Sambal Chicken Fried Rice Sambal fried rice was good as the rice was not too wet and there was sufficient sambal to give the dish a slight kick, but not enough to put you in tears. The amount of chicken served was also a lot more generous than the seafood served in the seafood fried rice dish, hence I always go for the chicken fried rice. If you are eating this alone, you may wish to know that the picture already shows a serving with less rice; the standard serving may be more suitable for sharing between two people.

Quite possibly one of my most favourite claypot dishes...a meal all on its own. Appreciate it most when the brinjal is first shallow-fried before slow-simmered with the minced pork, fermented yellow bean and cili padi. A bowl or two of fluffy rice later and you are ready to rule the world. Ok, that's all.

Probably one of the best ways to eat (and appreciate) fresh prawns — other than simply steaming them — is cooking them with shaoxing wine, ginger and Chinese yam. The wine's subtly floral notes play off beautifully with the shellfish's inimitable sweetness while the ginger's heat adds warmth to the palate as you sip on the very nourishing broth. The naturally cooling Chinese yam, and black fungus — known for its neutral properties — help provide balance and texture. Ok, that's all.

Egg Benedict with rosti Rather a unique dish, I like the Hollandise sauce with the rosti

Scrambled Egg with Croissant The egg is nicely cooked and the croissant is crisp

The Populus Scramble The Populus Scramble consisted of basic ingredients like turkey bacon, croissant, scrambled eggs with herbs (essentially spring onions and big red chilli). Not a very good photographer (esp for food), but plating was well done, enough for me to take like a pro for once. The textbook scrambled eggs was a win for me, the herbs gave it a slight Asian twist. But apart from that, nothing to shout about, no complexity nor depth in flavours. Croissant was very mediocre, and after 3 mouths it was all really one-dimensional. I couldn’t finish it. It just did not make the cut for such price point ($22 bef GST & svc charge). Hesitant to come back, but if I do then I’d probably try something else. Also, there was not much viable options for my poor vegetarian friend. Her favourite mushrooms were already pre-mixed with garlic so no customisations. Ratings: Taste - 7/10 Price - 5.5/10 Ambience - 7/10

Linguine Granchio @kithsingapore Love their Linguine Granchio - linguine with crab meat, prawns, cherry tomato, garlic, chilli and lime. Generous chunky crab meat and huge juicy prawns. Spicy! For those who love their chilli crabs! Generous portion of pasta, definitely fills you up! Read more about my food journey here: www.jayellesays.wordpress.com Follow me on Instagram @jayellesays

For a Relaxed Family Brunch by the Marina Spend the day at Quayside Isle with the whole jin gang where there are plenty of toys to keep the kids entertained and hearty brunch grub to feed everybody. It is alfresco seating, so be sure to have your sunscreen and mozzie spray on hand. Get there before 9am to beat the morning crowd in snapping up one of the coveted sofa seats facing the water — trust us, it's worth the effort! Like many Burpplers, we like the Big Breakfast ($20) — a choice of eggs on toast served with smoked bratwurst, bacon, greens and mixed mushrooms, as well as the Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs ($20) served with fresh avocados, mango, coriander salsa and baby spinach on multigrain bread. Kick back and relax with an Iced Black ($5.50) as you gaze out to the marina, daydreaming about which of the parked yachts you'd like to own. Children 12 years and under can order from a menu that includes pastas (from $8) and sandwiches (from $8). Avg price: $25 per person Photo by Burppler Alexis Toh

Nana Smoothie! Banana smoothie 🍌 w a side of animal biscuits 🌴 #weekendslovin #summerdaze #islandlife

Rose Latte Iced $7 Value for money for $7. Rose flavored latte. Right taste, right quantity. Decor and ambience of this place is just wow. Little hard to find near tanglin, but totally worth the visit. 5 stars

Avocado Toast with egg $13 Brilliant is the word. Ample avocado, enough egg. Perfect for a grand breakfast. Complete value for money Beautiful decor and amazing staff. 5 stars

Good Place! Repeat customers of the cafe, pictured is the big breakfast and lychee tea both of which were satisfactory and delicious!

Pulled Pork Quinoa Had this really long time ago and all I could rmb is the fried pork :-( tho I know they defo serve good coffee!

Left Me Hang(ar)ing While my money isn’t thick and stacked (unfortunately), the Hot Pancakes from The Hangar certainly are. Three pancakes, composed out of The Hangar’s homemade batter mix, are drizzled with maple syrup and garnished with poached blueberries, thinly sliced strawberries and bananas. For $20++, it felt kinda underwhelming. While the pancakes were fabulously fluffy and satisfactorily sized, it felt somewhat dull and monotone. The sweet poached blueberries, bananas and strawberries were nice, but it just wasn’t enough to tie everything together. What the hotcakes are sorely lacking is something to bind all the elements together, like a scoop of ice cream.

‘tis A Good To Place To Hang(ar) To this day, all of Singapore’s self proclaimed top tier coffees have been a beautiful letdown. Good coffee? Probably. On the same level as Aussie coffees? Yeah, nah mate. However, The Hangar is quite possibly the closest any café in sunny Singapore has come to brewing up a cuppa that could go toe to toe with astoundingly amazing Aussie coffee. Their cappuccino is lightly and delightfully toasty, mildly bitter, and has a luxuriously thick body and creamy mouthfeel. It’s truly no mean feat to even come close to the standard of coffee down under, so congratulations are definitely in order to the Hangar for reliably pouring up beautiful brews for the last half decade or so.

Disappointing and overpriced Friends used to frequent this cafe so we decided to drop by. Had the Duck Confit Rosti ($22), Truffle Fries ($13), and Kombucha ($8). Rosti was pretty thin but I give it a thumbs up for being crisp at the edges and also quite delicious. Nothing to complain about for the eggs but I thought the "duck Confit" was more like shredded leftover duck. Fries came in a huge portion but I could barely taste the truffle. And the volume of kombucha I got for 8 bucks was pathetic. Service-wise, it was passable but bordering on unfriendly.

Smoked Salmon Hash ($22) Smoked Salmon Hash ($22) This came with 2 poached eggs, and a generous amount of smoked salmon on top of crispy rosti, topped with Tobiko! The smoked salmon was slightly salty, but had a nice flavour too, altho it did overpower the rosti flavour a little. Overall a nice place to chill at, and you might need to queue for seats during weekends & lunch timings. Much preferred the vibes over the food, so go with managed expectations! Overall Rating: 7/10

Mentaiko Mac and Cheese ($20) Established in 2013, @knockhousecafe is located a few minutes walk from Upper Thomson MRT. Previously known as Pacamara, they have rebranded to Knockhouse Cafe since 2020. Mentaiko Mac and Cheese ($20) Slightly cheesy and creamy, but would prefer a much stronger Mentaiko flavour and more generous sauce! Didn't particularly enjoy the chicken that was within because of the texture and flavour.

Mushroom & Eggs Having been one of the more established names in the local cafe scene, La Ristrettos is probably one of the more hidden spots that only those in the know would likely to have checked them out. Located within Novena Medical Centre on level 8, La Ristrettos had recently re-branded themselves as Otto Pizza; an indication of a shift of focus for the brand. Despite its re-branding, Otto Pizza had retained much of the look of La Ristrettos for its interior — the only changes would have been to the signboard outside the cafe, and the removal of the La Ristrettos logo that used to be above the espresso bar; otherwise, the communal table in the middle, high tables and chairs at the windows and other interior decor have been retained since their revamp of the space some time back. With Otto Pizza being a concept that focuses more on sourdough pizza, much of the items served in La Ristrettos’ menu has been removed; the menu now features sections dedicated to pizzas, pasta, risotto, sides and breakfast — the pizza menu only being available from 12 noon onwards. The menu for beverages include a section dedicated to specialty coffee, whilst also featuring some special concoctions including an Iced Shaken Lemon Earl Grey, Otto’s Oranginar (i.e. freshly squeezed orange juice with iced soda water), and an Orange Juice. Sounding like a pretty usual breakfast dish that we would usually skip on considering how basic it sounds, the only reason why we actually had the Mushroom & Eggs was only because we had made our visit to Otto Pizza a little way too early for their pizza menu to be available for the day. The Mushroom & Eggs features fresh-baked sourdough, white button mushrooms and scrambled eggs; a fairly standard breakfast platter that some would find comfort in. The highlight of the entire dish would be the fresh-baked sourdough; using the very same sourdough that would be used for their pizza, the fresh-baked sourdough comes with little blisters from being baked in the high heat of the pizza oven. This results in a sourdough that is especially pillowy; the sourdough carrying a good tension as one pulls it apart by hand — it also was aptly dense and provided a good chew. Flavour-wise, the fresh-baked sourdough carried a distinct sour-ish tang that came from the fermentation process of the dough; nicely savoury as well at the same time with unsalted butter on the side that adds on for a smoother, creamier texture. The other elements such as the white button mushrooms and scrambled eggs were decent; both items being those that offers no surprises, the white button mushrooms have been sautéed to further bring out its earthy notes, while the scrambled eggs comes suitably runny with a hint of creaminess that was well-balanced against the egginess that is going on in there. It does seem that La Ristrettos have been straying away from being a mainstream cafe that is part of the third-wave coffee movement these days — the folks had also recently opened another concept named Black Cherry Roastery at Bijou in Pasir Panjang which attempts to be a more serious Italian trattoria that also serves up pizza and pasta with a good variety of side dishes. Perhaps this is also behind why La Ristrettos had also decided to make the change in the new year — naming themselves as Otto Pizza and making a menu change to focus serving up sourdough pizza instead. Whilst we were unable to give their sourdough pizza items a go during our visit to Otto Pizza, we were pretty impressed by the fresh-baked sourdough that was served with the Mushroom & Eggs — itself probably being a testament to the sourdough pizza that they serve up. We were also particularly impressed with their espresso-based coffee; incredibly smooth crema and being very well-pulled despite it being a Flat White or a Caffe Macchiatto Lungo — one that comes with a medium body and fruity flavour profile that provided quite a good kick as a morning perk-me-up. We might have not given La Ristrettos a proper try during their run back then, but Otto Pizza does seem like a new beginning for the folks of La Ristrettos that we would likely see them do well or better than they have had before; all that whilst still being that hidden nook that they had been known for whilst still being La Ristrettos.

Fried Tilapia Bruschetta We were looking for great eats in the Novena area and we came across La Ristrettos, which is a cafe hidden on the 8th floor of Novena Medical Centre. It is pretty crowded if you are planning to head there for lunch on a weekday, so do be prepared to head down at 11+ if you wish to head down to avoid the queue. We ordered the fried tilapia bruschetta as their savoury bruschettas seem highly-raved on Burpple. Note that these are not your typical bruschettas as they are pretty big and are definitely enough to fill your tummies! The fish comes with tartar sauce and generally resembles a dish of fish and chips without the chips, and was served atop a slab of sourdough toast. The toast was fairly hard and definitely required some effort to bite. Nonetheless, while the dish was an interesting combination (fried fish on top of hard bread was a first for us), we thought it wasn't exactly wow. The dish was priced at a pretty average level of $15++, but it was certainly sufficiently filling! We would be happy to head back to La Ristrettos to try out their coffee as we heard that their coffees are great.

Cajun Shrimps & Scrambled Eggs Ordered one from the All day breakfast list. Portion just right. Will come again to try other dishes