Park Hotel Alexandra - A Spanish-Inspired Christmas Feast with Delish Roasts

Park Hotel Alexandra brings you a Spanish-inspired Christmas this December. New Executive Chef, Ian Hioe, and his team are excited to present a myriad of classic Christmas dishes with a splash of Spanish flair. Not only is The Carvery all dressed up and ready for Navidad, gorgeous poolside bar, Aqua Luna, and resident coffee haunt, The Coffee Belt, are also prepped to surprise guests with a Spanish take on popular beverages.

Hearth & Heat - A Wood-Fired Weekend Grill Buffet at The Carvery

The Hearth & Heat buffet at The Carvery has been running for more than 2 months now but have you tried it? If you haven't, you really should before the buffet ends at the end of this month! In addition to their regular buffet spread, diners can excite their palates with premium meats and dishes roasted over a spanking new Argentinian Grill which allows for more precise cooking and preparation. 

Cool Glocal Menu @ COO Bistro (Tiong Bahru)

Situated in the alluring and charismatic neighbourhood of Tiong Bahru is Singapore's first Sociatel, COO Boutique Hostel. The hostel is designed by award-winning Ministry of Design and boasts 11 sound-proof rooms. The sociatel aims to connect guests via an "intranet" system called COO Connect which encourages like-minded guests to bond even prior to their stay. Apart from just having gorgeous rooms and pretty common areas, COO also rocks a quirky and fun sixty-seater diner on level one. COO Bistro is a masterpiece of various trademarks and elements characteristic of Tiong Bahru woven together. Paying true homage to the heritage of its location, the kitchen team at COO has rolled out a glocal menu, showcasing clever fusions of global and local flavours.

Gelato, Tart & Waffles @ Geometry (Bukit Merah)

The artisanal gelato cafe prides itself in serving up affordable sweet fixes. The gelato here is freshly made with no artificial preservatives. Although I thought that the texture of the gelato resembles that of icecream more than gelato, the taste was definitely on point.

Quandoo Food Trail : Kite, L'entrecôte Wine Bar, Bincho, Sum Yi Tai

With close to 800 food and beverage merchants on board, Quandoo is the largest online reservation platform for restaurants in Singapore. Quandoo is popular and widely used as it is simple to navigate and users are rewarded with points for every booking made or review written. These points could be exchanged for monetary rewards! How cool is that?

I'll be giving away a $100 dining voucher(courtesy of Quandoo) at the end of this post, so read on to find out more!

Lin林 Rooftop Bar @ Link Hotel (Tiong Bahru)

Lin林 Rooftop Bar was quite a pleasant find. Channeling tons of Asian influence into their unique cocktails and food, patrons can expect to find Western offerings with playful touches of home in a laidback setting.

Ele-CITRUS-fying Lemon Tarts & 8 New Classic Treats @ Tiong Bahru Bakery

The classic lemon tart at Tiong Bahru Bakery now comes in three levels of sourness and I must say that its the best news I've heard in awhile. I've always loved lemon tarts but most of the tarts out there are way too sour for me. I love a refreshing kick of zingy-ness anytime but I always prefer more sweet than sour.

The newly rolled-out tarts are great because there's now a lemon tart for everyone! Level one sees an impeccable tart base filled with a creamy filling that is largely sweet with soft touches of tanginess. Level two (my favourite) was well-balanced with almost equal parts sweet and sour. Level three got me scrunching up my face and I would recommend it for those who truly enjoy very zesty treats.

On top of the lemon tarts, the dessert selection welcomes eight new additions crafted with top quality flour, butter and chocolate imported from France. 

Dessert Project @ Havelock Road

Dessert Project sits in a quiet neighbourhood and their thick toast has been tauted as one of the best in Singapore. I've never had thick toast prior to this and I was so glad that my first time was an exceptional one.

Cream & Custard

I was super excited about the opening of Cream & Custard. I was checking their instagram page everyday! I love love love cakes and I just couldn't wait to see what C&C has to offer. I popped by on their opening day after work for some sweet treats that I managed to reserve earlier in the day

PS. Cafe Petit

PS Cafe has a characteristic dark interior in almost all of their outlets and it is pretty, and awfully charming. I literally couldn't stop going on and on about how pretty this place is! The most distinct difference between this outlet and the mother shops is that everything here is served in takeaway packaging.

Flock Cafe

A popular brunch spot in the popular Tiong Bahru Estate, Flock was packed when I got there on a Sunday afternoon. I made a reservation a day in advance for an outdoor table because I brought the little furball with me!

Plain Vanilla Bakery

Plain Vanilla is the place I go to for my fix of salted caramel cupcakes. I'm not a fan of cupcakes but I can't resist the salted caramel cupcake from PV! Definitely the best in Singapore, in my humble opinion! I was really excited to finally be able to check out PV Bakery after our tasting session at 40 Hands!

40 Hands

Media Invite


40 Hands is one of the pioneers of the cafe culture in Singapore. Back when Tiong Bahru was still a sleepy estate, 40 Hands was already drawing huge crowds all the time. I remember visiting it back in 2011 and falling in love with their tau sar pau, when I don't even eat red beans! 40 Hands has come a long way since and has recently undergone a facelift!

(CLOSED) Kisses Bakery

Singapore has seen a huge increase in the number of cupcake bakeries, be it brick and mortar stores or online bakeries. We might all have a favourite bakery where we get our cupcake fix but Kisses Bakery is a must-visit if you're a cupcake fan!

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Tiong Bahru Bakery has taken our sunny island by storm. Everyone seems to be really crazy over it! I've seen numerous tweets and photos on Instagram about TBB and this place seems to be a household name now. X and I put off visiting this place because we were kinda waiting for the hype to die down so that it wouldn't be so crowded when we visit. We decided to visit one random day, only to see for ourselves that this place is probably gonna be packed for a long time to come










Cute wall!


A large selection






PACKED.



X and I didn't order much because we were going for a food tasting session later in the evening. So we decided to just take 3 pastries. We've heard alot about their croissants, but... we did not try it HAHA I don't know why but I guess the other items just appealed more to us


Iced Cappuccino - $7.50

At $7.50, the cappuccino is pretty pricey. No doubt that it was good, but it's still a little expensive


Pear Almond Tart - $6.50

The pear almond tart tasted like mooncake, topped with slices of pear.
The taste of the mooncake-like tart just didn't go very well with the pear. 
This was pretty disappointing


Kouign Aman - $3.50

This was my favourite out of the three! And I actually, really liked it! It's sweet, and very slightly salty. It also has a unique texture that I adore. X didn't feel the same way about it and thought it was just alright. I guess I have a soft spot for buttery sweet things haha


Lemon Tart - $6

The lemon curd was quite overwhelmingly sour so we didn't really like it but we thought the tart shell was nice!

Even though the place was packed, the staff were very polite and patient in serving. If the bakery is always this packed, I guess this place is not ideal for a long period of stay. Be prepared to eat and go. The pastries didn't wow us like we thought they would but I guess we may be back to try more of their stuff in future.

56 Eng Hoon Street

#01-70

---

Love, K

K's rating of TBB: 6/10

SocialHaus

This is the latest addition to the now extremely popular Yong Siak Street. With many good dining places in the area, this once neglected estate has come to life.

We were really excited to check out SocialHaus! X brought me there on a Sunday afternoon for brunch. When we got there, the staff told us that they do not have brunch as yet, and a brunch menu should be up in the coming months. We were disappointed and wondered if we should stay. We decided to give them a try and I'm glad we did!


Located directly opposite Forty Hands.




I think the words are really pretty!




The bar. Love the design of it!


Alfresco area




Cute light!



This is all they have at the moment!


I love seafood pasta so I chose this!
Seafood pasta - $14.50

It did not disappoint!
The spaghetti was really well cooked and the ingredients were really fresh! And the sauce is yummy! Sweet and a little sour. I really liked it! The portion might be a little too small for some but if you want some good pasta, here it is!




Bob's burger - $15
X loves burgers so I knew he was gonna choose this for sure.

The beef patty was juicy! However, it was a little too raw. The burger has portobello mushrooms which complemented the patty well. As you can see, the burger comes with salad and shoestring fries!

The staff at SocialHaus are really friendly and welcoming. They're all smiles when they serve and I think that is really important. Another good point is that they don't charge gst and service charge! So we only paid $29.50 for this meal which was really worth it! Parking is readily available in the carpark behind Forty Hands.

I'd definitely be back to try their brunch! Do check them out if you're looking for a place where you can chill over a few glasses of cocktails and yummy food

11 Yong Siak Street

Monday, Wednesday-Friday : 11am- midnight
Sunday: 11am- 11pm

---
Love, K

K's rating of SocialHaus: 7.5/10

Drips Bakery Cafe

It was a rainy Saturday afternoon but we still decided to go for brunch (:








We felt that the "back" portion seemed disconnected and incompatible with the design of the "front" portion of the cafe




Pretty selection of tarts


Gingerbread men!! So cute





Their specialty : cold drip


Chalkboard menus


 
Iced chocolate - $6

Usually I'll opt for hot chocolate and X will take coffee. But today I ordered a latte instead and knowing that I'd wanna try the chocolate still, X got the iced chocolate. Such a sweetiepie hahaha.
Anyway, the iced chocolate was impressive! We loved it. The one time that I chose coffee over chocolate, the chocolate had to be so good haha.


my latte - $4.80
We didn't think that the latte was very impressive. Just average.


USA Black Forest ham with scrambled eggs served with grilled seasonal veggie and freshly baked alpine grain and cranberry toast -$15.80


big piece of ham


The alpine toast was yummy and fragrant! Apart from the huge portion of grilled vegetables that we didnt really fancy, this dish was good!


Norwegian salmon croissant - $11.80

Veggie lovers should definitely visit Drips. Look at the portion of veggies that they give! But unfortunately for me, I don't eat veggie and spent quite some time taking them out haha.


X thought that the floating coffee behind was cool -_- What a kid.
Haha the croissant was pretty normal. But I had extra ingredients (egg and ham) from X's dish!


Cinnamon pear tart - $6.80
We like the crust and the mixture of pear and cinnamon. Unique and pleasant.



Overall Drips is good place for brunch and the food is pretty good! Parking lots are readily available just a short walk away and you can even park right outside the cafe! Also, the loathsome 10% service charge is absent in their billing. Hurray for that! There were many customers who bought their cakes and such but we were too full to try them. Maybe next time! (:

82 Tiong Poh Road
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday : 11am - 9.30pm
Friday, Saturday : 11am - 11pm

---

Love, K

K's rating of Drips : 7/10