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Though I often frequent the outlet at Harbourfront Centre, this was the first time I’ve visited the one at Bugis Junction food court. The staff are really proactive at calling out to customers to buy soup, and are quite friendly too.

I was a bit lost with the menu here as it’s slightly different from what the HFC branch offers. I believe the regular herbal chicken soup that I usually order there has been replaced with black chicken at this outlet, and the herbal chicken soup I ended up ordering comes with a different mix of herbs as well as white fungus. I believe that this outlet might be better stocked as it was around 8.40pm but they still had enough of this soup and pumpkin rice (it was close to closing time due to earlier closing hours at 9pm a la COVID19 measures).

The chicken wasn’t as tender as what I’d hoped, but it still wasn’t bad. The soup had a sweeter, more mellow taste than what I usually get at HFC, but I enjoyed the taste just as much! Love the pumpkin rice here too, its as flavourful as I remembered, and the pumpkin is moist and mashed, with a few chunks still evident in the rice.

*note: if you have the stamp card from other outlets, remember to get stamps from this outlet too!

*how to save: the whole food court is FavePay friendly so feel free to use FavePay and get cashback at any of the other food court stalls too! :)

Actually came for the claypot chicken rice but apparently it’s only available on Tuesdays and Wednesdays! Ended up getting the Quadruple Treasures Rice which apparently comes with two braised chicken wings, 4 slices of sausage, and 4 slices of smoked duck with an onsen egg. This is served atop a generous helping of brown rice (that’s the default - I don’t think they even have white rice as an option).

Overall, the variety in this bowl is amazing for $5. However, for the amount of rice, I felt there was too little sauce. There were parts of the bowl where the brown rice was completely unflavoured. Despite that, having spoonfuls of the rice with the ingredients was pretty good. The meats were tender and well seasoned overall. Perhaps more vegetables would make for a healthier dish more in line with NUS’s push for healthier food choices, but it’s already value for money as it is.

*Li Ji is FavePay-friendly!

Surprised to see most of the stalls at the basement of NUH Medical Centre now accept FavePay which was fantastic because I forgot to bring my wallet along to buy lunch today 😣

Been a while since I’ve visited Sunny Korean Cuisine but rainy days call for sweater and porridge weather. This restaurant is always popular with the lunch crowd, and today was no exception, but I got my porridge order very quickly amidst other orders of Saba fish and hotplate meats.

My perennial favourite is the korean beef porridge which is made with brown rice and barley stewed with a generous amount of dried scallops. This makes for such a creamy and rich porridge, there’s no such thing as bland or boring porridge here. The porridge is topped with beef and shredded seaweed. The beef is probably the same as what’s served for the hotplate beef, which is slightly spicy but so good because it’s sliced thin and tender. Sometimes the beef is a little inconsistent as there can be copious amounts of onions thrown in, but today that wasn’t an issue.

At only $5.50 for a hearty and filling bowl, this is one of my favourite porridges around, and one that can go toe to toe with Empress Porridge right around the corner!

It’s way more worth it to get a large bowl, especially if you’re sharing, but we were pretty full and just had a hankering for acai so we got the classic small bowl. HAAKON’s Classic Acai Bowl comes with chia pudding, blended Acai, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, dried coconut, nuts and granola. I enjoyed the multitude of flavours and textures in this simple bowl, but I did feel that the Acai was a little too sweet. In addition, the chia pudding layer was frozen and quite hard to eat until it had defrosted. Still a yummy and healthy dessert that’s available till late as compared to many other Acai stalls around the area.

*Note: HAAKON is FavePay friendly!

Skim milk available at this cute cafe, though their matcha latte wasn’t that fantastic, it was decent. It could do with thicker matcha to balance out the milkiness, but it’s not too sweet fortunately. They have tons of other interesting drinks like Muay Thai Latte (thai milk tea latte) and Sweet Potato latte, among many others. I’m really not sure where this cafe is going as they seem to have a mix of so many East Asian and southeast Asian influences as there’re Chinese, Thai and Korean words around the cafe. Overall, the staff are polite and nice, and it seems like a very quiet spot to spend a weekend afternoon (especially for parents who’ve dropped their kids off for tuition classes).

*FavePay is available at Caffe Pastore!

Another item from the Breakfast and Brunch menu - the Arabiki Sausage & Pancakes is a marriage of sweet and savoury in a dish. Two arabiki sausages served with a sunny side up egg on two pancakes, with a garden salad and maple syrup. For some, this savoury-sweet combination is a no go, but I think this worked perfectly for me.

These pancakes are by no means perfectly shaped or as beautiful as many of the other popular cafes, in fact they’re irregular and quite ugly as cafe pancakes go, but they taste awesome and that’s what counts. The top of the pancakes were slightly crispy, and the interiors soft and fluffy. There was a subtle sweetness to the pancake that made it so delicious to eat on its own, even without maple syrup. When paired with the savoury arabiki sausage and egg, I loved the flavour and texture contrast between the sweet and savoury components, but I guess not everyone would.

The garden salad was only a side, but I really enjoyed it because of the creamy green dressing slathered on the crisp greens. Overall not a complex or beautifully plated dish, but well worth the $12.

The classic French omelette is chef’s recommendation under the Breakfast and Brunch menu - note that the Burpple Beyond deals can not be used for these items.

This dish is a classic combination of fine herb, pork sausage and shiitake mushrooms in a buttery custardy egg pillow served with fresh garden salad and butter toasted sourdough. Seriously you can hardly go wrong with such a combination in eggs. The omelette is so cheesy, you gotta dig in quick before it hardens and watch that cheese pull! I think the omelette might have fared slightly better if it were a little less cooked and softer on the inside, but I’m not complaining because taste from the mushrooms, sausage and cheese more than make up for it. I enjoyed loading the omelette up on the sourdough bread, which didn’t have a distinct tang, but was chewy and not too dry.

The garden salad was also great! 6 Letter Coffee uses a green dressing that’s ever so slightly sour, but so addictive when paired with the fresh leafy greens. If there was an option to upsize the salad, I’d probably do it.

*Note: 6 Letter Coffee is GrabPay & FavePay-friendly!

Gone are the days that sous vide cooking was limited to hotels and expensive restaurants. Fireless Kitchen, located in the revamped Funan Mall, is a first of its kind with absolutely no open flames in the kitchen and they’re definitely proud of it. You get to see the tanks and sous vide cooker setups right in plain view when you’re ordering your food.

We got two bowls, where you get a pick of one protein, one base and three toppings.

In bowl 1 (left, $15.90): sous vide salmon, tofu (add on $2), romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, edamame, pineapple

In bowl 2 (right, $13.90): Signature 24 hours cooked sous vide pork belly, whole wheat pasta, sous vide egg, caramelised onions, balsamic carrots

All the proteins were stellar, they weren’t overcooked in the slightest (the magic of sous vide cooking), and they absorbed the flavours of the marinades so well. While the pork belly is supposed to be the star of the show, with its tender melt-in-your-mouth texture, I found myself more drawn to the firm tofu, but that’s just me since I really like tofu. The marinades for both seem to be a barbecue style sauce, which double up as a great dressing for whatever base you choose. The salmon flesh was so soft and sweet, and I liked that the skin was slightly crisped - still don’t know how they’d achieve that without oil and flames though.

The bases aren’t particularly unique, but at least the salad vegetables were fresh and crisp. Note that the portion of vegetables is quite little though.

I liked all the toppings, especially the caramelised onions and carrots. However, the whole bowl was served at room temperature so it wasn’t particularly appetising.

Unfortunately, it seems like sous vide cooking isn’t sexy enough for our local market yet. Despite a very hardworking staff working the cashier and constantly reaching out to passers by and potential customers, nobody bought a bowl for the duration of the time that we were there. Perhaps they could work on the presentation of the cooked foods on display, or revise the pricing. For >$10 a bowl for a base, a protein and three toppings, there are much cheaper and more filling choices out there.

*Fireless Kitchen is FavePay-friendly! Start racking up those cash backs!

This is like the Vietnamese version of char kway tiao or pad thai. It’s the first time we’ve ordered this out of our numerous visits because I’m a creature of habit. Hahaha. Anyway, this dish didn’t disappoint. The noodles were slick and nicely cooked, not too soft, hard or oily. They even have a slight hint of wok hei that we were not expecting. There’s quite a bit of ingredients tossed in, so you have a mix of prawns, crabstick, mushrooms, tau pok and eggs. While none of these are particularly unique, they work together to make this dish delicious. We also enjoyed the chilli served together with these noodles, which were actually spicier than I expected. They’re really good when eaten together with the noodles! While I have other favourites on the menu that I always turn to, this is one dish that I might consider from time to time!

*The Orange Lantern (AND Harbourfront Centre) is FavePay-friendly! Remember to use FavePay, especially after 6pm, to get upsized 10% cashback!

I always come back to Kipos in anticipation of building the perfect grain bowl. Some days some items that I want are out of stock, but today I was lucky enough to have everything I picked!

What’s in my bowl ($13):
Base: Purple and green cabbage, cauliflower rice (+$2)
Greens: Brussels sprouts (+$1), Spinach, Cherry tomatoes, carrots, broccoli
Protein: Tofu
Dressing: Cheesy pesto
Lux it up: Golden pillow tamago
Crunch: Tobikko, crispy shallots, roasted almonds

Nothing much different from what I usually order - cheesy pesto is now my favourite dressing! Although I might still alternate between truffle shoyu and mala from time to time. The Brussels sprouts here aren’t bitter at all, and the cauliflower rice is a good alternative for those seeking a low calorie alternative to brown rice, quinoa or soba. It is a bit pricey at an additional $2 charge though.

Sort of hinted at getting discounts or rewards by bringing our own bowls and the awesome people at Kipos said that it’ll be coming soon! I can’t wait for that :) yay for going green while eating clean!

All the deliciousness in nasi lemak served up in a more nutritious form from Kipos. They were out of quinoa lemak base today, so it was substituted with regular quinoa, but it was still really good! The sambal chilli is the absolute bomb. The staff have also gotten much better at cracking the onsen egg which is awesome so I can have a nice whole egg, rather than egg yolk spilling out everywhere and congealing on the rest of my bowl by the time I get to eat it.

Kipos is super eco-aware, and since I brought my own containers to pack my food, I was hinting about some discounts/rewards for people who bring their own bowls - good news is: it’s coming our way soon! Yay! I can’t wait for that and hopefully more people will start bringing their own containers too :)

Looks like Toss & Turn has changed their DYOB - there are no hot or cold protein options anymore, instead, the basic salad bowl ($11) comes with a choice of 1 base (you can mix up to 2), 1 protein, 4 toppings & 1 dressing. It’s stated that it ‘comes with free bread’ on the signage, but we didn’t ask for it and weren’t given any bread, nor did anyone else that we saw in the restaurant. This change in the DYOB menu could work both ways, as it’s now cheaper to order what were previously known as ‘hot proteins’, but would cost more to order more ‘cold proteins/deli’ as an additional one would cost $2 whereas you’d have a choice of two deli meats under the previous Bowl A & B system.

What’s in my bowl ($11.50):
- Base: Spinach + soba (+$0.50)
- Protein: Spicy Chicken
- Toppings: Roasted pumpkin, cucumber, tofu, roasted eggplant
- Dressing: Cashew lime (fat-free, the sauce container used has notably decreased in size)

Overall it’s still pretty much the same ingredients on offer, just that the pricing system is a little different. I was pleased with the variety of bases available today at 7.15pm as there were baby spinach, kale (new I think!), mesclun Salad, sesame pasta, Mediterranean rice and soba noodles - my fav. The spicy chicken went very well with my bowl, in fact, I didn’t even need the cashew lime dressing as the seasoning was creamy and flavourful. Not spicy in my opinion though. The chicken chunks were also not too tough or dry, and they went well with my spinach and soba. With the amount of protein given in one bowl (there’s actually a whole lot of it below the other toppings), I don’t think I’m actually missing out too much on the previous 2 deli protein options except that there was more variety and choice then. Toss & Turn still remains as my pick for the most affordable no-frills salads and grain bowls!