In Good Company Café by Plain Vanilla Bakery, Ion Orchard

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In Good Company is a brand of fashionable garments and accessories which are retailed in stores such as Tang’s. They have set up a stand-alone concept store in Basement One Ion Orchard (next to Calvin Klein Jeans) where they sell beautiful clothes and lifestyle products. We could get carried away talking about their products, but we remind ourselves to focus on the eating. Situated right inside the store, quite out-of-view to the casual passerby, is the In Good Company Cafe that is run by Plain Vanilla.

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With lush ferns hanging from the ceiling and tables arranged in picnic table style, the inner corner of In Good Company is like a hidden oasis where one can seek refuge from the shopping madness outside. A small play corner with a teepee and toys keep the little ones occupied.

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We suspect that most of the eating done here is by the cake and coffee crowd. There was a generous spread of cakes by Plain Vanilla that looked far from plain.

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We had tried some of the cakes by Plain Vanilla at their cafe in the National Gallery. This time we decide to try their “real food” – there are salads, sandwiches and pasta. Here are some pictures of the food menu. We decided to have the spicy beef rage pasta ($18) and Jambon Royale sandwich ($15).

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For drinks, we had a chai latte and a cappuccino. The latter was smooth and good. The chai latte was too milky and creamy.

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The Jambon Royale was a mountain of a sandwich, enough to be shared by two people. The brioche was light and nice but the overall taste was quite ordinary – it was essentially a giant ham and cheese sandwich.

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The spicy beef ragu had small amounts of minced beef in a mildly spicy sauce. We thought the use of spaghettini was a good idea as it offered a lot of surface area to soak up the sauce. This was quite an enjoyable dish.

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Some other food items by Plain Vanilla were available for sale at the cafe. Overall, with its limited food preparation space, one should not expect gourmet food at the In Good Company Cafe. However, as a convenient pit stop in a quiet location in the busy Ion Orchard mall to recharge with a drink and light meal or snack, it certainly deserves consideration.

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