Grubbing with Family

 It has been some time since my last post, due to my examinations and my busy schedule. Now I'm back to share on my visit to one of the cafes which has a rather different environment, compared to most other cafes in Singapore.

Well, I had my chance to visit this cafe that is located in the middle of a park, along with my parents and my brother, to celebrate my birthday with brunch! We visited this cafe called Grub, which a lot of people might have heard of it, which is situated in the relatively newly "renovated" park, Bishan Park. 

Grub is a stand-alone cafe located in the middle of Bishan Park Pond Gardens (formally known as Bishan Park 1). To get to Grub via public transport, you can choose to take bus 52, 410W from Bishan Bus Interchange, bus 262 from Ang Mo Kio Bus Interchange or bus 162/162M from Yio Chu Kang MRT Station. The stop to alight at is shown in the map below. GRUB is just walking distance from the respective bus-stops.

As for me, I took bus 162 to GRUB, which led me to the nice scenery above! As you can see GRUB is surrounded by greenery and fresh plants, and a beautiful river, which is connected to Kallang River. This alone made the cafe different from most other cafes! Customers are closer to nature when they dine in in GRUB.

Arriving at GRUB, you will be welcomed by an iPad to ask you to join in the wait-list, with the number of pax and a contact number to get a queue number. Due to the space constraint at the entrance of GRUB, no physical queuing is allowed outside the cafe. Thus, customers are encouraged to get a queue number and wait for a SMS to be sent to you when the cafe is full. 

Before heading to GRUB on that day, I've done some homework on the internet on the recommended dishes to try at GRUB! And some of the dishes are the popular ones by netizens!

First up, as appetizer! Chili con carne($8)! It means "chili with meat"! This appetizer consist of a bowl of corn chips, tasted like those you can buy from any convenient store, and a small bowl of meat sauce with a scoop of sour cream. This meat sauce is a fragrant beef chili sauce, which is not too spicy. The chunky minced beef gives this dish a pleasant texture when being eaten with the corn chips! The sauce is definitely great to be eaten alone too!

This dish is suitable for all, but the corn chips is a little bitter when being eaten alone. Highly recommended dish if you can eat beef! Definitely having this if I'm visiting GRUB again!

Each of us ordered a drink each for ourselves to complete our meal! Right above, on the left is a cup of Latte($4.50), on the right is a cup of Cappuccino($4.50). Right below are Long Black($3.50), and a cup of Hot Coffee that came with a GRUB Breakfast Set that we ordered. 

The coffee were pretty normal, which has nothing much to comment on. But, if you are a coffee lover, you will not like the Liberty Hot Coffee. It was so blend that it tasted like plain water to me. For coffee lovers, if you decide to order the GRUB Breakfast Set, I would recommend that you order another drink, instead of having the Hot Coffee.

Crispy Fish Burger($14) - crumbed fish fillet with remoulade sauce. 

Remoulade sauce is a French-invented condiment that is popular in many countries. However, the taste of the remoulade sauce in the burger was not strong enough to bring flavour to the burger. The fish fillet is a very crispy and big dory fish fillet, and it tasted like it was only marinated with salt and pepper before being fried. 

On the whole, this dish did not bring surprise to me, except for the crispy-ness and the size of the fillet. Fish lovers can consider giving this dish a try, but I would not recommend this dish if you are looking for a special dish to try. 

Pork Steak Burger($13) - sous-vide glazed pork, grilled pineapple

Sous-vide is a cooking method by sealing the meat in an airtight plastic bag and cook in a temperature-controlled water bath or steamed environment for longer-than-normal cooking hours, at a lower temperature from normal cooking methods.

The pork is quite tender, but just a little too dry for myself, the marinate was not too special, tasted just nice for me. Not to worry about the pork smell that a lot of people are afraid of when they eat pork.!To make the burger special, a slice of grilled pineapple has been added to the burger to compliment the taste of the pork! Overall, the taste was quite surprising for me and will recommend it to everyone!

Portobello Burger($11) - grilled portobello, crumbed feta, lettuce, vegetarian option (but not vegan)

I have always been a fan of sautéed mushrooms, any type of mushrooms! Just love the natural fragrant of mushrooms when they are being sautéed or being grilled. This Portobello Burger sure caught my attention! A simple burger with no meat patty, but replaced with 2 caps or grilled portobello mushrooms, topped with feta cheese to add on to the taste of the mushroom. The portobellos are so juicy and tender that it feels like meat if you were to eat it blindfolded! This burger sure is a suitable choice for vegetarians, but because it contains feta cheese, which is made from sheep's milk, Vegans will not be able to have them. Maybe they can request to have it without the feta cheese?

For the price that we are paying, I felt that the portobello mushrooms could be bigger in size to make it a more value-for-money option for the customers. On the whole, Portobello Burger is a simple, not too strong tasting, main course to choose if you are looking for a not-so-sinful main course from all the other options! Definitely a recommendation from me ;D

GRUB Breakfast Set($15) - grilled focaccia, scrambled egg, grilled mushroom, side salad and a choice of chicken cheese or garlic thyme pork sausage

How can you not have a breakfast set if you are brunching? Heres GRUB's Breakfast Set! Well, nothing much special about their breakfast set and the portion is not enough to fill up my fat tummy if I were to have this set alone for brunch. We chose the Chicken Cheese sausage over the garlic thyme pork sausage as my mom don't really like pork due to the smell that she is quite afraid of.

Portions for the sausage, scrambled egg and salad were alright, but the grilled focaccia bread is probably a little too small for a breakfast set. Another thing that I was quite unhappy with was that the served half a small slice of portobello mushroom for the breakfast set? It don't look presentable and the portion definitely is too small to be served. I did not not even know that there was a slice of portobello mushroom until my brother told that they finished that half a piece of it. GRUB Breakfast Set did not give me a good impression on the whole, with its portion and the bad coffee that came with it.

That's all for our appetizer and main course! Here's a picture of what we had before having our dessert served!

Churros - dark chocolate, tangy crème anglaise

And of course, voted as a MUST TRY for dessert in GRUB by netizens, is definitely their Churros! Recently, there's been a craze over churros! Where to find churros, whose churros is the best, and where to find unique churros. 

GRUB has been known to be a place to find Churros, so how can you miss it when you visit GRUB? Tasted it, and it is indeed YUMMY! Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside! The kitchen cooks them only when you ask for your Churros to be served, so that they are ensured to be piping hot! It is served with dark chocolate sauce and tangy crème anglaise sauce. 

Crème Anglaise is a light pouring custard as a dessert cream or sauce. GRUB added a tangy flavour to their crème anglaise to give it a refreshing taste! The Churros is coated with a layer of cinnamon sugar, which is the norm for churros. To compliment or to balance out the sweetness from the cinnamon sugar, the warm dark chocolate sauce is served. Have it for more flavour, or to lighten the sweetness using the bitter taste of the chocolate sauce! The crème anglaise sauce is served cold, and it tasted like condensed milk with cream, and a little refreshing tangy taste! Very refreshing and totally enjoyable munching on the churros with the sauces! MUST TRY!

A reminder to all my readers, GRUB does not allow pets to be brought into the cafe and no smoking is allowed, even in the outdoor dining area.

Do donate some money to Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (S.P.C.A.) into this cute donation box, on your way when you are leaving the cafe!

Here are the information about GRUB cafe!

Adress: 510, Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 (Bishan Park 1), Singapore 569983

Telephone: +65 64595743 (No reservations)
Website: www.grub.com.sg
Email: info@grub.com.sg

Opening Hours:

Tuesday-Friday: 11:00am - 3:00pm, 5:30pm - 10:30pm

Saturday-Sunday and Public Holidays: 9:00am - 4:00pm, 5:30pm - 10:30pm

Last orders at 30 minutes before closing.

GRUB is closed on every Mondays and the last Tuesday on every month.

Cups N Canvas

Sorry to all my readers that I have not been updating regularly on my blog. Hopefully I didn't lose any one of you. Hahaha!

Currently, I am trying to backdate some of the events/places that I have been to for the past few months. Really couldn't find time to type out my posts due to my heavy school work. So... ... Here's one! A visit to a cafe along Selegie Road, Cups N Canvas!

To be honest, it has been a few months back when we met up and visited this place, and I could not really recall the exact taste for the dishes that we ordered >.< I'm very sorry! :(

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As mentioned, Cups N Canvas is situated along Selegie Road of Singapore. If you are familiar with where Selegie Beancurd is, it is just less than 5 minutes walk from there. Well, if you are not quite sure where it is, here's how we went!

First, you can take a train and alight at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. There are 3 buses that takes you to Cups N Canvas from MacDonald House, which is situated just beside Plaza Singapore. Bus services 64, 65 and 139 will bring you to Selegie Centre. Alight in front of Selegie Centre bus-stop, turn to your left and walk straight for less than 200m. You will walk past a few Indian Tailor shops on your right. When you reach Cups N Canvas, you will see a shop with full glass panels! Alternatively, you can choose to walk from Plaza Singapura, walking towards Hotel Rendezvous, turn left after SOTA, School Of The Arts, and continue walking straight until you reach the place :) Simple!

This is how the outside of the cafe look like! Pretty yar? ^^

When we were there, it was during the Christmas season, so they came out with a All Day Christmas Menu! I'm sorry for this late post that you couldn't visit this awesome place for Christmas meal :(

However, if you are working around the vicinity or you would like to have some cheaper Cafe Weekday Lunch specials, you can visit the for their Weekday Lunch Menu! Only from 11.30am to 2.30pm! :)

When you first step into the cafe, you get a really olden Chinese kind of feeling! Olden Chinese Signboard, that are normally hung on the top of the entrance of Chinese shops, antique feeling furnitures, and some old shophouses decorations that you see on your left when you enter. Feels like you have gone 30 to 40 years back in time! Just that you have air-conditioning system installed! Hahaha! They even had a special Christmas tree made from wire mesh decorated by little drawings by their customers!

An overview of the main hall of the cafe when you enter from the left of the picture! ^^

Some really cute and old school paintings hung up on the wall of the cafe!

As the name of the cafe, Cups N Canvas, suggests that this place is great for a cup of coffee or drink to chill and relax, as well as drawing on canvases, thus the drawing section of the cafe! They allow their customers to do their artworks within the cafe and display them! You can choose to sit down here to do some simple drawings or drown yourself in an artsy environment while having your food and drinks here! 

A really relaxing section for you to appreciate art pieces! Look at how cute the cat drawing is! ^^

And because it was during the Christmas season, they came out with some deals for Christmas menu and Drinks Happy Hour, written by chalk on their chalkboard! Brings back to your schooling days right? :)

 The menu of Cups N Canvas! They have a wide variety of interesting beverages that they offer in the cafe! ^^The food served in the cafe looks yummy from the ingredients they used in the dishes too! Wow! Im hungry again! >.<

The pastry cabinet is situated right next to the cashier, where you can order your drinks and mains, look at the delicious cakes and you definitely wont be able to resist them and order them too! You can choose to have them served later so you wont have to separate your orders :) The boss of the cafe is a really friendly man! We had a fun time chatting with him while we were still deciding on what to order! He recommended us some of the hot selling dishes too!

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Iced Tea - Cucumber Mint

My friend ordered an Iced Tea, Cucumber Mint flavored. Read wrongly? Nope, you didn't! It is Cucumber Mint flavored! This drink is a really difficult one to describe as it seemed quite confusing but a really special one to try! Of course, the fresh Mint in the Iced Tea gives a refreshing taste to the drink, but the cucumber amazingly gave a faint fragrance to the drink! You might think that it is weird to add cucumber into your beverage, but this drink really surprised me when I had the first sip! Try it to believe it! ;)

Latte/Roasted Almond Latte

Two of my friends actually ordered a Latte and a Roasted Almond Latte. I took a picture only because both looked really similar, other than the tone of the brown of the drink. Hahaha! Really pretty latte art done by the Barista!

Sweet Potato Latte

I have seen reviews on this cute drink from Cups N Canvas and heard of this drink available in Korea. So I decided to give it a try since I have been really curious of how it actually tastes like!

Do not be fooled by the name, Sweet Potato Latte. Nope, there really is fresh purple sweet potato used in the making of this drink, just that it does not contain any coffee in this drink! The boss of the cafe actually warned me about this when I placed my order that this drink does not contain coffee :)

This drink is mainly made of purple sweet potato and fresh milk or full cream milk. It has the natural sweetness of the sweet potato used, but its not too sweet. The drink itself is generally smooth, but there are bits of the sweet potato sinked to the bottom of the cup. I felt that the sweet potato wasn't too cooked to be made into a drink as I could still chew on the bits and it wasn't smooth like blended drinks or smoothie. Maybe they did it to allow their customers to experience a different texture? Give it a try if you prefer special drinks, rather than normal Latte or Cappuccino!

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Now going to the main dishes and desserts that we ordered for our meal! ^^

B Burger

I had this all to myself! Muahahaha! From the name, it is a Beef Burger which comes with Beef Patty, Cheese, Sunny egg, X'mas salad and Wedges! 

The beef patty itself is not overcooked. It is tender and still have some of its juice sealed within the patty. The runny yolk of the sunny egg gave the burger an even better sensation when you bite the burger as a whole! The wedges, same as those you can get frozen from supermarkets, but the X'mas salad tasted quite special!. The dressing tasted like balsamic vinegar, and there were some maroon-colored bits that were found in the salad! Its not the cherries, but I couldn't tell what it actually was. It actually made the salad a little sweet as a whole, giving it another taste other than being sour :) A very filling main dish for a big tummy of mine ^^ 

Merry Breakfast

I swear, the moment this breakfast came to our table, all of us got all happy and excited! Look at the presentation of the dish! There's soooooo many things on the long plate! It is really a good choice to use the long plate to display everything of the breakfast, rather than cramping everything onto a normal round plate!

As you can see, there is 1 slice of whole-grained bread, 2 sunny-side ups, roasted potatoes topped with 2 slices of Christmas Ham and a huge pork sausage, sautéed mushrooms and grilled cherry tomatoes, as well as X'mas salad! This breakfast can definitely feed more than 1 person! My friend was sharing with us the breakfast! Really fragrant pork sausage and Christmas Ham, which were not very salty, along with the favorites for breakfast! What else can you ask for in a breakfast like this!

Blanc Turkey

Linguine cooked in cream and wine, with garlic, mushroom and turkey-ham! It tasted quite alright, nothing really special, but it is quite fragrant due to the garlic used in this dish! But, the cream base tasted a little too thick for me. Give it a try if you are a pasta lover! ^^

French Apple Pie?

Im terribly sorry that I couldn't find the full name of this dessert. All I could find was a "French Apple w" printed on the receipt. And from the blurred part from my picture of the pastry cabinet, it looked like "French Apple Pie". Hahaha!

Afraid that a dessert will taste too sweet for you? You can ask to have it with a scoop of ice cream! This desert tasted just like an Apple Pie, with the fragrance of cinnamon, but this Apple Pie isn't all too gravy-ish.  (Maybe that is the only type of Apple Pie I have tried?) The vanilla ice cream balances the sweetness really well, and the pie itself isn't very sweet to start off with. the sauce on the side tasted like peach sauce, which compliments really well with the Apple Pie! It makes the dessert a little sweeter with a fragrance of peach! Great combination for a dessert after your meal! ^^

Choc Truffle Cake

Last but not least, how can you leave out Chocolate cake from your order when you visit a cafe? Everybody loves chocolates, right? Hahaha! This Chocolate Truffle Cake is a really dense slice of cake! If you love bitter chocolate or chocolate cakes that are not really sweet, you will definitely fall in love with this! 

The chocolate cream of the cake is really thick and rich! Every mouthful of the cake gives a very rich flavor! It felt like I was floating when I took my first bite of it! No joke! Thats how wonderful this cake tastes! This is the best and densest chocolate cake I have ever had! 

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A really great experience we had at the cafe, with friendly staffs serving us, an artsy feel around the cafe and a comfortable environment to dine in! That day we reached the cafe around 4pm, and the cafe had to close of a private Art event at around 5pm, so we did not have too much time to chill and enjoy our food! And because of the early closing time on that day, the kitchen staffs actually sped up cooking our food to allow us to have more time to enjoy our food! It's really a sweet action of them! Thumbs up! ^^

Just for your info if you are planning to give this awesome place a visit, here are some of their informations:

Address: 139 Selegie Road, Singapore 188309

Telephone Number: +65-6884 6855

Opening Hours: Monday - Closed

                           Tuesday to Thursday - 10.30am to 10.00pm

                           Friday and Saturday - 10.30am to 11.00pm

                           Sunday - 10.00am to 8pm

If you are worried that you are not able to get a seat in the cafe during peak hours, feel free to give them a call to have a table reserved for you! Enjoy and immerse yourself in the artistic culture when you are there! 

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Hungry Chimps @ Selegie Road

A while back, my friends and I were studying at SMU and we decided to give Hungry Chimps (64A Prinsep Street #02-01, 188667) a visit to fill our hungry tummies in the evening! It is situated along the same row of shophouses as the famous Strictly Pancakes (if you know where it is =D)

Climbing up the flight of staircase beside Play Nation, which is just below Hungry Chimps, made us even hungrier! I was shocked when I entered the cafe. It was really well decorated, with their signature 'monkey' drawings, which is affiliated to Play Nation, and it is ready to receive Christmas with a little Christmas tree and some presents below it! But the whole cafe was very quiet and empty. 

How did I get to know about this place? One day, I was searching on the internet to compile a list of good cafes to visit in Singapore, and Hungry Chimps was one of the well received cafes I had found. And thus, I expected the place to be rather packed on a Wednesday evening! To my surprise, there were only 2 tables that were taken! Well, maybe I came on a Non-peak day?

Walking and looking around (actually the place is pretty small), the place is really colourful and really pretty! Definitely a place that will make you feel happy looking around! The nicely decorated chalk bard filled with their menu items, and colourful pictures of the Chimps (Well, this place is called Hungry Chimps!) and PlayNation mascot! I would say the place really cheered me up quite a bit after a tiring day of studying and writing of reports!

Pretty place, quiet environment, how can I miss out on ordering something to fill up my tummy? Flipping through the menu, my friends decided not to order any main course for themselves as they find it quite expensive for them. So we decided to get a side dish to be shared among ourselves, and I order a Main dish for myself since I wanted to try the food here!

And this is how their menu looks like! Hahahah! Okay, that's not really the main point. Back to ordering our food! That night, I was super hungry! Maybe it was due to the studying and stuff, and I always want to try the breakfast that the cafes offer whenever possible... And the King Kong Breakfast caught my eyes!

"Triple Stacked Pancakes, Quater Pounder Patty, Sautéed Mushroom, Bacon Strips & Truffle Fries. Served with Hollandaise Sauce & Vinaigrette Greens."

Wow! Sounds like a big serving for me to fill up my extremely hungry tummy! No doubt, I ordered that! ^^ And its a Chef's Recommendation! Hopefully this breakfast will surprise me!

 And for the side dish, my friends decided on their Chimps Specialty Calamari Rings! Which is also a Chef's Recommendation! "Prepared with Fresh Squid, Deep Fried in Unique Hungry Chimps Recipe"

With 2 Chef's Recommendations, my dinner should be rather satisfying for me! ^^

First up! The Chimps Specialty Calamari Rings was served first! First look at it, hmmmm~~~ Looks really crispy and nice!

From the looks of it, the Calamari Rings seems to have some herbs added to its batter before frying it. Expectation was that it should be quite fragrance since the herbs can be seen from the outside.

No doubt, the crispiness is there, as it was freshly fried and served while its hot. First impression, GOOD! Now, trying of the taste. Really tender texture as the squid is really fresh. But, I would say it disappointed me as the Calamari Ring tasted... ... tasteless. The batter, although the herbs or seasoning can be seen from the outside, it tasted really bland and tasteless. I had to dip it with Tartar Sauce to make it tastier rather than chewing on pieces of plain Calamari ring.

Well, one point that I compliment on is that they are not oily at all! Well done on controlling the oiliness of it!

Next up! My Main Course! KING KONG BREAKFAST! Looks big? Its really hugeeeee~~~~ Checking back with the Menu, I do not see any Hollandaise Sauce being served, but I received a small portion of BBQ sauce (I suppose its for the Quarter Pounder Patty?) and a little cup of Maple syrup.

I have always been curious about the taste of Truffle Fries as there are a lot of people love it. And of course, the first thing I tried was the Truffle Fries! Without knowing what to expect, I got shocked by the strong taste! Maybe Im not too much of a Truffle oil fan? 

Moving on, I went straight to try the Quarter Pounder Patty! First knife down, I experienced difficulty cutting it. Its a rather tough for a piece of beef patty. The taste? It tasted rather normal with slight pepper taste and not too much of seasoning that I can taste.

The bacon strips that came along with it was rather saltish, and the Sautéed Mushroom tasted fresh and the saltiness is just right. Pancake and salad, well, they are pretty normal, thus nothing much to comment on.

Overall, I did not really enjoyed my dinner there at the Cafe. My expectation for the food was not met by what was being served to me. Given the price of the food, and the quality of the taste, I will not be visiting this place again. Normal tasting food, not fantastic at all, a relatively pricey place to visit. 

Nonetheless, this post is written according to my tastebuds. Do visit the place if you are interested! 

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