Food Tasting: IPPIN Cafe bar @ Mohamed Sultan Road, Singapore

Nestled along the stretch of Mohamed Sultan Road, IPPIN cafe bar serves unpretentious home-cooked Japanese meals along with imported teas and alcoholic drinks. The interior is cozy and home-styled with a touch of industrial design and simplicity, and even house a beautiful sake bar and kitchen. Besides meals, IPPIN is also a small, atas Japanese mama-shop, which you can get your Japanese essentials at one place. 

This cafe bar was first introduced to Singapore by Ayumi Fujishiro with the intentions of helping her father set up IPPIN in October 2014. We had a short chat with the lady herself, and was astonished to find that she actually speaks Singlish despite the short exposure. Uh uh siol, not bad sia.

Merry Men Kitchen and Bar @ River Valley, Singapore

Opened by four unlikely friends, who came from different career backgrounds (lawyer and physiotherapist? Wow.), the concept of their brainchild - Merry Men Kitchen and Bar is fairly simple, and that is to provide a platform for friends to gather, relax and unwind after a long day of work. Of course, the act of unwinding is not unwinding without good and affordable food, accompanied by a few jugs of good imported beer at the river-side. Sounds like a perfect place to hang out on a Friday night? It sure is. If you're there on a weekend morning or afternoon, do expect leng lui's jogging with their dogs, but obviously that is not the main focus. If you know what I mean.

Just the Place @ Punggol Settlement, Singapore

Punggol is a beautiful place, in fact, it is well-developed now (although a bit ulu la) as compared to other coastal areas such as the east coasts. Besides newly-built HDBs, Punggol now boasts several entertainment spots, like cycling/jogging tracks, prawning facilities and a hell lot of cafes and restaurants. We were there cycling one Sunday afternoon and we decided to pop by some of the cafes to try them out. Just the Place might be just the place you are looking for a quick break to have some bites, or simply just to chill the shit out on a hot weekend afternoon with some brunch... or well, beer on a Friday night. Albeit being just a year old, this cafe has already gathered a steady stream of followers.

"Our food is wholesome like German cooking with French finese and always served with the warm hospitality of the Italians."