Jewel Coffee

C says:

We planned to try Triple O tonight, the first Singapore outpost of a Vancouver burger chain. They've opened at Asia Square Food Garden, the upscale food court in the new Asia Square office building in Shenton Way.

Their official opening hours are till 9 pm, but when we got there at 8 on a Friday evening, they were inexplicably closed. They said they closed early cos there were no customers. ?! Shouldn't you at least hold out a bit later, especially on a Friday night? Black mark against them, even before we actually dine there.

Anyway, we decided to go to Jewel Coffee instead. We'd had their breakfast and coffee but not their all-day offerings.


A had their Ribeye Hero, a ciabatta sandwich with slices of ribeye steak, mushrooms and cheese. I'm not a huge fan of sandwiches but this was toasted so it was hot, the bread was soft so it didn't chafe the roof of my mouth, and the meat was really tender.


I went with the Mushroom Medley linguine, which indeed had a medley of mushrooms - a very generous amount of buttons, shitakes, shimejis and oyster mushrooms. It was served on a bed of baby spinach that became slightly wilted from the heat of the pasta, which helped to move it from salad territory.

The sauce was a simple aglio olio, but because there was a liberal sprinkling of shaved parmesan on top, it melted and merged into the sauce as well. The result was a delightfully moreish, earthy dish that wasn't overpowered by garlic. Very good.

Because my pasta was vegetarian (you can opt for additional chicken breast for $4), we had to have some sort of side and it was a toss-up between the chicken wings and the pork cubes. We eventually decided on the less predictable pork.


The cubes are deep fried pieces of pork collar, marinated in a powerful blend of 14 spices. It was decidedly Asian, and I detected either har cheong paste or lam yu. It comes with kicap manis, a sweet dark soya sauce, which had a subtle underlying heat from being infused with chillies.

I must have burnt my mouth a few times because these arrived piping hot, but man, they were good. I'm not usually one for sauces with my meat but the kicap manis paired with the meat amazingly. Perhaps my only criticism is that the pieces were a bit too big - something more bite-sized would've been easier to eat, and they could maybe have been cooked a little less.

Service was excellent too, though maybe because they were the owners so they probably had a vested interest. I dare say we probably had a better meal here, than if we had gone to Triple O.

A says:

The steak sandwich is a bit on the expensive side but great. The mushroom pasta is awesome for just $10.90. The coffee is very distinctive. And the service is great. Rock!

Jewel Coffee
1 Shenton Way
#01-17, One Shenton
Tel: 6636-9452
Mon to Fri: 7 am – 9 pm
Sat: 8 am – 5 pm
www.facebook.com/jewelcoffee