date ideas 🥰

a quaint, quiet-ish place serving café food & drinks right at the top of a shopping centre. nice ambience for a date! has a little library for the littles 📚 support for a good cause 🦥

this photo of the lamb shank I got (with Burpple Beyond's 1 for 1 deal on a Saturday night!) does not do it justice at all. the braised lamb was tasty & tender, paired wonderfully well with milky, non-canned (tasting) mashed potatoes & a tomato-based puree. not to mention LOKLOK-styled veggies! 👏🏻😭🙌🏻 the boyfriend got a wagyu beef burger, medium doneness, which was juicy & iconic, but I preferred the lamb for its tenderness! it was a huge shame that I couldn't finish my main- my only word of caution is the portioning is on the large side, may not be an issue for you. you may want to order one main to share if you're small eaters! I would also recommend the Pink Lady drink for a icy refreshing after the walk from Serangoon MRT. 😊

I wanted to post a picture of the more photogenic brown waffles we got with speculoos & chocolate icecream, but the highlight of this date night was really the mains.

cost-wise, expect higher-end café prices. & make a reservation if you don't like queues! I'd say the effort is all very much worth it for a treat though. ☺️

saying this as a chirashi lover: I really enjoyed this tuna bowl! it was a good balance of flavours (sashimi-like tuna, crispy bread, misc veggies...). note: filling in a good way! I paired this with their salted caramel latté for a good early 'noon ☺️

ordered the Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict & Bread Yard's Big Breakfast for the boyfriend. the only imperfection I'd nitpick at for the Eggs Ben dish is that the peri-peri sauce was unnecessary. prolly cuz I'm not so much a spice lover, & the dish is already so flavourful. portion was a lil too large for my tum, but it was so good I finished it anyway 😅 the boyfriend enjoyed his Big Bfast too, with a similar exception of the spicy beans, guess we're meant to be(an)? haha. paired well with the salted caramel double shot coffee & mocha we ordered ☺️ come for a filling brunch over a lively chat & lively atmosphere!

my 2nd time here, & I'm pretty sure this is my favourite café now 🤩

awesome music playlist to accompany awesome food & service, as advertised! there's a sound system right next to the entrance. perfect place for a heart to heart. staff were very friendly & patient!

loved the peach sencha's presentation (that my friend ordered). I ordered a matcha latté ($4.50) that wasn't too sweet. latté was on the thicker side, but was blended well. can't complain about the latté art either 🍵 also tried their brownie that was crumbly in a good way, & at an ok sweetness level.

located all the way upstairs at Jem, popped by Poppy Pops for a dinner date. we ordered: truffle cheese pasta, mentaiko pasta, hojicha latté, & A&W float (Burpple Beyond). my mentaiko pasta was a good portion size, & I liked that the mentaiko taste was light & palatable! made sense in my mouth, with the generous amount of fish roe (not ikura!) added. (hot) hojicha latté was nice but a bit too thick, would advise you to stir well before drinking. the boyfriend said his truffle cheese pasta was a bit too thick for his liking, he would have liked a stronger truffle taste (or smell) & a less creamy textured sauce.

no complaints for my A&W float (hard to go wrong with that) but I wanna thank the staff for being kind when I spilt some of it accidentally. when serving our food afterward, one of em offered to mop the floor & asked if I was ok. 😅

had a dinner date here for the first time, used Burpple Beyond for 1-for-1 main + dessert. we ordered a parma ham pizza & sausage risotto, oreo brownie cheesecake & dark chocolate gelato. *wanna put a disclaimer first that we were spoiled by the pleasantries by Jim, who served us most of our visit haha.

in general, we were very impressed by the richness of flavours for every dish, that paired so well with homecooked healthy quality that made it unexpectedly not-gelak, even the gelato! Jim explained that the chefs use zero MSG (yas). I'm a fan of parma ham so the pizza was an obvious choice, photo above! I'm not a big eater but I finished 5/6 of this, don't be fooled by the big sized pizza. I recommend getting this as 1 of your mains! risotto was deemed 'clean' tasting by the boyfriend, likely cuz of the absence of MSG & the dish's nature is porridge-like. the gelato was interestingly chunky & just the right amount of sweet. cheesecake was a wildcard cuz it's my favourite dessert- I'd place this above Starbucks & below Bakerzin/Cat & the Fiddle. for your own tastebuds' discretion 😅

beyond their food itself, I commend this place for their portion sizes & cosyness despite it being in the usually bustling UTown. perhaps we have Covid to thank for this.

if you see this, thanks again Jim for being such a gentle gastronomical (& photography) guide for us in the short time we were here.