Oriole Cafe & Bar

Sis was hankering for Oriole for quite a while, so one Saturday morning, we drove down to town, thinking of having brunch there. Alas, Oriole only serves brunch on Sundays, and so, we had to settle for eating a "brunch" (lunch) instead. :( My mind was already thinking of waffles/pancakes/big breakfasts, and I had to readjust my thoughts to focus on the lunch menu provided instead. Sad. How come Oriole doesn't do brunch on Saturdays??? It's a weekend day too isn't it? Grumpy.

Oriole Cafe & Bar

Interior

The decor for the place was what I imagined a true blue American style cafe to look like (pardon moi, I've been watching too much Gossip Girl...). We reached there around 11ish, so the time was a little late for breakfast, and a little early for lunch, thus the place wasn't overly crowded. phew. I've heard of how hard it is to grab a seat in there cos reputedly, the place has the best barrista in town afterall. And you know how Singaporeans love their caffeine...

My latte

I ordered a cuppa latte, and it came with a beautiful heart coffee art. I took a sip. Mmmmm. Coffee can be quite a pain in the ass thing to brew. Everyone has their individual preferences and it is quite hard to please everyone in this way. So for me, I think that if one can master the art of coffee, you'll be able to win plenty of hearts all around. ;)

The coffee taste was strong, yet not overly bitter. Some places add a little too much milk in a latte that the coffee is overshadowed by the milk. Oriole's latte wasn't like most places. Though it looked milky, the coffee taste was still present, and I like it that way. t wasn't sweet either. Some places brew lattes that taste a little sweet. I'm fine with that. But since I don't add sugar to my coffee like 90% of the time (I like to sip first and taste the coffee before deciding), I find it a bit annoying to find my lattes just a bit sweeter than I would like. I know milk dilutes the coffee taste, but it's a lil wrong if the coffee is milk-ish sweet? Oriole's latte had bitter undertones - means I can taste my caffeine shot. Mmmmm. And there was not sour aftertaste whatsever! That's really important for a cuppa. I'm not a connoisseur at drinking coffee, but absolutely in no way should it have any sour aftertaste. *makes face*

Crab linguine; Steak sandwich

Both the main courses were done up pretty well. I prefer the pasta over the steak sandwiches. Just because it was a little spicy. Can't blame a girl for liking her food spicy. Then again, I was geared up for brunch food, so perhaps, maybe that explains why I wasn't very wow-ed with the food at all. Ha!

 

Affogato

I was asking Sis why she didn't order a coffee (she sneaked sips from mine) when she was such a coffee drinker. She said because of dessert! She ordered the Affogato to share, and wow was it yums. A scoop of rich vanilla ice cream topped with honeycomb chocolate crumbs, immersed in espresso? Fabulous concoction. I can't believe I've never had an Affogato before. It's such a great dessert choice. Then again, I probably wouldn't want to eat this as a dessert after dinner, since I'll probably get a buzz from all that caffeine and have trouble falling asleep...

Overall, Oriole had pretty good coffee, and pretty decent food. Perhaps I'll be back for brunch the next time round??? And I think the next place to check out for coffee will be Papa Palheta. My girlfriend recommend the place for awesome coffee, and I reckon I gotta check the place out some time soon with the coffee addict, oh I mean, the Sister! :)