Anyone who opens a vegetarian/vegan eatery in Singapore is facing an uphill task, words can not describe what a difficult business F&B is. The gradient of this uphill task will be all the more steeper if one is to move next to an already successful vegetarian eatery. For Veganation, there is no question that moving within touching distance of
Real Food is a daring move. Will they be able to pull it off? Let's find out...
VeganationLocation:6 Eu Tong Sen Street. The Central. #B1-40
Contact: 97977591
Opening Hours: Daily 11.30am - 8.00pm Veganation are starting off small, it is a take away counter only, with no seating.
One of the people in charge is Timothy Williams, who for many months was under the tutelage of Hassan at
Fill-a-Pita. He is even using Hassan's signature falafel pita on the Veganation menu.
The goal of Veganation is to cherry pick the signature dishes of many countries all over the world, and place them onto one menu. Currently the menu is quite simple, but there are dishes from Israel, Germany, Egypt, Vietnam, Mexico, Spain, USA and UK.
First dish I selected was the
USA Burger. Overall this was the best dish I tried from Veganation. The lentil burger patty was soft and had just the right amount of firmness and the burger bun texture was better than what I expected. Inside the burger was lettuce, tomato, BBQ sauce, mustard and chilli sauce. Better sauces could have been used, instead of generic supermarket brands such as Masterfoods and Heinz. The lettuce could have been fresher as well.
Price: $6.00. 6/10Next, a dish that is close to my heart
UK Shepherds Pie. Obviously being from UK, this was a dish I recall eating frequently, especially during the colder winter months. Regrettably, I have to say this was a very poor rendition of shepherds pie. The flaws lie to two areas - Firstly, a good shepherds pie should be moist, not dry. I suspect the pie was left out for too long, hence the moisture from the potato was gone. Secondly, the pie seemed to have just one prominent flavour - Bitterness, which I was scratching my head as to where/how bitterness found its way into this dish. Oh, and it was cold too...
Price: $8.00. 2/10Lastly, we have the
Spanish Paella. Although not as bad as the shepherds pie, this dish was still a disappointment. Once again, it fell victim to being left out in the open for too long, so it was both cold and the moisture was sucked out of the food (this will happen if you leave rice exposed for too long, hence the invention of the 'keep warm' function on rice cookers) - Occasionally sprinkling water onto the rice would help to avoid this. Also this dish is a far cry from Spanish paella, which should be a potluck of different flavours and ingredients lurking inside. This dish more closely resembled tomato rice, and didn't warrant the $8 price tag.
Price: $8.00. 4/10Conclusion - Veganation are still very new, so I am trying to be as gentle as I can in this review. Timothy seems like a friendly and dedicated individual, so it does pain me to say frankly that the food is not up to scratch. I think Timothy and his colleagues need to learn the basic fundamentals of the dishes they are producing first, and if the culinary expertise/skill is not strong, then keep things simple - This is the key to success of eateries like Fill-a-Pita. Franchising a second Fill-a-Pita stall at this location would have been a better idea...Overall RatingFood - 4/10Ambiance- N/A Service - 8/10 Value - 4/10
