Back from my 3 week long escapade to the Big Apple and Cuba. More updates on that soon (i hope). 

Here's a short addition to my Do Not Eat list till i get over my jetlag and lose this food baby of mine. Donna Carmela, an Italian restaurant at Greenwood Avenue, is a restaurant that my friends and i would never visit again. 

What killed it was the expectation that it sets (authentic Italian) and how miserably it does in achieving it (exceptionally slow and bad service). 

The dining area is quite decent and cosy and they appear to have an extensive wine selection. Prices seemed very reasonable with their prix fixe set lunch (even on a weekend), a 3 course with tea/coffee set us back by only $25 (can't remember the exact price) and i like that they have a wide variety of options. Well, that's till our food actually arrived. And that took forever. 

What we don't get is how a simple dish like parma ham with melon could take a good 20 minutes to prepare when there was no one in the restaurant other than our party of 12. 

We could hardly tell the difference between a cream of mushroom and a cream of chicken. Plus it tasted worse than a diluted can of Campbell. 

Average beef carpaccio. It was another long wait between our appetizers and main course despite us reminding our server time and time again as my gf had to leave earlier for a work appointment. We also noticed that some expatriate guests who came in later than us actually got their food before we did. Double standard service is absolutely intolerable. What made the long wait worse was the meh food that came after.

Seafood pasta with seafood that's not fresh. 

Pretty tasteless pasta that's supposed to come with some meat/meatballs. In this case they were quite nonexistent, if you could spot them. I can cook better pasta than this, seriously.

The best bet would probably be the pizza. It's not the best around, it's probably average but certainly it pales in comparison to other truly authentic Italian pizza spots. Even Da Paolo does way better ones. I certainly do not recommend this restaurant for their mediocre food and bad service.

Donna Carmela
2 Greenwood Avenue, Hillcrest Park

Singapore 289189

Tel: +65 6463 4206

Loysel's Toy has been around for a while now and i visited the place quite some time ago actually. I haven't gotten down to writing because i don't like writing about bad food and that was what i felt about Loysel's- a huge disappointment despite all that hype when it first started. 

The out of the way location is typical of most specialty coffee joints in Singapore. Kith, Toby's Estate, Broers, FortyHands etc. I like that these cafes are a little out of the way. I like the quaintness of it all and i also like that it deters most lazy people as well (for my own selfish reasons). BUT, in my honest opinion, there's no way i'm going to be back there again. It's not worth the ride over.

We took a seat outdoors because the interior hardly has any breathing space. It's a nightmare if you are claustrophobic and the same even if you aren't. The outdoor seats are fine provided weather conditions are ideal i.e. cool air, low humidity, light breeze, rays broken by scattered clouds. In other words, you got to be darn lucky. If not, be prepared to face the SG tropical heatwave and a potential meltdown (make up or what not).

I'm ok with the limited food selection actually. Saves me the trouble of deciding what to order. Usual breakfast items are available e.g. Pancakes with strawberries and honey mascarpone (S$10), sides like bacon are available at an additional cost. They also have quiches (S$7).

Items from the bakery looked more promising than what was available on the menu. Check out the muffins, cakes, tarts and pastries at the counter. The pastries looked glossy and i noted that the croissants have a nice height to them.

I had the Big L's Breakfast (S$15)- Scrambled or poached eggs, sauteed mushrooms, garlic pork sausage and grilled tomato with toast. This was really bad, and i already lowered my expectations for something that costs 15bucks. My first reaction was that Coffee Bean does a better breakfast than Loysel's. The eggs were dry and bland. Sausages were no better with the cardboard-like texture. The toast was stale as well.

S had the fruit salad with yogurt which i felt was pitiful. It was a little plate with some pieces of chopped up fruits, which weren't even exotic! Also, they didn't look fresh to me as well. Seems like they've been cut and refrigerated for some time. And that costs 10 bucks? Seriously??

The Iced Mocha (S$6) was very diluted. Good mocha wouldn't be served using chocolate syrup. I'm ok with the regular syrup sort but i do expect better from Loysel's since they are serving Papa Pahleta's coffee.

Verdict: Not recommended. I'm never coming back. The regular coffee chains are better than this. I think what LT needs to do is to simply focus on the coffee and outsource their food items. Or perhaps change the cook.

Food: 2/5 Not giving it a 1 because i didn't try a lot of items but i definitely won't review it again
Service: 2/5 Slow service. Not very friendly as well.
Atmosphere: 2/5 Not comfortable. I might sit at the void deck and drink coffee from the kopitiam.

Loysel's Toy

66 Kampong Bugis, #01-02 

Ture / Sam Tat Warehouse, Singapore

Tue–Fri: 9am – 6pm

Sat–Sun: 9am – 7.30pm
(Closed on Mon)

Dropped by Bugis for some shopping and checked out Bugis+ (previously known as Iluma shopping centre) after buying Koi. It's a new mall with plenty of shops like Berskha, neu look and Uniqlo (attending the opening event tmr!). I'm just digressing a little. This post is different from my usual because it's the first time I'm sharing with you guys what not to eat and BonChon Chicken Singapore is the first to make the list on my blog.

W and I saw the BonChon chicken outlet which is unlike the fast food version at Ion. I was hoping that at least this would be a little more similar to the awesome BonChon wings i've had in NYC, but it WAS NOT!

Never in my life have I had wings so dry. The seasoning and sauce used to coat the wings were similar to the original but the chicken was badly prepared. A proper establishment should NEVER double-fry or triple-fry their food. It should be made fresh! The meat was really dry and stale and it was tasteless.

We ordered the Korean seafood pancake because it looked and sounded promising but omg it was TERRIBLE. For S$12.90, this is pathetic. The thin and whitish looking batter barely coats the pitiful strands of scallion and the seafood was non existent. I get better stuff at food courts even.

Verdict- DO NOT EAT
Food: 1/5 terrible quality but edible. Still damn pissed for wasting calories on bad food.
Service: 2/5 they were obviously not ready for service. We stepped in and they were just waiting for each other to serve us. Tsk.
Ambience: 1/5 The restaurant is split into 2 halves and random people were cutting through the space to get to the mall toilets!

BonChon Chicken Singapore
#01-03, Bugis+ Shopping Centre
201 Victoria Street
(I'm stating the location so that you can make sure you don't visit this place)