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 :)
Casual ambience, great food. Tried the rose cheese chiqueen and honey butter chicken.
The first one was a very balanced meal - between the crispiness of the chicken and flavour of the sauce, between the colours of the vegetables and the brownness of the chicken, cheese and wedges. Flavour wise, I would say it's a bit more of your typical fried chicken with cheese but it's definitely pleasing to the eye.
The dish that won my tastebuds tonight was the honey butter chicken. The sweetness of the honey butter powder was delightful, and went surprisingly well with the cranberries and almond. The fried tteokbokki was sweet as well, although I wish there was a bit more. The sauce was slightly sour (it might have had vinegar) but absolutely went well with the chicken.
Do try out the honey butter chicken if you're there!
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!
This is a hidden heartland jem - the lights created the perfect ambience at night, and the food was delicious. The salmon cheese mentai ($15) had a generous serving of salmon, topped with mentai sauce with ebiko and cheese. The tamago mentai ($11) was pretty good too, the texture was soft and the sweet taste of the tamago complimented the savoury mentaiko sauce. The agadeshi tofu ($5) was freshly fried to perfection, topped with bonito flakes and served with a savoury sauce. The Cheese mentaiko scallop ($5.50) was my personal favourite, the scallop was juicy and fresh, and the rich flavours of cheese and mentaiko was the perfect combination. The asparagus bacon skewer ($5) was my next favourite. The crispy and warm bacon went great with the crunch of the asparagus. The skewers took 15 minutes to prepare, and the freshness was what made them so good. We also tried the pork belly leek. The pork belly was a little tough, but the leek was sweet and tasty. I don't really like leeks but this was great! Overall, the food was fantastic, restaurant quality to me!
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! :)
Their pasta is pretty interesting!! You can choose from potato gnocchi, squid ink chitarra, egg tagliatelle and more! I tried the formaggi gnocchi, which is a type of pasta made different types of cheese in a cream based sauce. The gnocchi was soft with a delightful burst of cheese flavour. The sauce had the fragrance of herbs, lightly drizzled with olive oil. If you're a cheese lover and don't mind forking out about $30, this is worth a try!
