RATIO Ion Orchard – New Cafe With Coffee Robots

Ratio Ion Orchard, or RATIO cafe + Gastrobar which it is formally known as, is a new cafe situated at level B1 of the Ion Shopping Mall. Robotic baristas preparing coffee is a memerising sight. We stopped by to try their food menu.

First Impressions

RATIO Ion is the second RATIO outlet at Orchard Road. Their first outlet, Ratio Centrepoint has a robot powered cafe & lounge with no barista or bartender. Customers order and pay by digital means. Robotic arms make the drinks such as Cappuccino, Bailey’s Latte, Kopi C or Teh O as well as cocktails like Tom Yum Martini and Gin & Tonic.

As usual, the robots are the star attraction. People stop to watch and snap pictures. But the atmosphere at the RATIO Ion Orchard outlet seems more casual than the one at Centrepoint. In fact our first impression was that it looks like a simple HongKong cafe (char chaan teng). The cafe is located at basement one, at the top of the long escalator that connects to Ion Basement 4.

RATIO Ion Orchard Menu

Here are pictures of some portions of the RATIO menu. With most of the menu taken up by drinks and dessert, the food mains selection seemed limited to western staples like pasta and burgers. The sharing plates section has an interesting item – Mum’s Spiced Chicken Tail ($11.50). We did not try that as our interest in chicken lie mostly in the middle sections. We ordered Char Siew Kurobuta Sandwich ($22.90) and Cod and Chips ($25.90) instead.

What We Ate

The cod and chips looked promising but the fish turned out to be rather dry. It was not a tasty fish dish. The chips were good. They were the highlight of the dish and possibly the entire meal.

Our other dish was char siew Kurobuta sandwich. The thin slices of lean pork had a nice taste but were not substantial enough to balance the bulk of the bun. It turned out to be another dry dish where the taste of char siew was almost lost in the wilderness of bread.

We also had a lychee panna cotta martini ($11.90). It was nice enough but not particularly memorable.

We were disappointed with the food but fortunately the friendliness of the service staff made up somewhat for the first time experience at RATIO Ion Orchard.

Ratings:
Food: 3
Service: 3
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 2
Overall Rating: 3 TOPs

RATIO Ion Orchard
2 Orchard Turn, #B1-12
Singapore 238801

Opening Hours: 10am – 10pm

Nearby MRT Station: Orchard

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The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog