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2013-11-03
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PODI opened less than two weeks ago at Raffles City Shopping Centre, replacing Out of the Pan. It serves up Breakfast and Grills and promises unconventional selections. I'd agree that there were many items on the menu with interesting combinations, but I wouldn't say they all worked absolutely well.Taking this area around the middle fountain with a clean and classy look, it is hard to miss PODI. I visited the outlet at about 1.30pm and it wasn't exceptionally busy, with just a few lingering cust
Taking this area around the middle fountain with a clean and classy look, it is hard to miss PODI. I visited the outlet at about 1.30pm and it wasn't exceptionally busy, with just a few lingering customers. Many staff were just standing around, although they did attend to us to take our order quickly even before we signaled for it.
During lunch time, a top up of $5 for Soup and Coffee/Tea can be made with every main course ordered. The Country Mushroom Soup was sold out, so we opted for the Tomato Soup and French Onion Soup. The Tomato Soup was really delicious - it was hot, thick and not too sour and the texture was more of puree than soup. The tomato flavour was very strong, so if you love tomato you're gonna love this soup. Personally, adding a little carnation would have made the soup perfect. On the other hand, the French Onion Soup did not exactly taste like onion to me, but I liked it nonetheless. The clear brown broth had plenty of onions that were really soft and it felt like they were just dissolving in my mouth.
We ordered three main courses to try, the first being the "Duck Berry Waffle" ($18), recommended as a signature dish. It pairs savoury with sweet, with duck meat on top of a waffle, complemented with an egg, blueberry sauce and some maple syrup infused with vinegar. I guess the combination was fine, just that it wasn't anything outstanding. The duck meat was tender and generously large and the waffle had a nice balance of soft and chewy. The egg stood out of place though and it didn't bring out any flavour. Also, I thought the maple syrup tasted weird, but that's just my personal opinion.
The second dish was "The 100% Beef Burger" ($15) that came with sea-salt fries and an orange citrus salad. While the burger was supposed to be the highlight, I actually enjoyed the sides more. The burger was decent, the beef patty wasn't too tough and the buns were soft and fluffy. I'm not sure whether it's supposed to come with a sauce, but I felt it was quite dry. The fries were amazingly good that we finished the entire bowl almost instantly. The soft shoestring fries were well seasoned and it didn't come across as over-fried or too salty. The salad also had a sweet tangy dressing and for the first time there wasn't enough salad to go around.
The third dish was "Prawn and Poached Egg Pasta" ($18) - interesting combination, but it fell short of our expectations. The three prawns were placed nicely around the plate, though a few more prawns would have been delightful. The poached egg wasn't very well poached and the yolk was not runny and did not flow out. The cream sauce lacked amount and flavour, so the pasta was kinda bland and tasteless. Urgh, not a good pick.
The service was not that great, possibly because the workers are still relatively inexperienced since it just opened a little more than a week ago. We had to request for sugar for the coffee/tea and chili sauce multiple times, plain water was not offered and it took some time before a staff responded to our request for the bill, even though they were mostly idling around. I'd say, give them a little more time to get used to the service and fine tune their dishes before visiting PODI. They do have some interesting desserts to offer too, so I might try them on my next visit.
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