I got to know about this restaurant through a radio morning show where listeners will call in to introduce good restaurants or stalls in Singapore that are not well-known yet worth going to. It is located along Sembawang Road near Chong Pang Nasi Lemak.

There was a 1-for-1 pasta promotion here for Mondays. Hence we were surprised that there was only 1 table of 3 ladies in the restaurant for dinner.

The restaurant is opened by a few Italian guys. We saw 2 (1 waiter and 1 chef) who are very handsome so my friend joked that was probably why the restaurant was recommended on air? The restaurant decor is very simple & looks traditional western style. Anyway take a look at what we ordered!The menu items were almost all written in Italian, so frankly I forgot the actual names of our main courses except the English translation.

I don't have too much to say about the quality of food, except that they were great! My Gnocchi was tasty yet not too salty and the sauce was yummy. My friend's crab meat linguine had a lot of crab meat in it, so generous with the expensive stuff! It was simply full of "crabby" taste hehe.

We asked the handsome waiter which dessert would he recommend and he mentioned Tiramisu and Chocolate Lava Cake. Thinking that Chocolate Lava Cake may be too filling, we ordered Tiramisu instead. We aren't die hard fans of tiramisu so couldn't really compare or comment on the quality, but this was not bad in our opinion. There was no strong taste of liquor or coffee (which I like) and the serving was quite big.

There were only 10 customers (including 2 of us) throughout our 3-hour stay in the restaurant. So sad! The food was really quite good and worth visiting, especially from Mon-Wed when they have daily promotion on different items. Must be the "ulu" location that causes it to be neglected... Do pop by and try it out if you are craving for some authentic Italian Fare!

Fika Swedish Cafe & Bistro is a cosy cafe tucked in between a rowdy pub and a Japanese restaurant Rakuzen at Millenia Walk, along the street facing Conrad Hotel. The restaurant is owned & operated by Muslims, & one can see that this cafe is filled with many Muslims. You may be wondering, how did Swedish food actually get associated with Muslims? That's because a Muslim lady married a Swedish guy, and ya, they decided to set up this cafe hehe.

Enough of talking, here's pictures of some of the food we ordered...Well, I didn't order this. It was my "foodie" friend who was the more adventurous one. 4 of us all tried the "soup" & our consensus was it was more like a diluted bowl of blueberry juice! Weird, not the way we thought soups should be...Ikea was having a 1-day promotion for its meatballs on the day we visited Fika, but I didn't have the luxury to grab the 10 cents offer. So I ordered this Swedish Meatballs to "console" myself haha. The serving was so big that I had trouble finishing the whole plate although the meatballs & potatoes were all yummy. Even the lingoberry jam was a good accompanying sauce to the food.

The other main courses my friends ordered were:
1. Cheese, Tomatoes & Cucumber sandwich ($14.90++, chilled) - my friend thought it was very normal & nothing to rave about;
2. Seafood Pasta, aglio style ($24.90++) - the pasta came with quite a fair bit of seafood like mussels, tiger prawns, doryfish & scallop. My friend thought it was a very well-done pasta & she savoured every bit;
3. Tunnbrödsrulle ($18.90++) - this is Swedish thin bread with mashed potatoes, grilled sausage, fried shallots, boston gurka and tomato/chili sauce. To us it's actually a wrap with all the stated ingredients rolled into the wrap. I tried some & I like it too!

Five of us were all full from our main courses and decided to just share 1 dessert. The Swedish apple pie we ordered was quite different from the usual ones we eat at other restaurants. The pie itself was soft & not crusty. We all thought it was quite delicious. The homemade vanilla ice-cream was a great topping to the pie.The food here is not that cheap but overall it was quite a pleasant experience dining here. Anyway we don't really see that many Swedish cafes in Singapore, do we? Let alone Swedish halal cafe hehe. I don't mind going back again if I feel like having some Swedish food.

I had been dying to try out VeganBurg after I know that it has recently opened its second outlet on 1 Feb 2012 at Golden Shoe, which is just opposite my office building! The first time that I got to know of this unique vegan burger was on television, but it only has 1 outlet at Eunos which is too far for me. Finally I found a friend who was interested to try out the organic vegan burgers with me.

This little eatery is tucked in a little corner of Golden Shoe, behind a stationery store, and one has to be alert for the signage in order to find VeganBurg haha.

The food and beverages offered in this eatery are all organic stuff, meant to be healthy, nutritious and wholesome fast food. After some time pondering on what to eat, we decided that the set meal is definitely more worth it. Each set meal consists of a burger, a side and a juice/beverage, and there were many choices available. I ordered the Smoky BBQ burger set meal with Vegan Franks and Apple Blackcurrant Juice ($10.85) while my friend ordered the Creamy Pepper Shrooms set meal with Granny's Comfort Soup and Apple Blackcurrant Juice ($11.85). Smoky BBQ Burger

The burger was quite big with generous fillings, that is, if you compare it to those burgers you find in typical fast food restaurants like MacDonald's. It was really like what the menu described: a thick patty of succulent minced mushrooms, oven-baked and slathered in smokey BBQ sauce, coupled with layers of fresh lettuce, tomato and alfalfa, nestled within the softest organic rye bread. In fact the fillings were so generous that I thought I ended up quite "dirty" with BBQ sauce on my lips and palms as it wasn't easy to manage haha. They also added a lot of vegetables into the burger, as you can see from the picture. Really very different from the fast food burgers!

Granny's Comfort Soup

This side was what my friend ordered, but she did not realise that it was actually Minestrone soup, which she doesn't like. After a few sips she decided to just leave it aside. I also don't really like Minestrone soup so I only tried a bit as well. It was a waste that she ordered this side! We should have found out what soup that was first before ordering...

Vegan Franks

On first bite, the Vegan Franks felt weird, compared to the normal Chicken Franks. Later on I realised that it was because they used tofu as the filling so it is softer than the usual meat franks. I got accustomed to the taste after a few tries and I must say actually, the taste is not bad! The franks had a delicious smoky flavour.

Creamy Pepper Shrooms Burger

I didn't try this but my friend said it was very good, generous with the fillings and sauce. I think the next time I will try this, see how different it is compared to my favourite Mushroom Swiss Burger from BK hehe. Afterall, this burger is "back by popular demand" so there must be some good in it!

In general, the food and beverage prices here are not exactly that cheap, but I think it is still quite worthwhile to come here for some healthy and nutritious fast food once in a while. I will definitely go back again!

At least you are not spending this money to put junk into your stomach, are you? And who ever said that Vegan fast food can't be great, they must not have tried VeganBurg yet!;)

After having a not-so-great lunch along Tanjong Pagar Road, my friend and I decided to have some drinks at the Tom N Toms Coffee which is located just a stone's throw away.

This cafe is quite packed with youngsters, and many Koreans! I guess because it is a Korean coffee joint? Being a mango lover and not wanting to have any caffeine intake, I decided to try its Mango Smoothie.Wow it was great! The smoothie "slided" into my mouth, very smooth and the mango was sweet wuth a tinge of sour flavour. It tasted very fresh.

We both enjoyed ourselves at this cafe, people-watching while sipping our drinks. Hahaha......

I had always been pretty curious about how good this burger joint is, so when I had to settle my lunch at The Central alone, I decided to give it a try.

As the counter staff in the joint told me that Spam Burger is one of their popular burgers, and no other burger joints have such items, I ordered this to see how good or weird it may be, together with fries and iced earl grey tea.I like the bun! The Spam Burger is pretty tasty too, but 1 thing I don't like about it is that as the egg was quite runny, my table was in a mess when I was eating & I had to keep covering my mouth to prevent the yolk from oozing out!

The fries were similar to Mos Burger's, which I like, but maybe a bit soft compared to Mos. It was good that they did not add syrup to my iced earl grey tea but gave me syrup separately in case I need it sweet.

The overall experience is good and I would surely go back to try other burgers in the future.