Nook DIY Pancake House @ Bukit Timah

Location: Bukit Timah, 21 Lorong Kilat,#01-03 S’pore 598123
Opening Hours : 
Monday – Friday, 12pm – 10pm
Saturday, 10am – 10pm
Sunday, 10am – 10pm
Phone : 6466 1811

Last week my friends and I went to the Nook's Pancake House for dinner. The place is a little hard to find because it was late at night (so it was really dark) plus it was located at some hidden corner of the street. Nook's pancake serves pancakes and other dishes like soups, salads and all day breakfast set.

Creamy mushroom soup - $8.90

This does not taste like campbell mushroom soup at all. It ihas a thicker consistency with mushroom bits in it. I don't know why this reminds me so much of thick coconutty curry chicken gravy. The first few mouthful was really great but it gets a little cloying towards the end.

Please do click to enlarge. Check out Nook's pancake menu on http://nook.sg/ I don't know why they don't put the prices on the website. I always quote prices of the food I ate on my website because I prefer the certainty of knowing the pricing and knowing what to expect so I thought other people might feel the same.

Some free flow chocolate and maple syrup for our pancakes!

Nook ran out of nutella so the leftover spread was actually on the house. We choose cheddar cheese and oreo chunks for our toppings and gourmet chicken sausages and hashbrown as savoury fixings.

Original and red velvet pancake mixture. These bottles remind me of the glass deco art I used to do in school. Strangely, I miss the idea of wearing a uniform and spending time in school doing nothing in particular with my friends.

The following are some ugly pancakes I did:

Ugly pancake #1 with chocolate syrup.

Normal pancake with cheese sandwiched in it and some leftover syrup on the plate.

I tried to make some mohawk evil creature.

As expected it looked ugly but it taste so good with maple syrup.

Random crazy swirly bear.

Pancakes are just pancakes to me. Soft and fluffy and they don't go wrong most of the time.

More pancakes.

This is Patrick's back view decorated with some leftover parsley.

Breakfast bully - $18

The set consists of garden salad, ham, sausages, bacon, bread, mushrooms, baked beans and eggs. I may be wrong but I think these are chipotle sausages. I love the mushrooms and garden salad the most. Big portion breakfast.


To sum everything up I think Nook's pancake house has a good concept.

Pancakes are cheap and easy to make with instant food available almost in every mart or supermarket. It is the idea of making of "do it yourself" pancakes they are selling. 10 bucks for a bottle of pancake mix is a little expensive for me but it I think they probably can justify it with the rent and decorations. The other dishes on the menu are pretty good as well and in my opinion more value for money.

Nonetheless, I still enjoyed myself decorating and eating my own pancakes. It is a good place for parents to bring kids to and have a good time. While eating there, the family with young kids were so excited.

Ramen Play @ JEM (Jurong East)

Another shopping mall opens in Jurong East.

I'm really glad that I don't have to travel to Orchard to shop now since the brands I love are now in JEM. I visited Ramen Play with a couple of my friends.

Crispy Dango $3.60 for 3

It is served piping hot and I feel like I'm eating a chicken meatball takoyaki. The chicken is juicy and the takoyaki sauce, mayonnaise and nori made it taste even better.

Cha Shu Uobushi Tonkotsu Ramen - $12.80

Ramen is cooked really well and I love the sweet Tonkotsu (pork) soup base. The Cha Shu has got thick rings of fat. Semi liquid tamago (egg) is heavely. Everything is good except the bamboo shoot. There was an awful bamboo smell. I can't really describe it but it stinks. The bowl is perfect without them.

Lotte Korean Mart - Tanjong Pagar

A trip to the Lotte Korean Mart after work! Just a few minutes walk from my workplace

Location: 67A Tanjong Pagar Road 088488

It is a 5 minutes walk from the Tanjong Pagar Station, Exit A. Located along somewhere in middle section of the long stretch of shophouses. If you spot the Orchid Hotel, just walk along it.

Haneul Bori - $1.50 (Barley Tea)

I was expecting this to be sweet and similar to our barley drink, of a different shade but I was so wrong. This is sugarless.  For those who had tasted Oolong Tea without sugar, it is kinda similar to it. There is a wheaty barley taste that lingers in the mouth and tasted more pleasant each mouthful.

Any TTMIK listeners out there? I started learning Korean a few months ago with the podcasts from TalkToMeInKorean (TTMIK)

Coincidentally, I bought the tea that Kyeon-Eun Shi was talking about in the video. (Watch around 0:40s onwards.) This video is in full Korean but with translated annotations.

I really appreciate the free podcasts that they provide. Thanks TTMIK!

Milkis - $1


This looks kinda cute. I think there is a lot of unexpected taste when it comes to Korean beverages, and partially due to the fact that I can't read Korean labels.

This is a actually a strawberry yogurt drink but with fizz. Imagine drinking strawberry yogurt drink (similar to the Marigold Strawberry Yogurt drink) but with carbon dioxide from a soft drink fizzing in your mouth. It's like drinking sprite and yogurt drink at the same time. Pretty cool.


It gets a little too quiet here if not for the TV. Some Korean snacks, drinks, instant noodles, frozen food can be found but there were not much variety compared to larger Korean marts in Singapore. There is a nice Korean guy working in the mart though.

Sushi @ Fairprice Xtra (Jurong Point)

Some sushi for dinner. - $9 It was around 7 pm or so on a Saturday night and the sushi sets were on discount.

It was the first time I spotted scallops in the sushi section in Fairprice. I told myself I must get this. The best scallops I had in Japan were gigantic.

I think the salmon and scallop are alright. It was a little too soft and lacks the springy raw seafood texture. Not that great but not too bad either. The sushi had been there for quite a number of hours I presumed. For a cheaper price, you can expect a lower quality.

Still delicious on an empty stomach.

Itacho Sushi & Jika Udon @ Jcube

Itacho Sushi & Jika Udon is located on level 2 of Jcube. My friend and I queued for around 45mins before we entered the restaurant. While waiting, we came up with reasons why the queue was so long:

1) The food is really delicious
2) The food is really cheap
3) The shopfront is small
4) Service is slow

Moving on to the food.

Roasted salmon roll $3.80 (Itacho Sushi menu)

I think that it tasted ordinary and it is way overpriced. 4 large fish roes with a slice of torched salmon, some rice with asparagus in the middle of it.

Steam egg with crab $4.20 (Itacho Sushi menu)

I really love this one. Soft steamed egg with a layer of crab on top of it. It feels like I am eating shark fin soup and Chawanmushi at the same time. In the middle of the steam egg was a crab stick. It is a little pricey but it is pretty worth it.

Passionfruit green tea $2.50 (Jika Udon menu)

Moving on to the Jika Udon Menu.  The passionfruit green tea is good. Not too sour so you can taste the passionfruit and green tea as well. The pearls are super soft and chewy.

Udon with cod fish roes (Cold) - $10.50  (Jika Udon menu)

I was feeling adventuorous so I decided to try something different on the menu. To my horror, it is the complete opposite to how it looks. The worst udon I have ever eaten in my life. The noodles were half cooked and it is so tough. The cod fish roe were mixed with so much mayonnaise and it is cloying. I feel that it was too much for me to take after 2 mouthful. Times like this made me feel like I should stick to my comfort zone.

To sum it up, I think there are certainly nice food from the menu. I suggest you do a little bit of research before going there to eat so that you will not be as disappointed as I did.

Regarding the reasons why I think the queue was long, it has to be 2 and 4. The cashier was moving at a snail pace. There were only 2 person in front of us but we waited for 5 minutes to pay up.

2D1N Soju Bang @ Tanjong Pagar

My second visit to 2 days 1 night (Soju Bang) with some course mates. The store is located along the shophouses. Do come an hour early to reserve a slot. The queues gets crazy around 7pm or so.

It costs $25.89 per pax for the buffet, inclusive of GST and service charge. This is a great place for carnivores like myself - All-you-can-eat-meat varieties.

Awesome meat. We started cooking before the rest arrived. I love the marinated chicken, sausages and pork belly the most. Sweet, tender and juicy chicken.

More meat.

If you notice, at the side of the pan, there are some oil bubbling. The bbq grill pan is actually slanted so that the excess oil will drip into a bowl that is placed just below the mouth of the pan. The amount of oil that didn't end up in our stomach is amazing. (The bowl was 3/4 filled with oil by the time we finished eating.)

Some of the meat variety

More pork belly and chicken

More pork belly and beef bulgogi. A plate of kimchi.

Some fresh lettuce to make some lettuce wrap the pork and beef.

My favourite banchan (side dish) - Japchae. Basically it is a kind of sweet potato vermicelli mixed with vegetables and sesame oil. I don't know why but I really love the taste of sweet, sesame oil goodness. Have some to go with the meat, it is delicious.

Minimal pasta salad and Tteokbokki for tasting. They tasted really awesome but eating starch is not advisable in a buffet as they fill up your stomach. I prefer to leave some space for my meat.

They only offer lime juice on that night. Not too sweet or sour.

I'll definitely recommend huge appetite meat eaters here. Nice place for gathering. The staff were really very friendly and come round every 15 minutes or so to change the aluminium foil so you don't have to worry about grilling your meat on burnt foil.

The only downside (that I can think of is), like most bbq, your hair and shirt smelled so bad afterwards.

Cadbury Marvellous Creations

I finally bought the new Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate. - Love their new packaging. Colorful candies just makes you wanna eat them. I have always wanted the combination of candy and chocolate in a bar. Well done Cadbury.

Jelly Popping Candy & Beanies / Jelly & Crunchie Bits flavor. $1.80 each.

I'll start with Jelly & Crunchie Bits flavor. Visible jelly on the top of the chocolate bar.

Crunchie bits at the bottom. I love Crunchie! Those crunchy honeycomb bits are my favorite.

Sweet smooth rich milk chocolate with chewy jelly beans.

The chocolate is relatively sweeter than the jellies. There are 7 of these jellies in my bar (Yeah I counted) and it gets a little annoying when it get stuck on my teeth. Better to eat this bar at home so that you can get it off your teeth without worrying about anyone staring at you. Contrasting texture of hard and chewy in a bar.

Jelly Popping Candy I didn't freeze this one (Visible teeth mark!) Oh well, just wanted to let you guys see what is in it. The blue and red stuff in there are popping candy which makes a sound very similar to a crackling fire log in your mouth. I still remember getting a shock of my life eating the candy for the first time as a kid.

Chocolate in a chocolate. Inception. These are milk chocolate in candy shells, similar to smarties and m&m chocolate. There is only one pathetic jelly bean in this bar. Not very convince by the percentage of the content printed on the wrapper. To describe the chocolate in a sentence: Soft and smooth outside crunching and noisy within.


If you ask me, I prefer the  Jelly & Crunchie Bits because there are more jellies (I still like them even though they get on the teeth) and Crunchie is my all time favorite.

To conclude, I think it is a very fun candy chocolate to snack on.

Tze Char @ Foodclique

Having some Tze Char with a group of friends at Jurong East Foodclique. I guess it is like a sort of tradition to try Tze Char at least once in your lifetime in Singapore. Having 7-8 dishes to go with your meal is like a banquet.

The dishes are of three sizes, small, medium and big and varies between $10-35 for each dish.

Salad prawn

I hate peeling prawns because I am lazy that way so this one is pretty awesome. Easy to eat with no shells. It is actually a lot of mayonnaise with fried prawns. The prawns are a little overcook though. Cherry tomatoes makes it taste less oily.

Prawn paste fried chicken - 虾酱鸡

It looks like an ordinary fried chicken but it actually very delicious in my opinion. Crispy skin with super juicy chicken it in. (seriously juicy) Very smooth, tender and well marinated.

Oyster egg omelette. This one is not like those oyster omelette I usually eat. There is no flour to make the sticky layer with egg (which is what I love about oyster omelette) However, there are a lot of big and fresh oysters hidden in it. Delicious but I think it will definitely taste better with a crispy layer of egg and soft chewy layer of flour.

Sambal Fried Kang Kong

This is the usual must eat in a Tze Char store. I love sambal kang kong! Really goes well with rice and I really love the smoked taste.

Venison meat

The sauce and it really goes well with the rice. I had tasted deer's meat before and for those who haven't tried it, the texture of the meat is in between chicken and pork. It is tender and slightly springy.

Fried tofu (I forgot the actual name of the dish)

This one doesn't taste like tofu. It tasted more like fish cake with some vegetable flakes in it. Nugget size tofu dipped in mayonnaise. I like fish cake so this one is pretty good.

Coffee ribs

It is the first time I am eating coffee ribs. It feels like I am eating dessert and main course at the same time. The meat is springy, coated with a sweet layer of coffee. It is kinda like drinking coffee with the sweet caffeine smell in my mouth.

It is a treat by my friends so I don't really know the exact price for each dish. The total was for $128.40 for 7 dishes and a medium size soup. There is 7 of us so it cost less than $19 per person.

I think this Tze Char is pretty good.