With the motto 'meatless doesn't mean tasteless', Well Dress Salad Bar & Cafe hope to offer a refreshing new concept to the vegetarian scene in Singapore. This cafe is actually owned by the same people in charge of
Eight Treasures, which is conveniently located just upstairs. Eight Treasures is certainly one of the more traditional looking vegetarian restaurants in Singapore, so it is interesting to see it contrasted with this more youthful and trendy Well Dressed Cafe.
Well Dressed Salad Bar & CafeLocation: 282 South Bridge RoadContact: 65347787, 97893072Opening Hours: Daily 10.30am-9.30pmThe unique selling point of this eatery is definitely the customizable salad. There is a variety of options to choose from (see pictured), and even someone who doesn't particularly like salads will be somewhat curious by the different choices. I must say, it is pleasing to see salads being taken seriously for once. I get awfully tired of receiving the same sorry looking, half-rotten pieces of lettuce and a slice of depressing looking tomato and/or cucumber at almost every vegetarian eatery I visit. A salad doesn't
always have to be lettuce, cucumber and tomato - For goodness sake!
Although salad is in their name, it is not the only thing they are serving. Rather wisely, the owners of this eatery have padded out their menu with a variety of Western-style vegetarian dishes. Therefore, even those customers who look at salad as if they've seen a ghost need not worry - There will be other options for you. This is not a vegan eatery, so make sure to clarify what dishes contain animal products.
Salad and fruit juices are like medicine for the body - Undoing all the crimes to biology that meat and dairy might have done. This cafe has a generous host of fresh fruit juices, so if you feeling like giving your insides a treat, it would go perfectly with a salad. My curiosity, however, led me in the direction of the
Watermelon ice Tea. Watermelon and lemon tea is an unusual mixture, and I think opinion might be divided on whether this combination works well together or not. Personally, it didn't suit my taste buds.
Price: $5.00. 6/10So here we have the
Create Your Own Salad Bowl meal. For this salad, we picked rocket as the green. For the six toppings, we opted for chick peas, beetroot, almond silvers, capsicum, pasta, olives (yes, I was trying my best to pick the most expensive ingredients). These ingredients were then sprinkled with creamy wasabi lime, which was our chosen dressing. Overall the presentation of this salad was wonderful. Also, all the ingredients were fresh - Nothing half-rotten here. The dressing was particularly good, but I would have liked a little more of it. Also adding a wider range of more exciting toppings would be better - Roasted pumpkin, grilled tofu, quinoa etc.
Price: $8.50. 7/10Of course, a salad would never come close to filling a hungry ang mo like myself, therefore I flicked open the menu and pointed towards a dish named
Black Pepper Veg Chicken Chop. Let's start with the negatives - 1. Cold baked beans (got to go). 2. Sweet chili sauce (got to go). These ingredients have no place on any true Western dish. Also, the two mini-buns were tough in texture and unappealing. Luckily, the focal point of this dish (the mock chicken) was quite delicious. They consisted of two very thin slabs of soy mock meat, but it is the black pepper sauce which really brings them to life. One of the better black pepper sauce that I've had the privilege to try.
Price: $10.00. 6/10Conclusion - Any cafe/restaurant that is promoting the consumption of fresh fruit juices and salads will get the thumbs up from me. Vegetarian food in Singapore has many negative connotations attached to it, one of those being that it isn't particularly healthy (which is partially true). A cafe like this one can hopefully highlight healthy, yet interesting vegetarian food.Overall Rating
Food - 7/10
Ambiance- 8/10
Service - 7/10
Value - 6/10
