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2016-05-25
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Located on the second floor of IMM, near the seasonal salad buffet is Cafe Manuka. It seems to be a family oriented cafe with a kiddy corner, with scrabble, kiddy toys and disney picture books to entertain children. There's a cake display at the entrance to attract customers and the cake display sure did it's job by attracting me. Along with the cakes, they also sold scones and cookies. I did witness several customers walking by just to get a few cakes and treats to-go. It's location is also pr
Located on the second floor of IMM, near the seasonal salad buffet is Cafe Manuka. It seems to be a family oriented cafe with a kiddy corner, with scrabble, kiddy toys and disney picture books to entertain children.
There's a cake display at the entrance to attract customers and the cake display sure did it's job by attracting me. Along with the cakes, they also sold scones and cookies. I did witness several customers walking by just to get a few cakes and treats to-go. It's location is also pretty good, in the sense that this is along the way to the overhead bridge connecting towards Jurong East MRT. Yes you can walk directly from IMM to JE MRT sheltered!
Looking at the menu, they have breakfast items like eggs, pancake stacks, corn fritters and even rosti. For mains, you can pick from a salad, to pasta, sandwiches, pizzas and a DIY crepe. They also sold chicken and waffles, korean chicken skewers for those who wanted something more than the ordinary.1. Matcha Milk Shake $5.50 (Regular)
The matcha milk shake was smooth, creamy and slightly fragrant. It had a distinct, aroma of vanilla ice cream. You could taste a lingering flavour of matcha, but it was quickly overpowered by the creamy ice cream. It's a pretty big portion for $5.50. I couldn't finish it by myself, but Cafe Manuka, also offers this in a large serving at $7. 2. Potato Rosti with Turkey Bacon and Egg $11
I love rosti and I was glad to see that Cafe Manuka was offering it. Rosti with turkey bacon and scrambled egg at $11? I couldn't say no! The rosti was charred on the eggs, given it a biscuity-crunch with every bite, but the cook placed the rosti one on top of the other, more for a photogenic purpose, but sadly, this made the rosti underneath it soggy and not crispt at all. What a waste. The rosti at the bottom layer was just drenched in oil with potato shreds clumped together. I wished that they had served some sour cream to eat this rosti with, as it felt a bit dry, despite being oil. The scrambled eggs was decent and not too salty. The turkey bacon provided a salty option on the plate and overall. I liked this dish and my rosti cravings were satisfied!3. C.M.B.T Sandwich $10.50
Served on a white bread, this sandwich had, herbed honey marinated chicken, turkey bacon, tomato, mesclum and mayo. I enjoyed the crusty bread that though looks small was very filling indeed. The chicken was well seasoned and had a great tender taste to it. The was an audible crunch each time I bit into the bread. The vegetableas was fresh and provided a refreshing tangy flavour. 4. Meaty Meat $14.50
This pizza is definitely meant for sharing, at least amongst 2 pax. The crust though thin, at the edges you couldn't imagine yourself eating a khong ghuan cream crackers. It was that crisp was which great. But as we seperated the pizza slices from the whole pizza, all the ingredients kept falling off and it was a mess. The rest of the pizza dough which the ingredients were cooked on, just tasted doughy and probably frozen? The combination of ingredients though were a great choice. This was a great savoury, umami pizza that was certainly enjoyable, other than the mess I made. 5. Tom Yam Prawn Pasta $12.50
Spgahetti tossed with a tom tam sauce with lots of fresh prawns, this was one of my favourites, even though I don't normally take spicy foods. As Cafe manuka is poised as a family oriented restaurant, I noticed that even the spicy level of this dish could be served to a child. The spaghetti was cooked to an al dente consistency, executing firmness in every bite. The tom yam aroma was fragrant and made me hungry despite me feeling pretty full at this time.
The fresh prawns added a crunchy mouthfeel to the dish and made it more visually appealing. The tom yam creamy sauce was pretty addictive. It wasn't too salty or gerlat. It was on point! Definitely getting this on my next visit!6. Ondeh Ondeh Cake $6.50
This cake was flavoured with ondeh ondeh, coconut and gula melaka sauce in betweeen the sponge cake layers. Though the green colouring wasn't too intense, the coconut flavour was pretty vivid. The gula melaka sauce/syrup in between each layer was a bit too sweet for my liking. The butter cream was light, and smooth. This was a great end to our delightful family oriented lunch!7. Mango Lavender cake $6.50
This cake looked abit dry in the cake display and my mum was hesistant in ordering it, and when it was served. It definitely did look dry. Upon my first attempt to grab a bite with the dessert fork. I realized it took some effort for my fork to go through the cake layers unlike the ondeh ondeh cake. I believe that such cafes usually get a cake supplier, so that they can focus on cooking the main courses. But it's also apparent that these cakes do end up sitting in the cake display for far too long. It was a slight disappointment, but the ondeh ondeh cake made up for it. 8. Affogato with almonds $5.50
By far, my favourite affogato. Whoever thought it would be a good idea to place almonds in an affogato, THANK YOU! I totally enjoyed this, although I would've thought that they would serve this at the end of the meal, considering it has ice cream in it. The coffee shot was great! It gave me an energetic kick in my brain cells and definitely awoke my senses. The vanilla ice cream was smooth and not too sweet. It complimented the bitterness of the coffee shot well. The almonds were fresh and crisp. I loved how the almonds had both a visual impact as well as providing a crunchy bite in every spoonful of affogato! Good job Cafe Manuka!Overall : Loved the ambience, some hits and misses but the pace at which the food was served was abit slow, great if you're spending time with your loved ones, but dining alone, it could feel pretty miserable. There weren't that many customers on a public holiday, saturday afternoon, but service was great! Happy and smiley staff greeted us!
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(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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