Open Door Policy

O.M.G. O.D.P. i finally tried it!!!! i think this place can win an award for being on my omnomnom's list for the longest time haha. and i can't believe i waited so long to try it! (although it was because previously it was always quite difficult to get a reservation for this place) can see why it's so popular though! because it's really good!!! 

we actually came here for brunch but we ordered from the lunch menu instead because the items sounded so much more enticing. and no regrets at all ;) maybe sometime i should come back for the real brunch, but i think that menu isn't as fantastic.

so, first thing we ordered was this wild mushroom risotto with truffle and chanterelle ($45). this is probably not on the menu actually, because it was a special 5-day only menu. but gosh, look at those truffles!!!!! :O aren't they amazing?! the risotto itself unfortunately didn't have much of a truffle flavour, but it was nevertheless very tasty. i didn't actually try the truffle itself though, because it wasn't my dish. but it looks soooo gorgeous! and love all the photos i took that day ^^ the lighting at ODP is perfetto! ;)

i sorta regretted ordering the braised duck ragout with pappardelle pasta and smoked tomato sauce ($25), but only because it was such a carb-y dish!! >.< other than that, this dish was wonderful actually! it had a delicious flavour that appealed to everyone, and the pasta was cooked just right (: so much better than italian pasta!!! haha. always cannot forget that ;) and i love how the cheese lent an additional dimension to the dish, which complemented the pasta perfectly. the only thing that left me rather bewildered was the duck ragout! haha it didn't taste like duck at all imo. but it was nice anyway!!

the smoked pork belly with garlic spinach and pickled vegetables ($30) totally looked like 烧肉 doesn't it! haha.  (guess what, i finally figured out how to type chinese words on my keyboard lol!) it was soooo yummy. fried to a precise crisp on the outside, while the interior was nicely tender and firm, without being too fatty (:

one of my favourites that day was the 48 hour braised beef cheek with mochi potatoes, carrot puree and pea tendrils ($29). omgosh!!! it was SOOOOO TENDER, it literally MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH. i'm not kidding you. you barely have to chew on it at all. just pop it in your mouth, move it around a little and it just gradually dissolves. it was that soft. i loved the texture. i did wish that it had a deeper flavour though! perhaps the long cooking drained away its taste, because i felt that there was something lacking in that respect.

the bigass ODP burger with garlic fries and japanese mayonnaise ($27) was pretty good as well! it was a big burger with a rather (probably homemade) tender patty - nice! the "garlic" fries were rather disappointing though! totally didn't taste the garlic at all! there was just this garlic clove buried amongst the fries. maybe we were supposed to smash it ourselves and mix it in? haha not sure. 

for drinks, we had our usual hot chocolate ($6.50). very pretty artwork here! (: but i didn't think the chocolate was that great, unlike my italian chocolate or sprmkrt's. it just tasted very mildly of chocolate and was quite thin. not very worth the $6.50 price tag in my opinion!

i think what really impressed us though, were the desserts!!!!! they were sooooo good, i feel like drooling just thinking about it ^^ so yummy!!!! i'm so proud of my choices mwahaha. we had the jam jar english trifle ($17) which was this jar layered with cream, a strawberry/raspberry puree and sponge cake. and it was so so good!!!!! oh gosh i really loved it! all the sweet and sour notes just went together so seamlessly to produce this simple, but wonderful dessert ^^

the apple crumble ($15) was supposed to take around 15-20min to prepare, but the actual wait was much shorter in the end :) but just let you know in case! it was served piping warm, and had a lovely crumbly crust, with soft baked apples inside bathed in a delicious vanilla custard! it was so yummy too!!! i was just like some ravenous crazy girl spooning these two desserts one after another into my mouth non-stop until they were all gone haha. i mean, i wasn't the only one eating them - we shared - but i was just eating non-stop haha. too addictive :D 

Open Door Policy

19 Yong Siak Street

Tel.: +65 6221 9307

Lunch 12pm-3pm

Dinner 6pm-10.30pm

Brunch 11am-3.30pm (Sat & Sun)

Closed on Tue

PoTeaTo

i'd heard of poteato as a probable place for lunch/dinner, but i never really considered it a brunch place until we spotted it, due to the fact that we couldn't get a seat at Open Door Policy. yeah, ODP it that popular. sighhs. i hope it's as good as it seems! shall make a reservation to go there sometime ;)

anyway, poteato's brunch turned out to be quite alright! although the menu is really limited - there are only four options.

i think the reason why it's called poteato, is because it has something to do with potatoes and tea? haha. okay i'm just speculating. anyway, all their breakfast sets come with a choice of orange/cranberry juice (both are good!) and coffee (cappucino/flat white/latte)/ tea (english breakfast/lemon grey). quite good value i think! :) i loved the presentation of the teas in these lovely teapots! ^^

i ordered the Brekkie platter ($16.80) which was a hearty breakfast of sausages, sauteed spinach & mushrooms, scrambled eggs and hashbrown. the scrambled eggs were done beautifully with it's fluffy texture and light creamy flavour. it went well with the fragrant mushrooms that sizzled with the aroma of garlic and the crispy hashbrown. i didnt like the sausages much though, probably because they had a herb-y taste which i couldn't appreciate.

the avo on toast ($14.80) was an interesting dish! :) crispy toast layered with rocket, a generous amount of avocado and smoked salmon - this felt healthy and went down easily.

finally, the potato scram up ($14.80) was a meaty combination of potato hash, scrambled eggs, bacon, tomatoes and toast.

PoTeaTo

78 Yong Siak Street #01-18

Tel.: +65 6221 2488

Tues-Sun 11am-10pm

Red Star

Dim sum breakfast at Red Star on Sunday morning! (: Actually we wanted to go to Prive!!! But it seems like we have no fate with that place :/ Papa tried calling them a million times last week to make reservations for mummy's birthday, but they never once answered the phone. isn't that terrible? I wonder what went wrong. Today, we decided to just GO there, and we called them up again on the way. Turned out that they're fully booked -.- Gosh. Tell me, is it THAT good? I really want to check out the place, but it's starting to annoy me! :/ Please comment and tell me if you've been there! (:

1. So anyways, Red Star is my absolutely favourite place for dim sum. It's really popular as evidenced by the ridiculously long queues on sunday. The breakfast-brunch-lunch crowd just merges seamlessly into one such that there is an ever-present queue. But i think it's worth it xD



oh jeez, the picture is so blur >.<

But i just had to put the char siew sou right on top because it's my favourite! :D I'm a HUGE fan of char siew sou xD It is a necessity at the dim sum table, and once it comes out of the kitchen (the food is snapped up really fast at Red Star, so fresh food comes out of the kitchen at rather frequent intervals), i'm the first one to sprint to the trolley to get my share of it :P Haha i sound like some kiasu auntie :P I just can't reign in my love of this pastry (: The crust of the char siew sou is just as important as its contents. Crispy and tasty, with a generous amount of char siew inside. This pastry is just heavenly.



Egg tarts are on the same trolley as my char siew sou, so i'll always grab them along the way as well. Since i'm the char siew sou fan in my family, i always get to eat TWO of it (: so i'll alternate the two with an egg tart in between. Once again, the crust is very important to me. Nicely flaky but not overly so, with a firm eggy centre. Sooo nice.

I used to love century egg porridge, but now since i've got my new love, i no longer like century egg porridge that much anymore :P The yam cake was quite nice, with chunks of yam inside. And i liked how it went nicely with the sauce. however, if i were to be craving yam cake, there is a coffee shop in sin ming with SUPERB yam cake (the entire thing is made of yam, not merely little chunks), so having eaten that, i have yet to be impressed with the yam cake anywhere else. Siew mai and har gow were both decent - all must-haves when my family eats dim sum. I like anything with char siew!!! So naturally i liked the char siew bao. The bun was soft and fluffy with tasty char siew inside. One little gripe i might have if i were picky would be that the filling was slightly little. But then again, i loved the fluffiness of the bun, so i didn't mind that it compromised on the amount of filling. I only like chee cheong fun served in dim sum. Because i don't like the sweet red sauce which they typically put on dim sum in other places. i wonder why there is such a discrepancy? I prefer this soy sauce version much much more (: But there wasn't enough sauce this time. Boo.

Finally, the king of all dishes - the DA BAO. This is seriously one BIG da bao. I could never finish one of these on my own. It is awesome. I haven't found a bao like this anywhere else - it's unique! (: Nice fluffy bun again, just like the char siew bao, and inside is full of a variety of ingredients - meat, chinese sausage, water chestnut (i think? it's something crunchy!), mushrooms...oh no i can't remember! :( but anyway, it really packs a punch with all the ingredients (:

Red Star Restaurant

Blk 54 Chin Swee Road #07-23

Tel.: +65 6532 5266

Daily 7am-3pm, 6pm-11pm