I heard about d'Good Cafe on Facebook and learnt that they had $6.50 sets of a cake and drink on weekdays from 2-6pm, so I decided to bring a friend along to Holland after a tiring day at school for tea.

The cafe is within walking distance from Holland MRT. It was a little confusing at first as we saw a clinic on the first floor where d'Good Cafe was supposed to be. We did find our way up to the second floor using the stairs and ordered our sets. I decided to go with the Earl Grey Tea Mousse Cake to pair with my latte.I'm a big fan of Earl Grey and I absolutely loved this cake. It has a very strong Earl Grey smell and flavour as compared to the other Earl Grey cakes I've tried. It even incorporates Earl Grey jelly pieces within the spongy cake to enhance the flavour. It was delicious and easily the best Earl Grey cake I've ever had. The latte was also very smooth and the coffee was bold.

The other highlight of the cafe (apart from the cake) was the lift. I thought it was really cool that they have a build-in lift that looked futuristic, like being in a space shuttle. It was also very useful in getting to the third floor while holding two plates on both of your hands. The third floor features a casual indoor setting and a beautiful outdoor setting and it felt really good to just sit around, chill and engage in casual conversations.

I'll definitely come back for more of the Earl Grey cake, and the next time I'll bring more friends along.

Recently, Mr Bean outlets across Singapore distributed discount coupons to customers and some of them were for the new Mr Bean Cafe at United Square, opened in July this year. Since there was a promotion of 3 set lunches for the price of 2, my family and I decided to head down for lunch to check it out. (Each set lunch costs $9.90)

Mr Bean Cafe offers its standard items of drinks and pancakes. Apart from that, it features a new menu with soy-infused dishes, such as Soy Porridge and Soy Burgers. Using the discount coupon, we purchased 3 Set Lunch Specials (which we could not find on the regular menu) that came with a drink and soup. Apparently, the soup was Cream of Asparagus, but I couldn't taste the asparagus and it tasted like a dilute version of cream of mushroom. We were expecting soya bean for the drinks, but we were served warm flavoured tea instead. Apart from the Earl Grey tea, the other two were fruit infusions and they did taste pretty good.For the Set Lunch main dish, we had one of each of the three dishes available (each dish was served with rice and potato wedges). The Thai Basil Beef Meatballs were decent, chewy, mildly spicy and had a subtle hint of lime.The Miso-Mayo Fish Fillet was also pretty good. The grilled fish was soft and the sauce had a very strong miso flavour. They could have been more generous with the tasty sauce because without it, the fish was quite bland.The Grilled Tom Yum Boneless Chicken Thigh was probably the weakest of the three. The tom yum flavour was not strong enough and the chicken was not very tender. I wouldn't say it was bad, but it just didn't stand out as a dish.We absolutely loved the rice though. It was some form of butter rice, fragrant and flavourful. However, the portions of each dish were actually pretty small and probably insufficient to fill your appetite if you are a big eater.

Therefore, we decided to order the Signature Soy Burger ($5.80). It was a recommended item on the menu and I was actually looking forward to try it anyway after seeing it on the discount handout. Indeed, the burger was delicious. The buns were very soft and fluffy and had a subtle soy taste to it as compared to a normal burger bun. The soy-infused sauce was very unique and every single one of us enjoyed it. (Fortunately, they drizzled the same sauce on the salad.) The patty had a weird texture - we were pulling out strands of meat from the patty - but it was decent and the sauce greatly enhanced the taste.Overall, I'd say that the new concept store is refreshing and the items of the menu are pretty interesting. I'm not sure whether the Set Lunch dishes will be on the regular menu (I hope they are!) but at least I'll come back to try the other soy-infused dishes.

Fruits Tokio Cafe is a small stall in Takashimaya's Basement Food Hall and being tucked at one side, it is hardly outstanding. The stall offers various crepes and milkshakes and customers can opt for a combo of both at $4. I decided to go ahead with the Banana Crepes and the Banana Milkshake because the other flavours available were not too appealing to me.Upon receiving it, I was kinda surprised. The crepe was nicely wrapped, but it was so small that it could be eaten in a bite or two. This was also different from what was being shown on the displays, with fresh fruits on top of the crepes. That aside, the banana crepe was nothing to rave about and there wasn't enough of it to actually enjoy. The skin of the crepes was soft and thick (more like the texture of pancakes) and the banana flavour was there. I did like the Banana Milkshake though. It was very thick and flavourful and it wasn't too sweet.

The combo seemed cheap at first, but the size of the crepe/milkshake did not justify the price. At least real fruits were used.

PODI opened less than two weeks ago at Raffles City Shopping Centre, replacing Out of the Pan. It serves up Breakfast and Grills and promises unconventional selections. I'd agree that there were many items on the menu with interesting combinations, but I wouldn't say they all worked absolutely well.Taking this area around the middle fountain with a clean and classy look, it is hard to miss PODI. I visited the outlet at about 1.30pm and it wasn't exceptionally busy, with just a few lingering customers. Many staff were just standing around, although they did attend to us to take our order quickly even before we signaled for it.During lunch time, a top up of $5 for Soup and Coffee/Tea can be made with every main course ordered. The Country Mushroom Soup was sold out, so we opted for the Tomato Soup and French Onion Soup. The Tomato Soup was really delicious - it was hot, thick and not too sour and the texture was more of puree than soup. The tomato flavour was very strong, so if you love tomato you're gonna love this soup. Personally, adding a little carnation would have made the soup perfect. On the other hand, the French Onion Soup did not exactly taste like onion to me, but I liked it nonetheless. The clear brown broth had plenty of onions that were really soft and it felt like they were just dissolving in my mouth.We ordered three main courses to try, the first being the "Duck Berry Waffle" ($18), recommended as a signature dish. It pairs savoury with sweet, with duck meat on top of a waffle, complemented with an egg, blueberry sauce and some maple syrup infused with vinegar. I guess the combination was fine, just that it wasn't anything outstanding. The duck meat was tender and generously large and the waffle had a nice balance of soft and chewy. The egg stood out of place though and it didn't bring out any flavour. Also, I thought the maple syrup tasted weird, but that's just my personal opinion.The second dish was "The 100% Beef Burger" ($15) that came with sea-salt fries and an orange citrus salad. While the burger was supposed to be the highlight, I actually enjoyed the sides more. The burger was decent, the beef patty wasn't too tough and the buns were soft and fluffy. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to come with a sauce, but I felt it was quite dry. The fries were amazingly good that we finished the entire bowl almost instantly. The soft shoestring fries were well seasoned and it didn't come across as over-fried or too salty. The salad also had a sweet tangy dressing and for the first time there wasn't enough salad to go around.The third dish was "Prawn and Poached Egg Pasta" ($18) - interesting combination, but it fell short of our expectations. The three prawns were placed nicely around the plate, though a few more prawns would have been delightful. The poached egg wasn't very well poached and the yolk was not runny and did not flow out. The cream sauce lacked amount and flavour, so the pasta was kinda bland and tasteless. Urgh, not a good pick.The service was not that great, possibly because the workers are still relatively inexperienced since it just opened a little more than a week ago. We had to request for sugar for the coffee/tea and chili sauce multiple times, plain water was not offered and it took some time before a staff responded to our request for the bill, even though they were mostly idling around.

I'd say, give them a little more time to get used to the service and fine tune their dishes before visiting PODI. They do have some interesting desserts to offer too, so I might try them on my next visit.

The potato craze has hit me and I'm currently going around the island to eat potatoes in all forms - potato salads, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, fries etc. Speciality fries shops are my favourite hangout places, such as Best Fries Forever and What The Fries. They are versatile and can either be eaten as a snack or a full meal.

After much research online, I tracked down Ireland's Potato at Bugis+. There is a wide variety of sauces to choose from, some of the interesting ones include Yogurt Cream and Pickled Mayo. I opted for the Cheesy Combo promotion ($9) that includes the Cheese Pizza Fries, Cheesy Baked Potato Skin and a drink.The fries were medium-sized and had a very strong potato taste rather than salt. It was crispy initially, but the sauce made the fries a little soggy after a while, which I was perfectly fine with since I prefer soft fries. The sauce was basically tomato-base and cheese, nothing special. Even though the pictures showed meat, I couldn't find any in my fries. The tomato sauce was actually quite dilute, so the taste wasn't that strong. More sauce would have been appreciated as my final few fries were trying very hard to scoop up the remaining sauce on the sides of the cup.

I actually enjoyed the Cheesy Baked Potato Skin more than the fries themselves. Again, I've no idea where the bacon in the pictures went, but the base was crispy and the cheese was creamy and smooth. They were a little cold when I consumed them, so it would have been perfect if it was hotter.

I'm actually more interested in the other sauces. That will keep me coming.