Dinner at Careshop de Cafe

Talking about cafes in neighborhood, it has been quite awhile I visited one, ever since Shoney Cafe at Balestier closed down eons ago. But to support a buddy, and curious about their food, I decided to give it a shot. Careshop de Cafe is a quaint little chilling hideout tucked away at 70 Bendemeer Road #01-05 Luzerne, Singapore 339940 (Tel: 6294 9298).

I like the white, sparkly exterior of this place, hidden away amongst the heartland and industrial office buildings - eye catching, warm and almost elegant even. The interior was rather tacky in comparison though, with a theme more targeted at relaxation and simplicity I guess - think folding chairs, wooden tables and a pool table for winding down.

Besides serving a rather wide variety of food, Careshop de Cafe is also a very environmental friendly company which uses, supports and cares about the environment. Yes, a cafe that goes green and supports environmental causes through practices and contributions.

We decided to go green too, and start off our dinner with a Garden Salad with Smoked Salmon appetizer - no dressing, so it was reckoned to be extremely healthy. The salmon looked dry but tasted nothing like that- it was rather succulent in fact, and not overly-salty as most smoked salmon are. Paired with crisp greens, this dish opens up one's appetite.

I had a hard time debating between the Soft Shell Crab Bento Set or Spicy Pork Belly with Rice - eventually I stuck with the latter one. Crunchy and spicy, thin slices of pork belly were stir-fried to tender perfection; eaten with rice and a fried egg, this dish notably nutritious in a way. . There was strong hints of Kimchi for the pork belly. Tasty as it was, we were rather put off by the hard circles of "soft bones" embedded within the meat (inevitable, yes), these hard circles were rather disturbing and caused hindrance to enjoyment of the dish in its entirety.

The poached peach slice made up for the hard circles of soft bones though...:)

Never mind, the Chicken Chop was sumptuous - the tender chicken was well prepared and came with the explosive flavor of Hollandaise Sauce - sweet with sour overtures. The wedges were very crispy on the outside but the inside was stuffed with soft, mashed potato flesh instead of flour. This was a winner in any case.

Finally, it was dessert time, and we picked a slice of Oreo Cheesecake from the counter as we were informed that all the desserts on the menu were unavailable today. It was rather disappointing as we were banging on the Chocolate Lava cake... nonetheless, the oreo cheesecake that we ordered was divine. It was moist, sweet but not overly so, very smooth and the oreo powder sprinkled on top of the cake was incredible. I kept scooping up the oreo powder on the plate to eat as the rich chocolatey taste simply melted me.

Drinks-wise, we had fresh carrot juice and lemonade. We spent an average of SGD$23.00 each on our dinner here, and it was very affordable in our opinion. Come for the food only, don't expect too much of service.