SALUTE coffeeshop @ ALEXANDRA

Found a heartland eatery - Atas food choice but at affordable price. So off we went to Salute Coffee Shop @ Alexandra - near to Ikea and Queensways Shopping Centre. 

As the setting goes as a Coffee shop, this place contains many uprising (in my humble opinion) food eateries coming together. 

We managed to try out 3 stalls there. Well, when there's food on the table, photos seems to be less. Reason being, (1) I want to start eating straight away. (2) You got to try it out yourself!

1. Two Wings

Because one just isn't enough. 

Actually I have not really heard from my friends so that day was really the first day I get to know about this stall. So with no reviews in my head, I tried out the wings. Well, the wing tasted okay to me. It does not taste oily though it was deep fried. The crust was a little less flavour. Okay, one is enough for me! 

2. Stew Kuche

Ordered the Aglio Olio as we wanted to have some carbos for the night. Had a pork sausage as well. The aglio olio was al dente and flavorful. Paired up with the pork sausage was great. The pork sausage was juicy but a little oily. Okay, I think this place is more for its Pork knuckles and so, well, I will be back to try it out the next time! 

3. Sea Salt - The Seafood Place

Mussels was at the top of our mind when we saw this place. As we ordered the Vino mussels. This was quite disappointing as we had tried better ones. Not much of the white wine taste and aroma and the whole dish tasted quite bland. 

Next up is the Garlic Cream Prawns In A Pot. This was much better as the sauce was tastier. Dip the the complimentary baguette in it and it tasted great. The prawn was fresh and juicy. So thumbs up to this dish!

Last on the table went the Deep Fried Sea Bass with Mango Sauce. This is served with potato salad and broccoli on the side. No photo of it as we were busy eating away. The sea bass, I have to say, is really fresh. There is no 'muddy' taste and the mango sauce supplemented it well. 

Left - Seasalt the seafood place
Right - Stew Kuche

Will I be back? Definitely to try out other stalls!

Address:
Salute
119 Bukit Merah Lane 1
Singapore 151119
(behind Alexandra Village Food Centre)

Beauty in the Pot @ One Km

Time for dinner, time to venture out of comfort place (aka town). So let's head to One KM near Paya Lebar MRT station. It's just a 5-minute short walk from the station.

So what's for dinner tonight. We are going to try out the latest dinning concept of the Paradise Group - Beauty in the Pot. What's the fab? Well, collagen steamboat for a meal. Nourishing soup bases for the healthy us, why not? But well, if you did not make a reservation or you are too late in making a reservation, no worries, you can still do a walk-in. But the catch will be, you might have to wait up to 1.5 hours for a table. They have a rule to dine within 1.5 hours which I think it can be flexible if there is no queue outside. So, bear in mind. 

Soup:

We ordered the 2 soup bases - Beauty Collagen Broth and a medium spicy nourishing broth. It was not the first time I had Collagen Broth. I tried the 美人锅 before but the presentation is different. For 美人锅, the collagen came in the form of curb but for Beauty in the Pot, it came in flasks. Not sure if the flasks are refillable but 4 flasks of it plus the initial pot was sufficient for the 3 of us. 

The Beauty Collagen broth was really good. It tasted a little like those traditional prok broth which was simmered for hours before presenting to the customers. But if you want something that complements steamboat food and if you can take spicy stuff, the Spicy Nourishing soup would really suit you. Chinese herbs such as red dates, woldberries, ginseng are 'found' in the soup presented to us. Well, the fragrance of the herbs was great. There are three levels of spiciness for you to choose from, so take your pick!

Food:

Ordering through a tablet makes things easy for both the service crew and the customers. We can take our time to order what we really want to eat. 

For this meal, we ordered the pork belly, pork collar, homemade  fish paste, cabbage, tang o, assorted dumplings, live drunken prawns, black pepper pork balls, crab sticks (is really Crab stick) and many more.  

I can only conclude the food was really fresh. The prawns were still jumping in the glass pot presented to us. How fresh can it not be. The fish paste was great too and it was really tender. Pork belly and collar was, too, tender and shabu shabu it was really easy and quick. 

Say no more, try it yourself!

Oh, they do serve a refreshing dessert/drink at the end of the meal. Good to quench the thirst and to 'wash' away the oiliness!

Sauce:

Like many others, the sauce bar presented many sauces for customers to create our own blends of sauces. Each is unique to each individual and definitely makes us feel happier to dip in our food. So hesitated no further to customize sauces by your imagination and mood of the day. 

Service:

Well, the wait of 1.5 hours can really be a deterrent for me to revisit. Our wait of 1 hour is really a max for me. 

But what I can say is that each table is served attentively by a delicate staff who will bring you through the whole meal. From ordering to helping you to put in the fish paste to signing the bill. They bowed when they walked away. What a service. Me too, follow suit to return the bow. That's really too much for me to take. 

Conclusion:

Some asked if this is better than the popular Hao Di Lao, I would say "Give it a try! and conclude that yourself!"

 

Beauty in the poty @ One KM

Address:
OneKM
11 Tanjong Katong Road,
#02-21
Singapore 437157