Naive

What? Who? Cheeky Monkey? Where?

 

Read about Makansutra K F Seetoh mentioning about Naïve’s Cheeky Monkey in The New Paper (Jan 2010, I think) and I realized I have no encounter with this Cheeky Monkey at all!

 

So, I went to Naïve again. To check out the suspicious Cheeky Monkey? You may wonder what is this all about?  Who is or What is Cheeky Monkey at Naive?

 

It is just the name of the item on Naïve’s Fun Menu that usually would evoke few laughs. Cheeky Monkey ($12.90+) is fried chunks of monkey head mushroom tossed in crispy cereal with curry leaves and chilli.  The crispy cereal bit together with the crispy curry leaves is simply delicious! Love the Fried Monkey Head Mushroom in it, very tasty and has a nice bite.

 

Using Monkey Head Monkey is another good alternative for the popular dish - Cereal Prawn. 

 

For those who are allergic to seafood like prawn .Worry Not! Just enjoy this dish whipped up using Monkey Head Mushroom. Not a mushroom lover! Hmm…, then go for Cereal Tofu at Whole Earth.

 

One thing to take note: if you are ordering this for kids who do not take spicy food well, it is better to request the Chef to omit the chilli bits else you will have fun time doing treasure hunt (for chilli) or you will face a kid on fire(screaming).

 

 

All foodstuffs have the same gastronomical potential - imagination is the only limiting factor. Naive is one of the most popular Vegetarian restaurants, an innovative, young vegetarian eatery that give a new modern twist to Asian and Chinese Food. The dining experience here is far from dull - food here is colourful, imaginative and beautifully presented with flavour and texture. 

Naive does not try to mimic regular food with mock meat but create a cuisine that is unique and makes plant-based and natural ingredients taste exciting. Indeed, not many restaurants could achieve such high standard with such high quality. Even my meat eater family members love their wholesome cuisine.

Looking carefully at their fun and scrumptious menu (with intriguing name) comprises good selections. Some of the items are easy on the pocket. For those on a budget , the on-going promotions is a bargain.  

Ever since I came to knew about this new chic causal dinning vegetarian eatery, within a short period of 7 months, I have been back no less than 8 times and tasted many of the dishes on the menu and those new dishes that have been introduced from time to time.

 

What I Like:

 Good variety of dishes. Food is good and hearty. Reasonable priced set-meal.  Innovative dishes. Charming ambience. New generation Vegetarian Eatery that is friendly to both vegetarians and non-vegetarians.

 

First trip to Naive today; was pleasantly surprised with these oddly-named mushrooms.

I am a fan of mushrooms. I am not yet a hardcore fan, or a mushroom soup junkie-level fan, or a mushroom array-expert fan. I just like eating them, as mushrooms.

Naive uses mushrooms (Monkey head and black forest mushrooms) as the stars of their main dishes, presumably in place of meat. Tofu is the foundation for their side dishes. The style of the cuisine is very Asian. I refer to the way they serve 'mains' in dishes, with a good amount of sauce and garnish, probably meant to share amongst the rice- or noodle-eating folks of the table. My friends and I tried the XO Shanghai Tang black forest mushroom ($12.90) and the Spice of Life monkey head mushroom ($9.90) dishes for mains, and had a side of curry tofu cake. The tofu cake looked like rolled up thin layers of beancurd, fried till crispy. The curry it was served in had an interesting spice mix. The spicy monkey head mushroom had a sweet and sour sauce (not the lurid orange kind; the actual Chinese kind) and was served with capsicum, chopped sour mango (or was it pickled cucumber?), curry leaves and dried Szechuan chillies. Not too spicy for the amateur chilli-eater, the dish was just hot enough for me to regret not ordering any of their rice (they have several options of olive rice, brown rice, Thai rice and so on, but the rice itself cost more than the usual token sum so we skipped it).

The real surprise was the XO braised black forest mushroom. I cannot recommend it enough. To a mushroom fan, the deep, rich earthy flavours were perfectly balanced with a luscious gravy. Where the monkey head mushroom was more fibrous, the black forest was chewy (encouraged full enjoyment of that orchestra of flavour!) and tasted like something that could be equally at home in a posh resto as it was in a more laidback setting (or something from a three-generation family recipe). Now meat-eaters listen up: this dish fooled me every time I took a forkful of mushroom because the flavours are so complex that two seconds into the mushroomgasm it suddenly tastes like fried chicken before it goes back to being mushroomy. Amazing!

I thought that the menu could have done more justice to vegetables, which are in my opinion the rightful features of eating vegetarian. I did appreciate that they opted out of gluten meat substitutes (especially because one of my friends is gf), but using mushroom in the place of meat didn't do anything for their veggies. The greens in each dish were cooked well, sweet and tender capsicums and crunchy and fresh baby kailan sadly only took supporting roles when they could easily have converted a pescetarian if styled well. Alas, the emphasis on tofu does not help break any vegetarian food stereotypes either.

Prices are on the lower end of restaurant fare, with the mains from $8.90 to $13.90. Serving sizes are relatively small, though. One main dish won't feed more than three people who are eating it as a side to rice. However, the obvious mastery of taste and decent presentation, as well as the standout decor (it is an oasis of calm and airy colours combined with wood furniture, always a plus with me) places it a cut above the other places on the street which might have equally stellar food but cater to a different market at a different time of day.

Service was good without being overbearing, the server introduced us to its very quaint sesame seed blessing ceremony. I like that the restaurant takes the effort to make its eating experience unique. It is rather empty on weekday afternoons, perfect for the exploring foodie undergrad or the temporarily unemployed. :D

*All prices are estimates; I do not have the receipt

Went to Naive to celebrate my mother's birthday.

The decor was simple but nice. The food is really good and you won't notice it's a non-meat restaurant.

They've fancy names for all the dishes but I must say that almost all the dishes we orders are quite nice.

Worth going even if you're a meat eater!

Naive is just as the nice suggests, it serves clean, simple but well prepared dishes. The monkeyhead mushrooms have just the right bite, taste and texture. I recommend the one with broccoli and wolfberries, spice of life was a little too oily.

Service that was attentive and pleasant. Overall, its a great meal, doesnt make you feel too stuffed, but thats also cause the portions are too small, even for a small eater like me. Prices are a tad expensive even with the credit card promotions.

We were looking for a place where we could eat with our Muslim frens, and someone said Naive on East Coast Road. I thought is a weird name for a restaurant, like bad fengshui or something.
But the decor is pretty nice and someone said a bit "zen" yet "Taiwanese"-looking (cos of the hand-drawings on the wall?), but our biggest complaint is that everything tasted the same after a while, like they use only 5-10 main ingredients and sauces, and just mix n match everything with that.

The food is pretty tasty and we all like the "rou" texture of the monkey head mushroom, but if you are Chinese I think the tastes are pretty ordinary - your mother should be able to cook better. We had about 6 of us and shared 3 starters and each had a mains, but after lunch we still felt like we needed to eat some MEAT!!!

So although it was not fantastic and very expensive for drinks and Chinese homecook taste food, the place is pretty and worth a try. Maybe vegetarians will like it more,is my first vegetarian restaurant.

I'm not a vegetarian but I love mushrooms.
Went Naive last week and I think although the choices were rather limited, place was quite cosy and yeap, another choice for an east side person like me to visit when i feel like eating healthily!
Way to go dudes!

Food was surprisingly good. I never had any interest in vegetarian food but this was alright. There are a few worthwhile dishes to try. Wolfberry Soup for starters was not bad, as for the rest they are all worth trying but the Penang Rendang is quite tasty.

All of their food lacks a certain level of spiciness that a true blue Singaporean would expect. Service was good. It's a small restaurant, so seating isn't tt fantastic. Table size is not great if you're going as a couple.

Definitely worth a try.

Nice, just nice.

Better than your usual glutten vegetarian food. Not exactly expensive, but the portions could be more generous, so in the end you either leave unsatisfied or have your fill and pay what amounts to a fairly expensive meal. Even with their promotion of complimentry dishes with participating credit cards, it was more than $30 per person.

Still, I would love to see a true vegetarian restaurant not falling into the trap of doing mock meats. While Naive does nice mock meats, the prices are higher than the real macoy in an equivalent restaurant. So strictly for vegetarians. As I don't believe vegetarian food is healthier or lower calories than normal foods, what with the additional processes and flavorings (natural or otherwise) to imitate real meats.

Nice Ambience though. Service was good.

There is certainly a place for restaurants like this in Singapore, however for me, not sure I would be returning there anytime soon.

Had dinner sometime back, so I won't go into the dishes individually.

Have tried this and worth going if you are looking for healthy food with no vegetarian processed products.