Wednesday, January 29, 2014

海底捞 Hai Di Lao Hot Pot @ Clarke Quay

I've heard of this place from many friends saying that the service and food is awesome. So here I am myself to experience whatever I was told.

It was a Saturday night and Clarke Quay is as lively as always.


I met with my dinner dates for the night and started to fold some cranes together. They had came at least an hour earlier then me to queue as the reservation was already full when they tried to reserve. In total, the queuing time was almost 3 hours before we got to eat at 9pm.

//Thank you Michelle, Joyce, Hong Kai & Hui Bin for queuing up, the surprise and everything that night!

We decided to fold the cranes before 30 cranes = free 1 $6 dish and 60 cranes = free 2 $6 dish. (any vegetable dish)

I'm quite sure everyone would have known about their free manicure, free fruits and drinks served while waiting for your turn. Seats, games are all provided and there's 'free music' because Shuffle is just right beside. (I even heard Ashton singing that night). So I don't have to go into details.

Michelle taught all of us how to fold the cranes and so we started diligently folding them till we had 60 of them.



For 6 people, it was a small table.

Joyce & Hui Bin focusing on folding the cranes...

Here's a shot of me and Michelle. (While taking a break from the folding)

And ta-dah! We earned our 2 dishes free!


Shortly after we were done with the folding, it was our turn to eat!


It is super big but still super long queue!

We had chicken and sichuan ma la soup. (we kinda regret the ma la soup because the pepper was disgusting so we ended up eating the chicken soup only)

And so I ordered this so that I could see the 'live' performance! It's $3 for 1 portion.


Here's the sauce bar that you can mix and match your own preferred sauce. Each person is to pay $4 for this.

$8 for this plate of fishballs

Favourite mushroom of my life! $6 for each portion. We ordered like 4 portions. 

Super awesomely nice black pork that we ordered 3 portions at $12 each.


My self made sauce with oyster sauce, peanuts, spring onions, garlic and... some chili sauce that I can't remember. But it was awesome!

Pork balls with strong ginger taste, half potion at $5.

Chicken slices at $10.

Pork belly 2 portions at $14 each.

Fried rice at $3 each bowl. (Nothing fantastic but we ordered cause... we needed rice. Hahahaha.)

The total bill amounted to $215.39 for 6 pax which was reasonable because we did not order any seafood. Definitely will go back again cause the service is really awesome. 

I went there for my birthday celebration and the staff gave me a 'present' upon knowing it was my birthday.

Totally didn't expect this though, thanks 海底捞!

Expensive but definitely worth paying for the service rendered. 

***

Address: 
#02-04 Clarke Quay
 3D River Valley Road
Singapore 179023

Opening hours: 
Daily 10:30 to 03:00

Reservations:
65 6337 8626/6337 8627

Social Media: 

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Cafe: Dean & DeLuca @ Orchard Central

The thing about Dean & DeLuca that irritated me the most was their menu was no where to be found, except at the counter where you have to order. What makes it worst is that prices of each dish are not shown. We have no idea how much are we paying for.

Honestly, for all the dishes we had below it amounted to $90++ for 3 people was not worth it. Though the food was reasonably decent but I don't think I've ever go back there again. Maybe if I ever do crave for a rainbow cake, I would consider Dean & DeLuca.

//Thank you Doreen & Junxiang for the treat. 

** Apologies, I can't recall the prices.

Smoked salmon quiche. (We still haven't figure out what's the white white 'thing')

Junxiang loved the crust though. 

My American big breakfast, it should be $22. (The scramble egg was a little disappointing and the portion of the bacon is far from what I had at Kith and I'm paying more for less.)

But the sautee mushroom was good.

Truffle fries that was extremely expensive with small portion.

Banana caramel toast. Super sweet but the portion was huge. But it was too sweet and we couldn't finish it. Too jer-lak already.

The only thing we all agreed it was good. Slightly sweeter then the ones I've tried. Minus the cream (which I'm not a big fan of) the rainbow cake is awesome.

Once is enough I guess. :/

***

Address: 
Orchard Central
#04-23/24 
181 Orchard Road
Singapore 238896

Opening hours: 
Daily 10:00 to 22:00

Reservations:
6509 7708

Social Media: 
Website | Facebook 

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Cafe: Kith Cafe @ Park Mall

Hey guys! I'm finally back to this space again. I've been rather busy recently...

  • I just came back from Bangkok (yes, I was there with my friends when the 'shutdown' started).
  • My school just started and so I've been trying to be hardworking. 
  • My birthday just past and fortunate me had celebrations with different awesomes (whom I've yet to blog about my dinners with them)
  • Chinese New Year is round the corner and I haven't spring clean, at all. (Oh dammit) 

I did a short post of my birthday, which I shall go back and edit it later.

***
On the first 'working day' of 2014 I made a trip to Kith Cafe with the girls. We went after work and arrived at about 6:45pm/7pm-ish. It wasn't too crowded but at about 7:30pm or so, the entire cafe was already packed. Seats are pretty limited so if you're coming in big groups you might want to reserve (I'm not sure bout reservations cause we walked in). 


After a hard time deciding what to eat, the girls had pasta while I chose the toast. The pasta looks so good but because I had pasta earlier that day, I dropped the idea.

It has really been awhile and I forgot to take down the prices and the dishes names... So, pardon if I don't get it right. This should be Cabonara.


This should be Vongole. 


Mine was like a all day breakfast with poached eggs, chips, bacon and toast. 

There was a super generous portion of bacon and it's super yummy. I would definitely go back to eat this again.


We had desserts from the cake shelf. If I haven't remembered wrongly, each slice of cake cost about $8.


It's a small slice but Tiramisu lover says it's awesome.

Berries.. definitely my choice. 


Cheesecake

The bill amounted to about $80++ for the 3 of us. The awesome night ended with our belated Christmas gift exchange.

//I'd definitely go back someday again!

***

Address: 
#01-01E (Facing the roadside)
9 Penang Road
Singapore 238459

Opening hours: 
Daily 08:00 to 22:00

Social Media: 

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Happy birthday to me!


May good things start coming from way from today onwards.

Thank you everyone, for everything today. 

xoxo

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Travelogue: Korea Winter Trip 2013: Nine & Ten (Namsongol Hanok Village, N Seoul Tower, Dog Cafe, Myeongdong)

Click here if you have missed out my day 8 post.




I feel sad even as I type, because it's already day 9 of my post and this is the last post of Korea. A trip that I saved for a year, gone in 10 days just like that. Of course, it was fulfilling, happy and enjoyable 10 days. Okay, back to day 9 of my trip...

We wanted to try their traditional hanbok so we decided to go Namsangol Hanok Village. Took a train to Chungmuro station and exited at exit 3. (made an error on the itinerary opps)



Just follow the signs and you'd see signages on how to get there.

Finally after about 10 minutes walk, we reached!

Unfortunately... We spotted something that states 'Tuesday closed' and... it was a Tuesday. 

We continued forward cause we didn't understand what was it saying. Then we made another signage...

Which says... closed. Darn.

Though it was closed we still walked on forward to try our last bit of luck.



It was another good day again, and far behind is the N Seoul Tower, which we'd be heading after this.








And true enough... It was a holiday every Tuesday. So.. We didn't get to try the traditional Hanbok. :(

Since it wasn't open, we decided to look for lunch. So we... embarked on another random walk from Chungmuro to Myeongdong station. All we did was to walk, straight. Somehow we ended up at Myeongdong station.

Randomly while exploring we found this Money Exchange which says it has the best rate. True enough it was not bad. On day 6 when we exchanged at airport it was 806. But here is offering 830. So if you're near Myeongdong and don't mind travelling a bit, you can exchange your currency here. :) You can find this place by exiting exit 8 of Myeongdong station and walk straight, it should be one your right.




Further up in front is Woori Garden where we had lunch.



And again, Korean BBQ!

Soup that randomly appeared on our table that we thought was free but in the end it was wrongly served to us.

₩10,000 per pax worth of pork for everyone.

Michael says: 'this bowl of oil is worth a shot'.

After lunch we headed off to look for N Seoul Tower.

Made our way back to the train station and looked for exit 3.

Follow this and you're get it right!



This could have been our 'home' for 10 days if it wasn't sold out.

The stairs in front is for you to climb up. Of course, we're not so adventurous so we turned right.



Behind you should be this building and you'd be right. So you walk straight with this building on your right.

After about 10 minutes, you should see this!





Well... Our cable car is for 30 pax to board. Nothing much to see along the way cause I was too short.

A short few minutes ride and we're here!











It was Christmas eve so I guess there was some event going on.



To get up to the N Seoul Tower, you'll need to purchase extra tickets~


We decided to give it a miss and went to lock our locks they we brought over. Hehehhee.






After locking and looking around we took the cable car back to where we came from and headed for Myeongdong.

We alighted from the cablecar station and guess what we found... A lift up. Which means... we could have saved our energy climbing up and down just now!



Being very suaku, I took a video of the lift. Lol.


So.. I have no idea the exact route how you get here but.. I took some shots along the way to Myeongdong station.


So if you take the lift up, you don't have to climb like how we did. (from the exit 3 and pacific hotel yadah yadah)





We passed by this along the way.


This was the nearest station from where we walked. Hoehyeon station exit 6.

We slowly walked our way till we reached Myeongdong and started eating street food!


Sausage and sausage with rice cake! I like this, you should try!

SOMETHING ELSE I REALLY REALLY LOVE. SUPER SUPER NICE.


I want to eat this again. :(


Super big cotton candy for ₩3,000.

After roaming around today we decided to go dog cafe! Compared to cat cafe.. I guess cat cafe is better in the sense cats are not as loyal. Most cats follow the food instead of whose the owner. For the dogs, it was harder to pat or even play with them because they could never sit still. Plus some of them are really huge, you can't really hug them. Nonetheless, I was happy that we made a trip there too. Entrance was also ₩8,000 with a drink as well. But here, you don't have to remove your shoes and the dogs literally pee and poo, everywhere... and I mean everywhere.



The gandaff was the largest dog in the cafe.

This has to be my favourite.

He tried to sniff me while I was trying to take a selfie with him.

There, much better. :)



Another of my favourite too!

Here are the list of dogs!



We only spent about 1 hour odd at the dog cafe unlike cat cafe we stayed longer. We decided to head home earlier to avoid the countdown jam. Before that, we decided to grab a 'log cake' from Paris Baguette before we head home.


I have no idea what's this but it's nice too.
 We got out cakes, and tadah!


We had our own mini celebration in our cozy home before gobbling up the cake.

We went to bed slightly later that night after packing up everything.

***

I'm combing the last day because there's nothing much to say.



We planned to wake up on time for breakfast at prince coffee but... guess what. In the end we had to settle for Dunkin Donuts at the airport minutes before boarding.

I shall not repeat my flight story, you can refer to my summary entry for what happened.


4 people, 6 luggages hahaahhaa.

Our apartment had kittens! They came to bid good bye to us. Hehee.


My bag felt so heavy but actually only 19.9kg.

Last boarding gate before we landed safely in Singapore.


***

I really had a good time in Korea, getting away from this busy and hectic life in Singapore. Away from work, problems, school, assignments, driving and stress. I can eat for all I want because everyday I'm walking so much that I don't have to really worry about getting fat. Eating and sitting in the office is the ultimate nightmare. I need a new future job that allows me to be out of the office 70% of time so that I won't get a huge ass due to over sitting in the office.

When you read this post, I would likely have landed in the land of smiles. So stay tuned till I'm back! :)