Antoinette at Palais Rennaisance

For the dessert and afternoon tea lovers, I'm quite sure Antoinette requires no introduction. The famous cafe was opened by local chef Pang Kok Keong who was formerly the Executive Pastry Chef at Les Amis Group, and he's also the one that conceptualized my favorite dessert place Canele Patisserie.

Antoinette has three other outlets: Lavender Penhas Street, Mandarin Gallery and Scarlet Hotel. I visited the Palai Rennaisance outlet on a Saturday afternoon for some cakes. I am a lover for pretty cakes and garden-like setting so this one really hits me in the centre.

Such a pretty restaurant.. With royal-like cushions and seats, I felt instantly like a princess!

Meet Chantilly ($9, below), one of the cakes in Antoinette's 2013 collection. It is made of passionfruit creme and sweetened vanilla meringue, and a slice of banana hid in the crust. I am a big fan of anything that has fruits so this gets my thumbs up for being sweet and fruity. 4/5

Le Royale ($9, below) is a combination a dark chocolate mousse, almond meringue, hazelnut almond feuilletine, chocolate genoise and dark rum. In layman terms, it's a chocolate and hazelnut cake. This is for the chocolate lover as the chocolate was very rich and dense. The base was a hazelnut almond feuilletine which was akin to thin crispy waffles. Overall, the texture was rich and crispy. It was like eating a chocolate cake and hazelnut waffle biscuit. 4/5

Tip : I was struggling whether or not to share this new secret.. This place was quite empty during a Saturday afternoon. Considering the whole of Singapore was in Orchard on a weekend, I think this is a great place to escape the crazy crowds for a nice afternoon tea. 

Can't wait to go back to try more desserts.
Officially tagged this in "My Faves" too!

Address:

390 Orchard Road

#B1-08/09/17

Palai Renaissance 

Singapore 238871

Opening hours: check website for latest info

http://www.antoinette.com.sg/contact.html

Dulcet and Studio

Located at the corner of Liang Court, Dulcet & Studio is a Japanese-Western fusion restaurant.. The name is quite interesting.. "Dulcet" supposedly means sweet and melodious.  And the "studio" refers to the baking classes that they hold. The restaurant is designed by a top Japan designer based out of Tokyo. Anyway, my expectations were raised significantly when I saw the colorful displays of cakes and pastries at the shopfront.. So tempting!

They have puddings too...

Not much people on a weekend..

I like the chill vibe of Dulcet & Studio. There's a sofa corner that looks comfy. Tip: They also have free wifi, another plus point.

This is a self-service place. You tick what you want to eat in the paper slip, pay at the counter, take your own cutlery, and wait for the food to be served.

I ordered the Black Pig Bolognese Fettucine ($13, below). Apparently this is Dulcet & Studio's signature dish. Their pasta is made in Hokkaido so it's different from the normal western pasta. The fettucine was a bit hard and chewy, not really to my liking. But the black pig bolognese was quite tasty, well marinated with the tomato based sauce. 3.5/5

My friend had the Full Size US Pork Chop Doria ($16, below). Doria is a Japanese type of food, similar to gratin but with a rice base. To me, it tasted like risotto. The tomato base was quite bland and diluted. I like the pork though which was juicy. 3/5

We waited for quite some time for our food to arrive, probably 20 minutes. My friend's order was Doria which it was indicated on the menu that it will take 15 minutes to prepare. On the other hand, my Black Pig Bolognese Fettucine did not have a minimum preparation time indicated on the menu. However, in the end, my friend's Doria came first before my Black Pig Bolognese Fettucine.

After a not-so-satisfying main course, we were looking forward to the desserts hoping they would help to end the dinner with a wow. We had the Pont Neuf ($5.20, below) which was a cream puff crispy on the outside but creamy and soft on the inside. Yumms! 4/5

Upon the strong recommendation of the service staff, we ordered Dulcet & Studio's signature dessert Fruit Scoop ($7, below). To be honest, it was quite a normal fruit cream cake to us.. Nothing to complain about it.. Until my friend spotted the "cake side" in the middle of the cake.. If you look carefully, there is a brown vertical line in the sponge. That's a cake skin. My friend claims a good bakery should not serve it to customers as the cake skin  is usually used to combine two cakes. 3/5

Overall, we went in with high expectations but actually it's quite average food to us. Not sure if it was because we order the wrong food. Cuz we googled and found quite a lot of good reviews on Dulcet & Studio. If I am in the vicinity again, I will order the matcha chiffon cake which was sadly not available during my visit. 

Address:

Liang Court

177 River Valley Road

#01-41/42