Montreux Bistro

The vibrant dining scene of East Coast/Upper East Coast road has a new entrant - a small bistro by the name of Montreux. Its not exactly new to the East Coast area per se, with a small cafe going by the same name and owned by the same person operating out of the basement of Siglap Centre. The cafe only sells cakes and desserts though, while the bistro serves up appetisers and mains as well.

Partially hidden from view in a tiny shophouse just 2 units down from NTUC, Montreux's interior is simple, uncluttered and very "cafeish". Its really tiny though, probably maxing out at about 20 customers or so.

Complimentary Bread - The bread, though served warm, was at best forgettable. But no one complains of free bread especially when they are starving.

The soup of the day - Beef Goulash. Tangy with a hint of spice and a few chunks of beef, something which I certainly didn't expect from a low cost set dinner soup. It was a tad too watery though.

Bangers & Mash - Okay this hardly qualifies as bangers and mash although technically there's nothing wrong with it. Correct me if I am wrong though, but isn't bangers and mash suppose to come with huge sausages and not the teeny weeny ones you can get off the shelves from some supermart? However, having said that, its best to keep in mind that we are talking about a $12.90 set dinner here so I guess that kinda puts things into perspective. Just for the record, the sausages weren't great, average at best.

Half Spring Chicken - The half spring chicken was rather smallish but decent enough. Served up with a piece of overfried rosti, it was a tad dry (probably a little overcooked) with a light herb taste.

Hazelnut Cake - The cake had to be the highlight of the set dinner, or the entire meal for that matter. Smooth hazelnut and sponge sitting atop a nice crunchy wafer base. A very nice nutty taste. It did seem a tad too dry though. Also, only half a slice of cake was served, making portions really small.

Espresso Brownie - Our waiter recommended this and after the positive experience with the hazelnut cake, I had fairly high expectations of it. And it was quite good with molten chocolate atop and the cake a tad chewy and not too dry. However, I couldn't quite make out any taste of espresso at all. Montreux might want to consider adding more espresso into the mix or renaming the brownie?

2 set dinners plus an extra dessert cost $36, which certainly isn't expensive. Generally mains are average but desserts are better. If they could improve the quality of their mains, I'm sure Montreux Bistro will be a success, especially when service is good as well. On a side note, I've not tried anything from their ala carte menu because the items in it do seem rather expensive, which means that my review might not be entirely fair.

See all my pictures here

Montreux Bistro is newly open about 1 month ago. It was a cake house along East coast road. I have always been an avid fan of their Chocolate Truffle cake. It is a must for any of my family members’ birthday. Now that this bakery has opened a café, nothing could stop us from trying it out. It’s a small café in black and white decor. A café that you could have a simple afternoon weekend lunch in.

We had :

Montreux Steak Sandwich ($14.90) Marinated Sirloin on Toasted Ciabatta with mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and melted cheese. Served with Wedges We had changed the beef to chicken. They were very flexible and did the change without fuss. Thus, there might be a change in the actual taste of the recommended dish . We were told that if it were beef then it would taste spicier. In this case, it was sweeter. Your average dish really. It had relatively good taste but wasn’t exceptional in any other ways.

Cilantro Prawns Cesar salad ($8.90) Romaine lettuce Cesar dressings topped with cilantro pesto infused tiger prawns. Served with garlic bread Good combination of the pesto with the tiger prawns. The crunchy succulent prawns goes very well. The bread is too bland in taste for my liking. But I will definitely come back for more salad.

Mango Tofu (s$7.50) This was one of the recommended desserts. It had a very refreshing taste with the citrus sauce. At first I was quite skeptical about this recommended dessert as I am not a fan of Mango desserts. I think it is hard to find good mango desserts, as they always taste very artificial. That said, this is a fantastic dessert. Really very good. The raspberry and the blueberry brings out the taste of the tofu very well. I would come back for more. Brandy Cherry Black Forest (s$4.50) Just your average black forest cake. I would say the amount of cherry u find in the small portion is generous.

Service was excellent. We were there on a sat afternoon. Inclusive of a latte and a peach soda, we paid s$50.05 in total. I found it reasonable, taking into consideration the food and service. I would recommended for desserts. Because they are so well presented and it taste good..