Grapevine Cafe Bar & Restaurant (Upper Serangoon)

Went to this place with friends. It is pretty comfortable and we had wings, pasta and the chicken thigh on mash. I will say the chicken thigh dish decor is abit a-tas than necessary but it tasted fine.  For drinks, we had the usual cider, a bottle of red and a very awful kingfisher beer that we discarded for gin tonic.

Overall this place is reasonably priced and a cool place to hang out with good company of cos.

I had been quite a regular for a while at this place, the servers (part-timer) there are in generally quite friendly, there was a male server even remembered what I had the last time (a week back) I was there... I'm IMPRESSED!

However, I have read reviews whereby the managers/supervisors' attitude wasn't pleasant, I have to agree to an extend as they don't really portray as welcoming.. AT ALL.

As such, I will always try to call for the other servers instead of the managers for services/orders.

One of the very main reasons for me to be there is that it's near my place and going back home after drinking is easy!

Beer list is quite limited, but at least they have those that I liked.

Food : I once ordered Teriyaki Wings from them and they are burnt, was told by managers/supervisor that it was the seasoning that made it so, still I insisted on a change, fair enough, did manage to without too much effort though. Other than that, all other food so far faired just average.

Number of parking spaces... pathetic!

Went to the old location a few years ago just opposite the road. I would say the ambiance there was much cosier with the sofas and decor.

I had some lamb rack. It was really good i must say. The sauce was just nice.

The second time i went there, i had a bake rice. It didn't taste as nice as the first time when i tried my friend's during my first visit.

But i would say it's a nice place to just chill at night and watch some soccer match that's showing on TV. It's better if you go at night as it'll be cooling as it's alfresco and hopefully it doesn't rain.

26 April 2008 : The Happi Family members - AC, 77 & JC - gathered here to watch EPL because AC suggested this as a good place to catch the Man U vs Chelsea match. We should have made a reservation because this place gets crowded during EPL nights. Anyway, we were lucky enough to get a table in front of the big screen =o)

We ordered :

Airflown Ribeye Steak ($21.80)

Baked Chicken Leg Stuffed with Mushroom ($11.80)

Parmesan-crusted Dory ($8.80)

Peach Smoothie ($3.90)

BlueBerry Sundae ($3.90)

Carrot & Orange ICe Blended ($3.90)

Blueberry Frappucino ($3.90)

Sour Plum Red Tea ($2.90)

French Fries ($3.80)

Fried Chicken ($4.80)

TOTAL = $76.45

SLIDE SHOW

I had the ribeye steak (medium-done) and the peach smoothie. The ribeye was huge and it was so succulent and tender. The meat had the appropriate deep pink hue and i really enjoyed munching on the soft and juicy meat. The mashed potato that came with the steak was lovely too. I polished off all my food and i was hungry for more food. My peach smoothie was refreshing and it tasted like peach slurpee.... would have been great if i could add some alcohol to give this drink more "kick" =o)

AC & 77 also enjoyed their main dishes - Dory Fillet & Baked chicken leg.

We decided to order more food ... maybe the excitment of the match made us ever-so-hungry.... we ordered french fries, fried chicken, blueberry sundae and sour plum red tea. The french fries did not look or taste good.. they looked really tired looking and re-fried. The fried chicken was like KFC popcorn chicken - Piping hot and crispy... very nice indeed. My blueberry sundae was decent... though i did not find it all that exciting. (Perhaps it was because Man U was losing)

Hmmm we were certainly hungry peasants.... and we had great fun watching EPL together and cracking jokes throughout the night.

NOTE :

1. This is an open-air place... so.. you MAY get mosquito bites. Also... It is a non-smoking dining area... which is just perfect =o)

2. Service is S-L-O-W.............. VERY SLOW..... It took such a long time for our drinks to arrive. It took such a long time for the food to arrive. The match was almost over and my blueberry sundae had not made an appearance. I began to think that perhaps they only milk the cow on mondays and so.. it will be next week before i get my blueberry sundae.

3. There are not enough menus at this feeding place. We wanted to hold on to one menu because we needed to order more food. The service staff were always taking away the menu to pass it to another table.

4. Who are the service staff (?) I had no idea how to distinguish the service staff at this feeding place from the regular football crowd.

Curiously bring me to here.

I like the set-up as it divided into 4 sections. Outdoor, Indoor Dining, Sofa-sits & Bar-counter.

For me, I having the Pork Chop which comes with Butter-rice.

Thumb-up for the Pork Chop, is very delicious. As for the side-dish; butter-rice does not have butter fragrance which makes me very disappointed. French-Fries or Mash-Potatoes will be a better choice.

Guess I'm weak coz' after eating the butter-rice it makes me sick. *No offend.

Ordered: Mushroom Soup, BBQ Bacon Rolls, Ribeye Steak & Pork Chop.

Food is Normal. Serving fast but Service need to be Improve.

Well, time to leave my work place soon, but I decided I had to do this place some justice so here's my 2 cents worth.

Tea is fabulous here. Served in a nice glass pot (triangle!) loved their presentation (delish tea also)

Their Latte was good (Tell me who else can make 4 layers - and that's the correct one, milk, espresso, 2nd espresso (darker) and foam - I was taught that when I worked in a Cafe, and they were HELL Strict on the Lattes)

Finger food - was pretty good for a place like that. =)

I don't wanna go there on Football season though. Rather prefer the quiet ambience when there's no football. Nice place to chill when the need arises. =)

Nice ambience - good simple cosy decor, affordable food, and cute service. The service staff amuse me. Don't ask me why, maybe its the way they are so blur, but yet able to serve and are still attentive. =p

I live nearby at Hougang and decided to give this place a go, after noticing it while driving past.

Brought my girlfriend there for dinner on Sunday.

The carpark area is just behind the restaurant, and seeing that there weren't any signs to indicate any fees for parking, I went ahead and parked my car.

Upon approaching the restaurant, I realised that there wasn't any air-conditioning provided. There were sufficient fans though, and numerous sofas for you to plonk your plush ass-ets on. (pun intended haha!)

We decided to skip the sofas and sit at one of the tables.

We were pleasantly surprised by the soft velvety seats, which provided a very comfortable setting for us to start browsing through the menu.

Menu selection wasn't very big, but we didn't mind.

However the big disappointment was that our server proceeded to inform us that they had run out of oysters, mussels, fish fingers, and oxtail stew for the day.

Oh well, no aphrodisiacs for me today then, haha!

We finally decided to go with 2 main courses and skip the oysters & mussels, ordering the Ribeye for me ($19.80) and Beef Stew for gf ($13.80).

We were given 3 choices of accompanying carbo with the beef stew, rice, spaghetti or mashed potatoes. She went for the spaghetti.

When my ribeye was served, I got a pleasant surprise!

I had expected the portion to be a reasonable one, but the ribeye was quite a huge portion! It was nearly as big as the cutlery, which of course, made me a very happy man. :)

The ribeye was cooked to perfection, to my request in medium well.

My steak was extremely juicy and well-marinated with the red wine sauce, and the beef was succulent and tender. My gf and myself really enjoyed the ribeye.

Sadly though, the beef stew wasn't that great. It seemed a little dilute, possibly due to the excess water from the spaghetti.

The beef stew was poured over the spaghetti, instead of both being served separately.

I seriously wonder how it would have been served if we had ordered rice instead? Or mashed potatoes??

That would be interesting to find out..,.

Wine selection wasn't very good, and after looking through their wine list, I decided to order something else.

Decided to order Iced Coffee+Tea Hong Kong style a.k.a. YuanYang ($3.90).

They served the sugar separately, which is a bonus to those who would like to control their sugar intake.

However, after adding the sugar to my beverage, I didn't like how it tasted. I'll probably order some other drinks in future. Their juices/coffee/tea selection looks good!

All in all, gf and myself enjoyed the food, esp my ribeye. We think it's really good value for money!

Ambience was pretty good, plenty of seats, even for a weekend!

Service had to be improved a notch though. One waitress was so clueless, she brought my gf's beef stew on a tour of the restaurant...

Service wasn't good or prompt enough for me to feel that it was justifiable to charge me 10% service charge.

But I will still give this place another go, to see if I am able to unearth any other good selections! :)

This place has been around for a while and definitely has its group of loyal followers. Even has a friendster account set up under the cafe name.

I guess I was being naive as I happily assume this place would have a good wine list. What with the nice lighting and cosy ambience, not forgetting the red pool table which always attract my attention when I pass by. Most importantly the catchy name which happily led me on haha...

But its just another chill out place with large screen to watch Chelsea defeat ManU. Not factoring in the mosquito bites I got as I went in berms and my reserved table was right in front of the screen, giving me a slight headache whenever Giggs and Rodney were running. I guess the place was okay.

Only tried the finger food and the bacon one was nice as I drown it down with beer. Hmm... okay perhaps another perk is they have cute waitresses there.