Oriole Cafe & Bar

Went with great enthusiasm down to Somerset to try out Oriole Cafe and Bar of award-winning barista fame. Though I wasn't too impressed with the service, I was impressed with what I sampled on that day. I had a double-shot iced latte, and a banoffee pie. The latte was strong and robust, with deep smoky aftertaste. Totally superior to the anemic offerings at Coffee Bean, Coffee Club, or TCC. Totally sold.

The banoffee pie was also interesting; unconventionally served in a bright yellow metal, dented mug, vanilla ice-cream was piled atop bananas and the crumbly, buttery crust. It was kinda layered-deconstructed. It was still tasty, and though it doesn't look like a huge serving, it is rather hefty a portion.

I was so impressed with my first try at Oriole that I brought a coffee connoisseur friend to try out the coffees the very next day. That day was Saturday, being the weekend, the cafe was much more crowded than Friday, my first visit. I ordered the iced vanilla latte, and my friend ordered the Iced mint mocha. Sad to say, I was sorely disappointed, as the latte was totally weak and

characterless. Besides NOT EVEN HAVING A SLIGHT TASTE OF VANILLA AT ALL, upon arrival, the ice cubes were all melted, leaving some ice chips floating about in the glass, and the coffee horribly diluted from the melted ice. The mint mocha was the same, and the mint taste was also lacklustre.

What is this? I felt so sorry subjecting my friend to this substandard coffee. Outlets which cannot maintain consistency during busier days should really review their staffing and kitchen policies to ensure that no matter which day you visit, you're never shortchanged. Hope Oriole does not disappoint me again.

For more reviews and other food scratchings do visit my little scribble site Screaming Gastrogasms (www.eberdz.weebly.com)

I love the latte, very well-balanced - the latest encounter with the man himself was at the Savour.

I also love the food at the Oriole especially the pasta.  Been going there for quite some time now.

Check out my photolog with Keith Loh here.

Went to Oriole on a Sunday evening at 7.30pm. The place was hardly packed, and there were plenty of seats indoors.

This is what my friend and I ordered:

Caesar salad (baby romaine, croutons, shaved parmesan, bacon) ($11): So-so; probably wouldn't order this again.

Duck leg confit - with braised du puy lentils, currants, bacon & broccoli ($26): My main. It was.. alright. Instead of being crispy, the duck was just dry. The dish came with tons of the du puy lentils, which reminded me of, um, red beans. They were ok. I would have preferred more bacon in the dish, though! 

Oriole burger ($24): My friend ordered this, which I had a bite of. The beef was tasty enough. I'd consider ordering this if I ever dine at Oriole again.

Service was just so-so.. the waitstaff didn't seem particularly attentive or welcoming. I'd still revisit this place, though, because they have a number of items on their menu that sound quite interesting.

Occasion: A farewell dinner for a friend & a advance bdae celebration for another

I made reservations about 2 days in advance and was told that they could only allocate the seats outside for us.  The reservation was made at 2000hrs for 14pax on a Saturday night.  Unfortunately, we only arrived at the restaurant at 2022hrs.. while walking there, I mentally prepped the friends that they might give up our seats since we were almost 1/2hr late.  I approached a staff at the entrance & told him I made reservations.  I told him that the reservation was at 2000hrs but we were slightly late (wrong use of the word slightly here i know).. to my alarm, he actually retorted and said, "You're not slightly late, you're VERY late!"  So much for being a service crew.  There was NO greetings from him! NO SMILES! And putting him right at the start of the entrance was a big mistake.  Apparently he seems to be a supervisor/manager there because he was wearing a grey top instead of a black top like what the other servers wore.  I thought to myself what a bad start to our dinner. 

Instead of getting the external seats like what was said during my reservation, they gave us seats inside the restaurant instead.  I booked for 14pax but only 11pax turned up and these seats meant for 14pax was pretty much just nice for 11pax.   Imagine if 14 of us really turned up?

Besides the above bad points mentioned, luckily the food was good and the servers were generally patient and polite.  I will only comment on what I ordered:



Fish & chips  (battered snapper fillet, hand-cut chips, tartar sauce / malt vinegar): $18

It came in a lil basket and I thought to myself, boy it looked pretty normal and somehow not very nicely presented.  But as we dived into the food, we all unanimously agreed that the chips tasted really good.  We were given generous servings of the fish fillet as well (each portion had 4 slices).  I couldn't even finish my food!  I think this can be shared among people with small appetites. 

There is a plus point to Oriole Cafe as well - their liveband is awesome.  I would especially like to applaud the lady who was performing that night when we were there.  I really love her voice.

It’s still raining when we arrived and happily chose to sit outdoors due to the cool weather. Oriole was the last stop for our stamp collection on the “Bedisloyal” cards.

Admittedly, I was a little surprised that Oriole was one of the eight participating indie cafes, considering its location and scale of operation. However, if not for the cards we might not have visited this cafe so soon.

The drinks came swiftly enough after we placed our order. K’s iced vanilla latte ($6.50) was a double shot espresso with cold milk and homemade flavor. It’s strong but not quite suited to the weather as I preferred something hot. My cafe latte ($5.50) contained only a single shot espresso, complete with steamed milk and it’s definitely more aromatic than K’s cuppa.

The tagliatelle beef cheek ($17 – red wine and citrus braised beef cheek, mushroom, shallot oil) was delish with melt-in-the-mouth tender slices of meat though the “beefiness” was a tad overwhelming. Luckily we shared. The pasta was cooked just right and before we knew it, the entire plate was gone.

We also liked the fish & chips ($18 – battered snapper fillets, hand cut chips, tartare sauce) for the freshness and the light crispy batter was wonderful.

Having filled our tummies, the dessert was held off for a couple of hours while we enjoyed our books and coffee, while the rain pitter-pattered away.

The grand finale came in the form of a sticky pudding ($9 – rum-soaked raisins, treacle pudding, vanilla ice cream), which was delectably moist and dense. Drenched in a pool of butterscotch sauce and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, the dessert wasn’t too sweet yet utterly moreish.

The food was great. So was the service. With pleasant staff who took care of our needs most affably and efficiently, we surely relished every minute of our evening at Oriole!

Note: Last order for coffee is 8pm.

I organized a dinner gathering for 18 pax here and making the reservation marks the start of my frustration.....

- I called to make reservation for 20pax, waitress took my details and said the manager will get back to me. Nothing heard out for 24 hrs.

- I called again and managed to make reservation for seating in doors in 2 separate tables

- I visited the restaurant a few days before and they told me that my reservation is pending confirmation (what!) & I confirmed it on the spot

- I called to adjust the number of pax twice

- I arrived 30min before the dinner gathering to be surprised to see that we are seated outdoors, beside the main sliding door entrance. Worst of all, they packed the seats impossibly close to each other

- Had to spend 20min working with the staff to arrange seating to give more reasonable space

Fortunately, the whole dinner experience was quite pleasant. Food was pretty good and the outdoor seating wasn't that bad as the weather's quite cool and not many pp use the sliding door entrance. Our turn out was smaller than expected, so we have adequate space to ourselves.Here's the run down on the food I tasted:

hand-cut potato fries $9 - crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and a great aioli dip

arancini  (crispy fried porcini mushroom risotto balls, gorgonzola dip) $10 - first time I sampled this fried breaded rice balls, interesting experience

spicy calamari (battered squid rings, pickled chilli pepper) $13

caesar salad $11 - calamari's a bit in the tough side

roasted beetroot $12 - well executed

morrocan fish tagine (john dory fish, chickpeas, spinach, tomato-harissa-saffron sauce, baguette) $27 - felt a bit short changed by this unimpressive stew like dish

fish + chips  (battered snapper fillet, hand-cut chips, tartare sauce / malt vinegar) $18 - generous fish portions, excellent dish

eton mess  (whipped cream, meringue, berries, almond flakes, raspberry sauce) $7.50 - highlight of the meal, looks like a messy pile of cream and berries but awesome combi witj bite from meringue and taste from berries and cream

Service was quite OK though we had to gesture quite a bit to get the waiting staff attention cause we were outdoors. When the bill came, it did not factor in the 1 for 1 promo for fish and chips (for Amex card holders) so we have to send it back to the cashier for the adjustment. I have learnt to always do a quick check of the bill especially for large groups.

Being a cafe, I love their coffee - Not the best, but great. This is enough to keep me going back.

Sticky pudding is pretty amazing. Comparable or better than Marmalade Pantry's. Adequately sweet toffee/caramel with dense and moist to perfection pudding. Love the warm and cold kapiti vanilla bean ice cream contrast.

Service is consistently okay - If they are busy, it just takes a little more patience. No point spoiling your own day. 

FYI - Barista washes his machine at 2000 hrs, sharp!

Hmm, i went there on a Saturday afternoon with my boyfriend to celebrate his 24th birthday. Sort of decided to go for the Oriole Cafe since i saw good reviews.

When we reached there, it was semi filled with people. Though the deco were very nice but the ambience was not appealing at all as the place was quite noisy and i could not lunch in peace with my bf. The selection of food was small and i guess for certain food, the value wasn't there. I remembered that i said to my bf that it was more money-worthy to eat at Marche (which is quite near the cafe) and i get better food too. 

Something which i need to mention is about their service. We barely sat down for 5 minutes and their crews came over to ask us to order their food thrice at least (or more than that). I think we customers should be given more time to consider about ordering their food. Moreover, when i finished eating my meal, the manager and the crews did not clear my empty plate despite walking past my table and noticing that my plate was empty. And since the area which we were sitting in was really noisy that i had a headache, i requested to change seats and they told us no because we made a reservation and couldn't change. I was like 'huh'! But i persisted because the noise from the table next to us was getting louder. They should have noticed that i was placing my bag on my lap and could have gotten me an extra chair to place my bag. But sadly it didn't happen.

As for the food, my bf was rather happy with his chicken but for mine, despite paying $25 for the risotto w garlic prawns, the portion was rather small and the amount of prawns given was rather too little. 

So in conclusion, i don't really want to go back to this place anymore, especially w a big group cos it can get very noisy but its def. a cosy place with all the sofas and the musics. 

we reached at 10pm on Mondat and were told that the place is CLOSED. This is after we checked the facebook page and the closing time is clearly listed as 11pm. It would be nice if the information is kept updated. What a waste of my time. On the bright side, Brotzeit,  located 5m away is still open and we had a great meal there.

for photos and more reviews, head to http://theendangeredsartorialist.wordpress.com/food-listings/

oriole cafe + bar is some place that I've come across several times whilst walking briskly across the courtyard between 313 and pan pac service suites so well, after a failed attempt to call up spruce for brunch, i decided to bring my sis + parents to oriole cafe and bar, since it seemed like a decent, chill-out spot amidst a slightly drizzly, slow, Saturday afternoon.

the place has a certain industrial contemporary design feel, matching steel furnishings with glass windows to give a modern chill-out ambience that does relax you in a certain way. it indeed serves as a nice chill-out spot amidst the bustling orchard crowds, where you escape within the cool refines of the restaurant and choose to either plop yourself down at the cafe area or at the sleekly designed bar area. ok lets get to the food.



[warm portobello mushroom salad, $13 - paired with pinenuts, arugula, parmesan, tomato salsa]

well i had a prive dinner waiting for me at night, so i wasn't gonna indulge in anything much so i went for a salad. the portobello was well grilled (though honestly i don't know much about mushrooms since i normally shrink away from them in disgust. lol) and went well with the argula/pinenut/parmesan combo. i mean honestly, with salads, you really can't go that wrong (unless ingredients are not fresh) once you know the combination of ingredients they put in (which thankfully they put in the menu) - arugula and pinenuts is a sure-win combo so yeah. and is it me, or am i seeing a growing predominance of arugula being used in restaurants? overall, a decent, satisfying and refreshing salad - just what i wanted.



[beef tagliatelle,  $17, red wine and citrus braised beef cheek, mushroom, shallot oil]

my dad ordered this and he really didn't like it. beats me, but he felt that the beef had a weird taste to it - which i suppose was due him being unfamiliar with beef cheeks so I sampled it and well, it tasted alright to me, though not as fantastic as what I would have assumed beef cheeks to be. see, the notion of beef cheeks is that, considering cows chew grass aplenty, the cheeks turn out to be the most used muscle in the cow and hence needs a much long time to cook - preferably slow braised in wine till the point its tender and falls into bits when you prod at it. i do agree this tasted somewhat hmm.. plasticky? almost as though someone used a microwave to attempt to speed up the process. hmm, not too impressed. wasn't impressed with the tagliatelle as well, because it lacked the light and chewy texture that common homemade pastas in italy (like tagliatelle) commonly have.   all in all, kinda a big miss with this dish, which is sad, because this dish, when rendered well, can really be quite the gastronomic experience. i saw this blog for information of beef cheeks and was salivating from the pictures of the beef cheek ragu.  



[bangers + mash, $16]

ehh this cafe has gotten me slightly confused. why the inclusion of bar grub suddenly in a menu that was predominantly italian in nature? i looked further down the menu and saw fish & chips (england), st louis pork ribs(US), Jamaican jerk chicken(Jamaica), duck leg confit (france) and moroccan fish tagine (morocco) and well.. decided that this restaurant suffered from the typical Singaporean-grown enterprises of the confused identity. trying to serve too many styles of cuisines at once, which, well to me.. doesn't seem like too smart an idea. ah well, to each his own. bar grubs cannot really be commented upon since really.. they are just meant to fill you up before your next tankard of ale and lack the nuance of other dishes. felt like this was just alright. 

[chilli chocholate mocha, $6 - double ristretto, fresh chilli juice, chocolate, steamed milk]

i read reviews noting that this place was good for their coffee and so i ventured to try one from the competition coffee selection. errr... disappointed. i mean, i really am no expect on coffee as mentioned before, but this felt appealing with the infusion of chilli and the chocolate, a cool combination that is sometimes used for chocolates cakes to give it a tangy, spicy flavor. but this drink just somewhat overpowered by the ristretto. i googled ristretto and learnt that it refers to a very "short" shot of espresso coffee, where the water comes into contact with the coffee grinds for a much shorter time and hence the ratio of caffeine to coffee oils flavor is reduced, giving a bolder, fuller and less bitter coffee. well, i dunno. i didn't taste much of anything besides a distinct bitterness. so there.



[sticky pudding, $9 - rum, raisins, treacle pudding, vanilla ice cream]

ohh this was good. well, the treacle pudding was good and went really well with what i suspect is a treacle+honeycomb sauce that was heavenly on its own. didn't really detect the rum and i avoided the raisins (sorry, personal pref) but the vanilla+pudding+sauce was really delicious. this restored some happiness that kinda evaporated whilst i was having my coffee and sampling my dad's mains. lol

so, a mixed bag overall. oriole cafe + bar is a nice chill out spot after an afternoon/evening of frenetic shopping or something along orchard road. pop by for some desserts, salads or some coffee or mint chocolate and spent a lazy afternoon there chillin' with friends. but the mains ain't much to go to town about, and well, the price is kinda elevated, considering you are in the heart of orchard road, so i guess its still acceptable.