Crown Bakery & Cafe @ Bukit Timah

Located at Crown Centre, this bakery cafe is painted in charming cerulean/tiffany blue. Looks striking from afar and had passed by this place once and yesterday was the first time trying it.

cafe's facade

let's eat some breads

The cafe welcomes walk-in customers and do not take in reservations for seats. Ample tables at the alfresco area and they are observing the safe distancing rules. Indoor dining is limited to 3 tables during this period.

indoor dining

Order at the counter and make payment first. Customers will be given a buzzer and to collect when food/drink is ready. Staff are young and friendly.

As with a bakery, was inclined to try their breads, hence ordered their B.L.T.C and Grilled Pork Sandwich. Customers can choose their bread for the sandwiches, so we had ciabata for the sandwich and croissant for the B.L.T.C.

For drinks, I tried the mocha and the "Sweet N Simple" juice.

B.L.T.C (front) @$14.90 and Grilled Pork Sandwich (back) @$15.90

I suppose B.L.T.C stands for bacon, lettuce, tomato and cheddar? Hahaa! All the yummy ingredients in the sandwich. Very tasty combo and slightly on the saltier side due to the bacon. Sinful, and satisfying. Loved the salad on the side. Fresh, crisp and tasty from the sprinkling of dressing.

thick cut bacon stack

But the star, ought to be the grilled pork sandwich. Well buttered crispy toast, thick cut juicy and flavourful pork belly that was grilled perfectly. Yums! Not forgetting them pickles in there. Lovely combo.

thick and juicy

Have it all with a glass of sweet healthy juice. I liked my green apple and celery juice. Sweet~

Sweet N Simple @$6

For hot drink, try the mocha. Loved the sweet thick cocoa taste, and I thought the drink temperature was just right. Enjoyed this quite a bit.

Mocha @$6

thick and sweet

And of course, da-bao'ed (take-away) some of the breads. Can't buy too many because its prices are on the higher side.

Assorted Breads

Salted Butter Roll @$2

Almond Cream Brioche @$2.40

inside of the brioche

My favorite of the lot, was the Japanese Sweet Potato Mini Loaf. When its stated as mini, it really was!

Japanese Sweet Potato Mini Loaf @$5.20

I thought the sweet potato was just on top

but I was wrong, inside there's sweet potato~

plentiful of sweet potato~

Crown Bakery & Cafe

Address: 557 Bukit Timah Road #01-03 Crown Centre, 269694
Website: https://www.crownbakery.com.sg/
Online Shop: https://crownbakery.oddle.me/en_SG/
Contact: 6463 3066
Business Hours:
Daily 730am to 7pm

Enjoy Eating House And Bar 享受热食饮料 - Delivery

Was searching for food to be delivered for a small birthday celebration for the bro. Embracing the call for #stayhome and was searching via Feastbump website for restaurants that's onboard the delivery wagon. Didn't want to get from Foodpanda nor Deliveroo as these two platforms only had limited choices for CCK/Yew Tee area.

Saw "Enjoy Eating House and Bar" and thought it sounded familiar. True enough, this place was featured in NOC's Food King series under the title "Food King Singapore: Legendary Zi Char to Try in 2019!".

Ahhh, ok. Let's try to order! Very simple to place the order, and I was a bit kiasu so placed it a day earlier (around 10pm) for next day lunch time delivery. Paid and received email acknowledgement to state that it was pending completion of the payment. And, order confirmation via email came after that within the same day. Cool.

Delivery was prompt and on-time. Thank you for the safe delivery! I ordered the two dishes that Ryan and Dee Kosh liked and was impressed with, while the other two dishes was to make up the minimum order of $50. So, there was the "Grandma's Te Kah Bee Hoon", "Chef Joel's Mee Kia" (the recommended dishes). Wasabi Prawns and Har Jeong Gai (Prawn Paste Chicken).

lunch spread from Enjoy Eating House

Hey, prawn is an auspicious dish right? So, wishing my bro lots of laughter with this prawns dish. The crystal prawns were plump and varying sizes. However, the meat was a tad too cooked. Probably due to the longer time it sat inside the container for delivery. Sauce was leaning to the sweeter side with the cubed mangoes and mayo.

Prawns in Wasabi Mayo Sauce 芥末蛋黄明虾 @$17.80

The Har Jeong Kai wings, has the adequate fragrance but on hindsight, it won't be something that I'd order again, especially for delivery. By the time it reaches the customer, the wings would've turned soggy, and the oily-ness was even more apparent. Loved the shrimp paste smell, and the well marinated meat but best eaten fresh off the fryer.

ENJOY “Har Jeong Kai” Wings 虾酱炸中翅 @$11.80

How about the mee kia, did the noodles turn soggy? Well, the noodles were softer than desired but still ok.

Chef Joel's Mee Kia is an upmarket-fied version of mee kia with the inclusion of truffle onsen egg, crab meat and pork cheeks.

Chef Joel’s Mee Kia 总厨幼面 @$11.80

lardo bits and pork cheeks!

The 'liao' (ingredients) were of generous portions. At least 6 to 7 pieces of sliced pork cheeks in there! The truffle on the sous vide egg was really mild, and the pork cheeks were of a firm chew.

mee kia

Was most happy with the bee hoon. Will recommend the bee hoon. Take my money $$! But warning first. This dish is of strong flavours.

Grandma’s “Te Kah” Bee Hoon 招牌猪脚米粉 @$12.80

look at those skin~

All the things that you ever wanted in this dish; wok hei, delicious flavours, collageny skin and good portions of lean meat that's tender but still with a good bite? It's all there. Thank you, ah ma.

Overall, good prices for these bar food and efficiently prompt delivery service. Keep up the good work, guys!

Enjoy Eating House and Bar

Address: 383 Jln Besar, Kam Leng Hotel, Singapore 209001
Website:  http://enjoyeating.sg/
Delivery: https://enjoyeatinghouse.oddle.me/en_SG
Contact: 9299 1601
Business Hours:
Daily - 11am to 1am

The Gong By Drinks & Co @ Duo Galleria

Revisited this place for one of our wine nights because there's tasty food and reasonably priced drinks. Another motive was partly because we were curious if the food still tasted good on a regular visit as opposed to a tasting session. 

drinks menu

Decided to get myself a glass of beer while waiting for the rest of the peeps. Hey, it's Happy Hour after all! An iced cold Sapporo would be nice.

かんぱい Sapporo Premium @$11

Soon, the rest of the gang arrived and we decided to munch on truffle fries and enjoy our pre-dinner drinks. Loved that the fries was served piping hot, but thought something was missing from the bowl. Ahhh....I think am accustomed to having truffle fries topped with shaved parmesan so when this version was served without it, it just felt lacking. Sorry, brain had been wired in this way!

three is not a crowd

Skinny Truffle Fries @$16

pretty bottle of soda water

beer and fries

"What's nice here?" Asked our friends who had never tried this place. The majority of us smiled and nodded. Most of the dishes were recommended based on our past experience during the tasting session and the rest was based on preference of individuals.

To start, we tried the foie gras. Served glistening, on a piece of crisp toast and adorned with sliced strawberries and grape. The liver was quiver-y, rich and decadent tasting. We had but the tiniest piece as the 6 of us was sharing for this item and as per the rest of the meal. Hahaa!

Pan Seared Foie Gras @$25

We also had the Gong Salt & Pepper Squid. Anything that has the namesake of the restaurant, better be good! The squid was battered and deep fried to a golden hue. There were some cut chilies, peppercorn and garlic crisp tossed into the mix, salted and the plate was finger licking good. I was actually scooping up the bits of garlic chips to munch. So tasty especially with that hint of peppercorn.

Gong Pepper & Squid @$17

For mains, we ordered carbs! Lots of carbs! Somehow carbohydrates and alcohol, goes well together. To accompany our meal, we picked a bottle of red off the shelf. 

Big Bunch Merlot (Hawke's Bay 2014) @$48

juicy and yummy

Let's dig into the mains, shall we? First up, and by popular demand, the Assorted Mushroom Pizza. We absolutely loved the flavours of the mushroom pizza the previous time but again, it looked the same yet there was a difference in taste. We figured out, it could be the mushroom paste was reduced this time round, and hence there was a reduction in the umami flavours of the mushrooms.

Assorted Mushroom Pizza @$26

up up and away, lingering cheese pull~

Pizza was still good and we enjoyed it through and through. We also revisited another favourite (although mine was the Hokkien Mee!) and that is the Crab Meat Claw Fried Rice with Tobiko. Colourful plate and best eaten while still hot.

Crab Meat Claw Fried Rice with Tobiko @$14

How can we not order any meat? Impossible! And, so we had meat. An expensive Bangers and Mash, the lovely Iberico Pork and our favourite New Zealand Lamb Rack.

Bangers and Mash @$27

Loved the crispy fried onion rings. Lovely big ring but alas, only that few pieces. It has the English Cumberland sausage, that prompted me to search wiki for it, and it's supposed to be long.  But ours was short lei, how? Haha! Enjoyably meaty, salty enough to reach for a sip of the wine and loved that caramelized onion gravy on that bed of soft mash.

We craved for meat and of course, ordered our favourites from previous visit. The Iberico Pork came looking sexy with its charred bits. The center piece (pun intended) was amazingly good. Juicy, flavourful and tender. Lovely texture of the pork, enjoyed the charred broccoli and lovely eggplant puree (but this was less smokey in comparison).

Iberico Pork @$24

amazingly flavourful, tender pork

Quite consistently, the New Zealand Lamb Rack (250gms) was the best performer. It was as good as we remembered it. Well, previously, we had it in the Mixed Grill Platter but this time round, the spotlight is on the lamb rack and lamb rack alone and it delivered!

New Zealand Lamb Rack @$34

side view

Well seasoned. and superbly grilled, the lamb rack was succulent to bite and loved those meat near the bone. Smokey, salty and flavourful, plus non-gamey. Served with roasted baby potatoes, grilled  broccoli (gotta love this!) and pickled shallots. Sneaky to have pickled shallots in there but it's refreshing to the taste bud with a sharp tangy sweet jolt.

Service was friendly, and efficient. Overall, a good place to dine with good food and reasonably priced bottled wines.

The Gong by Drinks & Co

Address: 7 Fraser St, #01-59/60 Duo Galleria, Singapore 189356

Website: http://thegong.com.sg/

Contact: 9619 4568

Business Hours:

Daily 11am to 12am

Red Star Restaurant 红星酒家 @ 54 Chin Swee Road

An impromptu visit to Red Star during a weekday lunch sometime in Dec last year, thanks to a colleague who drove us out to enjoy good food. It has been too many years since I last visited and would like to say that I had enjoyed the dim sum. Delicious food and a special treat from the said colleague. 谢谢你!

entrance

The place was bustling during lunch time. Lots of foreign friends were spotted dining there. We went without reservation and luckily, there was a table available for us.

interior

dim sum menu cum order chit

Started with porridge because the service staff was pushing the porridge cart over, so we ordered two bowls to share amongst the four of us. Flavourful and thick, plus loaded with chunky chopped century egg, minced pork bits, deep fried crispies, and spring onions.

scooping up the porridge

century egg porridge @$4.70

loaded with ingredients

Then, the usual suspects of har gao, siew mai, chee cheong fun and char siew bao. Loved the plump har gao that was packed with prawn meat. But we had to eat fast lest the skin hardened.

har gao @$4.70

siew mai @$4.70

Siew mai was also topped with much fillings and each bite was devoured quickly because the next item had arrived! Char siew bao (BBQ pork buns) were piping hot, but it was so good! The scallops chee cheong fun was good but I liked the char siew bao more because imagine hot, fluffy bao with savoury fillings, doesn't that sound yums already?

char siew bao @$3.70

so fluffy and savoury

Scallop Rice Roll @$4.90

Of course, we didn't forget the steamed pork ribs and chicken feet. The chicken feet was rather spicy and quite shioks to eat. The steamed pork ribs trumped with its flavourful, tender meat that's slippery smooth.

chicken feet @$4.70

pork ribs @$4.70

Of course we didn't just stop there, we ordered a bunch of other things such as seafood beancurd skin, carrot cake, carrot cake, prawn rolls, and yam puffs.

seafood beancurd skin @$4.10

fried carrot cake @$4.90

banana with prawn @$4.70

yam puff @$4.70

not sure what this was but it was nice

yang mai @$4.70

fried prawn dumplings @$4.70

For the finale, we got the special of the day and that's the sugar cane prawn which the staff said was a special item and may not be available everyday.

sugar cane prawn @$4.90

can't wait to bite

The sugar cane prawn was of a good size, and easy to hold. It's a prawn paste on a sugar cane stick and coated with bread. After deep-fry, the bread became fluffy and crispy while the prawn paste inside remained succulent and tasty. It reminds me of  面包虾.

We were so full after the meal. The above fed 4 guys and 2 girls.

When things are back to normalcy, would like to revisit to try their other items.

Red Star Restaurant 红星酒家

Address: 54 Chin Swee Rd, #07-23, Singapore 160054
Website: https://redstarrestaurant.com.sg/
Contact: 6532 5266
Business Hours:
Daily 8am–3pm, 6–10pm