The Warehouse Cafe Art, Jalan Tun HS Lee

With the rising popularity of online deals, we do get a myriad of choices of deals, one of them, F&B. That's how I got to know about Cafe Art, which was having an online deal recently- my friend bought a few coupons to be redeemed there.

Cafe Art is located in The Warehouse, an art gallery. The same establishment houses Ril's at the first floor, a steakhouse which only opens for dining.

Located at an old area of town, the gallery is a breath of fresh air to this side of town, not looking odd at all..

It's well lighted, splashed with colourful art pieces adorning the walls, emanating a cheery mood.

Cafe Art serves very simple meal- a choice of coffee/ smoothies/ juices/ tea, yoghurt (wth fruits and muesli) and sandwiches.

For our sandwiches, we had a few types of meat to choose from- chicken, roast beef, tuna, turkey ham etc.

Can you tell which is chicken breast, tuna and beef? We could not at first glance too. I actually thought there's some difference in the sandwiches that we ordered, but I guess not.

The amount of fresh vegetables was commendable, but the side of salad looks exactly like those on the sandwich... So, how was the sandwich? I had the roasted beef- it was tough and extremely chewy. The meat was bland and to top it off, the bread was hard and dry. I did not like my order.

Those who ordered chicken breast was served with chicken sausage and ham instead. Only ok customer was those who ordered tuna.

Our meal includes a cup of Illy Americano....

Overall, it was not a satisfactory meal, I definitely will Not be returning. 

I went upstairs to have a peek at Ril's...

No wonder it's not opened for lunch- this place was absolutely scorching! It felt like we were in a furnace, we ran down quickly..

And while we were preparing to leave, the manager enquired about our meal. I honestly shared with her my experience on the tough roast beef, hoping that they will take note to improve. However, my hopes was quickly doused, instead of acknowledging and to improve in future, she just thought I had a tired old cow. It's not funny at all in such situation.

The Warehouse Gallery Cafe is located at 198 Jalan Tun HS Lee, 50000 KL.

Halia, Singapore Botanical Gardens

Ahh, I'm back from a hiatus..taking a break, making a short trip to visit a friend who has recently relocated to Singapore. We had good time catching up, doing things at a relaxed pace..and enjoyed the Lion King musical (do watch if you have the opportunity to!).

I thought I should see a different side of Singapore this time around- well, there's more than just sales and shopping arcades right?

And so we did a lazy sunday outing- we went to Botanical Gardens, to take pleasure in what nature had to offer :)

But of course, it is Singapore, even the Botanical Gardens was crowded. Full of tourists and locals. Sigh.

Though I'm not too impressed with certain parts of the garden, there were a few areas that was certainly picturesque..

And all the strolling left us hungry, and we made our way to Halia restaurant, located right in the middle of the ginger garden within the Botanical Gardens.

There was a choice of indoors or outdoors dining- we chose the former, as we were all sticky and sweaty from all that walk! :p

I felt like I was eating in a greenhouse, which provided a wonderful reprieve from the sweltering heat.

We were seated quickly, the service was attentive yet not suffocating.

Though the brunch menu had a good range to choose from, all of us opted for sandwiches.

I've worked up a hearty appetite by then, so I decided on the Grilled Steak Sandwich (SGD22)..

This is certainly a generous portion, the steak was sufficient (not too thick), served on ciabatta with sauteed brown mushrooms, onion marmalade, roasted tomatoes and a side of salad. The steak was juicy, paired will with the rest of the ingredients.

Jun, who's still in the breakfastie mood, went for the Poached egg on brioche (SGD22)Served with crisp bacon, roasted tomatoes, mushroom, spinach and dill hollandaise, this was quite a mouthful, but satisfying so.

Amy on the other had, decided on the Chef's brunch special (SGD23)- the list of ingredients was so long that I cant even recall..only a few things stuck on my mind- it had truffle, ham, cheese, tomatoes.... And this is how it looks like..She was a tad disappointed with her portion after seeing ours, but the combination of flavours and texture was excellent. The bread was crisp and warm, the filling- almost pate like, had a discerning rich flavour which was satisfying. The virgin bloody mary provided on the side was to cleanse our palate with every bite of the sandwich, so that we can enjoy the playing of flavours of this combo. And yes, it does fill you up although the portion is genteel :p

Halia Restaurant is located at 1 Cluny Road, Ginger Garden (enter via Tyersall Avenue, Singapore Botanic Gardens.

Departure Lounge, Aman Suria

Alicia was telling me about Departure Lounge sometime back as she said that it serves one of the best bagels in Klang Valley (as good as those she had in New York)..Since I'm staying near that area, I decided to pop over with May Lin for breakfast one fine morning....

I was in for a pleasant surprise when I reached Departure Lounge.. This place is "travel" themed.. It's filled with loads of travelling books of many countries and many of the books have been well read (with the dog ears, highlighter marks and all). Not sure if the owner is really that well travelled, but he/she sure put in an effort to have the theme running.. Most of the food in the menu has some link to countries etc.. and if we need the 'assistance' of the waiters and waitresses, they are refered as "cabin crew"..

Anyways, back to the food.. Departure Lounge serves breakfast, lunch and tea (no asian menu, purely breads, cakes and pastries).Breakfast menu consists of bagels, big breakfast, pancakes, breakfast pies etc. We ordered 2 sets of bagels, one with blueberry and the other, raisin and cinnamon.

Both bagels smells real good and had a nice dollop of cream cheese on the side..we attacked the bagels the moment I snapped the pics :p

Top: Blue berry bagel, Bottom: Raisin and cinnamon

Alicia was right, the bagels were yummy :). Served really hot, it has the crunchiness of a fresh loaf, inside remains soft but compact and chewy, the fragrant blueberry and cinnamon wafting in the air.. Spread the cream cheese on the hot bagel, take a bite and wahlah! heaven, i'm in heaven..kekekkeke. Have it with a cup of Illy coffee (yes! they serve Illy too!) and ahhhh.. what a great way to start the day...

After eating the bagels, we still think we could eat a lil more (yeah yeah, pigs, I know), so we ordered Tuna Melt with Ciabatta (you can also choose it to be served with foccacia/croissant/tortilla). The Ciabatta was nice and hot, tasted like it's fresh from the oven. The tuna however, was just ok.. you know, tuna with mayo and melted cheese..It came with a side of homemade salsa and nachos..

Departure Lounge is a lovely place to chill with frens, get travel info if you are planning for hols and with Wifi facility, I did noticed quite a number of patrons bringing their laptops to leisurely surf the net while sipping coffee and enjoying their cakes..

What Julianne thinks?

Creative, refreshing and relaxed

Depature Lounge is located at B-G-20, Jalan PJU 1/43, Aman Suria Damansara. You can either come from Tropicana (turn up at the tunnel) or from Dataran Prima (you'd need to U turn). Opens morning till 7 pm.