Coffee Showcase

While I was in the East, I managed to try the Coffee Showcase for lunch. Actually, it was already 3pm, but then Coffee Showcase has their set meals through the whole day. The set lunch costs a mere $9.90 nett, and comes with a soup of the day, main course and choice of dessert (any cake from their selection). Of course, the prospect of good food kept me going till 3 - no way am I passing up an opportunity to try a new place for Qi Ji (which, by the way, is opened 24 hours, I didn't know that till my last day).
Cream of carrot soup - it's not like the usual mediocre (bordering on yucky) thin kind of starchy soup that most restaurants serve. It's creamy, tasty and has lots of little carrot bits inside. Best of all, it wasn't full of pepper - the way some restaurants try to disguise their tasteless soups.
This is the chicken bolognese pasta with 'Lionhead'. I was too hungry to ask what the lionhead was, since I really wanted to eat the cake, so I just ordered the lunch set without really studying the menu. I was quite suprised to find out that by adding a mere $5, you can upgrade any dish to a meal. Apparently the lamb dish is fantastic and I really should try it next time.

Anyway, the main course is passable and edible - the lionhead is some preserved fishcake thing with beancurd skin, more like something that you'll find in yong tau foo. I thought that the chicken bolognese sauce was good enough to go alone with the pasta, but it's nice that the chef added the lionhead.

Though it's nothing that I'd be raving about, the sauce was passable - chunky, meaty and with lots of tomato taste. Of course, you can't compare this to any of the Italian restaurants - it's standard is obviously nowhere near those - but for the price, it's sufficient for me.The best part of the meal was the Triple Hazelnut Crunch cake. It usually costs $6.90 (I think with a coffee or tea), but it came together with the Set Meal of the day. Fantastic stuff. They even bothered to dress it up with chocolate sauce. The hazelnut crunch cake was filled alternating layers of hazelnut mousse, and bursting with the goodness of hazelnut flavour. The cornflakes on top gave it a delightful crunch, and the best part was the hazelnut and chocolate crispy base. Delicious. It totally made my ten bucks worth it. This cheesecake was pretty average - the baked kind, not too heavy and the texture was like mousse. It's pretty obvious that the triplehazelnut crunch stole the limelight and so I can't remember much about the cheesecake.
Thick cut fries with Laksa sauce. It's $3.90. Usually, I don't like to eat fries, but then the choice of 12 different sauces, including really queer ones like mocha and laksa got me interested. The laksa sauce is pretty much like laksa paste, with the strong aroma of laksa leaves (which I like). It's not too spicy, and quite oily. Pretty interesting, but not something that I'll be ordering again since I'm not a big french fries fan.

Yet another good recommendation by my East advisor. Of course, don't come here looking for spectacular mind blowing dishes - it's just a humble cafe great for students and parasites on budgets, with plastic tables and backless plastic chairs.

Though it's not something that I'll trudge across half the island for, I'll defnitely think of it if i'm in the area. Lucky you if you do live in the east! Yet another value for money affordable cafe to add to the already huge selection of restaurants and cafes. And best of all, they are opened for meals at odd hours :)

45 East Coast Road
Tel: 6345 1256