Happy hump day meal with each dish being really delicious. Glad to have revisited this place after a pretty long while! For dinner, we had (1) baby popcorn with smoked miso, (2) padron peppers, (3) beetroot with radichio, (4) burrata with pickled chili and heirloom tomatoes, (5) cauliflower with barley and tete de moine (a great veg option!), (6) organic smoked duck with burnt carrot and (7) chocolate parfait with sze chuan meringue and pickled cherries.

I was truly blessed to have had my last meal at @cheekbyjowlsg before they close for good tomorrow. One of the rare places where you’re always pleasantly surprised at the reinterpretation of simple ingredients, cohesive concepts and of course, great cooking at its core. I will dearly miss, the smoked tomato granita on the plump, sweet oysters (cold, sweet, smokey umami); the cheese buns with that aged Comte foam (always wipe the remaining foam off the dish with your fingers), the chicken liver cigars and date jam; that laksa leaf ice cream; ‘Popcorn’; the wagyu tartare with smoked maple butter and deep fried brussel sprouts; artichoke, truffle (I think) and burnt onion consommé (I think); the hapuka and the greatest of them all, the quail. I cannot wait to visit the new bistro (at the current premises) and new fine dining restaurant (on Amoy Street). Thank you @rishinaleendra and @wamanuela for your wonderful food and hospitality. Michelin star or not, your food always has a place in my stomach and my heart. Goodbye for now, and hello again real soon! #burpple #cheekbyjowlsg

Lunch Set 5 course lunch set (S$68++) Available at @cheekbyjowlsg Snacks : Marinated olives from Spain Cheese Bread 🥖, Aged Comte Cheese 🧀 Oyster with Smoked Tomato 🍅 . 1st Course : Starter Smoked Mackerel 🐟 Horseradish | Cucumber 🥒 | Green Pea 2nd Course : Starter Jerusalem Artichoke Crispy Artichoke Skins | Shimeji | Onion Consommé 3rd Course : Fish 🐟 Barramundi Bonito Butter | Baby Leeks | Caramelized Onion 4th Course : Meat Pork 🐖Tenderloin Burnt Apple 🍏 | Coffee ☕️ Roasted Carrots 🥕 | Pig 🐖 ‘s Ear 👂’s Sauce 5th Course : Dessert Laksa Leaf | Pomelo | Green Chilli | Peanuts 🥜 Ended the meal with a cup of Flat White ☕️ (S$6++). Wish for more of the mochi like bread 🍞. It’s so yummy! Cheek By Jowl Address 🏡 : 21 Boon Tat Street, Singapore 🇸🇬 069 620 Tel ☎️ : 6221 1911 Open ⏰ : Mon - Fri : 12pm - 2pm, 6pm - 10pm Sat : 6pm - 10pm Website 🌐 : http://www.cheekbyjowl.com MRT 🚇 : Telok Ayer (DT18) Cuisine 🍴 : Modern Australian Note 📝 : 1 Michelin ⭐️ 2017, 2018 Last day of operation 28 February 2019

Vibrant Poke Bowls Delivered To Your Home T R E A T Vannessa, the co-founder and owner of @poketheorysg had gotten in touch with me to send poke bowls and other healthy bites. That’s how me and my family ended up with a hearty and unusually healthy (by my standards anyway 😂) lunch. I found their Poke Bowls travelled well as they were still cold to the touch when I received them (this matters a great deal since raw tuna and salmon are involved). Presentation didn’t suffer either - every item retained its fresh and attractive appearance, as though it had just been prepared a couple of minutes before. Whether you opt for their Signature Poke Bowls (S: $13.40 / Regular: $16 / Large: $19) or Customise one entirely tailored to your preference (which is what I did), you will receive a bowl brimming with quality ingredients and tastiness. It is a combination that has spelled continuous success for over the last four years for this locally-grown brand created by a pair of siblings. Fancy a Poke? You can and should order directly from #poketheorysg for takeaway and delivery by Whatsapping the outlet closest to you: MARINA ONE @ THE HEART Whatsapp order: 9867 7864 BUGIS @ DUO GALLERIA Whatsapp order: 9015 0223 TELOK AYER @ 27 BOON TAT ST Whatsapp order: 9468 5829 KENT RIDGE @ ONE@KENTRIDGE Whatsapp order: 9654 3854 NOVENA @ VELOCITY@NOVENA SQUARE Whatsapp order: 8589 7608 SOMERSET @ 111 SOMERSET Whatsapp order: 8369 6885 And while you’re at it, don’t forget to add on a couple of their refreshing Açaí Bowls, and Health Snack Packs (perfect for those moments when you’re feeling peckish).

Light Bowl ($9.90) Got the smallest available size ($9.90). You can select a variety of greens, and up to 2 poke. I chose the spicy mayo salmon and mentaiko salmon, which were both very delicious. Topped it off with the free garnishes of garlic chips, furikake and tobiko. There is also a variety of sauces for you to choose from e.g. shoyu, spicy mayo etc. The completed bowl tastes so flavourful and yet healthy at the same time. The place is really cozy and the lunch crowd isn’t that bad as most people opt for takeaway. The staff were really friendly as well!

Build Your Own Bowl! Love the "build-your-own-bowl" concept, managed to build a colorful and savory bowl of poke that I thoroughly enjoyed!

Overrated & Overpriced Rib Eye Steak Ordered Rib Eye Steak with Vigneron butter $43, extra $6 for blue cheese sauce. Visited this place after seeing good reviews. But it came under expectation. First, the steak was medium rare but I could see there is raw meat layer in the middle. Seems the grill timing is not precise. The steak also overtenderised, it has lost its firm texture. The staff told me I can expect a blend of fat in the meat, but turned out didn’t. The taste of the steak is quite bland and their complimentary 4 side sauces didn’t compliment the steak well. Secondly, the free flow fries wasn’t a good quality. I specially ordered blue cheese sauce for fries dipping, but it also didn’t match well. I would expect the fries is hot, crispy and flavourful but it’s not. Seems they fried in bulk way before the order came, it was a bit soggy when served to my table. I even not finished their first serving, because it was not worth the calories. Thirdly, the bread served is cold & hard to chew. Since it has been adapted to room temperature. Some places they make efforts to toast the bread so it served warm on the customer table. Least to say it’s a good place for a date night out and service is quite attentive and pleasant. I personally hope they can relook to their food quality, to justify their price. Total bill for 2 persons without fancy drink $100+

Fantastic Place For Steaks Went there for lunch, not much crowd. Great for people who wants a less crowded place for lunch. the steak was awsome! The doneness was quite on point. Generous servings of salad and fries! Definitely recommend to order the blue cheese as well!

Ile Flottane ($12) Literally means ‘Floating Island’. The meringue came wobbling atop the vanilla bean speckled creme anglaise in a footed dessert bowl. Perfect for an instagram boomerang shot.

Payasam 1nett It's really sweet, it's like of like liquid condensed milk. Luckily it's not sweet to the point of scratching your throat as Mac's desserts tend to be. Overall it's somewhat pricey actl, I spent 25 here for just myself(tho I took away some food). Two pax can share 3 dishes and that shld amount to about 15 per pax

Briyani Base 6.5nett, Masala Sotong 6.5, Mutton 6, Ckn 5 Briyani was buttery and there's spice, but quite ex for basically just rice and raita. The potatoes and cabbage were mild thankfully, but the brinjal sambal was intense, very zingy with an almost unbelievably strong brinjal taste. U might think I'm silly for ordering 3 masalas and tbh I was regretting hard as well but once I tasted it I was relieved, they're significantly different The sotong has a rlly strong inherent flavour, and the gravy was thick and salty(no worries tho, you're just supposed to eat the sotong I believe, this gravy isn't meant to be ladled over rice) the texture was not the best, it's not super chewy but it's hard The mutton was absolutely stunning, incredibly deep in flavour and very well rounded, nice balance of sweetness and sourness with umami taking front stage. Mutton was ultra tender too, it's a restaurant quality dish without a doubt Ckn masala was lacklustre, the ckn was v dry

For Unpretentious Banana Leaf Rice Keep this humble eatery on Chander Road in mind for simple authentic South Indian cuisine. Expect a mountain of free-flow rice, curried vegetables, chutney and papadum. Dishes to order include their Dal with Green Pepper and Brinjal, Mutton Rendang and Tumeric Fried Fish (~$7 per pax with meats!). While most diners here eat with their right hand, utensils are available upon request if you prefer. Pro tip: To avoid queuing, come for late lunches (around 2pm) or early dinners (6pm). Photo by Burppler Christine Tanod

Jalebi (SGD $1) @ Neha Tiffin Centre. Opened in December 2014, this humble hawker stall sees good traffic throughout the day for their wallet-friendly South Indian savouries and North Indian sweets. . Their version is part chewy part soft in texture, with bright floral sour sweet spice flavour, a tad more puffy in shape than elsewhere. . Feels so decadent, yet enticing. . . . Jalebi Neha Tiffin Centre @ Tekka Centre, 665 Buffalo Road #01-274 . More details: https://ivanteh-runningman.blogspot.com/2024/05/best-of-singapore-hawkers-jalebi.html

Chendol $2.5 Another gem at Tekka is the Old Amoy Chendol chain of stalls, where quality imported and housemade ingredients lend themselves to one of the better chendols out there. - The Japanese adzuki beans stewed in Indonesian palm sugar are a cut above your normal red beans, being sweeter and softer, and the hand extruded pandan "jelly" worms have that reassuringly distinctive pale green colour that tells me its hand made. The shaved ice is powdery and fine, almost like snow, and when drenched in their charcoal-fired gula melaka and cold-pressed coconut milk, a refreshing balm against Singapore's warm weather.

Mutton soup & chendol Indian style herbal mutton soup, dipped with crispy bread. Chendol drink rich in coconut

Coffee latte (coconut queen) Oh. My. God. This was insane. So damn thick and fragrant, I hardly believe it's just coconut. The body is incredible and it's nothing like any other coconut drink Must try

Beef curry rice 8.8nett add on beef 5nett Very good curry, their beef is also proper gyudon style, as good as it gets for this price range. Esp since the beef is neither dry nor tough, it's tender w some bounce Very good execution, highly recommended. In fact I can't think of a non wagyu place that can beat this stall in this simple fare

Spicy pork rib stew 9.5nett (Korean stall) Pork ribs were generous, and very well marinated. It's slightly dry but passable The other ingredients like potato, glass noodles and mushrooms were cooked well too A surprisingly decent stew in a school hawker

Their signature Sarawak Kolo Mee was still as good over the years. To fully enjoy it, be sure to add their dry fried chilli (a lot of it) b’cos it was just damn awesome. Only thing that changed was the portion of their Char Siew that seemed lesser.

Value Combo Creations Pork Pan Mee (S$8.90) Homemade noodles served with minced pork, cooked in signature gravy, wantan crisps, braised egg and meat balls. Topup S$2 to make it a value combo which included a choice of side and a choice of drink Available at @FaceToFaceSG Don't forget to add the spicy House Specialty Dry Chilli sauce. Choice of flat or round noodle It reminded one of Zha Jiang Mian 炸酱面. Selected Stuffed Cheese Scallop as side and Organic Green Tea 🍵 as drink as it was the only hot drink available. | Face To Face Noodle House 面对面 Address 🏠 : 180 Kitchener Road, # 02-23/24 City Square Mall, Singapore 🇸🇬 398 628 Tel ☎️ : 6509 0182 Open 💈 : 11am - 10pm MRT 🚇 : Farrer Park (NE8) Note 📝 : Only accepts cash & NETS

Atas ban mian anyone? We both had the hot and spicy dry pan mee ($8.90). The chili was given on the side (thank goodness). I only added about a quarter of the chili given and it was just right. Bf added all of his and the rest of mine, and it was then just right for him 😂. The anchovies, minced pork and egg all tossed together resulted in a crunchy, fragrant and rich bowl of noodles. Only complaint from bf was that they needed an upsized version of double of everything! Yes the portion was rather small.

Soup You Mian There's usually a significant queue. I quite enjoyed it, especially the soup, but maybe it's just I was hungry haha.

Mee Hoon Kueh Dry ($4) Was excited to try this, but it fell short of expectations. It was average at best, and nothing stood out. The mee hoon kway wasn’t clumpy, but it didn’t have that delicious handmade quality, and was a little too thin for my liking. Might go for the soup version next time, hopefully it’s better!

伊面(干) E-Mee (Dry) Comforting, almost like a grown-up Myojo Ramen Char Mee. And the soup is also excellent, so it’s the best of both worlds!

Mee Hoon Kway Across the border, a phenomena has been happening even before the pandemic. Many successful food hawkers start to employ foreign workers and almost without exceptions, the food quality drops. We seldom see this in Singapore but today I came across one. He Jia Huan used to be very famous in the west side for their Handmade Noodles or Ban Mian. The coffee shop they were located in caught fire a few years ago and since then I have not been back. Decided to revisit this stall today and to my surprise, the shop is still around but run by Vietnamese. I ordered my usual mee hoon kway. At 10.30am I was the first in queue (so I cannot attest to whether their business is still as good as before). But the taste has changed. First off, the soup has no more umph! It was just simple clear broth, very little umami. Secondly, the mee hoon kway was not hand torn but came in square pieces cut by cookie cutter. The reason why I always appreciate the hand torn versions is because the one pre-cut end up in clumps (see photo). Stirring vigorously during cooking may avoid this but not always. Today I had to chew through stacks of mee hoon kway sometimes three layers thick. The one saving grace of this stall is the price. At $4.50, the portion you get is big and they generously give lots of minced meat, sliced pork and an egg. The ikan bilis was a let down, although they gave lots of it. They seem to be those you can buy off the shelf rather than fried in-house and very salty. They also use sayur manis but quite stingy with the vegetable. Chilli sauce was not the cut red peppers with soya sauce but it was also very salty. Let you guess whether I’m coming back any time soon.

Bad Service Portion is huge, but service need improvement. Super bad experience. 1).Placed my orders, 2 packs of ban mian yet they only packed one pack. Returned the next day to buy and as well inform they short package to me, they argued they waited for me to return on the spot so they can return me the one pack..😑 but I returned the next day and they just never bother to even refund me. 2).was queuing to buy, waited very long, they don’t bother to ask what’s my order. Glared at me and then argued with me again why didn’t I place my order? Seriously wtf?

Ban Mian 4nett With Extra Minced Pork +1nett Noodles were pretty nice and ikan bilis was very salty(i like it). But the highlight was the superb Broth. Admittedly i havent had a lot of ban Mian but this was basically perfection of a Broth to me alr. If this is "average" to DFD im really excited to try out the other stalls in his list of top 12 ban Mian in SG. Btw their dry chili is kickass as well, very fragrant and pretty hot. I enjoyed their version of light soy sauce chili too!

Power chendol 2.5nett Everything increased by 50c for their signatures The gula melaka is super thick like toffee as usual, and while everything else is passable, they make a very enjoyable eat nonetheless. Portion is very generous, I was quite full from eating this myself I had this before I wrote my first review on burpple, and after 6 years I still do. Props to them!

Gangster Ice So named because "gangster" in Chinese is two characters that each sound the same as durian and mango, the two fruits in this dessert. Popular but standard didn't live up to the former. Both fruits were not the best.

Power Chendol ($2) There seems to always be a queue here, probably because of how generous they are with the ingredients for the cheap price! The chendol is covered with their thick, gloopy gula melaka syrup (almost like a toffee syrup) that’s quite strongly flavoured. It really gives an oomph to the chendol. Their green pandan jelly is delicious and fragrant too. A yummy and refreshing dessert and it’s so worth it.