8 Stanley Street, Raffles Place

By Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow on January 22, 2014 • ( 2 Comments )

While 8 Stanley Street tries to be too many things at once–cafe by day and bistrobar by night–the bare, fuss-free decor is surprisingly unpretentious, and hence comfortable.

The baristas have competed in Singapore and World competitions, and the coffee was decent. My latte ($6) wasn’t robust or complex; it was smooth, light, mineral, and not at all bitter.

The menu consists European fusion cuisine. A two-course set lunch of a main with a choice of salad or soup is competitively priced at only $14.80. The linguine beef cheeks from the set lunch was innovative but I found it strange to have beef jus as a sauce for the al dente pasta. Awesome beef cheeks, tender as a lover’s whispers.

From the a la carte menu, the chef’s special seafood pie ($24) was visually and orally pleasing. Chucks of salmon, clams, mussels and prawns were stewed in a thick chowder broth, and the boat-shaped bowl covered in puff pastry embossed with the shop’s logo. Huccalily couldn’t stop eating this although she thought the clams and mussels ought to be deshelled. I, on the other hand, liked them whole as I believed the shells contributed to that seaside fragrance, but I’d like the dish to be packed fuller.

The 8 Stanley Burger ($18) had a thick and juicy patty made from wagyu beef, which both of us adored. But somehow the burger didn’t come together as a whole because of the condiments. The truffle fries that came with the burger were ‘one of the best I have,’ Huccalily said.

The most original and best dish for me was the dessert, grilled lemon-yogurt cake ($6). I had never eaten a grilled dessert before. The slice of lemon-yogurt cake was grilled–you can see the charred lines–and topped with creme fraiche and passionfruit. It was light, moist, warm and sourish enough to make you feel better after a heavy meal, but not face-scrunchingly so. Huccalily said, ‘I could eat the entire thing without feeling guilty.’