Naive

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.

Have you ever wondered, when you mention Vegetarian Food to a Singaporean what would be the first impression that comes to mind? In my opinion, it’s a plate of bee hoon, with deep fried tao gi or bean curd skin, curry vegetables, loads of “soya meat” and a chunky amount of seasoning (sweet sauce or chilli sauce)

Why? The reason being, the general Singapore population reside near food centres. Over the past few years beginning around 2000ish, there was a sudden wave of vegetarian stall holders as the concern of Avian Flu or “Mad Pig Disease” many turned to Vegetarian. Other reasons would be that the “genetically modified” chickens we see on videos or the steroid pumped ones. You name it, the capitalist Bastoots did it.

Moving on, in my mind, that picture represents the past present and future of the vegetarian scene, until I was introduced to Naïve.


Naïve, had held a host of creative meetings to first design the interiors of the restaurant, my wife was a part of these discussions. And she later introduced me to the restaurant. I had my initial doubts, but since the restaurant was located 10mins away from my bi-weekly “fix”, Wan Yang Foot Reflexology, I decide to get it a try.

My first impression of the place was pretty good. It did not resemble the vegetarian restaurants that would normally be influence in a certain Buddhism way. Instead it look contemporary and cool to be honest. Next we were introduced to the menu (please note, although my wife had some input into the place none of the staff knew about it and we had no preferential treatment) To my surprise none of the mentioned above was present! We placed our order (1 for 1 DBS Promo) of Penang Rendang(S$9.80) and Curry (S$8.80)

The staff later introduced to us the Bless the Seasame ritual. My wife was soooo happy about it but she left most of the grinding to the man of course lol! By the way, we order Oliver Twist (S$3.80) and a Brown Rice (S$1.50) to go along with the sides. When the food came the portions were pretty small for me as I quite a big man and all. But nevertheless we dug in~

Penang Rendang

My first thought: Oh my god! Is this really vegetarian!? The taste is so rich! The “meat” was actually a mushroom! I was 1 thought away from declaring it was a cheat! And that meat was really in the dish! The taste is exceptional! I would only presume that this was the standard being set around for vegetarian food. Well done Chefs!


Curry

Although the name is so simple and concise, the taste was rich yet subtle. I was amazed at how a dish like curry w/o the aid of garlic and onion could be so fragrant! I am truly amazed by the potential that the Chefs’ at Naïve. Well done! Apart from the tasteful curry broth , the mock meat was again so good! A combination of a mushroomy yet vege taste and its well seasoned curry broth, the dish makes me drool for more!


Oliver Twist (With my Sesame addition)

I wonder did my sesame do the trick or simply the rice was so fragrant. Being a Singaporean, I have had the opportunity to try a wide spectrum of rice: Brani; White Rice; Brown Rice; Diamond Rice; CusCus;Butter Rice just to name a few, but my favourite has to be this Oliver Twist. The mixture of brown and white rice with the delightful addition of the olives and a spice blend to it just gives it the Omph~ Not much of a overpower taste but a good generous mouth would literally give your tongue a good swirl of emotions. Nice!


All in all, Naïve has been a great experience for me as a food lover. Although not my typical genre, this vegetarian restaurant has really given me a good experience for my money. Thing is being a “meat lover” its hard for me to say all these superlatives about vegetarian food. Therefore in my opinion, the F&B is justified @ 9! Why not perfect because I hope that my future visits brings more such delight on to my platter! Ambience is really good I shall give it a 8, however, I reserving for the exploration of the 2nd level to the restaurant; Hopefully I get a chance to see it:) The value of the meal is @ 7 because if you are big eatter like myself, you would end up paying some S$30? for 2 side dishes, without the DBS promo I would have to break the bank for a meal. That hurt the ratings however, for the great effort on the food it helps it to a cooL 7. Now here's my only complain for service which I gave 7, although the intial intro etc was pretty good, they sort of tried to be a little pushy for me to buy more food, because I am huge. In my opinion, I know I am big but I don think I need you to tell me so. I am not sulking or anything but don't be pushy when it comes to getting me to order more food. I will judge for myself, its not like I asked for your opinion, don't enforce your opinion on a customer. Yes? Thats all.

All feedbacks/comments are great appreciated. Cheers! Till my next review ChaoZ~

we were all small eaters . 2 ladies ,one man and one boy, who dun like cooking without garlic n onions.(Throughout the dinner , he keeps complaining that he will not come back anymore). We ordered 4 plates of monkey mushrooms with different kind of vegi because the portion are very small and one tamarind toufu. 2 bowls of steamed rice and 2 bowls of brown olive rice. Among three adults, two of us felt one of the monkey mushroom was not fresh....N I felt taste a bit funny...

The portion is very small and the taste are all similar.
Overall the taste is acceptable .

With the promotion of 1 for 1 free. our 4 items of monkey mushroom were -2 items @13.80 and another two items @12.80.
So, which one should be the 1 for 1 free items. They deducted 2item @ $12.80 from my bill.

Summary ,IT is too expensive with this kind of portion served. Taste is normal . limited choices of dishes and alot of others side dish are fried items . Not that healthy at all.
Think it is overated. We'll probably NOT return unless not other choices of health foods in town.