Olive Vine @ Suntect

Today was such a tiring and fun day at the Gardens by the Bay and after that we had dinner at Suntect City - Olive Vine. Basically the food here has the same concept as Hans, but this is a much better buy and cheaper - well, slightly!

[ Olive Vine ]

My family had the deluxe set meal which is the regular entrée top up with S$4. These will sum up to a main course, soup of the day, a drink, and a dessert ( Chocolate Cake | Carrot Cake | Tapioca ).

Firstly, the soup of the day was mushroom soup with diced garlic bread. Thankfully is wasn't a diluted soup, but it was good, the mushroom used were not the usual canned button mushroom, plus points!

Chicken Arrabiata - Spicy S$9.90. This one came with a choice of spicy or regular spaghetti at the side. This dish is really good, the spaghetti is really spicy and springy. The fried chicken was good for the price, but it was tender.

My auntie had the Pork Steak with rice, the steak was tender and not hard as in the overcooked meat manner. The gravy served with it is the mushroom sauce, regular tasting but still good. The coleslaw was not bad, sweet and slightly creamy. Overall this is quite a nice dish especially with the price range in mind - S$8.90, really filling though, which goes the same for the Chicken Arrabiata.

The Pork Cutlet and Chicken Cutlet were regular, but served in a large portion - S$8.90 each. Both served with lots of fries, crispy fries.

Finally, My mother had the Chicken Steak which looked really good - S$8.90. The chicken with pepper sauce is simply delicious, this is a good dish. They come with 2 slices of garlic bread served at the side. The garlic bread is nice and crispy and tasty, not like some places they would serve garlic bread without putting much spread on it.

Finally the desserts, it was just a small slice for each person, but I would have to say that the carrot cake was the most outstanding. It is soft, and sweet and yet crunchy at the same time, the butter at the top of the cake had a little jelly like texture, a really cute feeling in my mouth. The chocolate cake is just a regular brownie slice in chocolate sauce, and the tapioca is regular as well.

Generally for the price range, I would say that the food here is pretty good and not too pricey. Another plus point was that they are quick with serving the food. They have roughly the same concept as Hans where you get a table then order at the counter, though at Olive Vine they would serve you the food course by course. Additional water and soviets are under self service.

Definitely would visit there again =)

Outlets:

> Marina Square, #B1-17, Marina Link
Tel: 6336-4034

> Suntect City Mall, #0322/24, Sky Garden

Tel: 6384-9648

> 407 North Bridge Road, #01-02, North Bridge Commercial Complex (Opp. Bugis Junction)

Tel: 6336-3746

Ciao ~Andrea Trinity =)

Paul Bakery - To go

I meant to post this up 2 days ago but my internet connection went ballistic! So today I'll be posting about the three pastries I had bought from Paul's Bakery @ Ngee Ann City.

This is the second time I've been to Paul's bakery, and the service was not like the first time. The staff were snappy and irritated. Anyways, I had it to go, so I did not get to feel their entire wrath. The one thing that I would suggest for them to improve is for them to set their labels correctly. Their labels were very messed up, and it would help them to not have such a long queue with people trying to figure out which pastry is which

I had an apricot tart, a pan coco, and a strawberry cake- pardon not getting their names as I said, they were snappy and their labels were messed up.

[ Strawberry Cake ]

Firstly the strawberry cake was already melting by the time I got back to share with my family, but it was still good, and by far the best choice I made out of the three. It is soft and sweet, the sponge cake and mousse is simply light. A refreshing treat, if it was not melting, after being stuck if a heavy traffic jam.

[ Pan Coco ]

Next is the Pan Coco, this is a coconut cake. It looks, well ... boring. Taste wise, it is just regular, except that the filling was pretty soft which is much better. I would have thought a coconut cake would be harder. The coconut is quite thinly spread inside. This dish is best eaten warm because it would bring out the flavour and smell the best.

[ Apricot Tart ]

Finally, the apricot tart was definitely a bad choice. The apricot had a bitter-sour taste that doesn't complement with its burnt counterpart - the crust. My slice of tart was badly burnt, though my sister enjoyed eating those portions. I did try to stop her from eating those unhealthy portions, but she said,  and I quote: " but is the best part of the tart! ". I would not recommend this tart at all.

Anyway, I have to try my sister's chawanmushi now!

Paul Bakery
391A Orchard Road
#03-16/16A/17
Ngee Ann City Tower A

Tel: 6836 5932
Sun - Thur: 8.30am - 19pm
Fri - Sat: 8.30am - 11pm

Ciao ~

Andrea Trinity =)

Covelli 1-for-1 lunch set special

Hi!
So we went to Covelli for lunch because they were having a special, but we took the 1-for-1 lunch set special instead of the 1-for-1 pasta.

[ Covelli's Interior ]

Covelli is a really nice place, the staff were really attentive, there wasn't much people there but it was still good service. They would serve your meals accordingly and quickly - example: appetizer, when you are done they will take your plates and quickly serve the main course and so on without calling on them.

Basically we had the 1 - for - 1 lunch special at S$19.90++ I would say that it is pretty good and quite worth the price and settings. The Lunch set was chosen first, either the soup of the day or the salad for appetizer. Next choose a main dish from their 3 main dishes - spaghetti, burger, or fish. Finally, they would serve you their dessert.

First up was the appetizer, I had the Soup of the day which was the Tomato and Bacon, it was nice, the tomato tasted fresh, though a bit on the sour side. I'll have to say though, the bacon taste was quite hard for me to pick up. Penguin had the Citrus squid ring with salad, which I thought that was a much better choice. It had sweet dark sauce thinly dripped over the salad, no other salad dressing. The squid was really nice, not oily and the squid was not stringy and really tender, in it's own way. The blend of the fried squid with the salad was a good mix, not too many flavours exploding in your mouth.

Next I had the Spicy Tuna Spaghetti, it was really good. The tuna was chunky the way I liked it. It wasn't too oily and only slightly spicy. The Baked wild caught hake in clam chowder was great as well. There wasn't any strong fishy taste which I am not a fan of. The fish actually had the clam chowder taste inside the flesh. The clam chowder was just delicious, the combination of the two is simply a great turnout.

Finally we had the Panna Cotta. I have to say that I am very disappointed about this dessert, it was totally not what I had expected. It had a really strong hazelnut taste which did not blend well with the sweet slightly almond and maybe a little tinge of strawberry taste. The texture of the dish also does not correspond to the taste, it was slightly like a jelly that has been mashed up and compressed. I have to say that I did not enjoy this dessert at all. I feel that their afternoon tea's picks were much better then this.

[ Panna Cotta ]

Tomorrow I'll be eating some tarts and cakes at Paul's Bakery! =) I can't wait!

Visit Covelli @Orchard Central #B2-13/22
Website: Covelli

Ciao ~Andrea Trinity =)

Daikokuya and il Gelato di Bruno

Today I went out with my friends to have dinner at Raffles City, we walked around for quite a bit before settling down at Daikokuya. The place was rather small so it seemed pretty tight, even for the table dinning place. First off, I ate a usual dish, mini original miso ramen. It was regular, the miso base wasn't very thick nor diluted. The char shu was a bit tough though. My friends had the Beef Rice with Curry, the curry was not spicy, which was to be expected, but the potato and carrots were soft which fits the Japanese curry style.

[ Sweet Love, Blue Ocean ]

Next we went to have desserts ... Gelato! This is located at the City Link - il Gelato di Bruno. They were having a one - for - one promotion during their happy hour, which I am still not clear if it is for the entire day. Anyway, they had a pretty nice concept, the counter staff would ring their bells and call out to customers to enjoy their 33 flavours - the flavours varies at different times.

I had the Whisky Cream, Black Forest and Cheesecake. Whisky Cream was good, the alcohol was a bit weak for my liking, but nonetheless, it was good enough for even children to enjoy without complaining about the stingy taste. The Black forest was a disappointment, all I tasted was the vanilla cream. I would have thought I ordered vanilla if I hadn't seen the girl scooping from the black forest! And the cheesecake was simply delightful, tastes as cheesy as a cheesecake, and yet you can somehow taste that sponginess as if you were eating an actually cheesecake. I loved it.

[ Whisky Cream, Black Forest, Cheesecake ]

Penguin had the ? Smurf ? , Bubblegum, and Black and White Chocolate. I still have no idea what the ? Smurf ? flavour is but it did taste like cappuccino, a really sweet cappuccino. The bubblegum was sweet and with cherry flavour, so for people who do not enjoy tasting cough syrup, this is not the flavour for you. I did not manage to try the last flavour because by that time it had melted and the gelato mixed itself up. But I do have to say that their consistency is creamy and dense, just the way gelato are supposed to be made.

[ Smurf, Bubblegum, Black White Choco. ]

Hope to try out HandBurger some time =)

Ciao,Andrea Trinity =)

Hungry Chimps

Hi, I have not been blogging for quite some time due to heavy work load. But today was the end of my work ( For now ) So I had to go and do what I loved best - EAT. Today, Penguin brought me to this little cozy place near Peace Centre called Hungry Chimps. This is a really nice cozy place where friends can just chill out, drink beer, have snacks more. There's even a huge TV in one corner.

I had the Orient with coleslaw and butter rice, it was worth it for $14. First off, the chicken was really good, cooked in barbeque sauce and really tender. Their coleslaw was good, it reminded me of KFC's coleslaw; And the butter rice, cooked with herbs was good but as it's name states - buttery.

[ The Orient ]

Penguin had the 2 Little pigs with garden greens and butter rice, it was $15. I would not recommend this dish because the pork with not tender and not very tasty. The sauce over it was like a light honey gravy. The garden greens were regular, though it wasn't thousand island or ceasar dressing.

[ 2 Little Pigs ]

And finally we both had smoothies! The smoothies are really great and refreshing, and at only $9 each =) Really love the smoothies. [ Picture below from right to left: Blueberry with cornflakes smoothie; Strawberry with mashmallow smoothie ]

In summary, Hungry Chimps have good service - there weren't many customers when we were there. Serves good, and filling food, and definitely a great place to chill at.Alright, I have to sleep early to send my mother to work tomorrow =)

Ciao ~
Andrea Trinity =)