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Review: Cafe Swiss
By daniel | March 17, 2007
Esther and I weren’t feeling too hungry last night so we decided to grab something light for dinner (we had originally planned to go Esmirada in CHIJMES). She had just finished an office event at Swissotel Stamford so we popped into the nearby all-day dining restaurant Cafe Swiss in Raffles City Shopping Centre instead.
Cafe Swiss feels like a typical upmarket hotel restaurant with its tastefully modern contemporary furnishings in a pleasantly quite environment, but it stops quite short of taking our breath away. We were quietly and politely ushered to a nice little corner by the efficient waitstaff where we can observe the other patrons - not many of them - and not embarrass ourselves too much when taking pictures.
Menus came swiftly. The beef tenderloin and farm chicken stew actually sounded pretty good, but portions sounded way too huge. Esther chose the Swiss burger, and I settled on an oven-baked Mediterranean vegetable casserole. With our order taken, we sat back and relaxed. While we chatted - my eyes frequently flicking to the two huge Samsung plasma TV screens showing a replay of an EPL soccer match - a complimentary bread basket arrived.
Nothing special, but a nice gesture indeed. When Esther’s Swiss burger (S$18) came it was a sight to behold.
The photo doesn’t do it justice.
The huge burger patty was embraced by a well-toasted burger bun, smothered with Swiss Emmenthal cheese and a creamy mushroom sauce, and accompanied by a decent mixed salad and a heap of golden chips. The chunky chips - which made the skinny McDonalds’ kind look positively anorexic - were excellent, hot and crisp on the outside and delightfully moist inside. The beef patty also got the thumbs-up. It was substantial, the mince came from a good cut and little breadcrumbs, if any, were used. A little more seasoning would have made it a whole lot better though. However, Esther was terribly disappointed that her burger bun came buttered - she had requested for it to be without butter. Our order was even taken by the captain himself. Tsk tsk.
My oven-baked casserole (S$17) came, and I was totally… underwhelmed by how it looked.
The oven-baked casserole of Mediterranean vegetables - peppers, mushrooms, squash, pine nuts and olives - was served with three slices of rosemary focaccia bread. Yes, that’s the size of the fork compared to the oven dish. I wasn’t that hungry, but the portion size was pathetic.
The cheese crust was overcooked. The “rosemary focaccia bread” neither resembled a focaccia nor tasted of rosemary. I hate to say this, but even Pizza Hut’s garlic bread tasted a great deal better. This dish was so totally lacklustre I had problems justifying to myself why I should gain calories on such uninspiring food.
The desserts sounded really good in the menu - Toblerone cheesecake, Kirsch torte, carrot cake and pear tart - but we were wary enough not to bother.
The burger really was quite good, but many other places serve great burgers too. Maybe we went there too late in the day. Maybe we should have ordered other signature Swiss dishes instead. Maybe I shouldn’t create excuses for Cafe Swiss.
As we left, the friendly waiter handed us a customer card to fill out. It had questions on service, but nothing at all about the food. I didn’t bother.
Nice environment for chilling out, and relatively good service despite the butter gaffe by the captain, but it’s amazing how the poor experience of just one dish can form an indelible impression about a certain eating establishment. Based on that casserole alone, it’d be a long time before I’d consider coming back to Cafe Swiss if at all.
Topics: Restaurant, Reviews, Western |