The Uncle Sam's Claypot

My friend told me that this is possible the best claypot rice in Singapore so I was so eager to try out. I went there for lunch at 2 different time as it is just quite near to my office.

1st visit - tried the claypot chicken rice with vegetables,  five spice rolls and foochow fish ball. Food tasted average to me, five spice roll is the best among all dishes that we ordered. The famous claypot chicken rice tasted good but not the one I like. So to me it is just average.

2nd visit - I had Claypot Ee Mee ($8++). Just like usual Ee mee that you have it at most of the hawker, nothing special except it has 2 mushrooms which you won't find elsewhere claypot ee mee.

Selfish Gene Cafe

Cafe Hopping at Tanjong Pagar - 1st stop, this is unexpected visit as we supposed to go to the other cafe at the same row. While waiting for friend and also due to my hunger(no breakfast yet) so I decided to fill my stomach 1st. Cafe is bright and due to the interior design, I felt the space seems quite wide. There wasn't crowd when we went at 11am, so immediately we got the seat. We were served with the menu. 

I got Flat White($5) and my friend had Cappuccino($5). There is a promotion with OCBC where if you charged $25 and above you will get a complementary Cappuccino or tea. We just nice hit the $25 minimum and got the Cappuccino for free. How is the coffee? Not strong enough for me and not much aroma. Of course it is not too bad. I am read through the standard coffee portion of the latte, cappuccino etc. However, the coffee tasted quite differently at every cafe.

My friend already decided on we should get a bagel. That's nice as per her recommendation. Toasted Bagel($4) - toasted bagel with cream cheese. Looked very simple but tasted nice. I had changed my concept of bagel equal to hard bread.

Egg Royale($16) - two 62°C slow boiled eggs, lemon scented hollandaise, norwegian smoked salmon on multigrain bread. I tried not to go for egg benedict whenever I visit the cafe but still when I went through the menu, I got this egg royale. Very simple version at Selfish Gene Cafe, egg is running. However, I don't like the bread and egg combination here. It is an average to me.

Selfish Gene Cafe

Address: 40 craig road singapore 089678

Tel: 6423 1324

Website | Facebook

The Plain

Cafe hopping again - my 2nd stop of the day at Tanjong Pagar. We supposed to come here for our brunch,  but a friend was late so we went to another cafe at the same row.

The plain famous for its coffee.  I already had my 1st cup of latte elsewhere so I got Affragato ($5.5). My 1st interesting Afragato experience was at a cafe in Brisbane. The plain has quite a good one mainly because of the espresso.  Love it.

My friend had Generra Hot ($5.5), a very unique orange tasted coffee. Very special and she love that.

The food menu looks interesting but when I saw the display on the counter,  I felt that is just too common and doesn't really attracted us. 

We got Darling's Egg ($7.5) for one. It is poached eggs with ham, cheese & roma tomatoes

on sourdough toast,  tasted rather normal.  The next is Humpty Dumpty & Vegemite Soldiers ($7.5), dippy eggs with vegemite on buttered toasts sticks.  Interesting combo but when we looked at our food, this simple dish costed me quite a lot.

This is the only menu the cafe has. You have to refer to here for the order. You may also refer to the online menu.

The Plain

Address: 50 Craig Road, #01-01, Singapore 089688

Tel:6225 4387

Operating Hours: 7:30 am – 7:30 pm

Website 

Quarter To Three

After I joined the bak kwa queue for Kim Joo Guan, I walked to Tanjong Pagar to find a cafe where I can sit down and relax before I moved to my next destination.

I had passed by this cake and pastry shop but did not manage to try it as it was full house during the night I visited. I had my Cappuccino ($5) and "Apple To My Eye" Apple Crumble with ice cream ($8.9). The interesting thing about the menu is the name of the desserts, they have nice name. Coffee is average, apple pie(especially served warm) is nice with ice cream but personally I feel too sweet for the apple filling itself.  It served perfect with ice cream, ice cream already quite sweet so it doubled the sweetness.  If you are the totally sweet tooth you will love it.

Quarter To Three

Address: 88 Tanjong Pagar, Singapore, Singapore 088509

Tel: 6222 2214

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quarterto3

Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King

I had been wanted to try this ramen chain for quite sometime but always gave up due to the long queue. Finally I managed to try it after the walk at around 2pm, still need to queue but just for a while. The restaurant has limited spaces, I guess may be 20-30pax.

We sat at the counter area and given a piece of paper which said "Make Your Own Ramen". That is your order form. You can let them know what you don't want by filling up the last section on the form.

1. Choose Your Ramen - Tonkatsu Ramen Special(All Toppings) - $14.80, since I am sharing with a friend, so we go for everything
2. Taste of Soup - Light, ramen normally quite salty so we choose the light version
3. Chicken Oil - Less Oil, dun really like the oily taste, so go for minimal
4. Noodle texture - Normal, too hard n too soft also don't taste good. I love tanaka style noodles.

Keisuke offers 2 items that is on free flow - the bean sprout, I love it so much and the boiled eggs which there are 2 types: Low Cholesterol and normal.

How is the ramen taste since I had been waited for so long? Soup: taste great for the light version; Noodles: just nice for me; Egg: I love Keisuke egg; sliced pork: I personally don't like it as it has quite a strong pork taste. Overall, the ramen consider quite good for me.

Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King

Address: 1 Tras Link #01-19 Orchid Hotel

Tel: +65 6636 0855

Okada Coffee

Me and my friend planned for quite sometime to have cake at this cafe but we always have some constraints and do not able to make any trip. This time after walk at Mactriche with her,she ssuggested again but I wasn't too keen because of I am wearing in very very casual sports wear. She told me that was fine and she persuaded me. Originally we planned to have our lunch here as well but then decided to have only desserts as when we reached Tanjong Pagar, I recalled the ramen shop that I wanted to go much. 

We reached Okada 15 mins before 2pm, there offers high tea set $38++ for 2 with some cakes and pastries, together with free flow of their signature brewed coffee. Their high tea set's cake doesn't looks great to me(the cakes will changes regularly). I prefer trying out the signature cake that my friend recommended. if you are here for the meals, do try out the curry rice they have, my friend said that is yummy too.

Strawberry Cake($6++) - I usually dun like this kind of cake because of the rich cream but this is highly recommended and it has no regret. The cream tasted really good and fresh. Cake here overall smaller than the standard size I defined(comparable with other bakery shop with the same price). My friend who is regular customer said the cream was too much that day and overflown. We feedback this to the staff and they told us, normally cakes are done by the lady boss, the one we had was done by the boss itself. Nothing wrong with the taste, just the presentation could be better.

Japanese Chestnut Mont Blanc($8++) - my friend favourite and this is a must order cake whenever she is here. Taste good but not the best I had, a bit sweet for me. I prefer the strawberry cake earlier.

I had Okada blended coffee($6++). It tooks them a while to serve the coffee as it was finished and they need to brew another round of fresh coffee. They then served us with extra biscuit for the delay of our coffee. It come with a bowl of cream which served chill like you see in the picture below, quite interesting. I tried the coffee with the original taste and then tried the one with the cream added. I personally prefer the original coffee. Coffee tasted great with the small biscuit served. 

You can get make it a set if you order any cake, just top up $4++ for your coffee, that is cheaper.

Okada Coffee

Address: 100 AM, 100 Tras Street, #03-23, Singapore, Singapore 079027

Tel: 6543 6028

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okada.coffee.singapore

Department Of Caffeine (D.O.C)

I went there for lunch or I should consider as late brunch with friends as we heard about the good coffee and food. The best thing was we ordered different type of brunch item and shared among all of us. Consider there is no GST and service charge here, although the price is slightly expensive to me but still glad that I do not need to pay extra. Although no service charges but the staffs do serve you well. You can also make reservation before you come and they help you to hold the table for 10 mins if you are slightly late. The interior design of the cafe is cosy but quite crowded as space limited and I roughly counted the seats they have. The place can fit in 50+ seating guests, suitable for a small party too.

We had Latte with soy milk ($5 with extra $0.60 for soy milk) and cuppacino ($5). The latte art is not visible enough,  guess is the soy milk that can't hold it well. Cuppacino one looked pretty.

B.O.E ($20) - luxury breakfast with 2 scones topped with smoked salmon and another with ham and onsen egg. It serves normal salad as side. I like the combination, looks healthier than the other 2 items we ordered.

Sundried Tomato & Herb Waffle($17) - topped with scrambled egg and bacon.  My friend love this so much and she will be back for this. I used to have sweet waffle,  1st time having savoury waffle.  Surprisingly I did not feel weird taste, it instead quite good. I am expecting to taste some tomato and herb in waffle which I did not. I wasn't sure is my throat pain affected my taste.

French Toast ($16) - very ordinary toast with banana filling, served with maple syrup, vanilla yogurt, roasted almond and fresh blueberries, it tastes average for me.

Grilled Zuchinni($13) - when I heard that it is cucumber salad, I kind of thinking isn't the same as what I have normally but it is not.  2 colours of cucumbers, capsicum,  roasted cheery tomatoes and it tastes great to me.

Department Of Caffeine (D.O.C)

Address: 15 Duxton Road, Singapore, 089481

Tel: 6223 3426

Website: http://www.deptofcaffeine.com/

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