Following the success of the Rasapura Masters at Marina Bay Sands, Koufu Pte Ltd, one of Singapore's most established food and beverage operators, officially opened The Gallerie on the 8th of September at Marina Square. The addition of The Gallerie will bring Koufu's count of establishments in the Marina Bay waterfront area up to three - Rasapura Masters, Dining Gallery and The Gallerie.
This new age food court will redefine your concept of a food court in Singapore. The Gallerie boast of a total floor area of est. 36,00 sq feet with a seating capacity of est. 889 people, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Gallerie has, 3 mini restaurants, 16 Boutique food stalls, 7 island stalls and 4 kiosks, a total of 29 tenents, guaranteeing a gastronomical adventure.
I was honored to be invited to the opening of The Gallerie. It may not mean much to others, or seem interesting and exciting to others (yes I was very excited!), but it sure felt like Gustatory Explorer reached a certain milestone in food blogging, yes, I'm referring to invites. I will continue to put in the conscientious effort to churn out good posts, regardless or invites or not, because invites are just a bonus yea.(:
Patrons at The Gallerie would also be able to enjoy a parnomic view of the waterfront. An absolutely beautiful view, I would suppose, in the night when the waterfront is lit up. Especially during major events including the F1 Grand Prix. F1 Power Boat Race, National Day Parade, fireworks displays and many others. Yes, patrons at The Gallerie would be able to see all these on the respective event dates! Very cool indeed.
At the very beginning of event, before the official opening, there were numerous waitresses walking around serving guests with some items from the bakery. I asked this lady which was the nicest out of all, she kindly pointed to -and recommended- the green tea swiss roll, on the left side of the tray. It was indeed quite nice, with a mild green tea scent released in your mouth with every bite.
Oh and I met 2 more food bloggers on this trip! Very glad I did. They are Daniel of
Daniel's Food Diary and Kai Yi of
Lazy Foodies. Kai Yi was practically my food buddy during this event - we went to scour around for good food, taking turns to photograph our food and eat till we almost burst. Haha.
As the Mooncake Festival was just around the corner...
We were treated to Koufu's mooncakes too! The lotus paste mooncake was tasty, with the lotus paste not being overly thick nor sweet.
The Thunder Tea Rice was first dish I tasted in the food court that night. I was intrigued and it being something I haven't try, my curiosity was piqued. I bought the Thunder Tea set meal ($7) which comes with Hakka Tofu and a Basil Omelette. For the main dish, customers have a choice of white rice, brown rice or a house-made special brown rice vermicelli, which is then topped with ikan billis, longs beans, cabbage, pork floss, cubes of tau pok, kang kong and a spoonful of peanuts. The thunder tea is served separately in another bowl.
The thunder tea rice is a hakka speciality which boasts of being very simple and healthy. First timers are recommended to try some of the tea before deciding how much to add to their main dish and mixing everything together. The tea is made from a blend of tea, basil and mint.
It's an acquired taste I would say, really. The blend of basil and mint was too strong for me. I personally ain't too used to the taste of mint which was very prominent in the tea, thus I would conclude that thunder tea rice isn't for me but it definitely wasn't bad either.
Custard Buns a.k.a Liu Sha Bao are available at the dim sum section in this food court. 'What? Really?' Yes they are, at the price of 3 for $3.60, at the dim sum section in The Gallerie.
Kai Yi spotted this, and being a lover of it, it was longer before we had a chance to taste one. I was excited to try after reading various description of how good a custard bun can get when its custard filling is runny, oozes out and according to Kai Yi, the best one she have had is from Victor's Kitchen at Sunshine Plaza and Taste Paradise. Where's your favourite custard bun from?
The Custard Bun brought me to heaven momentarily. I might not have tasted the best yet nor was the custard filling at its runniest but I was sold. One bite of it and the warm custard filling trickling down my throat. I was sold. It was so good. I love the fluffiness of the bun and the sweet-savouriness of the custard.
The steamed scallop topped shrimp dumplings (3 for $3.80) from the same dim sum stall was an entirely different story though. I feel that it's too expensive to pay $3.80 for 3 small shrimp dumplings which you could barely taste the scallops and there was some funny glutinous filling in the dumpling which tasted like starch. I would not recommend trying this.
Kai Yi and I tried the popiah at the food court as well. We were surprised to find the popiah stall selling a variety of popiah and one of them was salmon. The salmon filling were too little in my opinion and the popiah was too plain. I could only get a hint of the salmon inside the popiah, which resembles mayo tuna. Interesting concept, but definitely more room for improvement.
Wee Nam Kee Chicken Rice opened their first outlet here in Marina Square after starting off as a chicken rice speciality shop and eventually evolving into a family restaurant along Thomson Road. This mini restaurant sells not just the Wee Nam Kee chicken rice but also their various Nanyang inspired dishes or simply their zi char dishes too.
Pao Xiang, the largest and most talked about bah kut teh restaurant chain in Kuala Lumpur, sets up its second outlet here at The Gallerie following its first outlet at NEX. Pao Xiang offers 18 different types of bak kut teh so for bak kut teh lovers, you can come here or NEX to try them if you're itnerested!
The Noodee Box by Lam's is a novelty thought up by Vicent, Mr Yap's son. Mr Yap, founder of Lam's Noodle House, who came up with the famous 'Lam's Abalone Noodle', has passed the baton on to his son after 40 years of passion for food and innovating unique flavours.
Noodles in a box originated from the West where they have chinese takeouts in boxes like these(above). Vincent, who just returned from Australia after graduating with a degree in psychology, decided to adapt this idea and try it out in Singapore.
The menu at the Noodee Box by Lam's isn't very complicated or fanciful with 4 vareity of noodles, a number of sides, one type of soup and a drink. 'That Green Drink' as it is named, it made by blending vegetable with their secret ingredients. It's a drink that will get your appetite going with it's distinct sweetness from the sour plum extract they use. Opps, did I just reveal one of their secret ingredients. Haha.
Vincent is a very friendly and nice guy. Kai Yi and I got a chance to Do-It-Ourselves a box of char siew noodles while Vincent patiently guided us along and explained to us the different steps. We tried the duck and char siew noodles but I'll not be posting them as the shots were too ugly to justify the noodles. The slices of duck were delicious and in each box of noodles, you'll get the ramen-kind of egg, where the egg yolk inside the hard boiled egg is still soft, thumbs up for this! The char siew is not the roasted kind that we're used to, it's pan seared instead but the pork was too gamey.
Vincent was very hospitable to treat us to an otah carrot cake too even though he knew we couldn't finish it but he just wanted us to have a taste of it. The carrot cake was pan fried to a crisp but I didn't get to really taste the otah inside. I liked the carrot cake on its own though, crispy and fragrant after being pan fried with margarine.
Tofu Mania is the third and last mini restaurant at The Gallerie. It is a Korean restaurant in New Zealand which ventured into Singapore, serving up healthy offering of popular Korean fares. The Bibimbab, which is extremely popular in Korea, was nothing special to shout about here.
They offer Korean Fried Rice here at this restaurant too. Kim chi, rice and slices of pork were fried together with kim chi sauce. The kim chi was very sour if I'm not mistaken.
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| Mixed Berry, Spicy Cinnamon, Grape (left to right) |
Something that I've tried at Tofu Mania and would love to share with everyone is the different Korean beverages being offered there. I would definitely bring home these cans if I were to try them again. There's something about cute, small cans with beautiful designs that make them adorable and collectable.
The manager at the outlet introduced us to the different drinks. The Mixed Berry, as he said, was a sort of energy drink in Korea. Tasted like mixed berry fruit juice, sweet and sourish. The Spicy Cinnamon sounded a little daunting but it was fine, a little queer because it taste like the cinnamon topping on top of Auntie Anne's cinnamon pretzel in liquid form. The Grape drink tasted fine, just like the grape itself with halves of the grapes found in the can. So do shake before opening unless it's a soft drink!
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| Sweet Rice, Crushed Pear, Sour Plum (left to right) |
That wasn't all. There are three more! The Sweet Rice beverage was, I heard, a very traditonal and popular beverage in Korea. It tasted like diluted horlicks or ovaltine. The Crushed Pear tasted like the pear itself, refreshing and nice, with pear bits in it. The sour plum tasted like its sour plum fruit too. It was a very nice experience tasting all the 6 different Korean beverages.
'Thank You!'
I had a very pleasant time at the opening of the Gallerie, tasting different foods and drinks. Especially meeting Kai Yi, who was friendly and a great foodie indeed. The Gallerie has redefined my idea of a food court, has it for you too? Have you been to The Gallerie and tried any of its foods? Please leave a comment in the comment box below, thank you.
Special thanks to Koufu for the invite.
#04-101/102, Marina Square, 6 Raffles Boulevard
Tel: 63362958
Opening Hours: 11am-9pm (Daily)
