Hediard @ Tudor Court

Hediard of Paris, a delicatessen of luxury fine food, opened its boutique in Singapore at Tudor Court in April 2005. It was expanded to include a café/restaurant in May 2007. Its two retail counters are at Paragon and ION Orchard.

Hediard was started by Ferdinard Hediard when he opened his first shop in Paris in 1854. As of 2007, Hediard has five integrated boutiques in Paris, 20 boutiques and more than 100 retailers in France, 20 boutiques and more than 200 retailers worldwide, including 55 outlets in Japan, seven in Seoul and three in China (Shanghai, Beijing and Canton).

There are about 1,000 items available in Hediard Singapore. These include its specialty fruits products, chocolates, biscuits, confectionery, marmalades and jams, honey, spices, tea, coffee, wine, mustard, oils, vinegars, caviar, salmon, etc.

Hediard is well-known for its fruit jellies. Out of its 14 flavours, I personally prefer the citrus and sour range. The texture is just nice – it is not too hard or soft and they don’t stick to your teeth. I think only Canele’s lycee jelly which was sold during Chinese New Year is close enough. Hediard fruit jellies cost $14.90 per 100 gm and you get about 5 pieces.


Its chocolates are smooth and creamy. For its chocolates with fruit fillings, it seems they just coat their fruit jellies with chocolate, which give a different, though not entirely bad, mouth feel than those offered by other chocolatiers. Priced at $23 per 100 gm, which yields about 10 pieces, it is comparable to other chocolatiers.


As I have mentioned many times, it is always cheaper to buy per weight/piece. It is no different at Hediard. Prices can be steep, which is unavoidable, if you are buying in a box as a gift. For instance, a 330 gm gift box of assorted chocolates costs $89.90. Buying by weight, 330 gm should cost you $75.90. Thus you are paying $14 just for the traditional red box.

Do note that the café/restaurant is opened from 9 am, for breakfast, but closes very early at 8 pm. You can see the menu here.

Service at Hediard has always been very good and professional and the staff are very accommodating, though sometimes they can be very busy, which is understandable.

Empire State Restaurant @ Iluma – An Update

Had lunch there on Wednesday, 30 Sep 09 at 12.45 pm.

There were more people dinning there compared to two moths’ ago when I was last there. (Please read my previous post on this Restaurant here.)

I had the Baked Salmon again and it was just as good as before. But the portion of salmon and mashed potato were about 10% less than previously. However this time round they throw in a free soup and I had the Mushroom Soup which was thick and filled with plenty of mushroom, which I enjoyed.

As the portion was quite large previously, reducing the portion and substituting it with a free soup is an excellent move, which will benefit both the diner and the restaurant.

Ice3 Café @ Upper Thomson Road

Was at the Ice Cube Cafe outlet at Upper Thomson Road on Sunday, 27 Sep 09 at around 4 pm with my mum, my cousin, my cousin’s husband, and their two children.

Besides us, there was a party of five persons there but left as we placed our oder. There was only two staff present though we could tell from the staff cards that they have more than ten staff. Apparently most people come late in the night since the Café is opened till 1 am to 2 am.

A picture of the interior of the Cafe.
For ice cream we had Chocolate Maximum (3 scopes of Mocha and Chocolate flavours - $12.90) and Very Berry Strawberry ($9.90) – both are good.

We also ordered Alcoholics Anonymous (which is a rum raisin ice cream on an Oreo crust). We could tell by the taste that the raisins were well soaked in rum. It was good too.

For finger food, we had the Seafood Platter (softshell crab, calamari rings, fish bites and prawn dippers served with tartar sauce - $14.90) and Cheesy Fries (crispy fries drenched in melted nacho cheese - $6.50).

The children had the Mango and Chocolate Smoothies ($5.50 each), which they seemed to enjoy.

A sign, which could be debatable, outside the Cafe.
Our order did take a long time to be served but the staff were very friendly and accommodating. They allowed the children to see how they prepare the smoothies and finger food. The children also kind of played hide and seek with the staff.

Initially we had wanted Onion Rings too but didn’t order that after agreeing to the staff recommendation of the Seafood Platter. However, the staff was kind enough to throw in three Onion Rings for the children.

Basically it was a good experience. A nice place to go if you like your mud pies and ice cream laced with alcoholics or if you happen to be around that area.

For my experience with their online order, please read previous post here.

Empire State Restaurant @ Iluma

Went to Iluma on Tuesday, 21 Jul 09, at around 12.45 pm. Surprisingly it was not packed at all considering that it was lunch hour. Perhaps the building is new, having just opened about four months ago and not fully-tenanted yet. Perhaps the building is so ultra-modern and high-tech looking that people think it is an expensive shopping mall. I reckon there will be more human traffic towards the end of the year when the complex is more “developed” and be the entertainment centre it is intended to be.

Decided to eat at the Empire State Restaurant which is on the 4th floor. I was the third customer. Subsequently, eleven others came in four different groups. The restaurant is quite large. The staff are quite young and all of them wore t-shirts with the face of an ape in front and different one or two-liners on the back, such as “I didn’t trained so hard to be a vegetarian.”

The Restaurant has quite an extensive menu. There were twelve different groups of food, drinks and desserts. Just for pasta, there were eleven choices. You will need some 10 to 15 minutes to finish reading the entire menu.

As I wanted something light, I ordered the Baked Salmon, shown here.


This picture, which was hurriedly taken, doesn’t do justice to the food. I meant the amount of food. I didn’t expect the portion to be as large as what you usually will get in US. There was another piece of salmon about half the size of the front one you see, which was lying on top of a bed of mashed potatoes. The serving of mashed potatoes was easily equaled to 1.5 large KFC mashed potatoes. The salmon, mashed potatoes and greens were not salty and blended well, just nice for my taste. At $16.90 it was worth it.

I will definitely go back there again, if not sooner, then at the end of September.

(I did go back, read my update here.)

Lunch at Old Hong Kong Kitchen, Square 2

Had lunch at Old Hong Kong Kitchen (Square 2 #02-76/91) with my mum on Tuesday, 5 May. As in my past four visits, I ordered the Pan Fried Carrot Cake with Bean Sprout in XO Sauce ($5). I think I can just eat this by itself though it’s a bit spicy for me (I have the lowest spicy tolerance quotient amongst people who know me). My mum liked it too.

Since this was supposed to be a light lunch as we were going to have dim sum hi-tea later in the afternoon, I ordered the Sliced Chicken with Mushroom Congee ($6.20). The Congee, as expected of Cantonese congee, was smooth and velvety with each rice grain broken. Some say one of the secrets is to add fu chuk (dried bean curd slice). The chicken was not sliced, as in being shredded, but in pieces, which complemented the smoothness of the Congee. Came with just three tiny but very crispy pieces of yu tiao (Chinese dough stick). A side dish, in a small bowl, of crisply fried fish skin was provided too. Enjoyed this Congee as it was not only a nice change from the usual century egg congee with pork, it was actually good. Had they given me more yu tiao, perhaps as another side dish, it would have been excellent.

My mum had the Fresh Shrimp Wonton Noodle ($6.80) which I thought was average.

Ended the lunch with a refreshing iced cool Lime Honey Jasmine ($3.80).

Sorry, no pictures - still not used to taking pictures of food prior to eating them! However, here is a picture of one of the restaurant's wall features.