I’m sure Chili’s is no foreign name to you. Well known for their nachos, molten cake and of course their burgers, it’s time to indulge in even more of their goodies! From the whole of next week starting from 24th June to 30th June, Chili’s has a ‘Burger Week Special’ with restaurant discounts, burger – eating challenges and social media giveaways. All these are in conjunction with Chili’s 4th anniversary. All of these would also be happening at each of their 4 outlets in Singapore at Tanglin Mall, Resorts World Sentosa, J-Cube and Central @ Clarke Quay.

The highlight would definitely be the Big Mouth Burger Day on 26th June, Wednesday. At the above mentioned outlets, all Chili’s Big Mouth Burgers (except Big Mouth Bites) will be priced at $8.88 (excluding GST). This is a more than 50% discount off their original prices!

Furthermore, Chili’s will be hosting a group of bloggers during on 26th June, 7pm at Chili’s at Central @ Clarke Quay to challenge selected contestants in creating their own mega Big Mouth Burger by choosing from a list of Big Mouth Burger ingredients. Contestants can cement their place in the Big Mouth Champ contest by participating in Chili’s online social media contests. An online selection will take place from now till 24 June. Both groups will get to judge each other’s creations and 1 winner from each team will be crowned the “Big Mouth Champ”. Winners will receive bragging rights and $250 worth of Chili’s vouchers. All participants will stand to receive Chili’s vouchers and goodies as well.

I am now picking 3 lucky readers to win $50 worth of Chili’s vouchers and 1 lucky reader to have a spot in the competition to create your own Big Mouth Burger!

1. To win Chili’s vouchers, simply leave a comment (next to the title of this post) and name me a Big Mouth Burger you would like to indulge in.

2. To win a spot for Big Mouth Champ, leave a comment and list all the Big Mouth Burgers that are up for a promotional price of $8.88 on Big Mouth Burger Day.

Deadline for the giveaway will be 21 June 2013 at 11.59pm.

Note: Do fill in both your name and email so that I can contact you. Comments will not be shown publicly. A random generator will be used to pick out the lucky winners. All winners will be notified by email latest by 22 June, 11.59pm.

Lastly, head over to both their facebook and twitter pages for more information!

https://www.facebook.com/ChilisSingapore
https://twitter.com/ChilisSingapore

Department of Caffeine, or D.O.C., is the new kid on the block for hippies and hipsters. It’s located on the no lesser than cool Duxton Hill of course. The decor is simple and fuss-free but at the same time having a cool enough vibe for everyone. Seats are also limited (as if you didn’t know already) but don’t worry because they take in reservations (plus point for a cafe!).

Generally, the coffee here is not bad.  We ordered the Caffe Latte ($5) and Iced Mocha ($6.50).

I was pretty reluctant to go for the 8hr Pulled Pork Sandwich ($15) at first, since I’ve not been very accepting of sandwiches. However this one pulled through my expectations with a good spiced up mixture of pulled pork, coleslaw and carrot – a burst of flavors. The sauce which the pork has been marinated in may be a tad salty but it was the x factor, I felt.

A highly raved item on the menu would be the Buttermilk Waffles w/ Vanilla Icecream & Rum Bananas ($12.50) which I obviously could not let slip of. You can actually choose from either rum bananas or blueberry compote to go with the waffles and ice cream but for me, rum bananas seem a whole lot more delectable. From the thick, crispy brown waffle to the soft rum bananas (my highlight for the day), I could continue on with a second serving.

There is an array of cakes and pastries at the counter but oddly enough none were appealing to me except for the Lavender & Honey Cake ($5). As I took a bite into it I was deeply surprised by the immense taste of lavender from those bits. Along with the fluffy textures of the sponge cake, it ended my lunch on a memorable note.

If I had to nitpick, it would be that the portion sizes were somewhat small – I didn’t feel full after the meal, just alright. I guess you can only get that much with that better quality.  That set aside, DOC is the place to go if you haven’t. I just love their all-roundedness for coffee, brunch and vibe.

15 Duxton Road

Weekdays 10.30am – 7.30pm

Weekends 9.30am – 7.30pm

Behold the revival of Taiwanese desserts in Singapore. It has been a while since Blackball started operations, so I’m sure their name wouldn’t have gone unheard. With 6 outlets in Singapore currently, it’s quick expansion over a short period of a year or so shows how much popularity they’ve gained. I hope for continuous expansion too, for the outlet at Bugis+ which I frequent seems to be overcrowding.

If you’re at Blackball, it seems silly not to get the Blackball Signature ($4.90). Mostly found on every table at the outlets, a bowl of the signature consists of pearls, red bean, grass jelly, yam ball, yam, taro, sweet potato and sweet potato balls – basically a combination of every ingredient found on their menu put together into what have won many Singaporeans’ stomachs. You can choose to have it either hot, warm, cold or icy. (For me it’s a mandatory cold/icy.)

As for their drinks, perhaps you may want to think twice. I felt that the pearl milk tea I had was mediocre and not worth its price. I would get my favorite cup of Koi anytime.

Being a person who is more fond of chocolate cakes, ice cream and pies, I’m here to say that I’ve become a fan of the Blackball Signature. Unfortunately for my second visit there half of the ingredients were sold out and I could only make do with what they had left. So, advice is, get there as early as possible for the freshest and most abundant.

201 Victoria Street

Bugis+ #01-14

12pm – 11pm daily

This is a long overdue post of my belated birthday dinner. Of course, everything would not have been possible without Amanda, Tricia, Wileen, Angela and B who specially planned the secret trip to Five & Dime. The original intention was to proceed to Valentino’s for an Italian fix but since they were full I was brought here whilst being kept in the dark. Anyway, I loved the theme of the entire place. It’s a little hard to describe, more like a creation of artsy meets kiddy meets classic feel.

Mocha on Mars ($12) and Decadent Chocolate ($12) in the background. I had the mocha milkshake and how I wished there could be less caffeine and more chocolate in it to balance it out (it tasted rather bitter for a drink called mocha on mars).

Calamari ($8)

Unlike the usual thick and cheesy ones out there, the Mac n Cheese ($15) here was based on a lobster sauce together with cheese thus giving it’s pinkish appearance as you delve into it. It was less heavy a dish and certainly a lot less cheesier which I felt was a good thing, unless you prefer an over dosage of cheese.

The Cajun Chicken ($18) was not that bad, what with its evenly grilled surface.

Next was a surprise. The Mentaiko Pasta ($18) captured in the first picture was a great fusion pasta. I’ve had those at other places served either too creamy or too dry so it was heartening for me to finally find a good one there at Five and Dime. The faint taste of mentaiko was not overpowering, neither was it lackluster in flavor.

Fish & Chips ($20) which were okay.

The Burger ($23) which I ordered was a tad of a small portion but otherwise enjoyable.

Something like a Nutella Brownie with ice cream ($12) written on a blackboard would catch my attention immediately. When it first came served to my table I thought it looked divine. Sure enough, not only was the nutella concentration just the right amount for me, it was also just as moist to make a good brownie. Topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it ended my lovely dinner on a sweet and satisfying note.

The space here at Five and Dime may be a little small for a full-fledged restaurant but heck that, the dining experience was intimate. Just remember to make a reservation early. Generally the food here was enjoyable with a few outstanding dishes you must try ie mentaiko pasta, mac and cheese, nutella brownie. Now that I’m craving for more from five and dime, I certainly need a date to hop down and grab some of their brunch items. I mean, we’re talking about beef hash, panini, pancakes and waffles over here.

297 River Valley Road

Mondays to Thursdays 12pm – 10pm
Fridays 12pm – 12am
Saturdays 10am – 12am
Sundays 10am – 10pm

Luxby – a chocolate discovery subscription service.

Thanks to David Tan, founder of Luxby for sharing about Luxby with me. Around 6 months ago, it originated from a trial box with truffles and pralines. However, due to high sensitivity to temperature and humidity, he decided to change them to chocolate bars for a higher resistance against those factors.

Luxby is now a full-fledged chocolate bar delivery service which delivers a box of premium chocolates to subscribers every month. It’s really nice to see such new services operating. Hassle-free and very much convenient for the chocolate lovers cum online shoppers.

What I loved about Luxby Chocolates is their choice of chocolates. Unlike the usual brands in Singapore, Luxby selects award-winning, boutique artisan chocolates hardly seen in Singapore from all over the world. Think Italy, France, USA, Belgium, Switzerland and more…

2 types of boxes are available – Box of 2 (2 chocolate bars) and Box of 3 (3 chocolate bars).

I had the box of 3 alongside with dear friend Amanda to help me taste them as well. Cafe Tasse’s milk chocolate from Belgium was a spot on for me. There were touches of salted caramel to every edge of the chocolate bar, which had me hooked to it. Adding on to my addiction were hazelnut bits. Crunchy.

Waialua’s Estate 70% cacao extra dark bars from USA came with a gradual tinge of sweetness from the flavor of berries. A lingering aftertaste stays in the mouth – not overwhelming but it satisfies. And lastly, Dolfin’s earl grey chocolate from Belgium is certainly good for earl grey lovers. With a scent of dark chocolate and tea, it was quite pleasant.

A premium option for gifting is on the way, featuring a better looking, hard cover and textured box with a pretty gift card and hand written message. Easily sent as surprises to your loved ones!

You can either subscribe to their monthly chocolates or simply buy the product “a la carte”. The notion of bringing the world of chocolates to your doorstep is certainly offered.

Find out more at their site www.luxby.sg

The macaron craze is back. Thanks to the much awaited Laduree which set up operations not long ago in Singapore, of course. Moreover, other than the permanent boutique fixture, there is yet another takeaway counter. To add a cherry  macaron on top of the ice cream, both are conveniently located in the heart of Singapore in Takashimaya shopping centre. The former is at level 2 while the latter is at level 1. Oddly enough, the queues at both counters are of about the same length so I would definitely recommend to peek in at the classier, bigger boutique. 

It starts off with a wallpapered ceiling of a picturesque sky and classic chandeliers against the backdrop. Then are the rows of shelves of boxes, tote bags, jars of soft caramel and scented candles exclusive to the boutique.

A minimum of 8 macarons are needed to get you a box to fit them all in, otherwise it’s just a scrawny paper bag. I decided to go ahead with the Singapore Limited Edition box (8 macarons) despite the $38 price tag which can make hearts skip a beat. A macaron costs $3.80 but there are only 8 of them, so essentially you’re paying about $8 for the box. That was hefty but I took it anyway.

The Strawberry Candy Marshmallow was one of my favorites. The marshmallow bit in the filling was a surprise and gave the macaron some different mouth feel compared to usual, creamy fillings.

However, the Chocolate Coconut Marshmallow did not meet my expectations – what I felt was an incompatible taste of chocolate with coconut.

I’ve had tons of really sweet pistachios which I liked a lot. The rendition of Laduree’s Pistachio was not overly sweet yet it did not fail to amaze me.

The Salted Caramel is another hot favorite. It was more substantial than those from other macaron places.

An interesting macaron would be the Marie-Antoinette Tea. It has a bubblegum feel to it which was refreshing.

The Liquorice (black) was average.

The Coffee flavor had a lingering aftertaste of – well, coffee.

As aforementioned, macarons here cost $3.8 each. Except for the 24K Gold Chocolate which costs $7.8. Basically it’s a chocolate macaron coated with “24K gold”. You can see that I actually bought it – for the pure reason of curiosity and tempt. Tastewise… yup it’s just a chocolate macaron.

The overall feeling speaks of classiness and it’s not hard to understand why: simple ganache fillings but made more than ordinary and macaron shells of the right texture (at least for me). What’s next for Laduree in Singapore? A tea salon – coming soon.

391 Orchard Road

#02-09 (boutique)

#01-24A (counter)

Takashimaya Shopping Centre

Ngee Ann City

10am – 9.30pm daily

Named after Miyamoto Musashi, the 5 branches of Menya Musashi are currently enjoying some attention as they join the new ramen scene in Singapore. Originating from Tokyo, it seems that their ramen stalls in Japan sell a-huge-number of bowls a day with stretching long queues.

And then, it’s always a battle in the mind between choices of ramen. Over at Menya Musashi, Ramen comes in white (original), black (garlic and onion) and red (spicy) flavors for the soup base.

We went with something rather original to start with. If there’s anything memorable about the White Kakuni Ramen ($14.9), it would be its braised pork belly which was juicy, tender and oozing with goodness. I also had the Bokuto Gyoza ($5.9) as my I’m-bored-I-want-my-ramen appetizer and sure enough it served as a dish solely for that purpose.

The tsukemen, a.k.a dipping noodles, was something new I’ve never tried. Tsukemen comes in white, red and black as well. Unlike the usual ramen served in soup stock within the same bowl, the noodles are dry and separated from an independent bowl of hot, piping stock which is much thicker than soup. The right way to devour the 2 bowls is to dip a pair of chopsticks full of noodles in soup and slurp them up right after. Otherwise, you may find yourself a mouthful of extremely thick and salty soup. I had the Black Tsukemen ($14.9) which was interesting. The soup can, however, get less warm if you stop too long for photos though….

Overall, I still find their soups a little too salty for my liking. It appears to encourage you to drink more water rather than the soup. Despite those, the tsukemen experience is worth a try.

2 Orchard Turn

ION Orchard

#B3-25

Daily 11.30am – 10pm

We started off with something safe on the menu – Golden Chicken Wings ($7.8). A good appetizer indeed – what with its crispy, prawn paste-like texture with a tinge of spiciness from accompanying chili sauce.

Moving on to the mains, Wild Oats offers both western and local delights such as sambal fish. Ribeye Beef ($17.2) was not that worthy of a mention. The tenderness of the beef was clearly lacking.

The Fish & Chips ($14.5), on the other hand, was much more decent with an outer layer crispy enough while the fish remained tender.

We were practically left with 2 desserts since the rest were unavailable. The Brownie ($6.3) was not that bad. The chocolate fudge brownie was real thick with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and heavy drizzles of thick chocolate sauce as well.

Wild Oats’ version of the local favorite Chendol ($6.3) has it in a tall drink glass instead of a bowl, transforming it into a dessert somewhat like a cool milkshake or ice cream. Its taste is comparable to the chendol we can find in hawker centers, or perhaps even better than local renditions.

Service is a little shaky at times – the crew is mostly attentive but fall short in other areas. Another gripe would be the fact that plain water is not served here. They do a wide variety of booze though, making it a late night hang out as a liquid kitchen. This also leads me to another point that the alfresco furniture has a heavy, lingering feel of beer from people drinking them the previous night. Other than that, the cafe does make a pretty sight from across a lake.

Hougang Avenue 8

Punggol Park

At TFBB, the Xmas Special Sandwich ($11.5) is always here no matter the season. Of caramelized onions, salad, turkey breast, edam cheese and cranberry jelly in foccacia, their colors truly bring the christmas feel across. More than that, the combination of cranberry on turkey breast made the sandwich a little more than ordinary with a refreshing feel on your taste buds.

For the other main, I had a hard time choosing between eggs benedict and all the pancake flavors they had… In the end I ordered the Blueberry Pancakes ($11). Their pancakes, unlike the usual round and golden brown ones, were more old skool. They were a much darker shade of brown and had jagged edges. I would say they tasted as good as other ones. Among the fluffiness expect pops of whole blueberries embedded within. My only gripe is the insufficient maple syrup drizzled on the pancakes.

The Fabulous Baker Boy lives up to its name, so don’t forget to pick a few slices of cakes from the array. Even though it hardly looks a luscious red, the Red Velvet Cake ($8.5) is mostly spot on. The chocolate icing went incredibly well with the layers of red velvet surprisingly.

Last but not least…. Big Lub’s Carrot Cake ($8). Some comment that red velvet is their best but I beg to differ. Big Lub’s Carrot Cake was moist to my liking, sweet to the right amount and outlined with a copious serving of coconut shavings. Comparable to classic versions in Singapore.

That’s not all. TFBB serves a bigger mains menu for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays and also does customized birthday cakes and cupcakes. Other big names on the menu include pot pies, garlic fries, pastas and gourmet coffees. You can hardly get a seat on weekends especially so reservation is a must – as early as possible.

The Foothills

#01-15

70 River Valley Road

Tuesdays to Thursdays 11am to 6pm

Fridays  11am to 11pm

Saturdays 10am to 11pm

Sundays 10am to 5 pm

It’s been a while since I’ve entered the food enclave of Holland Village so I thought why not take the chance to go back during the eve of a public holiday. Initially my thoughts were set on Mu Parlour but I did a last minute change to this much-newer-than-mu-parlour cafe that I’ve seen some snippets of on Instagram. (I’ll be back for Mu, though).

d’ Good Cafe specializes very much in providing the most suitable type of caffeine for you. For a minimal sum, a barista will help concoct a cup of coffee for you based on your likes and dislikes. You can then “save” the concoction under your name for future visits.

Upon stepping into the 2-level cafe, I was very much impressed by huge coffee machines. I reckon they’re for blending coffee beans. The cafe is neatly divided into 4 seating areas namely: The Bar (where you sit next to baristas), The Lawn (cosy space), The Attic (with child seats) and The Balcony (alfresco area – lights at night!). I fell in love with The Lawn area. Swing seats and carpet grass are really a girl’s thing. I guess the swing seat was the highlight of the day. It was really “swingable” and we rocked on the seats for a good couple of hours while watching the rain fall on Holland Avenue…

On to the food. I was pretty disappointed with my Eggs Benedict ($13.5). Appearance-wise, it was already lacking much with a sloppy look to it. You can see from the picture that the egg white for one of the eggs wasn’t even nicely atop the runny yolk. Taste-wise, it was nothing more than average.

The Chicken & Mushroom Pie ($10.5) on the other hand was much better done with a crispy curry puff-like crust with warm chicken and mushroom bits in it.  Although I have since then gotten a bad impression of their food, some reviews do agree that they have decent mains like their pasta and rice. I have seen pictures of their other egg benedicts served to other customers and they sure look a lot better than mine.

The Blueberry Cheesecake ($8) was a huge slice of cake so be prepared to share. It was so rich with cheese and probably impossible for someone to finish it all by herself after a main course.

I ordered another dessert – the Matcha Red Bean Cake ($6). Sad to say, it was rather tasteless except for the layer of red bean in the middle. I was expecting something more but the matcha failed to give off its flavour, resulting in its blandness.

I say: Snuggle in their coziness. Get addicted to their house brews. Accompanied by a lava cake, macaron, cheesecake or so.

273 Holland Avenue

#02-01

Sunday – Thursday 1000 – 2200

Friday & Saturday 1000 – 2300