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Dinner @ Pyxiemoss

October 30, 2016 in European

There was a brief period when I couldn’t find any interesting places to add to my list of eateries-to-check-out. So when I chanced upon Pyxiemoss on instagram after (what I called as) my drought period, I got excited. I was sold with the picture of their housemade squid ink pasta topped with sea urchin. Keke.

I immediately texted my IGGF (InstaGram GilrFriend)! And with that, reservation was made through Chope.

Received a call from the restaurant two days before our dinner. And it was a pretty hilarious embarrassing tele-conversation. The person on the other end introduced himself as the general manager of Pyxiemoss. However, I made him repeat himself twice before giving up because the name (of the place) just rang no bell. So when he continued by wanting to confirm our reservation for Friday, it then dawned on me that it was Pyxiemoss, the restaurant. Haha.

Thank goodness I didn’t have my defensive tone on, which I sometimes do when I pick up calls from non-identified number. Phew! That said, Chope also sent a mobile text on the day of dinner asking for confirmation which I was to send a reply via text. Got so kiasu, anot. Ha.

Pyxiemoss was a 4 to 6 minutes walk from Clarke Quay MRT station. And while I thought I could easily identify the restaurant while multi-tasking on my phone, I was wrong. With no unit number displayed and the name of the restaurant embossed on the brass door handle which was almost non-visible, I walked past the unit twice. So unless one walked along the main road, one may just walk past the restaurant unknowingly. Yes, like me.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3), we ordered:-


  

1) The tribbiani, $15 (above) – Duck liver mousse, brown butter, schmaltz, duck heart, dates, focaccia, parsley.

2) Rad-ish, $8 (above) – Onion soup, daikon, yuzu miso, red radish.

3) Mother’s lamb, $18 (above) – Lamb neck, belly and heart, mint, grapes, herb brioche.

4) Joshua prawn, $23 (above) – Prawn, salted egg, curry leaves.

5) Snickerz, $10 (above) – Chocolate cake, chocolate peanuts, brittle, gula melaka cream, Thai basil.

6) Pine colada, $10 (above) – Coconut, pineapple, granola, olive oil, pineapple caramel ice cream, coriander.

7) The cheese, $15 (above) – St. felicien, Japanese port, grapes, honey ice cream, coriander, rye bread.

In all honesty, my IGGF and I weren’t impressed. Firstly, we were upset we couldn’t get the sea urchin pasta which we came for. When we asked the staff about carbohydrates options, we were told that there isn’t any on the menu; The food was meant to be shared, and chef felt eating carbohydrates would deter that as it causes bloating. Sob.

Secondly, the few dishes which we ordered fell short of our expectations. So much so that my IGGF and I were discussing of heading to elsewhere to fill up our stomachs after trying four items from the savoury menu. But after much deliberation, I got my IGGF to stay and give the restaurant a second chance by trying the desserts. Which I am glad we did.

The desserts totally saved our dining experience from unremarkable to not-too-bad. My IGGF and I were impressed with the chocolate cake which was chewy-ly good. It was so good that it gave us faith to try the other desserts. We were also told the desserts were gluten free!

So do I recommend Pyxiemoss? Not for filling up one’s stomach, that is. But if one is looking for part two, then yes. I enjoyed their desserts. In fact, after 10.30pm, there’s a bar menu too.

PYXIEMOSS
43 North Canal Road, Singapore
Website, Facebook
Overall: 6.5
Opening hours:-
Food/Beverage: 6
Mon – Sat : 17:00 – 00:00 (Dinner)
Ambience: 7
Value: 6
Service: 7
* Closed on Sun

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Dim sum @ Spring Court

September 2, 2016 in Chinese

It was one of those days when my friends and I happened to walk past Spring Court and my friend exclaimed “This is the famous popiah place.”

Famous? Popiah? Spring Court? But, but… It was my first (time) hearing of them. How can! So when my (bigger group) of girlfriends decided to meet up, I just had to suggest having dim sum at Spring Court. =p And with that, a phone call was made to reserve for 10 people on a Sunday.

And getting to Spring Court by public transport was relatively easy and straight forward. It’s a 5 minutes walk from Chinatown MRT station.

As taken from their website, Spring Court started way back in 1929. Although they have relocated a few times before finally settling at the current Chinatown location in 2005, one could tell they chose to keep their traditional Chinese restaurant decor. Which frankly, I preferred it this way. It’s nice to enjoy our dim sum in a nostalgic setting. It teleports one to another time dimension. No? If only they had push carts. Ha.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), we ordered:-

1) Prawn dumplings (ha gow), $5.80 (above) – This was really good. Although the skin could be thinner, this was simply a joy to bite into as each dumpling contained 2 succulent prawns! Yum.

2) Pork dumplings (siew mai), $5.20 (above)


3) Deep-fried pumpkin dumplings, $4.50 (above) – This was pretty good! I would imagine gluttonous rice flour was used as the skin of the dumpling was chewy.

  

4) Crispy chili crab buns, $5.80 (above) – Wasn’t too impressed with this. The filling within was a little dry. Could have used with more sauce within.


5) Sesame red bean balls, $3.80 (above) – A must order.


6) Custard buns with salted egg, $4.20 (above)


7) BBQ pork buns, $4.20 (above)

8) Mini egg tarts, $3.80 (above) – This was not on the menu. 1 of my girlfriend really wanted egg tart, so we checked with the staff if they happened to have any. And the staff surprised us with a “yes”! So I guess it’s a lesson learnt that it doesn’t hurt to ask. =p And these were not too bad.

9) Steamed beancurd rolls, $4.50 (above)

10) Phoenix claws with bean sauce, $4.20 (above) – I didn’t really like this. It was too heavily coated with the sauce. Or was I not used to the meatier claws. Hmm…


11) Glutinous rice with lotus leaf, $4.20 (above)

12) BBQ pork rice flour rolls, $5.80 (above)

13) Stir-fried carrot cake with XO sauce, $5.80 (above) – And judging how the carrot cake was served, one could tell the chef portioned it with a bowl. So yes, this was one bowl worth of carrot cake. Haha. And this was really good. I like that the pieces was big! Unlike the smaller pieces which we normally get from hawker centre. A must order.


14) Spring court crab meat popiah, $7.50 (above) – Unfortunately, I didn’t like the popiah. It was too huge such that the ratio of filling to popiah skin was very non-proportionate. And because it’s so huge, one can’t fit an entire slice into one’s mouth to enjoy an explosion of flavours.

15) Yam ring with prawns, $32 (L) (above) – This was good. The yam ring was executed well since that it was crispy on the exterior, and soft and mushy within.

16) Roasted peking duck served in 2 ways:-




(A) Crispy skin rolled in pancake (above)

(B) Meat fried with ginger & spring onion (above) – The duck meat was a little gummy. We didn’t really like this.

17) Panfried thin noodles with seafood, $38 (L) (above)

18) Beancurd, Complimentary (above) – And there was an ongoing promotion where we would be entitled to free desserts if we followed Spring Court on their instagram. So yes, that instantly brought out the auntie within us. Haha. And this was really good! I am surprised this isn’t on their menu. The bean curd was very light on the palette. I could have easily finished 3 bowls on my own. A must try!

19) Red bean soup, Complimentary (above) – And this would be another ask-and-one-may-be given case. While getting all excited about the complimentary desserts we would be getting, 1 of my girlfriend asked if they had red bean soup. To which the manager said he could get her a bowl. And again, this was pretty good!

20) Sweet yam paste with gingko nuts, $22 (S) (above)

21) Red bean pancake, Complimentary (above) – Similarly, we were entitled to a complimentary pancake because we liked their Facebook page! Haha. And oddly, this was not on their menu too. Hmm…

Will I recommend Spring Court? Well… The food didn’t exactly knock me off my feet and service was a little slow. The restaurant saw a constant stream of customers, and it was difficult to get the staff’s attention when we wanted to order more food.

That said, my girlfriends and I enjoyed a pretty decent meal of dim sum. We were eating so much that we sat that for a full 3 hours. Haha. We probably witness 2 turn overs? And coming in group of 3 would be the best since the dishes were served in 3s with the exception of a few.

SPRING COURT 詠春园
52-56 Upper Cross Street, Singapore
6449 5030, Website, Facebook
Overall: 6.5
Opening hours:-
Food/Beverage: 7
Mon – Sun : 11:00 – 14:30 (Lunch)
Ambience: 6
Mon – Sun : 18:00 – 22:00 (Dinner)
Value: 7
Service: 6

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Dinner @ Lollapalooza // CLOSED

August 28, 2016 in European

While brainstorming of places to head to for our Sunday lunch after class, a fellow crossfitter mentioned Lollapalooza. And because we ended up heading elsewhere, I decided to check out Lollapalooza with my friends. So with that, reservation was made for 3 for a Saturday evening via Chope. =)

On the day of our dinner, I received a call from Lollapalooza to confirm our reservation. And because I left a request in my reservation for counter seats, the staff clarified over the tele-conversation that there was no counter seats. I guess I must have mixed them up with Lolla. But that said, they are opened by the same group of people!

It was a 5 to 8 minutes walk from Outram Park MRT station. And although I’ve made my way from Outram Park MRT numerous times now, its network of exits still confuses me. Haha.

Upon arrival at the restaurant, I immediately fell in love with the space as the staff led me to our table. I really love what they did with the place. It was simply gorgeous.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2), we ordered:-

  

1) Sea urchin and crab tart, $18 (above) – I am so glad I insisted on ordering this. My friends don’t like sea urchin, so we almost gave this a miss. But after I got them to try it, my friends agreed the tart was pretty good. Although they felt the sea urchin was slightly redundant. To them, it was just sea urchin placed on top of an egg tart. But I really liked this. A must order. My only grip was that it’s a little too small for 3 to share.

2) Galician hand-dived scallop, $15 (5 pieces) (above) – The first impression of the dish was that the scallops were really on the small side. Just look at the amount of meat. So small!

3) Burrata, $38 (above) – With bayonne ham, feijoa and wild honeycomb.

4) Chargrilled Mediterranean octopus with spicy tomato salsa, $20 per 100g (above) – This dish came up to $18 on the receipt.

5) Chargrilled secreto Iberico de bellota (served pink), $30 (above) – This was really good! I went with 1 female friend and 1 male friend, and our guy friend kept going at this dish such that I only managed to have 2 pieces. =( A must order.

6) Chargrilled tuna collar, $44 (above) – This was pretty good too. When it was served, the staff told us to remove the skin first by running our knife beneath the skin. And I understood why we had to do that. The skin was thick and very difficult to slice through. Had we tried to portion the collar with the skin on, we would end up smashing the fish meat beneath instead.

7) Flourless almond cake, $20 (above) – With salted caramel mousse and mango lime ice cream.

8) Apple galette, $20 (above) – With yuzu chantilly cream.

Frankly, the food at Lollapalooza was expensive for its small portion. Which was ironic because it’s written on their website that their food was meant to be shared. I guess they meant sharing between pairs.

Will I recommend Lollapalooza? Well, I am really on the fence for this. I really like the ambience. But I always believe food should still take the main stage. So while the dishes were nicely executed, it was really overpriced. Dinner at Lollapalooza was meant to be a birthday treat from my friends, but I insisted on splitting the cost with them.

And do take note that the menu changes every day. As taken from their website, it’s to allow them to focus on working with the best produce available; How they cook depends on what they get.

LOLLAPALOOZA RESTAURANT SINGAPORE
1A Keong Saik Road, Singapore
6221 3538, Website, Facebook
Overall: 7
Opening hours:-
Food/Beverage: 7
Mon – Sat : 11:45 – 14:00 (Lunch)
Ambience: 8
Sun : 12:00 – 15:00 (Lunch)
Value: 6
Mon – Sat : 18:00 – 23:00 (Dinner)
Service: 8

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