ArtisanGelato-eating is supposed to be an experience synonymous with an exclusive sort of luxury, a creamy and decadent treat for weight-watchers and the discerning palates. However, today I learnt that the flavour of the gelato plays an imperative role in its taste...I tried Alfero Artisan Gelato at Marina Square this afternoon -The branch is small but comfortable, nestled in a quiet corner of the mall. They stock homemade gelato with flavours such as Durian, Mango, Raspberry, Snow White (Milk), Tiramisu (Premium), Pistachio (Premium), Blueberry Cheesecake (new flavour), Bacio (Chocolate and hazelnut) and Chocolate. May have missed out one or two more flavours but their flavour selection is far from extensive.

For a single flavour scoop, it costs $4.50, a double flavour is $6.50 and a triple flavour goes for $8.50. The premium flavours are an additional 50cents. The staff is courteous, and also pretty generous with the scooping so I guess it gives you a run for your money. They also served iced water upon request!I tried the raspberry and blueberry cheesecake flavours and soon learnt the hard way that flavour choice is very important when it comes to gelato. Gelato, unlike ice cream, is slightly icier and less creamy -so when it comes to fruity and citrus flavours the iciness + sourness is emphasized negatively. The raspberry looked so artificially colored when it was scooped onto my cup ...The deep pink aside, it was slightly too sour, and not creamy enough for me. Not fantastic. As if I did not already want to kick myself in the leg for choosing the wrong flavour, the blueberry cheesecake gelato was equally (if not, more) disappointing.

It had more frozen blueberries in it than actual gelato (I assure you I am not exagerrating!!), which was very strange. There was no hint of cheesecake in it at all, and generally a complete waste of money. I'd probably have been better off choosing a flavour such as tiramisu or chocolate, where the gelato would be completely smooth and not mixed with other ingredients that require chewing. I wouldn't say that this place serves bad gelato, I'm sure the consistency of it is completely fine, judging from the raspberry. It probably would not have been as rich as ice cream, but I definitely would have been better off having a creamy flavour. My fault here.

Priced at $6.50 for two flavours, its a much better bargain that other gelato places in town, probably one of the best too-you'd want to get the biggest bang for your buck and I'd say that this place is pretty decent. It's a sweet place to just sit and chill, not the most spacious cafe but it's cosy enough especially for a quick family pit-stop or a post-meal dessert.

Had Ajisen for the first time in an extremely long time with a girlfriend at the Marine Parade Branch. Upon reaching at 7.15pm, it was quiet -the interior was mostly wooden, with tiled flooring. What I'll never forget about this place is the plastic black bowl used to dish out ramen at super affordable prices compared to the current ramen houses that are gaining popularity with the crowd.I ordered a Spicy Ramen -most probably a miso-based soup from what I can taste it was definitely not shoyu..didn't have the rich, velvety flavour of tonkotsu broths either (or maybe it was the inadequacy of the soup, I'll never find out). The noodles weren't overcooked (which was of course, expected -if a ramen house can't even get the texture of the noodles right it leaves little to say about the overall quality of the ramen!) The soup is served with a handful of spring onions, spicy minced meat and seaweed generously topping the noodles...sitting to it is half an egg.

I wouldn't coin this ramen as authentic, let alone exceptional. The broth was not thick enough, rich from pork bones brewed over an extended period of simmering, left to absorb the deep flavours of savoury meatiness. However, this I must say -the ramen was spicy enough, and tasty enough. The soup may not be as rich as those served in ramen houses hailing from Kyoto and Hokkaido with renowned chefs, but it does have a certain flavour that can be said to be relatively addictive. Priced at $7.90++, it comes up to $9.30 nett for a bowl of filling ramen with decent soup. This is probably the hypotic lure of Ajisen's ramen.. relatively tasty ramen at ultrafriendly prices.

The quiet ambience of Parkway makes this place an ideal hideout for catching up with friends, or an interrupted dinner alone. Service is brisk, but nothing spectacular. No one really comes here for the service, anyway.

Not a huge fan of white chocolate but this cupcake was different -it was a gift from a friend and I decided to give it a try. After all, Awfully Chocolate is one of the pinnacles in chocolate creations be it cakes or ice cream. The cupcake is larger than those you'll find at Twelve Cupcakes or Cupcakes with Love, and is topped with copious amounts of sinful white chocolate cream.The cupcake below is moist and chocolatey and has a thin layer of liquid fudge at the bottom which makes for a delicious rounding off to the whole taste and texture. The cream in my opinion was a bit too much and I estimate the cream to cupcake ratio to be 2:1. Very, very sinful. For those who are white chocolate fans, this will be a wonderful combination of white chocolate and conventional chocolate cake. It's not as sweet as I expected, but has a cloying taste after awhile. It has bits of shaved chocolate in it for aesthetics + texture, but the cream was overwhelming in its amount. Priced at $4.90 it's also pricier than the usual cupcakes you can get for below $4, but for people who enjoy white chocolate and cream topped generously on your baked goods -this one's for you.

I visited Food Republic on a late Sunday afternoon because I had a carrot cake craving. I was surprised to note that the carrot cake was not sold at the hokkien mee/char kway teow stall but instead the BBQ chicken wings stall. Firstly, the person at the stall took an extremely long time to take my order, and even after taking my order she took AGES with it. People who had ordered after me had already gotten their orders -to make things so much worser, she was rude to the customers, grunting a "popiah" before slapping it onto the glass counter without even a smile or worse, a thank you to the poor chap who probably just wanted to satisfy his popiah hankering on a Sunday.

Disgusted by their service and their utter lack of courtesy (she basically rudely (yet again) grunted "$4" to me during payment), I was hoping that their carrot cake would make up for it. I was wrong.It was filling enough though, for a portion of $4 albeit the thickness! A special mention would go to their chilli -it has a hint of lime juice in it, with a bit of garlic. Apart from the fact that it was seasoned enough, and had plenty of egg (which was nice, honestly), the whole carrot cake is not only nothing special, but also nothing above mediocre. In my opinion, carrot cake has to be garnished with spring onion -but this had no such thing.

Ambience wise I've always loved this Food Republic, the ceilings are high and its spacious enough for you not to feel hopelessly claustrophobic during the peak dining hours. It also has an extensive selection of stalls to choose from, and the prices are pretty reasonable for a food court in town ranging from $4.50 to as high as slightly shy of $10. For this BBQ Chicken Wings stall, i would definitely wish to see better service. It's a real pity though, because I wouldn't go back for the carrot cake -but while queuing, I discovered the chicken wings that they were selling @ $3.30 for 3 (min. order). It looked tasty and smelled delicious -maybe I would have been better off having a go at the chicken.

Manhattan's 1-for-1 promotions are back!! The queue is super long and we had to wait ~20minutes before being ushered to a seat. Service was quite friendly though and pretty efficient too, so the queue moves quickly.

Went for the Grilled Dory Glory (UP$12.95 per plate!) and a bowl of Clam Chowder ($5.50), both of which came within 10 minutes to our delight!The clam chowder is nothing much, it tastes pretty much like (diluted) mushroom soup with bits of clams in it that had a fishy(?) smell. Not that fantastic, but it was warm and welcoming. It went down quite well but we felt it was rather diluted for a chowder.The main: Grilled Glory Dory came with buttered rice, a side of boiled vegetables, grilled dory with a lemon garlic sauce and a chilli sauce on the side. A special mention to the chilli, it's a tangy, sweet chilli sauce with a hint of lemon grass. Very refreshing when eaten with the fish even though the lemon garlic sauce is good on its own. The buttered rice and the vegetables were slightly disappointing though. The rice had little flavour and the vegetables were slightly overboiled. Other than that, the fish was fresh but not overcooked, and the sauces were splendid!

Honestly, the standard dropped by A LOT from the last time I'd visited, and maybe it's just due to the crazy volume of people during the one for one. The meal was worth it though, coming up to only about $10.50 per person! Gotta love promotions!!