Singapore Family Fun, Babies Adventures, Children Activities
Author: Claudia
Mummy to Missy A and Missy Z, works around the clock and try to be with the family 101% when spending precious time together. Also writes at http://thelovingmum.sg.
The popular and always packed Tebing Lane at Punggol is going to be even more happening with the opening of seven new eateries housed in these hip and cool containers. There’s Korean desserts, craft beer, good fish dishes, booze and even healthy desserts.
We went to take a look at these container bistros this afternoon and here’s what we saw. It was posted on Punggol 21 Facebook page that these will be opening tomorrow, 1 Feb, but from the looks of things, not all of the 7 bistros are ready for business. Anyone planning to check them out?
DGrill
Here’s a menu we found outside DGrill. Serving pasta on hot plates, fried finger food, some desserts and drinks. Price looks reasonable. There is no indoor seating, all tables and chairs are alfresco. Huge cooler fans were spotted around the seating area outdoor.
L’Chaim Bistro
This is where you can find craft beer and probably finger food as well. Spotted a couple of tables and a bar counter with bar stools inside. Probably can house 6 to 8 pax in the air-conditioned container. Outdoor seatings available.
Seoul Good dessert and coffee
About seven tables available indoor and the decorations are quite cute too. Wonder if they’ll be selling Instagram-worthy and yummy bingsu.
Big Fish Small Fish
Indoor and outdoor seatings sighted and this is their menu :
I would say the food is reasonably priced. We waited for approximately 20mins for our food but we were served free chips while waiting. Better yet, their friendly service crew went round checking if we would like the chips to be refilled.
LeungKee Healthy Dessert
Boost @ Banks
Pump Station 1965 Bar & Bistro
One of the most elaborated setup amongst the new container bistros at Tebing Lane. The have got 3 section with very nice tables and chairs.
If anyone is going to tell us Punggol is so ulu, we’re so going to show these to them! These new container bistros are located at Tebing Lane, right next to Riveria LRT. There will also be a new open-air carpark right behind these bitros for those driving.
When Waterway Point opened in Punggol, we were super excited cos finally a decent mall for us to go to since the closure of Compasspoint at Sengkang. And now after almost a year, the mall is ready for shoppers and residents from the Northeast! Compass One mall opens in September 2016, that’s just a month away.
There’s a mixed feeling online on the tenants at Compass One, and some even said that it is Meh compared to Waterway Point. But we are still very excited cos no mall is too small, boring nor meh if its less than 30 minutes travel on public transport or a few minutes drive from home. Here’s the list of tenants which I’m looking forward to at Compass One mall.
Gurney Drive Signature
Think of Penang Fried Kuey Teow, Assam Laksa, Rojak, Cuttlefish Kangkong, Mee Goreng, Satay and Tze Char (Chinese Home-Style Cooking) Dishes! And its Halal!! We can’t wait to dive right into the food when it opens at Compass One.
MOS Burger
I personally miss this when Compasspoint closed for renovation. Finally I can get my corn soup and nuggets with mustard sauce and need not travel too far for them.
SKP
Because everyone needs some plastic bags, party wares and packaging.
K-ART
This is the auntie in me speaking… but woah! K-ART store at Compass One? I love their cookwares and I’ve got 3 in my kitchen already. If you haven’t heard of K-ART, you must go check their pots and pans out!
Just because I am planning to get new kicks for my two girls and this is just in time for our year-end trip shopping. My girls love their bling bling shoes!
LEGO store
Zara will call this the “Legoland” because she loves checking out LEGO.
Sakae Sushi
Finally I get to use more of my Sakae card when they return at Compass One.
Last but not least…
The Public Library!
I heard its twice the size as before and will be very family-friendly! I can’t wait to bring my girls to check them out! But looks like this may not be open in September. According to their website, it’s stated to reopen only in 2017!
Today our littlest one at Punggol Babies officially turns ONE!! Happy birthday Isaac. Welcome to toddlerhood! Here’s a clip for you to revisit the day we celebrated your birthday at Hotel Jen Orchardgateway.
The Celebration
It was a cosy and happy celebration last weekend with family and friends at Makan@Jen, Hotel Jen Orchardgateway; where we held Isaac’s 1st party. All the time, energy and planning was well rewarded when the birthday boy gave his biggest and brightest smile at his very first cake-cutting session.
Planning The Party
Party planning is quite a tiresome task, from the time we decide to plan one celebration to the sourcing of suitable locations, guest list, decoration, the cake and a lot of other little things in between. It all started about six months back and I think we managed to pull through it pretty well. Well done Team (mums, dads and grandparents) Punggol Babies! 😛
The Location
For all events, once the location is locked down, everything else will fall into place. We contacted and shortlisted at least 3 locations and we made our choices based on a few criteria – accessibility, good lighting (for photos), good food and of cos costs. After weighing the various options, Makan@Jen was picked. Because it met all of our requirements and fits the budget.
We were lucky the outdoor open air Makan@Jen Terrace was not occupied that day, and the weather was windy and great. Our guests (especially the little ones) were running around at the terrace and we could watch them from inside too. Who needs planned activities when you got a huge space to do whatever you want!
As it was also the Easter weekend, we had a cute and fun dessert bar to fill our guests with sweets treats and awesome grill and seafood from Makan@Jen kitchen.
The Cake
This is Isaac’s very first birthday cake and extra care had been put into the selection. After trying out the awesome chiffon cake at a friend’s party, it was a no-brainer to go with the same baker who baked it. Placing our order as early as 4 months prior the celebration, we almost didn’t make it to the list as Susanne only takes in limited number of orders per week. Thanks to another customer who so kindly changed her order date, Susanne was able to take on our robot cake request.
When everyone crowded around it as the cake was revealed, they took out their camera and started snapping. Of cos this made the party planners very pleased. Chiffon cake was light and fluffy, the right touch to end off the afternoon after a filling buffet spread at Makan@Jen. You can take a look at Susanne’s creations on her Instagram or website.
The Decoration
It was a finger (and cuticle) tearing and painful process. We had all underestimated the stressed on our fingers for knotting 60 latex balloons!!! We managed to get the place done up as best as we could, after losing precious foil alphabets balloons which stopped us from using any since words couldn’t be formed.
Tips: Instead of using ballon weights to hold down your balloons at party, try using little treat bags instead. It not just helped hold down the balloons, but it helped us have the balloons cleared out too as guests willingly brought home some treats.
Since it was Easter, we prepared some eggs and wanted to hide them around the Terrace for the little ones to find. Alas time was moving faster than we planned, so we mixed them up with the basket of red eggs prepared by Makan@Jen for our guests to help themselves with.
Extending The Celebration – A Family Staycation!
Our party and celebration continues through the weekend as we checked into our hotel rooms at Hotel Jen OrchardGateway. We’ve stayed at this hotel a couple of times and the kids really enjoyed our staycation, so this time round we booked three rooms to accommodate our families.
The rooms booked came with access to Hotel Jen’s Club Lounge on Level 19, Grandpa was most delighted with unlimited supply of beer during cocktail from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. And all of us took this time to just chill and reminisce that afternoon’s celebration. Oh and the Club Lounge makes pretty good spot for photo taking too!
We’ve originally booked a deluxe room for my family as we needed an extra bed for the four of us. Lucky us got bumped up to their Panorama Club room as we requested to have our rooms on the same level as the gramps. This time round, the room wasn’t as huge as our previous family staycation with Hotel Jen, but still we appreciated the space. We even had a gathering that evening in our room to catch the laser show from opposite our room. Isaac was most excited to see those green lights beaming in the night sky.
And of cos we cannot missed out the fun time by the pool at Baywatch@Jen on level 19. This was the one thing that the kids were all looking forward to! Just look at their happy faces!
Can check out my review of the hotel here and here.
This is probably the one party for our family in a long long time. I love party planning, but pulling this off was quite an experience. Even more stressful then those events I plan for work! Good thing we have all agreed that the Punggol Babies will only have one big celebration when they are young. The next one will probably be when they reach 21 ba.
Thanks to everyone who came and made this day so special and fun for our little baby boy. Hope you’ve had an awesome time too!
I shall keep the sentimental post for Mummy Pris, it was a celebration for her too! Over to you now. 🙂
You know right? We Punggol Babies have been visiting Waterway Point (WWP in short ok) almost every day since it’s opening! Just because it’s so easy and near to our homes. But come the March school holidays, we are going to be there EVERY DAY (if we can) because there’s this super fun thing happening at our favourite neighbourhood mall!
See! See! GIANT Ball pool is going to be setup at Village Square, West Wing Level 1 from 14 to 20 March 2016 at Waterway Point!
This is the new edition of Play It Forward (With a Twist!).Children will have the opportunity to prolong their Play it Forward experience with a fun five-station obstacle course before diving into the ball pool which spans 8m by 8m and is filled with 100,00 colourful balls. The obstacle course includes fun elements like Walk a Plank, Tunnel Crawl, Foam Stick Curtain Trail and Float Run. What’s more, each participant will receive a free instant-print photo as a memento of the fun at Play It Forward!
A minimum donation of S$10 will entitle each person to 25 minutes of play in both the obstacle course and ball pool. All proceeds go towards five Family Service Centres. Frasers Centrepoint Malls will match all proceeds dollar-for-dollar up to S$30,000. As part of the Care & Share Movement, from now until 31 March 2016, total donations will also be matched dollar-for-dollar by the Government.
This is taking place between 12pm to 9pm from 14 to 20 March 2016 at Waterway Point (Village Square, West Wing, Level 1)!
Be prepared to queue for this super fun activity! Just look at what happened previously at Play it Forward event.
We can’t wait for the school holidays to come! WWP here we come!!
Our kids love chips and anything fried! So we always had problem ordering food for them when we dine out, but THIS Fish & Chips at Ci Yuan Hawker Centre is one that we will travel just to have it.
Ci Yuan Hawker Centre is located within the Ci Yuan Community Club along Hougang Avenue 9, and has 40 cooked food stalls, and can seat up to 640 people. Food prices at this Hawker Centre are also kept lower than your usual foodcourts, you can find dishes at $2.80 per serving and drinks at less than $1.00.
And they have family friendly tables and seats too! See how these table and seats are lower than the rest? Fits our two girls nicely. Love it!
This yummy fish & chips is from stall #01-27 known as The Pasta Shop, owned by the same people from Ristorante Da Valentino at The Grandstand. At this stall at Ci Yuan Hawker Centre, you get restaurant quality Italian food at value-for-money price.
Besides this fish and chips, there are many more food options to try, you can check out Miss Tam Chiak’s feature of 17 Must Try Stalls at Ci Yuan Hawker Center. This new hawker centre also has one unique payment system at all their 40 food stalls. Spot that red counter at front of all stalls, this is their e-payment solution. All payment transactions are done through this system, allowing the stall owners to free themselves from handling cash thus more hygienic too.
I very kaypoh, so I checked out this payment solution from behind the counter too. The system is designed in such a way that everyone will be able to use it without much hassle.
When making payment for your food, you just need to insert you notes or coins into the system and it will automatically provide you with change. If you’re wondering if the system will dispense only coins if you were to insert a $50-notes for a $7.00 meal, you don’t have to worry as the system will dispense notes too for change. So smart!
I’m so glad that these smart e-payment solutions are spotted almost everywhere we go. The new self-checkout counters at Fairprice Finest at Waterway Point also accepts cash and works so simply!
Have you seen any other similar solutions too? Or if you have tried the food stalls at Ci Yuan Hawker Centre, please do share which one is good too.
Today the door of Waterway Point at Punggol opens for the public at 10am and since we are so nearby, we thought we should go try our luck at redeeming some of the freebies that were given out to early birds. We arrived at exactly 10.10am and alas! The queue for free SHAW movie tickets were at least 100-meter long and the queue at the information counter on Level 2 was like a long snake going round and round the huge mall’s corridor! They had to deploy more than 3 security guards just to ensure the queue is in order.
Guess I am not kiasu enough to get there earlier nor to join the long queues.
At least I managed to snap some photos of the mall while zooming through the crazy early bird crowd at this first mega mall in Punggol! Overall I must say, I’m very happy with what I see. Very spacious corridor, huge atriums indoor and outdoor, essential stores we frequent often are there and there’s lots of food options (and quite a lot of Halal ones too) at Waterway Point.
If you’re planning to head down soon, go before the afternoon “after-school” crowd cos that’s where the place get super crowded. Best is between 10am to 1pm on weekdays for this interim opening period.
Here’s some photos to bring you through the mall.
Entrance to Waterway Point from Punggol MRT StationLevel 1 where you can enter to the West or East wing or go straight down to Basement 1 via the escalator straight up.The crazy queue for free movie tickets, happening tomorrow and Wednesday too! First few in line started queuing around 7am (based on Instagram posting I found). OMG! 7am!Nice Allscript store at Basement, get your indie reading fixes here.Of cos I had to check out the toilets! Sadly all the baby/family rooms are not available today yet. So no photos for now.24hour FairPrice Finest at Basement 2Just across Breadtalk, I spy this small but awesome Halal bread selection by Swee Heng.
Other food options for all Muslim family and friends…
Serving fishball noodles, wanton noodles and I also spotted some curry rice option inside! Queue was too long so I’ll check them out another day.Lots of outdoor alfresco dining options available, these were not in operation yet today.Ever since we tried Creating our own burgers at McDonald’s, we’ve been wanting more. And now right next door to McD is Burger Up! More burger customising for us to try, there goes whatever dieting plans! Eat-fat-us!
One of the stores we checked out today got me super excited and I can’t wait to bring the girls! Previously we checked out their outlet at Marina Square and was impressed at the comfort and design of the place, but now this brings the impressiveness to the next level! A dedicated Times Junior section at Times Waterway Point, how cool is that?
Walk right into Times bookstore at Level 2 and you will find this times Junior section, filled with many children books and activities.Little ones can even browse through the selection while bouncing on these ladybugs. So cute!For the hands-on folks, there’s also a section for all your gardening, cooking and handy craft shopping needs.And they also have lots of shelves of educational and learning resources. Somehow the way they display them makes them more friendly and less stress when shopping for these to prep for exams.Wide selection of products available at Times Waterway Point.Time to use more of our Times membership card!Also spotted cute kids clothes and accessories at PRIVI Kids at Level 2.
For parents with little ones, there’s also an indoor playground at Level 2 and its FREE!
The door is cleverly designed and you’ll need to spot the shoe racks before you can spot the door to enter. It’s facing 1010 store if you’re wondering where to enter from.
There’s also a small children corner inside the foodcourt Cookhouse. However there were only chairs in there today, not very attractive for now. Hope they’ll add in more play stuff soon.Waterway Point at Punggol MRT, lots more fun and exciting things now at Punggol! So awesome!
We will slowly uncover more gems at Punggol here at Punggol Babies! Bookmark us and come back often to check for more updates.
When you think that life in Punggol is finally getting way more exciting with the opening of Waterway Point this month, then you’ll be screaming for more more more when you get to finally visit SAFRA Clubhouse at Punggol come 24 April 2016!
There’ll be fast food outlets, Chinese restaurant, and I’m guessing some established F&B brands too.
Sing… Sing a song, sing out loud, sing out strong!
I’m guessing Kbox or Party World will be the tenant over at SAFRA Punggol. Though I wish it was Teo Heng but they’ve already got one outlet at Ci Yuan Community Centre which is pretty nearby.
Rent a bike or rollerblade
For the first time at SAFRA, you can look at renting bicycles and rollerblades. Wonder if they’ll be bringing in those family cycle that sits four pax. What are these bikes known as, anyone know?
Bowling at Punggol!
Get your bowling balls ready for a rolling good time right within 1 minute walk from Sam Kee LRT station. Much more convenient I feel as compared to the other SAFRA clubhouses I’ve been to.
Preschool by NurtureStars and Enrichment Classes
For parents who swore by good enrichment classes for your little ones, this is the place to go check out when they open. With so many young families living around Punggol, I’m expecting classes to be filled up fast.
Biggest Gym in Punggol
Drop your kids off to class and head into the gym to get some fats burned and heart pumping. Perhaps this is the time to sign-up for their gym membership for everyone at home, all of us need some (actually a lot) of toning and trimming.
Water Sports
This is yet to be confirmed, but the folks at SAFRA is exploring it for sure. Would be nice if we can send our kids for some water sports fun when they’re older. Punggol Babies still young for these right now.
For now, we’re happy with SPLASH! @ Kids Amaze. The 3-storey high indoor water playground. Waterplay is now possible rain or shine and we don’t have to worry about getting sun burnt!
My next big question is will there be a SAFRA swimming pool in the clubhouse? With SPLASH! and the Sengkang Swimming Complex nearby, will we have a pool at SAFRA Punggol? So far I can’t find any clue from their website nor media news. Anyone know?
Photo source: SAFRA Punggol
SAFRA Members Alert!
SAFRA Punggol will hold a special soft opening on 24 April 2016, where members can enjoy complimentary access to selected facilities and special discounts at participating merchants in the club. Yeah! We can’t wait! Finally our membership cards can come to good use soon!
Marking our calendars now to check out the all new SAFRA Clubhouse at Punggol on 24 April 2016, Sunday!
Besides this fish and chips, there are many more food options to try, you can check out Miss Tam Chiak’s feature of 
Photo source: SAFRA Facebook Page
Photo source: SAFRA Punggol