Wandering Fel

 

Café is one of the best places to have a catch up talk with high school buddy. After all, you have not met them for so long and you surely have many things to talk about. However, although there are so many cafes in Singapore, the food that each café offers does not really differ from one to another. This kinda making cafehopping in this tiny island kinda boring. But then again, we should try to have a catch-up meeting at new café once in a while. So this time, we pick Group Therapy Café in Tanjong Pagar as our catch-up venue.

The café is housed on the second storey of a conserved shophouse in Tanjong Pagar area. You will the signboard of the café on the first floor though so you will not miss it. We did not make reservation but the café is moderately crowded on Sunday morning. So we managed to get a table for the three of us before making prior reservation.  Group Therapy Café serves many egg-based brunch items like egg benedict, croquet monsieur, etc. However, I was not in the eggcited mode for egg (pardon the lame pun) so I ordered something sweet instead, French Toast. My friend ordered scrambled egg which came with a sausage and croissant. It was pretty good. However, I still prefer the French Toast. A note before you order the French Toast though, since it comes with ice cream, I would think it’s best to share the French Toast with your dining buddy.

How about the coffee? I found out that Chai latte is not actually considered coffee when I look at the menu. This is because Group Therapy Café lists Chai latte as one of their non-caffeine items. Oh gosh, am I really a coffee drinker? Hahaha. But anyway, their seven spiced chai latte (is it really 7?) taste so good and it’s not easy to find good spiced chai latte in Singapore to yupz, I’m happy. My friend mixed up my chai latte for her normal flat white and she was perplexed for a seconds, “How come my drink taste like spice?”. Make sure you don’t mix up the cup before drinking, peeps.

The café closes pretty early on 6PM though I would say. But I guess Tanjong Pagar crowd is mainly office peeps and the area is not so crowded on weekends. Maybe that’s why the café closes early.

When a friend call you out to go for a cafehopping adventure with you, how could you say no? My ranting about the lack of place to chill in Singapore other than Starbucks is nothing new amongst my peers and one of my friends/ high school buddies, SL, call me if I wanna go to check out a hidden cafe named Botanist in Outram Park area. Since I am not that familiar with that area (and hence, lack of knowledge around that area), I agree to her invitation. Botanist is located between of Outram Park and Tanjong Pagar but I think it is slightly nearer to Outram Park MRT than Tanjong Pagar MRT station. The entrance to Botanist is located somewhat hidden in an alley so you need to make a turn inward the alley before you can see the entrance and the wall art leading to the entrance of the cafe.

The cafe was quite packed at 3PM on a Sunday afternoon. There are al-fresco seating area and indoor seating area. However, as Botanist adopts open-kitchen concept and the kitchen is located right next to the indoor seating area, the smell of the food may linger to the clothes that you are wearing and your hair. So make sure you don't mind of the smell if you choose to dine indoor. Since there are only two of us, we did not have to wait for long for our table but if you come in a big party, you may need to wait for a while.

Since none of us had drink so let's just go straight to the food business, shall we? SL is in the mood of having beef burger (SGD 20). The beef burger is served with a sunny side up, bacon, fries, pickles and charcoal buns. It kinda satisfies my craving for a burger but kinda too humongous for a lady's portion. But then again, I probably can finish this whole plate by myself when I was having PMS. Glutton max me. 

If you happen to stay around Tanjong Pagar area in Singapore (check out the 10 best hotels in Tanjong Pagar) either for business or pleasure and you are looking for a quaint cafe to relax for a while around 8-ish in the evening, well, you can probably only come to Flor Patisserie in Duxton Hill. It happened to us before, we just had our dinner at Violet Herbs in Tras Link and we wanted to continue our talk in a cafe. But somehow most cafes located in Tanjong Pagar close at 6PM. Even on Saturday. Thankfully, Flor Patisserie opens until 10PM. And to cut story short, here is where we spent the rest of the night talking about our lives. Hahaha.

This year, I will be celebrating my birthday by vacationing. Yeay! Sadly, I won't be able to celebrate it together with my bestie because she's going to travel with her sister at the same time. So after reading the online review on Violet Herbs, the so-called affordable fine dining place in Tanjong Pagar area, we decided to give it a try for my pre-birthday dinner (Are we allowed to celebrate birthday in advance, btw?). The restaurant is located along the shophouses at Tras Street in Tanjong Pagar. I seldom go to this area and the area turns out to be quite hipster. There are a lot of pubs and restaurants which open at night offering both casual and fine dining. If you are looking for a hotel to spend the night in this area, you may consider staying at Orchid Hotel or Amara Hotel as both hotels are located pretty nearby. 

Duxton Hill is actually really a small hill located in Tanjong Pagar neighborhood. It is also a part of Tanjong Pagar Conservation Area. If you have houses in this area, you should rejoice because the house price nowadays in Duxton Hill is skyrocketing (compared to when you bought the house of course). And behind me lies the most expensive HDB ever in Singapore, Pinnacle. You need at least S$1,000 per month to rent a common room at Pinnacle. Crazy. 

A nice wall mural sighted along the way. This kinda reminded me of the wall mural that I saw in Central Hong Kong.

The wall mural continues under the sale sign. Great, the mood to admire the wall mural kinda diminished when I see the sale sign. But, people have to make a living I guess (by selling the place?). Haha.