Caffe B
2 Bayfront Avenue
#01-83 The Shoppes @ Marina Bay Sands

http://www.caffeb.com.sg/


Good Italian Cuisine By The River

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 8
Ambience & Setting: 9
Food & Beverage: 7
Service: 9
Value for Money: 7
Spent about SGD $51 per person.


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Situated along the waterfront of Marina Bay Sands, Caffe B is a nouveau fine dining establishment that offers Italian cuisine with sprinklings of Japanese influence. Rounding off the experience of good food and friendly service is their extensive list of fine Italian wines, including several rare labels.

Ambience at Caffe B benefits from the view along the Singapore River. Mostly comprised of outdoor seating, Caffe B is chic and stylish, with muted tones befitting a fine dining establishment. However, the limited seating means you'll probably have to wait about 10 - 20 minutes for a table during peak periods.

Service at Caffe B is friendly, efficient and professional. Staff are knowledgable on menu items and ingredients, and food is served pretty quickly. I like that they also accomodate change requests. Noticed that staff are quite alert as well.

Food at Caffe B is primarily Italian, with several twists by combining Japanese ingredients and flavours. Menu items comprise mainly of pasta, pizza, and salads, with a small list of Italian desserts. Prices at Caffe B are on the higher side, because of its fine dining status, but each dish portions are generous, sufficient for 3 - 4 people.


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Love the river side breeze here. The Bailey's Coffee is strong and fragrant, and I liked the addition of the raspberry which lifts the flavour.

Caffe B Outdoor Waterfront Dining

Bailey's Coffee

Iced Mocha

Beer Erdinger Weissbier

The Calzone (SGD $20) is stuffed with black truffle paste, mozzarella cheese, a soft boiled egg, fresh button mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, and Italian Mortadella sausage. Tasty, and so beautiful when cut as the egg yolk just oozes out. Aroma is strong and fragrant, and taste is earthy, fresh, and meaty. I also liked that they covered the empty half of the plate with Mesclun Salad, drizzled with truffle and pesto sauce. My only complaint was that it is slightly overseasoned with salt, leaving me thirsty towards the end.

Calzone 01

Calzone 02

Calzone 03

Think of those Japanese omelette vegetable pizza you get at the Pasar Malam Night Markets in Singapore, and you'll have a good sense of what the Salmon Pizza With Wasabi Mayo (SGD $23) looks and tastes like. The perfect combination / fusion of Italian and Japanese cuisine, using Italian pizza techniques but Japanese ingredients. The Salmon Pizza With Wasabi Mayo features fresh salmon flakes, mozzarella cheese, yaki nori seasoned seaweed strips, wasbai mayonnaise, teriyaki sauce and sprinkled with bonito fish flakes. Sweet, tangy, crisp and slightly spicy all at once, the flavour is very intense and unforgettable. Again though, I felt it was overseasoned with salt.

Salmon Pizza With Wasabi Mayo 01

Salmon Pizza With Wasabi Mayo 02

Salmon Pizza With Wasabi Mayo 03

Tiramisu made in the classic Italian style, using ladyfinger sponge biscuits dipped in coffee! The version here contains no alcohol, but is extermely good.

Tiramisu 01

Tiramisu 02

I love how the Caffe B Pizza Box looks so pretty! While the food here is good, I find it tends to suffer slightly from the too liberal use of salt. Tone it down a bit, and they'll do much better.

Caffe B Pizza Box

Reserve a table now @ Caffe B

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D'Good Cafe
273 Holland Avenue #02-01

http://dgoodcafe.com/


Good Coffee, And The Chance To Create Your Own Blend!

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 7
Ambience & Setting: 8
Food & Beverage: 7
Service: 6
Value for Money: 7
Spent about SGD $22 per person.


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D'Good Cafe is among the trendy 'Fourth Wave' of artisinal Coffee houses mushrooming across Singapore. Their unique point is the opportunity to design and name your own coffee blend, while relaxing in a cozy home style environment, and sample some of the great food and drink available.

D'Good Cafe takes after a cozy cottage home. 'The Kitchen' features a heady smell of coffee beans roasting, and I like the touches such as the polaroid wall and buckets hanging from the ceiling. Proceed to 'The Lawn', the most iconic area of D'Good Cafe, with its 2 swings amidst faux grass, or head up to 'The Attic', designed to look like a children's playroom, complete with toy blocks and teddy bears. Or you could simply chill under the open canopy in 'The Balcony', with a view of the Holland Village housing estate.

D'Good Cafe is largely self-service. But they do score points for the willingness to accomodate requests, the intimate menu knowledge to recommend items, and the promise to brew a new cup of coffee if you're dissatisfied. On a seperate note, something in the kitchen caught fire during my visit, fortunately, it was minor, and no one was injured or evacuted. But I do commend the staff for keeping a level head and being calm!

The coffee at D'Good Cafe is very good. The cuppas I've had were full bodied, strong, and fragrant. Menu is somewhat limited, but focuses on all day breakfast, pies, cheesecakes and pasta. Prices are reasonable, though the small seating area means D'Good Cafe gets crowded fast.


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Welcoming and comfortable, each area of the cafe is laid out differently, meaning the ambience throughout the place is different, and you can choose which you like best!

D'Good Cafe Facade

D'Good Cafe Kitchen Counter

D'Good Cafe Coffee Roaster

D'Good Cafe Coffee Beans

D'Good Cafe Pictures

The Lawn

The Balcony

Pond

Cookie Stool & Box Of Love

Loved the coffee here, robust and well rounded, strong and fragrant. And I'll be sure to try my hand at creating a blend! Also loved the excellent Hot Chocolate, with its rich, deep fragrance and sweet, thick chocolate flavour!

Mocha

Latte

Hot Chocolate 01

Hot Chocolate 02

Among the few Green Tea Latte (SGD $7) that I actually like. The taste of green tea is evident but not overwhelming, and I appreciate that there isn't the typical green tea sediment powder. Plus, you can actually taste the layer of coffee, with its strong, robust flavour, after the taste of green tea subsides. Pretty good! I actually asked for a puppy dog latte art, but I think the result looks halfway between a puppy dog and a teddy bear.

Green Tea Latte 01

Green Tea Latte 02

Nice take on the classic British English Breakfast, and each component was done well, except for the ham which I thought was a little dry. Otherwise, I liked the fluffy scrambled eggs, well sauteed mushrooms, and the meaty cumberland pork sausage.

English Breakfast 01

English Breakfast 02

Rather untraditional use of toast as the base of the Eggs Benedict, but it soaks up the perfectly poached runny egg yolk very well. Again, I thought the ham was a little dry, but I liked the freshness of the salad.

Eggs Benedict With Cumberland Sausage 01

Eggs Benedict With Cumberland Sausage 02

Despite its looks, the Chicken Tikka Masala With Japanese White Rice isn't spicy at all. Rather, it has the floral / herbal essence of Indian spices, with a buttery texture and moist chicken meat. Very good when paired with the fluffy, semi-sticky Japanese white rice.

Chicken Tikka Masala With Japanese White Rice

The Maple Sea Salt Cheesecake (SGD $9) is quite the decadent treat. A rich, creamy, dense New York style cheesecake, infused with a touch of sea salt, creating a sweet yet savoury taste profile. The smooth, almost creamy texture of the cheesecake is delightful, and the white chocolate maple leaf garnish is pretty, though rather fragile.

Maple Sea Salt Cheesecake 01

Maple Sea Salt Cheesecake 02

Update Jan-2016: The 8 Upon 8 On Toast (SGD $13.50) is a showcase of cooking skill. A perfect poached egg, cheese, and sundried tomatoes, are all wrapped in an omelette, and stacked along with iceberg lettuce and slices of ham on a thick brioche toast. Cut into it, and the gorgeous runny egg yolk oozes out, it's executed so neatly that you can see all the various layers of ingredients! Taste is above average, fresh, savoury, eggy, with some sweetness. Worth ordering!

8 Upon 8 On Toast 01

8 Upon 8 On Toast 02

8 Upon 8 On Toast 03

8 Upon 8 On Toast 04

Update Jan-2016: The Pomegranate Citrus Smoked Duck Skillet Pancake (SGD $13) has a savoury sweet combination that works beautifully. A fluffy, medium thick skillet pancake, with a texture similar to an omelette, is stacked with savoury moist smoked duck, zesty mandarin orange slices, crunchy pomegranate seeds, crunchy lettuce, and sweet caramelised cinnamon walnuts, finished with a refreshing citrus sauce. Highly recommended!

Pomegranate Citrus Smoked Duck Skillet Pancake 01

Pomegranate Citrus Smoked Duck Skillet Pancake 02

Update Jan-2016: We felt the limited time, special promotion dish of Asian CNY Skillet Pancake (SGD $13.80) was below average, due to the odd combination of ingredients which clashes in taste. While the fluffy, medium thick skillet pancake was nice, garnished with crunchy lettuce and wolfberries, the savoury salty barbecue pork jerky / bak kwa and pork floss clashed with the sweet, juicy pears and sour plum sauce. Not that great.

Asian CNY Skillet Pancake 01

Asian CNY Skillet Pancake 02

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Lancome Beauty Institute
396 Havelock Road
Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel
10am - 11pm Daily

2 Bayfront Avenue
#B2-40 Marina Bay Sands
10am - 11pm Daily

https://www.lancome.com.sg/


Luxury Beauty & Skincare For The Ultimate Pampering

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 8
Product Lifespan: 2 - 8 Months
Product Quality: 9
Value for Money: 7
Spent about SGD $100 per person.



Founded in France in 1935 by Armand Petitjean, Lancome, and by extension the Lancome Beauty Institute, is a world reowned brand of beauty and skincare products, whose main audience is mainly women, but do offer solutions for men as well. Named after castle Le Château de Lancosme, with a symbol of a golden rose known as the 'Lancome Rose', the Lancome Beauty Institute in Singapore offers a full range of services, such as consultancy.

Lancome has an extensive range of in-house products for ladies, including cleansing, whitening, hydration, UV protection, scrubbing, anti-aging, spot removal, and more. The over 2,500 in-house team of Lancome scientists work to ensure each product developed is properly researched and tested, and the products carried by the Lancome Beauty Institute in Singapore is specifically designed to suit Asian skin.

I especially like the service provided by Lancome Beauty Institute. Staff are knowledgable, and generally quite experienced to tell just by observation the type of problem your skin is facing, as well as recommending an effective solution. It helps to know your skin limitations / allergies as well, that they might offer better options for you. I was particularly impressed with advice from staff named Mr. Kino, thumbs up for the excellent service rendered!

I liked the smooth, refreshing feeling of their Hydra Zen range, which helps in hydrating and is suitable for sensitive skin. Lancome Beauty Institute colour codes each of their product range, so you immediately can tell at a glance which range and purpose it's for.