Ever since the last memorable visit , I've been dying to return to be wow-ed once again. Empire Cafe and Ah Teng's is separated by nothing more than a wooden tinted glass divider. Ah Teng's is by and large self service for pastries, pizzas, pies and cakes whilst Empire Cafe's a notch higher with dimsum, local favourites and tea sets.
We walked over to Ah Teng's for our choice of baked goods.
It was a toss between the cream horne and Volcano (in picture), $2.20 which in the manager's words "very delicious and popular, the last one left!" It's just a raisin-cranberry bun with icing sugar. The bread's chewy and fluffy. I liked it but still prefer the cream horne. The berries are generously sprinkled throughout the bread.
Oriental Chicken pie and hot chocolate. They've got Oriental and the normal american chicken pie up for grabs but the latter was sold out by 3pm. The oriental tastes just like the usual chicken pie, a tad too oily.
The jam bread F got, a large chewy bread with jam and almond flakes smeared all over. A normal treat which was somewhat delicious with the old school ambience and old school plates. I found it hilarious that the bread takes nearly eternity to be sliced and was struggling with the fork.
We walked over to Ah Teng's for our choice of baked goods.
It was a toss between the cream horne and Volcano (in picture), $2.20 which in the manager's words "very delicious and popular, the last one left!" It's just a raisin-cranberry bun with icing sugar. The bread's chewy and fluffy. I liked it but still prefer the cream horne. The berries are generously sprinkled throughout the bread.
Oriental Chicken pie and hot chocolate. They've got Oriental and the normal american chicken pie up for grabs but the latter was sold out by 3pm. The oriental tastes just like the usual chicken pie, a tad too oily.
The jam bread F got, a large chewy bread with jam and almond flakes smeared all over. A normal treat which was somewhat delicious with the old school ambience and old school plates. I found it hilarious that the bread takes nearly eternity to be sliced and was struggling with the fork.
Hot off the oven of Empire Cafe. Baskets of dimsum (prices from $4) ; the usual hargao and siewmai which I didn't try. The char siew cheong fun, 5 pieces, $4.80. Expensive it is, for 5 bite-size pieces. Didn't find the cheong fun worth the price tag.
The star of the restaurant, crab meat fried rice, $18. Rice fried with egg, char siew, shrimps and of course shredded crab meat. There was a seafood taste about this fried rice dish. Lacking in "wok hei" (wok flavour as the cantonese would proudly acclaim) but was delicious nonetheless. The rice was grainy, each lightly coated in egg with the generous handful of crab meat.
Throughout our 2 hour tea, people streamed into the eatery. Hardly you'd find either cafes empty. The most popular item had to be the three tier tea sets of cakes, pastries and pies.
Service is naturally good, part of the Raffles experience I say. Helpful they are in terms of refilling of drinks or searching for a box of matches to light the candle on the slice of cake. I've kind of reached a conclusion about ambience. Sometimes it's not entirely what you eat that matters but the ambience that "flavours" the food.
I'd be back, surely. The three tier tea sets are so enticing!
Ah Teng's Bakery
Empire Cafe
The star of the restaurant, crab meat fried rice, $18. Rice fried with egg, char siew, shrimps and of course shredded crab meat. There was a seafood taste about this fried rice dish. Lacking in "wok hei" (wok flavour as the cantonese would proudly acclaim) but was delicious nonetheless. The rice was grainy, each lightly coated in egg with the generous handful of crab meat.
Throughout our 2 hour tea, people streamed into the eatery. Hardly you'd find either cafes empty. The most popular item had to be the three tier tea sets of cakes, pastries and pies.
Service is naturally good, part of the Raffles experience I say. Helpful they are in terms of refilling of drinks or searching for a box of matches to light the candle on the slice of cake. I've kind of reached a conclusion about ambience. Sometimes it's not entirely what you eat that matters but the ambience that "flavours" the food.
I'd be back, surely. The three tier tea sets are so enticing!
Ah Teng's Bakery
Empire Cafe
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