According to the Productivity Benchmarking Report (Food Services) of Singapore Productivity Centre, between 26% and 30% of food businesses shut down each year. The Tiramisu Hero @ Tyrwhitt Road is a small whimsical cafe that opened in 2013 and it is not just surviving but thriving. It must be doing something right.
A new train operator has set up shop in Singapore, but SMRT and SBS Transit are not getting a new competitor. Japanese train operator The East Japan Railway Company (JR East) has opened a Japan-bound tourism theme cafe in Tanjong Pagar Centre. At Japan Rail Cafe, you can buy Japan rail tickets, get tour information as well as enjoy cafe food based on various F&B recipes developed by JR East Food Business, which has more than 50 brands of F&B outlets in Tokyo.
While we were asleep, a new skyscraper has sprouted up in Tanjong Pagar. It is known as Tanjong Pagar Centre, now the tallest building in Singapore. Only 64 storeys tall. It contains a hotel, some office and residential areas as well as six levels of retail in this building. Hattendo Cafe Singapore 八天堂 is one of the tenants in this new retail space.
Tong Heng is a Chinese pastry shop that sells a whole range of delicacies especially Chinese cakes and pastries for special occasions, including the traditional New Year cake (“Nian-Gao” 年糕), mooncakes (“Yue-Bing” 月饼), birthday longevity buns (“Shou-Tao” 寿桃) and the customary wedding cakes (“Jie-Hun-Li-Bing” 结婚礼饼). However, it is perhaps best known for the Tong Heng Egg Tart.
Ice Lab Cafe is an impressive Korean cafe along Orchard Road that has a wide range of Korean shaved ice dessert, bingsu on its menu. It is a large cafe with a wide Orchard Road frontage. It has probably been opened for more than a year but we have not had a chance to try it. I think it is probably because it lies on a part of Orchard Road that we seldom walk past. Orchard Shopping Centre is a building just next to Somerset 313 but I don’t remember ever stepping foot in it until our visit to Ice Lab. If my grey cells are not wrong (and they often are), I believe the place used to be occupied by a store known as Mohan’s Department Store.
Janice Wong has a new look – not Janice Wong the chef but Janice Wong the restaurant. Singapore’s “dessert queen”, Janice Wong, still looked her youthful charming self. Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant at the National Museum has been given a make-over. The menu has also been refreshed. The new look and the updated menu have made Janice Wong Singapore Restaurant more attractive.
