Tokyo: Aoyama Flower Market TEA HOUSE

ほらほら〜
お久しぶりです！

Just came back from a week holiday in Tokyo. Yes, it's fangirl- related trip again but I'm glad to be able to stay for 7 days instead of 3 days like last trip!

I arrived around 8am and only able to dropped my luggage off around noon. I had like 3 hours to spare before able to check in for my room so I decided to go to Inokashira park in Kichijoji to kill time. Starving from my flight, it was such a bad time coz 1pm on Sunday at Atre Kichijoji, every restaurants were full with lines with people waiting for food. I strolled around a bit and found Aoyama Flower Market TEA House with lunch set and available seat. I just ordered my food and grabbed the seat instantly!

This is a branch of Tea House which main branch located in Aoyama (of course). The decoration was super relaxing! It was as if you were sitting in English garden and having your tea/food. I heard that this place is popular with rose tea and stuffs. I decided to choose for rose soda and beef stew as their set lunch.

The rose soda was very refreshing. Not too sweet and the rose aroma just didn't overpower everything. I had bad experience with rose-infused drink before. It's like they put too much rose flavour/smell into it and it just went yuck. But this is not - this is very nice.

There came my beef stew. The girl sitting next to my table literally licked the bowl so I expected it to be good and boy, that just met my expectation! It was really nice! Not just the look that nice but the taste also! Can you believe it? It was very homey and filling. The stew was not too sour (from tomato sauce or something - trust me, I tried the sour version of stew this trip. Will blog next time). I finished it and felt very happy afterwards. Such a great way to start my trip in Tokyo!

Aoyama Flower Market Tea House
Atre Kichijoji B1F
Website: http://www.afm-teahouse.com/



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Singapore: Antoinette at Palais Renaissance

Last week I was in Singapore for a very short break. It was a very productive trip since I met up with many friends and my schedule was so tight with food and fangirl-ish that I didn't even have time for shopping. Okay, only one trip to H&M but that does not count!

Anyway, I have planned this trip actually before going to Japan so I told MK of Sleepwalking in Tokyo about my trip. She said she wanted to go to Singapore as well but had some plan for that week already. Only a week or two before, she told me that she could come for the trip and would meett up with me & her friend last Friday. MK was a ramen-deprived (actually I think she still is - hahah) so we had late lunch at Ippudo SG which review does not need anymore. We did some walking/shopping before heading to Palais Renaissance, like at another end of Orchard Road besides Thai Embassy, for some sweet stuffs.

I believe the real name of this branch is Le Jardin D'Antoinette which really reflects in the decoration of this outlet. It is as if you were sitting in a garden and having nice cup of tea with some desserts. Every detail of this place is quite fancy - even children's high chairs! They are very French-ish!

We ordered some fancy desserts/pastries to try. I must say it is very interesting and not bad at all.

I ordered "FORBIDDEN FRUIT" which described in Antoinette Facebook page as "green apple mousse, green apple jelly, roasted caramelized green apple, maple cremeux and financier sponge". It was very light and refreshing. Taste was not strong so it was perfect when you aren't fancy anything too heavy.

MK ordered "FRAMBOISIER - vanilla cream cheese mousse, raspberry jelly, vanilla creme chantilly, fresh berries, almond crumble". I think it was in an okay standard - nothing fancy about it but I think MK might have other thing to say about this as she hates cream. I asked her why she ordered this then since it had cream more than any other, she just said she likes berries - heheh!

Last one was ordered by MK's friend, LE ROYALE - dark chocolate mousse, almond succes, chocolate genoise with rum, almond hazelnut feullitine. It was very pleasant for chocolate lover who do not like it too sweet. It was very rich and nice. If you love chocolate, this one is definitely worth trying!

Too bad I didn't try their tea as my friend said it was really good but they only have hot tea and to have hot tea when you are sweating from the heat is just a bad idea! This place is definitely worth visiting if you are in Singapore and fancy some sweet!

Antoinette at Palais Renaissance
B1F, Palais Renaissance
Orchard Road, Singapore
Website: http://www.antoinette.com.sg/
MRT Station: Orchard

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Singapore: Arteastique Tea Lounge

The quest for good food/drinks in Singapore continued! The next day, I was occupied with shopping throughout the morning and met up with Y and C for lunch at ION food court (which i will later blog about). After lunch, we just didn't know where to go and what to do until 7.30pm which me and Y had to go to Esplanade for a bit of "fangirl-ing". We walked down Orchard road and checked out Mandarin Gallery. We were torn between "Wild Honey" and "Arteastique" for a bit of sit-down cafe. After much discussion, Arteastique won!


The decoration was nice with pastel colour chairs and sofa couch in black and white. All seats are next to window, it's a shame though that you cannot see much of the view outside since you can only see trees.


We placed order for their famous dessert teas. Basically, it is ice tea with alcohol ice cream. I was a bit skeptical since I am not a milkshake/yoguhrt smoothie person so the idea of blending ice cream with tea is seriously strange for me.


I ordered "Beauty Yang" (SG$11) which is oolong tea with lychee martini ice cream. The ice cream was super nice, very subtly alcohol anyway (that's probably the only downside of it!). It did goes so well with the oolong tea, very refreshing after a hot day outside.

C's Raffle: something tea with vanilla champagne ice cream (SG$11)

Y's Monet: French rose tea with vanilla champagne ice cream (SG$11)

As we were so full from lunch, we didn't have any space for dessert which look very nice as I overlooking other tables. Their tea range is also interesting. Lychee tea sounds very good to me. We just chitchatted til it started raining then we realised that we took our leisure time for too long. No more cheap ride by MRT to Esplanade, it's taxi all the way!

Arteastiq Tea Lounge by Marxx
333A Orchard Road
#04-14/15 Mandarin Gallery
Tel: 6235 8705
http://arteastiq.com/index.html


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