Cafe Sneakery (Sunshine Plaza)

*Edited on 24 Sep 2014: Closed*

Creamy Tom Yum Soup with Thai Mama Noodles $4.90

Cafe Sneakery (Sunshine Plaza) is a small humble eatery located at a quiet corner of the exterior of Sunshine Plaza along Prinsep Street. Inclusive of its exterior and interior seating, this eatery can sit around 20 people. 

I have eaten at least five times at Cafe Sneakery and was impressed with their food. Through these visits, I tried all 3 of their  Noodles; Smoked Duck with Organic Noodles, Noodles Soup and Creamy Tom Yum Soup with Thai Mama Noodles.

Besides selling Noodles, they have Sandwiches, Toasts, Wraps, Ice Cream and Beverages available.

Smoked Duck with Organic Noodles $5.50

Their signature Smoked Duck with Organic Noodles with sesame oil and special sauce is my favourite dish!

Smoked Duck with Organic Noodles $5.50

The noodles was very well executed. Cooked to perfect timing, the texture was so soft while the taste was so savoury. The smoked duck was a pleasant surprise. It was well smoked and was tender and springy. This dish is a die die must try!

Noodles Soup $4.90

The Noodles Soup $4.90 cooked with chicken, prawns, mushrooms and vegetables was another gem.

Noodles Soup $4.90

This bowl of Noodles Soup was so forgiving, comforting with a warmly feel.

The broth was flavourful and the essence from boiling the vegetables (probably radish) and meat was extracted out into the broth. With the addition of the ingredients, this dish was just so health. There was definitely no MSG added in it, as I drank all the soup and did not felt thirsty at all. A homely dish, perfect dish on a rainy, cold day or if you are not feeling well.

Creamy Tom Yum Soup with Thai Mama Noodles $4.90

The Creamy Tom Yum Soup with Thai Mama Noodles $4.90 did not exactly wow me as I felt that the balance of the sourness and spiciness could be improved. In addition, the mushroom used did not really suit the tom yum soup.

This small cafe called Cafe Sneakery is highly recommended. If it can overcome its small seating capacity, this hidden gem could be the next big thing and add itself into the list of established players nearby such as Victor's Kitchen, Oven Marvel and Aroy Dee Thai Cafe. This cafe is a family run business, I hope that they continue to operate despite the challenges (labour, rental, etc). I will definitely be back for more of their Smoked Duck with Organic Noodles and Noodles Soup. Give this a try, you will not regret it.

ps: do note that you might have to wait for half and hour during their peak hour (i.e. lunch time) as the place would be full. They do not take short cuts and rush through their cooking as the quality of food is important to them.

Anyway from what I heard, their shop is up for lease and if someone takes up the lease this shop would likely cease operation. If you want to try this, you have got to be fast. 

Café Sneakery (Sunshine Plaza)

91 Bencoolen Street 

#01-59 Sunshine Plaza 

Singapore 189652

Opening Hours: Mon to Fri 11am to 5pm

                         Closed on Sat and Sun
Facebook

Tims Restaurant & Cafe (Toa Payoh)

Tims Restaurant & Cafe a Nepalese restaurant serves Nepalese and Western cuisine. The restaurant reminds me of Jack's Place. But unlike Jack's Place, Tims Restaurant & Cafe is located under a HDB block and is a non air-conditioned restaurant. The restaurant is located 10 minutes walk away from Braddell MRT staiton. 

Daily Set Lunch Menu

The prices on its Daily Set Lunch Menu and Ala Carte Menu are all nett prices, which means there are no additional charges such as service charge and GST as these has already been factored in. 

The three of us ordered Chicken MoMo $8.50, Spaghetti Bolognaise Set $10 and Fish & Chips Set $11 (Daily Set Lunch), and Authentic Nepali Roast Chicken $11. The Set Lunch consisted of Soup of the Day, Main Course set, Dessert and Tea/Coffee.

Chicken MoMo $8.50

The Chicken MoMo $8.50 was essentially Nepalese style meat dumplings with coriander, ginger, garlic. It is served together with home made "Nepalese Achar". It was similar to our Chinese cuisine Xiao Long Bao. The difference is that the skin is thicker and there are no broth in the dumplings. The Chicken MoMo was unique. Although I felt that the skin was too thick, the meat fillings inside was wonderfully executed. Dipping the Chicken MoMo into the achar (made of tomatoes, herbs and spices) made it just so addictive!  

Minestrone Soup with Garlic Bread

The Soup of the Day was Minestrone Soup. The soup was served with slices of Garlic Bread. Their Garlic Bread fared better than Jack's Place as the garlic spread was thicker. 

Minestrone Soup

The Minestrone Soup was filled with lots of ingredients at the bottom of the bowl. Look at the amount of carrots, celery and strands of spaghetti. Unlike other Minestrone soup, this had a unique herbal spice flavour.

Spaghetti Bolognaise Set $10

The Spaghetti Bolognaise Set $10 which my friend ordered. I did not try this. It was quite a big serving. 

Fish & Chips Set $11

The Fish & Chips Set $11 may not be the best, but it was decently executed! The plus point would be that it was not oily. In addition, they portion was pretty generous considering the price. 

Authentic Nepali Roast Chicken $11

I ordered the Authentic Nepali Roast Chicken $11 which consisted of roasted chicken with rice, achar and vegetables. 

Authentic Nepali Roast Chicken $11

I was very impressed with this dish. It was easily the best dish! The chicken was marinated and roasted to perfection. The chicken was meaty and so tender and succulent! 

We ended off the meal with a cup of tea (from the set meal) and this cake.

Overall, I was very impressed with Tims Restaurant & Cafe! I am not an expect on whether the food here was authentic or not. But taste wise, I just love it. Price wise, it's so value for money considering the quality and amount of food. I will be back for more! 

Tims Restaurant & Cafe (Toa Payoh)

#01-52 ,95 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh

Singapore 310095
Tel: 6250 5246

Opening Hours: Daily 1130am to 1030pm

Facebook

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Original Sin (Holland Village)

Original Sin is a Mediterranean Vegetarian restaurant located at Chip Bee Gardens less than 2 minutes walk from Holland Village MRT (exit A) station. The restaurant offers both alfresco and indoor (air-conditioned) dining. As we made reservations, we decided to sit indoors as the weather was scorching hot these days. In addition, we did not want to feed the mosquitoes. 

We visited during lunch time on a Saturday. During lunch hours, they had Set Lunch available during lunch hours. The set lunch consist of a Starter (choice of Soup of the Day/Green Salad), Mains and Dessert at $26. All of us ordered the set lunch. 

Minestrone Soup (Soup of the Day)

Most of us including myself ordered chose the Soup of the Day as our Starter. The Soup of the Day was Minestrone Soup. The soup was full of ingredients such as carrot, cabbage, tomato, spaghetti, etc. The soup itself was not well balanced in taste, I felt that it was a tad too sour and something seems to be lacking. 

Green Salad

A friend of mine ordered the Green Salad.

Spaghetti

For mains, I ordered Spaghetti which was cooked with zucchini, olive, cherry tomato, tossed in tomato basil sauce and parmesan cheese. The chef executed this dish quite well. What was lacking was that they could have been more generous with some of the ingredients such as zucchini.  

Tofu Burger

My friend ordered the Tofu Burger which was served with wedges and salad greens. This was a hit among us; in a league of its own. 

Tofu Burger

The Tofu Burger consisting of tofu and lentil pattie was surprisingly tasty. Although the patty was soft and crumbled easily, we love it! The potato wedges which came with potato skin was also nicely done. In addition, the entire dish was not soggy. 

Mediterranean Wrap

The Mediterranean Wrap which was essentially tortilla wrap filled with chickpea and pumpkin spread, grilled eggplant, feta and salad was a dish which most of us did not appreciate. The main reason was because we were not a fan of chickpea which had a unique taste and smell.

Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

For desserts, we had Warm Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. The chocolate cake was a tad too dry. The molten dark chocolate that flowed out from the centre of the cake was rich and dense. It was so good that it made the chocolate cake seems inferior.

The set lunch made the meal more affordable compared to the ala carte menu. However, one should still note that even with the set lunch, at $26++, this is not exactly cheap. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable meal.

Original Sin (Holland Village)

Blk 43 #01-62 Jalan Merah Saga Holland Village

Chip Bee Gardens 

Singapore 278115

Tel: 6475 5605

Opening Hours: Daily 1130am - 230pm & 6pm - 1030pm

Website 

.6475 .6475 56055605.6475 5605

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee 亚九香菇肉脞麺 (Hong Lim Food Centre) - CLOSED

*edited - stall has closed down

 I am a huge fan of Teochew Style Bak Chor Mee (Minced Pork Noodles) and have always visited Hill Street Tai Hwa Pork Noodle (Lavendar) located at Crawford Lane to satisfy my craving.

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee 亚九香菇肉脞麺 located at Hong Lim Food Centre has been in operation for more than 60 years, like Hill Street Tai Hwa it also specialises in Teochew Style Bak Chor Mee. I have been eyeing this stall for sometime and took the opportunity to try this on a Saturday afternoon. 

I arrived slightly after 1pm and saw a long line of people queuing in front of the stall. There was more than 10 people in the queue in front of me. I contemplated patronising some other stalls as I was starving. But in the end, my desire to try this won the battle and I found myself queuing at this stall.

Other than the long queue, the only tell tale sign that this stall is famous/popular is the Singapore Hawker Legends Makansutra signboard showcased at the left of the shop front. 

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee offers just two items; Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle and Teochew Dumpling Soup which comes in 3 difference prices (again similar to Hill Street Tai Hwa). It also offers 6 types of noodles and the prices for adding extra ingredients were clearly stated on the menu pasted in front of the stall. 

The queue was extremely slow moving and I only got my food after queuing for 40 minutes! While I was in the queue, the greedy side of me decided on getting a Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (Mee Pok) $4 and Teochew Dumpling Soup $4. After all, I had come down just for this and since I had to spent so much time queuing I may as well kill two birds with one stone and try both! Logical? 

Mushroom with Minced Meat Mee Pok $4

As with all authentic Teochew Style Bak Chor Mee, vinegar (an essential sauce) imported from China was added into the Mushroom Minced Meat Noodle (Mee Pok) $4. The ingredients which included minced meat, meat slices, braised mushrooms, dumplings and fried crispy flat fish (扁鱼) were fresh. I particularly liked the fact that they were generous with their fried crispy flat fish and braised mushrooms. However, the dumplings were disappointing as it lacked in terms of flavour and bite. Luckily, the special chilli sauce complement well with the vinegar (I requested for more vinegar). 

Teochew Dumpling Soup $4

The Teochew Dumpling Soup $4 reminded me of Xing Ji Rou Cuo Mian 兴记肉脞面 at Bedok 85 as it looked cloudy with minced meat floating in it.

Teochew Dumpling Soup $4

Teochew Dumpling Soup $4

The Teochew Dumpling Soup $4 consisted of 8 pieces of dumplings, minced meat, braised mushrooms, fried crispy flat fish (扁鱼), seaweed and Garland Chrysanthemum (Tang O).

It was a terrible mistake ordering this. The dumplings as mentioned earlier was disappointing. To add on to this, the soup was bland although it looks so flavourful in the photos above.. 

Overall, the Bak Chor Mee was a decent. It was better than most other stalls, but not a die die must try. Moreover, Hill Street Tai Hwa's version was much better. As for the Teochew Dumpling Soup? My advice would be to give it a skip.

Ah Kow Mushroom Minced Pork Mee 亚九香菇肉脞麺 (Hong Lim Food Centre)

#02-42 Hong Lim Food Centre

531A, Upper Cross Street

Opening Hours: Thurs to Sun 8am to 5pm

                         Close from Mon to Wed

View FoodieFC's Singapore Food Map in a larger map

Cafe Italia Express at Dubai Mall (UAE, Dubai)

A visit to Dubai is not complete without a trip to the famous Dubai Mall which is the largest shopping mall in the world! Located in the heart of Downtown Dubai, it has a total internal floor area of 5.9 million square feet (50 football fields) with over 1200 shops of which 120 are restaurants and cafes, 95 elevators and 150 escalators! There's even Laduree and Galeries Lafayette. In addition, there's a five star hotel, Olympic-size Ice Rink, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, WaterFront Atrium, 22-screen Cinema, SEGA Republic (indoor theme park), Dubai Aquarium and Under Water Zoo in the mall! The locals have said that if you really want to explore and shop here, you would required 3 days to explore the mall. 

Clockwise from bottom left: Dubai Directory, Oasis Fountain Waterfall, different themes of the mall.

We got lost several times in the mall as it was huge and were so tired that we had to sit down to rest. The mall had many Concierge counters to help direct tourist and locals. 

Ok, back to the food. The prices at Dubai Mall seemed to be steeper compared to Deira City Centre mall. If only we had changed more Dirhams. We walked around and in the end settled our dinner in a food court as we all wanted to try different cuisines. The food court was huge with many different cuisines. There were fast food (e.g. Mc Donald's, Burger King, KFC), a restaurant and even a kids playground in the food court! 

I walked one round around the food court before deciding to settle for Italian food at Cafe Italia Express. Cafe Italia Express was the first to introduce traditional Neapolitan pizza in the gulf region. It first started making its presence felt in Bahrain in 2000. As the name suggests, Cafe Italia Express specialises in Italian cuisines such as pizza and pasta. The pizzas are baked in ovens that are fueled by wood. 

I ordered the Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97). After ordering, the chef went about his task of preparing a pizza. 

buzz

As the pizza had to be prepared and baked, issued a buzz that would activate (shake) to inform customers that their orders were ready. First time seeing a razor shaped buzzer. The more common ones I had seen in Singapore were round shaped like a land mine. 

Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97)

The Pizza Barbecue Combo 35 AED (S$11.97) consisted of a 10 Inch BBQ Chicken Pizza, choice of Soup or Salad and a Soft Drink. 

Minestrone

Minestrone

For soup, I chose Minestrone. Although there were lots of small chunks of vegetables in it, the soup was a tad too sour for me. 

BBQ Chicken Pizza

The BBQ Chicken Pizza was just average. Thin crisp crust with chicken, onion, BBQ sauce, cilantro and mozzarella. At 35 AED, this was relatively cheap. 

Dubai Fountain

A must do when visiting the Dubai Mall is to watch the Dubai Fountain performance. It is the world largest dancing fountain. The fountain is 275 metres long and can shoot water jets up as high as 150 metres (50 storey high). With Burj Khalifal at its background, the performance was captivating! You can watch the show at half hour intervals from 6pm to 11pm from Sun to Wed and 6pm to 1130pm from Thu to Sat. The fountain is located just outside the Dubai Mall on Lower Ground Waterfront Promenade. 

Cafe Italia Express (UAE, Dubai)  

D-5, Level 2, Food Court Area

Dubai Mall

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Tel: 04 3253629

Opening Hours: 11am to 11pm
Location

View FoodieFC's Dubai Map ‎ in a larger map

La Birreria, Piazza del Campo and Siena Cathedral (Italy, Siena)

Piazza del Campo

La Birreria is a restaurant located at the edge of Palio di Siena in Piazza del Campo. There are many different restaurants along the entire circumference of Palio di Siena as is a tourist attraction. In the past,  it was the site of public events and races such as bullfights, jousting and boxing. This was also the place where the James Bond Quantum of Solace's horse scene was filmed (do you remember?). Today, this site is used for many different events throughout the year. The most notable event is the prestige horse race which is held twice a year on 2 July and 16 August. As we visited during December, the event that was held at the centre of Palio di Siena was a Christmas market (yet again)!

The restaurant was unique, it had a big sitting capacity (indoors and alfresco dining). Inside the restaurant, we were surprised that it part of it was in the basement. As you can see from the photo, the inner part of the restaurant like a basement dungeon! The picture shows the 2nd 'basement room'. Each 'basement room' was  a few steps 'deeper'. We sat at the third 'basement room'. How cool is that! There was no windows and it was just brick walls and arches; real solid bricks, not fake wall or wallpaper. Moreover, there were several TV screens showing the sports (soccer) channel. I am sure it gets crowded when there is a soccer match! 

Part of the wall was decorated with photos of the prestige horse race that the locals look forward to. The quiet and unique environment of the restaurant made me felt as if I had taken a time machine back to the  ancient days. Now where's my sword and amour? It felt good to be away from our fast paced life in Singapore.

The menu was impressive; it came with five languages! There was German, French, Spanish and English! As for the fifth language, I could not even understand some of the characters as they looked like alien language to me! Its a norm in Europe to have their menu in different languages.

Vegetable soup with bread 7.50€ (S$11.75)

We ordered the "Ribollita alla sense" which in English was translated as "Vegetable Soup with Bread" on the the menu. It cost 7.50€ (S$11.75). Although the price was on the high end, we decided to order a bowl of soup to share to 'defrost' our cold bodies in the cold winter.

Imagine our shock when the Vegetable Soup with Bread (photo above) was served to us. We even told the waitress that we did not ordered this. She went back to the kitchen to check our order and insisted that this was what we ordered. Because of our language differences (she is fluent in Italian while us in English), we resorted to pointing to the menu to show what we ordered and she told us that Yes, this is the Vegetable Soup with Bread!

Well, we did not have any hot soup to go along with our meal. The Vegetable Soup with Bread was unique. It was moist and lots of 'mashed' bread was added to soak up all the soup. Chunks of carrots, onions, beans and potatoes were mixed among the bread. It was delish and rich in flavour.

When I came back home, I found out that Ribollita is a Tuscan soup made with boiled vegetable and bread (normally stale bread is used). Interesting! 

Pappardelle with Wild Boar 11€ (S$17.23)

For mains, we ordered Pappardelle with Wild Boar which cost 11€ (S$17.23). Pappardelle are large and broad flat pasta noodles. It was hard to compared the wild boar to other meat (e.g. chicken, pork) as it was minced. It tasted like minced pork meat. The pasta with wild boar was delicious though I would have preferred a pasta that was not so wide.

I remember when I was a kid, I ate braised chinese style wild boar meat at a hawker centre. However, now its rare to be able to find such meat at hawker centres (if you know of any, please let me know). You can still get wild boar at western (Italian) restaurants in Singapore.

We also ordered a Prosciutto e Funghi (Pizza with tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, ham and mushrooms) which was priced at 8€ (S$12.54) . The Prosciutto e Funghi was freshly made upon order and took more than 20 minutes to prepare. It was fantastic; great Italian pizza! The freshness of the ingredient and execution was perfect! You can pop by into any Italian restaurant and be assured that the quality of their pizzas are top notch! It was a pity that we did not manage to take any photo of the pizza as we were in a rush.

Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena)

The Siena Cathedral (Duomo di Siena) located at Piazza del Duomo was a 10 minutes walk from Piazza del Campo. 

La Birreria and Siena Cathedral (Italy, Siena)

Piazza Il Campo 58 

53100 Siena, Italy

Tel: +39 0577 284424

Website

Location

View FoodieFC's Europe Map in a larger map