White Shades

(INVITED TASTING) Racking your brain for decent happy hour deals every single day of the week? Well, don’t you worry your pretty lil head, just head up to @whiteshadessg rooftop bar for their Golden Hour, which runs (almost) daily from 5-7pm and all day on Monday so you can fend off those damned Monday blues. From pints of draft beer for ten bucks, cocktails from White Shades’ cocktail taps for eleven dollars a pop or fifty five dollars a caddie, your thirst will be quenched at a reasonable rate.⠀
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Of course, drinks demand food, and White Shades does tasty taproom food. We ordered the Holy Trinity of pub grub: fries, pizza & wings. The truffle & parmesan shoestring fries ($12++) were superbly savoury & addictive, and were a great opening act for the wonderful White Shades Wings ($16++). These juicy jumbo wings were meticulously marinated with White Shades’ special Grindstone Marinade, and these wings were absolutely ambrosial.⠀
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Our choice of topping for our sourdough pizza was Smoked Duck, Hoisin & Bird’s Eye Chili ($24++). The slices of scrumptious smoked duck combined with the hoisin sauce evoked memories of Peking Duck wraps at a Chinese restaurant, but the familiar, comforting carb laden nature of the pizza makes it much more satiating. The bird’s eye chilies were like incendiary little landmines, hiding out of sight and exploding with fiery ferocity. This sweet, salty & surprisingly spicy duck pizza is certainly a must order at White Shades.⠀
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So hesitate no more, head to White Shades with good company & enjoy the surprisingly great views with decent food & booze & great banter. Thanks for the invite @whiteshadessg & @accela.comms!

(INVITED TASTING) Racking your brain for decent happy hour deals every single day of the week? Well, don’t you worry your pretty lil head, just head up to @whiteshadessg rooftop bar for their Golden Hour, which runs (almost) daily from 5-7pm and all day on Monday so you can fend off those damned Monday blues. From pints of draft beer for ten bucks, cocktails from White Shades’ cocktail taps for eleven dollars a pop or fifty five dollars a caddie, your thirst will be quenched at a reasonable rate.⠀
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We decided to split a cocktail caddie among the four of us, and we chose the Vetiver High ($55++ for the tall pitcher). It’s White Shades’ fancier version of a highball cocktail, with Kakubin whisky & soda water getting jazzed up by the inclusion of Vetiver Gris. After googling what Vetiver Gris is, it’s a liqueur that has a wonderfully woody & sweet aroma. The cocktail was the same: light, aromatic & enjoyably effervescent, and paired well with the complimentary house-made focaccia & buah keluak butter.⠀
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So hesitate no more, head to White Shades with good company & enjoy the surprisingly great views with decent food & booze & great banter. Thanks for the invite @whiteshadessg & @accela.comms!

Much has been said about White Sands on social media - an all-in-one establishment serving up food, booze, desserts, and even an event space across 4 storeys. What we came for specifically was for the ground floor dessert area.

White Sands has a very extensive selection of ice cream flavours from all across the spectrum, ranging from the classics like fruit sorbets and pistachio to the more unique ones like Absinthe Mintz, Gin Cucumber, and Miso Banana. We decided to go with the Pistachio and Miso Banana, both of which had really strong and intense flavours. The Pistachio was especially rich, creamy and nutty; the Miso Banana had this salted caramel-like savouriness which complemented the banana really well.

Overall, definitely a joint that I would visit again for their varied and interesting choices of ice cream, and perhaps for their drinks too.

Chanced upon the new White Shades that seems to have recently opened their doors at Boon Tat Street — given how the street is lined with more upscale eateries that occupy the ground level of the shophouses there, White Shades does seem like a particularly intimidating establishment to walk in to; for one, there isn’t much of an indication that the spot is an F&B establishment. Apart from the shopfront which has light boxes stating “desserts”, “cocktail”, “events” and “rooftop”, there is no other prominent fixtures that otherwise tell that it is an F&B establishment. Walking into the spacious aisles leading toward the counter and the dine-in space on the ground floor of White Shades, one can only notice how minimalist and simplistic the space is being set-up; the entire space is set-up with a raw, white and grey aesthetic that reminds us of somewhat of the now-defunct 51 Tras, though the space is definitely brighter and more colourful than the grungy, industrial-like interior adopted by 51 Tras with the use of brightly-coloured fabric and transparent, coloured tables. White Shades can be said as a space with a multi-concept approach; taking up all four levels of the shophouse, there is a rooftop element on the fourth level, while an event space occupies its third level. The second level comprises of a cocktail bar that is only in operations from 5pm onwards, while a dessert bar occupies the ground floor. What adds on to the mystic of the dessert bar of White Shades is that there isn’t a printed menu for its dessert offerings, though peering into its display chillers would hint that White Shades does serve up a small variety of plated desserts as well as a good selection of house-made gelatos alongside some beverages — the staff is ever-ready to give an introduction of the concept and its items should one be curious to pop them a question about it.

Having taken a look at what White Shades had to offer in their display fridge, we noticed that they do carry a range of plated desserts — something which really intrigued us especially given how good plated desserts are a relatively rare find despite there being several establishments serving plated desserts around; this includes establishments such as Catkin By Huishan (housed within Twenty Eight Cafe at Wilkie Road), as well as House On The Moon at GR.iD. While there is no printed or online menu that states the name of the plated dessert as well as the elements that are included in the plated dessert, we were told by the pastry chef that the item that we had went for was the Flavours of Chendol — a de-constructed version of the Chendol if one may put it in that manner, and the plated dessert comprises of elements such as Pandan Pebbles, Pandan Chiffon Cake, Coconut Foam, Gula Melaka Jelly, and a Red Bean Tuille. The Flavours of Chendol is a plated dessert that, to us, seem to have brought out some elements of chendol rather prominently — this is in particular the Pandan and coconut-y aspect of the original Chendol. Offering patrons with different elements consisting or various textures that would attempts to let one experience Chendol in a different light, we were a bit confused by the coconut foam which wasn’t quite airy, but more of a frozen cream format almost akin to a lighter semifreddo. On the other hand, the Pandan Pebbles were essentially Pandan-infused white chocolate — helps add a bit of sweetness to the strong Pandan notes that sort of brings the sweetness of the usual Gula Melaka into the dessert, less the earthy notes; the Pandan Chiffon Cake could have been moister, though still light and fluffy and adds on to the Pandan fragrance that the plated dessert carries. On hindsight, the Gula Melaka Jelly was a little weak in terms of its flavour, but brings back the textures of the chendol jelly brings to the usual Chendol, while the Red Bean Tuille helps to add a soft earthiness amidst a buttery sweetness with a good crisp that helped to elevate the textural aspects of the plated dessert even further.

Having tried the Flavours of Chendol at White Shades, we do feel that the folks at White Shades seems to have placed a lot of detail and emphasis into not just the plated desserts and gelato offerings of the concept, but also the entire concept as a whole. The tasteful renovations makes the entire space seemed rather artful; certainly a hipster enclave on its own, while they have also created a mysterious character for the establishment especially with the lack of printed / online menu of its offerings as well as a clear indication of what the establishment is all about. While we would think that such concepts might be a fair bit intimidating for most in other neighbourhoods, this might probably be something that the folks whom visit establishments around the Telok Ayer neighbourhood can warm up to; there is just that bit of spunkiness that seems to gel pretty well for a dining establishment that is situated in that area. Despite its rather cliche looks, we do feel that the service is actually pretty on point with a personal touch; the staff are pretty friendly and approachable — able to provide patrons with a background of the entire concept, as well as to provide details on what the various dishes are and explain on the elements that goes into the making of their plated desserts. We also had a chance to give their gelato creations a try during the visit; we sampled the Mascarpone Wasabi which comes creamy with a slight tangy hint of cream cheese, yet comes with a numbing hint of wasabi that cuts through the cheesiness so well that it does not feel jelat. We did end up with a scoop of the St Germain Gin Cucumber — an alcoholic gelato flavour that sees an infusion of gin; very refreshing considering the light, neutral sweetness of cucumber is especially evident here. Whilst we do feel that the plated desserts could do with a bit more refining after they have collected more feedback, it seems that White Shades is off a good start; the gelato offerings are definitely pretty artisanal — a spot with quite a bit of potential that provides yet another experience in a neighbourhood where upscale dining establishments is aplenty.