I've heard raves about this place being one of the best in Singapore for high tea, but was a bit concern about whether it'll be an ideal place for dinner as well, since we're about to patronize Plaza Singapura to catch Eat, Pray, Love after work on a Friday night.

On the outside, Tea Cosy looked unlike any other place in the mall, with a blend of retail therapy that offers angels and vintage furniture for sale as well as cosy dining with nicely crafted comfort food.

Initially, I thought Tea Cosy is just another pretty place without much regards for the quality of the food as most pretty places are, but surprise surprise, their food is as delicious as it is well-presented.

Take their Tea Cosy Peppermint Cool ($5.95) for our first example. Arriving with style in a martini glass, the drink was an interesting shade of baby blue with 4 colorful flower marshmallows floating on a bed of foam, contained by a glass rim of brown grainy sugar. It's arrival halted us in our conversations, as my girlfriends demanded to try out my drink. Hmmm, interesting strong taste of milk and peppermint, they all seem to agree.

Next came the Volcano Nachos ($10.95) which caused an eruption amongst four of us as we attack the corn chips and dipped it into the bed of melted cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and jalapeno chillies. A definite crowd pleaser as it provides as with something to pick at while we waited for our main course and chatted about office woes.

The Tangy Tomato and Crabmeat Soup sounds delicious on the menu, but it was merely ordinary and nothing tangy about it. A waste of stomach space if you'll ask me. The Baked Mushrooms ($9.50)starter, on the other hand, is worth a mention. Bite-sized and addictive, it came in 10 pieces, topped with sun-dried tomato strips and melted Parmesan cheese and was quickly gobbled up in a matter of seconds.

For the main course, I had the Smoked Salmon and Prawn Salad ($13.95) which was nothing spectacular but overall still quite enjoyable. I even had room for their creme brulee, my favorite type of dessert!

Overall, I would say I'll definitely come back here again. It is indeed a piece of heaven in a crowded mall like Plaza Singapura.

There are only this many places you can eat at Jurong East and I always find myself a regular at Red Ginger because service is quick, food is up to standards (or could even be considered good for the kind of price you pay), not overly crowded and tables are quickly cleaned during peak lunch hours.

At first, I wasn't expecting much from this self-service restaurant tucked at the corner of IMM, but was pleased when I ordered the Sizzling Beef Steak that comes with fries, broccoli and cauliflower for only $7.90, which is thicker and better than the ones I had at Phin’s Steakhouse in Tampines Mall (priced double by the way). Even the coffee shops at Jurong East Central are priced around the same with no air-con (unbearable in the scorching heat), long wait, dirty utensils and served in smaller and thinner portions.

Overall, it is a great place for quick-fix lunch without sacrificing too much quality. They also have quite a variety of other stuff served here, such as sweet and sour chicken, curry chicken, laksa, etc.

Drinks also include healthy choices like Ribena and Orange Juice (though a diluted).

Now, if you think Orange Clove's tagline "Delivering a World of Good Taste" is just another fancy marketing tagline, you're in for a surprise. Orange Clove delivers more than just a good tagline, they deliver a good selection of taste on top of great service, all of that for an affordable price of $20 per pax. You see, whenever I attend seminars, I don't really expect much from the food but I have to say the catering done by Orange Clove is better than I expected.

The Buttered Rice with Nuts and Raisins was unique and tasty enough to be eaten on its own as the healthy raisins gave a sweet fragrance to the rice. Moms and Dads, if you have children in the house and want them to eat their rice, offer them this.

If you spotted a dish you like, be sure to go at it quick, and not be like me, who didn't get to try much of the Yakitori Chicken Skewers and Wasabi Prawns with Fruit Salad, both of which are hot favorites amongst the guests and readily whipped up in only a matter of seconds.

The Sauteed Vegetables came with mushrooms and carrots, and although it doesn't seem to be a hot favorite amongst the other guests of that night (or was it possible than they were stuffed from the other food like the Yakitori I mentioned and neglected this dish?), i enjoyed it because it was so crisp and fresh. They separated the stems and leaves which I appreciate because I don't eat stems and it was always tough just trying to tear them apart.

Also served as part of the $20 per pax is the Pan-fried Fish Fillet with Lemon Butter Emulsion, Prawn Cocktail which came nicely chilled seated on a bed of fruit salad, lots of appetizers and deserts which includes the macaroons, tarts, brownies, cream puffs and my favorite which I keep going back for more: The Mini Peppermint Shooter which was covered with Oreo Crunch.

The catering experience was made better by the provision of well-trained service staff who make sure everyone's needs were met and questions about the food were answered, as well as the silk flower arrangement and candles which gave the whole setting a more aesthetic touch.

After my IPL session at Strip, my stomach longed for a quick fix (if you don’t already know by now, I’m always in need of a quick food and drink fix for an energy boost to keep up with my oh-so-hectic schedule) so I, not surprisingly, entered Ion’s basement 4, which was my type of foodie paradise, with quick food bites and drinks stalls galore. Normally to find such unique stalls you would have to walk down the rowdy and non-air-conditioned streets of Taiwan or China, but in this case, we can find them in a posh shopping mall that we all quickly fell in love with. I was in search of a smoothie store that sold real fruit juice when Happy Lemon (not a real fruit juice store) caught my eye. How could it not? It’s ridiculously cute, which was was got me a bit wary at first, because cute = sweet = dangerous. My fears quickly diminished when I learned that Happy Lemon select only high quality ingredients and they do not subscribe to preservatives or artificial additives for their drinks. Alas, I can keep to my plan of having a healthy diet!

Wanting to stay true to my healthy dose of antioxidants, I chose the Green Tea with Rock Salt and Cheese for $3.50, regular size please. Paid up and took my queue number which was in the form of, you guessed it, some lemon thingy (what exactly do you call that thingy in the picture below? For the life of me, I’ve been wrecking my brains to find out! Those of you who know, please advice! Xie xie ne!)

Yay, got my drink!

Oh what’s that you say dear counter staff? I musn’t drink it with the straw or I can’t taste the cheese? Oh, okay, sure. But the foam on top doesn’t taste very cheese-like to me though, in fact, it reminds me of Gong Cha’s signature milk tea at City Square Mall where there is a thick layer of foamy milk with green tea powder sprinkled on top of it. It has been awhile since I’ve drank Gong Cha’s Milk Tea and I’ve only done so once, so I might have to re-explore what the difference is between these two drinks, but as far as I can remember, the similarities are quite uncanny.

Loads of other creative types to check out such as the Mousse Spin series where they have Yakult! Yay!

I just got home from my fashion show and didn't want to venture too far for food, yet didn't want to compromise on taste because it was a weekend and I wanted to treat myself better after all that hard work. My aunt then recommended Thai Cuisine at the Kopitiam in Rochor Centre since it met both my requirements.

I didn't like the ambiance because it was pretty gloomy but lo and behold! The food was surprisingly good. The stall was run by native Thai people (judging from their accent) and the green curry chicken ($5) was as good as the real thing I had in Phuket. Price was reasonable (green curry at Thai Noodle House costs around $8 and the one at Bali Thai cost around $14 - but to be fair, the ambiance at Thai Cuisine is nothing compared to these two other places).

Pad Thai was large in quantity and the taste, although nothing like the translucent chewy ones I had in Phuket, was still comparable to the other Thai food in Singapore. Besides, I've always preferred the Singaporean version of Pad Thai more than the authentic ones anyway. Yeah, sue me. Cereal Prawns has lots of crispy crumbs which I loved and prawns were reasonably fresh. Kang Kong ($3.50) wasn't anything worth remembering while the Fried Chicken with Lemon Sauce was too sour for my taste! Not recommended at all.

I had to admit though, the variety here is impressive for a Kopitam stall so small. If you live around the area and looking for a quick fix of cheap Thai Cuisine this place can be it. If not, don't waste your effort coming down here.