I know VeganBurg’s been around since before plant-based diets were a thing, but well shame on me I’ve never made the trip down before 🥲 So recently I popped by and grabbed their Smoky BBQ burger with an impossible patty and additional vegan cheese, wondering how it’d compare to all the other plant-based burgers out there. Suffice to say, it’s not quite my thing. The buns were mediocre at best, not very fluffy not very tasty very much like off-the-shelves sorta burger buns; the veggies were crisp and fresh but yeah just veggies; there was way too much mayo in there; and idk the patty didn’t wow me as much as others I’ve tried. Sure it wasn’t a terrible burger, but after all the extra add-ins the price exceeded that of other more satisfactory impossible burgers I’ve tried elsewhere. Perhaps their original burgers (sans all my add-ons and incessant meddling) would be a lot tastier, or I should’ve gone for a different burger, but with the many alternatives around now I doubt I’d make a return trip anytime soon.

I have an immense weakness for canelés. Dark, thick, caramelised crusts, hiding pale, soft and tender centres, these dainty cylindrical pastries are, to me, the perfect lil afternoon nibble. So knowing that Le Matin’s ones are available at Maxi Coffeehar, I wasn’t about to give up scoring myself one. The custardy centre this canelé definitely nailed: just the right level of sweetness, and beautifully perfumed with vanilla with visible specks from vanilla beans 🥰 Unfortunately I did find the shell a little of a letdown. It was a tad too tough and limp, lacking that stiff crunch I was expecting, and tasted a wee too burnt — not in the nice caramel-y sorta way, but overly bitter for my taste. Still that could be a result of heating it up for dine-ins; I’m pretty sure a freshly baked one would taste tons better.

Honestly I thought Fahrenheit Coffee was a rather pretty and chill space, but the slightly confusing spa-mix-french-mix-r&b playlist had us like wuuuuut 😶 The coffee though: very very decent! We had their Iced Black and Hot White, both of which were alright. Their beans lean towards the acidic end — which isn’t my preferred flavour profile but is still aight — the Iced Black citrusy and acidic while still boasting a good boldness. That however meant that their White fell rather flat, since all that acidity was neutralised. Still, good microfoam and texturing of the milk so save for my personal preference this was a rather well-pulled cuppa.

Equate’s handmade canelés are actually pretty decent: flavour’s on point, a good vanilla and custardy fragrance with a lovely caramelisation. It did however lack the signature crusty exterior (theirs were a tad soft even before the dunking), and I found the texture of the canelé a little dense and kueh-like. Their canelés were also a lil shorter than usual, so my guess is perhaps these bébés didn’t rise too well. Slight improvements on the texture, and these would be some stellar canelés.

We all know PBD whips up stellar ones so I can’t say I was expecting any less, but I didn’t think I’d be THIS in love with their Pho French Dip ($18) special at their Sugarfin pop-up 🤤 Literally took my first bite and swooned. SO 👏🏻 BLOODY 👏🏻 GOOD 👏🏻 Let me try to explain this coherently: a generous stack of shaved roast beef + a crunchy herb salad + mayo, sandwiches in a fluffy French roll, served with a rich pho broth on the side. What really made this sandwich for me were the herb salad and broth. Now that pho broth’s soooo packed with flavour. Yknow the soup at the base of your stockpot, that’s collected all the meaty sediments, mushy veggies, and flavour? This broth is basically it. I’m not too sure what exactly was in that herb salad, but there was definitely beansprouts, coriander, and what I thought was morning glory. Fabulous crunch, super refreshing, and cuts through richness of the broth as well as the saltiness from the roast beef. Imho that herb salad really lifted the whole dish. If anything, I’d wish for a crustier French roll that’d better hold up to all that dunking.

Pretty darn solid. That’s what I’ve got to say. I remember not enjoying TFB’s steaks, cause as well executed as they were I felt like they were too buttery and tender (if that makes any sense), lacking any bite at all. Now Picanhas’ Queen of Steaks (S$21), though visually similar, was definitely more up my alley. It was lean, juicy, tender, and flavourful, but still held a nice bite so I could actually tell I was chewing meat lolol. Picanhas’ uses the picanha cut, which comes from the rump cap muscle — ie a firm cut with a beautiful fat cap (read: flavour). I liked how well-seasoned the steak was, so I didn’t necessarily have to dunk it in their sauces. Not that they weren’t fab. I’m a huge fan of chimichurri and theirs were done very well; I was really more surprised to find myself enjoying their wasabi cream sauce. As cloying as the white sauce looks, it’s actually really light on the palate. Creamy and sweet, with just a mild pungency from the wasabi (nothing too in-your-face), this was easy to eat and very very enjoyable.

I was a wee confused by our coffee experience at Equate, cause for some reason all our drinks had vastly different flavour profiles. For some reason the iced and hot has very different flavour profiles. The Hot White was well-balanced, fairly bold with a good dose of nuttiness and a mild acidity towards the end. The Iced White though had an intensely strong hit of pure bitter gourd sorta bitterness that lingers on your tongue for minutes after. Considering that their hot white was pretty good, I expected their Iced Black to be alright. However it turned out exceedingly bland and diluted, with only an extremely mild touch of acidity as any hint of a flavour.

WHAT THE CLUCK! The Goodburger’s latest burger creation sees TiNDLE’s plant-based chicken assembled in this grubby, saucy, elbows-deep-in sinful Southern-style fried “chicken” burger layered with crunchy pickles and a garlicky homemade sauce. I’ve always been a fan of Goodburger’s plant-based burgers, and to now have a chicken option is just 🤯🥰💕There’re so many things I love about this burger. 1. It tastes like the real damn thing. 2. The batter’s great: crisp and craggy, adds a great crunch without being too thick. 3. That sauce is an utter flavour bomb. Chock-full of garlicky fragrance, and as cloying as it may look it’s actually really just right and I don’t feel jelak downing the whole burger.

So bloody good. The handcut spuds follow a triple-cooking process of steaming, freezing, then deep-frying, resulting in outstanding chips that are bewitchingly crisp on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth tender on the insides. Now, the beauty about boiling then freezing your spuds is that those crumbly, cracked, frayed edges stay firm and attached to your chips and become the most crazily crispy bits after kissing hot oil. Cutting the chips up by hand also means you’ve got some thick fluffy ass wedges like pieces, as well as some really thin and fking crispy ones — both together, make a solid packet of chips. These were really well-seasoned too so really I’ve got no complaints. I’d gladly walk in just to get a pack of their fries, sans the burger 🙃I

Anyone who knows me really really well know I’m an absolute milkshake fiend. Ok actually I’m a slut for tons of foods, but milkshakes are my kryptonite. I’d go as far as to skip my meals just to down 3 Five Guys milkshakes (extra extra malt please). So seeing Carne’s amazing looking milkshake shots, I was 20/10 down to have em. Verdict: possibly the biggest disappointment of my milkshake consuming career (can I call it one lol). So watery I felt like I was drinking melted ice cream. Plus, a little bird told me that they don’t actually have fixed proportions for their milkshakes. Flavours were rather average, nothing crazy yummy nor memorable. I didn’t enjoy the praline topping cause by the time you get to that, it’s basically a soggy thingy that adds nuts to the drink on the whole. Idk if that’s just a teething issue or if not having an SOP is really their SOP; but this just didn’t sit right with me.

I’m not one to usually have chirashi bowls (I blame it on an incidence of overeating and subsequent food poisoning), so perhaps I’m not the best judge of Daizu’s bowls (ie don’t just take my word for it). This Chilli Soft Shell Crab ($18) bowl with onsen egg, mushrooms, edamame, soybeans, and a housemade chilli crab sauce caught our eye for how interesting it sounded. I mean, soft shell crab and chilli crab sauce basically just yells “EAT ME!” What I really appreciate is how generous they are with their salmon sashimi. Lift up that gorgeous looking soft shell crab, and there’s a mountain of sizeable, huge, meaty cubes of salmon. Unfortunately they didn’t trim off the grey fat line on the salmon, which was rather off-putting for me. I also didn’t quite enjoy the chilli crab sauce. It was really starchy and sweet, and perhaps cause the sashimi wasn’t tossed in much soy sauce the overall dish became overpoweringly sweet. It’s very generous and good value that’s for sure, and a very promising idea too; but I figure it could do with a little tweaking.

Sometimes I do feel obliged to say yeaaaaah taste is subjective and what I don’t like you may find fab etc etc; but in the case of their White Cold Brew ($7.50) imma stick strongly by my verdict that it was 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏻‍♀️ Summing up my experience, this tasted like water stained with milk. I could barely taste the coffee or the milk, I’d go as far as to say it was like an ounce of latte topped up with water — that’s how diluted it was. Be my guest and try it for yourself; I’d love to hear if your experience was better, and perhaps giving me an impetus to check it out again.