Kaiserhaus Restaurant | Cafe | Bar @ Capitol Theatre

Don't know much about the Habsburg Empire, so wiki'ed it proper. All those description cajoled up strains of musical notes of the Blue Danube Waltz, by Austrian (nonetheless!) composer, Johann Strauss and perfectly poised gentlemen with neatly combed hair, big moustache and dressed in decorated elaborate costumes, while the ladies in their lovely gowns, dancing the night away... Haha!

Sort of fairytale like, and for some odd reason, Kaiserhaus managed to conjure up that effect.  Especially after visiting their website. So, decided to drop by for lunch on a Saturday. Quandoo reservation did not go through initially, so tried it via their website and eventually, it worked. However, it wasn't necessary as the place was fairly empty on our day of visit.

ready to order

Take Exit D from City Hall MRT and you'd end up at Capitol Piazza. Walk over to Capitol Theatre and Kaiserhaus is at Level 2.

Friend ordered the Tafelspitz, said to be one of Austria's national dish as well as favourite of former Emperor of Austria, Kaiser Franz Josef. There's even an instructional booklet on how to eat it.

how to enjoy Tafelspitz

Ok, backtrack a bit. For drinks, of course my idea was to try the Austrian beer and they do have a beer promo then. Nope, not Happy Hour, but two beers for $18++ with a free side dish of bread or deep fried mushroom.

Hirter Beer Promo @$18++

Shoved the dark lager to the guy while for me, I took the lighter one. To get the beer to our table, that took some time as it seemed to have been poured from upstairs and the staff had to carry it down that majestic stairs to the dining hall.

interior

Cheers! Hirter Mochl and Hirter Private Pils @$18++

Happy Hour price for the beer was $8.50 and the Crispy Fried Mushroom was priced at $12++ ala-carte. Hence, with the promo, the side-dish was almost free.

Crispy Fried Mushroom @$12++ (ala-carte)

crispy button mushroom with homemade tartar sauce

The side dish was done in no time and beer was nice but let's have the main course now.

lunch spread

The Tafelspitz for one pax (@$38++) consist of a copper pot filled with beef bouillon, root vegetables and bone marrow, side-dish of creamy spinach, horseradish sauce and toasted rye bread with potato rosti. With so many 'plates', the table for two is no longer enough and the staff pulled the table next to us to expand the space of the table. Keke.

beef broth with liver dumpling (half)

grain fed beef rump, bone marrow and oyster blade

The booklet instructed to spread bone marrow on a piece of toasted rye bread and season with salt and pepper to taste. But alas, the bone was there, but where was the marrow? But that's ok, since butter is supplied. Tasted nice and light beef broth was comforting. Loved the creamed spinach. Smooth and hearty.

potato rosti and toasted rye bread

creamed spinach

The other main course, was the Original Wiener Schnitzel from Veal. Two generous pieces of veal, pounded, breaded and pan-fried.

Original Wiener Schnitzel from Veal @$38++

Served with a potato salad, lemon wedge and cranberry ragout.  Loved the cranberry ragout with the meat. Even better with the horseradish sauce.

Traditional and classic Viennese desserts are available including the famed sachertorte. According to the lady at the cakes section, she mentioned that the cakes are baked in-house daily.

plenty of desserts

raspberry truffle cake

Total meal would've cost about $110+ but with the Entertainer App, one of the main course was free. Hence, per pax bill came up to $34 each.

CreatureS @ 120 Desker Road

It was an impromptu decision to visit. All of us were packed into Ivan's car, and Kris punched a few numbers on her phone, talked abit and voila, we had a table at CreatureS on a Saturday evening. Interesting district, this Desker Road. Think dark lanes, some cafes and plenty of traffic. Parking was tricky, though there was one pretty near the junction about 100 metres away from the shop.

menu

Our table was upstairs and noted that there's an alfresco seating at Level 2 as well. Place was well decorated with plenty of flowers and plants. The washroom has a spa-ish feel to it.

centerpiece at Level 2

table for party of 8

table with a view

Ordered desserts as we already had our dinner elsewhere. Got two of their bestsellers to try, and some fries for munchies.

The Asian Herb Fries tasted a bit like, uhm...twisties. Haha, yeah. Mainly of curry, pepper and salt seasonings. Bar food for the cocktails, perhaps. Speaking of cocktails, spotted one that I'd like to try in future; Creamy CreatureS thats concocted with dark rum, gula melaka, and rosemary perfurmed milk froth. Sounds good but didn't order that night since we were there for desserts. Desserts and cocktail? Hmm, not for me.

Asian Herb Fries @$12++

If you'd like a cake with local flavours, try the orh nee (yam) or durian cake. Since we had to make a choice, we chose the durian cake. Made of pandan genoise sponge, pandan vanilla chantilly cream and of course, most importantly, the mao shan wang durian paste. Pardon my ignorance, had to look up the wiki for genoise (genoese) cake which is basically Italian sponge cake, where whole egg is used as opposed to yolk and white beaten separately.

Durian Cake @$12++

I like sponge cake, cream and durian and this slice had all of those, so this was pleasant. The durian paste tasted good and has strong fragrance but unfortunately, there were some dry bits in there as well.

Next up, was the heavy duty CreatureS Chocolate Cake. If the item carries the shop's name, it better live up to the expectation! No worries, as this one did and did it well. Bouncy espresso chocolate sponge layered with thick soft layers of chocolate sitting ontop of homemade salted caramel sauce and sprinkled with himalyan salt, resulted in a very intense and right-in your face saltiness and chocolatey gooeyness. Yums. When it gets a tad too heavy, the coconut ice-cream is there to balance things up a bit.

CreatureS Chocolate Cake @$18++

Would strongly suggest that the cakes to be shared. Durian cake as desserts between 2 pax, and the Chocolate Cake between 4 pax (at least!).

FATCAT Ice Cream Bar @ 416 Bedok North Avenue 2

"Journey to the East" That's practically what it was. Moving via MRT from North-West to the Eastern region took about an hour and 15 minutes with one train transfer. Subsequently, took bus 255 from Bedok Interchange to Blk 416. Someone just told me that it was within walking distance from the MRT. Hmph. Now only you say. Haha! But that's alright, the bus stops directly opposite of the block, so one needs to just cross the road to get there. Yes, it was true. The notorious queuing time was an hour, so thank you msginginly for securing our table. Kopi time with fellow hoppers; msginginly, jellylovesfood, runningman and chubbybotakkoala.

le menu

pondering over the many choices

The place was forever busy, with people waiting outside and packed to the brim inside. Was there on a weekend, around 430pm. For sharing, we had the (by now much raved about) charcoal salted egg waffles with two scoops of ice-cream and a deconstructed strawberry shortcake. The service staff at the ice-cream counter seemed harried, so one better quickly tell her what you want to try!

While waiting for the desserts to be prepared (which took quite a long while of probs more than 15 minutes), one could order the alcohol spiked spheres. Friend who tried it, liked it.

lime mojito sphere @$4.50

If not, how about a cuppa coffee? The regular 5 ounces or the smaller 3 ounce glass.

latte

Finally, the dessert arrived. Liked that the staff took the time to explain/introduce the desserts that we ordered.

Deconstructed Strawberry Shortcake @$12

The Strawberry Shortcake came in a carefully assembled deconstructed manner. An interesting dish with soft fluffy cake strewn ontop of chili/curry crumble and decorated with some elderflower, some cream, fresh strawberry slices and some dried thin strawberry gelly, and ice-cream flavours of fior di latte and raspberry. All eaten together for that contrast in texture and taste where one gets sweet, spicy, salty and sour. The marshmallow had a texture that wasn't what I had expected...

yummy fluffy cake and ice-cream

The charcoal waffles came less decorated than the deconstructed cake but can still see the effort in plating.

charcoal waffles with two scoops of ice-cream @$15.40

Poured the sauce all over the waffles and we dug in soon after.

let's dig in!

Likeable and tasty. How could one say no to salted egg yolk sauce? We chose two scoops of ice-cream that has similar colours. Should have taken the sea-salt matcha flavour but then, this one came with salted egg yolk sauce already. Hmm. Could do with more salted egg yolk sauce though. The butter beer ice-cream was interesting and tasted of beer! Butterscotch was sweet and creamy.

Good to try.

Wee's Family Coffee Shop 黄家咖啡店 @ 117 Bedok Reservoir Road

When you think of a zhichar (煮炒) stall, what comes to mind? Would it be a plate of delicious silky 滑蛋何 (flat noodles) that has been infused with the fiery hot wok's breath topped with savoury smooth eggy sauce? Or, a simple tasty yangzhou fried rice (扬州炒饭)? How about the Singapore noodles ( 新洲米粉) that's popular in neighbouring country?

A zhichar place to me, is about communal dining. When parents are too tired to cook, then zhichar would be a good choice to feed the family. My family of 5 would usually order steamed assam fish, another meat (either chicken or pork), vegetables and claypot tofu.

Went cafe hopping around Bedok area, and when it was time for dinner, we trooped over to Wee's Family Coffee Shop. The uncle and aunty at the shop were friendly and got us seated at a table that was reserved but the guests won't be here for another hour or so.

signboard at the coffeeshop

chalkboard specials

We ordered handmade hae zhor 虾枣, prawn paste chicken wings 虾酱鸡, salted egg prawns 咸蛋虾 (de-shelled), stir-fried sweet potato leaves 番薯叶 with belachan and the shop specialty of mushroom tofu. Heehee, five dishes for the five of us. That's akin to one person eating up the whole plate of sweet potato leaves. Wahaha! Ordered all small portions, but still quite substantial for us to finish.

虾枣 hae zhor, served with sweet sauce @$8

mushroom beancurd 松菇豆腐 @$12

salted egg yolk prawns @$16

stir fried sweet potato leaves with belachan @$6

har jiong gai aka prawn paste chicken wings 虾酱鸡 @$8

The deep fried dishes, were all done very well. Crisp skin, golden brown and moist inside. Loved the tangy pickles that came with the deep fried dishes. The hae zhor was about two bites size, and tasted more of the minced pork. Homely dish. 

The mushroom beancurd was delightful and the taste was well balanced. Loved the deep fried enoki and the sauce that went so well with the rice. Was impressed by the size of the salted egg yolk prawns. Evenly coated, well fried and it was simply a joy to bite into them.  

Prawn paste chicken was good as its inside was still juicy. The prawn paste taste was rather mild though. Pair it with the fiery sambal sauce, equates to yums!

must-have for the prawn paste chicken

 
Lovely dinner, reasonably priced. Best to make reservations or turn up early before 630pm for a table on a weekend.

Hokkaido Fish Market @ Novena Square 2

Prices have gone up. Still, this place is popular with lunch crowds. Here was what I ate way back in 2011 (subsequent revisit was not documented lah...). Fast forward 4 years later, am still ordering the same. Heh heh.

 Hokkaido Fish Market is a place with nett prices. This place is at Level 2 and near the Koufu food court.

sashimi 3 kinds (三色) @$18

mekajiki, maguro and sake

At times, it might not be served on ice. That day, the mekajiki was really good. The salmon slices could be slightly thicker though.

The bento set @$12 and available in limited quantities, are so popular that usually they'd be sold out before 1pm.

saba fish set @$14

The new wagyu beef bento set looked pretty good. My colleague who had it, said it was nice.

wagyu bento @$18

Skyve Wine Bistro @ 10 Winstedt Road

This time round, managed to do dinner. Usually, we'd just have drinks and some snacks like chicken wings and fries. Was in the mood for some mains, but discovered that its delicious beef kalbi is no longer in its menu. Sads...

chardonnay to start the night @$14++

For mains, we tried the Parmesan Beef Burger and the Ancho Cod.

Parmesan Beef Burger @$34++

The beef burger parmesan infused patty, red onion confit, bacon jam, foie gras butter, spinach, kaiser brioche bun and a small bucket of truffle fries. Didn't recall the taste of foie gras butter though. Bun was nice since its a brioche. Hmm, the beef patty was a tad tougher than expected.

lovely truffle fries

The Ancho Cod was a surprise though. It was sitting atop of some white sauce but was packed with some lovely heat. Yums. The seasoning for the fish was good. Flavourful and with some kick. The yam and potato chips were good.

Ancho Cod @$38++

A dinner with two mains and two alcoholic drinks, would cost around $75 per pax. Thanks to the Entertainer App, we saved $34 off our meal here.

Kopi Tiam 咖啡店 @ Swissôtel The Stamford

Nearest MRT would be City Hall, and from there head on towards Raffles City. Go up to Level 2 and follow the signs to Swissôtel. You will notice Cafe Swiss first, and Kopi Tiam is just round the corner after that.


Kopi Tiam simply means coffee shop. Here it offers comfortable environment and convenience, where one could taste local fares of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Eurasian flavours, all under one roof.

entrance

The ambiance was a bit of ecletic and some bits nostalgic.

local brand

It has been ages since the last visit to this place but I do remember what I ate then. That was before the food blogs era. Hence, for this tasting, I must taste its satay, once more. For old times sake.

menu

table for large group

For starters, we had the satay and rojak. The satay consist of a choice between chicken, beef or lamb. With a mixed plate, one gets to try all three meats all at once. Flavour was good, with the meats well marinated and most importantly, it was deliciously tender. Only lament? The meat skewers were skinny. Could have eaten two plates of these babies. Eh, we did...

beef, lamb and chicken satay @$16++

Now, the rojak. Menu states it as local Chinese salad. It has cucumber, beansprouts, turnip, water spinach, prawn paste, peanut and chili. I liked it. Well balanced and well mixed. The addition of those crispy fritters that remained crispy throughout, was a winner. This was good for sharing between 4-6 pax as appetiser.

Local Chinese Salad - Rojak @$16++

Craving for fried carrot cake and fried oyster omelette? No worries, Kopi Tiam has it. Good for sharing. If you asked, what's the difference between these and those found at the hawker centres? For one thing, the version at Kopi Tiam was less oily. The prawns used in the carrot cake was of a good size and one plate could have feed two as main course, or feed 4 as appetiser.

The oyster omelette had a good flavour going for it, loved the crispy starchy bits but I was let down by the tiniest of oysters. For this price, the expectation would be of plump juicy oysters.

(white) Fried Carrot Cake @$17++

Fried Oyster Omelette @$22++

Moving on to main courses. For noodles, one could opt for laksa or hokkien mee. Bearing the name of Signature "Kopi Tiam" Laksa, the expectation mounts. The colour was good, noodles cooked till just right and the spicy broth was rich but mild in the spice factor. The accompanying ingredients included the usual suspects of fish cake slices, tau pok (beancurd), prawns and shredded chicken. To amped up on the spice, one could request for the sambal. This versatile sambal could be enjoyed with the radish cake as well.

Signature "Kopi Tiam" Laksa @$20++

Braised Hokkien Mee “Singapore Style” @$18++

The Braised Hokkien Mee "Singapore Style" could have been great. The noodles were likeable. Its smooth  texture that glides down the throat and served hot but not burning. The serving size for this plate was rather generous and it can feed two small eaters comfortably. If the broth was infused more with those yummy seafood umami'ness, it would have been better.

If you are dining in a group, then perhaps, you might want to try the Fish Head Curry and some other small dishes to share. The fish head curry is served with pappadum and steamed rice. Its curry spiciness was of a comfortable level and perhaps might come across as mild for locals. Huge fish head with enough meat to go around for a group of 6 pax. Quite shioks to douse the rice with the curry.

Fish Head Curry @$55++

For beef eaters, try there's two styles to choose from with its own distinctive flavours.  Wok-Fried Beef with Shaoxing Wine and Soya Sauce or the Beef Rendang. The wok fried beef was of a smaller bite-sized and cubed. Surprisingly tender. Simple ingredients of New Zealand beef, rice wine and soy sauce. Yums. Give me this, a bowl of rice and I'm happy.

Wok-Fried Beef with Shaoxing Wine and Soya Sauce @$22++

For more robust flavours and beefy chunks of meat, try the beef rendang. Tasted of kaffir leaves, lemakness from coconut milk and macho beef with a bite. Wonder if they sell those yummy spicy rendang sauce in a jar.

Beef Rendang @$20++

To complete the experience, we went loco with the desserts as well. Memories of childhood surfaced with an order of hot bubur cha cha. Cubes of sweet potato, yam and tapioca jelly swimming in a bowl of milky white sweetened coconut milk. Ahhh....those were the days.

Bubur Cha Cha (hot) @$8++

For the modern Singaporean, orh nee (yam paste) seemed like a favourite. Many years ago, one of the ways to enjoy this dessert (short of making it yourself) was to wait for someone's wedding dinner and it might appear as the preferred dessert.

yam paste with gingko nuts (orh nee)

How about something that is slightly modern? The Pisang Goreng, or also known as fried banana fritters. Using pisang emas, and deep fried till golden brown. Served with a drizzle of maple syrup and a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. Simply lovely.

Pisang Goreng @$9++

hi there, sweetie~

Enjoyable local fares in a comfortable air-conditioned environment. If you are around that area and gotten tired from shopping, why not have a break at Kopi Tiam and try its yummy smooth (and strong) teh-tarik and sweet pisang goreng as tea-break snacks?

Special thanks to Adora, Medwin and Wendy for hosting the session and HGW for the invite.

Kopi Tiam @ Swissôtel The Stamford

Address: Level 2, Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, Singapore 178882
Website: http://www.swissotel.com/hotels/singapore-stamford/dining/kopi-tiam/
Contact: +65 6431 6156
Reservations: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/kopi_tiam_swissotel/