Nature Cafe @ Kallang Ave (The Aperia)

Nature Cafe has been around for quite some time and my sister clarice has been raving about it for the longest time. However, I didnt head down to the west previously so I was really delighted when they decided to open a second outlet in the EAST.
And Ms Veg finally found time to go during lunch time this week. This cafe is located in a new building thats located along Kallang Ave, the nearest MRT is Lavender.
I really like the interior design! From their logo itself, Owl seems to be their lucky charm and you can spot some owls in the shop as well.
The interior deco provides a tranquil and cool setting and we were really surprised and delighted that its was full house on a normal week day.

Cafe from the Front View

Full house on a weekday. It is recommended to visit them on weekends as they took some time to serve.

Interior Design - Really Chic!

I Love the design of this cafe. There's also a poem on the wall: "Look Deep into Nature and you will understand everything better"- by Albert Einstein

Menu

Nature serves wide range of cuisine from local delights to western dishes. They even serve daily specials as well as daily soups!

Decided to try 2 mains and 1 side:

Dried Char Siew Wanton Noodles $5.50

The noodles taste really good! It was chewy and spicy to my liking. Vegetables are steamed and served with oyster sauce. There are many pieces of Char Siew (also known as roasted pork). The Wanton is ok, but i felt that more ingredients can be added. Nonetheless, its a good noodle and soup is tasty. Nothing much to hiam.

Mexican Cheesy Chop Set $13.50

Mr Tea ordered this Mexican Chop set which comes with a soup. There are 2 other places in Singapore that serve Mexican Steak - One is North South East West, the other is Simple Food. We find that focus for this set is the pasta instead of the meat, as the meat is rather small. The pasta, on the other hand, is cooked to perfection. The meat was ok, as its made from Mock Meat with cheese on top. Soup is a well blend of mushroom and cream. Portion is rather big in our opinion.

Chili Cuttlefish Ball $5.50

This sotong ball is the normal mock meat that you can find in the market, the sauce is so-so, but ms veg thinks they can improved further by using sambal chili sauce instead of the sweet chili sauce.

Location: The Aperia . No 12 Kallang Ave #01-28
Tel : 67023962.
Opening Hours: 10AM to 10PM daily - Enjoy free Lunch time parking during weekdays (12-2pm till Dec 2014!)

SuFood (舒果) Singapore @ Raffles City Shopping Centre (CityHall)

Ok ms veg is really Slow in reviews because she has been away from Singapore! And FINALLY I had a chance to embark on my "Italian food experience" after so many rave reviews! I did go to Sufood earlier when their first launched to witness their Star Pizza record breaking journey and I have been missing their Pizza since.
Its been 4 months plus since opening and it is still fully packed every day. I had to call a week before to reserve seats for a meal on a Monday. Sufood is really successful in their launch with many media invites, reports and even radio promo!
Sufood boasts a meat free dining concept from one of the biggest chain operator from Taiwan. This casual bistro style 140-seat restaurant in Singapore is their first outside of Taiwan where they already have 18 outlets.

So I was really excited being there finally with Michy & Cherry.
You can take a look at their comprehensive Menu available from their website: http://www.sufood.com.sg/

Everyone would definitely go for the Set Menu as it is more worth ala carte. A set meal costs $25++ per pax, and it comes with the Appetizer, Bread, Salad, Soup, Main, Dessert & Drink. They can cater to your specific needs if you require them to serve Lacto-Ovo or Vegan style. I went for Lacto-Ovo Style.

The Sufood Appetizer

This is a standard appetizer which comprises of poached Japanese yuca Root (I think its "山药") in blueberry sauce, Snowflake Greens in a special sesame like sauce and a cherry tomato Jello. From the pic as you can see, we were told to eat from the Right to the left, as the tastes goes from light to strong. This is the first i've had such an appetizer, so it all tasted normal, sweetness of the blueberry. a little raw of the greens and a bit of sour for the cherry tomato. What wowed me was the little glass of Vinegar like drink, which i think is tasty.

Rosemerry Breadsticks

Yummy yummy yums! Soft and the Mustard sauce made the bread perfecto!

Pumpkin Soup

The girls tried Pumpkin Soup while I took the Cabbage & Sweet Potato Stew.

Cabbage & Sweet Potato Stew

This is really good - tasted just like how my mum would cook, brew for many hours. However, it doesnt seem italian. i thought it would go well with rice & braised meat.

Classic Garden Salad

Mushroom Salad

 Vegetables are really fresh. Its the Sauces that stole the limelight!

Macaroni Alfredo Casserole

Cherry ordered this dish. The creamy sauce blends well together with mushrooms and macaroni.

Star Pizza

 I was lucky to go with my friends as this is a huge serving. Filled with Osyter mushrooms & yummy sauces. What surprises us was the cream cheese hidden in the crust. Wow!

Vegetable Pita Pockets

This was the only dish I could not try as onions/garlic could not be omitted. The girls find that this is the best main of the day!

Our Desserts!

 Sesame Panna Cotta

I found it too bland if you actually had ice cream before this. Yuzu Tea was good!

Vanilla Ice Cream & Berry Drink

Banana Cheesecake

Michy thinks the cake is a little small. I think that there should be "real banana" in the case as the banana taste was a little too light.

It was a fine experience. Service was good, and they serve really fast.
I will be back again to try other mains for sure. For $25+, be prepared for a really FULL meal.
Oh BTW, Sufood is offering 1-1 deals from 2.30PM.. good deal!

Cheers to SuFood!
Location: Raffles City Shopping Centre (Cityhall MRT)
252 North Bridge Road #02-19
Lunch; 1130AM - 430PM
Dinner: 530PM - 10PM
Contact: 6333 5338
RESERVATIONS is a MUST

Clover 8 Bistro Vegetarian & Vegan Dining by Miaoyi @ Kallang Leisure Park

Hey Peeps! Clover 8 has opened! This is a new bistro cafe operating under Miaoyi, which is under the Xin Man Yuan group.
It is definitely good news to see more vegetarian/vegan dining places available that cater to our needs! What I heard is the Xin Man Yuan group is planning to open a high-end restaurant (located somewhere in orchard) soon to cater to provide a wholesome experience of Vegetarian Fine Dining. Other than this piece of good news, Xin Man Yuan is also planning to venture into the catering world where they would be providing catering services on the go!

Clover, on the other hand, provides a bistro, cafe style setting at more affordable prices that caters to the masses. We get to enjoy Thai, Vietnamese, Italian cuisines as well as traditional chinese dim sum made by the Hong Kong Chef. I understand that they have a real Thai chef doing the thai dishes too!

The Shop Front: located on Level 1 - makes it easy to find as its among the new cluster of cafes opening in that area. If you have not gone to Kallang Leisure Park for a long time, they are undergoing a facelift - new shops are opening! 

Im delighted to find this new cafe within the vicinity of the Sports Hub since the new Kallang Wave Mall has nothing to offer.

Clean Interior Look of the Cafe

Clean & Green! I guess due to the fact that they just opened a couple of days ago, there isnt much crowd yet even though today is the 1st day of the lunar month. I hope Clover 8 will be here to stay and more people will get to know them though.

 Menu Of Clover 8

Its delightful to see Clover 8 offering quite a variety of dishes - ranging from Thai to Vietnamese to Local cuisines. They even have the Dim Sum that we tried from Xin Man Yuan. Price Range from $4.80 onwards.

Dim Sum $4.80

There are 4 types of Dim Sum for selection, not as much as Xin Man Yuan, but able to satisfy my craving for Siew Mai.

Chicken Rice Set $7.80

 The Chicken Rice Set comes with Soup and Drink (we had lemongrass drink). Without the soup and drink costs $5.80. The Rice itself is good, but I find the portion a little small, so my dad would require an additional bowl of rice. "Chicken" is not too bad, which I believe is actually made of mock meat, Soup is ok, not too saltish. I could make out that it was brewed with corn and carrots so theres a little sweetness in it. Note that it is not known if the rice is cooked with butter or margarine. If you are Vegan, do check with them prior to ordering.

Pad Thai $5.80

I've been craving for Thai food for the longest time since my last time to Bangkok was many months back. This version of pad thai did not disappoint, the sweetness and sour in the stir fried kway teow tastes just nice.

Vegan Toasted Ravioli $5.80

This is my very first time trying Ravioli, so there is no comparison for me, personally, it tasted okay, except that the sauce - which i could not make out what it was did not really blend well with the ravioli.The ingredients comprises of mushrooms and basil - which is a strong herb, some may not like the taste of it.

I will want to be back after chatting with one of the owners there, as what impressed me were the variety of western dishes there - all of which are vegan! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me as I saw "Cheese" but was informed that the "cheese" used is actually "yeast" made.
There's even squid ink pasta - which i will try someday - not sure if your mouth would be blacken by the sauce or not though!

Now at least there's a new place to eat before watching a sports game or concert!

Location: 5 Stadium Walk #01-40 Kallang Leisure Park, S(397693)
Opening Hours: 11am - 10pm (Opens Daily)

Miao Shan (妙善素食) @ Serangoon Central

This post is for Edna - the daughter of the owners of this stall, who has written to ms veg earlier. Thanks for your recommendation! My parents used to own a stall @ Macpherson (but have since retired). It always nice to see children helping their parents out at the stall because its really not easy feat!

I was there one of the saturday for brunch. 

Miao Shan

 

Like most stalls, auntie and uncle do sell a wide variety of food, ranging from your usual bee hoon and economical rice to daily specials. Price range from $2.50.

We decided to try the Chicken rice & Mee Rebus

Chicken Rice

Edna mentioned to us that she didnt want to boast about her parents' cooking, but she find they cook really well! What made us remember of this chicken rice is the chili - really "WOW"! its extremely spicy. And the serving is really huge! Auntie is really generous, the rice is fragrant and tasted good with the chili.

Mee Rebus

One of the better mee rebus i've tried even though my personal favourite (from eunos previously) has already closed down for good. 

Both the owners are very friendly and we can see their commitment and love for food! Thanks Edna for the recommendation!  Friends of North East - Do check out this stall!

ilovemyveg do welcome writers (note that its totally out of passion) if you want to contribute any, we will just post on your behalf!

Location: Blk 262 Serangoon Central Drive, #01-89 (L.A KOPI coffee shop) 
Contact: Mr Liong 94884367
Opening Hours: Daily 6.00am-1.30pm

Xin Man Yuan Vegetarian Restaurant (心满圆素食) @ Chinatown *REBRANDED AND MOVED to Bukit TIMAH*

Hello All, we are finally back in Singapore and again we are always excited about new openings. It feels good that we are having a lot more options these days! Just this year alone, we have SuFood.. which ms veg has not went, we also have beyond veggie! I was informed of this new opening at Chinatown and decided to head down because the word "dim sum" attracted me! Other than lingzhi, there aren't many places that serve vegetarian dim sum.

So here we are for the yummy dim sum!

Outside of the Restaurant

 Interior of the Restaurant

Quite classy, and definitely can sit a lot more people than the Miao Yi rest at coronation plaza. I was told they can fit 35-40 big round tables!

Buffet Spread $18.80++

I had the buffet previously, but the dishes were not a lot, as compared to Lotus. However, they do allow you to order additional 6 types of their famous dim sum, which makes the buffet price worth.

This is the list of dim sum that comes with the buffet. One may order up to 3 times.

They too serve ala carte dishes, mushroom steamboat pot (@$58 per pot for 3-4pax)

I was craving for the Har Gao (aka shrimp dumpling) so i decided to bring my parents for a second round today. We decided to order ala carte dimsum, which comes in a separate dim sum menu:

Dim Sum Menu!

The dim sum menu has many more items (20 over) for us to choose!

Price range from $4.50 (3 pcs) onwards for each item.

 Seaweed Beancurd Roll

 Unique, wrapped with mushrooms. Its a little oily since its deep fried, but still good!

Taro

 One of the better made versions, the yam was amazingly yummy and the ingredients are good!

*Har Gao (Shrimp Dumpling)*

 If you ask me what made me go back to this place within a week - its this har gao! Its sooo good, im already drooling again as I type. The skin is wonderfully thin, and ingredients aplenty. There's even veg prawn in it, making it chewy and unforgettable. I have not eaten anything of such taste before!

Pan Fried Dumpling (Guo Tie)

Siew Mai

 Another of my favourite is Siew Mai too!

Char Siew Bun

 My mum likes this char siew bun - she commented its comparable to Lingzhi's!

Mushroom Spinach Dumpling

 Amazingly good when I didn't expect much from it. 

Char Siew with Parsley Chee Cheong Fun

 I found the skin could be a little better, but well, this is good enough. They have another one with mix vegetables ingredients but it was not available today.

Lotus Leaf Glutinous Rice

 Filled with loads of Fillings

Mushrooms Mix Dumpling

Carrot Cake

Carrot cake tastes ok.. but Yuan Xiang's is still my number 1!

We ate a total of 10 dim sum dishes, tea, and the braised peanuts (appetizer, too yummy that we finished eating before i remember to snap a pic!) and it cost us a total of $70, which i find rather reasonable.

As they are just newly open, so they are still making adjustments and changes to their dim sum menu, and i was truly happy that i need not travel to HK for the dim sum as this can temporary satisfy my craving for now!

I was lucky to be able to chat with one of the owners and found that this new restaurant is under the same "MiaoYi" group, so some of the dishes (e.g the famous suckling pig) are also available here!
Another piece of good news is that they are going to open a cafe style (vegan + vegetarian) outlet at Kallang Leisure Park this coming October.

Refer to Post Under Bukit Timah~ Miao Xin Veg

Do call them on weekends for reservations as they could be pretty full!