Miss U Cafe

Food is all about the heart and basically, when i make a promise, i remember it. Even if it takes a long time to fulfill, the one thing you can remember, is that eventually, i will pay my debt. It was a fine weekday night when i finally brought 2 of my colleagues to dinner which i've promised pretty much....half a year ago. The good thing is that they were totally happy with the idea while the bad news is that i'll be the one going broke after the little event. It was with this thought that i seeked out Miss U Cafe having heard quite a few good things about the place from friends and even from the media.

Featured on the television series Makan King, the place is touted as being homely, comfortable reasonably priced and have great service. An entire wall is dedicated to wine and there are also wine tasting sessions held to teach people how to appreciate good wine. Overall, the idea is novel and building a community based on food and wine is a great idea. The owner, Mr Phua Teck Kai opened the restaurant in 2004 and wanted customers to feel the same kind of happiness they feel while missing someone when they have his food. Interesting concept i might add which naturally raises expectations when i finally visited it.

Miss U Sampler ($18.80) - Seeing that we had a rather nice group of 4 people for dinner, i decided on a rather huge sampler dish for starters. The Miss U sampler came with a huge selection of finger food that its pretty much impossible to finish even for 4 people. The pros of the dish was that its huge, enough for up to 5 people to enjoy and basically goes wonderfully with beer. The cons are that its all fried, fries, bratwurst, calamari, fish and chicken along with a little asparagus and carrots for good measure. And since everything is fried, it tastes decent albeit the oil will get to you pretty soon. I'd recommend this for 5 to 6 people for a good balance.

Ribeye Steak In Black Pepper ($19.90), Ribeye Steak in Red Wine Sauce ($19.90) - Both Ribeye steaks were done to our order, the ribeye in red wine sauce being medium rare while the ribeye in black pepper sauce came well done. The thing about the ribeye is that mine, the one with red wine, came with quite a bit of fatty parts which i really couldn't eat while i didn't really taste much red wine in the sauce at all, just a mild hint at best. The meat was still tender and good though. The black pepper ribeye came well done and pretty tough to chew on but surprisingly good. The pepper sauce did overwhelm after a fashion but its still acceptable.

Salmon in Hollandaise Sauce ($17.90) - One of the highly recommended dishes on newspapers and commercial reviews was the salmon in Hollandaise sauce. Now this is a little embarrassing because i introduced my gf to have this since it was highly recommended but as it turned out, the salmon had the horrible fishy taste of not being cooked well. Either that of the fish wasn't fresh. The other problem was that i honestly couldn't taste anything of the sauce at all. Commercial review gone wrong i suppose.

Cheese Pizza With Mozzarella and Blue Cheese ($15.90) - This was ordered by one of my friends, Adrian san and basically, it turned out to be the best item that day. Simple as it sounds, the pizza was served real hot with up to 5 different cheese baked into it including blue cheese. What you get is an extremely tasty cheese pizza with a crispy crust and lots of cheese. Only for cheese lovers though, or it will be nausea inducing.

Apple of My Ice ($8.90) - As i've mentioned before, after going to coffee club, it is my prerogative to order apple crumbles at all establishments as long as they serve them to find something that may be better. If you have read my reviews, you will know that even Jacob's, which is a great restaurant btw, did not serve very good apple crumbles, which is why i was totally surprised when Miss U cafe served even worse apple crumbles. The version at Jacob's was at least warm while this version badly decorated and tasted stale if anything. The ice cream was another killer. There were chunky bits on it that suggest that the ice cream has been kept for too long. And such a waste too because they were supposed to be using New Zealand ice cream. What i had was a far cry from the quality that brand personifies. Horrible.

Banana Speed ($8.90) - Adrian san ordered this and i have to say, lightning doesn't strike twice. This one was as bad as the apple crumble and since the ice cream has already been beaten down in freshness and taste and since banana splits are generally normal tasting items if not for the ice cream. This version was as horrible as the crumble...if not worse.

Sinful Treats ($8.90) - Tons of whip cream, some marshmallows, a little sprinkles and some cornflakes still did not manage to save this dessert from being mediocre. As the ice cream alone is the weak link, everything falls apart. To sum it up, this is the first place where ALL the desserts were just bad. I simply cannot believe that they are using New Zealand ice cream to make their desserts. Its just nowhere near the same quality and more like King's ice cream instead.

The bill for 4 turned out to be $130.57 for 4 people. Not much if you split it up but still not worth the money even if you do. The overall quality of food is average at best.

The mains were actually decent but the dessert and starter really ticked me off. Also, the seats were not as comfortable as they seem and even with my reservation, we got a rather small table which we could hardly fit all our cutlery on. The waiters were also non chalant to our situation and kindly ignored it. The other thing was how slowly water was filled up and how can't be bothered the waiters looked when we ordered. Service definitely needs to improve and also, for the love of god, change the ice cream. Will i return? Pretty much never again if things remain as they are.