rollie ollie, pasarbella suntec.

needed a light (late) lunch after the gym, and decided on pasarbella, since i was at suntec. not many choices, given that pasarbella hadn't really officially opened. wanted something clean and fresh, so rollie ollie caught my eye. not their first outlet- the first one is at star vista (which is too out of the way for me).



got the aloha poké bowl ($12.95), which reminded me of aloha poké at amoy street. it was basically a chirashi with vegetables- salmon and tuna, mesclun, avocado, cucumber, tamago, purple onion, alfalfa and flying fish roe, dressed in a light soy sauce. liked that i got a choice of rice- white, brown or tea-infused rice- of course i picked the tea-infused rice.



my food took quite a while, even though i was the only one. i was expecting it to be served more quickly since it was all ready-made ingredients (and i was hungry!) but then when i got my bowl, i noticed that it was really plated with care. couldn't complain about the sashimi cubes- lightly dressed in soy, not stingy with the cut, and fresh. mixed together with the other ingredients, it was a good eat. exactly what i was looking for. quite liked the rice, too- it really carried a faint whiff of tea.

will be back if i want a quick chirashi fix!


rollie ollie
pasarbella suntec
#01-k42
https://www.facebook.com/RollieOlieSingapore

bing go jung korean dessert house, guillemard.

wanted bingsu after dinner. we were initially intending to go to snowy village, which i've been to a number of times, but not X. however, it seems that they'd closed down- the café was closed, even though it was within their stated opening hours. so, change of plans. X suggested bing go jung, which she liked quite a lot, so we headed over.

i've known of its existence, but never thought of going, because it'd never rated that highly on bingsu lists online. then again... most people also rate nunsongyee highly, but both X and i aren't impressed- way too overpriced, and where are the toppings?! i guess we're the types who are more into the toppings than the actual ice itself. so that's probably why i really liked bing go jung- they were generous with the toppings, perhaps even overly so.



we were deciding between the injeolmi bingsu and the red bean (both $11)... and decided to stick to our usual injeolmi with additional red bean for an extra $1. i was feeling greedy so we also got the hotteok waffle ($5) to share.

as mentioned, i loved the generosity of toppings. it was a huge bowl, and we quite literally struggled to finish it. it was FULL of mochi bits, which i love. in fact, we ended up with more mochi bits than ice- always a happy problem.

X didn't like the hotteok waffle, but i did. i particularly liked its chewy, mochi-like texture and the fragrance of the cinnamon. i was initially wondering why the portion of the waffle was so small, but it packs a punch because of its mochi-like texture.

yum. one of my favourite bingsu places now. added bonus that it's so near my house- i simply walked home after that.

bing go jung korean dessert house
102 guillemard road
#01-01
https://www.facebook.com/binggojung/

plain jane café, serangoon.

disclaimer: i'm very fond of swiss rolls (or any sort of rolls, for that matter- including peanut rolls, sushi rolls, burritos... the list goes on). so of course when i read about a café specialising in swiss rolls, i knew i had to go.



i actually went sometime last year, when they'd just opened. we came by just a little too late- it was a bit after nine, and they'd just sold out of their last piece of chocolate swiss roll. thankfully, though, the matcha ($5.90) and the plain ($4.90) were still available. they had an interesting range of teas available, and after smelling through all the samples, we decided on the pandan chiffon.



the cakes came simply plated on vintage looking plates- so pretty! for the portions, prices were steep, but it was so good i didn't care. good cakes are worth paying for!



the sponge was light and fluffy, and so was the cream. loved that it wasn't overpoweringly sweet (and it made me want to eat more). among the three of us, we shared two rolls, and quickly found that it wasn't enough... and so we ordered a third one. the tea, smelling lightly of pandan, went deliciously well with the rolls. yum!

i'm aiming to go back soon, for the nutella (!) and thai milk tea flavoured ones. it's a game of chance with the cakes though (which i suppose is part of the fun)- we enquired about availability, and it seems that going too early might mean that certain flavours wouldn't be ready. go too late, though, and it might just be sold out.


plain jane café
211 serangoon avenue 4
#01-10
http://www.cafeplainjane.com

thien long vietnamese, orchard towers.

confession: i've never ventured into orchard towers prior to this visit, so i didn't really know what to expect (aside that it was full of dodgy things). and yes, we did see quite a few dubious characters, but it wasn't that bad, since it was early afternoon, anyway.

the vietnamese restaurant was tucked into a corner near the toilet. X claimed that she could smell the toilet from where we were sitting and commended me for my bravery when i said i was going to the toilet; but the toilet was, surprisingly, actually quite clean.



i deliberated over the menu for a while before deciding on the dry vietnamese beef noodles ($5), since i've never tried that, always opting for the grilled pork/chicken version each time i'm at a vietnamese place. X got the vietnamese pork chop noodles ($5) with an additional fried spring roll ($1).



our food came after a brief wait. looked promising- a riot of colours, what with the vietnamese pickles, julienned cucumbers, roasted peanuts and beef over vermicelli noodles. didn't come with the vietnamese fish sauce, but after poking around the table, we realised that it was in one of the containers.

it was clean and fresh, which is exactly what i love about vietnamese food, but i found portions to be on the small side. makes for a good light lunch though. not one of the best vietnamese noodles i've had; in fact, i much preferred the one at pho stop, but that's at almost twice the price. i also found thien long at bugis much better- for $6, it came with a juicy slab of pork chop. so no, i doubt i'll be back in a hurry.

thien long vietnamese
orchard towers
#04-08

soup stock tokyo, 313 somerset.

we were totally lost as to what to have for lunch- irritating, considering the myriad of options in orchard. sometimes it's almost as if the sheer number of options is more crippling. anyway, we eventually settled on soup stock tokyo. i've been wanting to try it since it opened in singapore (*cough* quite a while ago), but somehow never made it there (maybe because i'm too hungry to just have soup most of the time).

decided to share the buddy curry & soup set combo ($30.80), which came with 2 small soups, 2 sets of curry rice and 2 drinks. i got the butter chicken curry with brown rice and hokkaido crab bisque, along with hot green tea.



the crab bisque wasn't quite what i'd imagined it to be- could hardly taste any crab. but okay, it was tasty all the same. the japanese style curry, more sweet than spicy, was pretty good too, especially paired with the perfectly cooked brown rice (totally loved the brown rice). would've liked them to be more generous with the chicken pieces, though, given the prices they're charging. i think i had a total of perhaps three average sized cubes- hardly enough protein for me. still, it was an enjoyable meal. i thought i wouldn't be full, but i ended up being comfortably so (probably from the brown rice, which i finished in its entirety).



i'll be back to try the beef curry that my friend had. tried a bit of the curry and it tasted yum.

soup stock tokyo
313 somerset
#b2-53/53a
http://www.soup-stock-tokyo.sg/

wednesdays food company, jalan besar.

came by for lunch on a monday afternoon, because i'd bought the groupon (and it was going to expire soon). the café was bigger than it looked from the outside. it stretched quite a bit inwards, with booths that gave much privacy. since it was pretty much empty, my friend and i chose a booth.

the menu was compact with just brunch items and mains, making decision making less of an issue. most of the items on the brunch menu were variations of egg- not complaining, since i love eggs. we got the beef and mushrooms ($16) and eggs benedict ($13), along with a flat white ($4.50) and mocha ($5).

 

the food was pretty normal- standard café food, i suppose. the scrambled eggs that came with the beef and mushrooms were pretty good though. the food was decent, aside from the way overcooked beef- surprising, given that they had quite a number of steak items on their menu. i found the eggs benedict much better than the beef and mushrooms. the eggs were perfectly poached, and the combination of hollandaise sauce, ham and english muffin was a classic, with the bonus of being well executed.



my flat white was on the milky side, lacking an espresso kick. while food was just pretty average, i have to say that their service was awesome. we had cakes to consume, because my friend had bought it when we had had no idea of what to have for lunch. since the cakes wouldn't keep, we had no choice but to (sneakily) eat them in the café. (we reasoned that since we were in the relatively private booth, they wouldn't see us.) well, our plan kind of backfired, because the waitress did see us. not only did she not get annoyed, she even brought us sharing plates and extra napkins! bonus points for service, really.

so while food was average, the service makes me want to go back again, to perhaps just chill out with a coffee with friends. i wonder, though, if they'll survive in the café scene. jalan besar is full of established cafés, after all. kind of hoping that they do.

wednesdays food company
279 jalan besar
https://www.facebook.com/wednesdaysfoodco/

the populus coffee & food co., neil road.

having just been back from melbourne, where cafés are on every street, i couldn't help but compare singapore's cafés. the populus café has been on my to-try list, because of generally positive reviews and an menu that managed to pique my interest.

decided on the pulled pork grain bowl ($18), which had an interesting mix of textures. what caught my attention was the grains that formed the base of the bowl- quinoa, barley and bulgur wheat. the bowl came with (mini) portions of other sides, like furikake baby corn, slaw, and mushrooms. light tasting, but yummy all mixed up together. reminded me of the bowls at grain traders, actually. would've liked the portions to be heartier- i was hungry way before dinner time. far cry from the generous portions in melbourne.






































my friends got the populus scramble ($17) and the lemon & white chocolate sundae waffle ($14, extra $5 for the waffle).

 

both dishes came as beautifully presented as the first.



i found the scramble decent, but normal. the waffle, however, was a different story. we waited for really long for the waffle to be served- we were almost done with our food by the time it was done, even though we'd requested for it to be served together. when asked, we were told that there'd been an issue with the first waffle and so they'd had to remake it. okay... i know there's no service charge, but they could've made the effort to come over to explain it to us, rather than having us go to the counter to ask about it not once, but twice. so, thankfully, the waffle's appearance more than made up for it.



a generous swirl of vanilla soft serve sat atop the buttermilk waffle, drizzled with white chocolate sauce. it also helped that the waffle itself was adorned with plenty of other differing textures, like the super sour lemon jelly cubes, meringue kisses, and crumble. the waffle itself was decent as well.

i liked how the items on their menu wasn't the usual café stuff- they'd put their own spin on things (which made it hard for me to choose). found the prices reasonable, though really, portions should be slightly more generous. might come back to try other stuff off their menu (i spied a ricotta and herb bread pudding).

the populus coffee & food co.
147 neil road
https://www.facebook.com/thepopuluscafe/

craftsmen specialty coffee, eastwood centre.

came by for a late breakfast with a couple of friends on a tuesday morning. the place was pretty much empty. we'd initially meant to go to the other branch at siglap v, but somehow google maps directed us to the eastwood one. no matter- not much of a difference anyway, since none of us had been there before.

the menu looked promising. being a waffles fiend, of course i picked the savoury waffle option ($16.90) which came with scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, salsa and their signature sauce. my friend wanted the waffle as well, so we decided to share the waffle and the three tier brioche ($15.90). my other friend decided to get just the english muffins and eggs, since he'd eaten something before that.



it was a good thing that i decided to share with my friend, because i actually ended up liking the three tier brioche a lot more. can't go wrong, really- ham, cheese, and poached eggs over brioche, with a side of avocado and salad. what i didn't like, though, was their signature sauce that they'd laden atop the poached eggs. incidentally, it also appeared on the waffle. my friend disliked it more than i did, and we ended up scraping most of it off. it tasted really quite weird, quite unlike any other sauce that i've tasted before, and i'm hard pressed to give it a name.



the waffle looked awesome, but was quite lacklustre. didn't take to the waffle itself- it was dry and had none of the delicious buttery flavour i associate with good waffles. the scrambled eggs were alright, but the dish as a whole just felt disjointed. couldn't understand why there was salsa, actually. didn't go with the waffle at all. think i would've been more forgiving if the waffle had been good, but unfortunately it wasn't.



still, despite the less-than-impressive food, it was a quiet, leisurely meal with friends, and that, i suppose, made everything okay. wouldn't go out of the way to eat there again, though.

craftsmen specialty coffee
eastwood centre
#01-06
http://www.craftsmencoffee.com

wasabi tei, far east plaza.

i once queued for almost an hour for wasabi tei during dinner time with X, only to be told that they were out of japanese rice (though they'd be able to serve us normal rice). since what we wanted to have was chirashi, after a short discussion, we decided to scrape our plan of having dinner there, and headed to the sushi bar downstairs instead. that was a really long time ago, and somehow i never made it back there until recently.

they'd opened another space nearby, but after looking through the offerings on both sides, we decided on the original outlet. counter seating only, with an additional $2 per seat, no gst and service charge.

they're famed for having thickly sliced sashimi in their chirashi, which is exactly what i like. that made decision making a breeze. X also decided on the chirashi after some contemplation.

not a fan of cheap tuna, so i requested to replace the tuna slices. the chef willingly obliged with no extra charges, which meant that i got more salmon.



the slices were indeed thickly cut. the portions of fish were generous as well, with a good ratio of fish to rice. it came with mostly salmon, some salmon belly, mekajiki, octopus, crabstick, tamago, scallop and a scoop of ikura. X complained about the tamago being anaemic, and i concur- would've liked more of the egg. no other complaints otherwise, though. super filling- i was almost struggling to finish it, and i usually feel that sashimi is not enough. haha.

for $30 ($28 for the chirashi), the set came with an appetiser (hijiki seaweed when we went), miso soup, green tea and fruit. pretty good value, given how satisfying it was. service was nonexistent- we were served the chirashi by the chef over the counter with barely a grunt of acknowledgement, but who cares when food was the main reason we were there.

wasabi tei
far east plaza
#05-68/70

kai sushi & robatayaki, plaza singapura.

after being in melbourne on holiday for two weeks, i really needed some japanese food- definitely no more cafés, for a while at least. remembered glancing through their menu and noticing that they had pretty well priced set lunches, so i suggested going there for lunch.

it turned out to be a really good choice. for $15.80 (before taxes and service charge) i got a pretty good portion of sashimi, especially compared to the rice. i love it when i have chirashi and the proportion of rice to sashimi is just right. there were much more fish cubes than rice, and i ended up with just fish (my favourite kind of problem). also loved the cut of the fish- one of my pet peeves is when they dice up the fish in a bara chirashi so much that i can barely taste anything, which pretty much defeats the purpose of having it.



the set also came with miso soup, an appetizer and chawanmushi. interestingly enough the chawanmushi had yuzu- i've never had that particular combination.

i'm definitely coming back here. this might be one of my favourite places to have bara chirashi now, given how reasonably priced it is and how generous they are. here's to hoping they maintain standards till my next visit.

kai sushi & robatayaki
plaza singapura #04-68