A new place at the basement of Orchard Central finally opened today (181 Orchard Road #B2-01, 6238-9028). It was basically like Marché but featuring Mediterranean food rather than Western European. They weren't afraid of acknowledging where their inspiration came from either; the greeter handing out those charge cards at the front told me straight up that it works "like Marché" with its various food stations and electronic payment system.
Yes, just like Marché, they had little things on each table to indicate whether it was taken or not. Just like Marché, they had utensils and napkins placed on wooden stands around the venue. And perhaps most amusingly, just like Marché, they were offering rösti, which isn't exactly the most Mediterranean of dishes. But they probably figured that rösti was a huge reason for Marche's success, and hence they couldn't do without it either, as inconsistent with the theme as it might seem. (Well, it was also a bit strange that they were selling pizza and pasta through the Greek station, among other weird things, but that's just nitpicking.)
Eccentricities like that aside, one thing that will bring me back here again is the taste of the food, particularly that grilled seabream above, which was perfectly seasoned, as well as their homemade pasta, whose texture was just right. In fact, I had lunch here earlier today too, and I liked it enough that I came back for dinner despite all of the teething problems they were having on their first day (charging my card properly, preparing my food quickly, etc.). The salad and juice bars here were also a bit sad compared to Marché (and the pizza was atrociously limp), but I'll put up with that if the rest of the food can taste as good as it did today.
No comments:
Post a Comment