Located on the second floor of IMM, near the seasonal salad buffet is Cafe Manuka.  It seems to be a family oriented cafe with a kiddy corner, with scrabble, kiddy toys and disney picture books to entertain children. There's a cake display at the entrance to attract customers and the cake display sure did it's job by attracting me. Along with the cakes, they also sold scones and cookies. I did witness several customers walking by just to get a few cakes and treats to-go. It's location is also pretty good, in the sense that this is along the way to the overhead bridge connecting towards Jurong East MRT. Yes you can walk directly from IMM to JE MRT sheltered!Looking at the menu, they have breakfast items like eggs, pancake stacks, corn fritters and even rosti. For mains, you can pick from a salad, to pasta, sandwiches, pizzas and a DIY crepe. They also sold chicken and waffles, korean chicken skewers for those who wanted something more than the ordinary.

1. Matcha Milk Shake $5.50 (Regular)The matcha milk shake was smooth, creamy and slightly fragrant. It had a distinct, aroma of vanilla ice cream. You could taste a lingering flavour of matcha, but it was quickly overpowered by the creamy ice cream. It's a pretty big portion for $5.50. I couldn't finish it by myself, but Cafe Manuka, also offers this in a large serving at $7.

2. Potato Rosti with Turkey Bacon and Egg $11I love rosti and I was glad to see that Cafe Manuka was offering it. Rosti with turkey bacon and scrambled egg at $11? I couldn't say no! The rosti was charred on the eggs, given it a biscuity-crunch with every bite, but the cook placed the rosti one on top of the other, more for a photogenic purpose, but sadly, this made the rosti underneath it soggy and not crispt at all. What a waste. The rosti at the bottom layer was just drenched in oil with potato shreds clumped together. I wished that they had served some sour cream to eat this rosti with, as it felt a bit dry, despite being oil. The scrambled eggs was decent and not too salty. The turkey bacon provided a salty option on the plate and overall. I liked this dish and my rosti cravings were satisfied!
3. C.M.B.T Sandwich $10.50Served on a white bread, this sandwich had, herbed honey marinated chicken, turkey bacon, tomato, mesclum and mayo. I enjoyed the crusty bread that though looks small was very filling indeed. The chicken was well seasoned and had a great tender taste to it. The was an audible crunch each time I bit into the bread. The vegetableas was fresh and provided a refreshing tangy flavour.

4. Meaty Meat $14.50This pizza is definitely meant for sharing, at least amongst 2 pax. The crust though thin, at the edges you couldn't imagine yourself eating a khong ghuan cream crackers. It was that crisp was which great. But as we seperated the pizza slices from the whole pizza, all the ingredients kept falling off and it was a mess. The rest of the pizza dough which the ingredients were cooked on, just tasted doughy and probably frozen? The combination of ingredients though were a great choice. This was a great savoury, umami pizza that was certainly enjoyable, other than the mess I made.

5. Tom Yam Prawn Pasta $12.50 Spgahetti tossed with a tom tam sauce with lots of fresh prawns, this was one of my favourites, even though I don't normally take spicy foods. As Cafe manuka is poised as a family oriented restaurant, I noticed that even the spicy level of this dish could be served to a child. The spaghetti was cooked to an al dente consistency, executing firmness in every bite. The tom yam aroma was fragrant and made me hungry despite me feeling pretty full at this time. The fresh prawns added a crunchy mouthfeel to the dish and made it more visually appealing. The tom yam creamy sauce was pretty addictive. It wasn't too salty or gerlat. It was on point! Definitely getting this on my next visit!

6. Ondeh Ondeh Cake $6.50This cake was flavoured with ondeh ondeh, coconut and gula melaka sauce in betweeen the sponge cake layers. Though the green colouring wasn't too intense, the coconut flavour was pretty vivid. The gula melaka sauce/syrup in between each layer was a bit too sweet for my liking. The butter cream was light, and smooth. This was a great end to our delightful family oriented lunch!

7. Mango Lavender cake $6.50This cake looked abit dry in the cake display and my mum was hesistant in ordering it, and when it was served. It definitely did look dry. Upon my first attempt to grab a bite with the dessert fork. I realized it took some effort for my fork to go through the cake layers unlike the ondeh ondeh cake. I believe that such cafes usually get a cake supplier, so that they can focus on cooking the main courses. But it's also apparent that these cakes do end up sitting in the cake display for far too long. It was a slight disappointment, but the ondeh ondeh cake made up for it.

8. Affogato with almonds $5.50By far, my favourite affogato. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to place almonds in an affogato, THANK YOU! I totally enjoyed this, although I would've thought that they would serve this at the end of the meal, considering it has ice cream in it. The coffee shot was great! It gave me an energetic kick in my brain cells and definitely awoke my senses. The vanilla ice cream was smooth and not too sweet. It complimented the bitterness of the coffee shot well. The almonds were fresh and crisp. I loved how the almonds had both a visual impact as well as providing a crunchy bite in every spoonful of affogato! Good job Cafe Manuka!

Overall : Loved the ambience, some hits and misses but the pace at which the food was served was abit slow, great if you're spending time with your loved ones, but dining alone, it could feel pretty miserable. There weren't that many customers on a public holiday, saturday afternoon, but service was great! Happy and smiley staff greeted us!

Located relatively near Beauty World MRT, via the downtown line is Nook. Famed for their DIY pancakes. I chanced upon this place, while looking for a supper spot at 10pm on a monday. I had previously passed by this cafe on a monday night and saw that it was closed. It seems that the management has changed and they have decided to open on mondays. Great news! Since majority of the cafes in Singapore tend to be closed on a monday, after a hectic weekend.The menu seems to have most of the common hipster food options. I wasn't too hungry and decided to just go for a savoury waffle, a batter of pancakes and thai milk tea.

1. Pandan Pancake Batter $10 (with one free topping)I decided to go for pandan batter. They gave us a whole bottle which you can easily squeeze out the pancake batter onto the hotplate to cook. The pancake cooked quited easily on the non-stick pan. It was fun drawing out stuff on the hot plate, but it wasn't quite as fun to eat. The pancake tasted rather doughy, even after cooking for a long period. They didn't taste like pandan. Even with the provided chocolate rice, the pancake was pretty unedible for me.I had to use the syrup that came with my savoury waffles to try and add flavour to my pancakes to make them more edible. I'd say, order this if you have kids with you, or if you just want to draw stuff and write messages to your friends. For $10, I'd rather you just order another plate of cheesy waffle fries.

2. Cheesy Waffle Fries $9.80+Loved the cheesy sauce that was generously drizzled over the waffle fries. The waffle fries were crisp on the outside, but they were not served warm, but rather room temperature. I was okay with that. The cheese sauce made my day!

3. Thai Milk Tea $3.80+The thai milk tea was interestingly, served in a bucket of ice! It tasted smooth and not too sweet. The taste was rather familiar, reminding me of a certain thai milk tea I liked to drink that has outlets in city hall and sembawang. It was a refreshing and cooling drink,.

4. Savoury Waffles with bacon, coselsaw and scrambled eggs ($16.20+)Savoury Waffles $6.80, Scrambled eggs $2.80, Bacon $3.80, Coleslaw $2.80

The waffles were pretty good. They were crispy and airy on the inside, they weren't dense or cakey. Perfect, just the way I like them. Together with the syrup, my supper cravings were satisfied.The scrambled egg had a truffle aroma and taste and they were so good. I would totally order 2 servings of this scrambled egg with waffles on my next visit. The bacon was juicy, salty and sinful. The coleslaw was decent.Overall : A decent chill out spot on a monday night, the pancakes were a let down but the waffles were a refreshing surprise. Definitely coming again for more waffles and scrambled eggs!

Located in orchard road but in the sleepy and quiet TripleOne somerset is Kaiware Japanese Restaurant. Helmed by the Japanese food veteran Peter Loo, set your expectations high and they will be met! The menu seems to offer a bit of everything, raw, cooked, fried, even a kids meal. There's something for everyone here. My friend who brought me here wouldn't stop raving about the quality of the sashimi here. Even though I do love sashimi, I decided to go with an oyako don as I hadn't had a good bowl of oyako don since my last japanese trip!

1. Oyako Don $10++For $10++, I was surprised to see such a huge serving. The japanese rice was definitely quality japanese rice. You could taste the fragrance of the rice. The rice also quickly absorbed all the sauces from the omelette and the chicken making it extremely flavourful. I could totally eat a whole bowl of this rice on its own!

They were extremely generous with the numerous cubs of juicy and tender chicken meat that was doused in the sweet teriyaki mixture. Served together with the don, is a miso soup which a tad too salty for my liking, but I happily fished out and ate the seaweed. Alongside, you will also get some watermelon slices.

2. Ikura Chawanmushi $8++I decided to treat myself with an Ikura Chawanmushi. I love ikura and I love this even more as the Ikura was super fresh and almost melts in your mouth. The chawanmushi was steamed to perfection. It was almost like eating a pudding, a baby with no teeth would have no problem eating this. The steamed egg had a mousse-like textuyre yet withholding the characteristic notes of the egg, prawn and mushroom flavours.

I'm definitely ordering this again!

Overall : great quality japanese food in a cosy setting. I do hope they settle smoothly in their new location in Tanjogn Pagar and I cannot wait for my next dining experience in Kaiware.

Located in a coffee shop in Hougang, literally across the bus interchange, near the xin wang cafe is Tian Wai Tian Fish Head Steamboat. I normally frequent the tian wai tian at ang mo kio, but since I was going bowling at jForte my friends decided to grab dinner here on a rainy sunday night.

At around 730pm, the place was packed. there was a queue to place zichar orders. All the tables were occupied and you would've to wait quite a while for an empty table. Even when we got a table, it took another 10-20 minutes before the table got cleared and cleaned. My recommendation is make a reservation, so that you have a clean table and the reserved tables are on the other side of the coffee shop which is more airy and windy. I say at the side facing the bus interchange, there wasn't much air crossflow.

1. Fish head steamboat

 

We ordered a medium and my friends complained that they coudln't find much fish in the steamboat. There were 5 of us and yes some pieces were miniscule and some were half the size of an iphone 6S. The fish was decent, it wasn't MSG ladden as I didn't feel too thirsty after the meal. The soup was served with vegetables and seaweed. I loved the seasweed. The soup was refillable, but it is self-service.

2. Prawn Paste Chicken

 

Their prawn paste chicken never fail to meet my expectations. I love them! They are so crispy on the exterior and juicy and tender on the inside. They aren't too oily but they sure are sinful! The chicken wings are also pretty plump.

3. Egg FuyongThe egg was pretty oily but they were generous with the ingredients, lots of prawns, carrots and some meat in the egg. The aroma of the egg was pleasant and even though we ordered a small portion, it was more than enough for the 5 of us.

4. Salted egg pork

 

This was the only disappointing dish we ordered. The pork was dry and I could barely taste the salted egg. The salted egg was also barely visible on the pork. Skip this dish

5. Sambal Kang Kong

 

This was drenched in oil! I ended up washing the kang kong in a bowl of fish soup before eating it as there was just too much sambal oil on the vegetables.
For 5 of us, we paid $79, at $16 per pax, our tummies are filled with zi char food and we were all satisfied. But I'll definitely go for sweet and sour pork rather than salted egg pork the next time round.

Overall : don't expect any service, since you're not pay any service charge or GST, make a reservation before heading down, and do give the fish head steamboat a try.

Located at Irving Place is Carol Mel. It has gone through a revamp and gone are the local food fare and refreshed with western delights. It is a mere 5 minute walk from Tai Seng MRT. It has a very cosy ambience, with red bricks lining the white walls and mellow lighting in the air-conditioned cafe.Peeking at the new menu, you will notice interesting items like Signature Italian Braised Lamb Shank ($26), United's French Onion Soup ($12) and Buttermilk waffle with curry chicken katsu and melted cheese ($17). These items definitely stood out to me in comparison to your typical hipster cafe offerings.

1. Luncheon Fries *highly recommended*Luncheon meat fries seems to be the new norm since truffle fries are now served in almost every cafe islandwide. But the trick to good luncheon (spam) fries is the thickness of the fries and how they are cooked. Carol Mel seems to have gotten a winning recipe with a slightly crisp and thick batter covering the outer layer of the spam fry.On the inside of the spam fry, it is moist and it almost melts in your mouth. It is not oily, soggy or dry. The inside of the spam fry is of the best texture I've tried.

2. Buttermilk waffle curry chicken katsu with melted cheese $17Crispy butter milk waffle, with breaded chicken katsu layered with melted cheese. Served on the side is japanese curry with cubed carrots and potatoes. This was a first for me, to have japanese curry with a waffle. This is definitely an Eastern version of the "Chicken and waffles" popularized by the Southern North-American culture.The breaded chicken tasted savoury and was well complimented with the salty and gooey melted cheese. The buttermilk waffle was light and airy. The Japanese curry wasn't too spicy and was a great way to bring out the taste of the breaded chicken cutlet.

3. Porto Fungi $13 *highly recommended*Chunks of assorted fresh mushrooms. The key word here is "Fresh" mushrooms which were truly juicy and brought out so much flavour into the pasta. Served with Italian herbs, garlic and cooked in a supreme Italian cream sauce. On first sight, I definitely noticed way more mushrooms than pasta! Not to mention the pasta was al dente and the sauce wasn't gerlat. I could definitely devour this entire plate of pasta without thinking about the carbs in this dish. It's that yummy! Oh yes! I'm a mushroom lover so grab this if you're like me!

4. Signature Italian Braised Lamb Shank ($26) *highly recommended*Slow braised lamb shank (450gm) in red wine sauce, served with a side of seasonal vegetables and pasta aglio olio. I was extremely excited to try this. I haven't had a good lamb shank in awhile and the price tag was attractive too! The meat was so tender you could just use a fork or spoon to gently push the meat off the bone. The meat was extremely flavourful on its own but if you are someone who likes stronger flavour, dunk the meat into the red wine sauce and you will not be disappointed. The aglio olio was also great and perfect for the very hungry. I'm totally ordering this again, but I would need to drag someone out to polish this off with me, because you would also need to save space for the desserts at Carol Mel!

5. Signature Whimsical waffle *highly recommended*Crispy waffles just the way I like it with caramel gelato, melted cheddar cheese (similar to the chicken katsu), grilled marshmallows, berries and topped off with salted caramel sauce and maple syrup!The aromatic whiff of the melted cheddar cheese was distinct and yet not too overwhelming, which turned out great in a dessert. The waffles had a light and slightly hollow interior which I adored. This sweet waffle definitely satisfied my cravings with its cripness and fragrances of the batter, as well as the cheddar cheese scent. The ice cream served was creamy, milky and smooth in texture. The ice crea had a lingering sweetness that was emphasized with the salted caramel sauce and maple syrup. The grilled marshmallows also brought an extra sweetness factor to the dessert. The berries were visually appealing and gave a contrasting sour flavour to the variety of sweet items on the plate.

6. Tiramisu in a potI'm a huge fan of tiramisu and I'm an even huger fan when it is served in a pot! Because you get the fun of "digging for treasure" lol! The mascarpone cream came with a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The fragrance and aroma lingers in the palate, coupled with a spongy and airy chiffon-like mascarpone fingers. I would have certainly yearned for a higher intensity of the alcoholic flavour. The portion was rather huge for 1, hence sharing is recommended.

Overall : A great chill out place in tai seng. It has a lot of interesting menu items which are both promising and definitely delivers a "wow" factor to your palate.