so last Sunday, Gina and i went out for brunch at Gardens, i read about Arbite on Bea’s blog previously, so i thought we should go and check out the place! we stay only about a 5 minutes drive away from Serangoon Gardens, and there’s been lots of eating places opening at Gardens in recent months, Gardens is turning damn hip!
you may also have noticed that i hardly go out with Gina. lol. not cos we don’t love each other or whatever, but we’re just both too busy with our own lives! so it’s rare for us sisters to actually go out together for a meal.. Lina was too busy sleeping and didn’t want to come -_-
Gina drove cos i’m too lazy to drive ‘cept when i have to 😛
and this is what Lina did to the car…. -_- she hung an entire row of soft toys on the front windscreen -_-
we parked at the Village (the mall at Gardens) and walked over to Arbite, but they were full house, and it was like 3PM on a Sunday afternoon? so my recommendation is to call beforehand to reserve your table if you intend to head down! the staff said that the wait was about half an hour, so Gina and i decided to go over to Frolick to chill with some froyo first!
YAY. huge cup of froyo.. Waffle Crisp for Gina and Mango topping for me! it’s too troublesome for me to bite the Waffle Crisps with my new braces -.-
nom nom!
we got a call from Arbite not long after, it was about a 20 minutes wait, so off we went for our brunch! heng not so hungry already with the froyo to “垫底”… hahaha.
YAY Arbite!
the walls at the stairway are decorated with lego pieces.. so cute!
very nice and simple interior, but cozy! 🙂
it was full house when we were there so it might not be the best place if you want to go somewhere quiet on a Sunday afternoon.
Gina checking out the menu. we went for the all-day breakfast menu items! they also serve real food, i mean like regular pasta and main course and etc.
i ordered the full breakfast set, and Gina ordered the Eggs Benedict, it was quite an okay wait for our food, and they arrived, looking all delicious, in no time at all ;D ;D ;D
Gina tucking into her eggs benedict! she ordered an iced mocha too that tasted quite yummy, even to a non coffee drinker like me!
nicely done eggs, still runny and soft!
check out the yolk ooooozing outtttt!
my Arbite Breakfast set was huuuge! scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, hashbrowns, mushrooms, baked beans, grilled tomato and toast.
delishhh!
actually, the mushrooms came a little cold, but they were really nice to give us a fresh portion that was piping hot! i love my mushrooms, and cold mushrooms are just not nice :S other than that, everything else was great, i loved the soft and runny scrambled eggs, the bacon was not too hard and overdone, and the little hashbrown balls were really yummy too!
we were pretty stuffed already cos of the huge breakfast platter, but we spotted someone ordering the carrot cake and it looked damn good, lol. gluttony in progress. we ordered a piece for ourselves too!
with walnuts and cream cheese on top, it was served warm and it was really good! apparently it’s home made too!
check out the carrot shreds in it. i never understand why carrot cake doesn’t taste “carroty”! i liked the texture, it was firm but soft, and the sweet cream cheese complemented the cake perfectly so that it didn’t taste too dry!
Gina and I. i know, we don’t look like sisters at all -_-
we left the restaurant super full! and it cost about $40 over dollars for our meal, which i think is pretty affordable for the all-day breakfast menu items available, which are usually quite exorbitant at other restaurants. definitely going back again to try the main courses next time. so happy that there’re so many new dining places near our house now! 😀
ending off with a close-up of my adorableeeeee nautical bow pocket cardigan that’s coming up on TVD soon. isn’t it super cute ♥♥♥ love the bow adorned pockets!
Arbite
66A Serangoon Garden Way, Singapore
Tel: +65 6287 0430
apparently, my braces aren’t stopping me from eating just about anything. LOL. the only food i haven’t attempted are really tough and chewy meat, and hard nuts. but i haven’t had any issues eating most food so far, so disappointing! -_- Fel said she had a two week porridge diet when she just had her braces put, and here i am, eating like nobody’s business. #dietfail
having a very bad day at work 🙁 a lot of lost mail and etc…. SIGH. gonna go back and deal with them one and one now! ohhh and we’re gonna start renovations on the new office soon! contractor’s coming in later to look at the space. can’t wait!!!!!!!!!!!
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gosh, i nearly forgot why i blogged a new post… cos i wanted to announce the winners of the Lancôme Trésor Midnight Rose Fragrance give-away as well!!! 😀 😀 😀
i read through all the entries multiple times, cos there were so many really sweet and touching stories from readers!! really made me go Awwwww……. at almost all the entries!
how i wish i could pick more winners, cos all of you sent in so many heartfelt entries! 🙁
but after a lot of consideration and re-reading, here are the two winning entries i’ve picked… congratulations girls!!! i’ll email you girls later for your mailing addresses so that Lancôme can send you the perfumes! 🙂 🙂 🙂
i really want to share these two entries with you all, but to protect the privacy of the readers, i won’t be naming them! 🙂
#entry 1!
Hi Yina!
I’ve been thinking long n hard but only decided to share my own stories after reading ur entry about ur bf’s love letter. He’s really sweet!
Anyways, romantic moments between me and my bf are few because he’s really not the romantic type! :p But if I am to choose one occasion, it would be that day, 3 years and 8 months ago, when he asked me to be his gf.
We were at East Coast Park and after dinner, we sat on a bench facing the sea. Great view, good atmosphere. Then he presented me with a soft toy with a heart shaped saying “I love u”, confessed his feelings and asked if he can take care of me. 🙂 Sometime after, we left ECP and since we were quite a distance away from the mrt station already, I suggested taking a bus back since the bus stop is nearer. And so, we boarded a bus that went all the way from ECP to Jurong East interchange! The ride took such a long time but we were holding hands and in our own dreamy world with each other so it was enjoyable for me. However the thing was, he confessed to me a few days later that he actually have very serious motion sickness and always avoided taking buses. It was true! After that day, I have never been on a bus ride with him for more than 5 stops. He always starts to get sick and we had to alight. But throughout that super long bus ride from ECP to Jurong East, he didnt even showed any signs that he was uncomfortable! So unbelievable so I asked him why was that so and he said because that day he was so happy that I said yes such that he even forgot that we were on a bus and he was quite amazed at himself for not getting car-sick too. :p
Another best memory (I don’t know if this counts as romantic or not!) was when we went to Taipei in the winter period and I was already sick before we went so the weather made me very sick. On our first day there, I kept shivering uncontrollably even though i was wrapped in my and his thick jacket. He sacrificed his jacket for me n was so cold clad in only a t-shirt. That day in our hotel room, I was running a high fever and spend the whole day drifting in and out of sleep. I couldnt even remember what happened because my brain was all fried! I remembered 2 scenes: him saying that he loves me and not to worry he will take care of me. And him changing cold towels on my forehead. The next day after I was feeling better, I discovered that he actually stayed up the whole night to look after me. He also made a trip down to the unfamiliar streets to search for kool-aid, got lost along the way and only managed to find it after searching many stores.
This might not be considered as romantic but I was really touched and felt it was very sweet.
Oh gosh, I’m sorry Yina, I seemed to have written alot! Im really sorry if I bored u out! And thanks for this opportunity for me to recall the sweet memories btw me n my bf. Sometimes as time passes, I tend to forgot such happy memories of the past. This makes me suddenly want to treat him better! Hahaha! 😛 I shall end here now. Hope u n ur bf will stay xing fu forever! u two look very sweet together!! :):)
gosh…. SO sweet of your boy, he actually forgot his motion sickness cos he was so happy!! haha, so cuuute. and it’s definitely not easy to forage unfamiliar streets by himself to look for kool-aid to try to make you feel better! thank you for the well wishes as well, and i’m glad that you’ve had the chance to recall the sweet memories between your boyfriend and you, as i did, reading all these entries!
and #entry 2…
hi babe 🙂
when i first told my boy that i wanted to write in to win the Trèsor Midnight Rose Fragrance, he said ‘huh? you really want ah. i buy for you lah..” haha, yups, that’s him. he’s always pampering me like a princess and i am not complaining! we’ve been dating for 9 months and out of this, 6 months were long-distance. like every couple, we had our own share of disagreements, but being apart only made our relationship stronger. we missed each other so much (i was flying up every month!) and i finally moved to hong kong to be with him.
the day i arrived in hong kong was the night before my birthday. boy! did he have some surprises planned up his sleeve for my 24th birthday, the first that we were celebrating together. other than a gorgeous ice cream cake, beautiful bouquet of roses, super yummy atas dinner at michelin star restaurant Whisk (i love fine dining, he doesn’t), a swarovski bracelet, and THE SWEETEST THING EVER, that money cannot buy – a hand drawn card! ♥
my boy drew tommy from rugrats on the envelope saying “happy birthday baby” – he has this shrunken pullover he wears during winter and it reminded me of rugrats. so meanie me (i think rugrats are cute! he thinks they are disfigured..) started calling him that for months. inside the card he drew yoshi the dinosaur saying “happy birthday mummy, from singapore.” – when we were holidaying in aussie, he bought me this uber cute yoshi dinosaur soft-toy. we always referred to the soft-toy as our son, toby. i know right! 2 grown ups acting like kids. haha. both characters were colored as well and i was like how! he told me he specially bought color pencils for it. a 28-year old buying color pencils just so he could draw me a birthday card? WOW. and he said he spent hours googling photos on the super mario dino so he could draw toby! DOUBLE WOW. i feel super special and loved, even just thinking about it :))
anw, i quit my job to be with him and the job hunt with this awful market situation is terrible. and with the economic downturn, my boy’s job isn’t secure too. worrying about these stuff can really make me pessimistic about everything. but whenever i feel down, looking at the card cheers me up! it also reminds me how loved i am by him and that it’s all worth it. we will pull through this tough time together. and the sweetest thing these days is definitely being hugged to sleep by my love and waking up to his smile everyday.
here’s another entry that’s just as sweet.. i hope you two make it through the tough times, and stay strong okay!! LDR are really hard 🙁 jiayou jiayou jiayou! stay positive, and give each other support! hope you’d continue to treasure each other, and be a pillar of strength through this difficult period!
♥♥♥
congratulations to the two winners! thank you everyone for sending in your entries, i read every single one and really felt very touched by all of them! thank you so much for sharing them with me, it’s really my privilege to be able to read all your love stories :’) they’re all sweet reminders for me to appreciate and treasure my own relationship as well, and to not take love for granted. promise to hold more give-aways on the blog so that you girls can try again for something else next time okay!