25 Degree Celsius (25°C) Cafe/Bar/Cookbooks/Test Kitchen

Walked past this little car or kitchen. Recipe books can be seen displaying outside the kitchen.

It's 11.15am when i reached here and they had jus opened.(chair and tables r jus being pushed out). I WALKED INSIDE and saw a few things on display. The coffee sin cake n molten choc cake. I ordered the coffee sin cake since the molten choc is not meant to be taken away. A little slice like this cost $9.40!Oh my goodness! I hope it taste good.

The coffee sin cake is jus a normal choc cake with rum sauce n i regretted buying it. wHEN I asked them whether it contains any nuts, they told me no. But when i eat it, it's full of almond nibblets n i had to pit it our bit by bit. I think most of the f/less choc cake used almond flour or semolina flour if im not wrong. It's jus a normal pc of cake, not worth the price!

My companion and I read about this place on a blog review and decided to give it a try for dinner on a Thursday night.

We ordered sausage rings with gherkins ($10) for starters (tapas). The sausages were too salty and not even the mustard and the gherkins could balance out the saltiness.

For the main course, we ordered the Barramundi fish (about $18.80) and and a Duck Confit ($17.50). The duck was quite good, although the portions were a tad too tiny for my male companion's appetite. The fish seemed quite fresh, but apart from that, the taste was not particularly memorable. All in all, I would say that I have had better main courses at far better prices.

For dessert, we ordered the Sticky Date Pudding (about $10.80) which came with a scoop of ice cream and butterscotch. I would say the dessert was not bad although I have not had sticky date puddings elsewhere before so I would not have had a fair comparison to make. According to my companion who has eaten other comparable puddings, the one we ordered was not particularly exceptional and suggested that perhaps the one at Tuckshop (at Bank of China building) might even be better.

What really disappointed me, however, was the inflexibility of the staff who served us. The waitress was helpful, but the two lady owners were not. We had originally planned to takeaway a Carrot Cake ($10.80) and a slice of the Bake of the Day -- Lemon Butter Cake. The Carrot Cake comes with a scoop of ice-cream and so I had requested to have the Carrot Cake without the ice cream and for them to charge me accordingly less. I would have been happy with a discount of $2 or $3 (the menu states that a scoop of ice cream is $4.90). However, the lady boss flatly refused and said that they would serve me the ice cream there and then and pack the cake for me separately. By that time we had already had our meal and were too full to eat any more, and I asked them to explain why I had to pay for something that I'm not eating? They could not give me a satisfactory explanation.

How difficult is it for a business to simply sell me a slice of cake without ice cream and give me a discount of a couple of dollars? Having just returned from Taiwan and been overwhelmed by the high level of service, I am sorely disappointed with the attitudes of the staff that served me at 25 Degree Celsius. Businesses should learn that no matter how good you think your food might be, you will not get returning customers if you cannot even get the basics of customer service right.

One of the better new joints I've tried in a while.

Love the store front where the bookstore part is, nice spacious serving/preparation area but the dining room and kitchen seem rather small.

Inspite of that, they manage to dish out a pretty interesting spread and most importantly, good tasting menu.

Had a small gathering of 6 there and a nice corner to ourselves. Can probably take up to a party of 10 if need be.

We ordered 4 out of the 5 mains they had, a pasta and some sides to share.

I had the Mojito Pork served with cucumber yoghurt and wedges. It smelt absolutely wonderful and lived up to its taste. The pork was slightly fatty though but I guess that's what made it yummier.

Everyone else was happy with their choice. The lamb shank which looked inviting just from the sheer size of the portion, was tender and fell right off the bone as lamb shanks should. The Duck Confit, Steak and Chicken Casserole got the thumbs up too.

For appetizers, I'll say their conconction of Ngo Hiang with Achar was very unique and tasted better than it sounds!

Was a wonderful all in all. The only dampener was their policy of not providing plates for us when we brought our own birthday cake. The wait staff was apologetic and gave us a lot of of servettes though.

Gf and I decided to check out 25 Degrees after she read about it somewhere. It's a nice find along Keong Saik Road, diagonally opposite Ember at Hotel 1929.

Conceptually, 25 Degrees works - marrying cook books with food. Now why didn't I think of that?! Duh... The display area in the front provides a great setting to enjoy your Sunday lunch and unfortunately or fortunately sets certain expectations of the food.

I had the Wild Mushroom pasta ($13.80) which was a cream based and executed well while the gf had the Pan roasted Steak ($26.50) which was plated well. Side order of chicken wings tasted like a mild version of Har Chong Kai ($10). While decent, we felt somewhat underwhelmed as we were maybe expecting some intriguing dishes created from the cook books sold.

I would have liked references in the menu to the corresponding cook books so that if I liked a dish, I could purchase the cook book and give making the dish a shot.

Service was warm and hospitable. Ambience really is great.

I chanced upon this place with my bf. Yes, we enjoy exploring new places to eat!

Unusual concept. Book cafe, yes, but it is a COOKbook cafe. Small although is small, is cosy & toilet is cleverly hidden behind a sliding door that resembles a cupboard.

The teas are great and I even bought a box of Lemon Peppermint Tea - comes in a silken tea bag so you don't get frays in your tea.

Food is good & the dessert - something brownie with liquid hot flowing choc is yummy

I have returned to this place a few times, with different friends & they are happy with the food.

i never write any review for any cafe or restaurant and i will write it short..

that day i went to 25 degree celsius and i find the cafe cum the cookbook store is a nice place for a couple to go for a date. the place is quiet.

we order "hokkien mee" pasta,chicken casserole, ice fruit tea, hazelnut latte, warm valrhona chocolate cake

I love the new potato miso salad - one of the best tasting salads i've had in a long time. fresh ingredients, a flavourful dressing and munchy greens make this a must-order item.

I've been here twice and had a curry the first time, which was comfortingly spicy and very british, while I tried the mojito pork and the barramundi the next time. I'm not convinced about the pairing of mojito and pork, but the barramundi fillet was fresh and simply put together with julienned veggies. yum!

Its a cosy place, so service is prompt and very polite, a party of about 6 to 8 is probably the maximum. 4 is best though, as the menu is fairly small. I'll probably try a pasta the next time I drop by.

On the recommendation of a colleague, a bunch of us popped by 25 deg C for lunch today.

One of my colleague's first reaction was "Isn't this a bookstore?"

Two rows of shelves chockful of cookbooks greet you as you enter the cafe. You'll find titles not usually available at other mainstream bookstores.

The cafe itself takes up the other half of the store, probably with seating for about 20 to 30 pax.

The menu offers a selection of salads, soups, pastas, tapas and mains with between four to six options for each.

Besides their usual menu, they also test out recipes from cookbooks. While we were there, they were offering a catfish dish from Martha Stewart's cookbook. This was unfortunately sold out by the time we were there. According to the cafe, they will be trying out another recipe next week.

Between the 11 of us, we tried a variety of dishes with some hits and misses.

Here's a quick rundown:

Salads (around $10): Miso Salad with new potatoes and Baked Caesar salad with prawns -
Both were well received and we even tried to get the recipe for the miso salad but were politely declined. Don't ask me why the Caesar salad is baked though..

Wild Mushroom soup (Around $7) -
The general impression was that this was rather watered down. It came with a sizeable piece of bread though.

Pastas (around $12): Mushroom and Ham, Tomato, and Pesto with mussels -
The mushroom and ham pasta received mixed reviews, probably because it was prepared at separate occasions. One felt it was rather bland while another found it to be alright. Note: the mushrooms are blended into the sauce so you won't actually see slices of mushrooms.

The tomato pasta was again had mixed reviews although both were prepared together. One found it bland whilst another found it light and tasty with perhaps a hint of tabasco.

The pesto with mussels pasta went down well, and came with a generous serving of mussels.

Tapas (around $10): Spiced apple chicken roll
This also received a good rating. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a description of how it tasted like. Other options include chicken wings and ngo hiang amongst other things.

Mains (around $16, $26 for the steak): Steak, Pork fillet, Barramundi fish on rice, Duck Confit, Chicken casserole -
The minute steak, duck confit and fish were delicious, especially with the duck falling off the bone easily with crispy skin and melt-in-your-mouth meat. Both the steak and duck came with yummy potato sides. The steak was tender and tasty and they actually don't ask you how you would like it to be done!

The fish came on a bed of rice with juliened vegetables sitting atop. It was declared a winner as well. The chicken casserole was not particularly show-stopping but it faired well. The pork fillet was a tad bland and came with potato wedges.

Desserts (around $10): Sticky Date Pudding, warm Valrhona chocolate cake -
Both were awesome and arrived warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and some sliced strawberries. The sticky date pudding sat in a pool of toffee sauce. It was rich and was full of cinnamon flavour. The chocolate cake wasn't really a cake as the other crust was so wonderfully thin and the entire interior was filled with the melty sinful Valrhona chocolate.

Drinks wise, the cafe offers the usual coffee and tea options, juice bottles and beer.

Do note that you'll need to wait a bit for your food as there's only one chef working the stove so don't go if you're in a rush. You can watch the chef in action through a glass window.

Overall, the cafe seems like a good place to catch up with your galfriend over lunch!