Raffles City has many exciting events and activities all year round, but July is the month we always look forward to because of its annual Food Festival. From 11 to 27 July 2014, a series of fun-filled events and promotions awaits you foodies out there.

Raffles City started its Instagram account @RafflesCitySG, and you should follow them not just for the latest feeds, but also because fans of Raffles City get to win 10 prizes daily when you upload a photo on Instagram of your favourite eats at the mall and hashtag #RafflesCityEats together with a geotag of the restaurant.

Wondering where to bring your kids over the weekends? Raffles City may just be your answer. From now till 31 Dec 2014, kids dine for free at participating restaurants on weekends.

Last Saturday, we spent the day at Raffles City with many food enthusiasts on a food trail and had a ball of a time at many good restaurants and eateries in the mall. Raffles City is budding with flavours this July, and here are some restaurants to look out for when you next dine at Raffles City.

BANGKOK JAM

Thai food is something that we can eat all the time. Jam-packed with flavours, Thai food is satisfying and never fails to make our tummies happy. Bangkok Jam, a bistro-styled Thai restaurant, dishes out contemporary Thai cuisine that sets your taste buds in drool.

Some of the must-try dishes include Tom Yum Kung (S$10.50), Phad Thai Talay (S$12.50) and Yang Ruam (S$25) – mixed Grill of chicken, beef short ribs, squid and prawns. If you are meeting your pals at Raffles City and craving for Thai food, Bangkok Jam is the place to head to!

#B1-44C
Tel: +65 6336 2118

KOPITIAM AT SWISSOTEL

Good ol’ comfort dishes in a cosy seating that overlooks the bustling city; how to not love Kopi Tiam at Swissotel? It is the perfect place to bring overseas guests to try the best of Singapore’s hawker food in a nostalgic and air-conditioned ambience. We recommend the Grilled Stingray in sambal belachan, and Golden Butter Prawn.

Level 2, Swissotel The Stamford
Tel: +65 6431 6156

MARCHÉ BAR & BISTRO

Marché Bar & Bistro is an all-purpose venue that is probably the closest to alfresco dining you can get in the city. Sitting at the fringe of the mall, Marché Bar & Bistro is a lovely space to enjoy some good pizza and drinks while enjoying the caress of the soft breeze. Yes, the pizzas that are fresh from the oven and served very warm. The marriage of thin crust with generous toppings makes us linger for more.

#01-17A
Tel: +65 6337 9433

PODI

Managed by the folks behind Cedele, PODI serves all-day breakfast and grills; simple, earnest and hearty comfort food you can always rely on. Our picks are the Creamy Prawn & Poached Egg Pasta (S$18) that is not overly rich unlike most cream pasta, and the signature Duck Berry Waffle (S$18) – something so rare in Singapore that everyone should give it a try. PODI is like Cedele, reliable and a joint you can go to regularly for a good meal.

#B1-45
Tel: +65 6336 5648

PUTIEN

This local homegrown eatery serves Chinese dishes that are simple yet close to the heart. Families will love its familiarity, and regulars of Putien always go for their signature dishes like the Iced Bitter Gourd and Shredded Meat with Bun. For us, the absolute favourite is their Sweet & Sour Pork with lychee, which is one of the better renditions in town. Else, the Stir-fried Yam is a crowd pleaser too!

#02-18
Tel: +65 6336 2184

ST MARC CAFE

For a quick bite, the Chococro and Little Fuji from St Marc Cafe will do the trick. The former is a crispy croissant filled with chocolate on the inside – we can easily gobble down several croissants on our own – while the latter is a hot buttery Danish served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Only one word to describe it: heavenly!

Gulp down with a Matcha Latte, the Japanese way! St Marc Café originated from Japan and has more than 300 outlets in Japan! Yes, it is that popular and good, we are lucky to have them at Raffles City as another option of choice for quality tea-time snack.

#B1-44M
Tel: +65 6338 8043

SUFOOD

Taiwan’s largest vegetarian restaurant chain, SuFood offers a refreshing take on vegetarian food. It is a meat-free concept inspired by Italian cuisine, from the quality of ingredients to the dish presentation.

First-timers to SuFood should try the Star Pizza – a star-shaped pizza filled with oyster mushrooms, cream cheese and mustard sauce – which is tasty and very instagram-worthy.

It has always been a challenge to find a good vegetarian restaurant in Singapore that serves delicious and healthy food, but SuFood truly redefines vegetarian dining with their impressive menu.

#02-19
Tel: +65 6333 5338

INSTAGRAM WITH #RAFFLESCITYEATS AND WIN 10 PRIZES DAILY

If you are a fan of Instagram, why not take more Instagram photos and win yourself some prizes? Upload a photo of your favourite eats at Raffles City, and win prizes like 1 million STAR$® ($1000 worth of CapitaVouchers), NESCAFE® Dolce Gusto® machines and exclusive dining experiences! Simply tag @RafflesCitySG, hashtag #RafflesCityEats, geotag the name of your eat-out and tell us what you like about the places you have checked out here!

MASTERCARD EXCLUSIVES

- S$10 shopping rebates for the first 500 MasterCard cardholders who charge S$100 (minimum one F&B receipt required).

- S$2 parking rebate for the first 50 MasterCard cardholders daily who charge S$50.

KIDS DINE FOR FREE ON WEEKENDS

Enjoy a complimentary kid’s meal at participating outlets: Marché Mövenpick, PUTIEN, Salt Tapas & Bar by Luke Mangan, Shahi Maharani North Indian Restaurant, Sho Teppan, and SUFOOD. Valid till 31 Dec 2014.

This feature is brought to you by Raffles City Singapore.

// The first giveaway of 2 X $50 Old Hong Kong Legend vouchers has ended. Thank you for participating. The winners are #31 and #44.

The winners of the second giveaway are: #325, #153, #237, #359, #376, #402, #21, #15, and #425.

I do not frequent restaurants in malls because most of the time, you can only find restaurant chains. However, Raffles City is an exception that I would gladly welcome. It is nice to see that they are actively approaching good F&B tenants to provide new options for the consumers.

Salt Tapas & Bar, Tiong Bahru Bakery, Wooloomooloo Steakhouse are just some of the big names at Raffles City. And from what I have heard, there are more interesting concepts (one of which is a casual Vietnamese noodle bar by the Les Amis group) opening soon. Check out Raffles City food guide if you are looking for dining options this weekend.

Here’s part two of my Raffles City food trail – where we visited Old Hong Kong Legend, Bibigo, and Canele Patisserie Patisserie. We are also giving away $100 worth of dining vouchers, read more to find out how you join the giveaway.

We began our adventure at Old Hong Kong Legend at Level two of Raffles City.

Everything on the menu sounded delicious. There were so many dishes I wanted to try, and luckily, we did not have to choose as the restaurant had pre-arranged four of their signature dishes.

The double-boiled shark’s bone cartilage soup ($18/pax) came first. Served in a whole “shark’s fin” melon, the soup – prepared with yellow fungus and wolfberry – was rich and soulful. I could drink this everyday!

Next up, we had the ‘typhoon shelter’ crab. For the uninitiated, it is a dish served in many Hong Kong Chinese restaurants, and believes to have originated from the typhoon shelter – hence the name. Fried with garlic, chili, onion, and black bean sauce, the ‘typhoon shelter’ crab ($68/kg) is quite a sight to behold.

The crab, while good, was not something that I appreciate. I kept staring at the salted egg yolk crabs on the menu; I must come back again for them.

We also had a seared codfish on egg white with truffle sauce ($14.88/pax), and a pot of braised seafood and meat ($28) which I felt was a steal for the price, as it was filled with yummy ingredients like baby abalone, mushroom, pork belly, bean curd skin, and fish (as seen on the first picture of the post).

All in all, Old Hong Kong Legend is a place where you can get well-executed Chinese food at reasonable prices. I also learnt that they offer dim sum till 5pm on weekdays – definitely the place to go if I am meeting my friends for a late lunch.

Old Hong Kong Legend
252 North Bridge Road
#02-18/19 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6336 3038

For the second stop of the Raffles City food trail, we went to Bibigo.

The Korean restaurant currently has 16 branches worldwide, which includes China, United States, London, and Singapore. The concept is pretty simple. They want to introduce good and healthy Korean food to the world, and while prices are not exactly cheap (average spending is around $21/pax), it is not too exorbitant either.

We had quite a spread: seafood pancake ($13), hot stone bibimbap ($16), ginseng orange salad ($12), sweet & spicy rice cake ($14), char-grilled bulgogi ($22), and spicy soft tofu stew ($14).

I thought that the sweet & spicy rice cake was not too bad, but I probably would not pay so much – given that it is a cheap Korean street food.

And if you look at the menu, you would notice that their bibimbap is quite different from the usual ones as you get to customise it. First, you choose the rice: white, black, brown & white, and barley & white. Then, you select the topping from options like bulgogi, grilled spicy pork, chicken teriyaki, tofu, and shrimp. And finally, the sauce: kohot, ssam, sesame, and citron soy. The result? You get tasty bibimbap in a sizzling hot stone pot.

I also thoroughly enjoyed the seafood pancake. As for the spicy tofu stew, it was nothing crazy in terms of flavour combination but just done well enough to hit the comfort note for me.

If I am in the Raffles City area, I can see myself coming back to Bibigo for a quick meal. For two people, I would suggest getting a stew, bibimbap, and seafood pancake to share.

Bibigo
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-74 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6336 4745
Daily: 11am – 10pm

For desserts, we went to everyone’s favourite Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie. Chef Christophe Grilo has definitely stamped his mark with a new menu comprising popular desserts like tarte au citron, triple chocolate cheesecake, forêt noire, and strawberry shortcake.

I felt like a kid in Disneyland when I saw all the cakes on the table. Everything looked so delicious. Where do we start? How does anyone choose between cheesecake or the very popular le royale? Or favourites like strawberry shortcake and mille-feuille?

Out of all the cakes that we tried, my favourites were the la noisette, le royale, mango passion chocolat blanc, and gateau au fromage.

At Canele, they name this as la noisette ($7.50). But I prefer to call the hazelnut cream puff ‘a dream come true’. That’s right folks: praline, lemon, and choux pastry. Three things I adore all put together.

The mango passion chocolat blanc ($7.50) tastes as good as it looks. The combination of white chocolate mousse, zesty mango passion fruit cream, mango marmalade, and coconut crumble base was perfect. My heart beats faster as I recalled how effortless the flavours and textures blended in every taste.

Also not to be missed is the le royale ($8). The heavenly pairing of dark chocolate and hazelnut makes this one of the most popular desserts at Canele Patisserie. The gateau au fromage ($6.50) is also worth a mention. Light, smooth, and creamy – it is perhaps, one of the best cheesecakes I have had in recent times.

Here is one thing that not many people know: Canele has very good bread. Since Chef Christophe Grilo took over the kitchen, he has been constantly testing new recipes to create better bread. I think his croissant and pain au chocolate are good, so the next time you are there for tea, remember to have the bread too.

They have also just launched their summer macarons collection for 2012. You can find interesting flavours like vanilla banana, mint chocolate, lemon lime, violet berries, and rice krispie chocolate.

Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-46/47 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6334 7377

To find out more about Raffles City’s food festival, please visit Raffles City Epicurean Society where you can read about the restaurants, promotions and food reviews.

How to enter Raffles City’s Dining Vouchers Giveaway

1. Giving away 6 X $50 The Handburger and 3 X $50 Watami dining vouchers.

2. Leave a comment and tell us: ‘Which restaurant do you want to try in Raffles City?’ OR ‘your favourite restaurant in Raffles City?’

3. A random generator will be used, everyone has an equal chance of winning.

4. Giveaway ends on 16th Aug 2012 Thursday 2359. Winners will be notified by email.

5. If you have submitted previously, you automatically qualify for the second giveaway.

Whenever my friends meet for gatherings, one of our favourite places is Raffles City Shopping Centre as City Hall is convenient for everyone.

Other than the location, another reason why I love Raffles City is because of the dining options – there are more than 50 restaurants in the mall. From restaurants like Salt Tapas & Bar, Skinny Pizza, Sushi Tei, and Canele; to eateries like Thai Express, The Soup Spoon, and Cedele – it offers a diverse range of food offerings.

Raffles City is organising a Mastercard mall-wide F&B promotion (6th to 29th July) in conjunction with Singapore Food Festival 2012. There will be lucky draw with exclusive $5,000 worth of hotel stay by Fairmont and Swissotel, and dining deals to be won during this period. You can visit Raffles City Epicurean Society for more details.

I met up with the folks from Raffles City to find out more about the promotion, and they brought me on a food trail to try three restaurants at Raffles City – Salt Tapas & Bar, Menya Musashi, and Soup Broth Asia.

If you always have problem trying to choose a place for dinner in the City Hall area, here’s a quick guide on where you can go.

Food trail, here we go!

Our first stop was at Salt Tapas & Bar by Australian celebrity chef Luke Mangan.

We started with the roasted garlic flat bread with romesco ($6). Then, we had the baked bone marrow ($16) with shiitake, Parmesan, & air-dried olive.

I was really excited when I saw it on the menu. I tasted a good bone marrow in New York, but so far, I haven’t been able to find a good rendition in Singapore. I thought Salt’s bone marrow was fantastic; it will have me returning over and over again.

Peter, the restaurant manager, recommended the tagine of snapper and octopus ($32), which was created by Luke Mangan himself. The dish was prepared with chickpeas, silverbeet, date and lemon; it tasted slightly sourish-sweet – somewhat like an Assam fish head.

Equally good was the charcoal grilled baby chicken ($26) with rosemary & lemon. I was tempted to order more food; the charcoal grilled beef rib ($31) and iberico pork loin ($27) were calling out to me – but I figured that I shouldn’t be too greedy since this was only the first stop, so we proceeded with desserts.

Looking at the choices on the dessert menu, we were not sure where to even begin. In the end, we decided to go with something rich – gooey hot chocolate tart ($14) and churros with chocolate ($11), which after dipping our spoon into, we agreed was one of the best ways one could end the meal with.

The food at Salt Tapas & Bar is not exactly cheap; the nibbles are priced around $6 to $19, while the meat and seafood tapas range from $15 to $32. But this is a meal worth saving up for. For a more affordable alternative, I’d suggest going there for lunch. Salt Tapas & Bar has a lunch set at $33.50++; you get flat bread to share, and three tapas per person – which in my opinion, is a fantastic deal as the items on the lunch menu can be found on the ala carte menu.

Salt Tapas & Bar
252 North Bridge Road
#01-22A Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6837 0995
Daily: 11.30am – 10pm

Following our Aussie tapas adventure, we went to Menya Musashi, one of Japan’s most famous ramen shops. I think it’s great that they have chosen to open the first store at Raffles City, as it is very accessible. The opening of the Japanese ramen restaurant definitely adds to the wide variety of food available at the mall.

From what I’ve heard, the current queue during lunch and dinner is at least an hour long. Not too bad for a new restaurant that is barely a few months old.

After trying all the ramen on the menu, I can understand why people queue up for it. I would venture to say that it is one of the better tonkatsu-based ramens in Singapore.

Besides Tsukemen ($14.90) – where you dip dry noodles in a richer soup sauce; Menya Musashi serves three different types of ramen: white (original tonkatsu broth), red (spicy tonkatsu broth), and black (tonkatsu broth with fermented garlic and onion).

One of the reasons why Menya Musashi is so special is because of the broth. It is boiled for more than nine hours, and the chef has to stir it every half an hour to prevent the bottom from being burned. The result? An extremely thick and rich tonkatsu broth that is out-of-this-world good. I am not exaggerating when I use the word ‘extremely’; Menya Musashi’s broth is much thicker than the usual ramen places.

While the black and red Musashi are delicious, my favourite is the white Musashi, as I love the original taste of tonkatsu broth. Each ramen comes with the option of chashu ($12.90), or Kakuni ($14.90). The chashu is quite good, but the kakuni (braised pork belly) is even better.

Go during off-peak hours, or be prepared to queue up.

Menya Musashi
252 North Bridge Road
#01-16 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6336 6500

Our third, and final stop of the day was Soup Broth Asia – located at the basement of Raffles City Shopping Centre where you can find many restaurants and eateries.

Soup Broth Asia is an Asian soup concept by everyone’s favourite The Soup Spoon, a leading soup chain in Singapore. For those who don’t cook at home, Soup Broth Asia gives them the chance to savour homemade Asian soups.

There are nine different types of comforting and hearty soups such as tori daikon nabe, Hainanese beef and tripe hotpot, as well as canton lotus root with pork rib.

We sampled three signature soups, and I loved the Hainanese festive fish maw ($10.40) – with fresh fish slices, fish maw, and cabbage – as it reminds me of my mom’s soups.

The sumo wrestle – a miso based soup which consist of chicken, beancurd, lotus root, poached eggs, and soya milk – is quite fascinating as it substitutes cream with soya milk for people who are allergic to dairy products.

If you are a beef stew lover, you will love the Hainanese beef and tripe hotpot ($7.90). It is an oriental version of beef stew, and comes with nicely marinated beef and beef tripe.

Soup Broth Asia also has side dishes like appetisers ($2.80 to $4.80), vegetables ($5.90 to $7.40) and meats ($6.50 to $10.50). In particular, the sweet & sour pork ($8.80) and garlic baby dou miao ($7.40) were very decent.

Soup Broth Asia
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-62 Rafffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: +65 6338 6909
Sun–Thu: 11am – 10pm
Fri–Sat: 11am – 10.30pm

That’s all folks. I hope you enjoy reading my food trail at Raffles City. I will be going on another adventure to try three other restaurants; I will definitely share it with you soon!

To find out more about Raffles City’s food festival, please visit Raffles City Epicurean Society where you can read about the F&B tenants, promotions and food reviews.