[Halal] If you're looking for a cozy outdoor café to sit down and enjoy a bowl of rice with plenty of fresh veggies and herbs, then Santap and its Iftar Set (Rice Bowl + Drink, $15) might just be right up your alley.

It is the brainchild of the people behind places like Afterwit, Mad Sailors and Working Title, and sees its menu adopting a healthy-and-clean-eating slant. To execute that, they've thrown in numerous fresh ingredients (plus a poached egg and a papadum) into the mixing bowl. What could go wrong with such an acceptable-sounding method? Not much, I guess, except for one - the over-reliance on it to produce a significant output in terms of taste.

Personally, I feel that this was the misstep. Don't get me wrong - I do think the Beef Rice Bowl has its merits. It makes for an aptly light meal for iftar, which paces very well with, what I'd like to call, the Ramadhan appetite. It was filling, but not to the point where you'd start feeling bloated and uncomfortable. The poached egg is also worth a mention - it was really well-made, with a firm, yet delicate egg white and a viscous yolk that oozes out with a pizzaz like Bruno Mars's.

However, it fell short because of how painfully average it is. Not sure if it was bland or that I was finding for just something to trigger the "wow this is good" gun in my head, but I kept feeling like I was eating it mindlessly. It is because of that very thing that I honestly believe it lacked sophistication or an element of surprise.

So while I do feel that Santap has an admirable concept, I think their Beef Rice Bowl leaves more to be desired. But hey, nothing a little bit of tweaking to the recipe can't fix right? Otherwise, they have other choices on the menu which probably trump this and are thus, worth a try. (6.8/10)