Wandering Fel

Showing posts with label city hall. Show all posts

Christmas cookies from Tachihara Coffee at Millenia Walk

Menu from Tachihara Coffee at Millenia Walk

Iced lavender milk tea from Tachihara Coffee

Hazelnut latte and lavender milk tea from Tachihara Coffee

I did not plan to go Tachihara Coffee at all on Tuesday. My initial plan was to just get a bread for the next day’s breakfast from Pullman Bakery since my bae and I were strolling around Millenia Walk to let our stomach digest the chicken rice that we just had at Wee Nam Kee in Marina Square. However, upon paying for my bread, bae received a 50% coupon for any coffee drink from the next door Tachihara Coffee. The coupon is only valid for that day (unless bae see the words wrongly) and since we had no idea where to continue our date next we decided to just chill and drink something at Tachihara Coffee.

I wanted to have cake too but the only cake available at Tachihara Coffee is a small cup of tiramisu which is stored in the fridge. I suppose I should just have a drink at this quaint little cafe which seems to be share the same owner with Pullman Bakery. Other than drinks and cookies/ some dessert displayed on the table and in the fridge, Tachihara Coffee also sells sandwiches, hot dogs and soups. It’s probably often frequented by office crowd on a weekday but the cafe is pretty quiet on public holiday. And it closes at 8PM too so we only had an hour to enjoy our coffee and tea.

I chose an unusual flavor of tea which I seldom see anywhere else, Ice Lavender Milk Tea (SGD 4.50) while bae chose to use the 50% coupon on his regular Hazelnuts Latte (SGD 4.80). Even without the coupon, I feel that the regular price tag for Tachihara Coffee’s beverages is relatively cheaper than other cafes out there. My lavender milk tea really has a good dose of lavender...I’m guessing syrup because I can taste the lavender flavor pretty strongly in my drink. While it’s probably making my milk tea flowery, I kinda enjoyed the weird combination. And the best part is, I could sleep soundly that night even though I had my milk tea at 7PM to 8PM-ish. It must have been low in caffeine level. Hehe.

Would pop by for quick me-time lunch fix if I can muster my willpower to go all the way to Millenia Walk from where my office is located. Hahaha.

Goma cake and matcha latte from Hvala Chijmes

Matcha latte and Matcha houjicha latte from Hvala

This weekend I finally had the chance to check out Hvala at Chijmes. Hvala is actually not new in Singapore since I have seen its shop at basement level of 313 Somerset. However, getting seat at the common area of 313 Somerset basement is a huge pain in the ass especially on weekends. So, I don’t feel like buying anything from Hvala Somerset due to seating challenge. However, I read in the news that Hvala has set up a teahouse/ cafe at Chijmes and there are seats where people can chill and take picture of the food/ drink that they buy. Getting excited by this news, I drag bae and my four little friends to Hvala. Hehe.

I was kinda worried about the crowd but the cafe was not crowded around 7PM. Well, I guess most of people are enjoying dinner at this timing but we had finished our dinner by then at the nearby ramen shop. So we are ready to chill and eating dessert at Hvala. Since Hvala is somewhat a teahouse, I always want to try out their matcha latte. Bae ordered matcha houjicha latte instead. You know, I always think that matcha latte has no caffeine (maybe due to what Starbucks always says) but I could not sleep easily that night so I figure the matcha used by Hvala probably is stronger than what Starbucks use. I don’t know but it’s probably just me.

Other than this insomnia risk, Hvala’s Matcha Latte (SGD 5.80) taste pretty good and it’s not the super bitter kind of matcha. Bae’s Matcha Houjicha Latte (SGD 5.80) taste exactly the same except for the addition of houjicha at the bottom of the drink. Turns out the combination of matcha and houjicha taste pretty good too. We wanted to try one of Hvala’s cakes too but were in a dilemma on what to decide. We figured matcha cake would somehow be an overkill since our drinks are full of matcha so we ordered Goma Cake instead. Goma cake is basically black sesame cake and it’s not often to see this kind of cake on display so I found this to be pretty interesting cake. It’s not so sweet and yet, I love it. Especially when it’s paired with match latte.

The crowd started to come in around 9PM-ish and when the crowd has come, you are expected to share the communal table because somehow the concept of seating in Hvala seems to either encourage sharing/ big group customers. Kinda weird but I don’t know, maybe that how the owner pictures its teahouse to be.

Daily handmade pearls from Hollin at Suntec City

Hazelnut black tea macchiato with coffee pearls

Hazelnut rock salt tea macchiato from Hollin

Eli, the bubble tea lover, introduced me to Hollin when the bubble tea brand has just opened its first store in Toa Payoh. The only thing I remember was her comment about it being pricy but she did not mind because thankfully, it tastes good. The problem is I am too lazy to go all the way to Toa Payoh just to try out Hollin so it kinda slipped my mind after that. Until I found out that it has another stall at Suntec City.

To be honest, I would only go to venture out all the way to Suntec City from my office in Tanjong Pagar if I am not too busy on that day and I eat by myself. Not everyone is up for this kind of foodie adventure during lunch hour so I don’t dare to impose this habit on anyone. I found out that Hollin is located in the East Wing (which is actually nearer to Promenade MRT station). So if you are able to locate Marche at the ground floor, you just need to go up 2 levels and walk further down to spot it. It’s pretty near to Toys’r’Us if you know where it is.

The staff was giving away tester for its Strawberry Rock Salt Macchiato and it tastes pretty yum for a macchiato lover like me. I am a fan of Koi’s green tea macchiato so I think I would like Hollin’s macchiato too. So despite it’s somewhat pricier range (cheapest is SGD 3.20), I decided to pick hazelnut rock salt tea macchiato with the pearls of the day, coffee pearls (SGD 4.20 for the drink + SGD 0.70 for the pearls). Hollin offers different pearls each day in addition to its standard honey pearls. It advertises the no added preservatives and no coloring but since it’s flavoured, I supposed it will be kinda sweet. But the coffee pearls are not that sweet tho because after all, it’s coffee-taste.

Upon collecting my drink, the staff told me that I should not mix the macchiato (which actually what I usually do for KOI’s green tea macchiato, oops) because it will ruin the drink. I decided it’s better for me to follow his instruction and sip it from the hole on top of the cup and oh boy, I love the taste of cheese froth layer which subsequently followed by the black tea. I think 25% is just right for this drink because otherwise, it would be too sweet. But I suppose everyone have different sweetness tolerance. The problem is, there’s no way I can reach the coffee pearls if I don’t use the straw. And once you’re using the straw, the drink will be somewhat mixed at certain degree. Hahaha. I still enjoy the drink nonetheless but I do suggest you follow the staff recommendation not to stir the macchiato too much. Maybe I should try another time without the pearls.

Btw, there is a small sitting area (with around 5 or 6 seats) for you to sit down while enjoying your macchiato for a while if you are tired of walking to reach Hollin at Suntec City. Hahaha.

Singapore Food Log: Tendon from Tempura Ten Ten, Raffles City

Menu from Tempura Ten Ten at Raffles City

I am totally not a morning person so leaving house early is a rare occurence in my daily life. The problem is when there is something wrong with the MRT system in Singapore, my day is bound to start with a lot of hassle. Burned up more energy and wasted more time than usual to commute to office make me has to rush my work all the way to lunch time and oh gosh, it’s totally draining my energy (and probably my soul) to work like that.

So it’s very important to have a meaningful lunch with someone to rant your day with, so here we are having our tendon bowl at Tempura Ten Ten at Raffles City. Thankfully the morning train fault did not affect CBD area during lunch hour so we could still commute to City Hall to have lunch at Tempura Ten Ten. There were no queue yet when we reached the restaurant around 12pm but the restaurant is slowly getting packed after 12.15-ish.

Tempura Ten Ten does not have a wide variety of dishes in their menu because after all their main selling point is tempura. So either, you can have your tempura with rice or ramen. Alternatively, you can also go for their chashu ramen and even, unagi don but every unagi don in Singapore costs like a bomb. So I don’t really fancy having unagi-don here in Singapore. I opted for their Special Tendon because since we had made all the way to Tempura Ten Ten, we should try out its speciality. I don’t dare to order the spicy version because I remember the one from Kogane Yama can be pretty much spicy.

The Special Tendon (SGD 13.80) is packed with a lot of fried ingredients from mushroom, seaweed, kabocha (i.e. Japanese pumpkin), sweet potato, meatball and two pieces of shrimp tempura. The meatball tempura is the best item amongst them all because it’s flavourful + filled with melted cheese. Whoo~

It can get pretty filling for one lady to finish although I got very greedy after the meal and went ahead with my desire to order brown sugar bubble milk tea from Muyoo. I ended up disappointed with the bubble tea though. Thank goodness the tendon was good. If you are Favepay-user, you can use the app to get 10% cashback for your next dining here. Quite a good deal if you frequently visit a certain restaurant.

I Eat Alone at Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats, Raffles City

Small plates and value lunch set menu from Comnam Raffles City

Fragrant rice menu from Comnam Raffles City

Buzzer to collect food at Comnam Raffles City

Lemongrass chicken fragrant rice from Comnam Raffles City

The blazing sun recently does not make me feel like going to have lunch at hawker centre or the famous fish soup stall at Arcade (although it’s air-conditioned but you won’t feel it because of the heat from the kitchen + crowd). So when I have no lunch appointment, I ended up wandering in the shopping mall because oh boy, I think all the shopping malls in Singapore blast their air-conditioning system to the max because I really feel comfortably cool inside the mall. So with the blast of air-conditioner in Raffles City, I am deciding what to have for lunch by myself. I’ve been spending me-time so often at Saboten Express, so I decided today is not the day to go to Saboten Express.

That’s when I saw that there is no queue line at Comnam. I quickly scanned the eatery to see if it can be considered friendly enough for a solo diner and ohh, there’s a guy who’s eating alone there. Comnam has table for two/ section with high chair/ communal table which I feel will not make solo diners feel uncomfortable. Since seating seems to be no problemo, I just walked inside and reserve a small table while thinking of what to order. There’s ordering chit and menu on each table so you can take your time to decide what to eat if you manage to reserve a table beforehand.

Comnam has a variety of rice and noodle dishes in its menu. You can order small plates to go as side dishes for your main noodle/ rice too. But since its sister restaurant Nam Nam (which is located right beside Comnam) specialises in pho, which is a form of noodle, I would think that Comnam should be better with its rice dishes. So with this way of thinking, I chose lemongrass chili chicken fragrant rice for my lunch. It costs SGD 9.90 so I suppose it’s still within my SGD 10 budget for lunch in shopping mall. I left my cute Cony to guard the table while I made my way to the counter to make order and in return, the cashier gave me a buzzer. That’s good since I don’t have to stand there forever to wait for my order.

The lemongrass chili chicken fragrant rice comes with onsen egg which I don’t think it’s delicacy in Vietnam, so I suppose this dish must have been touched with an element of fusion-ism. But the lemongrass and chili sauce that they use to marinate the chicken soak into the meats perfectly. The rice that Comnam serve is not normal white rice. It seems to have a bit of quinoa texture although I don’t think they are quinoa (because quinoa would make the price of the dish increase exorbitantly). I quite like the whole dish and polish it together with Cony (ok kidding, I polish it all by myself).

Atmosphere wise, since there are many solo diners having lunch there, I don’t feel awkward at all to eat alone here at Comnam. So I think I would probably come back again for another visit here when I’m by myself.

It has been a while since the last time I caught flu virus and oh boy, the virus lingers even after 2 weeks in my body. Ugh, I really hate the sensation of sick-and-yet-not-so-sick because it kinda hinders you from doing a lot of activities like staying out late after work or go for high intensity cardio workout after office hours. I suppose it’s time to eat a bit healthier although it may have been too late because I’ve caught the virus already. If you are feeling like having a healthy nom at Millenia Walk, you may want to try out Poke Doke for a dose of vitamin sea. Like what it advertises on board. Haha.

Singapore Food Log: Poke Doke, Millenia Walk

Poke Doke has joined the F&B market which specialises in Hawaiian inspired dish, poke bowl. I have only tried out poke bowl from a-Poke Theory at Telok Ayer and I have to say I don’t think I am a fan of poke bowl. But a friend had been raving on about Poke Doke so I’m willing to give poke bowl a second chance. The menu at Poke Doke starts from SGD 7.90 but that if you want to eat salad. Otherwise, its poke bowl starts from SGD 12.50 with 1 scoop of poke + 4 add ons.

I figure regular size poke bowl should be good enough for me since after all, this is my first try out at Poke Doke. While they are making my order, I took a peek at the ingredients shown on the display. I super love edamame on either salad bowl, protein bowl and salad bowl. I dunno why but I enjoy having it and the green color make my bowl looks somewhat healthier, no?

A lot of customers ordering take-away and this is probably because the eating space at Poke Doke is not so big for a big group to eat together here. The seats that they use are also high seats which are a bit similar to bar stool so I figure those kind of seats won’t be comfortable for some people. But if you’d like to enjoy your food here, go ahead and you may start to enjoy sitting under the imagination that life’s a beach. Hahaha.

Life’s a beach at Poke Doke Millenia Walk

Anyway, my order is ready within less than 10 minutes or so and I joined the take-away peeps. This is the size of the regular poke bowl from Poke Doke and I chose the combination of spicy salmon (yumz) + edamame + beancurd skin + corn + pumpkin + brown rice. I like the combination that I’ve chosen but my favourite item gotta be the spicy salmon and beancurd skin. I wish it can be cheaper though because having lunch costing me SGD 12.50 everyday will sure put a hole in my wallet. Oh well.

Regular salmon poke from Poke Doke at Millenia Walk

Poke Doke is located at:

9 Raffles Boulevard, #01-95 Millenia Walk

Nearest MRT: Promenade

Opening times:

Daily 11.30AM - 8.30PM

Hello! It's finally Friday and while everyday is a weekend for me since I have not found a new job yet, it still feels good when Friday is finally here. Sometimes I wonder if it is really a wise decision to quit my last job without finding a new job yet but then again, I really hate being stressed up so much for work up to the point I could not sleep peacefully at night. So yeah, I suppose sometimes in life you just gotta do what you really need to do. Which in my case, taking a break from work.

One of the good thing when you are not working is you suddenly have all the time in the world to do what you want to do all along. While the thing that you want to do all along may have been something revolutionary or YOLO-ish like travelling around the world for some people, what I want to do all along is rather simple actually. I just want to try out those restaurants which I have not had the chance to go before. After all, a happy stomach leads to happy soul, no?

The decision making part is rather hard because apparently I have spent around 50 hours per week chained to my cubicle for the past I-dunno-how-many-years so I end up with many restaurants to select from. When you cannot make your own decision, it's time to use the helpline of phoning a friend and let the friend decide instead. The friend that I called, Lee Lee (shortformed to LL), has suggested Cafe & Meal Muji (i.e. Cafe Muji) because she wanted to try to eat healthier. Uhh, okay. Not really a fan of healthy meals but I suppose it won't kill to eat healthy once in a while. Hahaha.

We went to Cafe Muji which is situated inside Muji store at Level 2 of Raffles City, one of the shopping centres at City Hall. Cafe Muji's website states that Cafe Muji promotes simple food consists of natural ingredients for a nutritious well-balanced meal. Oh wow, the Japanese is known for its affinity for healthy eating and natural ingredients stuff so this kinda make me curious. The cafe offers pick and mix ordering system but you can also go for its ala-carte options if you want to. I chose the selection of 3 dishes (which Cafe Muji refers to as "deli") which comes with a bowl of grain rice at the price of SGD 12.90.

Singapore Eats: Cafe & Meal Muji, Raffles City

For the selection of 3 deli, you can choose 2 cold deli and 1 hot deli complete with a choice of bread or rice. I opted for grilled salmon, frittata (egg-tofu dish) and salad with half piece of daikon. I don't know why but the food served at Cafe Muji gives you the "homey" feeling in Japanese way (because I don't think my Mom will ever cook something like this at home) and I love the brown rice so much, it goes well with the other deli on my plate. My favourite deli item is surprisingly the frittata instead of the salmon.

Deli selection at Cafe Muji in Raffles City

LL ordered one of the ala-carte menus, butter curry chicken served with rice (SGD 14.90). I tried a piece of the chicken and it taste pretty good and the curry taste pretty clean without being too rich. The rice served together with the butter curry chicken is the same as the rice that I opted to go with the delis above.

Butter curry chicken at Cafe & Meal Muji

After we had finished our meal, LL made another move to the counter and oh-my-gawd, is she placing another order? Turns out her appetite that day is as huge as the mountain boar's (oops, she's surely gonna kill me if she read this). If you are still hungry after your meal (like this boar LL), you can check out the dessert range offered at Cafe Muji. There is a wide variety of desserts from cream puff, swiss roll, pudding to ice cream. LL is so into cakes with strawberry so she came back with not one but two swiss roll. The left one is green tea red bean swiss roll (matcha azuki swiss roll) while the right one is yuzu swiss roll. Both swiss rolls are priced at SGD 6.90. I prefer the yuzu swiss roll as there is the tangy flavor of yuzu which mix together with the sweetness of the sponge cake and cream. If you like your desserts to be light, you will like the yuzu swiss roll.

Matcha and cream roll cake from Cafe Muji

I would consider going back in future to try other deli items but since the price tag of SGD 12.90 is not exactly cheap in my wallet's dictionary, I would not come back to Cafe Muji that often I suppose. At least not until I have secured new lifeline in my cashflow life. Oh gosh, life's tough.

Cafe & Meal Muji's address:

252 North Bridge Road, #02-020/022

Raffles City

Nearest MRT: City Hall MRT

Opening hours:

Daily 10AM - 10PM

After one of our colleagues fell into serious illness, my colleague and I started to...ahem, relook at what we usually eat for lunch. The number of mala hot pot that we used to eat a lot suddenly does not look so interesting anymore. Especially when you imagine the amount of oils floating around at the bottom of the bowl. So on the day where the moon is blue, we decided to try out this vegetarian lifestyle. Hence, the chosen venue for the lunch for that day, Elemen at Millenia Walk.

Singapore Eats: Vegetarian Set Lunch at Elemen, Millenia Walk

Not like other vegetarian restaurants, Elemen does not offer ala carte menu. Instead, it offers two kind of set meal, a 5-course set at SGD 26.80 per person and 8-course set at SGD 32.80 per person. Both sets start with the same appetiser from Elemen. While it looks simple, the taste of the tomato and the cucumbers are so fresh and sweet. Kinda makes me wonder why I used to hate veggies when I was little.

Next, since I chose for a 5-course set lunch, I had to chose between salad and soup. I am always a fan of mushroom soup so I was so delightful when I saw wild mushroom cream soup as one of the choices available for the soup.

Wild mushroom cream soup with truffle oil from Elemen at Millenia Walk

It got pretty difficult to choose once you are deciding for the mains because all the dishes look so good. After a moment of deliberation, my colleague decided to go for mushroom risotto with black truffle which to me looks a tad too dry for risotto. But other than the texture, the risotto taste quite good but it's probably not suitable for you if you don't really like the strong smell of the mushroom.

Mushroom risotto with black truffle from Elemen at Millenia Walk

However, I had to give more thumbs up to the main dish that I ordered, quinoa brown rice sizzlling inside a hot stone bowl. I just become a fan of quinoa because my tummy can withstand hunger better after I consume quinoa. I think my stomach is confused on what is this new type of diet that I eat and since quinoa is supposedly a complex carb (not like white rice), stomach needs more time to digest while suffering confusion. The thing is, quinoa is still considered pretty rare (you will not see them as part of mixed rice menu yet, I suppose) and kinda pricey in Singapore. I suppose I had to find alternatives somehow.

Sizzling quinoa brown rice from Elemen at Millenia Walk

The beverages section from Elemen is actually quite fancy with many beautiful drinks. I am such a weakling against gimmicky drinks and since I don't drink this kind of drink on daily basis anyway, I suppose it's fine to drink these weirdly colored drink once in a while? My colleague did give me a look when I ordered this Iced Coconut Mint. The blue color "supposedly" come out from the butterfly pea flower but to be honest with you I am pretty skeptical about the uhh, supposedly natural coloring used to create this beautiful drink. Taste good by the way, so you probably won't lose anything. LOL.

Iced coconut mint with butterfly pea flower from Elemen at Millenia Walk

Desserts section is composed of both heavy and light kind of desserts. If you still have some space left in your belly, you may want to order the heavy dessert, sticky date pudding with vanilla ice cream on top of it. It tastes like what sticky date pudding is expected to taste which is sweeeeeettttt. I don't think this is the kind of dessert that you would like to finish by yourself.

Sticky date pudding with gelato from Elemen at Millenia Walk

If you, like me, are already full from the greedy order of previous courses, you may want to opt for lighter dessert such as snow chrysanthemum with grass jelly. Definitely taste lighter compared to the sticky date pudding. If I eat the sticky date pudding first before this, I would probably feel that this dessert is bland. Hahaha.

Snow chrysanthemum with grass jelly from Elemen at Millenia Walk

Elemen is located at:

9 Raffles Boulevard,

#01-75A/76 Millenia Walk

Opening hours:

Daily 11.30AM - 4PM, 5.30 - 10PM

Eating alone may used to be unthinkable in the past but as we are living in the modern society, it has been somewhat more accepted nowadays. Some articles from Huffington Post and Elite Daily have even encouraged the perks of dining solo without any other human being to accompany you. Being an occasional practitioner of eating alone, I know that sometimes the key to eat alone comfortably is to dine in when most people are bounded to their desk (i.e. Off peak hours) but obviously that may not be an easy feat to perform if you are also part of the corporate slaves with similar working and lunch hour.

If you happen to work in the vicinity of Millenia Walk and you are in a lookout for a nice place to eat and chill alone around noon, you may want to consider the Green Bar.

Singapore Eats: Eating Alone at the Green Bar, Millenia Walk

I actually had no plan to visit the Green Bar at all but as far as I remember Millenia Walk tend to have lesser crowd in busy lunch hour so here I am. Anyway, I am also in urgent need to shed some fats, so why not feed myself some salad. I opted for the 4+1 carbo salad which consist of 1 carbo selection (mine is fusilli with pesto) and 4 toppings as you can see from my receipts below. Anything below SGD 10 for a salad bowl served by restaurant which has air-conditioner is considered pretty good so I suppose I had to accept this high cost of living in the country.

4+1 carbo salad from the Green Bar at Millenia Walk

The will call your number (the table number reflected on your receipt) once your order is ready for collection. The Green Bar is not really big and it has pretty limited seats however, there are a lot of two seater table which makes it suitable for solo dining. People will not look at you weirdly since you don't hog the table for 4 or 6 after all. In addition, as the seating area is designed in the shape of a reversed L, the Green Bar actually has some seats at the corner section. When I dined here, the whole seats at this particular corner are occupied by fellow solo diners.

Eating alone at the Green Bar at Millenia Walk

Most of the solo diners are busy with their phones as there are nothing much to people watch if you sit at the corner section to be honest with you. Oh right, how about the food? I chose Japanese sesame sauce to go with my salad and the whole combination taste so good as I believe that sesame goes well with any kind of salad toppings. There were nobody who force me to eat fast (plus there's not much queue) so I could leisurely enjoy my meal bit by bit. Do note that the staff will clear your empty bowl if you eat too fast and you self-conscientiously will decide to go out once that happen unless you're eating during non busy hours.

Mix your own salad at the Green Bar Millenia Walk

Overall, I really enjoy my solo dining experience at the Green Bar and would like to do that again in future. Hence, the Green Bar is approved for eating alone. Woots!

The Green Bar is located at:

9 Raffles Boulevard

#01-91 Millenia Walk

Opening hours:

Monday to Friday 11AM - 8PM

Closed on weekends

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Wandering Fel

Tachihara Coffee, Singapore

Singapore Food Log: Hvala, Chijmes

Hollin, Suntec City

Singapore Food Log: Tempura Ten Ten, Raffles City

I Eat Alone at Comnam Vietnamese Street Eats, Raffles City

Singapore Food Log: Poke Doke, Millenia Walk

Singapore Food Log: Cafe & Meal Muji, Raffles City

Singapore Eats: Vegetarian Set Lunch at Elemen, Millenia Walk

Singapore Eats: Eating Alone at the Green Bar, Millenia Walk