Crystal Jade Dining In @ Vivocity

Located at Level 1 of Vivocity. Walked in on a weekday lunch, and managed to get a seat within a minute. Shared a long table with others. Came for their dim sum. Ordered a pot of tea to go along with the meal.

table setting

Peanuts is already on the table, and it costs $3++. So, if you don't want it, do let the service staff know. But I guess most customers don't mind munching it. The wasabi flavoured nuts was the best of the lot.

dreamy looking cup of tea...

Ordered the meat platter (2 types of meat @$20++); roasted duck and pork. The rest of the dim sum arrives in succession, one after the other within minutes except for the siew mai and char siew buns which took longer to arrive.

table (full) of dim sum items

The carrot cake (3 pieces) looked pretty and tasted good. But I find that the texture was a bit too soft.

carrot cake (萝卜糕)

Next, was the 'Mushroom with Goose Liver Sauce Dumpling'. Was feeling adventurous, so ordered this. Was thinking more along the lines of xiao long bao (小笼包) that type but this was proven to be untrue when the dish arrived. Turns out, to be looking more like a har gao skin those type.

mushroom with goose liver sauce dumpling

shrooms and more shrooms!

It's actually quite 'dry', and can't really tell what sauce it uses because there weren't really any sauce. So that was quite a misnomer. Has loads of mushrooms though. This is one dumpling that I won't order again.

The meat platter was next.

roasted pork and duck

star dish; roasted pork with crackling skin and tender meat

The roasted pork tasted as good as it looked. Crispy crackling skin (can still hear the crunch), with soft tender meat. Dab a bit of mustard sauce, yums!

duck skin

thin layer of skin

The duck was alright, depending on which part of the meat that you get. As long as it's not the bone part, the meat was quite tender and the skin fairly crispy. But nothing compares to the roasted pork.

The deep fried prawn roll with mango came out looking different from expectation. Thought it would be more like popiah kind of skin, but instead, it was a softer kind of skin and coated with lots of sesame seeds.

deep fried prawn roll with mango

To fill up the tummy, we had the char siew buns. Soft fluffy pillowy white buns steaming hot with sweet lean pork fillings. What is there not to like?

steamed char siew buns

lean char siew filling (蜜汁叉烧包)

Lastly, was the siew mai. Packed with minced meat and prawns. The siew mai here is likeable but come to think of it, the price of one single piece of siew mai is about $1.20++ each. Wow.

makes a pretty picture, yes?

stuffed to the max, just like our stomachs...

Although we ordered just 5 dim sum items, and one meat platter, it was very very filling meal! Total bill came up to about $56 and fed 2 ladies.

Afresco Gusto @ ION Orchard

Located at Level 1 of ION Orchard. Went there during pre-dinner hours. Was hot and humid that day, so ordered some soda to cool down. At first, wanted to drink cider but they don't have any that day. Bummer.

Peachy Go (grenadine syrup, peach syrup, a cherry and limone gelato)

Quench Me (elderflower, cucumber, limone gelato and not sure what else)

The "Quench Me" (had a sip), was sweet and quite refreshing. My "Peachy Go" tasted more like cherries. Also ordered a Caesar Salad (with additional salmon, so supplement another $6++) and Mozzarella Balls to munch. The menu doesn't have fries, otherwise, would've ordered that instead.

top: Caesar Salad with salmon, bottom: Mozzarella Balls

Liked the colourful caesar salad. The salad leaves were fresh and nicely chilled. The shredded (or rather minced?) hard boiled eggs here seemed more for decorative purpose as it was too finely shredded to leave any impact on the tastebud.

closer view

Smoked salmon wasn't too salty, so that was nice. But, they should just do away with the soggy croutons.

Mozzarella Balls with tomato sauce dip

The Mozzarella Balls were enjoyable. Eat it with the dip, as the sweet and sour taste of the tomatoes gives a welcome contrast to the heaviness of the cheese and oil (deep fried). Perhaps this dish is more suited if one is drinking alcohol. Got quite 'jelak' towards the last few balls...

cheesy goodness with a dash of tomato sauce

Prices are on the higher side, and our total bill came up to about $69 for 3 pax.

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.