What’s that you say?

A fun Cake Pop making session for the kids?

An epic multi-course Christmas set meal, from GRUB’s limited edition Christmas 2013 menu?

A fabulous ‘ol time with the kids running in the park and chilling with coffees and icy cold beers?

Yes. Yes. And yes!

Us mummies and our kids donned our aprons, cracked open a couple of cold beers (only one beer each okay, we don’t promote drinking on the (mummy) job here at Brunch With My Baby!), and rolled up our sleeves for a fun afternoon with the kids at GRUB.

What a blast we had!

The Cake Pop making session captured the kids’ full attention. And ours too. It was actually a very simple process, but I wouldn’t do it at home because it’s just too much prep work and fiddly. Much better to do it in an organized environment like at GRUB!

First we rolled the cake into balls, then chilled them in the fridge.

Then, we stuck a straw into each one and dipped them into liquid white chocolate.

Finally, we decorated them with pretty sprinkles!

SO PRETTY, RIGHT????

It wasn’t much effort, and you don’t need to be a creative genius. Everything just looks pretty with sprinkles, you see. Hunter had loads of fun meticulously dotting his cake pop with silver sprinkle balls. I was delighted, because it kept him occupied for a good 20 mins.

After that, the GRUB crew cleaned up the area (thank goodness for them, and kudos to their patience considering the tables and floor was covered in liquid chocolate and sprinkles!!)…. whilst all of us took the kids out to play in the park right outside. It was perfect, because the kids got a chance to stretch their legs and run up and down and get some fresh air.

After the place was cleaned up, we were ushered back in again (though it was a bit of a challenge herding our active kids back!) for their………. Christmas set meal 🙂 This 3-course set meal is exclusive for December 2013 only, so get yourself down to GRUB asap!

And this is GRUB’s kitchen.. where all the magic happens!

I opted for the Soup of the Day, a Potato, leek and gorgonzola soup. It was my favourite item on the menu, which is a big thing for me as I’m not even a soup person! Hunter polished off the fluffy foccacia bread, and more than half of the soup. With gusto.

The soup was creamy and rich, without being too heavy on the palate. And the gorgonzola was very very subtle but lended a delectable twist to the soup. It was delicious and so comforting. I’m hoping they put this on their regular menu, because it was a total hit with all the kids!

I was suspicious about the Slow-roasted juicy turkey breast with gravy on sweet potato mash and pea tendrils shoots. Turkey is not my thing. To me, it’s like the drier, tougher version of chicken.

I’m not sure what GRUB did with the turkey breast here, but it was soft enough to be cut with a fork, and it was, yes, juicy! Very moist and tender enough that Hunter ate a whole piece himself. It had me astounded, since Hunter is not really a meat eater, let alone a kid that would sit and chew on meat. But he gobbled it up, along with the creamy sweet potato mash and cranberry sauce.

Colour me impressed!

And considering turkey is low-fat and high in nutrients, I’m very pleased that I can order this for my kids whilst it’s available in December.

Everyone gave big thumbs up for their Honey baked ham on mash, apple sauce and french beans. Cast aside your ideas on a ham dish being highly processed and salty. This ham was fat and freshly cooked, and wasn’t salty like what you imagine ham to be. It was very tender too, and was well received by the kids.

I particularly LOVED the french beans it came with, and wanted more! And more of the delicious apple sauce too please! I like lashings of it on my ham 😉

I’m not a Bread and butter pudding lover, so was a bit meh when it came out as a surprise extra dish. I personally am never a fan of bread and butter pudding, because I don’t like the mushiness of it and the raisins in the bread completely freak me out.

Not that it mattered, because Hunter ADORED it and polished it off!! It’s not a small portion either, especially for a 2 year old!!

My favourite dessert was the Banoffee – banana and toffee trifle with freshly whipped vanilla cream. Shhhhh….. I actually scraped most of the cream off (a travesty, I know, since it was freshly whipped!) because I don’t like cream, but I loved loved LOVED the banoffee below!! The delightful salty-and-sweet biscuit base crumbled delightfully on my tongue and was so good I wanted twice the amount. It paired very well with the sweet banana slices also in my glass cup.

GRUB’s new dessert (also on their regular menu now) was also served, the Sticky date cake with burnt caramel, vanilla ice cream and toasted almonds. It’s served very cutely in a coffee cup, and is a combination of hot and cold that really hits the spot. The sticky date is soft and moist, and you really need to eat the sticky date, ice cream, and burnt caramel sauce to appreciate this dessert properly.

The last time we got this (when we were dining at GRUB for dinner), Hunter ate the entire thing. It’s good.

Bellies aching from our meal, the kids and us were sent home with our cake pops!  Aren’t they adorable?

The most-heard feedback at the end of the session: PLEASE do more kid-friendly events and lunches! The kids had a fab time and it’s even more fun if you get a couple of friends together for some mess-making and food-eating.

GRUB’s limited edition Christmas 2013 set menu is available from now til 31 December 2013. At $30++ per set meal, it’s a real deal considering the fine-dining quality and presentation you get. It’s also extremely kid-friendly.. all our children ate all the dishes!

Remember to bring your scooters/bicycles/etc so the kids can have some fun at the park too 🙂

I’ve blogged about GRUB before, but that was over their weekend brunch. This time, we were there for an early dinner!

Here’s a little tip: GRUB opens at 5:30PM. By then, you’ll see the eager beavers skulking around the park, waiting to dash over to grab a table once the cafe opens. So, if you’re already there, you can be an eager beaver too and be seated right on the dot at 5:30PM, meaning you get a table straightaway (GRUB almost always has a queue).

What we do is pop over just before then, and let the kids stretch their legs in the park. That way, even when we get our table, I can do the ordering and the kids can continue playing in the park right up until the food arrives. We waste no time, the kids get maximum playing time, and everybody is happy.

As expected, there are heaps of people lurking around GRUB by the time we are ready to eat. And the kids sure are ready to have their dinner, since they’ve already used up a bunch of energy whizzing around the park.

I love their Crabbies ginger beer. It’s served icy cold and is practically the drink to have after a walk around the park.

We kicked off with their Compressed Tomato Salad, with Feta, Rocket and Pine Nuts (S$7). I’ve heard so many raves for this dish, but never ordered it because it’s… errmm.. salad. I have issues with ordering salad. Salad and I do not agree.

I was surprised by the tomatoes.  The reviews are true – they do taste different! I hear they are marinated in a vacuum, thus making the tomatoes ultra juicy, soft and sweet. If you don’t normally like tomatoes, I reckon you’ll like this version.

The rocket leaves were horrific to me, I hate rocket.

Nice scattering of feta cheese and pinenuts, that complemented the tomatoes really well.

I had a Pork steak burger with apples, cashew chimichurri ($12). It’s a popular burger and one of my faves. The bun is super soft and fluffy, and the sauce is a fantastic and interesting mix. But what gets me is the PORK! It’s literally a steak of pork, all chunky and meaty. And it is soooooooooooo freakinnnnn soft. Absolutely tender, my kids can eat it (note: Carter only has two bottom teeth).

I swapped my fries for mashed potato, and you’ll see why later. Frankly, next time I’ll always swap it for the mash, because my kids can eat it, and it’s ridiculously yummy. The fact that it’s made of real potatoes on premises delights me, because I am still grossed out by the fact that most eateries in Singapore used re-constituted/powdered mash potato – I mean, how unappetizing is that? I certainly don’t want my kids eating that kind of food.

I always see people ordering the Grilled chicken leg with honeyed feta, roasted peppers, mash, rocket and corn salsa ($15). I guess it’s a healthy dish, so it appeals? I really like how it’s boneless, so it comes out almost looking like a giant sausage. The chicken is very moist, and the salsa is paired well with it. That said, in general I find chicken a very boring dish so I rarely order it for myself.

This is their signature GRUB cheeseburger with 100% freshly minced beef patty and Monterey Jack cheese ($13). It ain’t a huge burger, but the price point is really good, considering it comes with a big cup of fries. The patty is fresh and tastes distinctly like real beef. I feel the need to point this out since a lot of burger patties taste…. un-meat-like.

One of our favourite dishes? The Slow roasted pork belly with mango sauce, mash, and cherry tomato salsa ($15). A photo of this bad boy always shows up on blogs and social media channels, and I can see why. It’s blimmin’ AWESOME!!!!!

I must caveat – my photo looks positively unappetizing because it kinda got mangled (forgot to take a photo when it first arrived) and the light was not in my favour when we were dining there.. so in fact, most of my food photos don’t look very nice 🙁

But anyway. This pork belly is a real doozy. It is UTRA TENDER with just the right amount of fat through the meat. You can cut it with a fork, it’s that soft. But my favourite is the crisp exterior, which is seasoned to perfection. It’s paired beautifully with their creamy mash, and studded with sweet cherry tomatoes.

Leaving the best for the last, and here it is…….

MENTAIKO FRIES!!!!!

GRUB has just launched these and hooboy, they take the cake over truffle fries for me. You get a big bowl loaded with fries, and they drizzle their homemade mentaiko sauce all over it (they provide a pot of sauce on the side if you’re like us and want mooooorrrrre), then toss on a bunch of seaweed.

The combination is pretty mind blowing.

I find it very hard to describe here, but think fries dipped in a sauce that’s like mayonnaise-on-steroids. It’s creamy, but has a real punch of flavour in it. And coupled with the shreds of seaweed? (note I don’t normally like seaweed) It’s AWESOME.

I can’t wait to go back and order another bout of these.

Obviously, as you can tell from below, the kids loved it.

And since we had an early dinner, the kids still have a bit of time to run around Bishan Park afterwards, while the sun sets.

Oh, to be so young and carefree……

Big kids wearing Elly.
Hunter’s sunglasses by sons+daughters from nottoobig.
Ybike (blue) from Mothercare.
Last Bite: Go to GRUB for an early dinner, and let your kids stretch your legs in Bishan Park at sunset. Their burgers are always spot-on, but our favourite is the slow roasted pork belly.

Highchairs: Yes
Easy access: Yes. Strollers and wheelchairs have a gated side entrance.
Change tables: No
Kids’ menu: No. The premise of the cafe is that kids can eat off the main menu.

GRUB
Bishan Park
510 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 (enter off Sin Ming Ave, opposite Blk 408)
Singapore 569983
Phone: 64595743 (no reservations)
Prices: $$
Hours: Tue-Fri 5:30pm– 10:30pm, Sat-Sun and PH 9:00am–2:30pm 5:30pm–10:30pm

The entire premise of GRUB is: Responsible Ingredients. Inspired Menu. Delicious Food. 
 
Guess just about everyone knows about Cookyn, a cooking party extravaganza first concocted by Mervyn and Amanda.. which grew to a bonafide successful business owned by multiple partners. Well, it’s the same guys that have opened GRUB.

How did it come about? About 2 years ago, Mervyn and Amanda were in the USA. They saw the plethora of family-friendly, responsible cafes that cooked with real ingredients (that you would use in your own kitchen), at a wallet-friendly price. They and their two friends (and co-owners), Dexter and Kelvin, wanted to do the same in Singapore.

And… ta da! GRUB. Over a year in the making and this gem is now ready for business. It’s located in the beautiful and green Bishan Park (hello gorgeous views) and is a stand-alone cafe that they built from the ground up. It’s SO GORGEOUS. Half outdoor and half indoor, it doesn’t feel like Singapore, but more like Australia when we used to eat at little cafes dotted around a park.

Did you know that in most cafes in Singapore and other countries, when you order food like mashed potato, it comes in powder form in a packet???? The cafe simply mixes it with water and voila! There’s your mashed potato.

Ewwww.

So happy to learn that at GRUB, they only cook and serve what they would with their own families. That means REAL potatoes, and REAL ingredients. Nothing reconstituted, no preservatives. The headache that the kitchen has is to churn out good food made from FRESH ingredients asap.. but the waiting time is actually not longer than any other cafe.

You can see their menu here.

Anyway! A good ‘ol beer to start off! This one was Monteith’s summer ale from New Zealand. I liked it because it tasted more like fizzy ginger ale than beer 😛 Sooo good icy cold.

If you’re a mussel kinda person, you’ll be pretty astounded at how tender and plump these ones are. The Tasmanian mussels and chorizo stew with fries and aioli came in a dish swimming in very nice broth (I wish it was served with some baguette to mop up that tasty broth!).

So here is the thing: I have a relatively big-ish appetite. If I had ordered just this dish, it wouldn’t fill me (this is why I rarely order mussels as my main, unless it’s all-you-can-eat). I pointed this out, and was told that these aren’t the (much cheaper) green-lipped mussels, but blue-lipped mussels air-flown from New Zealand which are a lot more expensive. So this is a case of paying for quality over quantity. But just warning you, if you are a big guy or have a big appetite, you’ll need to order an appetizer as well to fill you up!

The GRUB cheeseburger with 100% freshly minced beef patty, monterey jack cheese is so cheap for a very solid and good burger. Good value for money. The bun is really nice, so picture-perfect it looked fake! Very fluffy and held together well. I really liked the beef patty – it didn’t have weird bits in it (oh my goodness how I hate it when you bite into a burger and there’s something like part of a horse’s hoof in there) and was juicy and with an excellent more-ish beefy flavour. I enjoyed the fresh lettuce too, which was all uniformly green and crisp. I point this out because sometimes other burger joints serve browned or mushy lettuce which freaks me out.

I giggled at the hilarious-looking Crispy fish burger with crumbed hake fillet and remoulade. Just look at it! Hahahha!! It’s basically fish & chips, playing hide-and-seek inside a burger bun.

The fish was moist and beautifully crumbed, and the creamy sauce was spot-on. What more can I say? This was good and great value too.

And……….. THIS.

THIS.

Beef & Guinness pie with mash and side salad.

I just…..

I can’t even………………..

I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG IN THIS WORLD ANYMORE.

I mean, just look at this thing:

Chris and I were speechless when it arrived. This dish, it did NOT look like a beef & guiness pie! We were expecting a regular-looking pie, or perhaps a pot pie. But this…. this was a large disc of puff pastry that was  absolutely sagging under the weight of the big chunks of melty-soft beef, and carrots/potatoes/etc. It was smothered in rich gravy and topped off with gooey mashed potato (made from potatoes in the kitchen, not from a packet!).

It was just insane to see.

It just LOOKED so good!

And I don’t even know how to describe the taste… except just think buttery puff pastry, rich flavourful gravy, and loads and loads of ultra tender braised beef. My goodness. PARTY IN MY MOUTH.

And so their Beef & Guinness Pie is, hands down, A MUST-ORDER DISH. We are most definitely always ordering this baby, and then another main from the menu.

We didn’t have the stomach space to eat our way around their Dessert menu *sadface*. However, we have already tried GRUB’s churros and let’s just say they are splendid. Chris is a churros connoisseur and he really rates these.

But we did order the Belgium waffle with salty caramel, grilled bananas and dark chocolate. Reasonably priced for a nice chunk of fluffy crispy waffle with toppings. It came out… errrrr.. rather messy, though. Like someone in the kitchen had an epileptic fit as they were ‘dressing’ the waffle with the grilled bananas and sauces.

The waffle was deliciously crisp outside yet soft on the inside. It came with a dollop of rich cream, and I LOVED the swirl of fresh salty caramel (ie. not out of a squeeze bottle from the supermarket) – it went so well with the dark chocolate sauce! I actually am not huge on fruit on my desserts but I appreciated that they were grilled bananas and not just plain ‘ol fresh banana slices (sooo boring).

And so I end this monster review of GRUB. It’s a super duper family-friendly cafe, which gets a major thumbs up from me. I really like the outdoor greenery-all-round vibe of the place, as well as how the ingredients are all fresh and thoughtfully put together (I know very well how Mervyn places so much heart and soul into his craft).

The thing I’m really scratching my head about is how they’ll cope with the crowds. The place is surprisingly small! I can imagine it’s going to be gob-smackingly PACKED on weekends.. since families will love to go there for a casual brunch and let the kids run around in the park. You can add GRUB on Facebook to keep track of events and such, to stay up to date.

GRUB officially throws their doors open on 27 April 2013.

WE’LL BE THERE.

See you there too!

Last Bite: One of the best kid-friendly restaurants in Singapore, offering responsible food for families in the tranquil ambience of Bishan Park.

Highchairs: Yes
Easy access: Yes. Strollers and wheelchairs have a gated side entrance.
Change tables: No
Kids’ menu: No. The premise of the cafe is that kids can eat off the main menu.

GRUB
Bishan Park
510 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 (enter off Sin Ming Ave, opposite Blk 408)
Singapore 569983
Phone: 64595743 (no reservations)
Prices: $$
Hours: Tue-Fri 5:30pm– 10:30pm, Sat-Sun and PH 9:00am–2:30pm 5:30pm–10:30pm

This food review was first published at Beverly’s Adventures!