Strangers Reunion

New entrant into cafe scene on 37 Kampong Bahru Rd Shophouses… Coffee is soso. I think highland coffee on the same stretch has better coffee and chef icon has better hot chocolate.

But this place is a nice quiet chill out corner especially if you want to cuddle with a book or do some research on a laptop.

Address: 37 Kampong Bahru Rd
Website: http://www.facebook.com/StrangersReunion
Opening Hours: 9am - 10pm

Plain Vanilla at The Plain

There was a cake shop- Plain Vanilla that was putting up a showcase of cakes at The Plain today.

I could not stay long enough to sample them but did they look good.

Don't tell me you are not drooling.

Location: 34A Lorong Mambong Holland Village
Website: http://www.plainvanillabakery.com/

Group Therapy

I went to this place when it first started but haven't really been back since because they only had a limited menu when they started. 

However, it looks like they have expanded their menu to serve proper lunch.

Turmeric and Squid Ink ravioli with stuffed roasted mushrooms topped with tomato basil sauce

The above sounds fancy and looks good. It doesn't taste bad but I would say it looks better than it tasted. I would have preferred a simple ravioli with more stuffing as I could not taste much from the squid ink or turmeric. It was too mild to add any value. The tomatoes tasted a wee bit too tart without much juicy sweetness. There was truffle oil. While the aroma was in the dish, the taste was not evident. It would be better to use simple and fresh ingredients. Serving was also quite small for $20

Waffles with fruit, chocolate and maple sauce and almonds

The waffles weren't bad. But in my opinion, they pale in comparison with what you get in L'entrecote and Restore. I think warm waffles should always come with contrasting cold ice cream which this plate didn't have. Also the chocolate sauce was way too sweet and tasted like it came from cheap bottled stuff. For $12, I won't go back.

Group Therapy is a nice space and venue, but I find it too expensive for the quality of food. Service is a bit slow. But given I was not in a rush, that wasn't a big issue. 

Location: 49 Duxton Road 02-01

Website: http://www.gtcoffee.com/

Prices: I spent about $40 for a drink, main and dessert

Bonheur Patisserie

This place has been opened for a while but I have only been there 3 times.

Cakes aren't bad but the reason for my infrequent visits is really because there are so many good choices for dessert in the TP area. Also I find the cakes quite expensive.

Opera cake

I went for a opera cake this time. It is layers of almond sponge soaked in coffee syrup layered with cream and chocolate ganache. It wasn't bad but wasn't spectacular which is pretty sad as the small slice was $7.50. I found the coffee cream too buttery and it didn't meld well with the other layers.

What I like there are actually the hot drinks- yuzu tea and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was thicker than I would have liked it but at least it was rich and luscious.

Location: 70 Duxton Hill
Website: http://www.bonheurpatisserie.com.sg/
Opening Hours: Mon- Thu: 10am- 8pm; Fri- Sat: 10am- 10pm
Contact number: 62211148

Dimbulah

I stayed in Sydney for 9 years and over there coffee culture was part of work culture. Every morning, there would be queues in the CDB lining up for hot cups of coffee. Even the ordinary shop in Sydney would serve coffee that was better than some places that call themselves gourmet coffee cafes here. The coffee culture is just prevalent in most parts of the country.

Generous sized latte

Dimbulah is marketed as fine Australian coffee. It is one of the early serious gourmet coffee entrants in Singapore.. They have another store in Raffles Place also targeting office crowds. Having coffee in the CDB does bring back some memories of working in Sydney. Although, I have to admit that it is quite different. The mad rush for coffee isn't here in Singapore and the weather is not really coffee weather.

Dimbulah does serve a decent cup of coffee. I had a latte for about $5 and it was a large size. Taste wise was decent as well although again the forth was too light. I saw the barrista using Green Fields milk at the corner of my eye which explains why.

I previously blogged about Green Fields milk in Selfish Gene and Oriole. A lot of barristas here like to use Green Fields compared to in Australia where I have seen most of them use Pura. The result is a thinner forth which is not to my taste.

I also had a croissant and a cake slice.

Croissant with ham and cheese

The croissant was heated for me which was nice. At about $4.50 it was extremely ordinary. If you see from the picture, it was rather sad.

Espresso macadamia slice

The espresso macadamia cake slice was a sugar shocker. When I chose it, I thought it had a chocolate top. However, upon closer inspection and eating it, I realised that it was like a marzipan type of sugar top. I actually really dislike marzipan. So I am definitely not a fan plus the fact that the lower macadamia base was dry. But if you like marzipan and very sweet, this may be for you.

My take on Dimbulah. If you want coffee, its good. Anything else, you are better off going somewhere else.

Location: 72 Anson House, Anson Road, Tanjong Pagar
Opening Hours: 7am -7pm
Contact Number: 65362949

Antoinette (Scarlet Hotel)

A friend of mine passed by this place and suggested that we try this new spot for lunch.

This little cafe sits about 15-20 people at the most. The kitchen is small and can be seen through a small window from the cafe. I could smell oil in the air from the kitchen.

The cafe has a nice French style feel to it with beautiful wall paper.

Club Antoinette sandwich

I ordered a club antoinette sandwich which is a sandwich with crab meat and egg omelette.
This was really plain and unimpressive for $18. I felt quite cheated. The bread was plain white bread and the crab meat had dressing that tasted similar to the Delifrance tuna sandwich except that the crab meat is better. The crab meat would have shone better with a simpler dressing. I think what they were trying to achieve here was a high tea style hence the white bread. However, I always think that good bread is the base of a good sandwich. Other elements of a good sandwich are good fresh ingredients that classically go well together. Egg and crab is like a Chinese meal but I won't have considered it a classical combination.

My friend had the blinis with mushroom sauce and a sausage. Hers was about $16.50. I forgot to take a picture of the meal. The menu had a couple of blini dishes which is a good idea as it means that you can cut down on ingredients and do variations of the same dish. The problem with the dish was execution. The blini wasn't too badly done. But the sausage was ordinary (better than the normal Ntuc sort though) and the mushroom sauce was too watery and too milky. The mushroom flavor was not the dominant rich flavour of the sauce and did not meld together with the blini. I think something like a duck sausage would have gone better with mushroom sauce.

I think instead of a sauce, they should have done the mushrooms more like a topping like in this website.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/health/nutrition/22recipehealth.html. I haven't tried the recipe in the website before but it was what i imagined a mushroom blini should be. I think blinis are best used as a base to make it work like a bruschetta.

Nougatine Ice Cream

I had a nougatine for my ice cream. It looked impressive. This was praline ice cream with hazelnut nougatine, salty caramel and caramelized filo pastry. However, it was too sweet for me and also the ice cream was a bit grainy.

Other Cakes

My friend had a mont blanc which she mentioned as well was too sweet and did not have the predominant chestnut flavor. Fortunately we had ordered tea that could wash the sweetness down.

We spent about $40 per pax for lunch, dessert and tea. The setting of the place is quite pretty but for that sort of price, we could have had a weekday set menu at a nice restaurant somewhere in the area.

I was quite surprised to find out behind the menu that this was part of a chain which had 4 outlets in all. I'm not sure why it is so popular.

Website: http://www.antoinette.com.sg/
Location: 33 Erskine Road #01-02/03 The Scarlet Hotel, Tanjong Pagar
Opening Hours: 11am- 9pm
Contact Number: 64386455
Prices: We spent about $40 per pax.

Red Riding Hood

This is another shop that is popping up in the HDB that defies the convention of traditional HDB shops.

Cakes, cupcakes and cookies

This new place is a comforting place for the working crowd to sit down to have a drink and cake. An alternative to kopi Os and Tehs. 

I had their hot chocolate which is a mixture of liquid chocolate and powdered chocolate. This is better than most places that only have powder chocolate. However, at about $6.50 per cup, I still would expect pure tasty liquid chocolate to be the base of this drink. I understand liquid chocolate is more expensive and also takes more work. But powdered chocolate is way too sweet and always has an artificial taste.

I was given a pecan cookie and a ginger snap cookie to sample. Both are delicious and not too sweet. The only thing is that I find the pricing a bit on the high side at $9.50 per box of about 10. Its nice to be able to indulge in it once in a while but I won't be buying a big box anytime soon. Pecans are not cheap though so perhaps that goes into the pricing.

I must say that I love the Tanjong Pagar area as new interesting shops are always popping up. Also like in this place, most of owners are friendly and happy to chat. 

Cupcakes that I got recently:

Pumpkin

Apple cinnamon

Both were pretty good. Cream was not sickly sweet. But at ~$3.50 a pop, pretty expensive.

Website: http://www.facebook.com/RedRidingHoodPL
Address: Block 7 Tanjong Pagar Plaza #02-102
Contact Number: 96497989

Selfish Gene

This opened sometime last week. I was quite bewildered by the name. Why would anyone call their cafe Selfish Gene?

A couple of black boards in the cafe gave the hint. Gene is the owner of which he is selfish because… I will let you go there and find out for yourself.

Unimportant details aside, I was pleasantly surprised by this new find.

 Cappuccino

The coffee was really quite good. It was light and smooth. My only slight complaint was the froth. Upon speaking to the owner and barista, I was told they used Green Fields milk. This is the same problem with many other cafes that use Green Fields milk (look at Oriole) The barista said they also use Highlander Coffee Beans of which Green Fields milk work best with. Maybe this is so because the beans don't seem to be that strong and using a lighter milk will be better with such beans. I'm not completely convinced though. I like my froth with more robust texture.

Pesto with poached egg and toast ~ $10

This was pretty good as well. The poached egg gave the dish texture. Pesto came on a crunchy piece of toast. I'm not sure what the red stuff is and if it is necessary….

Banana cake with peanut butter sauce and crumble ~ $7

This was pretty yummy. The sweet cake with the salty peanut butter sauce. Again, there is a play with textures with the crumble. The owners here just understand textures which is something most places lack in cooking. My only suggestion to the owner was if the banana bread could be warm or toasted. I'm used to eating my banana bread warm. 

I spoke to the owner and found out that he and another staff used to work in the St Pierre's Kitchen. This is the fine dining restaurant by chef Emmanuel Stroobant. Its quite a good restaurant (although I would say too over hyped). So its no surprise then that the food in this place is quite good and the use of textures in food is understood here.

Subsequent visits

The barista did 2 lattes for me to compare. One latte used Green fields milk and the other Pura milk. Green fields milk is used generally as the barista feels that it suits the highlander beans better in terms of taste. After tasting the 2 lattes using different milk, I still like Pura milk better. Pura milk is from Australia and provides a richer foam and a creamer latte. Highlander beans produce quite a mild coffee and perhaps from that angle Greenfield does blend well with the coffee made from those beans.

I was quite touched that the barista made me 2 coffees to try and made an effort to see what I preferred as a customer.

Other dishes I have had there:

Lemon Meringue Pie

The crust of this was good although I would have liked it more crumbly. Lemon curd was nice and tart. The pie had a nice meringue burnt top. Most places only make lemon tart and not the Meringue Pie so this was quite nice. 

The desserts in this place are a good size.

Bread and Butter Pudding

I don't like bread and butter pudding unless it is a good one. This is good. Creme anglaise makes the pudding richer and cuts through the sour berries. Good combination of flavors and well thought through.

Website: http://selfishgenecafe.com/

Location: 40 Craig Road

Opening hours: 10am- 6pm except tuesdays

Contact Number: 64231324

Chef Icon

Chef Icon is another gem in Kampong Bahru.
I only discovered it through a friend who bought me the cheesecake for my baby shower. We all raved about the cheesecake and I decided that I had to check it out. Especially since it is still considered to be in the vicinity of Tanjong Pagar.

I had a chance to speak to the owner of the bakery who has worked in the industry for 20 over years. He is passionate about his craft and natural baking techniques. Hence, his products do not have chemicals or preservatives unlike most bakeries.
This isn't necessarily commercially productive but having tasted his products I can say that it creates premium products.
Being an artisan bakery, they only do a certain amount a day so I suggest that if you want to try these cakes and breads, go in earlier in the day.

Baskets of bread

This place only has a few dozen bread rolls in a day. This is a pity as they really do make good bread rolls that are crusty on the outside and soft within. There is texture to this bread and none of the terrible oily flavor that cheap bread shops use. I would love to be able to order this for a party but they simply don't do this to maintain the quality. The only thing I would like in this bread is a bit more sweetness to it but perhaps this is hard to achieve through natural baking techniques.

Hokkaido cake with Mocha centre

This is a wonderfully simple and delicious cake. The owner said that the difficulty of baking a good cake is to make a cake moist and yet firm enough to have texture and bite. A lot of cakes I have eaten have problems in balancing the two. This one is very good. The flavor is also not too sweet. A lot of sweetness comes from the cream in the centre that is eaten with the cake.

Iced Tea

There are iced teas, coffees and sandwiches in the shop that one can have. The sandwiches are really good as they use the bread baked in house- clubman bread.

I love this shop and wish that it was even closer to my house so I could frequent it more often.

Website: http://www.cheficon.com/cakes.html
Location: 5 Kampung Bahru Road
Opening Hours: Mon - Sat 8am- 8pm, closed on Sun and PH
Contact Number: 9337 3900
Prices: About $6.5 per slice of cake

Highlander Coffee

Highlander coffee is another decent coffee place around the Tanjong Pagar area. In fact, I would say its one of the earlier pioneers of decent coffee in Singapore

This place is actually situated at the fringes of Tanjong Pagar in Kampong Bahru, which are the conservation houses across SGH.

The place has a coffee academy at the back of the cafe.

Latte with a cookie

You can see from the latte above that the coffee frothing looks decent. Decent frothing doesn't have plenty of holes and the froth is not thin but has shape and texture. Looks like a marshmallow top.

Coffee was a good temperature and was quite smooth.

The food here is practically non existent though. I understand if coffee needs to be the focus but I think its a waste of money having unappetizing wraps in the glass counter. 

Its a good place to go to after you have lunch in the area. 

Website: http://highlandercoffee.com/

Location: 49 Kampung Bahru Road

Opening Hours: Mon - Sat 9am - 6pm
Prices: About $4 for a cup of coffee

Flor Patisserie

Flor is a fantastic little shop based on Duxton Hill.

The Cakes. Don't you feel hungry already??

Most people think that Sponge cakes are just Sponge cakes. Flor makes the ordinary sponge extraordinary.
The sponge is light and moist, eating it is a bit like floating on air. The cream also has the same lightness that accompanies it. 


Some Picks:

Waguri Millefeuille

French chestnut cream with layers of  crisp, flaky puff pastry and topped with  Japanese chestnuts. I love the taste of chestnuts in this one and the texture is excellent. Chestnut cream then crispy millefeuille layer, soft cream and then light sponge. Yum Yum.  Its a bit unusual given there aren't many chestnut cakes around. 

Earl Grey Chocolat

Earl Grey infusion is subtle. Bananas and cream are at the centre of the surrounding sponge that make up the base of the cake. Very yum. Texturally, the Waguri Millefeuille is better. 

Wakakasuyama is a very delicious green tea sponge cake with cream. Green tea was not overwhelming or powdery but melded well with the cake.

Flor has a couple of seats in the bakery to have afternoon tea

Website: http://www.cakeflor.com.sg/
Address: 01-01, 2 Duxton Hill
Specialities: Waguri Millefeuille, Wakakusayama
Business Hours: Mon- Sat 11am-7pm, Sun & Pub Hols 11am-6pm
Prices: About $6-$7 per slice. Tea/ coffee & cake set $9.

Restore

Restored Furniture Store and Cafe.
Nice spot for a chat and some tea.

Restored Chairs reupholstered with brightly covered fabric

Waffles with ice cream.

Cafe has excellent waffles and ice cream. I do strongly recommend the waffles with vanilla ice cream and homemade caramel. You can see the hints of black from the vanilla pod in the ice cream indicating the use of fresh vanilla pods.

Hot chocolate and Chai Latte with complimentary biscuits

I love the biscuits. Don't really recommend the chai latte though. I prefer the original indian chai latte made straight from boiling the spices.

Subsequent visit

Raisin Bagel with caramel cream cheese

This was a good sized bagel which was toasted nicely and came with a lovely caramel cream cheese. The salty sweet caramel cream cheese set this bagel apart. I wish this place opened earlier and did breakfast.

Website: http://restoreliving.blogspot.com/

Location: 124 Tanjong Pagar Road
Opening Hours: Tues- Sat 11am - 7pm. Sun 12pm- 5pm

Price: $12-$17 for tea and dessert

The Plain

This is my regular Saturday morning breakfast spot.

The Plain has a simple unpretentious Melbourne style feel to it. So it will be no surprise that the the owner Vincent learnt his cafe trade from Melbourne, Australia.

The strengths of the Plain is without a doubt its coffee. Good milk froth and well extracted coffee at about $4 per hit, it makes this place hard to beat. Especially since the general market price for even coffee half the quality of this one is about $6. The fact that Vincent engages with his customers is also part of the charm.

You can just see the quality of the froth in the picture below. Bad frothing means plenty of bubbles. Good froth produces a meringue type feel to the cappuccino.

Breakfast selection is limited but whatever you order will be of decent quality.

Some Regular picks for Breakfast

The Toastie

1)The Toastie is a classic tomato, cheese, ham on toast. The bread is crusty and fresh, tomatoes ripe and with the right cheese. All the good fresh ingredients needed for a good toastie of simplicity.

2) Dean's breakfast is toast with vegemite, cheese and poached eggs.

3) Fruit Salad with yogurt

Other things available

1) Summer breeze. This is a refreshing fruit iced tea. Vincent's concoction

2) Cakes. It's hard to know what is available that day. Vincent's sister in law makes good desserts at a decent price.

Website: http://www.theplain.com.sg/location

Prices: About $15 per pax for breakfast & Coffee. Very decent value for good quality

Location: Ground Floor 50 Craig Road