Date Night

If you feel like treating yourself, get the emperor rice dumpling. It's packed with a lot of ingredients, you'll really feel like royalty. The scallop was generous, the pork was soft and everything went well together.

Somehow, my favourite was still the pulut hitam dumpling because both the rice and pork filling was sweet and fragrant. I've never seen this unique flavour before and it's left such an impression on me!

Another unique dumpling would be the Hakka pork belly with preserved vegetables rice dumpling. If you like mui choy (it's sweet and savoury, not the sour preserved vegetables), you'll love this too.

The nonya dumpling was good too! The sweet pork filling went well with the savoury rice - exactly what you'd want in a nonya rice dumpling!

Finally, I tried the Hokkien rice dumpling with salted egg yolk. The ingredients came in generous chunks - braised pork belly, salted egg yolk, chestnuts and mushroom. The fried onions added to the overall flavour of the dumpling and I really enjoyed this!

For all the dumplings, there were no hard or fibrous ingredients which made it really pleasant to eat. Love this!

Had the Mango Purple Rice today and I really liked the milky and fruity taste! It is also slightly sour but not overpowering. Got the Strawberry Lemon Yo-Tea for my family and it was really refreshing. This one is more sour because of the lemon, and I loved it! There were also crunchy fruit bits which was surprising - the texture is similar to pear but I'm not sure what it was. Overall I enjoyed every sip of my drink! The staff at I12 Katong was also super nice and friendly :)

The Compressed Watermelon and Ricotta Mousse was an absolute surprise - the crispy prosciutto and homemade ricotta went surprisingly well with the refreshing crunchy texture of the watermelon.

The tri-tip wagyu consisted of secondary cuts from the back of the cow, while the 4/5 mayura was a cut from the belly. Both were lightly seasoned and juicy, pairing well with the salsa verde (cold) and green peppercorn (hot) sauce. Both were slightly tough, but tasted amazing with the salt. I preferred the tri-tip wagyu.

The meats were paired with creamed kale and truffle fries. The cream sauce went well with the kale, and the truffle fries were lightly seasoned and sprinkled with cheese.

Finally, the caramelised apple croistillant was a great end to the meal. The vanilla gelato, made with vanilla beans, was nestled on a cup of flaky pastry, topped with gold foil and decorated with edible flowers. The pastry was easy to cut through, while the flowers were pleasantly sweet.

Loved the experience here!

PIPES by Hattendo - Review
PIPES by Hattendo is located right outside Exit H of Outram Park MRT, which makes it really convenient. They had a glass exterior, and the interior was decorated with beautiful hanging lights and some sofa seats near the window, which made it really insta-worthy and perfect for a date. The place was also really spacious and comfortable.
They have different menus for lunch, dinner, takeaways, alcohol and coffee. I went there in the afternoon and tried their desserts, which are really amazing! The Cream Bun Set ($12.50) consists of five flavours: Custard, Whipped Cream, Matcha, Chocolate and Azuki. We also got the Amaou Cream Bun ($4) because of the cute strawberry packaging! The bun had a really soft texture that really melts in your mouth when you bite into it, and the burst of cream in your mouth is so refreshing, especially since it was chilled. The custard tasted light and not overpowering, with a really smooth texture that was of just the right viscosity - not too thick, not too liquid. The strawberry bun had cream with strawberry jam, and the two complemented each other really well - the jam had a sweet taste while the cream's lightness helped to bring out a different dimension. I don't know how to describe it well but I loved it. The chocolate cream was really light too, though as a personal preference I would have preferred the chocolate to be stronger. The azuki bun was mostly filled with cream, and as someone who likes red bean I would have enjoyed it even more if I could taste the red beans. Unfortunately, I did not try the matcha and whipped cream ones.
The Yuzu Panna Cotta ($5) was my absolute favourite. There was yuzu jelly on top of the pudding. The jelly melts with a burst of fragrant and sweet yuzu juice. The panna cotta was not too overpowering and the texture was soft. Pair the yuzu jelly with the panna cotta and wow, it's so perfect. I personally loved the jelly even more than the panna cotta itself!
The Honey Toast with Soft Serve ($24) looked so appealing on the menu, we had to give it a try. And it did not disappoint. They carved the thick toast out so that it formed a cute square shell, which kept it neat when the ice cream started melting. They filled it with honey-drizzled toast, and added soft serve on the top. You could add $2 for an espresso soft serve, but we went with the milk one. The white rounded plate was decorated with some jam and granola. It was so beautiful! And not only was it beautiful, it tasted really good too. I loved the honey-drizzled toast, the honey was so fragrant and the sweetness of the honey complemented well with the savoury butter of the toast. The ice cream was good too, just the right texture. There were berries with the jam on the plate which went well with the plain crusts of bread.
To wash down all that sweetness, we had the Hot Matcha Latte ($6). The latte art was beautiful, and the authentic taste of matcha was wonderful - fragrant yet not too bitter.
At the end of the day, we were even more pleasantly surprised to find that there was no additional GST and service charge.
Highly recommend this place for any dates or just a hangout with your friends! :)