Mia's Review: Criollo Cocoa Cafe

photo credits to Criollo Cocoa Cafe

Just last week, YS came back from Melbourne for a short, short, reaaalllly short visit over the weekend and I decided to bring her to Criollo Cocoa Cafe after coming across their cute latte art on their hot cocoa drinks! Was great that R also managed to make it back from Adelaide (what's up with my friends with Australia, huh?) from his holidays and could join us for a short meet up with loads of crappy talks over dinner. :)

The cafe was pretty empty on a Monday night, and we chose the corner most table. 

And just nice, right beside the coffee machine, so we get a whiff of the coffee fragrance whenever an order was being made. 

Dark Hot Cocoa - $4.80

And I got a cute teddy bear for my latte art. I've seen some cute pictures of 3D latte art on their facebook, but we didn't get any that night. :( 

I wonder if it depends on which barista is on duty or maybe we will need to specially request for 3D latte art or what. 

But the drink itself was so yummy! It was pretty rich, yet not overly sweet for the dark chocolate added a nice bitterness to the sweet richness. 

YS's Strawberry Hot Cocoa - $4.80

I got to try a sip and it tasted just like strawberry milk, but in hot cocoa shade of brown! A pretty interesting one, with a cute bunny latte art too!

Big Breakfast - $19.90

Was tempted to go for their chocolate waffle, but in the end decided to go for the big breakfast instead.... and I'm pretty glad I did! :)
It was a pity I had to eat so much just after having 3 large fillings done just days earlier at Tooth Angels (both sides has had tooth filled so there's no 'safe side' to chew on) and they obviously still hurt quite a bit when I bite on hard, chewy food. But well, I got through the meal without much discomfort other than having to chew through the crispy bacon and toasts. It's really a shame though, they have the crispiest toast I've ever eaten on an all day breakfast meal. Absolutely loved everything on the plate, but would have preferred my scrambled eggs to be less runny though.

Fish and Chips - $16.80

Both R and YS chose the same mains. Didn't try any because I really didn't want to add on any unnecessary pressure on my sore teeth, but they really did look yummy!

Criollo Cocoa Cafe is located at Orchard Gateway #02-01
For more information, visit their FB page HERE

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Chock Full Of Bean Christmas Special

Yes, I'm pretty late but hey, there's 12 days of Christmas, no? So, Merry Christmas everybody! And Happy New Year too! 

I've recently just did a review on Chock Full Of Beans for my birthday month HERE, so do check that out if you're interested in a review of their usual menu. 

I dropped by on Christmas Eve itself with A, and of course I made a reservation in the afternoon. And thank goodness I did, for when we got there at 730pm, all tables were reserved with a name.

Like so. :)

There really isn't much choices for their christmas menu is pretty much fixed with a soup, salad, mains, dessert, a choice of coffee or tea, and comes with a complimentary x'mas drink. 

Everything comes at a fixed price of $39.90, which is actually a pretty good deal! 

Complimentary X'mas Drink. It tasted rather honey lime-ish. But can't really put a word to the taste. Oh well, it's complimentary so just enjoy it!

 Our choice of soup - Mushroom Soup

The soup was rather disappointing. It was really just salty with absolutely no fragrance of mushroom. Towards the bottom of the bowl, the saltiness got too much for me to bear and it's one of the rare times you see me leaving my favourite mushroom soup unfinished. The bun, however, was a pleasant surprise! It was served to us warmly toasted. Not too hot to handle, just nicely crisped on the outside, warm and soft on the inside. If I weren't saving my tummy space for my salad, mains and dessert, I definitely would have finished that entire bun, which you can see from the picture, is pretty big. 

Our choice of salad - Smoked Duck Salad

Serving for the salad is pretty manageable for me, filled to the brim of a bowl around the size of a usual zensai dish off the conveyor belt at our usual sushi franchises. The greens could have been fresher (in terms of colour, obviously) but were still crisp and good, topped with a rather generous serving of smoked duck and garnished with bits of cheese. 

My choice of mains - Turkey & Pork Roulade with bread pudding and cranberry sauce

Yes, I think you can guess my first complaint. Where are my overflowing mash potato gravy?! The mash potato, albeit not truly bad, was literally served gravy-less! I really had to scrap the meagre amount of turkey sauce off the plate and mix them into the mash potato while I eat miserably. 

As for the turkey (breast?), the meat was flavourful with a good tinge of herbs and spices, and typically dry as a turkey meat yet not tough. The bread pudding, however, was a horror. It was over-generously stuffed with big chunks of onions! One of my worst nemesis! I merely took an ant's bite of fhe pudding to find out about the onions and left that big piece of pudding uneaten on the plate, along with the cranberry sauce that was a tad too sweet for my liking as well. 

 My choice of dessert - Prune Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream

Even though it's prune brownie, I can hardly taste the prune at all even though I can 'chew' them out. The brownie was extremely rich and chocolatey so much so that the prunes really just add on the chewiness and not much additional flavour unless you really chew down on it and savour with care. Disappointment of the lack of prune taste aside, it's still a yummy brownie! :) 

A's choice of dessert - Rose Macaron served with Vanilla Ice Cream

Just gotta share this picture. Look at that oversized macaron served so prettily!

And for more prettily cute food pictures.... Yes, their famous latte art!

 I got a cute Santa on my Mocha!

YS got a cute snowman on her Hazelnut Latte! :)

For awesomely cute 3D latte art pictures, visit their FB page HERE

Till then,

Mia

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Mia's Review: Chock Full Of Beans

Just yesterday, I visited Chock Full Of Beans at Changi Village with Sa and DS for one of my Pre-Birthday celebration. :)

Located at the end of a row of shophouses, the place is actually pretty hot. Literally. :p

In case you're wondering, CFOB is known for their awesome latte art.

Let's see what we've requested for the day. 

 I asked for a Minion on my Cafe Mocha and got DAVE!

 DS's Doraemon on his Hazelnut Latte

And Sa's Hello Kitty on her Hazelnut Latte, which later on got bits of poached egg added in. Okay, I shall not elaborate on that mishap.

In my opinion, even though their latte art is pretty impressive (I LOVE it, actually), the coffee has failed to impress me as much. The coffee is pretty weak, hovering dangerously close to being more like a milo than a mocha. But hey, I'll willingly close both eyes for the sake of my awesome minion latte art. :) 

And I'll definitely re-visit again and again for my mickey mouse, chipmunk, stitch, bunny, (and the list goes on) latte arts. 

 My Bangers & Egg - $17

Frankly speaking, I felt it's rather pricey for a croissant, scrambled eggs and 2 bangers. Plus, the scrambled egg (my favourite kind of egg) was not very well done. Very bland, almost tasteless, even though I've added in grounded black pepper and salt crazily. The croissant was crispy, but lacked the buttery fragrance I love about them. And the bangers were.... normal. Pretty dry and tough, but flavourful enough with a peppery savoury taste. 

Will I spend $17 for this again? No hesitation, my answer is no. 

 Buttermilk Waffle with Caramelised Bananas - $9

Honestly speaking, I think this waffle is every bit worth our $9. I wouldn't complain if it's slightly more expensive, either. It's so pretty! 

The sad thing was, the waffle was served together with the rest of our orders, and we only started eating it after we're all done with our individual mains. So by the time we started on the waffle, it was cold. :( 

Nevertheless, I think it's still good. The waffle was soft, fluffy and dense enough to not affect its fluffiness and yet not make us felt cheated of our money. I'm not familiar with buttermilk to know whether there's a distinctive buttermilk taste to it, but it definitely was at the right sweetness with a subtle baked fragrance to it. Plus, the caramelised banana topping was just brilliant! Cooked to soft in sugar syrup till caramelised, yet not exactly with the sickening mushy texture. There's no doubt to it, all 3 of us immediately nodded our head and said, "The banana is good!" at first bite. A must try if you're a waffle+banana person. But, do eat them while they're hot, please! Don't make the same mistake we made. 

And that's DS's Egg's Benedicts and Sa's wrap wasn't snapped... because it's just a wrap. *rofl* 

And as I've said this meet up was my pre-birthday celebration, here's what Sa bought for me as my present! A pair of Rilakkuma mopping slippers. Pretty soft and comfy too! And thanks for the treat as well! <3

Till then,
Mia

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