Thursday 29 March 2012

Hummerstons Restaurant - Robertson Walk

*This post has been edited in order to provide more information! :) 

Six of my friends and I headed to Hummerstons one Saturday night for dinner to celebrate my friend's birthday! 
If she had not invited us for dinner there, I never ever would have found this pretty little restaurant tucked away at Robertson Walk, which was opened by the ex-executive chef of PS Cafe. 




As soon as I walked into the restaurant, I already loved the decor! The lighting was warm and inviting, but the furniture was interesting and not run of the mill, with an interesting mix of different textures and patterns. 

The bar area of the restaurant 


This picture was actually taken after our meal, which was at about 11pm/12am, hence the lack of people! However, I do have to say that for a Saturday night, it was pretty empty! 0_0

Anyway, as usual we took a mightily long time deciding what to order as we are usually too excited talking to even think about food! Also, I am an EXTREMELY indecisive person...always worrying that I will not like what I order and then think to myself that I SHOULD HAVE JUST ORDERED THE OTHER ITEM INSTEAD!

My friend Cheryl and I decided to share our food to try more items! :D LOVE SHARING!

The first item that we shared was a French onion soup! 
I can't remember the price of this as it is not listed on the menu online :/ 

The soup was preeeeety bad! The taste of the wine was so strong that it distracted from the actual taste of the soup and overall it was really a very bad French onion soup! French onion soup is actually one of my favourite soups, but there are just so few places that make good ones OR serve any at all! The best I've tried so far was cooked by my neighbour! 

Pumpkin Soup

My friends tried this and said that it was good! 
*Edited to add in Mel's comments - "the soup was tasty (yes that's vague!!!), creamy and had a smooth texture" and just to let you know, she feels that this soup made her feel a little better about her nasty cramps! haha. 

Grecian Style Squid ($16)

Also did not try this! But I think it was quite nice too?? Haha! Realised that my post today will be quite useless as I didn't try all the dishes and barely took note of the dishes and their prices! Well, hopefully you will still enjoy reading this though! :) 
*Edited to add in more comments from Mel, who tried this dish! - Mel said that "the squid was not overly rubbery and the salad was fresh and crisp, in terms of taste there was nothing superbly wonderful but it was enjoyable!" 

Poutine - The Italian Job ($13)

According to Hummerstons' menu, a Poutine is a dish that is a homestyle potato and gravy combination. 
Hearing that, Cheryl and I were both very excited to try one of their Poutine's! (they have six to choose from)
Finally, we decided on the Italian Job which has homemade beef and bacon ragout, mushrooms, caramellized onions and quesillo cheese. The description of the dish sounded so so yummy, but I have to admit that when it came, we were a little disappointed! Although the dish was tasty, it also felt like it was just an easy dish that was made up of "last night's leftovers!". 

However, it was yummy and I guess it was good comfort food! But I would have preferred mashed potato instead of just regular fries. Also, although it's under starters, this dish is pretty filling, so it would be best to share it with someone or have it as a main instead of a starter. 

The mushroom pasta, which I can't find on the menu online too!
 (I have this feeling that there is a portion of their menu missing on the online version!)

Anyway, I tried a little bit of the pasta, tasty...but not fantastic! The pasta was a little on the bland side, but thankfully the mushrooms that came with it were extra tasty, so it made up for the rest of it! I guess in order to enjoy this pasta you have to make sure with each mouthful, there must be a mushroom that goes along with it! 

Quesadilla (also missing from the online menu!)

Also shared this with Cheryl! I found the taste of it a little too sweet, but Cheryl really enjoyed it! :)
Nothing much to say about it though! 

Creole Seafood Stew ($36)

The stew has white fish, scallops, prawn, calamari, garlic, basil, fennel, tomato creole, parsely buttered crouton and rouille. 

I think out of all the dishes that we ordered that night, I would have to say this was the best dish! The seafood was really fresh and the sauce at the side was very tasty and delish!!! Absolutely loved the prawns in this dish. 

After our very filling meal, we couldn't just leave without having dessert! But before moving on to that, we had to take a pause for some present opening!

Mel's presents from us! :)

The pretty birthday girl! :D Love ya mellers!!!

After Mellers had her present opening ceremony, we had our yummy dessert!!!

Raspberry chocolate cheese tart ($10.8)

Tarte A Roon ($11.8)

Berry Bread & Butter Pudding ($12)

In all honesty, I can barely remember how any of these desserts tasted!!! Hence the lack of much comments :/ Goshhhh! But I do remember liking them all I think! Haha. None of them were not nice, in fact I think all were nice! Out of the three, I do believe that my favourite was the berry bread & butter pudding! 
However, in comparison to the desserts from PS Cafe, I still believe that PS Cafe beats them hands down.

And that was it!

Price:
I'm not too sure what the total bill was as it was a treat from Mellers (thanks mel!!!:D), but the mains range from about $25-$40. 

The Meal:
On the whole, the food was pretty good but not something that I would HAVE to go back for!But it is still worth trying as the place was nice and the food was definitely passable! 

The Ambience:
The ambience at Hummerstons was nice and relaxing! Perfect for a date or a nice dinner with friends. It wasn't too noisy which is something that I liked as well!

The Service:
Service was pretty alright! Howver, I wasn't too aware of it that night as we were busy talking! 

Overall:
Overall, I had a lovely time at Hummerstons because of the wonderful company that I had! It was a nice small group and our "chats" just seemed to be so fun that it took us such a long time to leave the restaurant! Although I only gave a rating of  3.5 overall, I would definitely head back to Hummerstons to check it out again, this time hopefully paying more attention to the food and service! They are also known for their brunches, so I may go back one weekend to try that out! :)

Address:
11 Unity Street #02-14
Robertson Walk

Opening Hours:
Tue-Fri: 12pm- 12am
Sat, Sun & Public Holidays: 10am- 12am

Also, do note that Friday and Saturday dinner seatings are at 6pm and 8.30pm only and reservations are not available for Sat and Sun brunch! 

Different Menus available here:

Although this post wasn't really very helpful, I do hope that you did enjoy reading it!

Thank you so much for reading! 

Love,
Tiff

Monday 5 March 2012

The Knolls - Capella Singapore

Hey everyone, I'm back with another post...yay!! 
About two weeks ago, my family and I headed to The Knolls at Capella Singapore to try their high-tea. 
The restaurant is nice and relaxing with light flowing in from the windows, and the hotel is really beautiful and tranquil - quite a rarity in Singapore! The Capella is actually so quiet that you almost don't feel like you are in Singapore at all...(or Sentosa!)

This is one of the pretty pools...there are actually two more pools below this! What's so nice is that it is so empty and also overlooks the sea...LOVE IT! :) 

The entrance to The Knolls 

Inside the restaurant

Really love the choice of colours that they used! Really earthy and warm, not too 'atas'. It looked really inviting! 

Anyway, The Knolls is actually a Mediterranean restaurant that offers a variety of Mediterranean cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner. 

On top of that, they also offer an afternoon menu that comprises of the Queens Tea, Peranakan Tea and Japanese Tea. Each set is supposed to be ideal for 2 people and also comes with a pot of tea. There are over 30 varieties of premium teas  from China, England, India and Japan...making it so difficult for us to choose which tea we wanted! 

After much contemplation, we finally decided on ordering 2 of the Queens Tea set and 1 Peranakan Tea set.
Sorry, but I can't remember which pot of teas we ordered!!!

The Queens Tea with my Godma's face in the background! 

The Queens Tea consisted of yummy sandwiches, scones that came with cream, jam and fresh strawberries as well as other sweet pastries.
I really loved everything from this set- especially the scones with the strawberries! Most of the time, scones just come with cream and jam, but the fresh strawberries made such a big difference to how the scones tasted!!! YUMMAAAAY!
Their sandwiches were so tasty and light and fun to eat as well!

Sweet delights! 

Sandwiches- Egg mayo, cucumber and smoked salmon

Madelines and scones

Peranakan Tea set 

This set was served in a 'tengkat' and was really delicious as well! 



The top tier had some sweet desserts like some sago with coconut milk and a banana tasting pancake thing? Not too sure what it was...but whatever it is, it was ultra yums! 

The second tier, alike to the Queens Set, had some sandwiches...they were some of the BEST sandwiches I have ever had from a high-tea!!! There was an 'otak' sandwich, a 'Hebi Hiam' sandwich and something unknown! ALL of them were EXCELLENT! 

And the last tier had some Peranakan kueh! 

Looking back at the pictures whilst writing this post is making me salivate!!! The only downside to these tea sets was that I felt that it was not enough! Usually when going for high-tea at other restaurants/hotels, it always feels like there is TOO much and you are just going to burst from all that food...but the tea sets at Capella aren't very big and the sandwiches are preeeety tiny! So in the end, we ordered another 2 sets to share! (1 Queens and 1 Peranakan). I'm not too sure if it was because the sets were small or maybe it was because we had not eaten anything in the day and were saving our stomachs for tea, so when we were there, we were ultra gluttonous! 0.o lol! 

Anyway, in total we ordered 3 Queens Tea and 2 Peranakan Tea for 6 of us...so that was almost 1 set per person!! LOL!

My parents! :)

My 2 lovely lovely cousins!!! 

And that was me! :D

Price:
Each tea set was about S$38++ 

The Meal:
I really enjoyed everything from the tea! As I keep saying...yummy! 

The Ambience:
The restaurant was pretty, quiet and inviting...also it wasn't very crowded, so that made it nicer! 

The Service:
Service at The Knolls was really good! The wait staff were very helpful and attentive. 

Overall:
All in all, I had a lovely time with my family at The Knolls and would love to go back again! 

Address:
Capella Singapore, 1 The Knolls, Sentosa Island 

Opening Hours:
The Knolls is opened between 7am-11pm, 7 days a week
Afternoon tea available from 3.30pm- 5.30pm, 7 days a week

Hope you had fun reading this post! If any of you have tried any of the places that we've blogged about, do share your experience with us as well by dropping us a comment or email us at fabandfamished@gmail.com. 
We'd be more than happy to hear from you! :) 

Hope you have a fruitful week ahead!

Till next time, 
Tiff 

Thursday 1 March 2012

Joe's Kitchen - Bt Merah

Hello!!! How many of you out there love Thai Food? If you do then please read on! (:

Joe's Kitchen is a little Thai restaurant tucked away under some HDBs in Bt Merah. Its the kind of restaurant you would walk past without even giving it a second glance. I'm glad my friend brought me there for dinner, because I know if he didn't, I'd be missing out big time!



It's time to order!


Still CNY at Joe's Kitchen.

Ok here's our food!


This is the Thai Style Kang Kong - I don't know what makes it Thai Style but who cares, it's delicious! PLUS, there's lots of garlic!!!! I loveeeee garlic! 


Seafood Tom Yum Soup - Loved the soup but not too excited about the seafood. The fish and sotong was too fishy for my liking. The straw mushroom and prawns were good though! 


Chicken Green Curry! I'm normally not a fan of green curry, but I really liked this one! Order it, you won't regret it!


This is my favourite dish of the evening - Honey Chicken. 
OMG. This honey chicken is freaking awesome.
The guys almost finished up the entire plate of sauce!
YUM!!!!!!
I feel like going back there this weekend just for the honey chicken. LOL!

Now our drinks!


My Thai Iced Tea - I was kinda of disappointed with it because it was quite diluted :( No rich milk tea taste!
SIGH.


The guys' Lime Juice - according to them, it tasted like it came from a can or dispenser. Means no good.

Their drinks are just normal. Nothing fantastic.


Jun Ping, he brought us there! Good recommendation!


GD & I


Lastly, Mango Sticky Rice!!! My all time favourite dessert! It was really satisfying! The rice was soft, coconut was creamy and the mango was sooooo sweet! I was very happy!


 Price: 
I'm sorry guys, I can't remember the individual prices but I know that the total bill came up to $50, and according to JunPing, they don't do service charge (bonus!!!) (:

The Meal:
I really enjoyed every dish (Except the drinks)! I like how some restaurants like this one look so unassuming from the outside but serve kick ass food. 
No frills, no fancy plating but still good quality food.

The Ambience:
Well, its a just a basic restaurant. Not fancy at all.

The Service:
The service was not bad. The lady who served us was quite pleasant.

Overall:
This place is definitely worth a visit. I'm pretty sure you will go back for more after that. 

Address:
Look below please! 



That's all for now! Have a good day at work/school tmr, and party hard tmr night!
TGIF people!!! (:

Love,
Huiyi