What a difference a designer makes! Bakalaki Greek Taverna is a new restaurant that has taken over the space formerly occupied by Forgotten Recipe at the Cape Inn on Seng Poh Road. The restaurant, located at the fringe of the Tiong Bahru area (near Outram Road), used to be dark and serious. The new Greek restaurant have transformed the space into a beautiful bright and sunny eatery.
Tapas Club is a new Spanish restaurant that opened a week ago in Orchard Central, Singapore. It is located at the eastern end of level 2, right opposite another restaurant, Real Food. We discovered that it is run by D+1 Holding – the same company that operates another Spanish restaurant in Singapore – the successful Binomo Restaurant in Tanjong Pagar.
According to the Productivity Benchmarking Report (Food Services) of Singapore Productivity Centre, between 26% and 30% of food businesses shut down each year. The Tiramisu Hero @ Tyrwhitt Road is a small whimsical cafe that opened in 2013 and it is not just surviving but thriving. It must be doing something right.
Wine & Chef Singapore is a relatively new restaurant that opened in early 2017. It is located in one of the shophouses along the stretch of restaurants on Keong Saik Road. It serves an eclectic mix of food items that could be from menus at a zhi char stall, a Japanese izakaya or a French bistro. It has an extensive list of Italian wines which would not be out-of-place in an enoteca in Rome. The extreme mix and match could either end up successfully as the best of both worlds or as a complete disaster. There was only one way to find out.
El Sifo d’en Garriga is a cosy new snack bar in Eixample, Barcelona that we stumbled upon recently. In a location that is teeming with places to eat, this little cafe stood out from the others by its bright white clinical decor. It has been sometime since we have come across any eatery calling itself a “snack bar”. Perhaps the Singapore Magnolia Snack Bar from days gone by was the last one we can remember.
We had brunch at new restaurant Summerlong at Quayside despite the warning from respected food critic Wong Ah Yoke about thumping music and sweltering heat in his review, “Summerlong – A buzzy Mediterranean restaurant with Middle Eastern influences” (ST 4 June 2017). We figured that we could be from a different demographic and therefore be more receptive towards thumping music. If we went early, we could beat the crowds and the heat of the Singapore afternoon sun. It turned out that we were partially right.
