A bit backdated, but Dad’s birthday was on New Year’s Eve! So I brought him and mum out for lunch at The Marmalade Pantry, which I picked after hearing recommendations from friends. We went to the Holland Village branch. I was happily surprised to discover they offered both a New Year’s Eve menu (SG$45), as well as their regular ala carte menu. I hate restaurants that only allow you to order a set meal on NYE, talk about greedy-for-money!

The restaurant is cafe-style, very minimalistic and chic. It’s clean and neat, and it’s well reflected in their incredibly courteous and pleasant staff. Customer service was superb – they were really attentive and asked if we were happy with our meals (most restaurants in Singapore won’t do this). It was a little too attentive though, with one or two waiters standing next to our table whilst we were eating – it’s pretty hard to eat when someone’s standing RIGHT THERE watching you 😉 Perhaps just walking by every 10mins or so would suffice?

We got a couple of ala carte dishes, so we could have more variety. The menu’s pretty expansive, so it took us awhile to come to a decision. I opted for the Snapper Pie with Roast Fennel which I wanted to compare with Waterfront restaurant’s version in Sydney. The verdict? Well, I can’t exactly remember the Waterfront snapper pie, but I’d say this version was just as good if not better. It was packed with chunky pieces of tender, moist fish.. with softened leeks to give a punch of flavour and the gravy had a very buttery but airy texture. The pastry was superb – nice and big and very buttery. Considering it’s half the price of Waterfront’s version, I’d say Marmalade Pantry’s by far the winner!

Mum had the Wild Mushroom, Spinach and Truffle Oil Tart, which my cousin recommended. At a laughable(!) $6.50, we figured it’ll just be a slice of takeaway pie. Not so! It came with a nice juicy salad and homemade crisps. The tart itself wasn’t too eggy and had big chunks of mushrooms in it. I found that there was a very very subtle odd flavour to it.. perhaps the truffle oil didn’t blend into the rest of the tart’s flavours exactly? I also would have preferred the tart pastry to be a lot thicker and buttery, but Mum liked it as-is since it was healthier 😛

Dad opted for the Linguini with Crab meat, Tomato, Chilli & Pinenuts. It’s not easy to find good pasta in Singapore, so he was delighted that the dish was terrific. It was a large portion of twirled linguini cooked just-so and packed with flavour from the ingredients. They were generous with the crab, which was great! Very tasty, but Dad ended up having do dig out all the chilli pieces because “It’s too spicy!”

I had the Sticky Date Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream for dessert. It’s a fairly small serve, but probably just as well since I’m meant to be eating less 😉 It came warm and oozy…. mmmmmm…. The pudding was really moist and not too sickly sweet, just perfect, especially when paired with the cold and creamy vanilla bean ice cream. I found that there were too many dates though, almost more dates than pudding! I prefer the pudding so would have liked more of it 😛 Still, it was one of the nicest sticky date puddings I’ve had.. very moreish and decadent, but totally worth it 😉

The highlight came when they surprised dad with a complimentary Birthday Cupcake!!! With a candle!! Toooo cute 😀 It was really lovely of them to remember as I told them it was his birthday when I made the reservation. I’ve never been to a restaurant in Singapore that has done this, so it totally blew me away. It was really nice of them 🙂 The cupcake didn’t look that interesting – just a vanilla cupcake with icing. But it was a different story once we bit into it – the cupcake was moist and not too sweet, and the icing was more of a light, melty cream than regular hard ice cream. It was lovely!

What a lovely lunch. Many thanks to Marmalade Pantry for giving my Dad (and us!) a lovely, memorable and pleasant meal. We’ll definitely be back 😛

Cute tablemats

Dad and Mum. Gosh it’s fun to hang out with them when I’m home!

Me and Mummy!

Quite a random tablepiece

Snapper Pie with Roast Fennel, served with Salad and Sweet Potato Crisps

Creamy goodness in the Snapper Pie

Wild Mushroom, Spinach and Truffle Oil Tart, served with Salad and Crisps

Linguini with Crab meat, Tomato, Chilli & Pinenuts

Sticky Date Toffee Pudding with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Surprise Birthday Cupcake!

That melty icing was soooo good

Cappuccino and Latte

Our ‘lil family 🙂