Eat At Your Own Risk

[ Café Food Review — slow, small portions + lacklustre service ] I’m just going to open off by saying I don’t get the hype with Kara Café & Dessert Bar. Some background: C^2 and I have been wanting night café food in BKT for a while, and since the reviews for Kara looked fine, why not try it?

First visit: This was more a supper since we ate prior. Our goal was to try their Okonomiyaki Tater Tots after @lausybren recommended it (thank you!!), so we checked that it was available, ordered, and got a seat. After we paid and were mid-drink, we were told the tater tots were sold out. Mind you, no one else ordered it nor did we see it served. After the refund, we were stuck with drinks when we could’ve gone home instead. Great.

Next visit: This time, C^2 and I decided to pop by during dinner time instead. She placed the order for it first to be safe before we looked for mains. Many of their mains were sold out, so we got their Pork Belly Miso (apparently a signature) + Tempura Fish Kimchi. Alas, 15-20 mins later we were informed again that the tempura was sold out. Cue needing to pick another bowl and pay $2 more for something I didn’t particularly want (their katsu).

Here’s the only silver lining of the night: The tater tots were great!! /chef kiss/ (Did have to wait 30mins for it tho.) Despite being covered in sauce and mayo, the potato bites were still crispy, and the spring onions and furikake garnishing made the dish a lot more and staved away impending saturation.

The rest of our mains, not so much. My goodness, the portion sizes were dismal. While we did get a slab of pork belly, it was fattier than I’d expected, lying next to a strange inclusion of fried instant noodle bits, and flanked by a sad mess of onions and some edamame. At least the mix wasn’t bad.

If I thought the belly was bad, wait until you see their katsu. Not only did we have to wait nearly an hour for it (they told us 20mins more 30mins in), when it arrived, we were given h a l f a piece of katsu that I could’ve eaten in a bite or two. An hour. For that. Better yet, the entire dish was dull, plain and bland. Took a few bites, and we were done with it.

Nope, never visiting again.

[ Café Food Review — Aesthetic =/= Quality ] It’s rare for me to order in food at home — not a fan of the unnecessary waste generated + no to lukewarm food — but unfortunately, it really is the only viable option on some days.

If I do order, it’s normally via Deliveroo. The delivery costs are cheaper, their discounts tend to be better (but for a small group of brands), and it means I don’t have to support Grab, yay!

And that is how I ended up with the order of Buttercake N Cream’s All Day Magical Set (25% off) ft. Chef’s Roasted Half (Spring) Chicken + Caesar Salad side + Peach Sparkler for $14.18, and a side of Chicken Nuggets for $7 because yours truly can’t say no to nuggets.

Here’s the only summary you need: If I’d been at the café, I’d have sent almost everything back. Which was an unpleasant discovery for me because apparently BnC has been voted as a great spot for food (then again, said vote is from a local forum), and takes pride in not just fostering a conducive ambience, but its gastronomical creations too. Apparently.

The frustrating thing is the food didn’t have to be horrible! I could taste the effort in balancing the flavours. For e.g., the spring chicken was honestly not bad — it was seasoned decently, with variations in herbs and condiments. So what’s the problem then?

Everything was d r e n c h e d in oil. And if it didn’t need oil, sauce.

No matter how good whatever I picked up was, it was absolutely ruined by the viscous sheen of oil that seeped and clung to every damn thing. The fragrance of the potato? Stifled by the oil. The crisp of the nuggets? Sodden by the oil.

The salad then? Inundated by dressing.

Now remember how I have horrible oil sensitivity? Add two and two together, and bam, guess who was rendered virtually incapacitated for the better part of my lunch. The silver lining? At least I’m home with access to all my meds.

Oh, and the drink wasn’t bad I guess. Not too sweet but lacking in body; but hey, it did wonders in washing the deluge of oil from my mouth.

Worst item of the day? The nuggets. Bland, limp, and drowning in enough oil to risk a USA invasion.

Best? The taro pie from Burger King my dad (thankfully) got for me.