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

Café Swiss

C says:

On Friday night, we met my old friend D and her husband (also D) for dinner at Café Swiss, on the second floor of Raffles City/Swissotel. I’m not sure how new this place is, but I don’t recall seeing it whenever we’re at Raffles City. The Café’s entrance from Raffles City is right next to Warehouse on Level 2.

It occupies quite a large area, and was sadly quite empty on a Friday night, particularly when the Raffles City basement establishments were packed to the gills. It’s a restaurant/bistro serving fairly authentic Swiss and other European specialities, like fondue and raclette. The menu had quite a varied range of items, catering to differing tastes as well as budgets. There’s a proper dining menu, as well as simpler and more reasonable bistro fare. There were a number of fondues available as well, including a Fondue Bourguignonne, which is a beef fondue where bite-sized cubes of beef are cooked in a mixture of cooking oil and butter, then eaten with a variety of dipping sauces. We didn’t have this fondue this time but it certainly looks interesting, and A and I will definitely head back here at some point to try it out.

Instead, we started with half a dozen garlic snails, then I had the Swiss burger, with emmental cheese and mushrooms, and A had a veal dish with mushrooms in a morel cream sauce, served with rosti potatoes. The burger was quite tender and not dry, just maybe slightly lacking in flavour/salt. A’s veal dish was heavy on the butter and cream but very delicious as a result. The food was much better than I expected, given that the restaurant wasn’t well patronized. I think it’s probably just unfortunate lack of awareness, or perhaps a misconception that because it’s a hotel restaurant, it’s overpriced. Prices were actually quite reasonable – my burger was $18 and A’s veal was in the $20 region. Ok, the Fondue Bourguignonne is supposed to be $45 per person, but I guess it’s not something you find very often in Singapore.

For dessert, I had a Toblerone Cheesecake, and D&D had the Toblerone Chocolate Mousse. The mousse was pretty good, whereas my cheesecake was way way too rich, sweet and cheesy. Just basically too gelak.

Still, this place was quite a pleasantly surprising find, and it’s definitely a place to consider when you’re in Raffles City. It’s certainly better than some of the joints in the basement, like Out of the Pan.

A says:

The food, while still a bit pricy, was surprisingly very good. Service was outstanding too. Definitely worth a visit to try some European fare.

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