Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Ciel Patisserie

Invited Food Tasting 

This is my third visit to Ciel! The first time was when they were still located at Midlink Plaza, the second being a couple of months back and now a third time for an invited food tasting session! [:


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Ciel means heaven or sky in French. And the bolded letters C and L would represent the initials of the founder and patissier, Chara Lum. Chara studied at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Paris and concentrated her knowledge, talent and expertise into opening a patisserie that aims to serve pretty, delectable and affordable desserts

Now located in Hougang, Ciel still receives a steady stream of customers as we see the patisserie almost fully occupied when we arrived at 1 in the afternoon.

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Simple and cozy

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On-going promotions :

1) Student promotion : 15% off pastries and cakes on weekdays before 5pm
2) Cake and tea set promotion : $6.80 nett on weekdays from 1-5pm
3) NUS and SMU promotion: 10% off

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Madeleines (Honey or Caramel) - 3 for $2

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Raspberry Italian Soda- $2.80

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Lychee Italian Soda - $2.80
The sodas are refreshing, and not too overwhelmingly gassy!

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Unadulterated goodness, here we go!

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Scone - $2.80
Dreamy cream scones, perfect with Ciel’s homemade red fruit jam.

X and I felt that the slightly fluffy scone was optimally buttery. It was good, especially with the smooth and light cream. However, it lacked the hard and crisp crust of a scone and felt more like bread or sponge cake.

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Quiche (Ham and mushroom) - $3.20
Savory flaky tart shell baked with royal cream and your choice of ham, mushroom, or caramelized onion filling(s).

A savory quiche that contains two of my favourite things! Ham and mushroom! The quiche was rich, soft and delicate. Every bite was tasty and I adored the hard tart shell!

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Lemon Meringue Tart - $4.20
Buttery sweet and crisp crust covered with luscious, pleasantly tangy lemon cream, topped with a smooth Italian meringue.

My favourite of the six! The meringue was so smooth and sweet and the feeling of it melting in our mouths is mmhmm, heavenly indeed! The lemon cream was refreshingly sour, and optimally sweet. Just the right balance between sweet and sour! Not many lemon tarts get that right! The soft texture of the meringue and lemon cream contrasted with the thin but hard tart shell really made me fall in love with this. It's no wonder that this is their bestseller for tarts!

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Fuji - $5.20
A light green tea mousse complemented with a lychee gelee insert and a soft green tea sponge base.

Green tea lovers will definitely love this! The sweet lychee gelee spiced up the strong matcha and prevented it from getting boring. And the sponge base was a delightful addition to the delicious mousse!

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Tiramisu - $3.60
Layers of lady-finger sponge and light Baileys-infused mascarpone mousse, dusted with cocoa powder, served in a cup.

The tiramisu is an intricate concoction of many ingredients and the one at Ciel managed to achieve a fine balance among all of its ingredients, making this tiramisu one of my favourite! In this tiramisu, you will be able to taste coffee, mascarpone, cocoa, a hint of alcohol and you'll be able to bite into fluffy sponge! The tiramisu was moist but not soaked. This is why we were able to bite into the sponge and every bite was a careful infusion of all the lovely flavours!

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Strawberry Shortcake - $5.60
Lightly sweetened whipped cream and juicy fresh strawberries, sandwiched between layers of soft sponge cake.

The Strawberry Shortcake is the bestseller at Ciel. Having eaten this a couple of times, I can totally understand why. The sponge cake is very fluffy and light and when moistened with the sweet whipped cream, I don't see why anyone would not fall in love with it! I'm not a fan of sponge cakes, but this is one sponge cake that I'll not mind having any day!

Having tried many of their items, such as the Chocolate Caramel Tart, Chocolate Almond Tart, Satine, Oreo Cheesecake and Bombe, I have to say that my two favourites are undoubtedly the Chocolate Caramel Tart and the Lemon Meringue Tart! The Bombe is really good too! If you're looking for yummy desserts at affordable prices, look no further than Ciel! It's a pity that Ciel is so far away from where I stay.. They really should have an outlet in the west!

Do check out more of their goodies here! They do whole cakes, and customized ones for special occasions too! Also, they have another collection point at Newton if Hougang is too far away for you [:

We'll like to thank Chara and Jonathan for the invitation and for the wonderful desserts! [:


124 Hougang Ave 1
#01-1444

Tues - Thurs: 11am to 8pm
Fri - Sat :11am to 9pm
Sun : 3pm to 9pm

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Love, K

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Gordon Grill

X tried making a reservation for Christmas Day Brunch at Gordon Grill a good three weeks before Christmas but they were full. We were really disappointed. But thankfully! They called us back the next day and told us they have a table for us! YAY. Can't tell you how happy we were haha

Our buffet brunch started at 1030 and boy, was the place pretty! Classy and elegant. With silver and gold helium balloons floating everywhere. There were a great number of families around and all the kids were squealing with delight at the balloons! Haha

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A gift for every diner. There are party poppers, bubbles etc inside!
How very thoughtful!

I was too excited at the immense buffet spread to take photos of everything but here are some quick peeks! I missed out on the breakfast station(where you get your eggs freshly cooked), the entire appetizer section, the salad station, Chinese/Jap station and more haha

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Yogurt, muesli, fruits

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Foie gras terrine and duck rilette!

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Cheese

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Pastries

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Pretty alfresco area

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Snowman station!!!

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Oysters, Alaskan King Crab, Crayfish and prawns!
The oysters were fresh and juicy! The prawns too! The crayfish, however, was dry and tasteless. I guess we could have gotten some sauce haha
The Alaskan King Crabs were still frozen and we weren't very pleased with that as we bit into chunks of ice. Our second serving of the crabs was alot better! The crabs were really sweet and juicy!

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Salmon, tuna, yellowtail sashimi, parma ham
Nicely sliced and undoubtedly fresh!

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Angel hair pasta with Alaskan King crab and white truffle
Honey glazed duck breast with orange dressing
Smoked salmon
Organic hen egg with mushrooms, asparagus and black truffle hollandaise.
etc

Loved the angel hair pasta. It was delicious! Everything else on the plate was yummy too

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Veal knuckle, roasted turkey, US prime ribeye of beef, etc
The meats were all really good!

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Wild mushroom veloute
A great and filling bowl of mushroom soup!

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Seabass in tomato vinaigrette, , honey glazed gammon ham, duck with pancakes, smoked duck, foiegras terrine, duck rilette

Loveeee the foiegras terrine and the smoked duck haha. The duck with pancakes was too dry for my liking

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Scones with clotted cream!
The cream was really good and the texture of the scones was great! Really liked them!

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The muffin was really yummy too! The croissant was just alright

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Another huge piece of the US prime ribeye. So so so good

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Santa came to say hi and give out presents!

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Cheese and crackers

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EVERYTHING WAS SO GOOD.
Decadence at its best.

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Macarons, caramelized banana cake in a spring-roll like skin, and chocolate cake.
Could eat all these everyday!

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Marshmallow in pink chocolate fondue.

We took like only 3/4 of all the desserts. Can you imagine how insane the selection was! Haha

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Coffee with sugar on a cute stick/stirrer

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There was a small magic demonstration as two gentlemen went from table to table performing tricks and giving out Goodwood Park pens and I even got this sculptured balloon!

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Pretty christmas tree!

This is without doubt, the best buffet I've had! Everything was of remarkable quality and intricately put together. We were overwhelmed by the selection and how good the buffet was! We didn't even manage to try everything!

The staff were SUPER attentive, politely asking if they could clear our plates once we were done. They were all smiles and really courteous!

Dining at Gordon Grill has been quite a different experience. It was a very refined dining experience even though it was a buffet! You don't see people taking like 10 oysters at a time, and you don't have to queue or "fight" for anything. The diners were all very gracious and classy, never taking too much.

We ate really slowly and entirely enjoyed ourselves and time flew past very quickly! Really adore the ambience of Gordon Grill! The bill was $300 for the two of us, but its worth every penny!

We hope your Christmas was as awesome as ours! [:

22 Scotts Road
GF Goodwood Park Hotel
Lunch: 12 noon – 2.30pm
Dinner: 7pm – 10.30pm

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Love, K

K's rating of Gordon Grill : 9.5/10