Replacing Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice, Paddy Hills opened to much hype bringing cafehoppers in the west yet another option to dine at. Cafe by day and restaurant bar at night, Paddy Hills serves brunch fare as well as a variety of mains in the afternoon, whereas the kitchen would churn out sharing plates and tapas-style offerings at night. Taking inspiration from Australian cafés, the interior takes the industrial approach, but at the same time also pretty homely and relaxing and food items are also plated in a way that’s rarely seen in the local cafe scene.For a side, we decided to go for the Cauliflower Fritters ($12); air-fried Cauliflower florets sprinkled with paprika salt and masala yogurt at the side. A dish that sounds relatively similar to the Aburi Broccoli Salad served at Sin Lee Foods, this is yet another dish that is bound to convert veggie haters to veggie lovers. Fried cauliflower was crisp and well-seasoned in paprika salt for the right amount of saltiness. Dip each floret into the masala yogurt and it gives a sweet tang to the vegetable. Really addictive because I was having it non-stop, while one of my dining partners instantly got converted to a cauliflower fan being one who does not touch cauliflower at all. Despite being a side, this was the last dish to arrive before the Berry Ricotta Hotcake; ain't sides suppose to arrive the table first?I went with two other dining partners, and two of us decided to share a serving of Hash Hash ($24); a baked egg dish served with chorizo, sautéed mushrooms, baby potatoes, beef shank, polenta chips and shaved fennel with two slices of toast at the side. While it looked pretty manageable at first look, we realized there was so many ingredients loaded in it that we eventually found it overwhelming and ditched a few pieces of beef because we could not finish it. Think of it as beef stew, with tender beef that comes with beef which is not too gamey, loaded with an egg yolk to burst, sautéed halved baby potatoes with mushrooms and tiny cubes of chorizo. It gets overwhelming because of the dip gets more savoury over time, but the whole dish feels really well put together with a bit of everything; earthy flavours of mushrooms, the excitement of burst eggs and savouriness from chorizo and beef coming as one. Perhaps mixing the Hash Hash would help as the different condiments felt as though they were on their own respective side of the dish. Toast was also pretty impressive; crusty with enough tension to pull, speckled with walnuts for a crunch.My dining partner ordered the Squid Ink Tagliatelle ($23). While the Squid Ink was really thick and creamy; strong in its savoury flavour, it feels a tad heavy after a while and he had difficulty trying to finish the remaining half off. Seared Scallops were fresh, while the Ikura helped in keeping the dish refreshing by injecting a umami flavour with each bite when it bursts.While we were hanging around the comfortable seats after our meal, one of our friend coincidentally came by to try out the Berry Ricotta Hotcake ($19) which was served only after 45mins after he ordered. Served with blueberry sugar, mascarpone, pine nuts and a myriad of berries, the presentation sort of reminded us of a similar dish served at Stranger’s Reunion and Top Paddock in Australia. It was pretty luxurious; the hotcake was supposedly more cake-like, fluffy in between but surprisingly crisp on the outside; pretty interesting. The batter is also pre-mixed with maple syrup as it seems, so it has its own tinge of sweetness without having to drown it in any syrup. Mascarpone added a dimension of tartness and small hint of saltiness to it, which matched the sweetness well. Again though it gets overwhelming halfway through; perhaps the sweetness was a bit overkill, and the berries were somewhat warmed up by the hotcake so it gave the dish a weird temperature contrast.Paddy Hills uses coffee blends that are specially roasted for them from Tiong Hoe Specialty Coffee; a 99-1 blend which has chocolate and caramel notes and Spark which has berry-like notes. I ordered a 2oz White ($4) which I had initially expected to be really strong but despite its fruity body, did not turn out acidic nor leave an aftertaste.For more photos and the full review, please visit: https://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/paddy-hills-south-buona-vista-road/

Replacing Lim Seng Lee Duck Rice, Paddy Hills opened to much hype bringing cafehoppers in the west yet another option to dine at. Cafe by day and restaurant bar at night, Paddy Hills serves brunch fare as well as a variety of mains in the afternoon, whereas the kitchen would churn out sharing plates and tapas-style offerings at night. Taking inspiration from Australian cafés, the interior takes the industrial approach, but at the same time also pretty homely and relaxing and food items are also plated in a way that’s rarely seen in the local cafe scene.For a side, we decided to go for the Cauliflower Fritters ($12); air-fried Cauliflower florets sprinkled with paprika salt and masala yogurt at the side. A dish that sounds relatively similar to the Aburi Broccoli Salad served at Sin Lee Foods, this is yet another dish that is bound to convert veggie haters to veggie lovers. Fried cauliflower was crisp and well-seasoned in paprika salt for the right amount of saltiness. Dip each floret into the masala yogurt and it gives a sweet tang to the vegetable. Really addictive because I was having it non-stop, while one of my dining partners instantly got converted to a cauliflower fan being one who does not touch cauliflower at all. Despite being a side, this was the last dish to arrive before the Berry Ricotta Hotcake; ain't sides suppose to arrive the table first?I went with two other dining partners, and two of us decided to share a serving of Hash Hash ($24); a baked egg dish served with chorizo, sautéed mushrooms, baby potatoes, beef shank, polenta chips and shaved fennel with two slices of toast at the side. While it looked pretty manageable at first look, we realized there was so many ingredients loaded in it that we eventually found it overwhelming and ditched a few pieces of beef because we could not finish it. Think of it as beef stew, with tender beef that comes with beef which is not too gamey, loaded with an egg yolk to burst, sautéed halved baby potatoes with mushrooms and tiny cubes of chorizo. It gets overwhelming because of the dip gets more savoury over time, but the whole dish feels really well put together with a bit of everything; earthy flavours of mushrooms, the excitement of burst eggs and savouriness from chorizo and beef coming as one. Perhaps mixing the Hash Hash would help as the different condiments felt as though they were on their own respective side of the dish. Toast was also pretty impressive; crusty with enough tension to pull, speckled with walnuts for a crunch.My dining partner ordered the Squid Ink Tagliatelle ($23). While the Squid Ink was really thick and creamy; strong in its savoury flavour, it feels a tad heavy after a while and he had difficulty trying to finish the remaining half off. Seared Scallops were fresh, while the Ikura helped in keeping the dish refreshing by injecting a umami flavour with each bite when it bursts.While we were hanging around the comfortable seats after our meal, one of our friend coincidentally came by to try out the Berry Ricotta Hotcake ($19) which was served only after 45mins after he ordered. Served with blueberry sugar, mascarpone, pine nuts and a myriad of berries, the presentation sort of reminded us of a similar dish served at Stranger’s Reunion and Top Paddock in Australia. It was pretty luxurious; the hotcake was supposedly more cake-like, fluffy in between but surprisingly crisp on the outside; pretty interesting. The batter is also pre-mixed with maple syrup as it seems, so it has its own tinge of sweetness without having to drown it in any syrup. Mascarpone added a dimension of tartness and small hint of saltiness to it, which matched the sweetness well. Again though it gets overwhelming halfway through; perhaps the sweetness was a bit overkill, and the berries were somewhat warmed up by the hotcake so it gave the dish a weird temperature contrast.Paddy Hills uses coffee blends that are specially roasted for them from Tiong Hoe Specialty Coffee; a 99-1 blend which has chocolate and caramel notes and Spark which has berry-like notes. I ordered a 2oz White ($4) which I had initially expected to be really strong but despite its fruity body, did not turn out acidic nor leave an aftertaste.For more photos and the full review, please visit: https://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2015/03/06/paddy-hills-south-buona-vista-road/

Not many might have heard of The Punggol Settlement, which is situated at Punggol Point Road not too far away from Punggol Road End. Being part of the Punggol Promenade district, it is a place for F&B and recreational activities at the Punggol Beach area. Amongst the few F&B places opened for business at The Punggol Settlement is Wayne’s Chill-Out, an ice-cream parlour situated at the second level with an al-fresco dining area facing the sea. Apart from ice-cream, they also serve hot food such as Lasagne and Pizza.We were here for an after-meal dessert, so we decided to order a waffle with two scoops of ice-cream ($12.50), which we went for Coconut and Cookies & Cream. Crisp with a moist interior, the waffles were made with a classic batter involving eggs and butter, which was savoury and fragrant. Coconut Ice-Cream was mild, cooling and refreshing; good to have on a hot and humid afternoon, especially with small chunks of coconut flesh within while the Cookies and Cream was chunky with lots of cookie bits to chew on.For more photos and the full review, please visit: https://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2014/10/15/waynes-chill-out-the-punggol-settlement/

Sandwiched between old-school hardware shops and grocery shops, Ciel Patisserie seems like as if it was a shop that got transported back to the future. Being a patisserie, items such as cakes, tarts and puffs are offered here, with a lone quiche on the menu. Beverages includes coffee and tea.Fuji ($5.20) is a triangular-shaped cake that is made out of green tea mousse and sponge cake, with what seems like a grape compote encased within. The matcha flavour was light and refreshing, from the jelly-like mousse layer all the way down to the airy sponge cake base. The sourish sweetness from the compote inside was also luxurious, adding yet another dimension of taste to the cake.Choux ($3.20) is pretty much self-explanatory; essentially a Choux puff pastry, it looked firm, but was spongy, airy and light. Despite so, the pastry had flavour, which was somewhat salty and bitter. This was great with the subtly sweet vanilla custard, as it created different dimensions of flavour which made it felt similar to a very mild-tasting salted caramel taste. A simple pastry made different that felt rather intriguing, classy and delicious.For more photos and the full review, please visit: https://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2014/12/11/ciel-patisserie-blk-124-hougang-ave-1/

Recently opened a few months back, Beans & Cream bears a pretty much unique address in the west of Singapore. Located in the quiet neighbourhood of Bukit Gombak, it definitely does not come across as an address that would come up to mind for a cafe. Much like the neighbourhood itself, the interior is simple without much elaborate decorations. Seatings are very much limited here, with only three four-seaters inside and two more four-seaters on the outside.Since it is a place that sells ice-cream and waffles primarily, we had to give the two a try. We coupled Earl Grey and topped up for an additional Rum & Raisin scoop for our waffles ($9.80). The waffles strangely resembled the ones served at Creamier with a variance in their presentation. The Earl Grey was rather aromatic and uplifting, with the fragrance of tea distinct and soothing. Rum & Raisin was deep with the alcoholic touch; a indulging flavour for those who love this flavour. Waffles were decent, and we loved the crispy exterior which was in perfect match with the airy and fluffy interior. The batter was something we thought they could have did better; it was tasty, but it would fared much better if it carried much more fragrance in it.Not missing out the “Bean” in the name, I also ordered a Flat White ($4.00); something which was out of the menu but the staff gladly made when I enquired. Although much of this cafe’s focus is not really on the coffee, its pretty aromatic with earthy notes detected, and was also pretty creamy.For more photos and the full review, please visit: https://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2014/07/14/beans-cream-blk-347-bukit-batok-street-34/