The Marmalade Pantry (Stables)

We decided to head to Marmalade Pantry for brunch after sending Waffles to the groomers since it was pretty near. Located next to Rider's is the pretty restaurant which we felt is covered by too much greenery. Parking is free and readily available in the compound.








Alfresco area




Indoors






Having been to their old Holland Village outlet and the Ion branch many times, I know how good their cupcakes are. My favourite has gotta be limonata! Keeps me going back for more!




We were really excited to see what they have to offer for brunch.
Sadly, we did not choose any of the seven items they have on their menu.
We sure weren't gonna pay $19 for Eggs Benedict!


Hot Chocolate $7
It was raining so X ordered my favourite hot chocolate for me when I was snapping pictures indoors.
Such a sweet boy.
Sadly, the hot chocolate wasn't very good.
There was too much milk and too little chocolate


Carbonara! $24
I'm not a fan of cream-base pastas as I tend to get sick of them after awhile.
But I must say that Marmalade Pantry's carbonara is pretty damn awesome!
I cleaned up the whole plate!
The poached egg is a really good addition to the carbonara.
Also, we liked the fried bacon strips! They were salty and crispy and added flavour to the pasta.


Crabmeat linguine $22
I've had this before and I liked the interesting taste the pine nuts add to the sweet crab meat!
So I recommended it to X. Haha
It was pretty yummy but there was too little sauce as some parts of the linguine were quite dry


I've always had the cupcakes so we decided to go for something else this time round.
Having heard great things about their sticky date pudding, we decided to try it.
The sticky date pudding is moist and soft and it tastes really good with the icecream!
Highly recommended! $14

We really adore the location of Marmalade Pantry at the Stables. We love places that are hidden away from the busyness of city life. Spending a few hours here having good food and desserts with your loved ones is really therapeutic. Although the prices are on the high side, this place is definitely worth a visit!


55 Fairways Drive
Tuesdays to Fridays 3.00pm to 11.00pm
Saturdays and Sundays 10.00am to 11.00pm
Closed on Mondays

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Love, K

K's rating of Marmalade Pantry : 7.5/10

This is a little late but

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier(Portsdown)

This is our second visit to Laurent Bernard at Portsdown. We really like Wessex because it's really chill and it is peaceful and serene. It is hidden away from the busy city life but it is easily accessible if you have a car. Parking lots are numerous and parking is free. If you don't have a car you can take bus 191 and it stops right outside Laurent Bernard.






Where we sat




Indoors.


Berries, and more berries


Alfresco area at the back






Raspberry cheesecake -$9.80
X felt that this was not bad. The berry taste is not infused into the whole cake so it's more like a plain cheesecake. However, the berry taste comes in with the really moist crust. I didn't fancy the moist crust. I think cheesecakes go better with a drier and crunchier crust. However, X thought it was interesting and he liked it haha


Chocolate truffle -$9.80
I thought that the chocolate truffle cake was pretty disappointing. The sponge portion was a little too dry and somehow the texture of the cake just wasn't up to my expectations. I expected smoother chocolate and better sponge.

I really wanted to have the chocolate tart but they ran out of it ): The previous time we were here, we had the chocolate souffle and Pure. I must say that Pure was better than the chocolate truffle. It was dense but not too overwhelming. The souffle was a winner! Laurent Bernard is a good place for you if you're a chocolate lover but if you're not, they have many other options to cater to your tastebuds too! Such as tarts with berries, meringue and icecream. Although they're famous and are known for their quality, they're not exactly worth the price. I really expected better.

However, we'll probably be back again if we're in Wessex because we really like the ambience and they're like the only place that has desserts there.

5B Portsdown Road
Weekdays: 9.30am – 7pm
Weekends: 9.30am – 12am

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Love, K

K's rating of Laurent Bernard : 8/10

Colbar

I remember the first time we were here. It was a Saturday night and we brought Waffles here for dinner. It was my first time at Wessex Village and I fell in love with the serenity and quiet beauty of this hidden gem.

Parking is readily available in the estate(but Wessex gets especially crowded on weekends so you might have to wait for a lot) and it will take you about 3 minutes to walk to Colbar from your car. It's easy to spot so don't worry about not being able to find it!

This was our second visit, after 8 months, and we brought Waffles again! No pictures of him though because he was busy playing with other diners haha










There's a rustic charm about Colbar that we really like


My pork chop with wedges and mushrooms - $10

The wedges were crispy and the mushrooms were juicy. The pork chop was not bad but it was a tad too small for me.


Chicken with wedges and mushrooms - $10

The chicken was really good! The skin was super crispy you can hear the sound of crispiness as you cut it. It was juicy too! Haha The sides were simple but great to have. The sauce is unique, unpretentious and yummy. It might be a little bland for some but throw in a little ketchup or chilli and it's all good. The portion of the chicken was pretty small though, X had to eat the wedges and mushrooms off my plate as he was still hungry

On our first visit, we both had steak and we liked them too!

The service staff at Colbar were friendly on both our visits, stopping by our table to play with attention-seeking Waffles. Haha. They serve ice water or you can get a can of soda at $1.70. Many love to come here for beer and I can understand why. It's a great place to just kick back and relax, with a few bottles of beer and great friends, your night is bound is to be awesome.

If you're one who loves a simple yet charming place, I'm sure you'll like Colbar. Nothing fancy but it sure has a great ambience.


9A Whitchurch Road, Wessex Estate
Tue–Sun: 11am – 8.30pm
(Closed on Mon) - I think they do open later on weekends because we were there till around 9 on Saturday!

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Love, K

K's rating of Colbar: 7.5/10

The Tastings Room

When we first saw pictures of TTR which were in black and white on Delished's website, we thought that the place was really pretty. We saw the brunch promotion that Delished was offering and we were deciding between The Merry Men and TTR, and I decided on TTR because the choices were more appealing.

Little did we know that we were in for an utter disappointment.

The design of the place was really ugly. The weird combination of decorations, red light, giant silver balls dangling in the air and visible vents running across the ceiling did not appeal to us. X is and has always been very particular about the design of places that we go to. Even if the food is known to be good but the place does not look nice to him, he will refuse to visit the place. We were deceived by the pictures we saw.

(Pardon us for the red tint in the photos, we were sitting directly under a red light.)




However, I was still hopeful about the food even though I was disappointed with the place.

Our iced cappuccino and iced latte.
The coffee was of lousy quality.
It was really bland.


Mushroom soup with truffle foam. Not impressive at all.




Eggs Royale -15.90
The eggs were slightly overcooked and I did not like the hollandaise. There was too much butter and it was not tasty enough. The salmon was okay.


Eggs Benedict -15.90

The poached eggs were way overcooked. The best part about this was probably the bacon which was just average.


X also had the tomato soup which I couldn't get a proper photo of and didn't bother putting it up but well, he didn't like the tomato soup.

We were thankful that we visited TTR because there was a promotion and we paid about $32 for this meal. Had we have to pay $15.90 for each of those egg dishes, and probably around $25 for the coffee and the two bowls of soup, I might have strangled someone. It was an extremely disappointing experience and I will never return.

Marina Square #01-08
They have really odd opening hours so do check them out on their website or something if you're heading there

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Love, K

K's rating of TTR : 2.5/10

Casa Verde

Situated in the greenery of Botanics is Casa Verde(which means Green House in Italian). They're under the Les Amis Group which also owns Peperoni Pizzeria. This of course, made me think that the pizzas at Casa Verde will be as good as or even better than Peperoni Pizzeria's. Thus, I was keen to bring my family there for dinner(knowing how much they love pizza) and also because they allow dogs in their alfresco area. So we decided to have dinner there one Sunday evening. Casa Verde is located right at the visitor centre, which is nearer to the Nassim Gate entrance of Botanics. There is a sheltered parking area which is connected to a walkway which leads to Casa Verde.

It was raining really heavily as X and I were making our way there. It was pretty sad because that meant that we couldn't bring Waffles on a walk around Botanics.

So anyway, we reserved a table at Casa Verde beforehand as we were afraid of the Sunday dinner crowd. It wasn't as crowded as I had expected it to be when we arrived. It might be due to the rain. Their staff were really friendly towards Waffles. Waffles is extremely outgoing and he stands up to greet every human that passes by. Haha. The waiters did not shun him or look at him in disgust but they smiled and even asked about him. I like people who like my dog haha








Superdog!!



Okay, lets get to the food.


Pizza Rustica - tomato salsa, streaky bacon, asparagus, sunny side up - $23

I thought this was pretty good! The crust was of the right thickness and the ingredients tasted really good together. But X felt that it was just alright. I like all pizzas with a sunny side up in the middle. Haha


Sfilatino Casa Verde - mozzarella, ham and mushroom(spring roll style), served with tomato salsa dip- $24

This was their specialty.
However, we all thought that it was just average and there was nothing special about it. In fact, it was a little hard to eat as the crust was too hard. We were pretty disappointed as this was supposed to be their specialty.



My mummy has a weird habit of ordering fries everywhere..
So here's a basket of fries.
They were really crispy!


Calamari Fritti - served with arrabbiata sauce and tartar - $14
We liked the calamari! They went extremely well with the arrabbiata sauce(which actually tasted like the tomato salsa dip from the sfilatino )

Overall, we felt that the pizzas were pretty average. The best item was probably the calamari. Service crew members were attentive, friendly and efficient. They all wore smiles as they attend to us, whether it was the refilling of our glasses or the taking of our orders. We had quite an enjoyable time there.


Visitors Centre, Singapore Botanics Garden
Cluny Road

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Love, K

K's rating of Casa Verde : 6.5/10