Good times at Waterloo Times

Family took me to this place located at Waterloo Center near a food court. Entering this place was quite an experience as it's a relatively small shop. I'm guess they can seat like 20-25 people? 

 We ordered the salad which looks pretty decent. If my memory serves me right it costs below $10 which is not too shabby considering the portion served.

 I ordered their steak and first thing's first, the taste.. of it was cooked just about right. Medium well.. as I have asked for. The black pepper sauce (the orange sauce) was exquisite. It had a creamy taste with a mild peppery aftertaste. Definitely something different.

 It came with the mashed potato served separately and I must say.. it is addictive and you can tell it is made fresh. Not like some places where the mashed potatoes are made from the powdered packets.

 My mom had the salmon aglio olio. LOOK AT IT.

 My dad had the lamb chops..

 And the seafood pasta.

 We had strawberry shortcake which costs $6.

 Close up of the adorable ladybug biscuit.

 And the chocolate tart which is also $6.

Definitely a place worth coming back to as the food is delicious and the price is pretty alright! 

Blk 261 Waterloo Street
#01-24 Waterloo Center

Singapore 180261

Burger Joint: Bear Bites.... no seriously that is the name of the place.

I love food. So when I'm free, I'll google for places to go and places to eat? This place popped up on some of the famous food blogs around Singapore. I dragged my boyfriend down with me to try out this place as it looks super kawaii (cute in Japanese) and innovative. 

See? I told you that's the name of the place. Bear Bites. It's located in between Scape and Cineleisure. It's not that hard to spot because it looks like some kind of hut.

For the reallllyyyy lazy bums who do not want to experience the thrill in searching for a new place, here's a photo of the store front. I'm a little disappointed that there's no mascot bear at the cashier, that will make this place epic.

Unlike other burger joints, Bear Bites served two types of meat. Chicken karaage (or Fried Chicken fillet) and Oishii Fish (or delicious Fish). That's it. No black pepper spicy chicken, grilled chicken.. nope, none of that marketing bull. In that case, it makes you wonder, so what is the selling point of this place? Definitely not the cheese fries (just add $1.00 to the burger combo meal). 

 It's the BURGER BUN! PAWS! Hold up! What do you mean by that? (See what I did there? Hehe.)
IT'S THE BURGER BUN! It's in the shape of a bear paw. Super cute. It's the size of my hand and it comes in different colors! From the squid ink infused black bun to the seasonal strawberry pink bun. Pick your bun, your meat, your sauce and whether you want it in a combo meal deal or not. Simple as that.

 I had the oatmeal bun... talk about trying to ease my diet plan guilt trip by ordering that with fried chicken fillet. Well, to be fair, at least the burger bun is STEAMED. So it's less fattening right? The burger was drenched in cheese sauce, the oily fillet was absorbed by the vegetables and the steam bun.. Quite nice and to be completely biased.. I LOVE THE PRESENTATION! So I'll give this joint 3.5/5.. mainly because of the unique burger bun concepts. If only they offer more variety of meat....

In total, I paid $8.80 for the meal. Definitely a good place for the budget conscious and for those who wants to try something out of the ordinary. 

Virgin Entry: Equarius Hotel Ocean Suites stay and Sam Leong's Forest lunch.

Hello, I've been intending to start a new blog again as my iPhone and Instagram have been flooded with photos of the places I have been dining at and I am more than happy to share where I have been to. I mean good things always have to be shared right? So.... I finally got my lazy bum to start writing something. 

This staycation took place around the 4th of August 2013. My boyfriend's family booked the Ocean Suite at Equarius Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa just for one night. If you are wondering, WHY one night? Well.. it may be because it costs a bomb? (Around SGD 1500 a night) So a night was good enough for me. 

So why is it called the Ocean Suite? Because it is located at the other end of the S.E.A Oceanarium. We had to go to Equarius Hotel where a hotel buggy drove us into the.......... underground carpark. Yes, you heard me right, the underground carpark of Equarius Hotel. Then the buggy stops right outside Cat Coral's Ocean Restuarant. Adjacent to it is the entrance to the Ocean Suites.

Not exactly glamorous here.... but ok given how Singapore is so small.. I guess I can empathize? Upon entering the place, we are greeted by a flight of stairs going up to our left and right in front of us is the bedroom with the ocean view. Before we get to that part, let's talk about what's upstairs first. 

Upstairs is the 'living room' area. Judging by the sounds beyond the wall, I can safely guess that we are located right behind the Adventure Cove. In the living room area, there's a sofa that can be transformed into a queen size bed. When we arrived, there's a plate of Equarius Hotel's sweets on the table for us consisting of two caramel macaroons, white chocolate and milk chocolate almonds. This was a PLUS point because I'm a self-confessed chocoholic. 

   

There's also a bowl of complimentary fruits. 

So my boyfriend, his brother and I went to use the jacuzzi outdoors. There was a iPod port for us to charge and blast our iPod in the living room but it was pretty pointless as we found out the jacuzzi drowns out the music. 

Photo of my boyfriend and I. HAHA So lovey dovey it's kind gross. Sorry for tainting your eyes. 

After that we cleaned up and went downstairs to enjoy the view of the ocean.  One big problem I noticed was that Ocean Suite view is too close to the S.E.A Oceanarium. We can actually see camera lights flashing across us and faintly see the outlines of the Ocean Restaurant to our left. So I guess the tourists across us can see us faintly? Kind of makes you paranoid since you can see their camera lights flashing.. But as mentioned before, Singapore is small, so what to do? The only thing that made this tolerable was that after 6pm, when the S.E.A Oceanarium closes it doors to the public, then it becomes really therapeutic and breathtaking.... we can see the little baby rays swimming close to us.

My boyfriend's brother and father enjoying the close encounters. Though Equarius Hotel is quite far from the main Resorts World cluster, we didn't find that depressing because we ended up staring at the fishes for hours and hours. I even managed to do my yoga routine in front of the window.

And to make things better, we had a tray of chocolates. MORE CHOCOLATES! YAY!

Close ups of the eagle rays and the little school of fishes swimming under them for free food and protection from predators. At 10.30pm, the lights in the oceanarium goes off. It's also a cue for us to go to sleep.

The next morning, my boyfriend and I woke up to this view. If only I can wake up like this EVERY SINGLE DAY! It will be fantabulous! 

And then a school of fishes swam close to the window before we got ready for lunch at Sam Leong's Forest.

I love how his menu have the Autumn/ Winter version. Very creative.

We got a complimentary starter which was really refreshing. It's some kind if cold tomato with iced fruit juice with a leaf of mint on top.. I'll give this 4/5 because it's quite unique but a little sour.. and because it's complimentary, it's serving size is tiny. I ordered the Autumn Set Lunch.

Above: Pan-seared Chicken Breast with herbs and apple salad. Minimal, healthy and delicious. I literally wiped the plate clean with my fork. Rating: 5/5

My main which is the Wok-Fried Japanese Pearl Rice with Squid Ink accompanied with Seared Hokkaido Scallop came next. I found the presentation really interesting. If I didn't know better, I'll think it's some kind of odd birthday cake. The 'candle' stuck above is actually leek. The fried rice.. I suspect the squid ink was infused into it because it didn't stain the fork or my teeth. It wasn't oily and the scallop was perfectly seared. This is definitely a dish I can get addicted to. 5/5 for this!

The last dish which is the Forest Delight.. well, let's just say I was a bit annoyed with the waiter when I was ordering this. I asked him what is the Forest Delight? The waiter told me it was dessert. It took every ounce of self control not to roll my eyes at him. Yes, I know it is DESSERT. I want to know WHAT exactly it is? Anyway, I found out for myself when the dessert was served to me. It's coconut pudding with aloe vera and orange popping candy. Yes, you did not read this wrong. The chef put popping candy into the dessert! I could hear the candy crackling in the coconut husk.

Close up of the dessert. It's good! The sweetness of the aloe vera cubes, combined with the crackling of the candy and the somewhat neutral taste of the coconut pudding makes a pretty good marriage of ingredients. A really interesting taste. Rating: 4/5

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Have to bid farewell to the Ocean Suite. It's definitely an experience worth spending over a thousand for.. after all.. like what teenagers say lately.. YOLO.