Cafe Swiss

C says:

Goodness, time flies. It seems like just yesterday (ok, maybe not yesterday, but a few months ago) that we first ate at Cafe Swiss, and vowed to come back one day for the beef fondue. It’s actually taken us almost a year to make good our promise. A and I headed there for dinner on Friday night, specifically for the Fondue Bourguignonne – a meat fondue where you cook stuff in hot olive oil. Random comment: This is a great place to come to when everywhere else is packed and you can’t get tables or reservations. On a Friday night, there were maybe 3 tables occupied…

The menu says the minimum order for the Fondue Bourguignonne is 2 persons, and the price is listed as $45. On our last visit, we were told that the price is per person, so we expected it to cost $90. When the food arrived, I was a bit stunned to see how little of it there was – at most 10 cubes of meat, a few asparagus spears, broccoli florets, and no more than 5 pieces each of baby corn, zucchini and carrot. All I was thinking throughout dinner was “$90 for this??!!” Turns out that was just one portion, so I guess $45 is fairly decent then. I don’t understand the menu then – why say minimum 2 persons, when they only served and charged us for one portion? Unless it is $45 for 2 persons? In which case only even numbers of people can order?? I’m confused… my head hurts…

Anyway, first a pot of hot oil arrives, and you're instructed to leave it to heat properly for 3 to 5 minutes. When it’s ready, you skewer your meats and vegetables, and lower them carefully into the hot oil. It emits quite a sizzle, which sounds a bit scary, but it stays within the pot (most of the time). The meat was fillet chunks and was super sweet and tender. Reminded me of the fillet at Aburiya. The fried vegetables were pretty good too, in particular the broccoli, where the tiny little fronds got nice and crispy. You get three dips – thousand island, ranch and mustard; I didn't even bother with the thousand island, but the mustard was pretty good with the meat, and the ranch with the vegetables.

This was certainly an interesting meal, but because of the menu miscommunication with the portions, it barely satiated our hunger. At least it meant that we had more than enough stomach space to have ice cream at Raffles Creamery for dessert.

A says:

Good food. Excellent service. A bit pricey for what you’d get though. At least the $45 was for the full thing. If it was $45/person for what we got, it would be really over-priced. I miss the old Ladyhill Hotel Beef Fondue though.

Also, beef fondue is way too oily to have on a regular basis though.

Café Swiss
Level 2, Swissôtel The Stamford
Tel: 6431-6156