The Lokal (Closed)

After hearing some good reviews on The Lokal Cafe, I decided to give it a shot one day when a colleague suggested having lunch together.  The Lokal Cafe , an Australian cafe, is a fairly new kid on the block, often packed with coffee lovers in its comfortable setting - one may choose to sit at the tables near the sleek white coffee counter, or prop one's foot up on the plushy couches in the more laid-back area at the back.I settled for the Roast Chicken Panini (SGD$15.00) with crispy pancetta, tomato, avocado, cos and aloli. The chicken was tender and the combination with crispy pancetta and avocado was an intense play on the palate. The juicy and sour-sweet tomato slices, paired with chewy panini bread made the sandwich an exotic blend of textures and in short, the colleague and I enjoyed this creationThe colleague had the Roast Beef on Rye (SGD$17.00) with caramelised onions, watercress and grained mustard creme fraiche. The roast beef was rather tender, and the sweetness was further enhanced by the raw, fresh sweetness of the watercress. This sandwich was a rather juicy treat.For more detailed information and photos, please feel free to visit:http://thearcticstar.blogspot.sg/2014/07/lunch-at-lokal-cafe.html…Read More

The Lokal is a new cafe situated at Neil Road beside Goethe Institure, which is also affiliated to Telok Ayer cafe, Sarnies. It's menu offers pretty much western grub; featuring burgers and sandwiches, salads and soup with some bakes as well as plated desserts. One of the interesting things The Lokal does is that the chefs here cure their meat, smoke their fish and does the yoghurt from scratch; so expect really fresh, homemade ingredients being served in the dishes here.One of our dining partners were severely late so we decided to share the Roast Chicken Panini ($14.00+) while waiting for him to arrive. Coming in Crispy Pancetta, Tomatoes, Avocado, Cos, Aioli and Bacon, it was served slightly near cold, as though it was meant to be a cold dish. The tomatoes were insanely fresh; sweet with a tangy flavour, matched well with smooth avocado puree that is used in place of butter and bacon which provided a touch of savouriness, while the chicken was tender and lightly roasted for some flavour. Even the bread was impressive; it has some sort of elasticity that gave it a real nice chew. It was easily one of the most memorable chicken sandwiches that I had.When the second dining partner came, we went for the Roast Beef on Rye ($15.90+). If the Roast Chicken Panini was impressive, the Roast Beef on Rye was beyond words; crispy bread coupled with tender and succulent beef that did not taste gamey in any way with a balanced portion of vegetables to beef, it was so well proportioned that it did not feel tiring and we were left craving for more. Did I also mention that the caramalised onions were also really sweet?Our original decision was to get a side but we ended up undecided on which dessert to get instead as we were attracted to both the Sticky Date Pudding and Apple Pineapple Crumble Pie with Ice-Cream ($9.00+). Eventually, we went for the latter; a really sweet-yet-sour combination that was generous on chunks of both fruits and came with a real crunchy crumble and a vanilla ice-cream that was rich in its aroma. One of the dining partners found it too sweet for his liking, but the two of us thought that it was that that made the dessert so good.For more photos and the full review, please visit: http://jiaksimipng.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/the-lokal-neil-road/…Read More