Chef Icon - Tanjong Pagar

Chef Icon has built up a solid reputation since opening back in 2008, and gets a steady stream of customers based on two factors.  Firstly, they are in high demand for their many varieties of cakes, usually with customers ordering full cakes for birthdays and other celebrations.  Secondly, they are quite popular with the working crowd, who are always keen to order their sandwiches and other savoury items.  Although it is not stated clearly, Chef Icon is totally vegetarian, with mock ham being in their sandwiches, opposed to the real thing.  For more information, their official Facebook page is here.










Chef Icon
Location: 5 Kampong Bahru Road
Contact: 93373900
Opening Hours: Mon-Sat 8.00am-8.00pm.  Sunday Closed.

 
I really love the ambiance of Chef Icon, it is a small cosy shop with wooden tables and shelves.  The non-menu bread items often sell out pretty fast, so if you want to buy it is better to go as early as you can, to avoid disappointment.  The attitude of the staff/owner is some of the best I have experienced in Singapore.  He always greets every customer with warm affection, and makes every customer feel truly valued.
Here is a look at the cake menu.  I love the motto 'Good food makes people happy', which Chef Icon goes by.  Definitely this motto is true for me.
The savoury menu is quite basic.  The eatery specializes in bread items, with them selling sandwiches, burgers, toasties and salads.  The menu is quite unfriendly to vegans, who have quite limited options to choose from. 
For the lunch crowd, a lot of customers tend to go for the clubman sandwiches (especially popular amongst ang moh's).  I decided to try the Rendang Curry sandwich first.  The design of the sandwich is actually very simple.  Lettuce, purple cabbage and tomato make up the vegetable portion of the sandwich.  The rendang is derived from shredded mushroom stems, which have then been cooked in a rendang sauce.  The highlight of the sandwhich for me was actually the bread - I loved the crunchy texture and the flavour that the sesame seeds gave.  Simple is sometimes best.  I only wished that there was some additional sauce smeared inside for extra flavour.

Price: $8.80.     8/10
Next sandwich we tried was the Yakiniku Mushroom.  Basically, the foundation of this sandwich is exactly the same as the previous one.  Even the mushroom is the same, just flavoured in a different way.  Once again, it was the bread itself that really won my heart.  Similarly to the previous sandwich, I would have liked to have seen an extra sauce inside.  But a really decent sandwich overall.

Price: $8.80.     7/10


Conclusion - Chef Icon has gained such popularity in Singapore due to the friendliness of the owner and the reliable quality of their food.  Both owners of Chef Icon are vegetarians, so like I mentioned, everything on the menu is without meat.  I would like to see more vegan options become available in the future, but overall it is difficult to fault the excellent job that the owners are doing here.

Overall Rating
Food - 7/10
Ambiance- 8/10
Service - 9/10
Value - 7/10