OKB

C says:

OKB stands for both Our Kind of Bakery/Bistro, and One Kampong Bahru, its address. By day, between 11 and 6, it's a bakery selling home-made cakes, cookies, breads and pastries. In the evening, it becomes a bar/bistro, serving up drinks and sharing plates of bar bites.

We only discovered this place after trying one of the Bakery's cookies - a buttery shortbread studded with cranberries that they created for Christmas. I was so enamoured with the melt-in-your-mouth gem that I did a bit of online research, and called them to find out more.

Turns out the cranberry cookie isn't on their regular menu, but the pastry chef can whip up some to order if you give her enough notice (about 2 to 3 days). We arranged to collect the cookies on a Friday evening after work, and headed there for dinner.

The place is really cosy and small, with a pretty limited seating area. Tables are also quite small, which makes it a bit of a challenge for us given how much we order. Still, the food and especially the service more than make up for it.

Two standout dishes we had, not coincidentally also their two most popular, were the chicken wings and the steak. The mid-joint wings were marinated in a belachan butter marinade, then fried. I think there was only a light coating, and no batter - just the way I like it. The marinade was super flavourful and mildly spicy, and the wings were cooked to perfection. Each order comes with 4 wings; we're gonna need 2 orders next time.

When we ordered the steak, we asked for it to be medium rare, but were told that the steak is actually slowed cooked through, because they sous vide it, and sear it upon order. I'm pleasantly surprised that they take so much trouble; it certainly shows because the dish was really good.

The pan-seared scallop with buah keluak oil was pretty good too, with the very meaty scallop cooked perfectly. I couldn't really taste the buah keluak oil though. 

The pan fried Haloumi cheese with tomatoes and the chilli crab rillette were, in comparison, a little disappointing. They weren't bad, just a bit ordinary compared to the other dishes.

For dessert, we shared a salted caramel cupcake, and a mini blueberry and lemongrass creme brulee. Both were surprisingly very good. The cupcake interestingly used a chocolate rather than a vanilla base, and was very moist and light.

I had some reservations about the flavour combination for the creme brulee, but I needn't have worried. You could just about taste both the blueberry and the lemongrass, but neither were overwhelming.

Overall, I was very impressed with both their baked goods and their bistro offerings. Parking is a bit of a problem, as is seating/table space, but those aren't enough to keep us from going back. Those wings were amazing.

A says:

The food ranges from average to above average, but the desserts are awesome. The place is a bit cramped and the service a bit iffy (which I'm hoping are just teething problems since they've been open less than a month).

Overall, I'd go again, mostly for the desserts.

OKB
1 Kampong Bahru Road
Tel: 6220-4711
www.okbtreats.com
www.onekampongbahru.com