[Australian Cafe] Pie Face in Singapore!

If chicken pie, mushroom pie, apple pie and perhaps yam pie are the types of pie that you've eaten all your life, does (spicy) Tandoori Vegetable pie or (sweet) Thai Green Curry Chicken pie or (savoury) Chicken + Peppercorn make you feel a little more excited about eating pies?

 

Leading micro-bakery café from Australia, also the world's largest pie chain, has just arrived in Singapore.  2 outlets were opened in Singapore in November and they are conveniently located at 313 Somerset and Bugis Village.

 

With the eye-catching signboard, you can easily spot Pie Face (Bugis) from BHG's entrance facing Victoria Street.



 

Pie Face doles out pies in a multitude of flavours.  The pies come in regular and mini sizes (from $4.90 and $3 respectively).  The pie flavours include:

- Tandoori Vegetable Pie  (Regular and Mini)
- Thai Chicken Curry Pie (Regular and Mini)
- Chicken + Mushroom (Regular and Mini)
- Chicken + Peppercorn (Regular and Mini)
- Chunky Steak (Regular and Mini)
- Creamy Vegetable (Mini)
- Steak + Peppercorn (Mini)
- Chilli Chicken + Corn (Mini)

My personal favourites are the Tandoori Vegetable (filled with delicious chopped carrots, capsicum and mixed beans) and Thai Chicken Curry (filled with carrots, onion, garlic, coconut milk and chicken) pies.  Like my friend ever commented, I seem to prefer "exotic" food, which I interpret to mean food with stronger or spicy flavour.

Different playful expressions are featured on the pastry crusts, making the pies fun to look at even before eating it.

Sad faces, happy faces....Are you able to guess what type of pie each facial expression stands for?

The reason for success for Pie Face is probably the delicious puff pastry.  It is said that the dough of the traditional French puff pastry takes 3 days to prepare.  The kitchen team is required to fold the special blend of butter to create 48 layers!

Encased within the flaky crust are fresh and chunky ingredients.  Pie Face serves the pies in 2 ways:
1. Either by itself in a cardboard sleeve; and
2. Top the pie with mash potato and gravy.

Besides the savoury pies selection, you get to enjoy sweet treats under the same roof.  The café serves 8 sweet pies, crumbly cookies and moist cakes too!  The cheese sticks (suitable for cheese lovers) and almond sticks are worth trying!

And if you are a sausage person, try the Chicken + Cheese Sausage roll (with some tomato ketchup)!

The sweet pies are really pretty.  Available in pecan, butterscotch, lemon, chocolate, raspberry, apple crumble, green tea + red bean and coffee!  I'm sure there's one flavour that whets your taste bud.

Finally, the banana bread (aka banana cake) is one of my favourites!

Need some coffee to end a good meal?  Pie Face serves freshly brews such as cappuccino, café latte, long black, mocha and macchiato ($4 onwards).

Pie Face Outlets
313 Orchard Road #B3-10 (313 Somerset)
Singapore 238895
Operating Hours: 10am to 10pm
Getting there: Directly connected to Somerset MRT station

249 Victoria Street (Bugis Village)
Singapore 188034
Operating Hours: 10am to 10pm
Getting there: Alight at Bugis MRT Station.  Turn right at the entrance and head towards BHG department store.  Take the escalator to Level 1 of BHG.  Exit BHG using the exit facing Victoria Street (near bags section) and cross the traffic light.  You should be able to see Pie Face while at the traffic light.

URL: http://pieface.com.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piefacesingapore
Instagram: @pieface_sg

YY Kafei Dian 喜园咖啡店

Not all coffeeshops open at 5am.  That's what I realised.  It was quite an experience for someone who hardly wakes up early just to catch breakfast.  For this breakfast trips, there were 3 surprising moments. 

Firstly, I was astonished to find that the shuttle at the coffeeshop, located at the junction of Purvis Street and Beach Road, was still closed when it was already approaching 8am.  The coffeeshop officially starts business at 8am.  Not surprising, I was the first customer for that day.  A little annoyed though since I had to leave by 8.30am and therefore, breakfast had to be rushed through.

The coffeeshop is located amongst the rows of old shop-houses.  It is quite tranquil to sit down and have a slow breakfast at these old-school coffeeshops, if you are not rushing for time.  YY serves economic fried bee hoon as well as toast bread in the morning.

The second surprise I had was - the coffeeshop went from empty at 8am to almost full-house within 10mins!  All of the sudden, the place became lively!

I chose to have the toast bread, soft-boiled egg and teh si.  $3.30 for the set.  Quite reasonably priced for a meal that is within the CBD.

The soft-boiled egg was the most satisfying of the 3 items.  The egg yolk was firm while the egg white was watery.  I think only those who are skilled can make such al-dente soft-boiled eggs.  As for the bread, I had asked for butter only but they had given me butter with kaya.  But nevermind, when life gives you lemon, you make into lemonade. 

And I thought that the dark kaya that they use is their signature ingredient.  The third surprise was that it tasted less than ordinary standard leh... sign.  And for the teh-si, it was also so-so and a little "siap".  I really wonder how the siap-ness came about since I am the first customer and the tea should have been freshly brewed?  Perhaps I should just stick with Teh and not Teh-si the next time round, if there is a next time.  Nonetheless, it was good to be an early bird once in a while to experience the Singapore breakfast culture =D

YY Kafei Dian
37 Beach Road #01-01 Singapore 189678

Getting there: Take MRT to Bugis Station.  Use the exit that heads towards Bugis Junction Shopping Mall.  Go to level 1, and head towards Inter-Continental Hotel.  At the cross-junction, walk along North Bridge Road and pass by the National Library.  Keep walking.  At the traffic light in front of Bras Basah Complex, cross over to the opposite side.  Walk along Purvis Street until the end.



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Honeymoon Dessert (满记甜品)

Honeymoon Dessert has arrived in Singapore in 2010 but I did not have a chance to try it until months later.  The Singapore outlets can be found at Vivocity (#01-93), Bugis Junction (#01-70) and 313@Somerset (#04-20 and #04-32).

The outlets' facet are similar to those at Hong Kong... Big brown signage at the entrance and cosy interior and yellow dessert bowls.  This dessert has come a long way since it started in 1995 at Sai Kung district in Hong Kong.  It has now expanded to mainland China, Indonesia and now Singapore.

Desserts ranges from cold to hot variations. Mango, durian, sago, black glutinous rice are some of the main ingredients. My favourite so far has been the Thai Black Glutinous Rice with Mango (Coconut Juice).  In fact, the best part of this dessert is the coconut juice, a light fragrant drink with vanilla taste.  The glutinous rice was "crunchy" and not over-cooked. However, the mango was a little sour.  Would have been perfect if it was sweeter =)

Since I'm spoilt for choice, would definitely be back to try the other desserts, especially the Mango Pomelo and Sago Sweet Soup with Ice Cream (雪山杨枝甘露) which is the most popular dessert accordingly to the shop.

MOF (Ministry of Food)

You can find green tea latte at Starbucks, you can find green tea gelato at Haato (and at many other Japanese ice cream outlets).  But, have you tried combining both in a beverage?

This is truly my preferred combination - green tea latte and green tea gelato =)  *drool* Has anyone tried this combi at other places, besides MOF??