Lola's Cafe

It has been a few times that we were turned turn by the full house and long wait of Lola's Cafe. We decided to give a try this time round since we were some kind of near to Simon Road.

Lola's Cafe

It was full house and we entered our particulars into the Ipad to get a queue number for the next table. They have both internal as well as Alfresco Seating and there is a preference for you to indicate on the tablet itself. Though it was quite good enough, the service crew who saw us navigating at the devicce was friendly enough to tell us the estimated wait.

Tablet Seat Queue

Ordering and Payment Counter

Interior

 When I took a look into the menu, there were a number of items that seem so familiar to On The Table that we had visited sometimes back. On a deeper thought, I recalled that Lola and On The Table are from the same team.

Menu

It seems like most people raved about Lola's cafe Brunch menu but just too bad that I'm here for dinner instead.

Ginger Beer - $6.50
Lemonade & Theme - $8

The guy had his indulgence on the Pork Patty, pulled and served with pickled vegetables, toasted burger buns and potato fries. Presentation was more or less the same as On The Table just that it was served in a wooden bowl instead. It was not anything special and did not have any wow factor in order to lead us in making a return visit.

Pulled Pork Burger with Purple Slaw - $16

Toasted with Spread

Spaghetti with pork bacon, white mushroom, truffle oil, parmesan cheese and cream perhaps can do better if the infusion of truffle oil scent got a little bit heavier. Pasta was good but there are still room for improvement.

Bacon & Mushroom Truffle Cream Pasta - $15

Chocolate sweetness level was in favor of us, bitter sweet taste and was not too cloying even in its creamy chocolate. The piece of dark brown dessert was adorned with 9 Toasted Meringue, brightening up the dull colors. Texture was soft on cocoa sponge and not too creamy from the chocolate cream and we get to feel the crunchy thin layer of Hazelnut Feuilletine within the cream. That's the kick!

Lola's Chocolate Cake - $6.50

Trying its dinner menu, we had expected something better than that. Perhaps most media comments were based on their Brunch Set, I guess it will be fair for them until I try out their Brunch Menu.

Rating: 3 / 5

Lola's Cafe
Location: 5 Simon Road Singapore 545893

Chat Thai

How amazing it was as we walk down the Thaitown in Sydney. It simply opens the doors in Australia to the South East Asia Food Culture which is so close to our hearts. Chat Thai was one of the reputable Thai Cuisine place that many raved about. Not mentioning the crowd and the awards they have got all these while, the queue was like never ending.

Chat Thai

While queuing, I was rather curious and looking through the glass panel observing the staff handling the food stuff. With hats and gloves worn, the standard of hygiene is never an issue here.

Staff at Work

Finally we got in and had our own table with their menu.

Menu

Atmosphere was dim and cozy with elegant glass doors featuring the mezzanine and traditional Thai Songs playing softly in the background which make the whole place seems so upmarket even though the whole restaurant was pack full of bustling sound from the patrons.

Interior

 Drinking water was served in cups like this.

Cup

 Fresh Spring Rolls starring smoked fish sausages, chicken and crab with caramelised tamarind relish caught me by surprise with its tangy and sweet taste.

Fresh Spring Rolls - $12 (AUD)

The green curry of chicken came with apple eggplants, kaffir lime leaves and basil. Curry was luscious that gave a whiff of fragrance. Pairing it along with a bowl of Jasmine White Rice at $3 AUD will be perfect.

Gaeng Keaw Gai - $15 AUD

 Stir fried thin rice noodles served with chicken, bean sprouts, dried shrimps, garlic and chives in tamarind and palm sugar sauce were delicious.

Padt Thai - $14 AUD

Was missing some Asian Dessert, Cheng Tng, that I have decided to for for its chilled little bowl of Tao Tung. It came with a heap of shaved ice and let's take a look at what's beneath it.

Tao Tung - $6 AUD

It was a mild sweet soup with herby taste made up of longan juice and a variety of beans, seeds and jelly like toddy palm, mung beans, chinese red dates, longan, aloe vera jelly, azuki beans, pearl barley, lotus seeds and tapioca balls. It was refreshing and cooling, similar to what you can get from Ching Tng.

Tao Tung Ingredients

We must have been missing Singapore's desserts that we ordered the chendol like drink here. The drink was in milky green, made up of sweet fragrant coconut milk and silky pandan jelly.

Lodt Shong Singapore - $5.50

We were really lucky to have ourselves a seat in there despite of the huge crowd. For those who are going for Thai Food in Thai Town, Chat Thai is recommended if you have a bit of budget. What's more tax is exempted over here too!

Rating: 4 / 5

Chat Thai Thaitown
Location: 20 Campbell St. Haymarket
Operating Hours: Lunch  : 10am-5pm
                                Dinner : 5pm-10pm
                                Supper : 9.30-2am

L32 Handmade Noodle

Our planned trip to Geylang was actually to revisit Sean Kee (Sia Kee) for its braised duck rice as the last round we did not really sit down and dine there. Unfortunately when we finally got our luck for a parking lot, braised duck was sold out. Imagine the trip all the way from the West to hear that...

Nevertheless, I remember that we still have a place yet to explore and that's the raved handmade noodle that I saw from my Instagram few weeks back. We went back to the parking lot and shifted our car towards Lorong 32. Even finding parking lot in Geylang at mid afternoon is an issue. Awww.

L32 Kopitiam

"2 bowls of handmade noodle please.", We made our order once we reached there. "You have to wait about 30 minutes." Replied the lady who was taking the orders. Since we were already there, we proceed with the wait and payment. During that 30 minutes of wait, I'm rather surprised to see queues forming at that hour. Many of them had big orders in packs of 8 and 10. Not to exaggerate but there were people coming from Taxi just to enjoy the bowl of noodle.

L32 Handmade Noodle is just another stall located in a Coffeeshop. There are 9 kinds of Handmade Noodle on the menu to choose from and perhaps the most uncommon one is to have fish head added. For those who love to have Sze Chuan Vegetables on their bowl of noodle, you may add them at additional dollar.

Bowls of noodles finally arrived and it's all worth the wait. I used to enjoy a bowl of handmade noodle from Clementi Central with my classmates during Secondary School days and had never had similar handmade noodles when they closed. The taste of these handmade noodles from L32 gave me a good flashback into the teenage days.

Broth was light yet scrumptious to the plattee. Egg whites were seen all over in the soup with lean meat and minced pork paired with the handmade "you mian" was all I had never expected. Crunchy fried Ikan Billis together with vegetables were added too. Chilli was as good, dabbed the meat onto it or even have it poured into the bowl of handmade noodle to enjoy it at its best.

Handmade Noodle with Pork (Soup / Dry) - $4

Handmade Noodle with Pork (Soup / Dry) - $4

Chilli

Mee Hoon Kway was not too thick and texture was just of the right proportion. Tasted as good as the original one in Pork. The only difference was that clams were added here and the sight of egg included was more distinctive here.

Handmade Noodle with Clam (Soup / Dry) - $5.50

Can you spot the Clams

I went back again few weeks later to reminisce the old school days flavour and had ordered my portion with sliced fish. It was my first time having such combination and I was pretty happy about it. Fish was chunky and fresh. I'm looking forward to have them again.

Handmade Noodle with Sliced Fish (Soup / Dry) - $5.50

We also ordered the dry version to get a taste of it. It came with a separate bowl of soup filled with cooked egg whites.

Handmade Noodle with Meatballs  (Soup / Dry) - $4.80

We had mixed the black sauce evenly among the noodles. I will be caught in between if you were to ask if the dry or soup version is good. I think both are good!

Handmade Noodle with Clam (Soup / Dry) - $5.50 (After Mixing)

It did really have those "back to the old school" days taste and I dont mind coming back occasionally for its handmade noodle. The only troubling part was the wait - carpark lots and bowl of noodles.

Rating: 4 / 5

L32 Handmade Noodle
Location: 558 Geylang Lorong 32 Singapore 388980

Gelare

Since my schooling days, I have known Gelare for its Tuesday half price waffles and it was always full of patrons during then. However, I did not have the luxury to try their ice cream and waffle as it would cost me a bomb during my school days.

After the renovation at Suntec City, Gelare has occupied a wide area along the fountain of wealth.

Gelera Facade

Gelare Ice Cream is unique on its own as it is made with no air, while other ice creams would contain as much as 50% air. 

Being there for waffles and ice creams, my eyes were fixed on the brown column where Waffles treats are.

Menu

We had the Classic Waffle with 3 scoops of ice creams of our choice. There is a choice of maple syrup or chocolate sauce and fresh cream over the waffle. We had chocolate mint, raspberry and chocolate ice cream on our waffle.

Classic Waffle Maxi - $17.60

 Instead of the usual round scoop of ice cream, what we had was somehow like a corn size ice cream. Every waffle is freshly baked to order which requires some waiting time and can be ordered in half or its regular size. 

Side View

Being a waffle lover, I expect it not only to taste good but to smell good too. Just too bad that, its texture and taste did not fall within my expectation.

Raspberry Vanilla

Ice cream was creamy and filling but was kind of on the sweet side which did not really fit my style.

Pistachio Nut

 However, I would say the quality of ice cream is definitely better than the usual ones we had.

Dark Chocolate

Rating: 3 / 5

Gelare
Location: Suntec City Mall, 3 Temasek Boulevard #B1-175/176 Singapore 038983

Western Food Fried Chicken

I have spotted a few new stalls in Boon Lay Place Food Village and began counting back when was the last time I was there for dinner. After pondering a while,I guess it was about 6 months since I last visited.

Western Food Fried Chicken

We have noticed a new Western Food Stall, the one and only one stall that serves Western Food. It seems like besides the buzzer system that is in place, the numbering system is getting more common in Hawker Centres nowadays. Western Food Stall and its neighbouring stall has a numbering system installed. For each order, the patrons will get a chip (looks like a casino chip) with its queue number on 1 side of the chip and the other side the stall name.

Queue Token with Stall Name

Queue Token with No.

The wait for a plate of western food was quite long and luckily grilled chicken chop tasted not as bad as I had thought. Standard sides include fries, baked beans and coleslaw. The fries were too dry in my opinion.

Grilled Chicken Chop - $6.50

Grilled Chicken Chop was nicely done with charred area and was covered up with sweet mushroom sauce. Chicken was tender and the crisp on its charred skin together with the ground pepper bits enhance the total experience.

Grilled Chicken Chop

Rating: 3 / 5

Western Food Fried Chicken
Location: Boon Lay Place Food Village, 221A/B Boon Lay Place #01-125 Singapore 642221

Hong Hua & Dessert

With the summer heat all year round in Singapore, having a bowl of dessert after our meals is usually very common. We chanced upon Hong Hua after our lunch in Old Airport Road Food Centre. Hong Hua Desserts Stall has the classical Singapore Dessert Menu, serving more than 30 kinds of food with interesting food images stated on the facade.

Chendol, the South East Asia Cuisine is refreshing and can be commonly found in most Hawker Centre Stall. It is made up of shaved eyes, lavished with coconut milk and palm sugar syrup. Ingredients in the bowl of dessert may varies but not lessing out the red beans and the green starchy jelly noodles (Coconut Jelly).

Chendol

Cheng Tng, can be consumed warm or chilled is another sweet refreshing dessert bowl of soup with longans, barley, agar strips, lotus seeds and sweet syrup.

Cheng Tng - $1.50

Rating: 3 / 5

Hong Hua & Dessert
Location: 51 Old Airport Road Food Centre & Shopping Mall, 51 Old Airport Road #01-86 Singapore 390051

Sean Kee

It's all about the best braised duck find! The crave for love of braised duck just got stronger over one weekend that I suddenly felt the urge to try Sean Kee's braised duck immediately after having my braised duck meal at South Bouna Vista Famous Teochew Duck Rice along Verdun Road. Braised Duck has been always my comfort food since young be it its in the Teochew or Hokkien Style. Through words of mouth, I was told that Sean Kee has the best braised duck in Singapore.

Due to the trouble of securing a parking space in the area, we decided to do a take away instead of dining there.

The stall is manned by 3 big sized man who are brothers. Do not feel inferior about their size as they are friendly and enjoy some good laughs on job. One of them took my order and as a team, packets of duck rice were ready in no time.

Stall of Sean Kee

As he scooped the rice onto the grease paper, I was totally attracted to it as every grain of rice was in consistent brown color. Portion of rice given was far more than generous. I added Tau Gua and braised peanuts together with their special chilli sauce. The first mouthful was impressive. It has a kind of unique taste that the usual braised duck stall do not have. Meat was tender, definitely better than what I had earlier. It does not have an overpowering of herb taste and was perfect on the go when you dab them onto the chilli.

The chilli too has a very special taste, it tasted like a mixture of sweet sour chilli together in sambal. What a unique blend!

Packet of Braised Duck Rice - $4.50

Even though it was packet food, it still taste as yummy after hours.

Tender Braised Duck

Sean Kee is closed on alternate Saturday and since this time round I haven't got any chance to dine in, I will find to make a return in upcoming Saturday to have a good taste of their soup and other add ons to the plate.

Rating: 4 / 5

Sean Kee
Location: 659 Lorong 35 Geylang Road Singapore 389589
Operating Hours: 11am - 6pm (Closed on Alternate Saturday)