Chanced upon this new Korean cafe (with some Korean waitstaff), Cafe De Muse, on the ground floor of Isetan at Shaw Centre in Orchard.

The pasta was piping hot, waited maybe 15 minutes for it. Came with pumpkin puree and basil (I think) and sun dried tomatoes (vegetarian option I believe). Kind of like baby food! It’s alright. I was wondering why there was no tomato based pasta on the menu and they informed me that they are gonna be adding that. Right now there’s squid ink, carbonara, prawn aglio olio and the pumpkin pasta.

There were a number of customers in the cafe, groups of people as well as people working on their computers.

Might try their bingsu next time, they have a number of flavours like Oreo, rice cake (or rice powder), brownie, cheesecake, green tea, melon, strawberry, and more. They also appear to sell their own brand of tea.

They have a number of brunch mains, desserts, cocktails, beef nachos and $10++ truffle fries.

The ambiance is like a stylish, not that high end bingsu cafe!

Upstairs they have a second outlet, a dessert bar, which I suppose specialises in desserts, coffee and tea.

I think Cafe De Muse should figure out what its specialty is, right now it seems like they have many different food items on their menu. The pasta was alright but it was not cheap and probably not something I would crave, it just happened to be the nearest cafe I spotted and I was hungry and curious :p

My colleague treated me to this bamboo charcoal milk tea from The Moment, near Telok Ayer MRT. I HIGHLY recommend shaking the milk tea before poking in your straw. It was pretty sweet despite the 50% sugar. There isn’t much tea flavour, there’s more syrupy sweetness to it. Other than that, the colour is purely aesthetic. If I’m not mistaken, this was around $5.60 or slightly more.

I prefer the Iced Matcha Latte with Red Bean over this signature drink from The Moment.

For my future self:
1. Make a reservation, if it’s full, don’t bother. Don’t assume there are enough empty tables for walk-ins, as common sense as that sounds.
2. Order a larger portion of pasta. The standard 100g of pasta is for a child. Just think about your weight versus the weight of this pasta.
3. Eat before going otherwise you’ll get stomach cramps while waiting AND after you’ve eaten.
4. You waited one hour or longer to be seated and for this pasta lol
5. McDonald’s which was your second dinner can serve you french fries and a sundae in under one minute! I’m still shocked.
6. Your pasta was cold.
7. The family of four before you got their food, ate their food, and paid for their food before yours arrived.
8. The people who ordered after you also got their food first lol
9. You and your friend were still hungry after dinner and went to get a second dinner.
10. If you ever open a restaurant or cafe, there better be some reasonable standards set 😂

This is my 3rd cup of bubble tea this week 🥺😱 So bad for the environment I know, I’ll cut down definitely. We waited about half an hour or longer for this drink! There were quite a few options on the menu like Ding Dong Tea, Green Tea, Osmanthus Oolong Tea, etc. We felt like bubble tea connoisseurs drinking this qualiTEA bubble tea.
The pearls are, as they say in Taiwan, very QQ!! (Chewy, and the right amount of firmness!) Would recommend if you are a bubble tea addict.
The top mousse is quite foamy and yummy. The sweet and warm black pearls were generous in quantity too. Just expect the wait time to be a while! But it’s totally worth it for the price, Chicha San Chen is much better than Wan Tea and ShareTea which I had earlier this week.
PS. Chicha San Chen is from Taiwan and was established in 1998! The paper carrier is really cool AND ALSO VERY CLEVER - you don’t have to hold a sopping wet bubble tea cup covered in condensation from the ice 👍🏻

I ordered this drink with 50% sugar but it tastes more like 0% sugar :(

There isn’t much earl grey flavour or pistachio flavour, it’s more like your ordinary bitter English Breakfast tea.

Also they ran out of pearls at 2pm... So I got honey aloe vera.

Nothing to shout about + not at all sweet + the price is steep for what it is.

Singapore farmed crocodile foot braised in herbal sauce served on a bed of kale! I didn’t dare eat the gooey, gelatinous skin but had quite a lot of crocodile meat! It has the same exact texture as KFC chicken, with lots of herbal soup flavour.

When I went to collect my tarts from Patisserie Clé in River Valley, I met two other customers in that short span of time - a testament to how good their desserts are! The second lady could not stop raving about her love for the Orh Blanc Tart.

This tart was heavenly. We ate it the next day but it was still fresh! The tart crust is coated in a thick, gratifying and generous salted caramel. And above, some sinfully good old chocolate. Nothing too sweet or overpowering, this tart goes down well with tea. I totally appreciate the effort that Patisserie Clé invested in creating this unique, pretty tart.

This tart is beyond beautiful. Inspired by orh nee (a traditional Teochew yam paste dessert), it consists of fresh yam orh nee, coconut cream, vanilla chantilly and gingko nuts. It tastes just like something you'll get from a French pastry shop. The tart was very creamy and nutty, like a twist to the classic Mont Blanc.

I loved this classic lemony tart! The elegant flower-shaped part is made of a heavenly, creamy, pillowy and zesty mousse with an intense passionfruit centre. Under the yellow citrusy filling of the tart is a thin, slightly crunchy sesame base. I didn't really taste the sesame until the last mouthful but that's probably a good thing, otherwise the sesame might have detracted from the overall deliciousness of the tart's citrus flavour. A winning tart for sure!

This pretty tart was the first one that we tried. There was a generous amount of apple, almonds and a heavenly filling that tasted like frangipane. Although the earl grey flavour didn't shine through and we thought the almonds could be baked a little longer, the tart tasted like comfort food, like a delicious almond croissant in tart form. Yum!

My parents are so obsessed with this cake. OBSESSED.

They gobbled it up before I could take a picture. While I am extremely wary of cakes with coconut on it (simply because it can go off easily and I fell terribly ill once) I must admit, the yuzu flavoured cream and vanilla bean sponge are so scrumptious and the entire cake is so fluffy and pillowy you’ll be on Cloud 9. It would be even more perfect if there was no coconut.

Highly recommend this is you’re in the Sunset Way area!