We decided to drop by Shrove Tuesday after out dinner. It’s located at Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, below those HDB flats. It’s a small and cosy environment with probably around 25-30 seatings and its fully packed on a weekday night! Brightly decorated with a slight by the beach feel due to the bright orange colour, displays on grass patches and wooden tables and chairs. They sell a variety of desserts from ice cream to cakes, pastries and drinks.
Seeing their tiramisu ($8.50) being different from the usual, we decided to give it a try. It’s like a combination of Affogato and tiramisu. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream within, and at the bottom there’s sponge cakes soaked with espresso/coffee and lastly top it off with frothy foam and sprinkles of cocoa powder. And its served with 2 pieces of biscotti at the side. I quite like this version of tiramisu except for the too much foam. Lesser foam and it will be much better overall. Besides the tiramisu, we ordered double scoop of ice cream – Apricot gelato and chocolate flavoured. Apricot is unique and refreshing. Overall a nice dessert place worth a try!

Yet another hidden gem in the tiong bahru district. Its a pretty nice quiet cafe. Along the stretch houses several other cafes too. The cafe has simple modern decorations. White clean walls with wooden furniture and polaroids of customers and staffs hung on a string. There’s magazines for reading over a cup of cuppa and doodling papers for the kids.

They serve all day breakfast, sandwiches and cakes! Ordered their Scrambled Eggs & Croissant with Smoked Salmon ($14.90) Their croissant is flaky and crispy. Together with the soft runny fluffy scrambled egg and the generous slice of smoked salmon, its heavenly! The smoked salmon may be alil salty on its own, so best to eat it together with the croissant and scrambled egg! Their side salad is awesome too! Crunchy cucumber dices and juicy tomatoes halves in some sort of vinegar balsamic dressing, refreshing.

Won't regret making your trip down.

Costa Coffee is conveniently located at the heart of town area! I went to the branch at Somerset, 313 orchard there. They had quite a selection for their coffee, drinks, cakes and sandwiches. If you dont mind the noises from the shopper, you can head down there to get some work done actually! Look at their display of cakes and drinks!

I enjoy trying new food! So this mandarin mango cheesecake caught my eyes! Mango taste fused with the tinge of mandarin orange. Sweet and brings a lil of sourish. The cheesecake is moist and dense with the layer of crushed cookie layer. Pretty awesome feeling after eating. Their mocha is good too! Its aromatic smooth and rich. Not too strong a coffee taste. well blended with chocolate and espresso. One of the tea time place to head for when you’re in town!

I’ve ordered their Red wine Risotto with Parmesan, arugula and pork tenderloin ($16.90) Their serving is considerably generous for that price! This risotto is rather different from what i have before. Usually risotto are more creamy, saucey and you dont see such defined grains. But for this risotto, is drier and not as creamy, the grains are rather well defined. However, the flavour of the risotto is really good! As risotto is usually cooked with the broth over slow fire for some time where the rice will absorb all the broth so when you taste it, its usually flavourful, basically absorbing all the essence of the dish. Likewise this red wine risotto is awesome as you can really taste the red wine, but personally i will adore it even more if it has been more saucey and creamy. Besides the flavour, you could taste the strips of pork tenderloin too although its not hard, but i think it will be better if thigh meat were used! Of course at Vanilla Cafe & Bar we ought to try their signature vanilla dirt cake ($8.90)! It really finger licking gooood! It served in a cute lil flowering pot and decorated with stalks of flowers and 2 gummy worms. The top layer is like oreo crunch and bottom is frozen vanilla ice cream with oreo crunch in between too. The taste of and vanilla ice cream is kind of creamy actually and at times thought it’s like a combination of vanilla mousse and ice cream. The taste, the texture is all just right!

One of the newer addition to Claymore Connect is none other than this french patisserie cafe Mon Bijou serving from french pastries and desserts to sandwiches and brunch items. Mon Bijou provided us with a quiet corner to just sink in to their cozy comfy armchairs for some afternoon escapade from the bustling city.Please gasp at the galore of choices they have for you! Are you like me now who was spoilt for choice?Here’s a glimpse of their rather extensive food menu.Since we headed down to Mon Bijou for an afternoon tea, we decided to go for their dessert tarts and a couple of drinks to cool ourselves down from the scorching sun. We went ahead with an Iced Mocha ($5) and Mango Passionfruit Smoothie ($7.80). Unlike what i was expecting of an iced mocha frappuccino kind of thing, it turn out to be mocha added with ice. Not too bad i would say, the coffee weren’t really thin and we could taste a hint of an acidic note from the caffeine and a tinge of sweet chocolatey note. The smoothie on the other hand was really refreshing, thick and creamy with the real fruit taste.The tarts that we had with us were Red and Black Fruit Sable ($7.80 per slice) and Yuzu Lemon Tart ($6.80 per slice). I find the base of their tarts rather unique, it’s quite cake-y, moist and dense unlike the typical which are usually more dry and crumbly. Love the abundance of berries they have used on their Red & Black Fruit Sable with each being so fresh, sweet and juicy yet brings about a tinge of sour-ness. Their Yuzu Lemon Tart was on par with the fruit sable, the sourish lemon-y curd paired with caramelized melted marshmallow was good, though missing the yuzu flavor as you savor on it.When you’re spoilt for choices, feel free to approach their friendly staffs for some of their genuine recommendations. Despite the inconvenience of the location, I would really not mind the extra mile as i really enjoyed the coziness and laid back ambiance they have coupled with their smoothies and desserts treats!

https://poohlovesfood.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/mon-bijou/