Greendot

Greendot was all started out from a school canteen stall since 2011 and currently they have ventured commercially into a few malls like Bedok Mall, Paya Lebar Sqaure & Westgate. Their flag ship outlet is located in Paya Lebar Square, occupying 3 units space on the 2nd Level.

She is founded by young entrepreneurs aged 23 (during then), Fu Yong Hong and his good friend Justin Chou, a vegetarian food enthusiast.

The aim of Greendot is not about converting people into vegetarians but rather, encourage people to have a well balance and flexible diet. They are promoting healthier diet and hopefully more people can eat less meat and embrace a green diet.

Greendot

Looking for traditional menu? Yes, they do have! But they do also have a handy electronic menu that is attached to every table where you can order.

Device

In the search of good tea, entrepreneurs of Greendot had went into mountainous areas in Taiwan, meeting tea planters and learn about the process of tea planting. Finally, they narrowed down to a collection of 12 teas and we had enjoyed here was a teapot of fragrant Oolong Tea from Alisan, Taiwan. Its color as well as taste was way different than those usual Oolong tea I had. The after taste of it keeps the mouth refresh in its sweetness and makes the throat feel smooth.

Alisan Oolong - $3.50

Honey Peach Oolong Tea is my personal favourite. In its chilled form, it gave me a refreshing treat with a welcoming fruity scent.

Being a "flexitarian", I do often enjoy meat as much. Like many others, when it comes with vegetarian food, we were quite skeptical about its taste and how flavourful can it be as compared to the real ones. At Greendot, no food is ever contain with flour or gluten as they either use fresh vegetables and mushrooms or are made from soy as well as konnyaku products.

Lion Mane Mushroom Rendang Rice to start with was aesthetically alluring. Colors were especially captivating. The bowl of fragrant sesame rice was stacked with a medley of vegetables consisting of broccoli, lettuce, seaweeds, shredded cucumber as well as carrots with shrooms added. The starring part of the dish is none other than the chunky mocked rendang "meat". Rendang gravy was lip-smackingly good, thick and perfumed in its spices.

Lion Mane Mushroom Rendang Rice - $9.50

Eating in groups? Why not getting yourselves involved in a different experience by trying out their mushroom pots for 2 or even 4 pax. The 4 pax meal comes with two choices of 2 soup base from Herbal, Tom Yum or Laksa with 4 bowls of rice.

Mini Hot Pot Set of 4 - $59.90

A basket of assorted food including Shitake Mushroom, Enoki Mushroom, Shimeiji Mushroom, Tomato, Tau Kee, Konnyaku Prawn, Baby Nai Bai, Chinese cabbage, Green Coral are provided to mix in the soup.

Basket of Assorted Food

Sides like Plated Sauteed Broccoli, Mixed Fruits and Salad, Mixed Mushroom Platter are included as well, not forgetting a pot of premium tea too.

Sides

Clearing your palates

Among the few choices of healthy rice, what I like best was sesame rice and Emperor Rice. If you like the fragrance from chicken rice, you will enjoy their sesame rice and if you enjoy black glutinous dessert, don't forget your bowl of Emperor Rice.

Emperor Rice

If you have been to QQ Rice or even the rice section of super marts, these gains should be of no strangers to you.

Five Treasure Rice

They were fluffy and nutritiously good.

Brown Rice

Looking for a mild spicy kick to pair with the bowl of rice? The sweetness as well as the spice served in a soup with Kaffir lime leaves, pink ginger buds and lemon grass spelt out the aromatic soup base.

Tom Yam Soup Base

If you are not enough with the spice from Tom Yam Soup, do try out the laksa broth too. It is of watery base and not too lemak in a sense.

Laksa Soup Base

With the existence of Vegan Burg, burger dishes from Vegetarian eating places are of no surprise. You can still enough your plate of western delight with thick cut fries by the side, dipping them into your favourite chilli/tomato sauce. Who says vegetarian are not interesting? The Lion's mane mushroom came with sliced cheese, omelette egg, tomato, a veggie patty spread with black pepper sauce,giving you that spicy kick.

Lion's Mane Mushroom Burger - $8.90

Nourishing herbal noodles aids blood circulation as well as reducing cholesterol level. Tau Pok, Radish, carrot, konnyaky balls and soya chunks were cooked in the scrumptious herbal broth with Chinese herbs like Angelica,  red dates, wolf-berry and licorice. Though herbs infused taste was not that strong to my liking, I would say this dish is pretty decent and stomach warming especially during colder weathers. A little pet peeve was that we took quite a while to take food pictures and end up the soup was absorbed by the noodles. So remember to enjoy it at its best condition.

Herbal Noodle - $7.90

"Laksa Mai Hum"? Well, you have it now. Get yourself into such local indulgence from the bowl of laksa made from scratch with blue, yellow gingers, chillies as well as laksa leaves. Ingredients consists of thick bee hoon, konnyaku slice, konnyaku prawn, tau pok, radish and carrot. Its taste is comparable to the "original" version.

Laksa - $5.90

Finishing off, we tasted their interesting array of beverages, ranging from fresh fruit tea, yogurt fruit shake to even soy latte. Do note that the size of the cups is not the actual sizes as they are for sampling only.

Note: Not the actual size of drinks

A perfect way to end the dinner with a cooling dessert. Osmanthus Jelly was definitely pleasing to the eyes. The sight of handful Osmanthus flowers and wolf-berries through the translucent wobbly Konnyaku Jelly was distracting. Sweetness was just right with little hint of its flowers' scent.

Osmanthus Jelly - $3.50

Be a flexitarian and enjoy vegetarian at times, I don't mind re-visiting their outlet again especially when they have one in the West side. Therefore if you feel like eating with a purpose or even going green, do visit their outlets.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Greetndot
Location: Paya Lebar Square, 60 Paya Lebar Road #02-15/16/17 Singapore 409051

The Square @ Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay

Starting from the Month of August 2015, there will be a special cuisine theme at The Square of Novotel from time to time. With such innovative idea from the initiative of marketing team from The Square @ Novotel , they have Peranakan Cuisine to kick start with.

The Square is conveniently located at the lobby level (7th Storey) of Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, just right in front of the reception area.

Settings of the Restaurant was pretty classy in its furnishings and lighting. Area was spacious with ample of room along the tables walkways. There are also some "private"section apart from the main dining area, ideally for family as well as big group dining.

The Sqare @ Novotel

Let's start to tantalized your taste buds by starting with the dishes!

Nonya Style Asam Fish came in two styles, fried or steam with only fresh grouper or snapper used. Fish was both lavished with orangy Asam gravy sprinkled with a handful of spring onions and vegetables like lady's fingers & egg plants were mixed in.

Nonya Style Asam Fish (Fried)

Assam gave a good kick to the palate and was made appetizing. However for both dishes, I felt that the taste of Assam was not totally absorbed by the fish as its flesh still lacked the natural spiciness and sour combination of what is in an Assam.

A good comparison between the fried and the steamed version, I would prefer the former as its meat was more chunky and holds together even though the battered portion had turned soggy by its gravy.

Nonya Style Asam Fish (Steamed)

Ayam Buah Keluak is not a dish to miss out if you are having a Peranakan cuisine. Involving tender chicken in its braised texture, I would say it can be done better if the taste had went in a little deeper into the meat. Apart from that, I'm someone who like to have some hands in handling food, thus digging out the edible part from Buah Keluak never fail to give me the good feel that I'm really on that particular cuisine "mode". However, over here we need not have such hands on experience as we were all pampered by the chef who had took them out, placing them into the dish before us.

Ayam Buah Keluak

This is da bomb! Don't judge the chicken by its colour. Though it may not look that spicy, the taste is fiery. This Chicken Devil curry was made with love from fresh chilli padi and turmeric. Unlike the usual curries we had, Devil curry has a sharp taste from the spices too which tantalized the taste buds.

Chicken Devil Curry

Chef Kishen who is leading the Peranakan Theme this month did a twist from the usual Peranakan Recipe, the Bakwan Kepiting was done without the use of crab meat. As such, this combination is more friendly, even those with seafood allergy are free to try this out. Despite that the meat ball has a chewy texture, the only shortcoming would be in its soup that tasted salty.

Bakwan Kepiting

Kueh Pie Tee is always my favourite snack. This little delicate cups were crunchy even though it was containing moist food items like vegetables,diced hard boiled egg, turnips and prawn meat. Many of us could not resist a second helpings from the chef.

Kueh Pie Tee

For healthier diet and better flavours, the used of pork belly was replaced by ribs in the Babi Pongteh dish. Taste had accentuated into the mushroom as well as the meat, with savoury gravy to go with a bowl of fragrant rice. A pet peeve was that the ribs (Meat) hardness were unfriendly on our teeth.

Babi Pongteh

Every cuisine has its sweet portions, so does the Peranakan's. Assorted desserts like Agar Agar and Kuehs were all nicely arranged on the platter.

Traditional Nonya Kueh

The oyster fritters dish was a special creation by the Sous Chef Jimmy. Each piece of oyster was juicy coated in its fried batter. We were really honored to have tasted such unique creation!

Special Creation

Sous Chef Jimmy did not reveal much on its ingredients but he did mention that it was an accidental creation when something drop into his mixing bowl. How beautiful and coincidental that such concoction in his recipes actually turned out well!

Oyster Fritter

Take a look at the chefs who helmed the kitchen. From left to right, Sous Chef Jimmy who did the creation of Oyster Fritters for the night as well as the food from the buffet line while Chef Kishen, he is the lead of Peranakan Theme in the Month of August while as for Chef Sin Siak, you can't believe that he was the one behind all the sweet sensations coming up in the pictures. In fact he was being featured in July's La Vie Magazine as the Chef of the month.

Chef Jimmy, Kishen & Sin Siak (Left to Right)

Pior to the Peranankan Buffet launch, The Square Restaurant offers a wide spread of international buffet which includes our local dishes like Laksa, Rojak, homemade Dim Sum & Roast meat, not forgetting the wonderful spread of creative desserts done by Chef Sin Siak.

Fruit Juice - Watermelon & Orange

Seafood

Sushi

Truly Singapore, they have even featured one of the dishes of what Singapore is known for, the black pepper crab. Enjoy these crustaceans with the use of crab crackers provided by them.

Black Pepper Crab

They have a very good showcase of our local food even with Singapore's Salad (Rojak), fruits like red/green apples, beansprouts and cucumber were nicely arranged. The best part about having buffet is that you can pick the ingredients according to your liking.

Rojak

Tau Pok

Enjoy the Middle Eastern Style Dish, Chicken Shawarma. Devour yourselves into such wonderful treats on the wraps with chicken shavings, vegetables like bell peppers, cabbages and so on. If you enjoy biting the Kebabs, this is recommended.

Chicken Shawarma

In case you were wondering, the meat of Chicken Shawarma was featured by the block of meat that was kept warm by heating consistently on the rotating pit. You can even request to have the meat alone without the wrap.

Rotating Pit

You can even request your bowl of a la minute risotto over the counter. What caught my attention was this huge Parmesan Wheel. Do you know that you can actually get your cheese crumbs here?

Parmesan Wheel

Well, I could not resist having some hands on experience by scrapping some cheese off from such a big Parmesan Wheel and I did it here!

 

Another highlight was its roast of the day, with roasted lamb was the scene stealer among the bed of vegetables. At the sight of it, the glorious crackling skin had pulled me even closer to the dish itself. Herbs garnishing was spread onto the baked potatoes which not only elevates the presentation of the dish but also boost its fragrance to another level.

Roast of the Day

Walking down the food line, we have cooked dishes readily heated up in the warmer. Let's take a look at some of the yummy stuff!

Readily Cooked Dishes

As clam lovers, its too hard just to leave the shells alone. Clam in white wine sauce were fresh and yummy. Apart from that, there were no trace of any seafood odour. Thumbs up!

Clam with White Wine Sauce

Delicious and simple lamb stew served in its traditional manner. Peas, potatoes and carrots had definitely reached the desired softness level.

Traditional Lamb Stew

While the last on the warmer table will be the snapper cooked in caper sauce. These fishes were seared to achieve a crisp in its skin and then mixed into the assorted ingredients together in the sauce. There was a little fishy smell that was not to my liking.

Snapper with Caper Sauce

It's kind of interesting to see an array of olives to pair along with your salad. Who says salad are dull now?

Olive

Are you dare enough to give the cheese a try? That includes the blue cheese, help yourselves!

Say Cheese!

Signature Durian Pengat is the MUST TRY! Fresh durian flesh were used with a good blend of gula Melaka which enable the sweet and creamy based of this pleasant dessert. So durian lovers, you won't want to skip this.

Durian Pengat

These small little shot glass was almost the size of the Kueh Pie Tee Cups. Out of the three choices, I would go for the panna cotta even though it could do a little better if it is served chilled.

Champange Jelly, Lemon Grass Jelly & Panna Cotta

And welcome into the world of sweet treats! Have you spared a room space to indulge on Chef Sin Siak's creation?

The cakes section was just more than eye pleasing.

Lemon Meringue Tart

The raspberry Earl Grey was beautifully adorn with hardened curvature chocolate drizzle and with thin chocolate slices surrounding it.

Raspberry Earl Grey Cake

Surprisingly, the cake's texture was wobbly with a thin layer of raspberry jelly on top of the cake. You can also get to taste the real raspberry fruits and seeds cradled in its middle portion. There was not much of Earl Grey taste perhaps raspberries its nature scent were just too overpowering as compared to the tea.

Wanna Have A Bite?

Orange Tea Cake was fruity and totally enjoying with hints of Earl Grey taste. I will give it as my best vote..

Orange Tea Cake

Chocolate Nutty Cake was not too bad either just that personally I felt quite "Jelat" after having a small piece. Probably not my good choice of cake after a buffet meal.

Chocolate Nutty Cake

Every piece of cake looked elegant and it felt such a pinch to disturb such lovely masterpiece by removing a slice out of the whole cake.

Mango Mousse Cake

Pineapple and chocolate? Have you ever heard of such fusion?

Chocolate Pineapple Cake

As an overall, I'm pretty drawn to the creativity and style done on the cakes. It must have required lots of patience in forming out such delicate creation. The black forest cake for example is quite true to its namesake. The bitter-sweet taste of the cake with bites of wine cherries gave a good summary to the actual black forest cake.

Black Forest Cake

As far as I knew, even myself who is not a cake person had spent a fair bit of time at the cakes zone admiring the pieces. Temptations VS Sinfulness? Tell me how should I go about drawing a line between these two?

Their Nonya / Peranakan buffet is only available from 1st to 31st August 2015 during dinner. Prices start from $58++ and you can top up $26++ to enjoy their bottomless beer.

Rating:  3 / 5

The Square
Location: Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay, 177A River Valley Road Level 7 Singapore 179031
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