Skyve Elementary Bistro & Bar @ 10 Winstedt Road

Located at about 10 minutes walk from Newton MRT... that is if you weren't lost like me. Hahaa, if you see Peck Hay Road or lots of condominiums, then need to turn back towards Newton Circus and straight towards the Cairnhill Community Club. Along the way, should pass by a kindergarten. Cross the road and you'll see signboard indicating Winstedt Road. Walk somemore till pass by Anglo Chinese School and you'll a building with fences, and probably some cars parked by its road side.

fence outside Skyve

Its alfresco dining area is really the first thing you see when entering the compound.

outdoor and indoor seatings

We were seated outdoors and it was a large wooden table with benches for seats. The menu looks like a university final year report. Flip the menu, and you'll find abstract, and whatever not inside.

menu cover

clever play

more bombastic words with funny content

My friends were enjoying a basket of truffle fries because I was late. Tried some and it was good. Crispy on its outside and nicely soft inside.

frites (photo taken when near finishing!)

Happy hour or as they prefer it here, the Skyving Hour, lasts until 8pm. Draughts beer like Hoegaarden and Stella Artois, goes for $5 per half pint. After Skyving hour, it's $10++ for half pint.

Hoegaarden

beer to quench thirst

Ordered chicken wings, squid ink spaghetti and seafood pizza to share.

squid ink spaghetti (@$30++)

seafood pizza (@$20++)

The squid ink spaghetti was yummy! Fresh baby squids that squirts out juice when popped into the mouth. Lots of sauce for the spaghetti and tasted pretty creamy. Not too salty and noodles not undercooked. Nice.

The pizza is rectangular shaped with about 6 strips that's good for two to three bites each. Crust was pretty thin but only the edges were crispy. The middle part of the pizza were quite soggy as it absorbed most of the sauce. Ample ingredients, tasted fresh prawns but thought it had chicken or was it tuna on it. Can't remember but if it's just seafood, then should be tuna? Tomato based sauce.

Chicken wings was quite small in size and by definition of 6 pieces, it was actually just 3 whole chicken wings with the wing part and drumlets separated. Smells like prawn paste chicken but very pricey (@$12++) for its portion. Can skip this and order the frites instead.

Decided to try the desserts, so we ordered the Ivory Dome and Choc Fondant (need to wait 15 minutes but it was actually longer...)

Ivory Dome

Choc Fondant

The Ivory Dome is actually white in colour. Too dark and was using the tealight, so it turned out quite yellowish in the picture. My friends likened this to a big ferrero roche. Outside is white chocolate (sweet), decorated with pistachio bits and inside has a small ball of passion fruit sorbet (I think). The fruit seen in the picture was mango.

Ivory Dome with passionfruit sorbet

The chocolate fondant was nice, but it's ain't no lava cake. The vanilla ice-cream that came with it was nice.

The bill came up to $178 (incl. 3.5 pint of beer in total) for all the food and drinks, and fed 3 pax.

For coffee at Skyve, you may wish to click here.

The House of Robert Timms @ Wheelock Place

Located at Level 1 of Wheelock Place, and very visible from the main road. Visited for lunch, and was fascinated by their all-day breakfast.

Walked in, and got ourselves a seat. The place was pretty relaxed on a weekday.

pardon for the super blurry shot of the bar counter

Service was very friendly, and attentive too. Water is served here, and the service crew will come by once in a while to refill without the customer having to ask for it. Good!

iced water

cutlery

three way toast (there's an extra tomato here 'coz my friend dumped it on my plate!)

Had the '3-Way Toast' which consists of some greens (leaves and cucumber slices), a tomato (served warm), sausage (sliced), mushrooms and poached egg with turkey breast ham on toast and drizzled with hollandaise sauce.

The plate looks so pretty with vibrant colours!

sausages

mushrooms

poached egg

oozing out!

Everything looked perfect. Well, almost... The bread is those rustic kind, but it wasn't buttered. Would've preferred the less healthy version of white bread buttered and toasted so that the butter will melt into the bread. And when the yolk oozed out and make contact with buttered toast surface, then it'll be a much tastier version!

The tomato is one whole tomato au naturel, and was just warm. Probably need a little more time in the oven and a slight drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt?

The mushroom was good and the poached egg consistency was just right. Didn't like the sausage though. It was a rather coarse type of sausage.

This plate was quite filling and somewhat 'healthy' tasting lunch. Am quite amazed if one can still eat desserts after this!

Costs slightly above $15 (inclusive of tax).

Crystal Jade Kitchen @ Scotts Square

Located at Level 3 of the spanking new Scotts Square. This restaurant is one of the few that bustles with activity. Went there for dinner on a Sunday evening.

interesting patterns on the wall mirror

interior

wet towel chargeable @30cents each

 Ordered some dishes to eat with rice. Currently, they have a $1 soup promo (opening promotion), so we got that for each of us. Serving size is for 1 pax each.

$1 chicken soup

The soup tasted quite mild. Perhaps it was just lightly seasoned. Salt shaker is provided prior to serving the soup. There were some tiny bits of chicken meat in the soup. Warmed our tummies on a cold night.

Next, was the crispy cuttlefish with salt and pepper.

crispy cuttlefish with salt and pepper

It's actually cuttlefish coated with flour and deep fried. The cuttlefish was fresh and not overcooked. Had the impression that this dish would be similar to the salt and pepper chicken (Taiwanese snack) but it certainly bore no resemblance whatsoever to that.

closer view

We didn't really wait till all dishes arrived. It was devoured as soon as it reached our table. So it somewhat felt like a 4 course dinner.

Then, the fish maw, cucumber with oyster mushroom arrived. Supposedly our 'vegetable' for the night.

fish maw (the squid looking thingy), cucumber and oyster mushroom

The fish maw wasn't those usual deep fried fishmaw that's usually cooked braised with pork ribs or in soups. It came looking like a sliced up squid strips. This was our most expensive dish @$16.80++. Were there any oyster mushrooms in there? Thought those looked more like the Japanese brown enoki mushrooms. Enjoyable dish but not wow.

Roasted duck was up next.

roasted duck

plum sauce

The duck was rather chewy that night, unfortunately. Perhaps, roasted pork would fare better than this.

For desserts, my friends had red bean paste and mango pudding. I was too stuffed to eat anymore!

red bean paste and mango pudding (milk in separate container)

closer view of mango pudding

This meal costs about $65 (inclusive of taxes and a pot of chrysanthemum tea) and enough to feed 3 pax.

The Coastal Settlement @ 200 Netheravon Road

Secluded at 200 Netheravon Road near Changi Beach Club, this place is not that difficult to find. Turn right to Netheravon Road and take the first left turn to go into its carpark, if you're driving. Otherwise, bus #29 comes to this area as well. Here's a link to their website for directions and contacts.

food menu

drinks menu

special menu?

Happy hour is till 9pm, where a 3L Kronenbourg 1664 Eiffel Beer Tower goes for $50++ ($80++ otherwise). We got ourselves one, and filled it up with Kronenbourg 1664 Lager.

drink and be merry!

mini glass, bottoms up!

While deciding on what to order, and between gulps of beer, do explore the interior of the restaurant. Lots of things to look at.

Vespa lovers, feast your eyes

chairs, ladders and a bucket?

spacious, cosy, interesting

Think we went a wee bit overboard with the food. Ordered two starters; Wagyu Beef Cubes and Deep Fried Calamari. For mains, we had Prawn Aglio Olio with XO sauce, Grilled Fish, Perfect Roast, Rosti Sausage and a Rib-Eye Rosti. That is a whole lot of food for one guy and four ladies. Uh huh...

ice water is served freely

Service crew was friendly and polite. This place is relatively new (opened on 14th December 2011) and has a laid back vibe to it. Feels almost like you're at a friend's place for dinner.

Right, back to the food.

deep fried calamari, with tartar/mayonaise sauce in a passionfruit bowl?

crispy tasty bits

The calamari was tasty, with crunchy bits. And the passionfruit sauce bowl was interesting. Goes well with ice cold beer.

wagyu beef cubes (@$22++)

closer view of the cubes

The wagyu beef cubes were a tad disappointing. Overdone for most of the cubes, resulting in rather chewy bites. The mesclun salad that came with it, was dressed in a somewhat sweet dressing. Nice porcini slices though.

yummy mushroom with vege and beef

Appetites whetted, and ready for more. Onwards to main course!

clockwise from top: Rosti Sausage, Perfect Roast, Prawn Aglio Olio with XO sauce

best tasting dish of the night!

Liked the prawn aglio olio very much. Noodles done al-dente, springy enough but not undercooked, lusciously coated with oily and spicy 'hae bee hiam' (dried shrimps with chili) XO bits and topped up with three prawns cooked just right. Pricey dish (@$22++), but tasty and flavoursome. Yums!

Perfect Roast: truffle fries, roast chicken and french beans

First time having truffle fries. Can't say I like the smell, though. Fries itself was quite 'hard'. The chicken skin was nicely marinated but inside was a tad dry. Too bad. Perhaps, the name "Perfect Roast" has certain implications on our expectations?

Rosti Sausage

simple and enjoyable

The Rosti Sausage is such a simple dish and nicely laid out. Strips/strands of potato goodness dabbed with sour cream, a mouthful of greens and a bite of sausage. It was good.Wash it all down with beer. Burp.

The most surprising dish of the evening was the grilled fish. I had this picture in my mind of a grilled fillet western style. So, it was quite a surprise to see a whole fish done up in Asian homecooked style (though the menu did say it uses Indonesian spices...)

grilled fish with pineapple chinchalok paste

Not good with fish varieties but think it's ikan selar or scad fish (where you have to peel off the hard skin near the tail and lower body). Quite a homely comfort food. Detected a hint of santan in the rice too. My nanny used to make this dish and its dipping sauce consist of raw chopped onions, chopped chilies and dark soy sauce.

fish with kicap, kangkong and rice

The Rib Eye Rosti (medium rare) came last.

rib eye rosti with broccoli (@$32++)

Quite a large chunk of meat. The doneness for some parts were still quite rare. Overall, preferred this than the wagyu cubes.

medium rare

Feel free to chill out at this place till 12am. Spotted a picture taking machine inside the restaurant, so played with it for a while. Quite fun! Oh, all the submitted pictures will also appear at the restaurant's FB page.

press 'Take Photo', look up at the round camera hole (top part of the machine) and smile!

send it to yourself via email!

busy

The main course prices are mostly within the $23-$26 price range (with the exception of steaks). Didn't have any room for desserts. Maybe next time. Expect to spend about $50~$60 per pax for a 3-course meal plus a pint of beer.