[Personal] Celebrating Jessie's Birthday at DongQu 東區 Bar and Restaurant

 It's the Lucky 7's first meet-up for 2025 and it's a double celebration - Jessie's birthday and an early Chinese New Year gathering. For the venue, I searched on TikTok and IG, prioritizing a place that could accommodate a large group, young kids, and somewhere we hadn't tried before. After shortlisting a few options, we all agreed on DongQu Bar and Restaurant, a Taiwanese bar and restaurant located at Telok Ayer. I think we were quite excited to check out the cool cocktails featured and shared in the videos.  

It was raining heavily and the venue was still quite empty since we arrived early. We followed the staff to level 2 via the lift and when the lift door opened, we were greeted by numerous vintage television sets, one of which displayed footage of a live CCTV in operation. Each floor has a different unique theme, and the one on this floor where we would be seated, was designed in a Hong Kong 80s retro style.

Since we all arrived early, we had the chance to explore the various floors. On level 3, we discovered the Chill Lounge, a dreamy cloud space that is filled with a warm and soothing ambience.

Level 4 is the VIP area, boasting a European Victorian setting which is perfect for intimate private gatherings. I didn't explore level 1 as it was the bar area and was already quite packed by the time we finished touring the other levels.

We received a complimentary Yu Sheng to kick-start the dinner. It was my first Lo Hei of the year! Together, we tossed to a year filled with good health, happiness and prosperity! 

We ordered a variety of dishes for sharing, including Taiwan Skewers, Claypot River Prawn Vermicelli, Oysters, Wagyu Steak and a Braised Pork Rice for my girl. The food was good, but one plate of the skewers were served cold, so they replaced it with a new plate for us.

Flipping through the cocktails menu. 

Now it was time for some cocktails! I loved how creative and fancy their cocktails were, right down to the names. Kelvin had the 'Boss's Tears' (老板的眼泪  )。

Our birthday girl ordered the 'Far Away' (千里之外), which had a very pretty presentation, complete with a dramatic smoky effect.

Another surprise awaited our birthday girl. When I arrived early, I informed the staff about the birthday celebration that we will be having,  they took note of who the birthday girl was and served the two complimentary birthday shots for the lovely couple.  

The celebration turned out wonderfully and I felt grateful for the great food and companionship. I guess I will come back again to this place.  

📍DongQu 東區

176 Telok Ayer St 

Singapore 068624

XOXO

[CNY] Reunion Dinner at Hey Kee HK Seafood at Guillemard Road

We visited Hey Kee HK Seafood at Guillemard Road for our Chinese New Year reunion dinner. This restaurant which opened in January this year mimics the Hong Kong style concept of Da Pai Dong (大牌档).

We got there early and took a few photos at the various photo spots outside. 

Checking out the live fishes, lobsters and crabs. Some of the fishes are so unique that I've never even seen before.

We love the atmosphere here, the bright jade green tables and red chairs with the neon signage and posters of famous celebrities, this place really transported us to Hong Kong. 

There's a little barber shop at the corner that was set up just for photo purposes although the appliances there are real. 

The menu is in the form of a newsletter.

We ordered this big pitcher of Homemade Sugar Cane Chestnut Drink ($8.80), where you can still make out the mini sugar canes, water chestnuts, carrots and imperatae. This is a traditional Chinese drink that cools the body and reduce heatiness. The drink's natural sweetness makes it perfect. 

We began the feasting with this Prosperity Abalone Yusheng ($68) which was my first Lo-Hei for 2024. In this Dragon year, let's all Huat together! 

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pineapple ($22.80), good thing we ordered this dish in Large portion. It was yummy. 

Fried Chicken Wings with Garlic ($12.80) was nice too but the garlic was a little bit spicy and my girl was very sensitive to spicy so she did not eat more. We had wanted to order their famous Temple Street Crispy Roast Chicken but was told that it was sold out for the day. 

Pan Fried Beef Tenderloin Cubes with Potatoes ($36.80) was nice too, cooked with black pepper, the beef cube is tender well marinated. Even for a non-beef lover like me, I can accept it. 

Sizzling Kangkong with Shrimp Sauce in Claypot ($15.80), this dish is quite average for me. Probably because I prefer Kangkong in Sambal chilli. 

Finally the 1.2KG Red Grouper in soy sauce ($144). The most expansive dish of the whole meal must be the highlight right. Feeling like eating at a wedding banquet now. Fish is definitely fresh and good however, I felt that the meat is still slightly rough. 

Overall, I enjoyed this wonderful dinner with my group of friends, we now form the Lucky 7 group and we had this dinner on the 7th Feb at 7.30pm, so it's triple 7 for us. Many thanks to Jessie for planning and organizing this gathering. The food was on the higher end and the total bill was $380+ including GST and excluding service charge. 

 

Hey Kee HongKong Seafood

102 Guillemard Road

#01-01

Singapore 399719

XOXO

[Personal] Pikachu Weekend in Singapore : Pikachu Night Show at The Promontory @ Marina Bay

 Pikachu Weekend in Singapore took place for one weekend only from 18 November to 20 November, and I knew I just had to catch the Pikachu Night Show after seeing some tik tok videos of Pikachu dancing. As I'm already meeting my friends Jessie and Meryl in the morning at Jewel, I sent this event to them hoping that they would want to go too and fortunately, both of them agreed to go together! 

Photo Source from Official Website here

After our first event at Andersen's Denmark of Singapore ended, it's almost lunch time and Meryl suggested eating at PizzaMaru which I think is a great choice since we've got two kids with us. Pizza and fries will never go wrong. 

Little KaeGirl slowing warming up to us and she was all smiley and sweet. It's great that she enjoyed the meal and able to eat independently. We ordered the Honey fries, Seoul Bay from the Premium Pizza category and Pepperoni from the Regular pizza category. Love the sweet and savoury combination. So yummy. Fun Fact found on Google: Pizzamaru's dough is packed with nutrients containing green tea and chlorella and 12 healthy grains such as rye, black rice, barley and oats.

We went to Marina Square next after dropping off KaeGirl and was just in time to meet Santa Clause who's ready for photo taking and Rena got one Chocolate from him. We also took some photos of the Pop Mart exhibition at the atrium.

We were still very early so we decided to kill some time chilling at our favourite Starbucks. Get to know the babyccino tips and got it for my girl who seems to enjoy it lots and finished the whole cup. It is a cup of frothy milk with a dash of chocolate sauce. We asked the barista to add lots of chocolate sauce so when mixed, it actually taste like chocolate milk. Not really sure what is the exact T&C, but we got it as a complimentary at the Suntec outlet, we've also ordered 3 other beverages though. 

The Pikachu Weekend in Singapore was a special event following the launch of Pokémon Air Adventures, a Pokémon theme flight experience collaborated between The Pokémon Company and Scoot. It's a whole day event where during the day time, Pokémon lovers could head to Gardens by the Bay as there's a Pokémon Go Safari Zone where players can encounter Flying Pikachu, Lapras and even Maractus, which is a rare Pokémon usually only found in certain regions. There's also lots of Pokegenic attractions around Gardens by the Bay. We only went to the Pikachu Night Show held at the Promontory @ Marine Bay. 

We've got our cute Pokémon's sunvisor!

Some cute photo-taking spots.

Jessie and I queued to enter the pop-up store, but we were disappointed to know that the two limited edition Plush Pikachu Pokemon Air Adventures Singapore Version (S$27) and Bag Charm Pikachu Afro Hair Singapore Version (S$23) were all sold out even before we enter. Both of us were aiming for the bag charm! 

Meryl helped us to chop seats for the night show and we got the first row seats! 

The dancers and Pikachu put up a dazzling performance! It was a nice music, dance and light show to watch. Glad that we managed to catch this at the last day.

Lastly, thankful to have friends whom I felt most comfortable with going to events together like this. Thanks for always keeping my girl occupied and entertaining her with the quizzes as well. 

XOXO