Genesis Vegetarian Health Food Restaurant

I've eaten here a few times - and also was asked to try this place by two other friends (who had no idea I've actually been here multiple times :). Since it seemed to be very popular, and the food is quite good, I thought it warranted a post.

One of my favourite things here is the Organic Mee Sua (brown rice mee sua, seasoned with a delicious cashew sauce and topped with cruncy raw vegetables) $5.90 -


Well, to be honest, I love mee sua - could eat it everyday and not get sick of it. I'm also a big fan of veggie fish, and this one is much healthier (less salty) than the others I've tried. The mix of mee sua, veggie fish and the crunchy carrots makes this a winning combination.

The other thing I love here is the Japanese Rice (seasoned with seaweed, soy, carrots, mushrooms and sesame, topped with fruits and and served on a delicious toasted nori sheet) $6.50 -


I tear off little bits of the nori sheet to eat with the rice - it's yums. Also love the raisins and mango bits, nice sweet touch to the dish.

The Rojak $3 here is also quite tasty -


despite the fact that it does not use prawn paste. Besides the usual pineapple, cucumber and turnip, they also put apples in this dish.

The Zha Jiang Mian (smothered in meat-like sauce and served with shredded raw carrots, cucumber and soy) $5.90 -


This is just ok. Well, for that matter, I'm not even a fan of non-veggie zha jiang mian...

The Mango Salad seems a tad bit expensive at $12 but it's meant for 2 - 4 persons -


Erm, we didn't know you were meant to mix this up before eating it :)

The Bak Kut Teh $6.50 is not that great here -


Well, of course it will never have the flavour of Bak Kut Teh cooked with meat. So it's not as tasty and the soup kinda thin in comparison.

This place can get quite busy during lunchtime, but do come here for some healthy veggie options!


Genesis Vegetarian Health Food Restaurant
1 Lorong Telok
Tel: 6438 7118
http://genesishealthfood.blogspot.com/

Cicada

Came here as part of my birthday celebration feasting, erm a few months ago :)

It's located at the up and coming Wessex Estate and it's next to impossible to get to if you don't have a car. The place itself is pretty nice, but not many tables considering it's got quite a bit of space, especially outdoors.

The menu was not all that extensive - I settled on the "Infamous Cicada Burger" $28.90++ :


It was actually not too bad - nice and juicy without being under-done. One of the better Wagyu Beef Burgers I've had... Didn't like the fries much tho - but that's probably a personal preference, I prefer the skinny crispy type.

The vegetarian-in-the-house ordered the only veggie option : the Moussaka -


It was truly horrible. We all agreed that it was the worse possible way to cook eggplant, no idea how they managed to make such a yummy veg so absolutely tasteless. The bechamel sauce didn't help the flavour at all. Yucks yucks yucks.

The meal was quite disappointing so we were hopeful that dessert would go some way in changing our minds. I settled on the Peanut Butter Brownie Crunch Cake -


I had high hopes when the dessert was served - doesn't it look gorgeous?? The high hopes were quite quickly dashed when I started eating it... it wasn't bad, but it was bizarre how a cake that looks like it would be so incredibly sweet, wasn't. Weird... and I read other reviews of this restaurant where there were pictures of this cake, and mine seemed to have an extremely thin layer of peanut butter :s

Service was also quite bad - the waitress who took our orders was so confused that she kept serving the dishes to the wrong person. And some dishes took an inordinately long time to arrive.

Recently tried Pietrasanta and that's a better option if you want to check out the restaurants in this area...


Cicada
7 Portsdown Road
Tel: 6472 2100
www.thecicada.com.sg

Azabu Sabo

Had a generic lunch at Waraku at The Central and decided to try out this Japanese dessert place on the ground floor.

Was pretty stuffed after lunch so just ordered the Hokkaido Hot-balls with Ice Cream $7.80++ to share -


Bet you can guess why I ordered this - coz it had glutinous rice balls :D The hot-balls were really deep fried sweet potato balls, and I really don't like sweet potato... but the combination of something hot (the sweet potato balls) with something cold (ice-cream) is as usual a sure win combination.

A might on the expensive side, but reasonably priced if it is to share. Lots of other stuff on the menu that looked like it might be worth trying (food and dessert)...


Azabu Sabo
6 Eu Tong Sen Street
#01-68/69 The Central
S059817
http://www.azabusabo.com.sg/

The White Rabbit

We came here for G's birthday celebration in July - yes, that's how far behind I am in my blogging. Thanks to X's connections *wink*, she managed to get a nice big table smack in the middle of the restaurant, despite the fact that it was only a few days notice... quite a feeat seeing this was quite soon after they just opened. A lot of hype about this place so I was quite excited to try it out.

The place used to be a church which was transformed into an indoor restaurant and bar area and an outdoor bar area. The stained windows were pretty (but I suspect it would have looked even better in the day with sunlight streaming in) and the mosaic-tiled floors were gorgeous too. Outfitted with simple chairs and tables, the chic place does take your breath away.

And now for the food... to start off, we tried a salad, which I have barely any recollection of -


Ok, the picture reminded me that there was truffles in the salad. The salad was not too bad, but obviously it was unmemorable.

For the main courses, I had to order their signature White Rabbit Mac & Cheese -


Yes, more truffles... The use of truffles contributed to the dish having an interesting flavour but it added to the "heaviness" of the dish and was impossible to finish by myself. I'm quite a big mac and cheese fan, but after this one, I'm inclined to think that cheapo is the way to go for mac and cheese. Or maybe my tastebuds are just proletarian :D

I tried a bit of the Mushroom Pasta -


which was similarly unremarkable.

For the desserts, we tried the Baked Alaska -


and the Strawberry Romanoff -


I was just slightly disappointed that the Baked Alaska was not lit in front of us - very 80s I know, but I miss the drama of this dessert! Tastewise, it was not too bad though... mostly it was a meringue and I never met a meringue I didn't like :) I've never had Strawberry Romanoff before so didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a simple dessert of thinly sliced strawberries with a sheet of what tasted like strawberry jelly, and a scoop of ice cream.

Such a long post and I haven't even gotten to my gripes about this place. First gripe - the service. I think we got special attention because of X's connections, but we still saw glimpses of incompetence. I asked the waitress whether the Mac & Cheese was vegetarian, and she said that it wasn't, but couldn't tell me what was in it that wasn't vegetarian. Someone further down the table asked the same question and was told that there were bits of meat in the Mac & Cheese. Erm, I sure as hell didn't see or taste anything vaguely resembling meat in the Mac & Cheese.

Also, I feel this place is somewhat confused in its identity. The food are of minute proportions and the prices are definitely in the range of high-end establishments, but the table settings (paper napkins :o) and the substandard service is more reminiscent of a bistro or deli. It certainly does not help that the food is very mediocre.

I'm glad I had the chance to come here, coz then I never have to come back here again. Well, maybe just to take in the atmosphere of the outdoor bar area...


The White Rabbit
39C Harding Road
Tel: 6473 9965
www.thewhiterabbit.com.sg

Luxemburgerli

You're probably going - luxem what?? :)

I discovered these lovelies on my trip to Switzerland last December. I first saw them in Zurich, and despite being a big fan of anything vaguely meringue-ish, I was unwilling to buy them - they were not cheap! But I finally caved while I was in Lucerne and ate them while walking to the Dying Lion of Lucerne monument.

I went from one extreme to another - from not wanting to buy any to getting two of each flavour they had in the shop :D And they were as heavenly as I imagined...


Didn't take very long to finish them all despite me taking every effort to make the experience last as long as possible :) Unfortunately they don't travel well so I couldn't get hold of any - till now. Thanks so much, Stefan!

What exactly are luxemburgerli? Wikipedia describes it as something "similar to a small French macaron", meringue-like cookies. But the Luxemburgerli is very cutely bite-sized and is much lighter than a macaroon. You can only get them from Confiserie Sprüngli in Switzerland.

If you ever go to Switzerland, this is a definite must try (the other must try is Teuscher Champagne Truffles).

Confiserie Sprüngli
http://www.spruengli.ch/index.php

Franky's Kaffe Kitchen

Looking for a new place to try, as usual, and I suggested this place tucked away in a quiet corner of Millenia Walk. It was as quiet as I guessed it would be - nearly totally empty during Sunday lunch!

I'm quite a sucker for cheese fries so was quite happy to order this to share.


Cheese Fries for $7.50+ - I never understand why cheese fries cost so much more than normal fries... is melted cheese so expensive?!? Just ok but not worth the price I think.

Gerry tried the Vegetarian Avocado Sandwich $9.90+ -


I didn't get to try it so can't say how it is. I'm a newly converted avocado fan though - recently tried some in a sandwich with portobello and it's brilliant! I've always been kinda adverse to avocado just because the very first face wash that I used was Eversoft - avocado base - and the smell of avocado just reminds me of face wash :D But like I said, I'm a newly converted fan now :)

I had the Philly Steak Sandwich $11.60+ :


Yeah, sandwiches don't photograph very well. But this one was decent, a wee bit on the salty side though. I used to love the Phlly's Cheesesteak at the other side of Millenia Walk that's closed down some time back - this is a pretty good substitute.

We decided to order just one dessert to share and tried the Brownie $4.20+ :


I asked for a scoop of vanilla ice-cream to go with it and was totally surprised that they didn't charge me for it! Pretty amazing considering most other places would charge you at least $2.50 for a scoop of ice-cream. The brownie itself was not too bad, and the ice-cream wasn't cheap ice-cream or anything like that.

This place is perfect when you want to have a quiet place to catch up with friends. Service is friendly and food is decent (a few korean options that we didn't try). A good option when you're in the Millenia area...


Franky's Kaffe Kitchen
9 Raffles Blvd
#01-55/56 Millenia Walk Mall
Tel: 6336 7641

Thai Express (VivoCity)

Ok, so Thai Express is nothing new, but I haven't been here in a while and on a recent revisit, decided to try something new and it's now my current fav here. Love the Phat Woon Sen Poo Nim Phrik Thai Dam (Claypot Black Pepper Soft-shell Crab Glass Noodles) $13.90++!


It's got glass noodles (tang hoon) stir-fried with lots of garlic, heaps of whole black peppercorns, mushrooms and spring onions, and topped with a very decent-sized serving of deep fried soft-shell crab. I'm not a huge garlic fan so that's the first thing that gets picked out *bleagh* But I love the very peppery tang hoon! And I haven't eaten much soft-shell crab in the last few years (for no particular reason) so it's a real treat to have it again now :)

Another thing which I absolutely adore here is the Khao Niao Mamuang (Sweet Glutinous Rice with Fresh Mango and Coconut Milk) $5.90++ :


Whenever I'm in Thailand, I have mango glutinous rice at least once every day... but I still prefer the one here :D The authentic one you find in Thailand tends to have tough individual grains of rice with a thin coconut milk sauce. The one here, on the other hand, has a mound of sticky, chewy glutinous rice, with sweetened cocunut milk. YUMS! Beats the real thing hands down, if you ask me.

I'm a renewed Thai Express fan - the service is still spotty, but there's some pretty good dishes here and prices are reasonable.


Thai Express (VivoCity)
1 Harbourfront Walk
#B2-30 VivoCity
Tel: 6272 1912
www.thaiexpress.com.sg

Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge

I actually came here once a few years ago for tea and didn't have any strong impression of the place, except for the fact that it was populated by tea-sipping tai-tais. Looking for somewhere to have late lunch / tea with sis and mum and decided to come here...

Mum loves foie gras so we ordered the Foie Gras Salad $19.90++ as a starter -


It was surprisingly good, cooked perfectly, and a very decent-sized portion for that price. Totally melts in your mouth...

I had a very different dish for my main course, Roast Chicken $15.90++. I say it's different coz I don't think I've ordered roast chicken in years!


My main reason for avoiding roast chicken is I don't particularly like being served the whole chicken and having to deal with bones - but this one was boneless, yay! Reasonably tasty, the simple use of baby carrots added a sophisticated touch to the dish.

Sis ordered the Breakfast Set $18.90++ despite having had a breakfast set at Cedele the day before... sounds more like something I would do, eh? I think it's called Pytti I Panna on the menu; at least that's what its called on the receipt :)


It was just ok, not that great value for money I reckon - $18.90 for sausages and egg??

Mum loves salmon so ordered the Salmon and Potato Gratin $19.90++ -


Based on the name, I expected to see a gratin of salmon and potato, but it turned out to be a slice of salmon with a serving of potato gratin :D It was pretty decent, I only had a bite of it... but much better value than the breakfast set.

One thing that's mentioned in a lot of the reviews that I read is the Copenhagen Scones $6.90++ -


They were not too bad but there were the cake-y kind of scone - I actually prefer the biscuity type. The jam and cream were also not amazing. But a nice thing to have during tea... speaking of which, we ordered a pot of Earl Grey Tea $6.50++, how can you go to a tea lounge and not order tea? :D


I also ordered the Green Tea Cake $4.90++ after a long perusal of the cakes in the display case near the entrance -


It really wasn't very good. It was way more dense that I like my cakes... the Japanese tai tais at the next table didn't finish theirs either.

Mum also loves ice cream so she ordered a Sundae $9.90++ -


One interesting thing about this place is that they serve strawberry and mint-flavoured water - yummy and so high class! :D

As mentioned in most reviews on www.hungrygowhere.com, the service here is pretty bad... I would go so far as to call it abysmal. Seating was quick and our orders taken reasonably fast. Food came without incident... but thereafter it went downhill. It was near impossible to get the attention of the waitresses when we wanted to order more things, and we had to ask at least three waitresses, and wait over half an hour before we got our bill! Granted, that's not a bad thing when you are there to have a lazy afternoon tea :D

A good option if you looking for a place to chill out and read a book during afternoon tea. But beware the bad service may spoil what you expected to be a serene afternoon... just remember to be zen about it and chill :)


Royal Copenhagen Tea Lounge
391 Orchard Road
Takashimaya Department Store
2F Ngee Ann City
Tel: 6735 6833

Jia Xiang Kuching Restaurant (VivoCity)

Sorry for the long pause between posts - besides the fact that I'm adapting to a new routine, I've also encountered various technical difficulties :s Will do a quick one for now and hopefully be back in full force by next week.

It's been a while since the Kuching kolo mee fad hit Singapore, and I typically make it a point not to be a total Singaporean and eat whatever's popular (eg. I've never had a roti boy... ever...).

Wanted to try something new for lunch at Vivocity so decided to finally give Kuching kolo mee a try. I ordered the Kolo Prawn Mee $6 -


If you're wondering where the prawns are, they're sitting in the soup with the wantons :D Decent amount of ingredients - char siew, minced meat, veg, prawns and wanton... The noodles itself was pretty ordinary tho. The chilli is available in a container on the table - you add it yourself. It brought the whole meal up a level... but then for me, chilli improves every meal :)

Decent, but doesn't live up to the hype - seems to me that it's pretty much just wanton mee...


Jia Xiang Kuching Restaurant (VivoCity)
1 Harbourfront Walk
#B2-38 VivoCity
Tel: 6272 0000

Lemon Squares

I decided to try baking something new before heading to Karen's place for a girls' get together one saturday afternoon. I got the recipe from here.


Pretty much followed the recipe wholesale except I added the zest of about 1 whole lemon. It was very sour, exactly the way it was meant to be :D Only thing was I should have put some of the zest into the base instead of all in the filling...

Easy and dependable recipe - try it if you like sour stuff!

Oomphatico's

I was actually here twice - once in January and again recently in June. Ok fine, June is not that recent :P When I was here in January, it was for coffee so I didn't think it was worth blogging about. But after I had brunch here, I decided it was enough to make up a proper post :D

The menu here is kinda, well, confused. Besides all the breakfast dishes, there are also salads, sandwiches, pasta, soup, risotto and rice, pizza, pasta and noodles. It's confusing coz the dishes range from western (Spaghetti Carbonara) to Thai (Tom Yum Koong) to Fusion (A Thai in New York Sandwich - light chicken filet with basil sauce topped with a soft fried egg). Hence the many tags for this post...

But we were here during brunch so we stuck to the interesting sounding breakfast dishes. The Gorilla's Breakfast $14.00++ had olive bread, portobello mushrooms, arugula salad, sundried tomato and fresh mozzarella, served with fig jam -


Yup, in case you didn't already know, gorillas are vegetarian :D The bread can't be seen as it's underneath it all. I didn't try the fig jam but the other ingredients actually went pretty well with each other to make a very healthy and light dish.

The Pancake Lasagne $12.50++ is not quite pancakes or a lasagne...


Rather, it was zucchini, pesto and mango chutney between layers of crepes. Surprisingly yummy, yet another succesfully innovative dish! One gripe I had though - we ordered two of this and the second one came more than half an hour after the next one. Not sure if the waitress screwed up the order or the kitchen messed up, in any case, it was really annoying.

We also tried some desserts, Pom Pom (warm apple and raisin bread pudding with vanilla ice-cream) $8.50++ :


and Fragrant Attraction (delicate mounds of sticky rice cakes with spiced mango and coconut custard toppings) $10.50++ :


The bread and butter pudding was not bad but too filling for one person to finish on their own. Didn't like the Fragrant Attraction much, especially since I was recently in Thailand and really good mango sticky rice...

When I was here for just coffee, I had the Cafe Granita $9.50++ :


which I slurped up happily. Mostly coz I don't normally have this type of drinks (so fattening!), so when I do, I really enjoy it :D

Food here is interesting, and those dishes I tried were good. Might be worth coming back to try more dishes. It's got a nice atmosphere - perfect for a tete-a-tete with girlfriends or a family outing with the kids (especially since the staff are known to burst into song and dance and everyone are welcomed to join in). But do watch out for the spotty service...


Oomphatico's
163 Tanglin Road
#01-03 & 01-35/36 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6733 9088
www.oomphaticos.com

Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup

Came here for dinner with sister and brother-in-law one evening. I was thinking parking would be a pain in the ass but it turns out there's parking available right across the road - but I wasn't driving so I didn't have to worry about it in any case :D

Despite the fact that this place is called Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup, most of the other dishes here are really good too. We were here for a normal dinner so ordered the more common home-style dishes.

The Steamed Promfret $28 was a decent size and quite fresh -


Ok, so you can't really see the size of the fish under all that stuff but it was a decent size :D All that stuff was kiam chye (salted vegetable), tau cheou (fermented soy bean) and chilli - might sound like an odd combination but it went brilliantly with the fish.

The Tofu with Chicken Floss $7 was also good -


The tofu was really soft and the chicken floss were a nice touch.

Something I loved when I was a kid was liver - yes, I was a weird kid :D. Used to eat it for dinner but haven't had it yonks! The Claypot Liver $9 came looking like this -


But I couldn't decide if it looks better all mixed up, like this -


So I put both photos up :) Yep, there's kidney in this too which I neatly avoided, but the liver was cooked to perfect doneness.

We also tried the La La $8 -


And Fried Long Beans $8 -


Which were both not bad.

Great food at very cheap prices, and ambience too - al fresco dining :D This place is always crowded, which speaks well of the quality of food. Come and try!!


Seng Kee Black Chicken Herbal Soup
467 Changi Road
Tel: 67464089
Operating Hours : 5 pm - 4 am

Lagnaa

We decided to be adventurous one day and venture into Little India on a Saturday night for dinner. Thank goodness for an open-air car park just a street away from the restaurant :D

The restaurant definitely stood out from its neighbours in the row of shophouses. The ground floor looks casual, the walls full of grafitti left behind by previous customers (mostly international bagpackers). But do take off your shoes and go upstairs to the resturant proper. As there's namecard says, it's bare foot dining here :)

There's a just a few tables upstairs, with no seats... sit on the floor! A bit uncomfortable especially for those of us with longer legs, but you get used to it after a while.

We started with the Vegetarian Pakoras $6 -


Sorry for the blurry photos, lighting wasn't that great. The pakoras were just ok, nothing to rave about.

I had a mixed reaction when the dishes we ordered turned up -


The dishes are, starting from the very green Palak Paneer $7.50, going anti-clockwise : Butter Chicken $8, Spicy Aubergines $8, Butter Fish $15 and Saffron Rice $8.

My first thought was - what a lovely way to present the dishes! Second thought - what small portions! But not surprising from the more atas (high class) Indian restaurants though, it tends to be small portions for pretty steep prices.

The food itself was pretty average... I don't really understand why people like Palak Paneer - it's green and the spinach is so mushed up that you can't even recognise it as spinach! I don't hate it, just don't understand why so many people like it and order it. The Butter Chicken and Butter Fish were not that bad, not quite spicy enough for my liking. The Saffron Rice was quite good though.

Of course we ordered naan to go with the food : Garlic Naan $2, Chilli Cheese Naan $5 -


As usual more naan than we could finish...

I liked the ambience of this place but the food was just mediocre. Just be prepared for some leg cramps from sitting on the floor :)


Lagnaa
6 Upper Dickson Road
S207466
Tel : 6296 1215

Es Teler 77 Juara

Sis and I were looking for a simple lunch at Far East Plaza and she suggested this place - her friend had brought her here before coz the chilli was supposed to be damn shiok :D

We each ordered a Fried Chicken Rice Set $5.50 -


The chicken was not really fried... when you say fried chicken, I kinda expect something with a crispy skin. More grilled I think, but still not bad - tender and tasty. And the chilli was as shiok as anticipated. Very spicy, a little bit salty... I ended up eating both mine and my sister's portions :D

We also tried the Sio May $2.50 coz I'm always a sucker for siew mai -


But this was yuck! Chewy with no meat in it, and with a satay like sauce. Very similar to those siew mai like things I see at streetside stalls in Hong Kong that are not really siew mai.

Definitely a no-frills place, service was quick but that was probably because we were there early and there wasn't a crowd. The food was ok (chilli was good) and other things on the menu might be worth a try - decent option for a quick, simple meal.


Es Teler 77 Juara
14 Scotts Road
#05-82 Far East Plaza
Tel: 6734 0656

Little Part 1 Café

K recently introduced me to this place and we've come here twice already :) I actually read about this place some time ago but could not figure out where to park so didn't bother coming. We ended up parking at Thomson Plaza and walking to the back door of the restaurant via the Thomson Plaza carpark exit.

The Mango Udon Roll $6.90 is an interesting vegetarian starter -


It's a rice paper roll with udon, mango, cucumber, avocado and mint leaves. The ingredients went together well to make a refreshing and light starter.

The Tofu Steak $5.90 wasn't what I expected -


The menu said oven baked tofu with wakame and assorted mushrooms so I wasn't quite expecting something with a sauce. It was still not too bad though...

The Salt & Pepper Calamari $8.90 was yummy!


It was perfectly fried - crispy and not overly chewy, served with a scrumptious homemade wasabi mayonnaise sauce.

The Little's Chicken Schnitzel $13.90 is their signature dish -


Huge serving! The chicken was coated with seasoned parmesan breadcrumbs and served with a clear wine sauce and mashed potatoes. I didn't like the wine sauce much so left that aside, but the mashed potatoes was really smooth, had bits of corn in it and were really good. A must try dish here!

The Bratwurst Brat $14.90 had a choice of sausages served with mashed potatoes -


Yet another huge serving! The sausages were tasty and served with the yummy mashed potatoes.

Little's Fish and Chips $12.90 was breaded dory served with chips -


I found it was a bit tasteless, which is weird as most reviews I've read said the seasoning is too strong.

K had the Four Cheese Fungi Crepe $12.90 -


which I took a bite of. Cheesy and chockful of mushrooms in a thin crepe - nice!

The Apple Crumble $7.90 with a scoop of gelato was really good -


The combination of a hot apple dessert and cold ice cream is just magic.

The food here is really good - huge portions at great prices. The chef obviously takes pride in every dish as you can see the care that goes into it. Mostly healthy too, with a range of vegetarian options. The place is a bit small so don't be surprised if you have to wait. The only thing that put me off before was the parking situation but now that I have a solution to that, I'll probably be back here a lot in the future :)


Little Part 1 Café
15 Jasmine Road
Adelphi Park Estate
Tel: 6451 7553
www.littlepart1cafe.com.sg