Afternoon Tea at Anti:dote Bar @ Fairmont Singapore

Realised that my last visit to Anti:dote was way way back in 2016. Read more about the experience at that time, here. My friend Wendy, wanted to do afternoon tea, so this would be a timely revisit.

Reservation was made a week in advance via the hotel website and received a phone call the day after, to confirm the reservation. Wow, that was fast!

Was greeted at the entrance by the friendly staff and gotten my Safe Entry detected and vaccination status verified. My table was right at the back where there were already a few other tables occupied.

view from my seat

Wendy had arrived earlier and decided on her tea. "Sweet Innocence", she said. The menu stated it as an exceptional composition of black tea and green tea, combined with a fascinating mélange of fresh Japanese flower blossoms and ripe tropical mango.

Sweet Innocence Tea

And what was I having? Long black, apparently. Hahaaa, afternoon tea without tea. Hmmm.

Long black

Chose the $58++ set which was without any amuse bouche. Once order is placed, the famed afternoon tea drawer is brought out fairly quickly. Staff will briefly explain each of the tier and its items.

An Afternoon Indulgence @ Anti:dote

Sweets

Sandwiches

What shall we start first? For me, it would always be scones first. Would be nice if the scones were warm when served.

peekaboo

Madagascan Vanilla Scones

Lemon Butter Curd | Devonshire Clotted Cream | Strawberry Marmalade

The scone breaks open easily by hand with a single twist. And yes, I spread it with copious amount of curd, cream and jam. Wendy was aghast, and asked, "Are you sure?" Yes, I'm pretty sure that I want all the tasty flavours together! Keke.

It was nice but I do wished for different scone flavours to contrast? Perhaps, can bring back the parmesan scone?

eating it anyhow I like~

Next, let's go for something sweet. First sweets we tried was the tea-cake, which was essentially a small piece of financier with caramel sauce and adorned with popcorn. 

Popcorn Caramel | Sea Salt | Tea Cake

The pop-corn made an interesting visual but it was rather soggy and once we got past that, I thought I tasted toffee / caramel. Decided that I quite liked this one, minus the popcorn.

like eating soft toffee~

let's sip some tea/coffee before we continue

Next, one of the sandwiches. First one, was the squarish 'bread' of smoked salmon, ikura, homemade lox and green apple. Hmm, isn't lox the same as smoked salmon? 

Smoked Salmon | Ikura | Homemade Lox | Green Apple

hmmm

Unfortunately, I didn't like the square salmon item at all as it tasted rather flat with prominence of salty taste. However, Wendy liked it hence, am not sure if it was just this particular piece.

Next, I tried the macaron that has the Nespresso logo. So pretty, this macaron!

Philadephia Cheese Cake | Macarons

too much force?

Loved the macaron. The cream cheese was lovely and overall, not too sweet. The sweetness were all from the shell. Let's push this up to top 3 favourites.

There is also a Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience, and August 2021 collab is Fever Tree x  Monkey 47 Gin. I was naturally curious and requested for such an experience.

There are 3 types of Monkey 47 Gin available; Schwarzwald Dry Gin, Barrel Cut and Sloe Gin.

Monkey 47 Gin

One may inform the friendly bartender if you have any preferences for the drink. Thanks to Debbie, I got to try some tasting samples of Monkey 47 Gin, as I am noob in this area.

Original or barrel aged?

Interestingly, the '47' in Monkey 47 Gin indicates the number of botanicals that went into to gin, and its alcohol content is at 47%. Whoa!

The original is colourless and hits you straight up on first sip. Sharp, sweet citrus-sy, spicy all at once. The barrel aged and Sloe Gin versions are deeper in colour, and sweetest would be the Sloe Gin. There are heavier woody, peppery, berries and sweet notes in these two. 

Made my choice and happy with Monkey 47 Schwarzwald Dry Gin, served in balloon glass with traditional garnish of grapefruit peel, served with Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic Water.

Monkey 47 Gin with Fever Tree Tonic Water @$23++

top it up with refreshingly flavourful tonic water

top view

Thanks to Debbie, I had a delicious drink. Refreshing and with adequate alcohol strength. And, paired this with stronger tasting savoury food such as Coronation Chicken tart.

Coronation Chicken

Tasted of curry, and goes well with the drink. The Vol Au Vent (puff pastry) was nicely flaky and not too thick. Feels healthy too, not oily.

Cucumber sandwich

The green jelly/jam like thingy at the top of the cucumber sandwich, had no taste and again, am not sure if it was meant to be like this?

front (yellow): Roasted Sweet Potato | Coconut Malibu Financier, Strawberry Pistachio Battenberg (cake)

I did enjoy the flavours from the bright yellow, happy looking roasted sweet potato coconut malibu financier. Goguma taste, not overly sweet with a hint of coconut. Yums! 

(left: green) Muscat Cream Choux Puff

The muscat cream choux puff tasted exactly as what it was. Of sweet grapes.

The item that had a heavy 'bread' like texture was the Organic Egg sandwich.

Organic Egg sandwich

eggy and bready

My favourite items from the Sandwich drawer are currently the Coronation Chicken and Old Winchester Cheese Hazelnut Oat Quiche. Forgot to take a photo of the quiche but it was tasty with a burst of soft cheese.

Capsules Coffee Bonbon (looks familiar hor?)

Favourite Top 3 from the Sweets tier are the Philadephia Cheese Cake Macaron, Nespresso Chocolate Hazelnut Sable and Roasted Sweet Potato Coconut Malibu Financier which is tied at third place with Popcorn Caramel Sea Salt Tea Cake.

Nespresso Chocolate | Hazulnut | Sable - elevated with gold flake

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience but the Sandwich/Savoury items could be further improved. 

Alas, we forgot to take our cookies from the drawer and it was whisked away never to be seen again when staff came to clear away the drawer. So sad!

Expect to spend ~$95 (with Gin and Tonic Trolley Bartender Experience), or ~$68 without additional drinks.

Anti:dote

Address: 80 Bras Basah Rd, Level 1, Fairmont, Singapore 189560

Website: https://www.fairmont-singapore.com/dining/antidote/

Contact: 6431 5315

[Staycation] Experiencing Deluxe Room at The Clan Hotel Plus Nearby Makan Places

The Clan Hotel

Address: 10 Cross St, Singapore 048417

Website: https://www.theclanhotel.com.sg/

Actually, it is rare for me to be back at the same hotel, twice in the same year. But then, there were a lot of firsts for everyone too, so never say never!

First experience was superb, because of the room tier. Reminisce about the Apr staycation here. So yes, was a tad apprehensive of going back to the same place so soon. The Clan Hotel has 3 room types; Deluxe (24 sqm), Premier (31 sqm) and Grand Premier (36 sqm). Room highlights between the Grand Premier and the Premier seemed similar, with the difference in bigger room size and the availability of a bathtub and The Clan Daily Special for the Grand Premier.

So, out of curiosity, I went back for a 3 days 2 nights staycation in July and this time round, for a no-frills experience of the regular Deluxe room. Went to check-in at about 12.30pm because was stuck at home doing some work for the office. Was also unsure if I could do an early check-in, so that was that.

Similarly, I was greeted by the concierge downstairs and I knew my way round, so went up to Level 2 lobby and made myself at home. Saw Alex at the tea counter, but he was super busy preparing tea. Saw Sam who happened to walk past and greeted him by name. He was pleasantly surprised but he too, was busy attending to someone else. So, waited for another few more minutes before Jovena came by.

She's friendly and cheerful, and because this was a revisit, so the process was explained fairly quickly and necessary signatures obtained before the key card was presented. This time round, I was assigned to Level 16. Previously, I had enjoyed the view from Level 21.

Deluxe Room 24 sqm - King Bed

First impression of the room? Hmm, yes it was noticeably smaller than the Premier Room. Having said that, it was still the same King sized bed. Keke, so not much difference for a solo traveller.

view from Level 16

quite nice to lounge on the day bed by the window

The bathroom has all the necessary amenities and the standing shower was still pretty spacious for me.

spacious shower stall

shower strength was good

Super liked the fast dry tiles in the shower stall. Hehe, my favourite thing to do in the hotel.. is taking nice showers. But that'll be icky if the floor or the towel never dries off in time...

channeling memories of Japan travel via the warm seats

all replenished on a daily basis

Was there any in-room snacks for the Deluxe Room? Happy to say that yes, there was!

Complimentary In-Room Snacks - Triple Choc Chunk Biscuits and Ruffles Potato Chips

complimentary drinks in the mini fridge

tea

favourite Nanyang Ritual tea

loved the Nespresso too

Liked that they gave  4 different flavours of Nespresso, and replenished daily. Nice.

Of bak kut teh cookies and Nanyang tea

For this booking, am only having breakfast at the hotel for one-day. Which was fine since I had tried almost all their items in the breakfast menu except the ever changing daily special.

Overall, it was a comfortable stay, although I did miss the Orient Brew and the nice tea set in Premier Room.

Qin Restaurant & Bar

Read more about the experience at Qin Restaurant this time round.

Guccio Restaurant

Website: https://www.guccioristorante.com/

Because I was there during Restaurant Week or rather, Chef's Signature event by DiningCity, also tried Guccio which is just a few minutes away from The Clan.

Sarnies

Website: https://sarnies.com/Singapore

For the morning without hotel breakfast, I went over to nearby Sarnies to get one of their breakfast sandwich. The people there are super friendly! Being my maiden experience with Sarnies, was totally amazed by the size of the sandwich. Like, huge man!

bacon and egg sarny @$9.50

such a huge sandwich!

loaded with crisp bacon and two fried eggs

Yes, I enjoyed the bread with hot Nespresso. So satisfying.

Food Delivered from Yishun Park Hawker Center

Ordered food via Makanguru with "HH56" promo code. Minimum order is $40 otherwise, there will be a small order fee surcharge. Delivery fee is $8, and with the promo code, there will be an offset of $5.60. This is a not a sponsored post, but rather sharing of experience. To tell you the truth, I have not been to Yishun Park Hawker Center. None at all, since its inception. Hence, it makes sense to have food delivered from there if I wanted to try any. A thing to note about Makanguru deliveries, is that if you specified a timing between 6 pm to 7pm, the food will likely reach by 6.15pm. So far, that's my experience with them.

Wong Heng 旺兴小炒

Stall No.: #01-22

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 11.30am – 9pm

Closed on Thurs.

Lor Mee @ $ 7.50

The menu seemed to be just the typical zichar fried noodles. Chose one that is more interesting, which is lor mee. I have not tried any zichar lor mee and this was the first. There was only 1 size and priced at $7.50 per serving. No photos on the delivery menu, so I was anticipating if it'd be looking somewhat like the Malaysian style of zichar lor mee. Alas, it was not.

The thick yellow noodles used seemed to be similar to the one in hokkien mee. There wasn't any wok-hei in this dish but that's ok. The ingredients seemed aplenty and liked that the portion is generous enough to feed 1.5 pax. There's a couple of prawns, fish cake slices, pork slices and yam. Initially, I thought got sio bak, but that turned out to be yam. Keke. With yam and noodles, enough to fill-up one's tummy.

two servings for me

Roasters Delight　烧味世家

Stall No.: 01-16

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 11am – 8pm

Closed on Wed.

roast pork @$7.50

closer view of roast pork

Danggui Duck @$15 (half)

The roast pork was of the wet market kind, and its skin wasn't crispy by the time it got delivered. The porky smell was a slightly stronger too. Nevertheless, the meat itself was moist and made a good accompaniment to the noodles. I had these with a Syrah.

The duck smelled nice but not too strong with the herbal stuffs. Keeping these for instant noodles in a day or two.

花花 Cooking & Eating 

Stall No.: 01-41

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 8am – 9.30pm

Closed on Thurs.

beansprouts with cockles @$6

tiny tiny

Hmm, gotta have my vegetables and hence, ordered this stir-fried beansprouts with cockles. Ok lah, actually wanted to eat cockles. Liked that there's lardo but these were not exactly crisp by the time it got to my place. The beansprouts were still crunchy and that's lovely. But the cockles were almost non-existent due to its scarcity and its tiny size.

I was that close of ordering white carrot cake but luckily, I chose oyster omelette in the end. The version here is plentyful of eggy goodness and the surprise factor? There's sweet cai poh inside as well! Yay! I chuckled at the presentation, where there's a lone oyster ontop of the fried egg. Don't tell me there's nothing inside..*gasps*

Oyster omelette @$6

plump oyster

Was somewhat relieved to find that there's plenty of plump oysters hidden insde the omelette. I took one third portion of it, and in there was about 3 good sized oysters. I liked the eggs. So yummy.

egg~

Super full after eating the noodles, beansprouts and the oyster omelette. $10 per pax for today's meal.

Happy 56th Birthday Singapore! Happy National Day peeps!