Dinner at Surrey Hills / Chin Lee Restaurant / Cibo Italiano / Lou Shang 楼上 + CONNOR'S SHAKE EXPRESS EXPERIENCE

Both S and I headed down to CONNOR'S SHAKE EXPRESS EXPERIENCE pop-up which is located along the stretch of Orchard Road (outside Mandarin Gallery).

All guests were entitled to a complimentary can of Connor’s iconic stout. While shaking beer cans are usually a bad idea, as it will cause a huge mess! However, Connor's Stout drinks are different from other canned beers, as it is highly recommended you shake it without having to worry that it will explode like a usual canned beverage! By shaking it, you can fully enjoy the perfect balanced taste of Connor's, and the creamy foam has a distinct coffee aroma!

We were also given a pack of savoury pretzels to go with our stout drink! We had fun at Shake Good Times event!

I met up with Sweetie for dinner on a random weekend. We settled at Surrey Hills which is located at Raffles City Shopping Centre. We ordered a side to share between us, and we enjoyed the Tater Tots with Mentaiko very much!

It has been a long time since we met to have a meal together on a weekend. We chatted till the restaurant closed.

An impromptu weekday dinner brought us to 'Chin Lee Restaurant', a Teochew Seafood Restaurant which is located at the Bedok North.

The Wok Fried Hor Fun is my favorite food item in any Teochew Restaurant. While it might sound or look simple, the key ingredient of Chye Poh (Preserved Radish) made the dish absolutely delicious! IMHO, it is a challenging dish, as a good one should contain a good amount of Chye Poh, since it is THE ESSENCE of the dish. Not forgetting the ‘wok hei’ quality too!

We also had the Fried Prawn Roll as it is a MUST-ORDER item for me.

I ordered a seasonal plate of Oyster Omelette, as this item is only available on weekdays! The Clams were plump and tasty. It tasted surprisingly good! Overall, it was a pleasant meal!

The damage was about SGD80, it was kinda pricey. Nevertheless, we will be coming back again to try other dishes if we are nearby!

We went to a down-to-earth dining in a neighbourhood trattoria at River Valley Road on a Friday night date after work. Cibo Italiano is a locally run Italian restaurant that serves casual Italian cuisine.

I enjoyed my Vongole, each strand of linguine was drenched in a white wine sauce and assembled with clams, garlic and chilli.

We loved the thin-crusted pizza which tasted good!

Cibo Italiano is a hidden gem that serves really authentic and awesome Italian food. The food portions were pretty decent, but however the damage was kinda on the higher side for a neighbourhood eatery establishment. The service staffs were friendly, and overall, we enjoyed our dinner.

N, J and I decided to have dinner at Lou Shang 楼上, a HDB Themed Café Hidden Behind A Lift. We went up to level 2, and was greeted by a typical HDB building lift lobby, complete with familiar letterboxes, dustbin, noticeboard, and pamphlets lying everywhere. What a familiar scene which transported me back to the older days of Singapore!

The only way to enter the cafe, is to press the lift button. Once we entered Lou Shang, we were amazed by the mockup of the hallways of older HDB blocks. I was impressed at the little details put into making the cafe feel as nostalgic and authentic as possible — Check out the bamboo poles and wooden doors with nostalgic metal door gates as well as window frames. They looked exactly like those that you’d find in an old HDB estate.

Lou Shang has nailed its creativity well by recreating an iconic nostalgic HDB-inspired setting. It offers a one-of-a-kind experience that blends heritage and modernity.

The menu featured lots of fusion food and we were very curious about the menu items! We had a huge variety of dishes - the Salted Egg Lotus Root Chips and Duck Prata Pizza were the stand-outs to me!

The drinks were great as well!

Being ‘Kaisu’, we made our reservation a month ago to avoid disappointment! Therefore, if you do visit, just make sure that you make a reservation in advance!