Fosters - An English Rose Cafe

Fosters- The English Rose Cafe & Restaurant is more contemporary & boost an alfresco dining area with a garden trellis & fountain. Located at The Holland Village, Fosters is perfect for dinner and romantic dates. The interior is cosy with a dining area marked by English Wing chair & a mock fireplace that looks out to the alfresco area. The ambience is dim and romantic . A must try is the Fillet Fantastique, Foster’s signature dish. This dish was the creation of Foster’s chef cookie, 81 years old chef. The beef has been aged to perfection & freshly flown from N. Zealand. The Fillet Fantastique is served with grilled mushrooms and potatoes. Foster’s had also been voted ”best for high tea”. The Menu- The Fosters Times The menu is printed on ”newspaper”, featuring cuisine of Western influences. They have set lunch and dinner, available daily and their high tea set is highly recommended. Some of their popular dishes include, The cod fish and chips, The mushroom salad and the seafood combo. I decided to have the set dinner, which comes with soup, a main, dessert of the day and a drink. Complimentary Bread A simple baguette roll served with butter. Soup of the day- French Onion soup The soup consist of diced carrots and onions. The soup is just too peppery for me, enough said. The Mains- Seafood Combo Cod, Slipper lobster and scallops in Saffron sauce, served with seasonal vegetables and potatoes. The seafood combo comes in a rather small portion, with brocolli and carrots. The seafood were topped with some tobiko(cod roe), which was a surprise and added crunch. The Slipper Lobster: It was a rather small portion but was well-grilled and a little charred. The texture wasn’t rough and not overcooked. The Cod fillet: I simply love this! The fillet is well-roasted and tender. The skin is very crispy(love it) but a pity that the portion is a little small. The Scallops: They were too tough, overcooked! Best if lightly seared. The Saffron cream sauce goes well with the seafood combo. Light and creamy consistency. Dessert of the day- Lemon & Sugar pancake A simple pancake coasted with powder sugar and served with lemon wedge. The egg pancake is very thin and the edges were crispy. I feel that the lemon wedge just spoils everything. It just doesn’t goes well with the sweet pancake. Subsitution with fresh fruits would be more suitable. The service here is a little slow as there is only like 1 server sering the food. The staffs are a little absent-minded too.

Went there with a long table of 18, all the better for a wide sampling of dishes.

All in all, I tried:

-the pork rack: looked promising on the menu and looked good when it arrived, but the 1 1/2 fillets of pork were dry and the apple mince sauce did nothing to flavour or complement the meat. The sides of boiled carrots and brocolli remained untouched.

- Steamed cod fillet set meal: a very sad sliver of white cod half-buried under a mound of steamed vegetables. For the very, very health conscious who like their food looking soupy and chinese. If you order the set, pay a few dollars more to switch your watery vegetable soup for a thick Soup Spoon-style mushroom soup.

(It gets better from here onwards)

-Seafood grill combo: charred scallops, cod, and prawns with a drizzling of cod roe. Not very "English rose", but an interesting enough dish for those who like the smell of grill in their seafood.

-Sirloin steak with pate and mashed potato. My pick of the night. The smooth chalkiness of the pate glided well with the meat sauce. And here was a potato dish that wasn't plain and uninventive. I'm always on the lookout for interesting mashed potatoes, and this is another one I have to investigate for the recipe.

-Oxtail stew: soft, came in a separate dish, with plenty of meat cubes and a thick, hearty stew.

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Good service and a change of uniform would have enhanced the "English Rose" theme a lot more. Think about it--the ambience has the English home coziness down pat, from the mismatched upholstered armchairs and home ornaments, to the newspaper menu. Why not take the extra step to see the theme through, instead of generic red polo t-shirts?

Maybe blame it on Singaporeans being more savvy, but for this price, a revamp of the menu would be a good call. Just rethinking the side dishes (more creative vegetables, for instance) and providing authentic English condiments would make a world of difference.

Went to Fosters again last Friday after a year or so. My earlier visits here has been fairly good but it totally changed after last Friday. My girlfriend and I ordered the US Black Angus ribeye steak for main and mushroom & asparagus for our appetizer. We specifically highlighted our steaks to be medium rare. The appetizer, I must say is quite tasty although it is a little bit salty. The dissappointment came when we were served our mains i.e. ribeye steaks. First of all, it took ages before we were served our mains after finishing the salad. When the steaks arrived, they were not done to our request. Mine was done medium & my girlfren's steak was a mixed of medium well and rare on some parts of her steak, instead of the medium rare that we've requested. The chef probably forgot how to cook medium rare!To add to our dismay, it is very salty and have a 'funny' taste to it. But this cannot beat the horror that a female diner sitting next to our table had. She ordered what seems to be a fried spring chicken, only that it is done rare! She was showing to the waitress that the meat was totally raw and we could even see it from a near distance! It killed her appetite instantenously that she didnt want the chicken to be re-cooked or any other food offered by the manager thereafter. Well, I understand that it takes a certain skill to cook my stead at medium rare but how difficult can it be to cook a fried spring chicken! For what its worth, I have a much better experience having the ribeye steak at Botak Jones at half the price at Fosters. Well at least the waiter at Botak Jones will ask you if your steak is done to your liking when he serves it. This will be my last time dining at Fosters.

It was a cold, rainy Thursday evening and we were a little too early for dinner, so we decided to escape the rain and hide in Fosters and enjoy some nice afternoon tea. Without further ado, we decided to order an English Afternoon Tea Set and another selection of tea for sharing. Due to the foggy glass panes, coupled with cosy furniture and an old-newspaper menu, I almost believed that I was not in Singapore, till I heard the noisy traffic along Holland Road. Our tea set arrived with Homemade Scones, Fruit Cake and Sandwiches, of which the homemade scones left the biggest impression. Warm and fragrant, combined with jam or cream, made it all so yummy. =) Though the fruit cake was a little on the dry side, which made it a little flaky. Since it was a Thursday afternoon (some time before Christmas), the cafe was rather empty, hence making it a good place for conversations. Coupled with the heavy downpour, nice, hot tea and great company, I really had a rather good time that afternoon. If some improvements could be made of its tea set, I will definitely be tempted to return and mark Fosters as a good afternoon tea place in the West.

We have been here before and the lamb shank that I ordered was delicious. My husband and I decided to give it another go. Unfortunately, the lamb shank is no longer on the menu.
This time, Fosters had different set menus. The set comes with soup - clam chowder, main - I had baked cod in white wine sauce, desert - apple pie and coffee /tea.
The clam chowder was alright, not too thick nor too thin. However, it would have been better if it was less salty. The main was a disappointment. The cod looked more boiled than baked and instead of white wine sauce, it looked and tasted like fish broth. The portions have also gone much smaller and my husband joked that we should drop by McDonalds on our way home to fill our stomachs. Overall, Fosters this time time round left us feeling dissatisfied.

I came here with friends in a group of 5. We ordered finger food like the cheesy fries, mixed omelette, cheese platter and pork sausages.

I'm not sure why they call it finger food on the menu. They didn't even bother to cut the sausages into smaller pieces, while the cheese platter came with several chunks of cheese (again, the service staff did not cut the food into bite-sized portions) with several stales biscuits. The mixed omelette was a truly forgettable experience, so dry and hard.

We asked for water many times but the staff chose to ignore us or conveniently forgot. And the cafe wasn't even full! And come closing, the staff seemed very impatient for us to leave.

Only thing good about this place is that the atmosphere is relatively relaxed and there is good music. Not enough to compensate though.

My BF and I have separately seen this restaurant since our secondary school times when we hung out at Holland village. Somehow or another, neither of us dined there before!

Today we were looking for a quiet and lovely little restaurant for my farewell dinner before I return to the states for my junior year in college.

We were greeted by amiable staff who directed us to our seats(Lovely cushions indoors by the windows, overlooking the water feature outside and the rustic grapevines) and delicately gave us the menu. The menu was very well written. Printed to make it look like a newspaper. It also contained very useful information like getting to know your steak and hilarious jokes. After placing our orders, the waitress immediately changed the cutlery to the appropriate ones for our respective meals.

For starters, we shared Tossed Caesar Salad.
Every bit of Romaine lettuce was serenaded with a creamy but light dressing. The bacon bits were proper baked ones and not those artificial bright pink ones. The anchovies were not too salty. And they were generous with the cheese.

The restaurant's soloist came up to us and asked if we were celebrating a special occasion. When asked if my BF wanted any song dedication, my BF asked him to choose and he sang living on the jet plane. (BF was joking that he did not want to make it difficult to ask the Indian gentleman to sing jay zhou songs). His voice was smooth and melodious. A perfect accompliment to a fine dinner :)

My Bf had the Fillet Fantastique.
Prime middle cut of the finest fillet served on a bed of crisp, fried onions, crowned with juicy field button mushrooms
Which was created by their 81 year old chief! With such hearty and lovely food, its no longer he is living a ripe old age! My BF was blown away by the mushrooms before he even started on the steak. Needless to say, the stake was extremely well seared. Even though my BF ordered it medium, it was not chewy. Every bit was flavorful and packed a bite. The marinate was very unique setting itself apart from the many steaks my steak loving BF has had.
The portion was also generous in order for my BF (who is known to out eat my big American friends) to be happily full.

Failing to decide between the different kinds of seafood, I went for the Mediterranean Seafood Spaghetti. Ocean fresh scallops, clams, prawns and cod fish cooked in homemade tangy tomato sauce. The cod melts in your mouth. You could taste the freshness and no "fishyness". The pasta could have been less cooked to make it al dante. The scallops were sweet and the prawns succullent and fresh. Again, the portion was so generous I almost could not finish it. But due to the flavorful and addictive tomato sauce, I finished the most part of it. The sauce was definitely not any of those premade kinds and you could get chunks of tomato goodness in it.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience. For a girl who was dreading western food because she was heading back to America, I totally loved this meal :)

My girls brought me here after on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It was packed with people.A friend of mine was there last Sunday for dinner and it was not that crowded. Unfortunately we did not make any reservation therefore have to share a table of 2 with an extra chair. That was a suggestion from the lady on service.She understood the customer's needs. The man who told us "sorry no table", did not give us any other suggestion. I had to call him since he was around our table to take our orders. I asked for the menu and he told us "there on the table", which looks like an old newspaper. In my mind, oh well how am I suppose to know if you did not tell me.

It was very noisy to sit indoor so we asked for a table outside if there's any later. The lady who attended to us firstly gave our table at the alfresco area within 5 mins after we sat down.

The ambience from outside is very nice and relaxing with the greenery.

We enjoyed our afternoon tea with home made scone, fruit cake and sandwiches that cost $10.50 each plate. I only like the scones which I find it was freshly baked. I thought the place shoud do something better for the sandwich.

Afterall I enjoyed my company most. Just make sure you make your reservation first before hand.

Came here for the 1-year anniversary with my bf.

As expected, it was a quaint and charming restaurant. At first sight, it would seem that there is an ancient looking newspaper placed between the cutlery on the table. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's actually the menu cum a brief write up of the history of the restaurant as well as some educational aspects of etiquette and so on. I was duly amused. Truly interesting.

We ordered the following:-

(Please pardon the spelling inaccuracies and some price discrepancies. can't quite remember at this ungodly hour when I should really be sleeping instead of typing with one eye closed)

1) Onion Soup (Around $8.50)

2) Lobster Bisque Soup (Around $8.50)

3) Mixed Grill ($31.00 if I'm not wrong)

4) Ceaser Salad ($10.00)

The servings for the soups are quite large. 1 soup would have sufficed for 2 (unless you are a big eater). (1) was good. (2) was not that great and probably falls under the category of an acquired taste (Imagine watery peanut butter with salt).

(3) was very good. It comes with a slab of beef steak, A slice of lamb, bacon, mashed potato, broccoli and carrots. The lamb was very satisfying, the steak was juicy and tasty. The mashed potato was interesting as it had bits of unmashed potatoes, which gave it a very nice chewy texture. Very well done. I would recommend this dish to all potential customers. But I would have felt less pinched if the price was in the region of $25.

(4) Portion was good and the food was definitely fresh. Crunchy vege with eggs and bacon. That said, it was way too salty. If you wanna enjoy this dish, don't mix the salad. Or take out the cheese before you mix.

All things considered, we enjoyed ourselves. Service was fine and waiters were attentive (that said, we reached only at 9.00 pm, hence the restaurant was fairly cleared out by that time. Not a good test of how they respond during peak hours). Oh yes, I appreciated the fact that no bones were made about our requests for warm water (instead of the usual 'sorry we only serve sparkling or still water' nonsense).

Finally, romantic nuts would do better to go somewhere else. The settings inside the restaurant can be quite noisy. They were actually playing retro music in the background. Adds a funny and informal twist to the entire setting. Not that I minded since it puts you in a fairly light hearted mood.

love the place, ambience is good, food is tasty, service staff are pretty attentive..the cod fish & chips is so good..