I have received a never ending stream of emails, comments and tweets urging me to visit this new and exciting vegetarian restaurant named Cafe de Paradiso. Straight off the bat, the biggest deterrent (and main reason it took me so long to formulate this review) for visiting this establishment, is that it is located in the middle of nowhere. Tradehub 21 is impossible to get to by train and only a few buses go past it. Therefore it took me by surprise to see that business is seemingly going quite well for this restaurant, with a decent number of customers lurking inside, when I visited.
Cafe de ParadisoLocation: 8 Boon Lay Way, #01-29 Tradehub 21
Contact: 65159873Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10.30am-9.30pm & Sat-Sun 8.30am-9.30pmCafe de Paradiso offers customers a detailed menu, with predominantly Western, Chinese and Japanese dishes on offer. Price wise, I would have to rank this establishment on the high end. The ambiance of the restaurant is fresh and new, yet sophisticated at the same time. The Western section of this menu is a vegans nightmare, with almost every dish containing a dairy product of some description.
Don't let the picture fool you, this is not olive fried rice, instead it is
Japanese-Style Seaweed Fried Rice. The dish is an acceptable size, with good contrast between the slightly sweet pork floss and the subtly salty seaweed. Other ingredients that can be found include button mushrooms, diced mock ham and thinly cut long beans. The balance between sweet and salt was perfect in this dish, but what was lacking was any aroma. An excellent fried rice simply must have the aroma of the wok (wok hai) within the dish. This dish was unfortunately lacking in that respect.
Price: $5.50. 6/10To accompany my rice, I went with the
Pi Pa Mock Duck. This dish (like many at Cafe de Paradiso) comes in three sizes (I purchased the smallest). The most outstanding aspect of this dish is the rich and succulent dark sauce. It matches perfectly with the mock meat, and is neither too over-powering nor too bland. Additionally, the amount of sauce used was just ideal. The mock meat had a tender and juicy texture, although I was disappointed with the 'skin' of the meat - The texture was crumbly and brittle. I would have preferred to have had a tougher and more chewy texture. The salad that accompanies it is the same trite tomato, lettuce and cucumber - A little more originality needed in that regard. Could be a perfect dish if a few tweaks are made.
Price: $9.00. 7/10
Conclusion - Aside from the horrid geographical location of this restaurant, I found my experience at Cafe de Paradiso to be a satisfying one overall. My wallet, on the other hand, found it to be a slightly torturous affair. The prices are definitely steep here - My bill coming to almost $15 (I was eating alone). The dishes still have some minor improvements that need to be made to them, but I believe that Cafe de Paradiso is on the right path. A place to certainly consider visiting, if you don't mind the traveling distance.Overall RatingFood - 7/10Ambiance- 8/10 Service - 6/10 Value - 4/10
