes to lava cakes, and I still think TCC serves the best one, their Dark Devotion is to die for!! Anyway, the so-called 'lava' in the middle of this cake was just slightly more moist than the other parts of the cake. Every bite we took we were waiting for the chocolate to flow out, when it didn't we thought, ok maybe it's not deep enough, so we kept eating and eating, but there was no chocolate lava at all.

 Cafe Mocha - $5.50

Tiramisu Latte - $6.50  The coffees are very decent, though I am not the most discerning when it comes to coffee.

 

Overall, a nice chill-out place with friends to have a catch-up session, or just to spend a lazy afternoon together. Read a book, play some cards there, no problem at all. Staff are friendly as well.



How much was spent: Around $9 per pax
Would I come back again? Definitely!

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