Saturday, August 19, 2023

Staycation at PARKROYAL On Beach Road

0 comments
Decided to give PARKROYAL On Beach Road a try since I wanted to hide away from the world for a short while. Check-in was seamless and staff was friendly. Was upgraded to PARKROYAL Club Premier Room located at its highest level, which is at the 7th floor.

42sqm Club Premier Room


Room was very spacious, with proper dining table and a couch. Has a bathtub and a balcony! Wow.


bathroom

shower


loved these

water dispenser in the bathroom


balcony


view from the balcony




Was enjoying the room when suddenly, the room door opened and quickly closed when the person realized that the room was occupied. Then, the staff rang the doorbell and of course, I opened it to see what was that about. Turns out, she was bringing up the welcome amenity and didn't realise that guest had checked-in. Quite a dramatic entrance, this pack of salted egg biscuits, which by the way, was tasty. Got a box of macarons too, since the room was booked under the National Day package deal.


treats!


The sweet treats were actually in time for tea break. The macarons tasted sweet and light. There were rose and lychee flavours. Thank you Parkroyal and GHA Discovery for the treats.

Dilmah teas

rose flavoured

Nespresso



It was nice to chill in the room and roll around amongst the space. Went to the Club Lounge at Level 6 for some evening drinks and canapes.

Club Lounge at Level 6


cheeses, cakes


cheeses, popiah, wakame and Sauvignon Blanc


My favourites were the mac & cheese, wakame (hmm, daily dose of vegetables?), chicken yakitori that's flavourful and tender. The pandan and chocolate cakes were lovely to end the meal.

mac & cheese, chicken yakitori, popiah, wakame, cakes



night view


zoom in to MBS and Singapore Flyer




sunrise


Breakfast was served at Ginger, located next to the lobby. It was pretty crowded by 830am. Overall, it was a nice stay at the Club Premier Room. Staff was amiable and friendly. 


PARKROYAL on Beach Road, Singapore

Address: 7500 Beach Road Singapore, Singapore

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Breakfast @ Mosella Pan Pacific Orchard

0 comments
Was doing a staycay at Pan Pacific Orchard and the National Day Package came with breakfast, so decided to go there at around 8am, in case it gets crowded at the later timing. Mosella is located at Level 2 of the hotel, which is at the same level as the lobby.

interior

view from my table

coffee machine


The place is beautiful and felt spacious with its high ceilings. Minimal explanation or introduction from the staff unless you asked the question first. Breakfast is basically a buffet format, and live stations included eggs and noodles stations. Coffee is self-serve from the machine unless you needed some special milk for the coffee then staff would attend to that. Staff emphasized that coffee beans from both machines are the same.

Let's breakfast, shall we?

congee station


congee with condiments with a side of scrambled eggs


For hotel breakfast, I do like eggs and I can't pass on the congee, so let's have both!

scrambled eggs congee


Was a nice soothing bowl of porridge, lightly flavoured from all the condiments like century egg, preserved vege, salted egg, scallions and braised peanuts.

roasted cherry tomatoes, string beans and mini sausages


There's a noodles station too, so I went and got myself a bowl of Singapore Laksa. The version here has a brightly coloured broth and tasted coconut-y milky rich.

Singapore Laksa


The noodles station was really well equipped with lots of fresh vegetables (at least 2 types), mushrooms, fish cake, chicken breast, quail's egg, beef slices and I said yes to all! Hahaa, there goes my order of 'little bit'.

fully loaded


Soup was hearty and not overly sweet. I forgot to add sambal chili, so it was one notch less in spiciness. Both meats (chicken and beef) were lovely. Actually, first time a seeing beef slice in my bowl of laksa. 

One of the staff, Lorraine, stopped by my table and asked if I would like her to get me a cup of coffee. What a nice gesture. Yes, please. And so she brought a cup of latte over. 

latte

 
Now, let's go check out the pastry corner. It was placed at the area that you will notice when one is either entering or departing from the premise. It was actually quite funny when I was walking towards the pastry section and the Chef's there were like, "Thank you for dining with us. See you again." And I was like, no no.... am not done yet. Getting some pastries/dessert! Hmmm, was it a sign that I ate too much? Hahaha!

cakes, pastries


chocolate croissant and brioche


I asked both the noodles and pastry Chefs which were their favourite pastries, and so one said the brioche is his fav, while another said hers was the custard croissant. She also pointed out that chocolate everything seemed to be the crowd favourite. Hehe, and so, I selected the pastries based on these info.


(back to front) custard croissant, chocolate something


close up view


The visuals for the pastries were on-point. I liked the brioche most. Looked the most ordinary but tasted lovely. They were of the right sizes too. Gone in 3 bites.

honey


At first, I had the impression that there wasn't much food but then, it turned out that I hadn't been paying attention when I was exploring the spaces. I had almost missed out on the cold cuts section.

cold cuts selection


I think it was the way the slices of smoked salmon were being propped up, that made it looked as if it would be a mistake to pass over them. And, I hadn't seen any beet cured salmon before, so had to try at least a slice.

salami, ham, smoked duck, beet cured salmon with dijon mustard and capers



Go for the smoked duck. It was yums! The cheeses looked good too but I was so so full by now.

The place gets busier starting from 9am onwards. Thanks to Lorraine, I got my coffee served, my table cleared of empty plates so that I could enjoy the next dish. Also appreciate that we were able to converse a bit when the place wasn't too busy yet.

Overall, Mosella offers a nice breakfast with adequate variety and its high ceiling helps in creating that spacious feel when dining there. 

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

One Night in Pan Pacific Orchard @ 10 Claymore Road

0 comments

Had been working hard and having no day off for a while now, decided on a whim to take a short staycation. Had wanted to try Pan Pacific Orchard since it opened its door in Jun 2023, and judging from its early reviews, decided that it is prudent to wait a bit. The beautiful photos from the hotel website had me intrigued of its view.

Booked the Premier King Discovery National Day Package for a Saturday stay. Checked-in early and the lobby was not busy. Got my room keycards after waiting for a short while and proceeded to Level 9. The experience at the front desk was perfunctory at best and while the end outcome of getting the room key was achieved, it didn't give off a warm welcome to the guest.

room

balcony, yay!

let's enjoy balcony view

hello Orchard

From the looks of it, the room was upgraded to Deluxe Balcony King. Room size between the two are the same, with the balcony being the differentiator. And I was happy with the balcony! But do note that one can see our neighbour when we are at the balcony. Also be careful when you're out at the balcony as the ledge only comes up to my waist level and I am not that tall. The balcony ottoman was rather nice to lounge at.


night view

morning view


Let's explore the other parts of the room.

bathrobes

bedroom slippers in here

Nespresso machine, filtered water tap and mini-bar

Take note that everything in the mini-bar is chargeable but unfortunately, the QR code scan on the TV for the mini-bar didn't reveal the prices of the items. It was just an empty page. Teething problem?

Singapore Orchard Gin @$68++


cups, plates and glasses

looking for Nespresso pods

looks like all the same flavour except one

super simple sleek looking Samsung remote

comfy bed

bathroom

soap and lotion

shower

shower gel, conditioner and shampoo

toilet

The shower strength was indeed not that strong as per other reviewers' comments but it was still alright. It did take about 30 seconds or so, for the water to get hot from its initial state, and there was once when the water temperature fluctuated on its own from hot to lukewarm. Other than that, I did like the flooring of the shower room as it is the non-slip type.

Made a call to One-Service to enquire about the Discovery member in-room amenities. It was answered within 3 minutes. Staff checked for a bit and informed that it was a plate of pralines and asked if I would like to have that. Hmm, yes? Thought it was a rather odd question.

Received another call from the same staff about half hour later to inform that they could only send the pralines later in the evening. No problem, I said. Went out for lunch with a friend and came back for coffee. And just nice, the doorbell rang and voila, the pralines had arrived with a welcome note from General Manager. Good timing!


in-room Welcome Amenity

coffee in a pretty cup

The chocolates were actually very good. The green one was minty and the yellow one had hints of lemon. Sweetness level, just nice. Thank you GHA Discovery and Pan Pacific Orchard for the lovely welcome amenity.

As it was a National Day Package, I was able to redeem a complimentary Singapore Sling from Pacific Breeze.

Pacific Breeze, next to hotel lobby

Singapore Sling at Pacific Breeze

served with cherry and pineapple garnish

There was only one staff manning the bar at Pacific Breeze, so had to wait for a while for the drinks to be made. It's been a long while since I had a Singapore Sling (I think the last one was during an SQ flight to somewhere before Covid!) and wow, the version here is strong. Keke. The thing about Singapore Sling is, sometimes it could taste a tad too syrupy. The concoction here was rather likeable and refreshing.

sundown at Pacific Breeze

Hmm, I wonder if Pacific Breeze serves any finger food, snacks or any other drinks. And if Pacific Breeze is not ready for that, then why not let the guest be having the drink in Mosella/Florette instead.

Level 11

sunset from Level 11



Pan Pacific Orchard

Address: 10 Claymore Road 229540 Singapore

Websitehttps://www.panpacific.com/en/hotels-and-resorts/pp-orchard-sg.html

Contact: +65 6991 6888


 
All Rights Reserved. © Purple Taste
Blogger Theme by BloggerThemes| Theme designed by Jakothan Sponsored by Internet Entrepreneur