Creation Cafe

Date of visit- 23/01/08

Creation Cafe sits quietly in an equally quiet building and if not for my friend's recommendation, I would have given it a pass even if I were to pass the stall by, given its simple and unflattering setting.



Creation adopts an informal approach to its diners, pretty much like Pastamania's. Once seated (by yourself), order what you want manually with the order sheet. Its menu is simple and basically diners would take up the offer of either their set lunches or dinners at $11.20 and $15.20 respectively; ala-cartes of their main courses are at $10 each, offers little value as compared to their set meals.


ice lemon tea- price inclusive in set dinner of SGD15.20

Drinks come first, as per standard, but what's different was that it took a good 15 minutes to come, and in varying sizes! My friend's glass was taller than mine. Gasp. Tea was not homemade, tasted very much like a popular brand's.


cream of mushroom- price inclusive in set dinner of SGD15.20

Serving was adequate but as shown in the photo above, a little on the low side. Soup and bread were good though, not your typical campbell soup kind. Me and my friends were satisfied with it, though it took another long wait to arrive on our tables.



While waiting for our main courses to be served, I spotted this "disclaimer" behind a wall. Guess their owners did warn its diners about the wait after all!


pesto- price inclusive in set dinner of SGD15.20

The familiar fish & chips is known as "pesto" here, and it is the only main course which is not pasta in their menu. Serving was again on the small side and after sharing, I was left with only one piece of the fish its size Long John Silver's fish would be proud of. In simpler english? LJS's fish is bigger than Creation's! But oh, this tasted good too.


brownie (with ice cream)- price inclusive in set dinner of SGD15.20

Dessert come in three options, ice cream, brownie (with ice cream), and apple crumpler (with ice cream). This could really be better. They obviously forgot to warm it up! It was hard, and many of us decided to just leave it alone.



Conclusion:
Creation serves really nice and exciting food (like their laksa-flavoured pastas!), but was let down by their service and puny portion of food. It's highly not recommended when you're running near empty but if you just need a bite, it is one good and original cafe you can rely on. And oh, their prices are nett and you save 17%! (:

If you're tired of all the crowded Bugis/Liang Seah/City Hall establishments, just walk a little further to Shaw Towers (next to Beach Road police station)

I've been going to this place since my poly days. It's definately stood the test of time! The menu's varied slightly over the years but it's still good. Food portions are rather big but handle-able.

It's a rather small and simple set up - I think it can take no more than 35-40 people. Go early for dinner (before 7) if you don't want to wait for seats but we've never had any problems going in groups of 4 or less. Not sure if they take reservations for bigger groups.

Set meals are $13.90 nett I think, if they haven't changed it. It comes with a soup of the day, main course, drink and dessert.

In my set meal was:

mushroom soup with garlic bread - VERY GOOD!
(I've also had the pumpkin soup before and it was fabulous)
spaghetti carbonara - VERY GOOD!
brownie with ice cream - VERY GOOD! but I usually can't finish because the food portions are quite big
ice lemon tea - GOOD but not special (it's probably the kind you get anywhere else)

I like that the dishes are brought to you nicely presented. It may be a small place but they do not use that as an excuse to anyhow anyhow throw together a few dishes.

No kids menu but there's no kids-unfriendly dish. The only thing is that it may be challenging to bring young kids cos the area is a bit tight. Atmosphere is light and friendly.

Friendly owners but not quite a place for first dates. Walk from either City Hall or Bugis mrt stations. Closed on Sundays.

OK all of the above was written based on many past experiences. The following is based on today's experience:

I had the crab seafood pasta set (strange name)
My husband had the vongole with mushrooms

His was rather normal for me but mine was really good. The sauce kinda tasted like a milder version of chilli crabs. It was very thoughtful of them the crack the crabshell well so I didn't have to engage into typical seafood restaurant crab hammering session. Still, not a dish to choose for first dates.

Soup of the day was mushroom. Well let's put it this way - it's obvious it did not come from a can. But it was a tad too mushroomy for the both of us. And it came with garlic bread, but the bread was half a piece of normal white bread. Just seems cheapo somehow. They used to give french loaf

They forgot to give us our soup and had already cooked our main courses by the time they realised so we had the reversed order.

Dessert was brownie with ice-cream for me (shiok! I ate it so fast my husband didn't get much), apple crumble with ice cream for him (not so good)

The disappointing thing is that prices have gone up. It is now $15.20 nett for a set dinner (plus an additional $2 or so if you choose more speciality pastas... like mine). Lunch is $11 something I think. Well, still not expensive, but my perception of the place being really cheap and really good was shaken a little by tonight's experience. Overall I felt that the drop in standard really really made the increase in price hard to swallow.

I used to be quick to suggest this place for dinner but now I'm not so sure if the inconvenience of getting there is worth the trouble anymore.

I was craving for pasta and my fren brought me to this cafe as we were around the area. He had eaten at this cafe a few times and find the pasta reasonably done and well served, so I decided to give it a try. And the dessert suppose to be quite good too.

The place basically can sit only about 20pax and I was there about 1plus. Lunch time was almost over so finding a seat for 2 was quite easy though the place was half full.

Beside the al carte, they have the set lunch and set dinner which was attractively priced. The set lunch comprises a main with soup and drink for only $11.40. The dinner comes with an additional dessert and is only slightly more expensive. We decided to have 2 set lunch, the spaghetti carbonara and linguine seafood marinara.

The mushroom soup was reasonable but I was impressed when the main was served. I can feel that the chef is very conscientious in his food presentation and it really make the food looks more appetising. And it shows that he takes heart in his cooking and serving for his customers.

To me, the quality of the pasta depends on the texture of the pasta and its base. The tomato base linguine seafood marinara was tastefully done and fresh. The linguine is cooked to the right texture and the base comes with chunks of tomatoes and various herbs and goes very well together. It is not the usual watery type you get at other cafes or restaurants like pasta mania. And the seafood which consist of prawn, mussel, squid and scallops were fresh and juicy. The serving was quite generous at the price.

I like the spaghetti carbonara too. Of course the texture of the pasta and the cream base was done just right, not too cheesy or watery. Beside I like that they added some mushroom to add flavour to its base.

I actually wanted to try their dessert but was already full when I finish the soup and main as the serving was generous. But this will definitely be the place if I crave for good and affordable pasta!

It was such an enjoyable dining experience from a cafe.