~ Pre-Christmas Dinner + Gathering @ Au Chocolat ~

Okay, so... one of my new year resolution  is "update my blog as soon as I can", so I'm gonna keep my promise and update you guys on my pre-Christmas post with my old buddies first. 

Wanted to write the whole Christmas in one post but I don't think can as this will be a quite long post. =P So do looking forward to my post on Christmas! xD So after a few discussions in whatsapp, we chose Au Chocolat at Marina Bay Sands as the venue of our pre-christmas dinner + gathering. =)

Some of you might be wondering why we didn't have this dinner on Christmas day itself or Christmas' Eve, I was really hoping for that but unfortunately some of them were unable to make it therefore we changed it to the Sunday before Christmas. =)

I like how the place looks like, the whole place is fulled of "European feel", and the place got that "atas" feel. Can't think of any proper words to describe the place, so I will let the photos do all the talking. xD

Get what I mean? xD This place is so beautiful and you can tell that they did paid attention to the small details, Took a few pictures while we were looking through the menu and deciding what to eat. xD

The menu~

They also have this special festive menu for Christmas, which they featured the "Mary Had A Little Lamb" that almost made me fall for it. I'm a weak resistant to lamb you know...=P

The Beverages:
Summer ordered herself a cup of hot Latte (SGD 7). The latte tasted alright to me, nothing too special. Guessed this was because their specialty are more in chocolate right? (since their name is Au Chocolat, lol!)

While Yuki ordered the Au Chocolat Hot Fudge (SGD 10). If you want something rich and creamy to warm up your soul, this will be the perfect choice for you. =) (with additional marshmallows too! =P)

Royce ordered himself a glass of Cranberry Juice (SGD 8). Haha, don't ask me about the taste cuz I never tried but I guess cranberry juice should taste fine since it's a juice? (What kind of reason is this? -.-)

Me, Connie and Jacky, the three of us ordered the same drink, Cookies and Cream Milk Shakes (SGD 12). Initially me and Jacky wanted to order the chocolate espresso bean milk shakes but the waiter told us that this drink was no longer available on that day. =( (Try to console myself that I have a good taste since it's a hot sale item on the menu. xD)

The taste of the drink was thick and not too sweet, everything taste just nice!! *big thumbs up* Hopefully I can try the chocolate espresso bean milk shake when I pay my next visit. =)

The Food:
Summer and Yuki both ordered the same pasta, the Homemade Garlic Herb Pesto Pasta With Prawns (SGD 25). It is a pasta comes with succulent tiger prawns with chilli and spring herbs. The prawns look extremely big and delicious! xD

Royce chose eggs benedict as his main for dinner that night. He ordered The Little Piggy Benedict (SGD 20). I had to admit that the name for the dish was quite cute, haha. 

This little piggy benedict consists of toasted English muffins with two poached eggs wrapped with parma ham, served with cooked pork shoulder ham, crispy bacon and hollandaise sauce. =)

Since Jacky is a vegetarian (not a fully vegetarian though), so the Wild Forest Mushrooms Pasta (SGD 25) became his choice. =) It's a combination of forest gems simmered in a rich creamy stew, tossed with chopped camembert (cow's milk cheese) and fresh parsley. 

Connie ordered the Duck Confit (SGD 28), which is a dish that I was considering order also. I know I'm indecisive, but it's very hard when you got a good choice of food and you just feel like trying everything out right? Haha, okay.. that aside first. The portion of the dish was quite big I must said. 

It's a pan-roasted duck thigh with Au Chocolate twist, served with potato mash, white wine poached pear and topped off with tangy chocolate orange sauce. I did have a bite of it, it taste a bit soury mixed with sweetness. One of the must-try if you are dining in Au Chocolat! =)

Since I "gave up" the duck confit, I ordered the Au Chocolat Mocha Pork Rib (SGD 35). The reason why this pork rib attracted me is because of the sauce with a sinful combination of dark chocolate and gourmet coffee sauce and secondly, I missed the baby pork ribs that I had on my last last Christmas in Cafe Cartel.

The perfectly roasted pork ribs surprisingly taste well with such special sauce. But one thing about this pork ribs that I find not that good enough is the meat not soft and tender enough, it was a bit dry. 

But I really like the sauce, just that the mocha taste wasn't that outstanding. But overall, it's a worth a try dish. =) The sweet potato fries also nice, but if you are a small appetite person, I would suggest you share this with one more person as the portion was quite huge. xD

We also ordered Truffle Fries (SGD 15) and one Au Chocolat Tower Cake (SGD 18) to share among us. Before our entrees being served, the truffle fries arrived first to rescue our starving stomach, lol. =P 

The fries drizzled with fragrant white truffle oil and seasoned with truffle sea salt, served with mayonnaise & BBQ sauce. I must said this truffle fries taste much better than the one I had in Cafe Melba! =)

The tower cake is one of the must try signature desserts in Au Chocolate. It has 6 layers of moist chocolate cake filled filled with milk chocolate Chantilly and crunchy chocolate pearls, enrobed in dark chocolate ganache, served with warm Au Chocolat fudge sauce with vanilla gelato. 

Good thing about this 6-layers cake was each of us can enjoyed one layer of it since there were 6 of us, haha! xD The cake is moist and very chocolaty, so I understand why most of the tables that time had this tower cake served. It's really good! =)

How can you called this a Christmas dinner (ok, pre-Christmas) without the gifts exchange session?! Yay, my favourite part, hahaha. I asked all of them to bring along one present for that night so that we could have a gift exchange session. It would be more fun if more people can turn up but it's ok, we still have 6 people! 

The Gift Exchange Session: 

Not those big presents but it's all the heart that counts! =) So after I wrote the number on each of the gifts, so here starts our gift exchange session! I was the first one who gets to pick my lucky number, haha. 

And my lucky pick belongs to Connie's gift! =) (will reveal what our gifts were later on! xD)

Summer was the second one who got to pick and her lucky pick was Royce's gift!

Then is Connie's turn, and her lucky pick was Yuki's gift! 

And Yuki's pick was gift from Summer!

While Royce's lucky pick was Jacky's gift!

Last but not least, Jacky lucky pick was gift from me!! Haha!

Guess most of you must be quite curious what's actually inside the beautiful wrappers. xD No worry, it's revealing time! xD

I got a pretty Christmas edition Starbucks mug from Connie! Thanks Connie! (I'll take back what I said to you on the train that day, so please forget about it! =P)

And Summer got herself the cute orange mini fan from Royce! xD

Connie got a beautiful cup with a bird on it from Yuki. xD

Royce got himself a small notebook from Jacky which he claimed it is a 无字经书, lol. Why? Read more to find out, haha! =P

Yuki got herself a Lindt dark chocolate from Summer. *nom nom*

And this is the planner from me that picked by Jacky. (I myself quite like the planner actually, haha!)

Here are some of the photos of us with our gifts. =)

Connie & Yuki~

Royce & Jacky~

Me & Summer~

Now you all know why Royce claimed his gift as "无字经书" right? xD It's been quite a while since most of us gathered together, so a few (or a lot) photos is a must of course! =)

After our sumptuous pre-Christmas dinner at Au Chocolat, we strolled around inside Marina Bay Sands. Took some pictures of the Au Chocolat Confiserie when we passed by it. 

We even took pictures in front of the mirror, haha! xD

A few more pictures that we took before we ended our night at Marina Bay Sands. =)

I really had so much fun that night and thanks to all of you who came down and make this pre-Christmas dinner + gathering a blast! Hope we can have another meet up soon and for those who unable to attend, hopefully you all can make it to our next meet up! =)

Till then, annyeong! Xoxo, Phoebe. :)

Au Chocolat

01-03,04,05,
The Shoppes At Marina Bay Sands,
Singapore 018972.