Food Hunting with Terence Part 5: Alkaff Mansion

19. Alkaff Mansion

Exceptional restaurants deserve their own post. We'd wanted to go to a nice place for lunch the week before Ter went home to NYC. Since he managed to take half day leave, we picked a place with lunch special (:

Alkaff Mansion is  really fancy Italian restaurant perched on a hill. The 3 course lunch menu was 42++ which is a good deal considering that just one item costs about that price for dinner.

Focaccia Bread and breadsticks with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The sad thing for me is that Italian restaurants don't do butter ): It has become somewhat of a joke with Ter, because I root for French food, and he, Italian.

Mushroom soup with truffle oil. This was quite heavenly, the truffle oil was drizzled generously all over, and the consistency was as thick as a paste, chock full of mushroom bits!!!

Ter's colourful octopus which he described as a burst of flavour

 Seabass with roasted potatoes and mash served on a hot stone like plate. There was a hint of cheese on the fish, which made it quite special!

Ter's duck ravioli which looks ugly but tastes good. The only thing he complained about was that he would have liked a chunkier filling to give him something to bite.

Hazelnut Napolitan!!! SO AMAZING

The quality of food, service and ambiance was top notch. It's no wonder that Alkaff is a top restaurant in Singapore, definitely a place to go when there's a special occasion. And if you can make it for the set lunch, even better!!!

Happy and full and probably rounder hahah

Food Hunting with Terence Part 4

16. Miam Miam (Bugis)

I have been wanting to try Miam Miam for the longest time! It's a French Japanese fusion restaurant and has always been crowded when I walk by.

 This is the Miam Miam Spaghetti. haha i'm not sure if it's meant to be an Asian or Western dish, but it's okay, because it tastes really good. I think it's the sauce, which seems a bit buttery?

Chocolate souffle with vanilla ice cream. A little bit of a let down, because the texture inside was too wet, it was like eating tiramisu that was dripping wet. okay not a great analogy lols.

 We were trying to decide if we would be too full for their signature french toast, but the waiter said 'don't think, just eat!' and i'm glad we got it, because this was really good. If only the white thing on top was ice cream not whipped cream.

Overall a nice place, but it's a little pricey. One main and two desserts set us back by 50 dollars!!! and they even charged us 1 dollar for water omg

17. Yoshimaru Ramen Bar (Holland V) 

So I got a groupon deal for this online! Wheee! Ramen is always comfort food, especially after a long and tiring day. I am so blessed to have him come pick me up all the way from Pulau NTU.

Yum I really like ramen and they do it very well at Yoshimaru. You even get a bowl of sesame to grind and pour into your soup!

18. Amber@West (ITE West) 

I really recommend this to everyone living in the West, because it's probably the cheapest fine dining you can get! haha

It's 25 Nett for a 4 course set dinner with Mocktail, and 15 for 3 courses at lunch.

Of course the service is impeccable because the students are all on training and it's quite a cosy restaurant too, quite nice for a date night out without bursting the bank.

Starters: 

Watermelon with feta cheese and tomatoes

Italian Bruschetta wth field mushrooms and tomatoes

Soup: 

Minestone Soup

Mains:

Fish with sambal chilli and beans, asparagus, field mushrooms

Pork Loin with rice

Cherry Tart and Chocolate gelato

Chocolate mousse cake with poached pears

All in all a very nice night! The menu changes seasonally, you can check the latest menu on their website (: 

Food Hunting with Terence part 3

11. The Bravery Cafe (Lavender) 

The Bravery is a super hipster cafe, just a few shops away from Windowsill pies! The cafe exudes a very industrial vibe except for the Christmas lights that congregate at the center of the cafe.

This was the beef steak ciabatta, nicely done, and I loved the tomato salsa they used instead of normal tomatoes. It packs an extra punch to the whole sandwich.

This was terence's Brave Begedil! It's a poached egg with bacon and some kind of corned beef hash with potatoes and avocado. It tastes quite interesting, but in a good way! I had more than a few nibbles of his dish. 

12. PS Cafe (Ann Siang) 

Date night out was at PS cafe, Ann Siang Branch. Such a classy place, my last visit was 2 years ago, and I miss the Caesar salad 

Here it is! I added a stick of chicken to it this time, but I wished I didn't, because it was quite dry I think. The salad itself, was as good as I'd remembered though (: 

Lasagne with roasted veggies! Yum! Even Terence the pasta snob gives this a thumbs up!

And a mountain of truffle fries (15++) ! I was not expecting such a huge mountain of this, and we ended up having to tabao half of this. Truffle fries are PS cafe's signature dish though, so it was worth it i guess.

very contented and full

13. Stateland Cafe (Bugis) 

I've been saving my groupon for this, and finally had the chance to drop in and have waffles here! They have a number of yummy sounding concoctions, such as Red Velvet Waffles and this Smore's waffle here! 

It is as good as it sounds. This had  chocolate waffle base, with chocolate chips in the batter. It was topped with chocolate gelato, digestive biscuits and melted marshmallows, drizzled in chocolate sauce. Heaven!!! 

14. Teppei (Tanjong Pagar) 

Teppei is a really famous Japanese eatery, and your best bet of eating here is at lunch, where they do not take reservations. Just queue and wait to get in. Dinner omakase reservations have been booked all the way till next year! 

This is the famous Barachirashi don, with fresh sashimi pieces 

and I had the vegetable tempura set which was quite unphotogenic, but the batter was very fresh, and they fry it when you order, so it's very crispy and delicious.  I'm not sure why my vegetable tempura has a fish tempura in it. I'm not vegetarian so that's fine, but I'm not sure how other people would feel about it.

Besides the main, we got free flow of side dishes including a stew, bean sprouts, salted vegetables and beef with onions! 

All these for just $35 for two people! So value for money! no wonder it's this popular. I was so glad we made the trip down, and I'd want to go again when I can gather friends to queue with me

In any case, we didn't queue long, we arrived at 1plus on a Saturday, and waited about 10-15 minutes. 

15. Mu Parlour (Holland Village) 

We managed to catch Jasmine and Cedric for dinner at Mu Parlour in Holland Village. I'd only been there once for dessert, so i was looking forward to trying their signature burgers. 

I dont know why the bread is black, but it tastes like normal bread. I had a beef and bacon burger with cheese and it was very flavorful and juicy! i liked that a lot, and i loved the garlic fries they served together with it. I also got a milk shake which was decent.

Dessert this time was a bit disappointing. This was fromage blanc, some kind of cheese with calamansi inside. The cheese was a bit jelly like, which I found weird.

Food Hunting with Terence Part 2

6. Windowsill Pies (Lavender) 

If you're a fan of sweet dessert pies, Windowsill Pies will be your haven! Pies are 9 dollars a slice, no gst here i think. We had a Smore's pie (chocolate fudge with chocolate mousse, biscuits and toasted marshmallows) and the other one was something like white chocolate with some kind of biscuit crumbs and truffle oil with a sprig of mint on it. The weird sounding pie was terence's choice. hahah

Both were really good, but as you can already guess, Smore's pie was my preferred pie of the two. haha Terence's truffle oil pie was surprisingly good too, but is probably more of an acquired taste. 

The cafe decor is meant to look like a cottage in the woods, so it's quite cute. There's also a rotating cafe within the same premises called Fortnight, which features a savory menu that changes every.. you guessed it, fortnight. It happened to be closed when we visited, but the last time I visited, they had things like beef steak sandwiches and chicken heart pasta on the menu.

7. Cha Cha Cha (Holland Village) 

I insisted that Terence try my favourite Mexican place in Holland village. I think I have dragged many people here because I never get sick of eating here. Terence says that there are many good Mexican places in NYC too, so I guess I will have to try that when I go over in dec!

 Flautas with beef and mashed potatoes served with guacamole and sour cream

enchiladas with ground beef

8. Katong Laksa

This was to satisfy some of Ter's local food cravings when he first came back! It's good la, but I'm not a huge laksa fan, so i have nothing much to say about it. haha

9. Malaysian Food Street (RWS) 

This was the day we pigged out on local favourites like Oyster Omelette, Prawn noodles and Char Kway teow! We were so full after gobbling everything down! 

10. 2 Chefs (commonwealth) 

No pictures, but 2 Chefs is really one of my favorite Zi Char places. It is a pity that it is rather hard to reach, and it's easiest to drive there, which means I cannot go very often. Signature dishes are he butter pork ribs coated with milk powder, and 3 egg spinach ! 

Food Hunting with Terence Part 1

Oops, I have been incredibly out of touch with this place, especially since I took over the management of my Viva Latinus Blog for my Latin dance team! Read it if you're bored, but it's all about dance stuff.

Updates since my Europe trip:

1. Went to Sydney for a family holiday!
2. Competed in some Latin competitions
3. Started NIE
4. Terence is back in Singapore (which also explains why I'm too busy to blog)
5. Dance partnership has ended ):
6. Booked my ticket to New York City in December to visit Terence (MAJOR YAY!)

too many things to blog about in one post! But I have to start somewhere right?

I shall start with food of course! Terence and I have made a list of places we wanted to go to in the 2 months he's here in Singapore, and we have been very productive! With one week left to go, we have visited about 27 Eateries in Singapore!!!

1. The Assembly Cafe at Cathay

This was possibly our first meal together after Terence got back from Nepal. I think it was after one of my dance practices! This was a platter of eggs and rosti and sausages. As you can see, the rosti is so small that it's hidden beneath the eggs! ): It was a very okayyyy cafe, but the hard and small rosti took off major points in my book.

2. Stuggart Blackforest Boutique Cafe (near Dhoby) 

We stumbled upon this place while looking for a place to chill for a bit in air con. To me it was quite a gem of a find! They have recreated the place with lots of European decor and even dressed up their staff in traditional costumes. I think it was meant to look like a mountain lodge. In any case, it's a pretty cafe. 

This was their signature blackforest cake. It was pretty good, quite unlike your usual blackforest cake.

But of course, being a chocolate addict, it was the chocolate molten lava cake that captured my heart and stomach! This was chocolateygoodness. :D

3. Eighteen Chefs

Hmm, this place felt more like a miss than a hit. We had the baked rice and waffles with ice cream. It was definitely a cheap place to eat at, but the food didn't feel like it had much quality to it. I guess the baked rice was passable, the waffles were definitely not. Maybe we have high standards for waffles

4. Beans and Cream (Bukit Gombak) 

It really might be that we've been eating too many awesome waffles! Beans and cream is just 5 minutes away from our houses, and has really good waffles served up with a huge scoop of ice cream! This cost us 9 dollars, with a big scoop of rocky road and salted caramel ice cream on two freshly baked waffles. 

5. Bistro Du Vin (Zion Road) 

It's hard to believe that one year has gone by since the first day we met each other. Since we don't really have a proper anniversary, we just celebrate the first day we met, so much easier. Terence picked the place and planned the whole evening, which was just lovely. Really recommend this place for a date, they also have cheaper set lunches if you can make it for the weekday lunch hour. 

He knows I love french food, so that's what we had! and Bistro Du Vin has a really cosy and intimate ambience, almost as if we were in Paris (:

we had french onion soup to share, 1 soup split into two portions, because the serving is really huge

Truffle fries!

 Hokkaido Scallops. Possibly my first time really eating scallops, and they were quite good, Very flavorful. I was still scared that i'd get a rash though, so I only ate a little bit. I liked how the bottom was seared and crispy

We also shared a beef stew with mashed potatoes. It was very much comfort food! This dish was well executed too, like everything else i'd had so far

Grand Marnier Souffle! Usually I am quite biased against desserts that do not even have a hint of chocolate in them, but this nice. Terence really loves it too. Do not be deceived by the picture, it is actually a huge souffle, more than enough to share between two people

What a special evening out to celebrate a special day for us (:

and Yay I got flowers!