This place was brimming with the yuppie lunch crowd and it was really crowded when I popped by. The bakery has this really huge impractical swivel door that has to be manned by a staff (why don't they just use a normal door? Must boost productivity hor) which leads into the long narrow cafe. If you decide to eat in, the friendly staff will usher you to a vacant table but you will have to place your own orders at the counter.
This bakery collaborates with French celebrity baker Gontran Cherrier and there has been much hype about the breads sold here. I distinctly remember the Sunday Times food writer proclaiming that the croissants served here are probably the best in Singapore, so I decided to try their Croissant ($2.30).
I was quite impressed by this; the outer layers were flaky and crisp, while the insides were soft and buttery. It was not dense at all and every rich buttery bite was an absolute delight. While the croissant can be savoured plain, you can also help yourself to butter and jam provided by the bakery. Do note they have a counter dispensing butter, strawberry jam and marmalade inside the shop. Just walk to the back and help yourself! The fluffy insides of the croissant definitely went very well with the additional condiments.
If you find plain croissants boring, the bakery also serves out a really superb Chocolate Almond Croissant ($3.50), which has the same croissant shell stuffed with generous amounts of sliced almonds and chocolate filling. The pastry is surprisingly not over cloyingly sweet and I enjoyed munching on soft, fluffy dough with crunchy almonds.The shop also serves coffee, the same brew served in their nearby sister outlet 40 Hands. I got myself a cup of Piccolo Latte which really gave me a potent caffeine kick. A simple croissant and coffee from this place is enough to perk up my dreary afternoons.
They also have an extensive selection of cakes and I regret not getting any during my visit. I was impressed by the croissants and judging by the overcrowded cafe on a weekday afternoon, many people appreciate their quality bread and desserts. Will definitely come back for more in my next visit!
The texture is almost similar to Lao Ban's- semi solid silky smooth pudding that bursts into soya milk in your mouth. Lao Ban wins taste wise- nothing beats their fresh soya bean taste and they have a certain nice fragrant, malty taste to it. This recipe produces soya beancurd that is perhaps more similar to what 51 Soya Bean serves.
Sushi Tei is one of my favourite Japanese food restaurants; I somehow find their bowl of katsu-don very comforting and hunger busting. While they strive to produce fresh quality Japanese food, I always find myself intrigued by their ongoing special menus.
I had a bowl of Chasyu Don ($9) from the special menu. Tender roast pork slices, served atop rice are slathered in a nice sweet dark sauce. The egg served in this dish is really good, the egg yolk is molten- literally in a semi solid-liquid form that brings me such joy to savour.
Sushi Tei also has another set of promotional menu that changes with the seasons. This Lobster Salad Roll ($8.80) can be found in its current "Early Summer Promotion" menu. I really enjoyed chomping on the fresh lobster bits and crunchy roe topping with the sushi rolls.
For dessert, we got Matcha and Yuzu Sorbet ice cream ($3.40 per scoop) from the regular menu. Following the advice of 
They serve a variety of barbecued meat sets, rice, noodle and soup sets. This restaurant operates in a typical Amerian school cafeteria style- First, grab a tray, then join the queue. As you move up the queue, grab drinks and/or appetizers to go. (BTW they have quite a few interesting Korean can drinks available). Place your orders with the waiter and wait for your food order to arrive then pay. I realised the waitress at the counter was Korean only after attempting to order my set in Chinese and she didn't really understand me. (Me so embarrassed!) So just order your desired meal set number in English.
I had a Fish (mackerel) and Chicken BBQ meat combo set for $6.20 (after NUS student discount). I really thought it was worth it, especially since the portions of meat were really big. The combo also came with a bowl of rice, soup and two korean condiments (kim chi and seaweed). Taste-wise, the meat combo was really decent, somewhat above your ordinary food court stall standard. The mackerel was really fresh and the outer skin was grilled to crispy perfection, whereas the flesh inside remained soft and juicy. The chicken was tender, well marinated and as a result, flavourful. The sauce is a typical Korean marinade sauce- a combination of sweet and spicy which tingles your tongue, definitely a delight with white rice.
The turnover rate here is quite high, and queues only form when the stall runs out of carrot sticks and the uncle is still in the midst of frying a new batch. When I visited on a Saturday afternoon, there was a small queue in front of me but quickly dissipated once a new batch of freshly fried carrot sticks arrived. It so happened that the uncle was frying his last batch of carrot sticks, so I was fortunate enough to get hold of a bag of 16 sticks before they sold out!
Each fried carrot stick is fried to a nice perfect golden brown.
The texture is amazing. Each stick is coated with a nice crispy deep fried layer, but the insides are still soft and chewy, just like your normal carrot cake. Each stick also has a light fried flavour and you definitely will not stop at one. It's best to eat it on the spot while it's warm- if the carrot sticks are left out for too long, it becomes a little cold and soggy, definitely not as enjoyable.
For 70 cents, you get a medium cup of coffee that offers Ya kun quality coffee, for almost half the price of a cup at Ya Kun! The coffee here really very similar to that of Ya Kun and it also shares a similar characteristic strong aroma and flavour intensity. Coffee lovers would be happy to know that for just another mere 10 cents, (80 cents) you can get a large cup of coffee (served in a glass cup found at coffee shops). Coffee is really affordable here, even coffee shops outside charge an average of a dollar for coffee. They are also very generous with the amount of sugar and condensed milk poured into each cup, so for people who prefer their coffee to be less sweet, remember to order Kopi siew dai!
The Ellenborough Market Cafe is located inside the Swisshotel Merchant Court Hotel, just walking distance from Clarke Quay MRT (take exit B!) The restaurant has a nice colonial style decor- very nice and homely. There are two buffet stations- one near the entrance serves fresh, raw seafood, desserts and the other main station inside the restaurant offers the rest of the spread. Here are some highlights:
Japanese/ Korean food counter- There's free flow sashimi, freshly cut slices of salmon and tuna that are perpetually swept off the serving plates by eager sashimi lovers. Be prepared to face hoardes of hostile uncle and aunties bent on removing every single sashimi slice from the place. A sushi chef also furiously prepares various sushi pieces which are also constantly swept off the plates. I don't envy the sushi chef's job; if he is not cutting up sashimi, he's rolling up sushi, or being stared down by impatient uncles and aunties. There was also some korean salad served with hints of kim chi which was rather meh.
Cold seafood counter- There are raw oysters, mussels and steamed prawns to choose from. I was suffering from a severe oyster craving, hence the pile of oysters on my plate. Oysters were quite fresh- didn't have any stomach upset the next day hehe. Prawns were big, juicy and succulent.
Nonya food counter- A wide variety of authentic nonya dishes like Ayam Buah Keluk, Chap Chye, fish, Nonya otah. There is also a Kong Ba Pau counter where the chef will prepare the soft steamed buns with braised pork on the spot. There is also a Nonya dessert counter which serves out an assortment of mini bite size kuehs kuehs placed in erm, bird cages.
Hot food counter- The two must try dishes are Butter Fish with Broadbean Sauce and Stir Fried Slipper Lobster in Black Bean Sauce (above). The fish is an excellent dish with great texture and flavour, and its quality is comparable to those served out in expensive chinese restaurants. No wonder the fish meat is quickly polished off the plate once it touches the table. The slipper lobster is also another dish that is not exempt from diners' relentless stomachs. The lobster meat is very fresh, retains QQ texture and goes really well with the black bean sauce that is not overly salty. Do examine the lobster shells carefully; you would want to pick the piece with the meatiest section (like the one shown above) and not some random shell part with no meat. This uncle in front of me actually took his time digging into the catering dish to locate the fattest, juiciest lobster meat (like digging gold in black sauce) and ended up hogging the queue. (He obviously didn't care what people behind him thought). And if you can't do without your greens, do grab some Stir fried seasonal vegetables in abalone sauce, also available here.
Durian Pengat- The famous, MUST TRY durian dessert served here. It is essentially thick, luscious durian cream, pureed from high quality durian flesh. Each mouthful is bursting with fragrant, bittersweet taste of durians pulp and cream. Durian lovers would TRULYMADLYDEEPLYABSOLUTELY adore this. I was somewhat tempted to haul the whole vat of durian pengat back to the table, but I managed to restrain myself.
Dessert counter- Sorry, I was too lazy to arrange the items nicely on the plate, but you get the idea- this place serves an assortment of cakes and pastries. I was too full to stomach everything by then, but there were also local desserts and ice cream available!
Sarang is located on the 7th floor of Orchard Central (the sprawling shopping complex designed like a rat maze). It has a small indoor seating area which is usually filled up. There are also outdoor seats and seats at the bar, where diners can barbecue their own food or get the chef to do it. We were assigned bar seats since most places were already booked up (business is booming on weekends). The outdoor restaurant is really airy but be prepared to walk out smelling faintly of korean bbq. Kpop fans will enjoying the booming Kpop music videos projected on a large screen behind the bar. It's a really nice place to chill out and I discovered they serve decent cocktails!
This place serves Makgeolli- a korean rice wine with alcohol content of about 5%. It has a characteristic milky, off-white colour and is sweet. The bar serves out several Makgeolli cocktails and we had their Makgeolli Mojito (above, $10) and Makgeolli Orange ($10, background). The mojito was fantastic! I really liked the refreshing hints of citrus and mint, but the drink itself is still sweet (mainly from Makgeolli and sugar). The orange concoction was a bit like orange sparkling juice, but I guess citrus lovers will enjoy the fresh squeezed orange pulp bits inside the drink.
My friend was craving for Korean BBQ, so we ordered the DIY BBQ Platter ($38.80) where you get to select any 3 meat items from the ala carte menu, which was more worth it since each meat item costs between $16.80-19.80. We got ourselves Jeyuk Bakeum (marinated pork slices), Dak Galbi (marinated chicken) and Galbi Sal (marinated boneless beef ribs).
You also get to choose whether you want to cook the items yourself or get the chef to cook it for you. We opted for the former, so we were given this mini grill pan which came with some semi cooked mushrooms, kim chi, bean sprout and lettuce condiments to go with the meats. The waitresses are quite attentive, one even advised us to lower the fire to prevent the meats from overcooking. So BBQ noobs don't be afraid, you won't get burnt. The waitress also assured us that the oil from the grill will not splatter, but the pan got oily after a while and there were some oil splatter around the area. You can request for a change of grill pan, it somewhat helped reduce oil splatters. The meats were quite thinly sliced, so they cooked quickly. They were quite tender and well marinated, and I quite enjoyed the meal!
(Picture taken from Starbucks SG FB page)