Essential Brew

Evelyn brought me to Essential Brew at Holland V for dinner today. She's working there right now and all staff members have a 20% discount, plus, she was awarded with a $20 voucher for chalking in tons of work hours. FANTASTIC. We paid $12.20 for a $40+ meal. :D Lovely.\

Anyway, Essential Brew is called essential brew because they incorporate tea into all the items in their menu. So there's things like Jasmine Rice Balls (rice steamed with, i'm guessing, jasmine tea). The desserts also have tea, like Green Tea Cheesecake and Green Tea Creme Brulee. There's also an interesting dessert called Rainbow Indulgence...evelyn tried describing it to me. Apparently it's some kind of dessert with pocky sticks stuck into it, pointing out in all angles. Sounds very Finnish avant garde to me! Haha. Other dishes include Oolong Chicken, Earl Grey Mussels, Earl Grey Ribeye Steak, you get the picture.

We ordered, upon evelyn's recommendation, the Jasmine Caper Salmon, a basket of Calamari rings, a Dance of Tea (chocolate drink mixed with tea) and a Jasmine Tiramisu. (should have taken pics...I brought my camera but completely forgot about taking photos -__-)

The salmon came with lots of carrot sticks, ONE broccoli floret and a ball of Jasmine rice (they scoop it with the ice-cream scoop). I'm not a big fan of the jasmine rice...quite odd if you ask me, and a bit too damp. The jasmine is not very strong, so the rice just ends up in the middle of no where -- not plain enough to be plain rice, yet not jasminey enough to be jasmine rice. The salmon itself though, is highly recommended. The Calamari rings were normal...and very value for money. They gave us a huge basketful of rings when I was only expecting like 5 rings. The Dance of Tea tasted like Chocolate Bubble Tea. I should have just gone for something more exciting. The jasmine tiramisu was odd. It was really liquidy...more like a pudding than tiramisu. Highly NOT recommended. I suspect it has been sitting in the display chiller for far too long.


Anyway, food aside, the place is fantastic for chilling out. Basically, you have to take off your shoes, to enter the "sitting area". In the "sitting area", they have low coffee tables and you're supposed to sit around the tables on beanbags and poofy cushions. It's a very comfy atmosphere...dim lights, soft music. Waiters who kneel down next to you to take your order LOL!

I may return again to try out more things...friends of staff get 10% off. Patty's birthday is coming...:) Birthday dinner??