Original Review at http://www.nahmj.com/2016/05/05/percolate-cafe-bedok-singapore/

Percolate Coffee has been around for a while and expanded at its original location to twice the size it was. It was only after its expansion that I visited them twice before this post. Both were for tea on weekdays only. and despite it was weekdays, at both visit, Percolate Coffee was packed to 90%. Lucky, it wasn't 100%. At least, we managed to grab a table at both occassions. And interestingly, I took the same table.This cafe is another one which is below a HDB residential block. Beside the indoor seating area with air-condition, as an alternative, 2 tables were also placed outside the cafe for those who prefer natural air.As I opened the door, I was surprised to find that they hacked a hole out of the wall and in it placed a communal table. And this wall is in an unusual blue.Menu at Percolate Coffee is a single page. 2 columns; one for drinks and the other for food. At a glance, I see that there are more drinks option than food.

At Percolate Coffee, there isn't much choices for food. They offered mainly Croissants, both plain or with jam or with some fillings as sandwiches. The other option of sandwiches is on ciabatta. Two breakfast food; the organic granola and banana loaf. We have tried none of these offerings.The usual Espresso based coffee in either black or white for hot drink option existed on the menu. There are some Iced Coffee too. The White are in 3oz ($4), 5oz ($4.50) and 7oz ($5). There is Hot Mocha ($5) and Iced ones ($5.50) too.The Hot Mocha has a rich chocolate added into the coffee. Under the Iced Coffee, 2 interesting drink which I have never spotted on other cafe menu.The first was the Sparkling Black ($5) which we ordered to try. It was too acidity for me. The other was the Espresso Tonic ($5.50).
Other drinks include the Chocolate and Cold Pressed Fruit Juice.It is nice to see a variety of Tea; Hot Tea, Chai Latte, Cold Tea and Green Tea Latte. We tried the Lover's Rose ($6), a caffeine free tea. It is a blend of organic herbs, chamomile, rose petals, lavender, hibiscus and pink peppercorns. One would imagine the tea as sourish as a berry tea, but it is the case for the Lover's Rose. In addition, it has a stronger scent of Lavender than Rose.Lastly, Percolate Coffee offers an array of cakes and pastries. Strangely, we picked the same cake on both occassions, the Earl Grey Lemon Cake ($7). It has very subtle Earl Grey flavour, it is dominated by the lemon curd that were sandwiched between the cake.It is a cosy and warm cafe. Since in the neighbourhood, there isn't much choice, we don't see why it shouldn't attract. Hence expect it to be crowded even on weekdays.And we would avoid it on weekends too.

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Original Review on http://www.nahmj.com/2016/05/04/ollella-pourover-bar-somme-residence-farrer-park-singapore

Ollella And The Pourover Bar are at Somme Residence. Most might not have realised that it is a stone throw from City Square and the Farrer Park MRT station. It isn't as inconvenient a location that most might have imagined.Ollella specialises in Choux pastry and have collaborated with Raphael and Karen for coffee. As such you will notice that there is The Pourover Bar occupying a corner of the shop.When I entered Ollella, my attention was turned to the dinning area on my right. It has bar tables and chairs. But what caught my attention was the greens that are hung on the barrier and the flowers on the table. It is much like a garden.

At Ollella
At the moment, Ollella is offerring 7 chouquette flavours. One will find the Vanilla ($4), Dark Chocolate ($4.50), Lemon Meringue ($4), Raspberry ($5), Apple Cinammon ($4), Tiramisu ($5) and Matcha Azuki ($4.50).

I have a tough time deciding which 2 flavours I should be getting. As usual, I would love to have all of them. I am glad I did not succumbed to my greed. I went for the Lemon Meringue Chouquette ($4) and the Matcha Azuki ($4.50). The Lemon Meringue has a lemon curd within the choux pastry and a meringue on top of the choux resulting in a sourish and sweet pastry. The lemon curd was lightly sour. I wouldn't mind it to be more sourish. In short, it is a typical Lemon Meringue flavour.

The Matcha Azuki has red bean within the choux pastry and a Matcha cream on top. Lightly green tea flavour coupled with generous red bean. Both the choux though were delish, there isn't any surprise element.For those who prefer to savour the plain choux pastry could go for the Chouquette. Beside the Chouquette, Ollella offers the Kueh Lapis and Choux Tart too. Ollella offers some tea blend to accompany their pastries. If diner prefer coffee, Ollella has The Pourover Bar to serve some V60 filter coffee and the Espresso based coffee. The coffee order could be done at the same time at Ollella.

The Pourover Bar
Karen and Raphael specialise in the Pourover coffee. The pair are very friendly and shares with customers a lot on coffee too. At the beginning, they offered beans roasted from Ninety Plus Coffee. A roastery hailed from Melbourne. There are beans from Tanazia, Ethiopia and Panama Gesha.The coffee offered by The Pourover Bar is steep and it is going to be hard to swallow by most coffee drinkers, unless you are coffee connoisseur. They believe in only providing the best to consumers. So expect a cup of pourover at $11 and above. The most expensive currently offered by The Pourover Bar is a Panama Gesha at $45.Ollella And The Pourover Bar as a pair offers fabulous pastries and high quality coffee. Such is a great collaboration for the SME in Singapore.

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Original review at http://www.nahmj.com/2016/04/30/sufood-singapore-celebrates-mothers-day-2016-raffles-city

I heard a lot of good comments about Sufood not from the online reviews but from my vegetarian friends and colleagues. It set me curious to find out how good could vegetarian dishes be. My Mom and I visited the outlet at Raffles City on a Thursday. To my surprise, it was almost at 80% capacity at around 7pm.The ambience is elegant and classy with creamy colour tones and warm lighting. The space is decked with cushy chairs. As such it was a comfy having meals with family and friends.
At Dinner, Sufood is serving a 8-course Italian-Inspired Meatless Cuisine set meal at $29.80++ per person.The first 2 course consist of The Sufood Appetizer and Sufood Signature Cider. I like the Sufood Signature Cider, it has a good balance of sweet and sour. It helps to whet appetite.
The plating of the Sufood Appetizer was exquisite. Each component was with different colours. It is not only attractive to the eyes but to the tastebud too.We were advised to start with the Japanese Yuca Root drizzled with a blueberry coulis and move on to the lady finger and finally the Savoury Cherry Tomato. The souriness get intensified as we moved to the next.The Rosemary Breadstick with either the Blueberry Coulis and another creamy sauce were served as dip. Bread was fluffy with light rosemary scent. I like the toasted version better that resulted in crispy texture. A total of 4 salads is available for selection. We opted for the Classic Garden Salad with Caesar Dressing or Sesame Sauce and the Lettuce Vinaigrette Salad. Nothing outstanding about the salad.
The two other options are the Mushroom Salad and Tropical Fruit Salad.Like the salad, 4 choices available. We went for the Root Soup which we find it outstanding. While the Pumpkin Soup was sweet and isn't the heavily creamy kind of soup. Even though I am not a soup fan, I appreciate the soup.
If you are wondering what other soup does Sufood Singapore offers, they are the Misto Mushroom Soup and the French Onion and Cheese Soup.12 dishes for Mains; 4 Pizza, a rice dish, a baked potato, a vegetable skewer and 5 pasta dishes.
We ordered the Porcini Pasta and Macaroni Alfredo Casserole. We enjoyed the Porcini Pasta as we thought with the Red Pepper and Jalapeño sauce, it tasted unique. It has a little Sichuan flavour in this pasta dish. Macaroni Alfredo Casserole is a rich creamy with generous amount of cheese on top of the macaroni. There cream based has tomato added to provide a tanginess, to lighten the creamy feel.Finally dessert time. Our choice of dessert were Red Bean Dessert with Yam Cubes and Mango Frollino. The Red Bean Dessert with Yam Cubes was filled with home-made goodness. While our vote will certainly goes to the Mango Frollino.We ended our meal with 2 refreshing fruit, vegetable juices. I have The Purely (on the right of the photo) consisting of pineapple, choy sum and sour plum. While my mom has The Sunny with pineapple, orange and guava juice. Among the 2, we prefer The Sunny.

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Original Review on http://www.nahmj.com/2016/05/01/seorae-singapore-plaza-singapura

Seorae Singapore features popular Korean Charcoal BBQ and this restaurant is now found at Plaza Singapura. Seorae aims to serve the best quality of ingredients and meat. For the ambience, it is the typical look of the Korean restaurant and it is casual.At the table, one would quickly find the hot burning charcoal fire set ready for the bbq. It is interesting to see that at the charcoal fire, there is a ring with 3 sections. One for the egg, the second for the cheese and last was to keep the meat warm.At Seorae Singapore, they featured the "skirt meat" known as Galmaegisal. This part has the perfect combination of tenderness and juiciness, yet contain minimal amount of fat. A fully-grown pig or cow produces only 250 grams of skirt meat. It is so good and yet so rare.Since the pork-skirt meat is a draw at Seorae Singapore, there is no reason why we should missed it. There are two flavours of skirt meat offered. First is the original Galmaegisal, Pork Skirt ($21.90). And if one prefer a stronger flavour could go for the Garlic Soy-Sauce Galmaegisal, Garlic Soy-Sauce Pork Skirt ($21.90).Other pork meat available are the pork belly meat. If one prefer spicy can for the Spicy Samgyeobsal ($17.90). Otherwise, the non-spicy option is Hangari Samgyeobsal ($17.90)For beef, one could turn to Jinkkotsal, Prime Beef ($29.90). This is my favourite beef meat at Seorae. The meat is tender and not gamey at all.The La Galbi, US Prime Beef Short-ribs ($29.90) is a little harder in texture.The meat in general are well marinated. I could savour the marinate not only on the surface of the meat but right into the centre too.At Seorae Singapore, they have provided 3 dips, the centre onion dips is great for skirt meat and the reddish dish are great for the rest of the meat. Cheese lover, you are in for a treat. There is a cheese dip. You can use it for the meat or for any food you ordered.If you aren't a carnivore and find that having bbq meat is not for you, there also other food option. Sundubu Jjigae ($14.90) a hot spicy soup with tofu, golden mushroom and many more ingredients. It is great to go with white rice.Other options are the Korean Pancake. If one prefer seafood, go for Haemul Pajeon ($17.90). Alternatively, the kimichi pancake, Kimichi Jeon ($17.90) is an equally great option.Bingsoo is available whole day even when the rest of the food isn't served during 3 - 5 pm. Seorae Singapore offered 6 Pat Bingsoo (with red bean) and 4 Bingsoo which is without red bean. 2 out of the 4 Bingsoo was with liquor. We tried none of the 2.First is the must try Apgujeong Bingsoo ($14.90). The finely shaved ice were covered with cheese cake and cheddar cheese and topped with a cheese wafer. Lastly it was drizzled with cheese sauce too. Oh my, it was a cheesy bowl.Sinsa PatBingsoo ($14.90) is a relatively simple compared to the rest of the creation. A bowl of shaved ice in a rock melon bowl is decorated with lots of melon balls. Right at the top was some red bean with a scoop of vanilla ice cream at the tip. Melon lovers rejoice!

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Original review at http://www.nahmj.com/2016/04/28/ippin-cafe-bar/

Ippin Cafe Bar is nestled along the stretch of drink holes at Mohammad Sultan is also home to many Japanese Restaurant. They pride themselves not only serving authentic Japanese food but also of having a homely environment and homely meal. From the interior decoration to the food served at the cafe bar, the same theme resonate throughout.
What I find most attractive about Ippin Cafe Bar is that the uses the products that are sold in the outlet to cook their food served. Should one be interested to cook it at home, diner could approach the staff to enquiry and whip a storm at home.Ippin Cafe Bar has recently introduced an exciting new menu. The first three on the table were appetiser. There are Salmon Kelp Roll ($8 NETT); Sardine & Walnut ($5 NETT) and Ayu, Sweetfish ($5 NETT). All these are soy sauce based as such all of these dishes has a sweet hint.The good news is that you could bring them home in convenience pack if you like any of these appetisers.Next is the Rice Ball with Green Onion Miso ($5 NETT). This is a simple dish where one could make at home easily by purchasing the Green Onion Miso, mixed it with rice and seaweed. Lastly roll the rice into a ball and wrap it in a clear wrap. Then enjoy at your convenience. For the taste, once again, there is a sweet flavour note emitted from the green onion miso.Chawa mushi ($8 NETT) is the next dish newly introduced. It is cooked with the Dashi Sauce available at the outlet too. This Chawa mushi is creamy, smooth and silky and beneath it were treasures of ingredients such as crab stick, chicken meat and mushroom. Personally, I find the amount of egg too little in this cup of Chawa mushi.The only savoury dish that tasted briny is the Stir-fried potato & pork with garlic sauce ($8 nett). This dish goes very well with rice. Personally, I find it a little too oily. And most find that Ippin Cafe Bar is too generous with the amount of salt added.Beef with mushroom sauce and potato salad ($30 nett) is another new dish. The mushroom sauce was far too sweet for us. We thought it would be better if the beef could be with medium doneness instead of well done.Omu-rice with Karaage, fried chicken ($18 nett) is made different at Ippin Cafe Bar. Instead of having a tomato based rice, at Ippin, they provided a Soy Sauce based rice wrapped within the omelette. The Karaage seems to be using breast meat as such I find it a little dry and tasteless.Darjeeling Tea Jelly was served before our final dish, the dessert. This is such a wonderful dessert. It has a nice sweet tea scent. Everyone at the table enjoyed this to the max.Bread Pudding with Green Tea ($10 nett) was the last dish of the night. I was skeptical about this dish initially as it was a can food for emergency situation such as during the earthquake. I was wrong about it. The bread pudding was so fluffy and creamy and smooth. When it was eaten together with the ice cream, it was heavenly. The yuzu sauce that was drizzled over the dish provided a tangy and refreshing flavour.We tried the Houjicha too. The tea leaves were from India and roasted in Japan. This is a light version. It is available at the outlet at $7 per pack.

All the products sold at Ippin Cafe Bar are exclusively imported for them only. And these are mainly from the SME in Japan. They believe supporting these SME.Since it is a bar as well, how could alcohol be missing? For the Japanese, it will certainly be the well beloved Sake. Sake tasting set ($15 NETT/set of 3) is also available. Request it from their friendly in-house Sake Sommelier to help you select your choice sake.Ippin Cafe provides a wide variety of Sake ranging from the traditional Sake to the fruity and even the yogurt sake.

Some of the new selection available are the Yogurt Sake, Plain ($30 NETT), Yogurt Tochi Otome Strawberry ($31 NETT), Yutou Masamune ($51 NETT), Miracle Sake Junmai ($29 NETT), Mongai Sake ($19 NETT), Mongai Sake Cup ($16 NETT) and the Yoichi Densho Oensen Jinozo ($141 NETT).I like the homely feel of the place and the homely food. My favourite concept of all is the food is available in convenience pack to take home. And all items sold at Ippin Cafe Bar is at nett price.

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