Tom's Palette

For Ice Cream Lovers, Tom's Palette needs no further introduction. They serve homemade ice cream since September 2005 and they are celebrating their 10 anniversary for the entire month of September. Making ice cream traditionally from the scratch by using egg, milk, cream and sugar, Tom's Palette has created their unique flavour every month which I felt very creative. The consistency of the ice cream as well as sweetness are simply perfect.

Like most Ice Cream Palours, you are invited to have a taste of the ice cream first before deciding what to order.

Pick your Choice

Salted Egg Yolk has been on the top of my list during every visit and that's also the reason on my return to Shaw Towers. The taste of salted eggs yolk is never overpowering and I find them delighting with its light yet savoury flavour. Ice cream was smooth with its unique taste as well as texture, different from the creamy ones I had. The saltish tingue coupled with rich flavour is simply heavenly.


Sharing my big cup, I had another half of it filled with White Chocolate Nori, a new flavour in a mixture of white chocolate and seaweed. As a seaweed lover, I was amazed that such combination had a perfect marriage.

Salted Egg Yolk & White Chocolate Nori - $5.60 (Big)

Nuts N Such is a combination of Peanut Butter & Mocha Batter. Rich and thick layered with eggless mocha brownie batter.

Having Longan Red Dates reminds me of the packet drinks that can be found off the shelves. Flavour is rather strong and if you like the drink, you will like this oriental flavour too.

Nuts N Such & Longan Red Dates

In conjunction with their 10 years anniversary, Moscato Melon is one of the limited edition. It looked like sorbet in faint orange color. For those who are taking away Ice Cream, Moscato Melon is not available but only available for dining in house.

Moscato Melon & Honey Cinnamon 

Students can enjoy 10% off their ice cream if  they present their Student Identification upon purhcase.

Rating: 3 / 5

Tom's Palette
Location: Shaw Towers, 100 Beach Road #01-25 Singapore 189702
Operating Hours: Mon-Thurs 12-9.30pm
                                Fri-Sat 12-10pm 
                                Sunday 1-7pm (Closed on the last Sunday of the month)
Website

Guang Zhou Mian Shi

We all heard about the legendary Wanton Mee from Tanglin Halt Market that only opens in the evening and decided to give a try. The first visit to Tanglin Halt Market turned out to be a disappointment as no stalls were opened during then - I guess it fell on the Market Washing date on the calendar.

The stall is easily located as it is located at one corner, anyway, there are not many stalls there and it should be very obvious of where they are.

Wanton Noodle

Wanton Noodles was springy enough, coated with dark sauce and come with vegetables as well as slices of Char Siew Meat. I had quite some expectation before having Guang Zhou Mian Shi's Wanton Mee but later on was kind of disappointed as it was something run of the mill, no robust taste or giving any wow factor. Wantons on the other hand were separated and placed in a small bowl containing soup. Soup was not bad though and I felt that the taste of the wanton can be improved if the marinate were done better.

Wanton Mee - $3.50 (Big)

Wanton

 At least the Shrimp Dumplings were better than the average ones in the market. In a bowl of soup with blanched vegetables, the dumplings fillings were more generous. The presence of chestnuts crunch and marinate were hits more than misses.

Shrimp Dumplings Soup - $3.50

Individual Shrimp Dumpling

Overall, I felt that there was nothing to rave about on their Wanton Noodles and having said so, if you are going to Tanglin Half Market at night, please bear in mind that there aren't much stall open at that hours.


Rating: 3 / 5

Guang Zhou Mian Shi
Location: Tanglin Halt Market, 48A Tanglin Halt Road #01-04 Singapore 148813
Operating Hours: 1730 - 0300

Honey Creme

With a number of soft serve ice cream chains popping out in the malls these days, I find it hard to remember its name especially when their names were rather close with words like "honey", "milk" and cow.

Honey Creme

Honey Creme concept is originally from South Korea and they are popular for serving soft serve ice cream made from premium ingredients topped with organic honeycomb.


Besides the usual milk soft serve that they have in cups, they do have some local milk favour like Teh C, Teh "Gah Dai". Ice cream can be served in cone or cups.

I had ordered one of their special edition Ice Cream, Pandan Gula Melaka and was totally amazed by its taste. It was a reminiscent of "Mr Softee's Chendol" from 7-11 which was also my favourite.

Pandan Gula Melaka - $6

Gula Melaka is contained in a disposable pipette,allowing ourselves to squeeze the ideal amount of it onto our ice cream. Pandan Soft Serve was not too milky and has a faint green color. It tastsd heavenly with the hint of pandan.

With Gula Melaka

You will find some rice krispies at the bottom of the cup, coconut flakes at the top and in the middle of the cup, you will find palm seed (attap seed) that was cut into smaller bits.

As an overall, I was impressed by the taste however price wise, it might be on a higher side for a cup of soft serve like this. Nevertheless, I will still patronize them once in a while.

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Honey Creme
Location: Jem, 50 Jurong Gateway Road #B1-06 Singapore 608549 

328 Katong Laksa

I was quite happy when I saw 328 Katong Laksa in Westgate and had been eyeing for a meal there fore quite sometimes.

Stall at Westgate

There was no single customer dining in house during my visit which make me felt rather skeptical about this branch's standard and taste of laksa. Nevertheless, I still went ahead and order my small bowl of laksa at $5.

Menu

Laksa gravy was heated up over a portable electric stove on a big pot and then scoop onto a bowl of ready prepared ingredients. Since the shop space was rather small, the kitchen is kind of open-concept to the patrons.

Laksa - $5

Laksa was welcoming with noodles cut into reasonable length, allowing us to enjoy the dish by using spoon. Gravy was not spicy nor it was any too rich, thus it was rather addictive with the fine chopped laksa leaves bringing additional aroma to it. Ingredients on the other hand were of a good proportional ratio to the noodles with fresh cockles, prawns and fish cakes added.

Have a bowl!

Yummy!

Despite that I have mentioned earlier on that there was no "dining in" patrons, I do notice many were there for take away and its not just 1 bowl of laksa but a few at a go. Thus don't worry that you have to travel to the East for Katong Laksa, we have it in the West side of Singapore too.


Rating: 3.5 / 5

328 Katong Laksa
Location: Westgate, 3 Gateway Drive #B2-05 Singapore 608532

Hoshino Coffee

While walking along the shop front of Hoshino Coffee, the mock up Western-Japanese fusion dishes capture my attention with its yummy looking appearance and literally make me drools at the sight. They not only drew our attention but drew us closer to take a look at them.

Hoshino Coffee

Theme with dark brown and black furnishing, the entire place looked grand and English, not any like the usual hipster cafe.

Hoshino Coffee Interior

Decorations of the Japanese Lamps were seen hanging from the ceiling.

Lanterns

Being an odd one out of the group of friends, I had ordered the Ice Fruit Teas while the rest were waiting for their caffeine fix. Ice Fruit Tea was served in a decanter whereby the black tea is infused with assorted fruits like apple, orange, blueberries and even preserved plum. It had also gave me a good idea to start my own kind of infused mix fruit tea.

Iced Fruits Tea - $9.90

Hoshino Coffee is strongly advocate for. The cold coffee was served in elegant metal cup with milk and syrup placed separately. The after taste of the black coffee was not too bitter and does not have the sour taste. It's a pity that when we were ordering, the grinding machine was out of order and we could not have a taste of their famous hot hand drip coffee.

Ice Coffee - $6

We had the Pie Pizza which falls under the Capitol Specials. There was a strong wave of cheesy aroma the moment the plate was placed on the table. Pizza crust was crispy with thin layers like croissant texture, unlike the usual doughy pizza we had. Potatoes wedges with tomato soup dip and salad are part of the dish too.

Mushroom & Chicken Pie Pizza - $15

Tonkatsu Curry Rice may be a very common dish in any Japanese restaurant but Hoshino's Coffee has this dish done up well. The curry was mild with a big weighty piece Tonkatsu was delicious, accompanied by shredded cabbages by the side. Tonkatsu was perfectly done up and fried to its golden brown perfection, crispy battered at its exterior yet retaining its succulency. 

Tonkatsu Curry Rice - $17

If you knows about "fuwa-fuwa" in Japanese, you would have knew that the souffle is actually fluffy as describe in its description. The "cloud" was amazing soft with tomato baked rice beneath when you reveal the Souffle layer. Baked rice packed of buttery fragrance and was delicious with ingredients like mushrooms and ham.

"Fuwa-Fuwa" Hoshino Souffle - $15.80

Another must try will be its Omu Souffle with Tomato Rissoto.

Omu Souffle on Tomato Rissoto with Shrimp & Broccoli - $16.80

Hoshino Spaghetti with eggplant, bacon, shimeji & sausage is another recommendation. Look at the runny egg on the centre, that's how temptations starts! Added with roasted sesame seeds to enhanced the taste on the "cooked to perfect texture"spaghetti just gave another reason not to have this dish skipped.

Hoshino Spaghetti - $14

Pasta were cooked to Al Dente Perfection with ingredients like mushrooms, prawns, seaweed, fish flakes and a scoop of Mentaiko .

Mentaiko Shrimp & Japanese Herb Ohba - $15.50

The texture of spaghetti was near to perfection, still holding its firmness yet not being to hard. A good mixture of pasta in cream base sauce with mushrooms, seaweed grilled and cooked salmon, enjoying two different cooking style of a salmon being served.

Salmon with Wasabi Cream Sauce - $16

Here's a close up of the charred lines for the grilled salmon with wasabi.

Salmon with Wasabi

There services was more misses than hits. The service team was rather new with a handful of trainees and service could have been better if food availability is enough over a weekend. For a place where coffee is strongly advocate for, we was initially told that the coffee machine was spoiled thus we could not order their dripping coffee and took the Iced Coffee as an alternative. To make things worse, only 3 cups of iced coffee was served when we had ordered 5. There then with further probing, we was then told that Ice Coffee was sold out too. *Shrugs*

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Hoshino Coffee
Location: Capitol Piazza, 13 Stamford Road #B2-55 Singapore 178905 

FFL Fresh Fruits Lab

With so many cafes popping up over this few years, how do they actually stand up among others beside the quality of food? FFL (Fresh Fruits Lab) differentiate themselves with a unique theme in their restaurant. Located in the East Region of Singapore,

Facade of FFL 

Artistically theme with laboratory inspired environment with writable black board surface on its wall at the counter.

Black Board Surface

Take a look at the shelving at the side of the Lab and you will find interesting articles in each compartment.

Interior

I have not touched or seen any periodic table since I last had my chemistry lessons. Interestingly you may get to see one portion of their menu that was designed like the periodic table we used in science lesson. However, at a closer look, you will realize that its actually referring to the fruits.

Periodic Table

I like the concept where utensils were served in lab apparatus with fruit juice as welcoming drink held in test tubes as our welcoming drink. IT just reminded me of the school days where we were doing some practical lessons in the science lab. However, not to the extend of putting them into our mouths.

It was a good gesture of FFL to serve complimentary juices for tasting purposes and for those that are health conscious, you can order their fruit juices as an substitute to your soft drinks. As soon as we settled down they have served us with 2 kinds of juices in the test tubes namely: the cucumber orange and orange carrot.

Fruit Juices for Tasting

Besides serving the complimentary juices in test tubes, we were overwhelmed by the drinking water too, served in beakers. Have you ever drink anything from the beaker? For me I have not and that's my first time doing that.

Drinking water in Beaker

Even the utensils were placed in the tray. It felt as though some science experiment is starting soon.

Utensils

The ultimate drink for detox if this is what you are looking for. A mixture of fruit juice using lettuce, cucumber, spinach, lemon and apple, quite refreshing I felt.

Zesty Greens - $8

The hot and the ice mocha has a dollar difference in their pricing.

Ice Mocha - $7

I dont mind having anything messy like this especially when there were so many goodies on the plate. Scrambled eggs were truffle infused and were soft, good to pair along with their toasted english muffin, roasted sweet potatoes, bacon-wrapped pinepple, oxford sausages, roasted tomatoes and fruity salad.

Messy Breakfast - 17

Close up on the eggs

Soft and fluffy pancakes were infused with banana fragrance. It was topped with banana slices on a bed of apple paste. Drizzle them with some maple syrup and enjoy!

Bananalicious - $11

I find that apple and banana on pancakes taste not bad afterall.

Close up on Banana Pancakes

Initially we had ordered the lychee cake but had cancelled it due to that we have no more stomach room for desserts. What a miss!

Cakes Section

The location of FFL may be a little inconvience for some but I would say its not really inaccessible as it is still within walking distance from the MRT Station. As for those who are driving, parking lots are limited along the streets.

Rating: 3 / 5

FFL Fresh Fruits Lab
Location: 351 Changi Road, Kembangan Singapore 419818
Website

Milkcow

Milkcow sells Korean soft serve Ice Cream and this Ice Cream Parlor has a number outlets in Singapore Since January this year.

Milkcow

Interior was pretty cool. Even though with limited seating, interior was decorated in black and white theme. Upon looking at the cute little mascot of theirs, it reminds me of my symbol too on this website.

Interior

Just like many cafes and ice cream stalls, they are manned by the youngsters who are still studying.

No.1 Choice

With Oraganic Milk & Honey as its recommendation, my order was pretty straight forward and without much thinking I ordered such flavour out of so many choices. Softserve was very creamy, out of my expectation and perhaps being oraganic, their ice cream can be reached out too those health conscious consumers.

Honey on the other hand was sweet and went very well with creamy ice cream. :)

Milky Honey - $5.50

Milky Cube was a combination of the Milky Soft Serve Ice-Cream with a good of honeycomb. Grab some and place into your mouth and be stunned by the sugar rush of milk and honey. I cant be any sweeter during that day!

Milky Cube - $5.90

A scoop of sweetness

Richness of the ice cream was great. With so many Ice Cream and Yogurt brands/stalls coming out recently, Milkcow has just given me another choice to have them again.


Rating: 3.25 / 5

Milkcow
Location: The Cathay, 2 Handy Road #01-03 Singapore 229233