Food Review #15 - Epicurious Cafe

I've been wanting to head over to Epicurious Cafe the first time I read about it on food bloggers' blogs. Maybe it was their photography skills or the presentation of the food or both. Anyways it always looked so tempting so I wanted to go try it. 

The hubs and I headed over to Epicurious one Sunday morning and managed to get a table without having to wait. Epicurious is not a big cafe and business was brisk. By about 12pm the place was filled, mostly with foreigners.

We ordered their french toast as it came highly recommended but unfortunately we both didn't like it. We prefer our french toast to be savoury, rather than sweet. Though picture-wise it looked really good but unfortunately it completely ruined our expectations of french toast. Give me back my soaked-in-egg french toast anytime! And remove those breadcrumbs please. We didn't finish this. :(

The hubs as usual, went for burger and their burger was really good. It was a big portion, the patty was juicy and everything - the egg, bacon, patty - came together really well.

I went for their Eggs Benedict and ordered it with salmon instead of ham. Their eggs benedict were supposed to be quite good but I didn't like this much too. Only one of the eggs was still runny when I cut it open. Anyway perhaps I am just not a big fan of eggs benedict. If ever I go back I shall try their full breakfast instead.

Apple crumble was quite an epic fail, in my opinion. There were so much more apples than crumble and we had a hard time finishing those apples. This dessert didn't blow me away and the hubs and I left the apples unfinished and we agreed we probably would never order this again.

Service was decent though I personally felt that the restaurant showed more favourable service to the foreigners than to locals? It seemed like they were more patient when explaining to the foreigners what each of those dishes were etc. Personal opinion so don't take my word for it. Anyways, Epicurious is one of those places that I wouldn't go back to, even if I wanted all day breakfast/brunch, as there are so many others out there that could either serve me better food or better service or maybe both.

Food Review #14 - Rider's Cafe

It's been so long since I last blogged! I've changed job which gave me less freedom to use my computer at work. I foresee my entries in the future would be quite rare too sigh. :(

Anyway one weekend the hubs and I decided to head to Riders Cafe as I've heard a lot about it but have not been there before at all.

Truffle fries were nice! I like the dips they served. Fries portion was big though of course only a portion was drizzled with truffle oil. Still, nice fries!

The hubs' burger - Riders Burger. It was really good, I regretted not ordering this after tasting a bite of it. The patty was juicy and flavourful. Though the extra side of fries was a bit overkill, given we had also ordered truffle fries haha. Perhaps if you are ordering both too can request to change the side?

The breakfast was quite meh....they put my scrambled eggs on the toast which made the latter soggy! :( The sauteed mushrooms were quite flavourless and the only thing good on that plate was probably the eggs but THEY MADE MY BREAD SOGGY! T_T

The famous DBCC - Death by Chocolate Cake, which truly almost killed us as it was wayyyyy too sweet. I am not a chocolate fan nor do I have a sweet tooth so this was really too much. Chocolate cake/chocolate fans would probably love it though. 

Service was good at Riders but the food honestly wasn't that fantastic. And the entire place was non-air-conditioned so on a humid afternoon it really wasn't very pleasant to sit there and sweat buckets.

Food Review #3 - Canopy Garden Dining & Bar

Yesterday hubs and I (actually he) had a craving for breakfast...at about 2pm in the afternoon lol.

We wanted to go to Bishan Park the day before but didn't, so we decided to make a trip down to Bishan Park this time round. Wanted to go try GRUB, but it closed at 2.30pm so we headed to Canopy Garden Dining and Bar which is open all day.

Upon reaching there, we were pleasantly surprised as we were led to this outdoor but cool and sheltered area. There are patrons around who bring their pets (mainly dogs) along so if you're terrified of dogs this may not be the best place for you. Me, I'm a huge dog lover. Which explained why I got scratched by a gigantic Golden Retriever who was so friendly and full of love. :)

The restaurant is a nice chill out place. We saw couples, friends and families just sitting around, chatting and relaxing. There were quite a lot of patrons but everybody was just chilling that the atmosphere was relaxed and quite nice, really.

So the hubs had a craving for breakfast...but he ordered Crab Aglio Olio instead. Whereas me, I always love breakfasts, especially one that has bacon and sauteed mushrooms.

Crab Aglio Olio ($19)

I know right? It looks good doesn't it? Unfortunately, I didn't really like it very much, and neither did hubs because he took one bite and looked at me with puppy eyes and asked if we could exchange. LOL. We did finish the whole thing coz we were so hungry.

I like my Aglio Olio to be as basic as possible, perhaps that's why this didn't quite hit the spot. It had too much herbs and not enough garlic and pepper. I like my Aglio Olios with a bit of Oomph. It wasn't not nice, just not memorable. I probably wouldn't order it again the next time I'm there.

Grilled Breakfast ($18)

The breakfast, however was good! I loved every bit of the breakfast! :) Simple and wholesome. The scrambled eggs were done perfectly!

My only gripe about the place was the service. Service was really not fantastic. First of all, they gave me a fork and a spoon for the breakfast. No knife. Second, we ordered a toast basket that came with butter and jam but no butter knife. Third, the waiters were kind of snobby (ok this may be the paranoid me speaking) but I felt that one of them was particularly rude. Like he was at the bar doing his stuff, but when we ordered stuff or called for service he turned around and stared at us kind of like thinking we can't afford to eat there. I don't know man haha probably just me >_< Or maybe it's because we were in singlet and shorts and slippers lol coz we wanted a leisurely afternoon cycling session.

All in all, I would go back just for the food and relaxing atmosphere.

Food: 3.5/5
Service: 2.5/5
Ambience: 4/5
Value-for-money: 3/5

Canopy Garden Dining
Bishan Park II
Tel: 6556 1533