[CLOSED] Rookery – Good Food Great Company [MEDIA INVITE]

Fried Chicken Sandwich

Rookery is a café by day and gastropub by night located in Singapore CBD. Rookery was founded by 3 individuals Daniel, Michelle and Sue-shan, who loved food, coffee and to drink. Inspired by the Australian and American casual dining culture, Rookery presents a unique dining experience with an emphasis on the raw rustic nature of our locally sourced ingredients.

Rookery - Capital Tower

Rookery recently refreshes their Brunch and Lunch/Dinner menu and we have the opportunity to taste it first-hand at their Capital Tower outlet. All the items below are available from 11.30 onwards, except for smashed avocado toast.

The Bar

We start with Smashed Avocado Toast ($15), available from 8 AM. This superfood is one of the must-have on every café’s menu. The combination of rich creamy avocado, crispy and chewy and oozing egg yolks is just so appetizing. The furikake add some sparks to this creamy mix

Smashed Avocado Toast

Roasted Cauliflower & Quinoa ($17). An example of a vegetarian dish that can be tasty. Cauliflower, cucumbers, baby radish, cherry tomatoes and pomegranate bind together with sesame dressing. You have crunchy and juicy texture from all the vegetable mix and I especially like the contrasting salty and chewy texture from the halloumi in this dish.

Roasted Cauliflower & Quinoa

Fried Chicken Sandwich ($21), a deluxe sandwich for meat lovers. The combination of juicy fried chicken with homemade glazed bacon chop is just badass. Lettuce, tomato, gouda cheese and honey mustard mayo complete the sandwich fillings. Instead of using regular white bread, Rookery uses the sourdough bread that are able to hold the ingredients together and not making a mess. Yum Yum.

Fried Chicken Sandwich

Scallops ($22) a must try item on this new menu. Juicy, sweet and plump seared Hokkaido Scallops cooked with seaweed and miso butter. The top part of the dish might turn you off because it looks oily, however, it is actually clarified butter. The bottom part is where the good stuff are. You can taste the rich, creamy and umami flavour of the seaweed and miso butter. The lemon supposed to help in balancing the richness in the dish, however, it also gives this dish a different flavour. It was so good; we used up all the toast plus the toast from other dishes to polished up the butter.  Definitely, a dish that I will return for.

Scallops

If you prefer prawns instead of scallops try their Gambas al Ajillo ($18). Butterflied tiger prawns cooked with garlic and chilli oil. The moist and tasty prawns, together with the flavoured oil goes nicely with the toast. I still like the scallops though.

Gambas al Ajillo

Grilled Mackerel ($24), a well-grilled mackerel fillets served with potatoes, garlic and tomatoes white wine stew. The tangy flavour stew nicely balances the strong flavour of the mackerel.

Grilled Mackerel

Sakura Ebi Capellini ($14). A dish that getting popular in Singapore dining scene. The key here is to find the right balance of each flavour. I like the crunchiness of the sakura ebi and flavour of the truffle oil. However, the pasta is slightly undercooked and the saltiness level is on the high side. A bit of tweaking will make this dish much better and value for money.

Sakura Ebi Capellini 

Crabmeat Pasta ($24). Another winning dish here. The al-dente tagliatelle carries the tomato cream sauce nicely. I was worried that the strong creamy sauce will cover the taste of the crab, instead, I can still taste the sweetness of blue swimmer crab meat in each bite. Yummy.

Crabmeat Pasta

US Kurobuta Bone-In Pork Chop ($29). Nicely seared with good crisp externally, while the meat remains juicy and succulent internally. Served with curly fries and mesclun salad, it is simple yet delightful. Oink Oink.

US Kurobuta Bone-In Pork Chop

Meatballs ($17). This dish reminds me of spaghetti meatballs, except this one come with toast instead of pasta. The beef meatballs are well seasoned, cooked in tomato sauce and finished off with loads of cheese and baked. Expect a bold flavour from the tomato sauce and the cheese, best eaten together with the toast.

Meatballs

We were almost full from all the previous dishes, however, we manage to leave some space for Dark Chocolate Lava Cake ($14). We were slightly disappointed to find that the lava was not oozing out when we cut the chocolate cake. However, the solid dark chocolate flavour mixed with French Vanilla Bean Gelato and mixed berry compote sure make up for the aesthetic disappointment. A comforting dessert anytime.

Dark Chocolate Lava Cake

As Rookery turns into gastropub by night, you have to expect loud and energetic music played. It is best to keep your conversation in the small group. The décor casual with an industrial touch to it. Rookery offered indoor and outdoor seating, depends on your liking. There will be Live music on Thursday and Friday night at Capital Tower Outlet.

Liveband on Thursday and Friday Night

Overall, Rookery is a casual modern all-day dining destination in CBD. Café during the day and gastropub to chill out after work. The food is modern and creative and you can easily find something that you like here. I recommend their Scallops, Fried Chicken Sandwich (or something with their homemade glazed bacon chop) and Crabmeat Pasta. Cheers!!

Mojito (not mine)

Thank you very much, Kris(Msginginly) and Rookery Team for the tasting invitation.

Food & Drinks: 7.5/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: N/A (Tasting Invitation)

Ambiance: 7.75/10

Budget per Person: $11 - $25, $26 - $50

Rookery (Capital Tower)

168 Robinson Road

#01-08 Capital Tower

Singapore 068912

T: +65 6327 9369

W: 

F: 

IG: @Rookerysg

OH:

Mon – Fri: 08.00 – 23.00

Closed on Sat, Sun and PH

Other Branch

Rookery (Hong Leong Building)

16 Raffles Quay

#01-02A Hong Leong Building

Singapore 048581

T: +65 6221 0968

Menu and Reservation available from the website

The Populus Café – Simple Breakfast and Good Coffee

Magic at The Populus

Our friends from Malaysia are in town for an exhibition and we are glad to accept their brunch invitation. What an opportunity for us to escape our daily grind and have a delicious brunch in the city.

This is actually my second time visiting The Populus Café. My first visit was a few years back during our makan kaki café hopping session. At that time, the experience was not overly impressive, probably because it was our third stop on that day.

The Populus

Apparently, we arrived much earlier than our friends, so we decided to order first. Simple Brekky ($12.50) – scrambled eggs and mixed mushrooms and back bacon (2 items from extra menus) on multigrain toast.

Simple Brekky 

It was a solid, unpretentious breakfast. The scrambled eggs were done right, eggy, creamy and moist sitting on two slices of thick toast. The bacon is crispy and the mushroom is buttery awesome.

LD ordered Populus All Day Big Brekky ($25) – Soft poached 64º eggs, aerated hollandaise, potato rosti, frankische sausage, smoked salmon, homemade baked beans, L&P mushrooms, and mixed salad.

Populus All Day Big Brekky

The version of a luxurious breakfast. The egg is perfectly done and ooze out nicely when you cut through it. Hollandaise sauce is light instead of rich and thick, while the vinegar taste in the poached egg is very subtle almost undetected. On the base was rosti instead of bread, however, we will like it better if it is crispier and with a touch of salt and pepper on it. With the smoked salmon and sausage, it was like a party on the plate.

To accompany the breakfast, LD ordered Paris Moonlight Tea ($8). It was very fragrant, flowery and easy to drink.

Paris Moonlight Tea

I ordered Magic ($6) for my coffee. For the beans, I asked for something nutty, bold and chocolate less fruity. The barista picked the blend for me, nicely executed latte art and it was just yum.

Magic

The place is comfortable and good to catch up with friends. Of course, the delicious food and drinks help as well. Other than breakfast, their worldwide inspired lunch dishes look interesting. I look forward to my next visit and try the rest of their menu. Cheers!!

Food & Drink: 7.75/10

Value: 7.5/10

Service: 7.5/10

Ambiance: 7.5/10

Budget per Person: $11 - $25, $26 - $50

The Populus

146 Neil Road

Singapore 088875

T: +65 6635 8420

W: https://thepopulus.cafe/

F: https://www.facebook.com/thepopuluscafe

IG: @Thepopuluscafe

OH:

Mon: 09.00 – 19.00

Tue: 09.00 – 16.00

Wed – Fri: 09.00 – 22.30

Sat: 09.30 – 22.30

Sun: 09.30 – 19.00

Menu available Online

Please check their website for other location

[CLOSED] Montana – V60 Chocolate [MEDIA INVITE]

Montana Singapore

Montana recently introduced their new menu with a new Chef helming the kitchen. Previously everyone was talking about their Freak Cake, I personally feel their Coconut Cold Brew Coffee is a more notable mention. Coconut Cold Brew Coffee is still one of their main features in the new menu.

Complementing their Coconut Cold Brew Coffee, Montana added V60 Chocolate ($6.80) to their drink offering. By pouring heated coconut water over ground cacao nibs to extract the intense chocolate flavour infused with the natural sweetness of coconut water. It comes in three flavours, Original, Mint and Smoky Infusion. My personal pick is Mint, as it has a minty refreshing flavour, the opposite to the nutty chocolate flavour.

V60 Chocolate

Our Entrée was Whitebait with Five Spice Seasoning ($11) and Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic Mirin Sauce ($12). The whitebait is crisp and crunchy. The five spice seasoning is mild, making it a pleasant starter, make sure you squeeze the lemon wedge to add some twang to this dish.

Whitebait with Five Spice Seasoning

The chicken wings here looks yummy at the first sight. It has crispy exterior followed with juicy succulent meat inside. Unfortunately, you will soon be running for your drinks as the seasoning is simply just too much.

Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic Mirin Sauce

Tai Cheong Bakery – Original Hong Kong Cha Chaan Teng

Tai Cheong Bakery

Tai Cheong Bakery is one of the most popular Egg Tart shops in Hong Kong. It is one of a must-try cafe where you are on a Food Pilgrimage trip in Hong Kong. Luckily with more than a dozen branches in HK, it is not difficult to get the yummy egg tart.

The best news is that now we do not have to travel so far to try these yummy egg tarts, as Tai Cheong Bakery has opened its first cha chaan teng in Holland Village, Singapore due to the overwhelming response to its Takashimaya counter and other pop-up stores. The arrival of Tai Cheong Bakery in Singapore is a collaboration between Food People (a subsidiary of Palm Beach Group) and Tao Heung Group (Owner of Tai Cheong Bakery).

Three Egg Macaroni Soup with Luncheon Meat

Egg Tart ($1.90). The crust is crisp, buttery and did not crumble easily. The egg custard has a solid jelly-like texture, mild egg flavour with a touch of sweetness. It is well balanced, and it is likely people can eat more than one without any problem.

Egg Tart

[CLOSED] Montana Singapore – A New Menu and Freak Cakes [MEDIA INVITE]

Montana Singapore

Montana Singapore is an innovative modern cafe located in PoMo Singapore. They are known for their signatures such as Red Velvet Stacked Waffles and Jalapeno Mac & Cheese Waffles. To keep up with the current market trend, Montana keep innovating new dishes to their menu.

Part of the Dining Area - At the back

One of the latest additions is their Freak Cakes. These mini artisanal 3 layer cakes is enough for 2 to 3 pax to share, on top of giving you the WOW factors and IG worthy picture. We also sampled the Coffee Kaya Coconut ($14.80). Made from Coffee Sponge, Kaya Buttercream, coconut white chocolate glaze, gula melaka crumbs.

Freak Cake - Coffee Kaya Coconut

Seng Kee Bak Kut Teh – Yummy Bak Kut Teh

Seng Kee Bak Kut Teh @ AMK

Having tasted most of the popular Bak Kut Teh('BKT') in Singapore, I will hardly have a Bak Kut Teh in a Hawker Centre or Food Centre. Reason being, I don't like to be disappointed with bland soup plus dry and chewy pork ribs. I like my BKT to be peppery, slightly cloudy white broth and robust with a sweetness derived from the pork. When eating BKT, LD and I will always try to order the prime ribs, so we can enjoy the perfect bite of ribs.

The Menu

Surprisingly, I always want to give Seng Kee Bak Kut Teh in Chong Boon Food Centre, Ang Mo Kio a try. On the weekend, this section of the food centre will be packed and about 20 plus table there will definitely order something from Seng Kee. Not sure what to have for breakfast, I decided to give it a try.

Spare Ribs ($6), Bean Curd Skin ($2) and Rice ($0.50). The broth is peppery, sweet and robust. The pepper is strong but just enough to warm your stomach not to offset. The sweetness come from the pork that is just appetizing. The spare ribs is just juicy and succulent. It has the right balance of meat and fats yum yum.

My Breakfast

The beancurd skin is stewed until it is soft, yet still retain the slight crunchiness to it. The dark sauce is slightly watery, however it is salty enough to flavour the beancurd skin and even producing a touch umami flavour.

Spare Ribs - Soup

Spare Ribs - Up Close

Like the traditional version of BKT, Seng Kee only served white rice with its BKT. Not youtiao here. They have two other signature dishes which are pig trotters and steamed fish. Unfortunately, I have not manage to try both this time around.

This stall is not a self service stall. So you just place your order, let them know your table number and your food will be delivered to you.

Overall, Seng Kee served a good Bak Kut Teh. In my personal opinion, their BKT is even comparable to some of the popular BKT store in Singapore. So if you are around Ang Mo Kio area give Seng Kee Bak Kut Teh a try. Cheers!!

Food & Drink: 7.75/10

Value: 8/10

Service: 6.5/10

Ambiance: N/A (Food Centre)

Budget per Person: $0 - $10

Seng Kee Bak Kut Teh

Blk 453A Ang Mo Kio Ave 10

#01-06, Chong Boon Food Centre

Singapore 561453

OH:

Tue – Sun: 07.30 – 20.30

Closed on Mon

[CLOSED] Roosevelt's Diner and Bar – New Brunch Menu [MEDIA INVITE]

Roosevelt's Diner and Bar

Roosevelt's Diner and Bar ('Roosevelt's') is a dining destination located behind the Dorsett Residence at H exit of Outram MRT. When you turn to face the diner, you will notice their eye catching logo of teddy bear smoking a cigar. This remind me of the movie TED, that featured the naughty R rated teddy bear.

Back to the food, Roosevelt's just revamped their brunch menu and we are here to give it a try. Currently brunch menu is available up to 6PM daily.

Roosevelt's - The Bar

We started with something light and healthy. Shiitake Sesame Salmon ($18). This salad bowl featured a healthy ingredients and super food. The plating is so attractive, made it difficult not to try it. The salmon was sous-vide, allowing it to retain the juice with moist and flaky texture. The tofu, mushroom, edamame and pomegranate contribute variety texture and flavour to the dish. While the sesame dressing bind all the ingredients and flavour together.

Shiitake Sesame Salmon

[CLOSED] Social Square – Indoor Garden Dining

Social Square ('SS') is a concept restaurant from Ministry of Food located in 3^rd floor of Parkway Parade Shopping Centre. SS offer a combination of European – Japanese gourmet delights and all day breakfasts.

Social Square Indoor Garden

The décor is of this establishment is like a indoor garden with tall 'trees' surrounding the dining area. The open concept kitchen also allow you to see the chefs & bartenders at work preparing your food and drinks.

Highlights of 2014

Hello 2015! Yes, what a better way to start the new year with a quick recap of the highlight of foodgasm session in 2014.

Sarnies - The Fry Up

For Breakfast to Brunch, we really need to mention Sarnies, Symmetry and Sunday Market. Sarnies Aussie Big Breakfast are so memorable, it really fills you for the whole day and give me the nostalgic feeling of my days in Melbourne. Symmetry provide us with a more classy version of cafe Brunch. More cutting edge plating while maintaining awesome flavours.

Symmetry - Hickory Corned Beef & Hash

Sunday Market is unique with their modern food with Thai flairs in their dishes. Their Bangkok Toast desserts and Thai Ice Milk Tea are just YUMMM!!.

Symmetry Cafe – Welcome to Symmetry Street

Welcome to Symmetry Street

A while back during one of food tasting session, I had a chat with a passionate “Pastry Chef Blogger”, about what is her pick for a must try cafe in Singapore. Symmetry Cafe was her pick.

Chai Tea Latte

Following her recommendation we decided to give this cafe a try on a Saturday Morning. Without knowing, it was actually nearby where LD's pick for food reflexology in SG. Symmetry Cafe is a new breed of cafes in Singapore that are heavily influenced by the Australian casual dining trends. It is a cafe by day and morph into casual restaurant bar by night. Definition of bar, is that alcohol is definitely involve here. A place for people to gather to enjoy a great meal and drinks. Food sharing are welcome.

Lola's Cafe – Your Backyard Cafe

For those that passed by Simon Road regularly, Lola's cafe need no introduction. The same can be said for the cafe hoppers, this place is definitely in the list of the must try cafes. However, before you made up you mind to visit this place, the waiting time to get a seat here is also legendary.

Sarnies – Solid Brunch

Sarnies !!!

I have been hearing about Sarnies when I chat with other food bloggers on the places to go for brunch. So when I have cravings for a good big brekkie, I decided on Sarnies.

[CLOSED] Madame Patisserie: The Story of Sweet & Savoury

The first thing that come to your mind when you mention Madam Patisserie is of course Pastry. Burger, Shepherd's Pie or Teriyaki Salmon will hardly come across your mind. This time around I receive an invitation from HungryGoWhere on behalf of Madam Patisserie to sample their new bistro menu.