Was invited to be part of the Influencer Takeover programme, and my segment was from 26 Jul to 28 Jul 2019. In case you haven't have a chance to view the postings on Grand Copthorne Waterfront social media channels, here's a list of it:
The hotel has 20 years of award winning hospitality under its belt and was recently conferred five prestigious awards by the International Hotel Awards 2019. Grand Copthorne Waterfront was also conferred with a BCA Green Mark Platinum Award for Excellence in the Built Environment by the Building and Construction Authority (2015-2021). Wow, I was really eager to try out this award winning hotel.
entrance
The experience begins with the doorman (if he's not already occupied), whom will open your door upon your car's arrival at the hotel. Next, as one enters the hotel lobby, look up the ceiling and be mesmerized with the design feature called the 'Molo Clouds'. This feature was created to emphasize the spatial volume in the lobby.
Molo Clouds
I was to stay at the La Residenza and the front desk was a tad busy when I reached at about noon. Once it was my turn, check-in was fairly quick. I was escorted to Level 5 where the suites are located.
in the lift
Level 5 La Residenza Serviced Suites
Typically, guests who are on a mid to longer term stay would typically choose La Residenza Serviced Suites. Here's a short video on the one bedroom apartment that I stayed in.
complimentary fruits platter
living room
bedroom
bathtub view
Here's a look at the in-room amenities:
dryer and washing machine
kitchenette with the necessities
Am glad that the room came with a Nespresso machine. Must say that this machine was well utilized during my stay. Keke.
nice to meet you~
In-room Dining (Room Service via One Touch)
Tried the in-room dining twice during my stay at Grand Copthorne Waterfront. Simply flip the menu that's placed on the work desk and decide on what to eat. Then, press the 'One Touch' button on the phone to order. Simple!
menu for in-room dining
press the '1 Touch' to order
There is a waiting time between 30 to 45 minutes for the food to arrive. The food would be brought with a wooden tray and the drinks and food are covered. Was happy that the laksa arrived and was still fairly warm. The 'Super Laksa' is the luxury version of our comfort food with the inclusion of half lobster meat, 3 medium sized prawns and 3 scallops. The usual ingredients of cockles, beansprouts, taupok and fishcake slices are still there. There was a mountain of rice vermicelli (thick beehoon) as well!
Super Laksa @$32
closer view of "Super Laksa"
Also tried the 2-course meal for in-room dining. Ordered the beef tenderloin as main course and the Thai fishcake as appetiser.
2-course meal @$32
Homemade Fishcake with Mango Relish
Australian Beef Tenderloin (medium rare)
The portion for the appetiser was surprisingly big. There was five pieces of fishcake and I was wondering if it was meant to be shared? The fishcake was of a dense bouncy texture and rather spicy. Nice but too much for one pax to finish.
The beef tenderloin was leaning towards medium and served with grilled asparagus and truffled mash with rosemary sauce. The beef was tender and loved the sauce provided. The truffled mash was well seasoned and flavourful. The asparagus was good too!
with sauce
Executive Club Lounge Access
For canapes and free-flow drinks (selected) in the evening, I could go up to Level 29 where the Executive Club Lounge is located.
Executive Club Lounge - evening view
enjoy canapes and Prosecco
after sunset, view from Level 29 Executive Club Lounge
Activities/Tour
If you're looking to join a tour for some activities after sun down, then head on to Level 3 where Tour East Lounge is located.
Tour East Lounge at Level 3
book your tour here
I chose the Nightout @ Marina Bay tour which is retailing for $68 per adult. The tour includes a pickup service from Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel and drop-off at selected hotels within the vicinity, admission to one conservatory at Gardens By The Bay (Flower Dome or Cloud Forest) and admission to Sky Park MBS.
hotel pickup
first view of the SuperTree
admission ticket
Flower Dome - Baobab
orchid as our national flower, is the theme for August to celebrate Singapore National Day
hello Miss Joaquim
SuperTree Grove night show
passing by Singapore Flyer while walking to MBS
let's go!
the view from Level 56 (MBS Skypark) - was there at the SuperTree Grove earlier!
Guests staying at Grand Copthorne Waterfront would be the last passengers to be dropped off. Reached hotel at about 1020pm. Can't wait to go back to the comfy room and bed!
Stroll Along the River
In the morning, one could take a slow stroll or an adrenaline pumping morning jog along the river.
morning view
walked across the bridge
the view from the bridge
information
boat ride
Breakfast Option
Food Capital
If you fancy buffet style breakfast, then head on down to Food Capital to start your day with a good variety of breakfast foods. Bread? Cereal? Oats? Nasi Lemak? Eggs? Fruits? They have it all.
Food Capital
croissant for you?
sunny side-up, bacon, chipolata
an omelette for me please
breakfast at Food Capital
Executive Club Lounge
On Day 2, I'd decided not to buffet but instead to check out the breakfast at Level 29 to see what's in store. Hmm, decided to just get the french toast and the scrambled eggs.
self-service counter of the usual breakfast items; oat porridge, sunny side up, bacon, chipolata
breakfast menu
French Toast, with maple syrup drizzled
scrambled eggs (with added salt and pepper)
morning view
Grissini Contemporary Italian Grill Restaurant
For lunch options, I headed to Grissini as they were having a "Farm to Table Lunch Special". Guests could pick up the freshest agriculture produce imported from Italy. The colourful fruits and vegetables were on display when I visited.
"Farm to Table" menu
pick me
colourful diet
Farm to Table Lunch Special
ready to dine
Here are my personal favourites:
Heritage Italian tomato salad served with fresh burrata cheese and basil oil @$19
Italian Cantalupo melon served with traditional cold cuts, cheese and valeriana salad @$15
The burrata cheese was creamy and paired so well with the tomato salad that's sweet and tangy. The fig and the melon were so sweet!
The most interesting item to me was the Finochi gratinati, stated as fennel bread and baked with safron sauce.
Finochi gratinati @$18
a well grown fennel!
delicious wines
Overall a pleasant experience though there were a few feedback for improvement. For the summary of the experience, please visit the Grand Copthorne Waterfront's Facebook page for the original posts.
Thank you Grand Copthorne Waterfront for the opportunity to experience your hospitality. Happy 20th Anniversary!
Special thanks to Gilbert and Ji Cheng for the invitation.
Promotion
Promotion for a Staycation River Package, please click here, Please refer to the hotel website for further details. Happy staycation!
Located at No. 33 Keong Saik Road, Wang Yuan Desserts and Coffee offers a comfortable environment to hide away from the hustles and bustles surrounding it. Want to get some 'bingsu' to counter the ever increasing temperature? Wang Yuan offers localised flavours with maximum yummy-ness while maintaining at a reasonable price point. Oh, you wanted coffee? I tried their 'Barista Signature' and enjoyed that cuppa smooth delicious coffee. How about food then? Why not have an Iced Gula Melaka Latte with a plate of delicious nasi lemak?
Wang Yuan Desserts and Coffee, as seen from opposite side of the road
entrance
let's browse the menu
interior
menu
This was an invited tasting so we got to try a variety of items. For drinks, I wanted a hot coffee, so I ended up choosing the Barista Signature because it sounded special. Liked that the barista actually asked the type of coffee that the diner prefers, and when the cup that was brought forth, hits all the right spot.
Barista Signature coffee @$6
"not too acidic, smooth and mildly sweetened"
Wang Yuan uses their own house-blend for the coffee resulting in a balanced profile. Well, I liked its moderate strength that's easy to drink with a velvety smoothness overall. Was warned that it would be sweetened and that was fine since it wasn't overly sweet.
Here's a quick look at the other drinks:
milk tea
Butterscotch Caramel Milk @$7
Feeling hungry? Let's dive in to some hot food. Hankering for some Katong laksa? Yes, they serve it here. Cockles (螄蚶), fish cake slices (鱼饼片), beansprouts (豆芽), prawns (虾) and half a hard boiled egg (水煮蛋 - 一半). Ah, yes...not forgetting the finely chopped laksa leaves. The laksa gravy is slurp-able, with a gentle orange hue that does not feel overly rich yet tasty.
Traditional Katong Laksa 传统加东叻沙 @$7
Feel like having rice? How about a plate of good 'ol nasi lemak, one of our national favourite dish? A few options available; with Chicken Katsu or Sambal Chicken/Cuttlefish/Prawns. We tried the one with chicken katsu. The plate came with well fried crunchy chicken katsu, a large piece of mackerel otah, peanuts and ikan bilis, sambal, cucumber slices and half a hard boiled egg. The rice is pandan flavoured. Loved the chicken katsu for its crunchy batter with juicy and well seasoned meat. Thought the sambal could be spicier.
Nasi Lemak Chicken Katsu @$8
Next up, if you would like to have prata with curry chicken, they do have it here. The curry chicken gravy was light and tasted healthy. Do note that this is typically served with chicken winglets and potatoes.
Curry Chicken (winglets) with Prata (招牌咖喱鸡印度煎饼) @$8
Ever heard of Seafood Laksa Risotto? This dish is Wang Yuan's take on modern and traditional fusion. Imagine laksa broth as the base for seafood risotto. Do note that there is a waiting time of 20 minutes for this dish.
Seafood Laksa Risotto 海鲜叻沙烩饭 @$15.80
Overall, for the food, I liked the Katong Laksa and the Nasi Lemak for its flavors and value-for-money. Hmm, if I could just get some of those crunchy ikan bilis or the chicken katsu onto the laksa, then that will be uwu!
Next up, we are completing our meal with dessert, I mean desserts. Plenty of it!
Bobo ChaCha 摩摩喳喳 @$5.80
a good bowl of bobo chacha
Bubur Pulut Hitam 黑糯米粥 @$4.80
my attempt at an 'arty-swirl' on the pulut hitam
Between the bobo chacha and the pulut hitam, both were good. Traditionalist dessert done right. The bobo chacha was fragrant with the coconut milk flavour yet not overly sweet and healthy tasting. The pulut hitam was of the right consistency and slightly sweeter but hey, this is dessert afterall ;)
No worries if you're not a fan of warm dessert. The cold ones were awesome too!
Chendol Coconut Snow Mountain 煎蕊椰子奶雪花冰@$10.80
The Chendol Coconut Snow Mountain was interestingly presented in a coconut husk. Served with a separate side of homebrewed gula melaka, we drizzled every drop of it onto the 'snow'. Sweet but we still liked it! On hindsight, suggest not to drizzle all of it! Packed with toppings like red bean, corn, green rice flour jelly and attap seeds. Lovely!
For some bingsu, we got the Mango Snow Mountain. Just got to love the fact that we could get this dessert for less than $10 and can be shared amongst 2 pax. Came with two drizzles; mango and milk cap.
Mango Snow Mountain @$8.80
it's snowing mango
And for the finale, there was the Milo Dinosaur Snow Mountain. Milo powder ice tower and served with a green dino perched dangerously ontop of the cocoa snow mountain. Instead of red lava, we have the white lava flowing down its slopes.
Milo Dinosaur Snow Mountain 恐龙美禄雪花冰 @$7.80
Thank you to Kris and Ting Feng for the invite, and Wang Yuan Desserts and Coffee for hosting the session. Special thanks to staff who took care of us.
Wang Yuan Desserts and Coffee
Address: 33 Keong Saik Rd., Singapore 089140 Website: https://www.facebook.com/wangyuancafe/ Contact: 8348 3393 Business Hours:
Mon-Thurs: 9am to 10pm
Fri: 9am to 12am
Sat: 10am to 12am Closed on Sundays
And so, let's continue with our adventure in Melaka. We spent the next 2 nights in Novotel Melaka. Guess what we did immediately after we checked in? Yes, we continued with dinner!
Superior King
amenities
view from room
We knew for sure what we wanted to eat that night. Crabs! Yes, our hotel was really really near Restoran Tong Sheng and we did passed by it but we wanted to go back to Restoran Lee which we enjoyed during our last visit.
Restoran Lee
menu
kacang @ RM3
lime juice @RM3.50
As per our last visit, we did two flavours. We tried the spring onion and salted egg yolk flavour this time round. Last visit, we did their signature carnation milk crab and black pepper crab. Delicious! Waited quite a bit for the crabs. About 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, we started on the side dishes comprising of Muar Otah (don't ask me why we ordered Muar Otah in Melaka...), Hokkien Mee (this aint the black black hokkien mee...) and the customary plate of vegetables. The stir fried cabbages were pretty good. Savoury and chockful of those hae bee (dried shrimp) flavours. Just like homemade. The otah were pretty good too.
Muar Otah @ RM13
stir fried cabbage with hae bee @ RM14
The hokkien noodles tasted like the ones we could get from Singapore zhichar stall. It was basically a plate of braised yee mee in dark soy sauce. The noodles were really inexpensive at RM12 for such a large plate that fed all four of us comfortably.
Hokkien Mee @ RM12
Main course; the crabs. We ordered 3 good sized crabs for 2 flavours for about just SGD88. Lovely! My favourite was the salted egg yolk crabs with its intense flavour and finger-licking goodness.
spring onion crabs @ RM132
salted egg yolk crab @ RM132
It was really satisfying to be able to take your time to slowly savour the food. And, everything tasted better with good company. Thank you foodie buddies and travel kakis. We spent about SGD28.75 per pax for this scrumptious meal. Recommended.
After many hours of eating that started in JB, we decided to get chendol/dessert as the last item before we call it a night. We went to the riverside and decided to check out this place called Straits Werks and Cafe.
Straits Werks and Cafe
riverside
colourful mural
shopfront
Actually, we didn't enter via the riverside entrance. We walked right into its backdoor neighbour, which is a barber shop (albeit unattended at that hour!). The cafe had a very hip feel inside but it was rather hot and stuffy. Its stall front facing the riverside had the 'mamak' stall feels.
Cendol Kampung Hulu
plain 'ol peanut butter toast for supper
forgettable (and regrettable) root-beer float
The chendol was rather nice but it was more of the coconut shake kind of chendol, or even bingsu kind of dessert. It wasn't the Melaka chendol that we were expecting. The root beer float, don't even think about it. It was so flat and thin.
And I thought that was a wrap for our first night in Melaka. But it wasn't. I was wrong. We are foodies. Thus, we ended up at the famous Long Siham back alley.
our table
grilled cuttlefish
most delicious rojak!
We had been to this back alley two years back but we had seafood near the entrance. This time round, we went further in to this stall with the lady selling rojak.
As we sat near her, I could see the entire process of the rojak 'assembling'. Place a few pieces of beancurd skin onto the charcoal grill top and flip after a short while. Meanwhile, cut-up the fruits pieces (mango, turnip, cucumber), cut-up the youtiao, Take out fishballs from a container and cut it into smaller piece. Place the crisp beancurd skin onto the chopping board and cut it up nicely to top the rectangular plate. Pour some dark sauce over and load up the sides with chili sauce. Serve.
It was a magical concoction. Everything tasted so good together. What a good night it was!
Restoran Lee
Address: 155, Jalan Bendahara, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia Contact: +60 6-284 6601 Business Hours:
Daily 4pm to 11pm
Cendol Kampung Hulu @ Straits Werks and Cafe
Address: No, 30, Jalan Kampung Hulu, Kampung Dua, 75200, Melaka, Malaysia Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/cendolkampunghulu Contact: +60 0173540524 Business Hours:
Daily 12am to 12pm
Capitol Seafood-Longkang Siham 佳必多祖传海鲜小吃
Address: 120, Jalan Munshi Abdullah, Kampung Jawa, 75100 Melaka, Malaysia Business Hours:
Wed to Mon - 5.30pm to 1100pm
Closed on Tues
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