LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry (Middle Road)

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has a long history and is possibly one of Singapore's oldest cake and pastry shop. They have over 50 years of history with a reputation for their quality product. The cakes and pastries are crafted by hand and contain no lard or pork. Today, LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has 3 branches in Singapore (For its locations please refer to the end of the post)

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry has received many recognition from food shows, newspapers, magazines and celebrities. The whole shop is full of articles and photos endorsing their quality products.

Wedding cakes

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry is known for their 'golf ball' pineapple tarts, bean curd tarts, cakes and  wedding cakes. Look at the above picture! What a beautiful customised wedding cake!

Menu

Some of the items and their prices that are being sold in LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry. I went to LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry on a weekday afternoon at around 130pm. I wanted to buy the Beancurd Tart. However, it was already sold out when I got there. What is amazing is that the Beancurd Tarts are only available daily after 1230pm yet it got sold so quickly. I was told I can call in to reserve the next time.

Mixed Beancurd Tarts $9.00

I decided to purchase the Mixed Beancurd Tarts instead for $9.00.

Mixed Beancurd Tarts $9.00

The Mixed Beancurd Tarts consist of 7 different kinds of Beancurd Tarts.

Clockwise from Top Left (above picture): Longan in Beancurd, The Original, The Original, Peanuts in Beancurd.

Clockwise from Top Left (above picture): Grass Jelly in Beancurd, Gingko Nut & White Fungus in Beancurd,  Egg White in Beancurd, Red Beans in Beancurd.

Most of us would have tried Portuguese Egg Tart before. Beancurd Tart will be something new to most of us. The beancurd tarts will need to be kept in the fridge and are best served chilled. It has to be consumed within 2-3 days.

The crust of the beancurd tart is hard yet crispy, crunchy and sweet! The beancurd filling is soft, silky and with melt in your mouth sensation. Moreover, the beancurd taste is not overwhelming. Among the beancurd tarts, the Original Beancurd was the best! A nice change from Portuguese Egg tarts.

Oh yes, to further reinforce that this shop has a long history, my parents told me that their wedding cake (30 years ago) came from this shop! This is a interesting shop. The only downside is that it is not located near the MRT station. Anyone tried their wedding cakes before?

ps: best to call and reserve the Original Beancurd Tart

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry (Middle Road)
264 Middle Road
Tel: 6337 2417
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 1030am - 730pm
                          Sundays and Public Holidays 1030am - 4pm
Website

LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry (Cambridge Road)
Blk 42 Cambridge Road #01-02
Tel: 6298 1477
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 1030am - 7pm
                          Sundays and Public Holidays 1030am - 3pm


LE Cafe Confectionery & Pastry (Veerasamy Road)
Blk 637 Veerasamy Road #01-111
Tel: 6294 8813

Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 1130am - 4pm

                          Sundays and Public Holidays 1130am - 3pm

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Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)

Victor's Kitchen located at level one of Sunshine Plaza specialises in serving authentic Hong Kong Dim Sum. I am sure that when Dim Sum is mentioned most of you would be thinking of the likes of Peach Garden, Peony Jade, Lei Garden, Red Star or East Ocean. What's the difference you may ask? Well, to me the Dim Sum at Victor's Kitchen is cheap and good!

Victor's Kitchen 

Arrived at 1pm on a Saturday. Victor's Kitchen was packed! Luckily, the turnover is quite fast, found a table within 5minutes. Do expect to be seated next to strangers with narrow passage ways.

Drinks Menu 

Dim Sum Menu (a)

Dim Sum Menu (b)

To order, you will need to get the order slip(menu) from the counter along with a pencil and tick the items along with the quantity you want. After you are done, pass it to one of the helpers and then wait. Can't help but comment, look at the disclaimer 'we serve the best foods, but not fast food'. Well, for good food, you have got to wait.

H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang (Mix CoffeeW/Tea) $3.00

The H.K. Summer Ice Ying Yang comes with ice surrounding the cup of ying yang (also known as yuanyang; coffee with tea) . This way, the drink is kept chilled without diluting the the taste of the drink.

Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice $4.00

I am not a fan of glutinous rice and in most places, most of the glutinous rice was hard. But we had to order it as we were starving and needed carbohydrate. When the Chicken & Sausage in Glutinous Rice arrived, my first (negative) thought was 'Wa, so plain'. But well, this is amazing sticky, soft and fragrant. I was totally won over by this dish. The best glutinous rice I have ate! What a great start to my meal.

Char Siew Cheong Fun $4.00

The Char Siew Cheong Fun was smooth and thin with pieces of char siew in it of course. It was average.

Phoenix Porridge $3.50

I was not fast enough in taking a photo of the Phoneix Porridge. This is what is left after the 3 of us too our portions. Phoneix Porridge consist of century eggs and chicken. It was quite plain tasting. For those who want a strongly flavour, can add pepper and light soy sauce. I quite like the fact that it was plain tasting as it complement the other dishes. Moreover, thought that it was cooked well as it was not watery. Remind me of Teochew style porridge.

Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai $3.50

My first time trying such a Siew Mai; Vegetable and Quail Egg Siew Mai.It consist of egg quail on top and  vegetable at the bottom. This is one dish that I dislike. Weird combination of taste that did not appeal to me. Moreover, thought that the meat had a weird after taste.

Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws $3.50

I am the only one among us who knows how to eat this dish; Yummy Yummy Phoenix Claws. Lucky me, because it was yummy. A must order!

Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun $4.00

The Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun (liu sha bao / custard bun) is another must order! Be careful when eating it. As inside, it is full of buttery runny custard that is sweet, salty and sinful! Shiok!

Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun $3.50

There was just 2 pieces of Rosey Wine Yummy Char Siew Bun which was filled with sweet and tender meat. After having the Golden Egg Yolk Lava Bun, this was really just average.

Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce $4.00 (+$0.50 for adding XO Sauce)

The Scallop, Sausage Carrot Cake with XO Sauce was fantastic! I have never eaten something like this before. The carrot cake was soft and mashy (like mashed potato) soaked in their home-made XO sauce. Somehow, we could not detect any XO taste in it, it was more like soy sauce. Nevertheless, this dish wow us so much that we had to order an addition serving of this.

$0.50 for adding XO Sauce

This time we were determined to find out the exact taste of the XO Sauce. Hence, we added 50cents for the above. And well, we were truely shocked. I really have no idea what this is. Its like preserved vegetable soaked in oil? Anyone knows?

Yutiao Cheong Fun $3.50

The Yutiao Cheong Fun was soaked in thick black sauce. Personally thought that it would taste better if it was soaked in soy sauce. Most online reviews have raved about how good this dish was. Well, I beg to defer, this dish did not appeal to me at all.

Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine $3.00

Well, the Steam Chicken with Chinese Wine was our last dish. The chicken was tender and fragrant having been soaked and steam in the chinese wine. Quite a normal and common dim sum dish.

Overall, the dim sum served here is really good and value for money. It was so good that we ordered 3 times in total, adding some dishes and ordering some dishes twice! In the end we over-ordered. I will definitely be back for more. If you have never been here, time to give it a try. Or you will never know what you are missing!

Victor's Kitchen (Sunshine Plaza)
91 Bencoolen Street
#01-21 Sunshine Plaza
Tel: 9838 2851
Opening Hours: Tue to Sun 1030am to 8pm
                         Closed on Mon
Location

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Sing Ho Hainan Chicken Rice (Middle Road)

Spotted this Hainan Chicken Rice outlet along Middle Road called Sing Ho Hainan Chicken Rice. 

Menu Cover

The menu cover looks like looks like some vintage Shaolin Martial Art book.

Part of Menu (a)

Part of Menu (b)

As usual, I ordered 1 plate of 'white' chicken rice with organ (gizzard).

'White' Chicken Rice $3.50 with Organ $0.50

With such a large plate, it make it seems as though the chicken rice is very little. The chicken rice was hard and dry. The chicken flavour was not fully infused into the rice.

How was the chicken? Just average. But glad that quite a generous portion of chicken was given. However, only 4 pieces of gizzard was given.

The chilli was average. But the ginger was surprisingly fragrant and cut finely. 


Despite all the positive reviews online. I beg to defer. Overall, it was disappointing. The chicken was average while the rice was disappointing. In any chicken rice stall, there are 3 important factors. 1) The chicken. 2) The rice. 3) Chilli. So far none met my criteria for this stall. 


Sing Ho Hainan Chicken Rice (Middle Road)
270 Middle Road
Tel: 6336 7579
Opening Hours: Daily 11am  - 11pm

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Tao's Restaurant (PoMo)

This is my 3rd visit to Tao's Restaurant. First visited this place 3 years ago in 2008. Recently, we went back to again on a Saturday afternoon. I was quite surprised to find that the layout of the place and even price has not changed. In terms of the menu, some of the items on the menu has changed.

Tao's Restaurant concept is to serve 6-7 course meal at an affordable price.

Lunch, it is 6 course meal at $19.80 ($23.30 nett)
Dinner, it is 7 course set meal at $29.80 ($35.07 nett)

What's the difference between lunch and dinner other than price? Well, for dinner there is an addition dish which is the Grilled King Oyster Mushroom & Sorbet. So far, have not eaten during dinner before so can't comment about this dish.

Now let's start with the lunch - 6 course set meal.

Menu (a)

Starter - Bacon & Mushroom Gratin

Bread (2 pieces for each person)

Course 1: Starter - Bacon & Mushroom Gratin with soft toasted bread.  It was baked in with mushroom, bacon and cheese. Using it as a spread for the bread, the Bacon & Mushroom Gratin was delicious although it was slightly on the salty end. You can ask for more serving of bread, I asked for 1 more to accompany this heavenly starter.

Salads - Top Shell Salad with Cold Japanese Noodle

Course 2: Salads - Top Shell Salad with Cold Japanese Noodle. This dish was served cold. The top shell was served with chop chilli, peanuts, Japanese noodles and a dressing that seems similar to Thai dressing. This dish did not suit my taste bud as it was on the sour side.

Salads - Prawn Roll with Pork Floss

Course 2: Salads - Prawn Roll with Pork Floss. This dish is so much better than the Top Shell Salad. It was light, refreshing and sweet, the taste of this dish complement the ingredients well.

Soups - Cream of Mushroom

Course 3: Soups - Cream of Mushroom. This dish is my favourite1 As mushroom is one of my favourite ingredient, this might be biased! This bowl of soup is 100 % mushroom! So many chunks of mushrooms between each flavour and the whole soup has a strong flavour/essence of mushroom (that I was wondering if my nose will start bleeding from being too heaty =P) Definitely home-made and totally different from the ones outside or the ones you find in cans. The only issue I had was why the bowl was not even half filled!

Soups - Cream of Pumpkin

Course 3: Soups - Cream of Pumpkin. Ordinary, I prefer mushroom soup. 

Menu (b)

Main Entrees - Tao's Grilled Chicken Jumbo Leg

Course 4: Main Entrees - Tao's Grilled Chicken Jumbo Leg. Surprisingly, there was a layer of chilli oil and giving it a spicy flavour which did not suit the sauce. Otherwise, the chicken leg was well cooked and well marinated. Moreover, it was very tender.

Main Entrees - Tao's Oven Roasted Steak

Course 4: Main Entrees - Tao's Oven Roasted Steak. The steak was huge considering that this was our 4th dish. Moreover, it was well marinated and well cooked. It was tender, soft and tasty. I have no idea why the 2 dishes use the same sauce.But the mushroom sauce really spoilt the dish, does not compliment the steak. What about the sides (mashed sweet potato, yam chip and boiled broccoli)It was delicious!

Desserts - Creme Brule

Course 5: Desserts - Creme Brule. After my previous 2 visit, I knew that the Creme Brule was a must order. But this time, I was disappointed. There was a very strong eggy flavour which even overwhelmed the flavour of the charred caramelised sugar. 

Desserts - Tiramisu

Course 5: Main Entrees - Tiramisu. This was good! 

Menu (c)

The 2 cup size are different!

Beverages - Lavender Tea

Course 6: Beverages - Lavender Tea. Too strong a flavour. Taste like medicine to me. 

Beverages - Iced Rose Apple Tea

Course 6: Beverages - Iced Rose Apple Tea. Inside, there was pieces of apple and also rose bud. This was very refreshing and light. The fork at the side is used for the apples inside. Certainly something to try.


Overall, Tao's restaurant's lunch set is quite value for money. What I look forward to over here is Bacon & Mushroom Gratin, Mushroom Soup, Tiramisu and Iced Rose Apple Tea. If you noticed, the main course was not something I look forward to. As they were average or should I say below average. The service was good and prompt. I will definitely be back for some of the items here during lunch.

*restaurant has moved to Central #04-86 (Clarke Quay)*

Tao's Restaurant (PoMo)
1 Selegie Road
#B1-19 PoMo
Tel: 6339 8858
Opening Hours: Daily 1130am - 10pm
Website