Located on the ground floor of Vivocity, Madam Kwan's has a scenic view to match their beautifully presented Malaysian food. A food enthusiast herself, Madam Kwan dedicated her life to her uniquely Malaysian menu by giving the best quality ingredients and cooking methods unique to her. She has made the menu not only unique to her but uniquely Malaysian to satisfy everyone's palate.Madam Kwan's also has outdoor seating if you would prefer that during the cooler evenings. The exterior and interior were done beautifully in gold tones, giving a semi-classy appearance that welcomed us.The dining area is quite large and can comfortably seat big groups, we came in a group of 4 adults and 2 toddlers and the customer service was excellent. The friendly staff brought the baby chairs to the table and were very patient with the children.The menu is very appetizing and you can quickly come to a dilemma on what to order. My usual go-to was char kway teow, but there was too many pictures that potrayed a very delicious dish.The menu was extensive besides the signature hawker dishes, there were even western items such as Fish & Chips. We decided to play safe and just order the traditional Malaysian dishes.Their Nasi Bojari is very famous and I've heard alot about it and decided to give it a try as well!1. Ipoh Kway Teow soup $8.90 (child) / $11.90 (adult)Flat rice noodles in chicken and prawn broth served with sliced chicken and prawns topped with spring onions. We ordered both an adult portion and a child's portion which was more than enough for 2 20 month old kids to share. The adult's portion was also huge enough for at least 2 hungry people to share. Even in a group of 4, we didn't finish the noodles or the soup. You could taste the sweetness of the prawns in the soup, but it just wasn't up to what I was expecting. Even though my brother mentioned that most of the food here is very tasty and I don't doubt the use of MSG, this was pretty bland.

2. Nasi Bojari $18.90Madam's tri-coloured rice with assam prawns, beef rendang and deep fried chicken drumstick. My brother wouldn't stop raving about this "heavenly" and super crispy chicken. The chicken was indeeed delicious. The meat was fresh and pretty much came off the bone with ease. The rice is very beautifully colored and tasted fragrant. My only gripe about this dish is that it can be quite oily. I had reached for my teh tarik several times to wash down the oil. Nonetheless, you can't have an oil-free hawker food, so I'll just "tahan" the oil for now.

3. Fish Soup Noodles $14.90
Thick rice noodles in milk infused soup served with fried fish fillets. The fish fillets were plentiful and delicious. The soup wasn't as flavourful as those you would find in a typical hawker center. Maybe Madan Kwan is trying to be more health conscious today? 

4. Char Kway Teow $14.90

SHIOK!~

 

Flat rice noodles stir fried with chicken, prawns, squid, egg and bean sprouts. I loved this dish hands and feet down! The wok hei of this dish was superb, even though the noodles were drenched in oil, I still devoured the plate!

 

This plate was also a treasure trove of crunchy fresh prawns. I would definitely order this dish again, during the next visit.

5. Teh Tarik $3.50 (hot) / $4 (cold)

Sweet tea with a lot of milk to wake me up!

 

A traditional Malaysian sweetened tea. It was sufficiently sweet enough and it aroused my senses for the day!I wouldn't say Madam Kwan's is terribly expensive nor is it cheap. However, I have read that you can savour the same dishes for half the price in Malaysia, as the dishes are priced the same, but in ringgit!

All in all, a great place to hang out in the comfort of air conditioning, have a chit chat with friends or family and dig into quality hawker food.

Decided to re-visit rainbow cottage cafe on a monday evening at 7pm, they were pretty empty. At 8pm though, the cafe was full, all the tables were occupied!They now sell lava cakes as well! The table next to us ordered the matcha lava cake. They sell waffle cones at just $1 per piece.

1. Rainbow Cake $6.50During my last visit, they oversold their rainbow cakes and had to refund me my money. This time I learnt my lesson, before I grabbed a table, I ordered the cake first! The layers of the rainbow cake are alot thinner than other cafes and they are very vibrantly coloured. It is very pretty and photogenic. However, I felt that the cake was abit dry, and wasn't as nice as their rainbow paddlepop cheesecake which is what brought me back here. I had better hopes. I love their little forks, with a plastic "gem". Nonetheless, for the AMK region, whereby cafes are still popping up every month, Rainbow cottage cafe doesn't have that much competition for rainbow cakes. So if you're craving for a rainbow cake and you live in the AMK region, do give it a try.

2. 3 scoops of gelato and 1 topping $14.40 

(Hazelnut rocher, mocha biscotti, strawberry cheesecake)For the 3 of us greedy pigs, we decided to get 3 scoops. Having tried their hazelnut rocher the last time I visited, I decided to get the same flavour again. It was deliciously thick and creamy. Every mouthful tells your brain that you are eating pure ferrero rochers in an ice cream texture!The mocha biscotti tasted strongly of coffee, more so than chocolate. It had a slight bitter after-taste but it is a good compliment for the other ice cream flavours, as the other two were very sweet.The strawberry cheesecake tasted like a strawberry ice cream that wasn't sweet. There was a couple of "cheesecake" cubes embedded in the ice cream. Other than that, it resembled a typical strawberry ice cream. As one of their signature ice creams, I feel that they can do better.Amongst the 2 new flavours I have tried. I still prefer their chendol and hazelnut rocher. Even their bubblegum flavour was unique and memorable. 

We waited quite a while for our waffles, as we noticed that they only had one and only one waffle iron. Probably waited a good 20 minutes for it. Thank God, it was worth the wait!!! We loved the waffles!! Interestingly, the waffle texture was a lot more crisp than the one I had last month! Good job guys!

Their waffles are of the crispy exterior kind. The waffle stays crispy for quite a long while despite a melting gelato perched on top of it. The fruity pebbles added a nice crunch for each scoop of gelato, a worth 50 cent topping! Definitely my "go-to" spot, should I have a random waffle and ice cream craving in the AMK region. 

Located right at the escalator landing of the second floor of Orchard Gateway is Criollo Cocoa Cafe. You cannot miss it! They pride themselves with providing comfort food all day, hence they serve breakfast items throughout the day.The second you walk in, you are greeted by all the beautiful cakes and sweet treats that are indefinitely screaming for your stomach space! Even though these cakes were not on our food tasting menu, we had no choice but to ask for some, as the cakes looked so perfectly delicious!The menu is very simple and clean. It would help if the cafe highlighted their best sellers, or their signature dishes. Since it is a cocoa speciality cafe, I was delighted to see frozen hot chocolate. I haven't had that since I left the states!The seats in the cafe are well spaced, giving tons of personal space for each group of diners. Something that is not always available in cafes that are set right in the busy district of Orchard Road. I really appreciate them not squeezing tons of tables together. A great window view of the busy Orchard Road. One of the owners, Mr Lam mentioned that he and his business partners enjoy "people watching" and hence they picked this exact unit. I totally like the idea of sipping a drink, and just observing the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road.1. Big Breakfast $12 (Promo price till end of June 2015)/$16.90 (Regular Price)First up was 2 scrambled eggs, served with chicken sausage, sauteed mushrooms, bacon which could be substituted for turkey bacon, hash brown, toast and fresh fruits in sweet yogurt. The BIG breakfast was highlighted by the BIG and very long chicken sausage, it was juicy and had a slight smoked after-taste. Everyone agreed that the fresh fruit in the yogurt was delicious and a much healthier option for a big breakfast. For $12, you get quite alot on your plate! 

2. Portobello Burger $12.90 *highly recommended*It's been a long while since I had a portobello burger. I'm a mushroom lover and from one mushroom lover to another, just order this! You will not regret it! The mushroom is so juicy and tender. The toasted brioche bun was executed perfectly, the bun was crispy on all the edges and paired nicely with the grilled portobello. 

3. Seafood Laksa Pasta $16.90It's always nice to see a slight Singaporean twist to an Italian favourite. The laksa sauce was very distinctive but it was a tad too spicy for myself, as I normally do not eat spicy foods. The prawns and squid rings were fresh and I enjoyed it!

4. Mixed Grilled Platter $18.90Usually, when I order a grilled platter, I would expect a lavish amount of grilled meats to clog my arteries. However, at Criollo Cocoa, it wasn't the case. There were just 4 sticks of meat, all of which tasted okay, not fantastic. My favourite part of this dish, wait for it........ the COLESLAW!! No kidding, I cleaned my plate of the coleslaw! 

5. Chocolate Waffle $9.90Being a cafe that is named after the source of chocolate, we couldn't wait to try their chocolate waffles and ice cream. The cafe definitely spends some effort into presenting their dishes and the chocolate waffle was no exception. I really liked the chocolate gelato. It was 100% pure chocolate, one of the best gelato I've had in a long while. The waffles were the crispy kind and you could taste the chocolate in the waffle. For $9.90, this is one of the best value for money/good quality waffles in town! The ice cream was so good, that we had no choice by to ask the owner, if we could try more ice cream flavours.

6. Malt Cake $6.90Their cakes are supplied by Pies & Coffee and they are mouth watering! The malt cake was very dense with pure malt and chocolatey goodness. It will take more than one person or even two, to finish this slice of cake. Do not let it's size fool you!

7. Earl Grey Tea Cake $5.90I've tried several earl grey tea cakes and though this is not the best, for the money, it's easily twice the size of what other cafes offer at the same price! Not to mention, it still satisfied my earl great tea cake cravings! Thank You Mr Lam!The cake is moist, not gerlat and most of all, not sweet. So you can slowly devour this cake bit by bit and not feel guilty!

8. Lychee and Coconut gelato $3/scoopWe were blown away by the goodness of the chocolate gelato, as such we went on to try their coconut and lychee flavours. The lychee had real lychee fruit in the gelato. It tasted good, but the winner goes to the coconut ice cream. I'm not a fan of coconut, but this is by far the most perfect gelato flavour I have tried. It's not sweet, but yet addictive. It doesn't make you reach for a glass of water to wash down the sugar at all. This cafe has a hidden secret! They have a gelato machine right next to their ice cream counter. There's no advertisement or illustrations saying that they make their own gelato, after which they throw away unsold gelato after 10 days. Since the ice cream is churned by their machine, there's no preservatives, hence the 10 day life span. The vanilla gelato notably has visible vanilla beans in it! Which truly won me over!The cafe is nett priced which is a plus! Especially in the downtown area, where majority of the cafes charge service charge and GST. So, please help yourself to the utensils.I would like to thank Reka, OpenRice and Mr Lam for inviting me to this food tasting. Prior to this food tasting I had not visited Criollo Cocoa and now I am convinced  that I'll be back here frequently for their delicious gelato and food offerings!

Nett Priced. Home made gelato is a must try!!

Located in AMK Ave 10, is this one month old cafe. Everytime I drive past this place, it is always packed with customers! So I decided to make a reservation for a friday night, and thank God I did, because they were overwhelmed with customers!We had a table reserved for the 3 of us, right at the back of the cafe, which was next to the utensils and water dispenser.Once you walk into the cafe, you are greeted by the colour ice cream display! Colours of the bubblegum and peppermint ice cream would make anyone feel happy! Definitely a rainbow cafe!As the name of the shop goes, rainbow cakes, both the normal sponge kind as well as the cheesecake! The second we walked in, we reserved one of each rainbow cake, but after 1hour, we were told by the man at the cashier that the cake was double ordered! We were quite full and decided to let a young couple take the rainbow cake, we settled for the rainbow cheesecake.They also sell rainbow cakes in jars, a new way to eat cakes, out of a jar!

1. Ice cream and Waffles $7.50 (with one scoop of ice cream)As the kitchen was getting overwhelmed with a friday night service, the staff asked if we would like to have the ice cream and waffles first, before our mains. We said okay and hurray! The waffles were fragrant and crispy! Just the way I liked them! The bubble gum ice cream was sweet and creamy and it has been awhile since I last had a good tasting bubble gum ice cream. The chendol ice cream was also a great treat, with the chendol jelly bits found in every bite of the ice cream. The rocher ice cream wasn't overly sweet and was smooth, chocolate lovers would love it!

All in all, a great start to our friday night dinner. I now see why this cafe is always crowded. Though there are other ice cream and waffle cafes in the Ang Mo Kio region that are starting to pop up, this has the best offering in this district!

2. Minced Chicken Lasagne $8.90The amount of cheese in this lasagne was just perfect. The lasagne pasta was thin and just right. It wasn't gerlat, and they were generous with the minced chicken. Everyone at the table loved this dish and I feel that this dish could be their star dish! It was well worth the 30 minute wait.

3. Hawaiian pizza $13.50After the delicious lasagne, we had high expectations for the pizza, which looked great, but we were disappointed upon the first bite. The base of the pizza, seems store-bought or pretty much just frozen and reheated. It wasn't crusty and even the cheese on the pizza tasted "meh" I just picked the slices of ham off and left all the pizza base to the dish washer.

4. Rainbow Paddlepop Cheesecake $7.50I have tried several rainbow cheesecakes from several places like bukit merah central and macpherson but this is truly my favourite rainbow cheesecake! It is light, unlike the yogurt kind which have more a jello, wobbly feel to it, this is still pretty dense. It is not gerlat and I could easily polish this off by myself, without feeling "heaty". The colours of the rainbow cake looks great, even though some pictures of the cake on instagram over the past few weeks shows a tad of "browning" on the top of the cake. I am definitely coming back for more rainbow cheesecakes!There is a kids play corner to entertain the kids, it's pretty cool!Here are the drinks we bought, the clementine tasted a bit strange, but the blackberry was okay. They were having a Mothers' Day promotion, buy a main and a drink and get one scoop of ice cream free.

Located where the old Irvin's seafood was, is this 5 month old Yam's Kitchen, their first outlet is at Downtown east, Pasir Ris. I popped by on a saturday at 1130am and the staff were ready for their first customers. The tables are neatly arranged and they have arrangements for groups of 4,6 and 10.Got a chilled drink whilst waiting for the food to arrive, this is just a normal chestnut juice you get from any food place. But it was still refreshing.

1. Salted Egg Fried Fish Skin $6.80Probably the highlight of our meal! The fish skin was so crispy and freshly fried, I enjoyed every crunch of it. The salted egg sauce was also just right, not too diluted, or over powering. I really liked this dish and I strongly recommend you to order it! You won't regret trying it!

2.  Deep Fried Fish Tail with Fragrant Sauce (small) $19.80This was quite a huge serving, even though we ordered a small, big enough for 4 people to share. The sauce was tasty enough, yet not MSG ladden. But the fish was bit too over fried.Nonetheless, the whole fish was crispy and some parts was more like a biscuit.

3. Penang Fried Kway Teow $5.80On the menu, this wasn't listed as spicy and we were actually surprised to see the chilli on the noodles. I don't normally like spicy foods and this was slightly too spicy for my liking. Even though the noodles had a charred texture, I couldn't taste much wok-hei even though I could smell it.

4. Marmie Spare Ribs (small) $10.80I loved this so much! The spare ribs were cooked very well and the sauce was sweet and flavourful. I feel that their portions are quite generous even though we ordered small plates. The meat was tender and some were boneless pieces too.

5. Soya bean pudding $2.20, Mango Pudding with Pearls $3, Jelly Honey Lime $3The soya bean and mango pudding was soft and silky, but I couldn't taste much mango flavouring in the pudding. However, they had little mango pearls with mango juice inside. Each time you bit into the pearl, mango juice would come bursting out. It was very delightful!Here's the bill for 3 pax. Service was also very friendly and pleasant. Our food arrived very quickly after we had placed our orders.