Cafe Oliv trips

18/7 - I suggested Jia to have dinner at Cafe Oliv. Instead of the usual recommends (like pork ribs / lamb / beer battered fish), we settled for what we deemed as 'safe' i.e 1) Pink Sauce Linguine with Grilled Salmon 2) Thai cream sauce with Seafood. Oh yes, and Battered Softshell Crab with Salted egg.

The crab (one and only) was nicely presented in entirety, crispy, not oily and very well crusted. Quite the Yum. Then I thought, "what a good start, hope it stays this way".

Somhow or rather, it just didn't. The pasta dishes were a huge disappointment - one of the 'blah-est' ones ever tasted, worse than some western stalls found in neighbourhood coffeeshops.

The Three Trips for me (in order of importance)

1) The Basics of cooking pasta til "Al Dente" weren't met : Linguine noodles was really soggy/soft, a clear indication of it being overcooked.

2) Sauces (Pink Cream & Thai Cream) - Both types lacked flavour, no traces of herbs, black pepper, so we ended up dumping loads of clumpy parmesan cheese into our pastas for flavouring. Jia asked for blackpepper and was even tempted to ask for herbs! The unusually semi-translucent cream sauces weren't close to being called 'creamy'. Sigh.

3) Portions can almost be considered 'stingy' but should be just enough for females if there were other sides to accompany along . Value for money...NOT! For about the same price, I could get more 1.5 times the servings and way better tasting cream pastas @ New York New York.

Having low tolerance for crap food, Jia gave up on her pasta after a short while. She actually insisted I blog about this so everyone knows. Ok now you guys know - if you ever decide to go there, order something else. It was an unsatisfying meal but I do feel that this cafe has immense potential. Not too sure if I'll give this place ever a second chance..maybe one day when I feel forgiving enough.

*Cafe Oliv
220 East Coast Road
Singapore 428917
63443114