Quentin's The Eurasian Restaurant: A More than AWESOME dining experience for families with young kids!

This restaurant, is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by yours truly. No, they did not pay me for this. No, I do not work for them. And no, we're not related.

When you are a part of a family nucleus with young children, and I do mean young (below the ages of 3), this would be the go-to restaurant if you want to at least sit down and have a drink without having to worry if your younglings are bored, pulling at you because they want your attention every 5 seconds, or worse, running off while you hold on to your drink in one hand and your baby in the other, shouting at that tod to "stop running", hoping she would listen but getting disappointed each time. But all that's for another story. I'm digressing.

To start, I already love the concept. Eurasian Food. People who know me would know that I like to teach my kids through practical experiences. Always been a strong believer of that. So what can get better than teaching my Eurasian kids about the Eurasian Community in Singapore through food tasting? - was my initial thought. We arrived and were greeted by this massive banner spanning right across the whole restaurant you can't possibly miss it. It was impressive.

We were meeting friends that day and had arrived early, but hey, no matter. No need to wait stressful with a drink while trying to calm your over excited kids down before lunch. Because there is this awesome, AWESOME, indoor play area waiting to be exploited by children.

This is the main entrance to the restaurant (indoor sitting). The entrance of the playroom is to the left.

You should have seen the look on my kids' face when they saw this. They HAD uncovered a treasure trove.

 

Being also a little anal retentive, I like how they had to take their shoes off and that there was a sanitizer so they could clean their hands and feet before entering. It's carpeted, bright, clean, colourful, and has all the basic amenities a kid would deem important ; books, music, a screen playing Hi-Fi, play sit-in cars, a ball pit, slide, kitchenette, stuffed toys, doll house, and so much more! Did I mention this was enclosed and air conditioned? Hallelujah! We literally threw them in and said "see ya later"! All while still being able to watch them through the glass doors from our table, so we know they're not trying to eat pages off a book or rock climb the bookshelves. On a more serious note, I like how this is a one stop play area that can develop their gross motor skills, give them creative/imaginative play, music and movement, or for the book lovers, an avid variety of books too read for all age groups. This is even ideal for kids below the ages of one (accompanied play) in my opinion even if the signage states otherwise. There were toys that were appropriate for kids below 1 year old even. Like a walker, for the budding walkies, and a music station - all this apart from everything else in the room you can imagine to use to stimulate your kids.

Everthing screamed "FUN" here. I felt so tempted to jump into the ball pit myself with my kids had we been alone.

Of course the younglings chose well, and decided to stay in the ball pit most of the time. The cars were a great hit with them too.

Kids playing with the cars. There was a traffic light they could play with to learn about colours and traffic. When to stop or go with their little toy cars. See the little walker on the extreme right? That doubles up as a mini car for the budding infants.

There was just such a good variety of toys for kids of all age groups. Even some older children wanted in on the fun. I would give the management a huge slap on the back here. They managed to capture what it meant to create a wholesome experience for both parents and kids. BRAVO! It was such a breeze having lunch here. We just let the kids play while we watched them through the glass doors in the comfort of our seats. What every parent dreams of at the moment.

Coming back to the food. There is a kid's menu consisting of 4 choices at SGD $15.00 ++, inclusive of juice and 1 scoop of ice cream. We took the nuggets set. They did not try the authentic food in the end because most of it had chilli in them. The Eurasians back then were of Portuguese or Dutch mixed local origin. And most of the locals back then loved spicy food. The portions were really big for what we paid. Between 4 adults, we ordered the pineapple prawn curry (sweet curry dish) at SGD $20.80, prawn chilli garam (I loved this! A savory comfort food-y kind of dish) at SGD $20.80, and a beef stew Kristang style at SGD $16.80 with white rice, and we just barely finished. It was so filling we had no space for desserts. Each dish can serve 2-3 people.

Did you also know that apart from just dining, the venue caters for parties too? They make awesome cakes as well, and there is also a paid group Eurasian Heritage Tour that you could participate it.

My experience overall has been more than perfect at Quentin's. And we will definitely come back with the kids. Perhaps try something non spicy so the kids can have a taste this time. BIG THUMBS UP!

Cardboard Play

Do your kids glue themselves to you like there was no tomorrow? Mine do. I started to find it exceedingly hard to cook while they are in the kitchen with me. One would want to see what I was doing. And the other would be climbing into the washing machine, playing with knobs and pulling these knobs off at some point. As I am in the kitchen a lot and they are very intrigued with what I am doing with my magic pot, I thought just for safety's sake, and for my own sanity, it would be best if I could bring the kitchen to them. At least they could damage the fake appliances and I couldn't care less. 

So on one diaper spree, I decided to keep all the cardboard boxes I had and came up with this. 

Of course, each one had their own kitchen stove, oven and washing machine. But they had to share the microwave. Then again I realized they just wanted what the other one was playing with. This was still good though because it kept them busy enough so I can do what I needed to do efficiently and safely. More so with a peace of mind that they are safe in the living room occupied by their own play kitchen and laundry area. 

I think they liked it.

The Little Man's 1st

I LOVE organizing parties. Any kind of party. Of late, I am doing a lot of birthday parties. Mainly my own kids'. And I enjoy it! We usually have catered food, but there is always THAT dessert table that I like to put together myself.

It gets better and better with experience. Nothing very elaborate. Just simple ideas that I can put together with what time I can find. And with J's encouragement, I decided to share my ideas here. The latest one was H's 1st Birthday. 

For H's theme, I decided on a Moustache theme party. This is actually a dessert cum favour table where guests can pick their own candy and customize their own favour bags. They're usually for kids but the adults were at the candy too. 

I was lucky to find  two different themed free printables but of the same colour scheme. And I used them both for the party. They are the "little man" and "little mister" (search under moustache theme free printables) themes. 

We also made a photo booth using the little mister printables. And put a prop table just beside the booth. Where they could pick their own props for the photos.

Props were mainly various designs of moustaches in a tub, and some stick on smaller moustaches. We also threw in some straw hats. And it was just up to the guests' imaginations how they want to put it all together. 

Get the props here:

http://www.eleganceandenchantment.com/free-printable-photo-booth-sign/ 

(This photo booth sign is not free anymore. But you could drop me a note and I could email it to you.)

http://www.eleganceandenchantment.com/free-printable-moustaches/

We had so much fun! I made sure I got everyone's picture at the booth for the favour for the adults (dessert table favours were for the kids). But of course they were more than happy to play around and take more! 

While preparing for the party, I realized I had printed quite a bit of moustaches. So I cut out the smaller ones and put them in sachets as stick-on moustaches in each favour bag for the kids. Something they can take home with them. I heard later that even the adults were playing with the stick on moustaches when they got home, WITH their kids.

So what did I do with the pictures of my guests from the photo booth? 

I made a movie, with their pictures in it, and sent it to them privately just after the party. Everyone loved it!!! Everyone had a personalized one with their own pictures in it. :) or if u want something more instant and less tedious, u could just use the pictures from the booth immediately and turn them into  "thank you" digital cards. 

More than anything, I am just glad we all had fun, including the birthday boy. 

It was fun!