Epicurious Lunch & Hunting down Fidgets

I recently found out that Epicurious has set up a second cafe at Rail Mall. I haven't been to Epicurious @ Quayside yet though I have read and heard nice things about their brunches. Given that Rail Mall is a mere 5 minutes' drive from our home, we decided to dropped by on Saturday for lunch.

The Husband, being  a non-brunch person (he hates runny eggs and is partial to pancakes), ordered a chilli crab pasta with soft shell crab. I zero-ed in onto the eggs benedict and a mushroom soup to share while Anya had a kid's portion of scramble eggs. My eggs benedict were nicely done - fluffy English muffins with poached eggs runny on the inside, causing the disgusted Husband to make rude faces at me while I slurp up every bit of the goo. The sauteed potatoes on the side were well-seasoned, we both enjoyed it though we thought it was a bit too tough to be served to kids (we had to dig the softer flesh from the inside to give Anya). We both liked the mushroom soup. Anya seemed to enjoy it as well, enthusiastically signing for more when I fed her. You can taste bits of mushrooms in every mouthful but I believe some might prefer it to be of creamier texture. However, the adults thought the best dish of the afternoon was The Husband's pasta. When reading off the menu, I had imagine that the pasta will come with plain chilli sauce with deep-fried soft shell crab on the side. I was pleasantly surprised to know that the sauce has bits of crabmeat in it as well. The pasta was al dente and the sauce reminded me of my mom's homecooked chilli crab - kick-ass spicy that is more due to ginger than chilli. The sweet husband left plenty of the sauce for me and I happily slurped those up as well.

Anya's scrambled eggs

My Eggs Benedict

The Husband's blurry but yummy chilli crab pasta!

Mushroom soup

We went at one-ish in the afternoon and the cafe was 60-70% filled. The cafe is housed in two units, and they also have a Thai food menu on top of the brunch /western menus. I was delighted to note that this is a family-friendly establishment that provides paper and colorings for children (not for Anya though since she is too young), has a kids' menu and they even have some toys and a old skool rocking horse to keep the tots occupied. After years of complaining that there isn't a nice cafe near our place, I think we might have found one now!

Our after-lunch plan was to adjourn to Fidgets @ Turf City. Initially, I had wanted to go to Polliwogs but The Husband preferred a nearer location. Given that Anya hasn't been to any of these play areas before, I reckon any establishment is fine for a first. So Fidgets, been the nearest to us geographically, became our choice.

What started out as a fine happy afternoon started to go slightly downhill hereon. Given that The Husband and I frequents Turf City (or to be more precise, Owen Seafood Restaurant @ Turf City), we did not think that we would have any problem tracking Fidgets down. Well, to cut the long story short, let's just say that we had to comb the area thrice (with a toddler, a diaper bag, a brolly in tow), calling up the establishment once for directions, asking a shop-owner and a janitor for more directions twice and 45 minutes later then did we find the place. By then, we were all sweaty, tired and grouchy, and to our greatest dismay, it was super crowded given it was a weekend and there were two birthday parties going on. So, after all that wild goose chase, we did not even go in.

For those who wish to visit Fidgets, some points to note. The place is NOT on the fourth floor, as what their website suggested. Instead, they are on the second floor. To locate the place, ask for directions to Giant, right above the checkout exit of Giant, is an entrance into the building (there is a huge store selling spa-related stuff called Magic Boo). Take the escalator from there to the second floor, and there is Fidgets.

So will we go back again? Probably, but perhaps not on a weekend. The Husband told the staff about our tiring search and in return, they gave us a complimentary one-time pass. So, at least we did not go back empty-handed though we were slightly piqued. Thankfully, all it took was some OJ and carrot juice to put all of us back into pleasant moods before we called it a day.

OJ?

Very nice!