Forty Hands Coffee

Tiong Bahru is an old estate but recently the newly opened cafe/bar/restaurant turn this area a popular and crowded area. I met friends at this area and we chose 40 hands out of so many cafe as I heard of the good reviews. Forty Hands is named after the fact that an approximate of 40 hands are required to produce coffee from planting to cupping. 40 Hands aims to support and promote a sustainable coffee economy where growers are paid a fair and decent price for their coffee. Their beans are sourced from a variety of award-winning roasters.

When we were there, it was full house and we waited for 20mins to get the seat - indoor but all the glass corner, but we all didn't wish to wait for too long so we just took it.

Salmon Hash($16+) - Initially I thought it is kind of dry dish but I saw a bit bowl of gravy with bread and fries. I was wondering where is the salmon. This is really nice, at least is the taste that I like. It is great to serve with the bread, even the sauce is good to go with fries. A surprising dish that fulfilled me especially I had the disappointed egg benedict.

Fruits Salad($11+) - Fresh fruits with berry sauce and yogurts. It tasted good, I always mixed fruits with yogurt so this is another that I can add to my cooking list.

Egg Benedict($14+) -  I was disappointed with the egg benedict. It is too dry, less sauce and the eggs overcooked, hence, I did not see much yolk flowing to my bread. They did not use normal bread, instead they used scone type but too dry. Taste average.

Hot Chocolate($6+) - My friend like it. I had Flat White($5+) and my another friend had Cappuccino($5+) - Coffee tasted quite good.

Forty Hands Coffee

Address: Blk 78 Yong Siak St, Singapore 163078

Tel: 6225 8545

Website: http://www.40handscoffee.com/main.html

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fortyhands

Twoface Pizza & Taproom

I happen to pass by Two Face when we were looking for another Chinese restaurant which we had our dinner. After dinner, we wanted to find somewhere to sit down and chill so I suggested here since it looks great and it is nearby. We were here only for its drink as we were too full to try out anything. I will be back to try out their food some other time in the future.

Located at Tiong Bahru’s Eng Hoon Street, Two Face is just like its name, the place has 2 faces. Morning it is operated as Coffee shop which has several hawker stalls including a popular yong tau foo. In the evenings, the coffee shop becomes a Western food-serving establishment. They served pizza and pasta and lots of appetizer. The price here is affordable, you can get your main course below $20.

I never been to this coffee shop so I am not too sure how it looks like in the morning, but I guess Singapore coffee shops have the standard setting. This is how they turned night coffee shop to Two Face, they use the black board to surrounds all the stall and wrote their menu on the board. Nice idea to cover the stalls and at the same time promote your cuisines to the customer.

Two Face Signature($4) - made of sour plum, caixin and pineapple. I was attracted by the "caixin", wondering how this vegetable taste when mixed as a drink. Apparently it tasted very nice, I didn't really taste the caixin but can taste the sour plum and pineapple.

Lychee Sprite ($5) - This is really Sprite + few lychee from the tin that you can buy in supermarket. I have this dessert since young when we have lychee, longan and peach slices from tin and added 7-up or sprite as new year eve dinner's desserts every year. You won't go wrong with the taste, it definitely will be good.

Twoface Pizza & Taproom

Address: 56 Eng Hoon Street #01-46, Singapore, Singapore 160056

Tel: 6536 0024

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twofacepizza

Por Kee Eating House(波记海鲜酒楼)

I had stayed at Tiong Bahru area for 3 years and I didn't know about this famous restaurant until friend's birthday dinner. As usual, we were asking the group of friends where should we have the dinner. WW's friend introduced us to here. Reservation is highly recommended if you are going on any weekend, especially if you want to have air-conditioned area as there only have limited spaces for the indoor.

It is located right opposite Tiong Bahru Market. It is an old school Chinese restaurant that has been in operation since 1996(if I am not mistaken as you can see the title putted as 1996). If you google online, you can find many review, those who commented disappointingly mainly said the standard dropped a lot. For me as a 1st timer, I feel it is consider quite a good experience, i just have to avoid ordering certain food for my next visit. We spent $164.20 for 9 of us.

Mandatory pickles and peanuts($2.50++ each) that served when we arrived. I don't really like the concept of I have to pay something which is not my preference. The nuts is normal and the ah char(the pickles) is not nice, I think my mum make better than this. Tea and Towel is compulsory for $1.80++ per pax, this is still reasonable as we normally will get some drinks.

Sambal Kang Kong($14++), tasted rather normal and standard. 

Signature Homemade Toufu($20++), when I heard about the signature toufu, my impression was a big slice of fried toufu with the fried mince meat on top. I was wrong when it was served like below. The toufu tasted silky smooth yet firm and the gravy is nice. They used some mixed vegetables and I even saw sea cucumber in the dish, so kind of worry will it be very expensive? The sea cucumber tasted totally not nice, soft and there was a weird taste when I ate it.

Yam Basket($24++), I love yam so I love anything that made with yam. The yam basket here is good, it is fried well so tasted cripsy and yet inside is soft. It was filled with fried chicken, prawn and mixed vegetables.

Seafood Roll($16++), something like fried prawn paste, not much taste seafood. I don't like it, partly because not very nice, another reason was it has the vegetables that I don't like.

Butter Cereal Prawn($33++) which is highly recommended by the staff, said that it is the best and signature of the restaurant. I generally like the butter prawn very much because I like the egg floss with butter and smell is just so fragrant. Por Kee version tasted good(not the best), but I did not really taste any cereal, so it is more towards butter prawn version.

The champagne pork ribs($27++), available as a short rib (from $18, main picture) or long rib ($8 per piece) variation is a house specialty here. The fork-tender meat coated in a thick, caramelized dark brown sauce tasted with very nice smokey flavour which I like it a lot.  I was struggling whether to order long rib but it is hard to share so in the end, we went for the medium size of the short ribs.

Por Kee Eating House(波记海鲜酒楼)

Address: 69 Seng Poh Ln, Singapore 160069

Tel:6221 0582

亞華肉骨茶餐室Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh is a direct language translation from mandarin to a hokkien dialect, literally means "pork ribs" and "tea".

It is a chinese soup popularly served in Singapore, Malaysia and some other neighbouring countries and as it name as suggested, together with chinese tea. However, Malaysia and Singapore have 2 different version  of the Bak Kut Teh. Singapore style is more peppery and Malaysia style is more to the herbal taste.

We ordered below for the meal of 2 persons. I prefer the Malaysian style bak kut teh but the peppery style in Ya Hua is quite nice. You can have unlimited soup added. In fact they will add the soup for you when they see the soup is running down. You will just need to stop them if you dun want so much soup.

Bak Kut Teh must served with you tiao

The liver & kidney soup($6)

Pork Ribs Soup($6)

亞華肉骨茶餐室Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh 
Address: 593, Havelock Rd#01-01/02 Isetan Office Building
Tel: 6235 7716
Business Hours:
Tue & Thurs: 11am - 2am
Wed, Fri & Sat: 11am - 3am
Sun: 11am - 10pm
Closed on Monday

Thai Express

22 May 2008


May 15, 2008


Seafood Tom Yum Soup($6.90++)


Hor Fun + Gravy - not nice


Tom Yum Hor Fun($10.90++)
April 9, 2008
A good place for Thai Food. I like the tom yum soup, sour enough and taste really good. The pineapple fried rice, green curry seafood and mango salad are my favourite.
When this time I visited the restaurant again, I tried other dishes. Phat Thai Beef tasted good but I prefer the one with kway tiao. I dun really like the Beef Stick, taste a bit strange for me. Tom Yum soup is really the best of all the menu.


Phat Thai Beef($9.90)


Fish Tom Yum Soup($6.90) + Steam Rice($0.60)


Beef Stick($9.90)

Bishamon Sapporo Ramen

I like Japanese ramen very much. Last Monday me & my colleague went to Raffles City Tower for dinner. Suppose we were trying to go another restaurant but the queue was too long, so finally we changed our mine. Why we choose Bishamon Sapporo Ramen? Because there is no queue at this restaurant.

We sat down and the staff presented us the menu. Not much choices for me to choose, so finally I decided to order Special Mison Ramen. That is the one that attracted me. Luckily we had it earlier as after that we saw the queue also. It seems like people like to have dinner very late, or they are having supper?

It tasted good, the Ramen is nice, looks like instant noodles but tasted better than that. At least the ramen is quite "Q". Soup is nice but a bit salty.

It costed $13.90++ for a ramen.


This is the menu.



Special Miso Ramen..looks good...just a bit salty


Bishamon Sapporo Ramen
Address: Great World City #01 – 22
Tel: 6235 6190

Other Outlet:

Address: Bukit Panjang Plaza #01 – 64/65
Tel: 6462 2001

Address: Funan Digitalife Mall #01 – 18
Tel: 6337 5142

Address: Bedok Point #02-32/34
Tel: 6445 3392