Fika Cafe

Fika cafe is a Swedish food establishment that I've had the pleasure of eating at recently. This beautifully decorated cafe is located near Haji Lane, at the corner of Arab Street and Beach Road. You know how halal establishments are usually not so nicely decorated, and how non-halal restaurants usually look sooooo cool and exciting to eat at?

Well not Fika's! Picture below is how it looks like from the outside. Love the white decor and simple furniture adorned in the shop.

Cake counter!

Nice right! Haha they have a second floor which I think they open for when there are more customers. If not you can have the choice of sitting in the air-conditioned first floor or sit outside to enjoy the fresh (hot/humid/dusty) air of Singapore. Hahahah!

So I went here with the bff and we walked for AGES trying to find some nice place to eat eat. Hahaha. We were trying to find a nice halal restaurant that I can blog about, and I know that most of us know of the ever popular Zam Zam, Hajjah Maimunah and Victory etc, so I didn't wanna blog about that!

After the second round of walking around the crazy maze of Arab Street (and those other surrounding strrets), the bff and I suddenly thought of Fika. Lol I'm always googling for halal food places, so certain names stick in my head. Well we decided to go there, and our third and a half round consisted of trying to find this cafe.

Soooo if you do wanna find this place, a tip is to find for haji lane first. This shop is around there, then just look at all the corner shops that has a white decor lor! :D
(Or.... you can just google map the address first. HAHA.)

On to the food!

Bff ordered the Mushroom Crepe

Description of it on the menu: Mushroom, leek and cheese

 

I'm not an eater of mushrooms. I only eat it when a) I don't see it, b) I accidentally eat it, c) my bff's dish looks nice so must try. Hehe. So yep I tried it and it's really nice! The crepe was soft and the inside was cheesy. Shan't go into detail about the mushroom la, cuz I still don't fancy it.

Jeng jeng! I ordered the Warm Meatball Melt

Description on the menu: Meatballs, melted cheddar cheese and mayonnaise with a green salad on the side

Oh yessss, I loved this too! I devoured this so fast that I was left gazing forlornly at my plate, hehe. The meatballs were soft and easy to chew, there was plenty of cheese, and the bread tastes like it was freshly baked. All three, a good combination! And at the bottom of the meatball, there was this white paste, which I'm not sure is mayonnaise or another kinda cheese. Oh well, still good!

Kinda find the salad a tad pathetic though. Haha, one piece of leaf, one tiny tomato, and a drizzle of sauce. Hmm. At least a little more sauce next time maybe?

Despite that, I would love to eat here again and try the other food! It's a little bit too pricey for me though. I'm still in poly and rotting my ass at home, so no income coming in! I actually wanted to try their coffee or cakes. But... Hahaha the total is already pricey for me and bff okay!

Mushroom crepe - $14.90
Warm meatball melt - $16.50
2 iced water - $1
Total plus service charge&GST = $37.908

Haha yes, so a tad pricey for us, but heck the food was worth it :) Definitely wanna try eating there again!


Total cost - $38
Venue - No. 257 Beach Road / Arab street
Website- http://www.fikacafe.com/

Eighteen Chefs

Eighteen chefs  strives to inspire troubled youth and people with conviction backgrounds to find positive ways of reintegrating into society. They also have a philosophy of trying to provide their customers with good quality food at affordable prices.

Having dined there before, I decided to have dinner at the Tiong Bahru branch one evening. The place was crowded and my friend and I had to share a table with another group of people. Argh, I've always hated seating that way due to the lack of privacy. Furthermore, the couple beside us were speaking in loud obnoxious tones.

I ordered the kids meal because I wasn't that hungry. To my surprise, when it came, the portion given was big! This was however in contrast with the TWO measly fish nuggets they gave lol.

Cream spaghetti with fish nuggets

It really was as plain as it looks actually. It was like as if they added cream from a tin onto the spaghetti and plopped two nuggets in the middle, and tadahhhh done. The sauce was also too watery and bland. Not worth my money. It costs around 5plus, misplaced my receipt so I can't tell you the exact cost.

Fish and chips

My friend ordered the fish and chips. Let me point your attention to the vege at the side though. Those limp green/purple/indiscernible colour? Yep those were the salad. The fish was hot, so that's a plus. However, the fries felt like they've been fried for a long time before they were served. It had the not-fresh feeling to it, so bleh.

These two meals, plus combo B (soup plus drink) costs around $28plus. I've actually eaten here before and the food has always seemed so-so. But the standard this time was really quite bad. I don't know if the standard has really sunk or it's just an off day for them.

But wow, regretted going there for dinner that day.


Venue: Eighteen chefs at Tiong Bahru
Website: http://www.eighteenchefs.com

Scoop of art

Scoop of art has a philosophy of creating a unique experience by combining gelato and art together to induce love and laughter from everyone. Not only do they serve gelato and art materials, I must say that their food is pretty good too!

This was what that greeted us as we entered the cafe, an art corner! Filled with art materials that one can survey before making a choice of what kind of art kit one wants to pick.

 

The artistic background

But enough of the art, food first!!! The food price ranges from $3-$8 which I felt was pretty reasonable. Those on a tight budget can choose the $3 end, and those who wants to splurge, can take the more expensive choices. We chose the chicken shepherd's pie ($4.50) and the Garlic prawn pasta ($8), with homemade ice lemon tea ($1.80).

Actually, if there was one thing that I'd want to complain about the place, it would be the homemade ice lemon tea. It didn't even taste like lemon tea actually, as it lacked sweetness. Maybe it was a one off, but it felt like no sugar was added.

Garlic prawn pasta

Yum! I loved this dish, because it wasn't dry and as you can see, was very moist. They were also generous with prawns, and the prawns were juicy and succulent. Worth the $8, I'd say.

Next the shepherd's pie! They actually have both beef and chicken shepherd's pie, and I tried the chicken one.

Chicken shepherd's pie

Cheese above the potato. Very cheesy!

They were generous with the chicken too.

The shepherd's pie came in a small bowl, full of generous servings of chicken at the bottom and cheese at the top. Though small, it was filling, and I really enjoyed this dish! Definitely worth my $4.50.

With hunger out of the way, fun comes next! Here is the list of art kits that can be purchased. Paints are free flow, and well, no more having to clear up after completing your art, cuz they'll do it for you! :D

I love to draw, though my drawing ain't that good. So I bought the colour-a-mug/pot kit!

What was given

One can choose to draw/colour an entire new design, or can use the stenciled drawing for colouring.

*ahem* hard at work

Halfway done!

Decided to take a break to eat ice cream!! Yumyum. Scoop of art gelato is homemade using the finest and freshest ingredients. They add no preservatives or food colourings, so it is all natural. Some of their signature ice cream is the mars bars and sea salt, which I tried.

lol yes i know they look the same, but they're different!

Mars Bars & Sea Salt

Lemon Meringue Pie gelato

Both flavour were yums! The mars bars and seasalt had the right balance of the sweet caramel flavour together with a slight salty-ish tang. The lemon meringue pie gelato had a taste of lemon complementing well with the buttery biscuit crust.

A small cup of regular gelato costs $3.20, medium costs $4.20, and large costs $5.20. 
A small cup of premium gelato costs $3.80, medium costs $4.80, and large costs $5.80.

Anyway, here's an end product of my "art" hahaha!

 

 What it looks like in the pot.

Anyway, I visited the cafe during the weekday, and it was pretty empty. So yay, I get to linger around there. Actually, I spent about 4 hours there for lunch, drawing the pot plus ice cream. It was a peaceful way to spend the day, and get away from life stresses :)

 

Where to find the cafe

Funnily enough, I did not see any halal sigh at the cafe. BUT the one or both the owners are chinese muslim, and this cafe has came out in the malay newspaper before.

 

Cost:

Lunch for 2- $16.10

Art - $5

Gelato for 2 - $7.60

Venue: Beside Marine Parade library, at Marine Parade Community Centre

West Co'z Cafe

West Co'z Cafe was one of the newest finds by my family for a place to go for dinner. We tried it on a recommendation of a relative who stayed near there and found that the food was good and reasonably priced.

By the way, the food pictures might not be very nice, because as soon as the food came, there would be 6 pairs of fork and spoons descending on the dish and I'll be the one wailing "wait waaaaaaait!! I wanna take picture!" So after that, I'll be attempting to take pictures of the dish with 6 pairs of eyes looking on hungrily. Not fun.

The crowd on Friday

The curry fish soup here is famous, and for good reason I'll say.

They have set menus that comes with a good deals!

So we ordered this set menu B which comes at a cost of $73.80

Claypot Golden Chicken

I loved this! The chicken was juicy and succulent. And the sauce was good without it being too overpowering. It was also cut to bite sizes so it's easy to share among the family. I could do without the bones though.

Hotplate beancurd

Good as well, and not dried up like other places that I've been to.

Oats Prawn

Ooh, this was good. The prawns which were fresh, were coated with a flour mix and was crispy to eat. The oats was good too, and by the end of the meal, it was nearly finished. Be careful of the chili padis hidden in it though.

Sambal kangkong

Kangkong with sambal. Might be spicy for some!

Curry fish head

This is their signature dish, and so far, all I've heard have been raving reviews about it. The curry is different from normal as it has more lemak to it. It's really different from like the normal Indian curry, as you can see from the colour of the gravy. This dish has a fish head, string beans and deep-fried tofu/taupok.

On top of the set menu we ordered, we ordered 2 extra dishes.

Egg fuyong

Let me declare something first. This dish was supposed to have prawns! But someone in my family doesn't eat it, so we asked for no prawns. Sigh!

 Blackpepper beef

My sister loved this. The beef was succulent and wasn't difficult to chew at all. May be a bit spicy for people who don't eat spicy food, but still bearable!

Eh nooooo, I just realised that I forgot to take a picture of another dish! Okay we ordered the Sweet and sour slice fish. This fish was tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, and the sauce wasn't overpowering the fish.

Lol, a lot of food for a dinner, yes? But we finished it anyway! Here's proof!

 (the remaining egg was gobbled up after this photo was taken)

Wez Co'z Cafe is located at West Coast Plaza. If you're going for special events (eg. birthday celebrations etc), it's recommended for you to make reservations early, because this place fills up pretty quickly. If not, even on normal days, be prepared for about a 20-30 minute wait. Once you've ordered though, the food comes pretty quickly.

Location: West Coast Plaza, #02-23

Total cost: $127 (set menu B (includes drinks and rice), 3 more dishes, plus an extra drink, and 3 extra plate of rice)