Spruce

Came here for brunch during my birthday celebrations. C made a reservation so we got a private room that was long and narrow with nice photograph Pros of the private room - erm, the privacy. Cons - stuck with just one server, and he just so happens to be a really lousy one... more on this later.

Of course boring, old me will order The Spruce Big Brekkie $16 (Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes, Grilled Vegetables, Roasted Mushrooms with Toast and Butter) -


Oh, it was just normal. I was probably just craving breakfast that day, but I should so order other things than my usual... luckily, we ordered a few more things to share...

I read somewhere that the Ahi Tuna Tartar with Toasted Ciabatta and Avocado $21 was good so I made it a point to order it as one of the sharing dishes -


And it really was very very good! The tuna was very fresh and went really well with the avocado on the ciabatta toast. A bit on the expensive side, but a definite must order if you come here.

Also tried the Waffle $5 -


And Banana Hotcakes, Honeycomb Butter and Blueberry Syrup $13 -


Both were not too bad, but not spectacular.

Also tried the Creamy Macaroni and Cheese $7 -


which was quite yummy. Not too rich, and at a good price too.

I tried the Arnold Palmer -


when we asked the waiter, he told us that it was half lemonade and half ice tea. Apparently, and obviously enough, invested by Arnold Palmer the golf player. A nice refreshing drink! And perfect for me as I love ice tea and anything sour :D

So back to the service that I talked about in the beginning of the post... the server we had was completely hopeless. He took forever to get our orders, then half an hour later, comes back to let us know that one of the orders were not available. We were damn hungry and horrified to find out that half an hour later, the kitchen had not even started preparing our food! We asked him for some bread as we were seriously starving by this point, but by the time he brought the bread, the food already came. Not that the food came that quickly, but that the waiter took that long to bring us some bread!

We all liked the food - well-prepared, tasty and decently priced and hope to come back again to try more dishes... and hope that we get a better waiter the next time?


Spruce
320 Tanglin Road
Phoenix Park
Tel : 6836 5528

Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee

A second attempt at lunching in - someone suggested the very famous Hokkien mee at Old Airport Road, so we sent a colleague there in a cab to buy back for the rest of us :)



We were all a little disappointed by the lack of sambal chilli and the small portion... but the noodles were so tasty that we got over the lack of sambal chilli. I liked the fact that there was just the right amount of gravy - just enough to keep it moist but not watery. Decent number of liao (ingredients) and relatively big and fresh prawns.

As for the small portion, we decided that the next time we would order one and a half packets each :D did I mention that my colleagues are big eaters?...


Nam Sing Hokkien Fried Mee
Old Airport Road Food Centre
#01-32

Allaudin's Briyani

A bunch of us in the office decided to have a weekly regular lunch-in where we would have something special for lunch and we started with ordering Nasi Briyani $4.50 from this supposedly famous nasi briyani stall at Tekka Market. I was told the mutton one was better than the chicken so that was the one I ordered.

We were super excited when the delivery arrived...


It looks kinda sad huh? The piece of mutton was hidden under the briyani rice, and while it was tender and tasty, it was a really small piece. The curry and rice were ok, but not spectacular. A few of my colleagues have really big appetites (they are females, mind you) and were quite unsatisfied by this meal.

Not a great start to our weekly lunching-in sessions but we perservered :) most lunching-in posts to come!


Allauddin's Briyani
Block 665 Buffalo Road
#01-297 Tekka Centre