Fig & Olive @ E!Hub

Crime scene: Fig & Olive

Location: E!Hub, Downtown East

Ambience: 4.5/5

Food: 3.9/5

Service: Mediocre/Satisfactory/Good/Excellent

Yes, this is Day 2 of our rampage of E!Hub @ Downtown East, as Boyfriend and I turn the entire area of this R&R facility upside down in search of value-for-money vegetarian-friendly fare to fill our tummies with. And look what we found @ Fig & Olive!

Tucked away in  small corner of E!Hub is Fig & Olive, a Mediterranean-themed diner. And we happened to chance upon their 1-for-1 dinner offer, whereby you get their main courses at a 1-for-1 price. Simple as that. Lucky for us, they had Aglio Olio, so we both had that, 1-for-1!

And to keep awake for our movies later on in the night, we ordered coffee! Since we were in a Mediterranean restaurant, what else would Boyfriend order but Mediterranean coffee?

The coffee was fragrant, and a sinful combination of dried orange peel, cinnamon powder, chocolate sauce and cream topped this cup of joy. The coffee was sweetened to the dot, so we didn’t need to add sugar to it. 

My Hazelnut Cappuccino brought back memories from the days where I would be soaking in the smell of a huge mug of Hazelnut Coffeee made from instant coffee mix. F&O’s Hazelnut Cappuccino was lightly scently with hazelnut’s romatic fragrance, though it lacked a little punch which instant coffee had. One big boo-boo they had committed was probably topping my cappuccino with cinnamon powder, which overwhelmed the hazelnut scent with every mouthful, because the cinnamon powder was sitting atop the cappuccino foam.

Our Aglio Olio! First time I had my Aglio Olio garnished with fresh tomato wedges, and surprisingly that complemented the pasta real well. As usual, I asked for Tabasco sauce for my pasta to enhance the olive oil and herb flavour, and it worked really well on this Aglio. The pasta wasn’t done as oily as NYNY’s and PastaMania’s, but it tasted great, excluding the sin factor. This made our day.

Service: Service was impeccable. Although the waiter who brought us to our table was a little slow in responding to our  requests, I let him off on the account that he was a newbie (from the way the manager had taught him how to bill us). The order of serving our drinks and food was good, not just from the way they served us, but also the other only occupied table. The female manager was very friendly, and would respond to my requests for Tabasco sauce and refills promptly.

Price: And guess how much we spent? All the above at below $25! Good  food, great ambience, great music tubed in, great service. What more could we have asked for? 

Eat where:

Fig & Olive @ E!Hub, Downtown East

#02-119

Operating hours: 10am to 10pm daily

New York New York @ E!Hub [Closed]

Crime scene: New York New York

Location: E!Hub, Downtown East

Ambience: 4.3/5

Food: 3.5/5

Service: Mediocre/Satisfactory/Good/Excellent

I’m back from a HHUGGEE hiatus! Exams, exams and exams have been killing my braincells at an incredulous rate, so nothing beats a short vacation away from the hustle and bustle of city life and the Internet. Oh, and good food, of course!

First night’s dinner was at New York New York, located at the ground floor of E!Hub @ Downtown East. Since Boyfriend and I were vegging out this vacation (weird choice I know), there were limited choices on the menu for us. NYNY is, after all, well-known for its myriad of meaty mains and to-die-for desserts. So Boyfriend and I decided to share a drink, Fajita melts and veggie pasta (the only obvious vegetarian option).

Order Apple Cooler only if you 1. have loads of cash to spare and wouldn’t mind splurging 6-7 bucks on soda water with apple syrup or 2. have a heroin-like addiction to apple cooler. Apart from that, there is absolutely no excuse to squander money away like this.

 I forgot what the called this on the menu, but it’s just aglio olio with mushrooms and capsicums, and they charged $9.90 for this. FOR THIS! The price asides, it actually tasted pretty decent, although I had added a splash of Tabasco sauce to up the flavour of the olive oil.

We had actually ordered this by mistake, but the Fajita chips redeemed themselves with a crispy first bite and soft sliced mushrooms on the inside. The salsa was bland, and I had to prevent myself from emptying the bottle of Tabasco sauce into the salsa. I could make better salsa than that.

Service: For a Sunday night, NYNY was suprisingly quiet, with only about 5 table of diners. I probably won’t sit in a booth anymore, simply because it’s excruciating to try and catch the attention of the waiters. But they provided free flow of water which they constantly topped up, so it was a plus point for Boyfriend and I. Our final bill for the 3 items came up to S$35, and I’m still feeling sore about it.