Cafe Novus, nestled within the National Museum of Singapore is set to take the culinary by the storm. Cafe Novus, part of the Novus Restuarant, is a cafe that serves simple sandwiches, cakes. The concept of providing a quiet respite in an urban city right in an edifice with so much heritage and culture. It’s good to chill out with good company at the perfect city enclave.

Serving all day breakfast from 10am, they also serve simple pasta, sanwiches, pizzas and milkshakes.

Veggie Delight($8++)

Grilled sliced vegetables served with foccacia bread with balsamic vingear and olive oil. The sandwich comes with 2 slices of eggplants, cucumbers, some lettuce and tomtoes relish. The grilled vegetables were served cold but they were all well-seasoned with herbs therefore it’s not too bad. I like the tomtoes relish that is grilled till soft and melts in my mouth.

The foccacia bread, was a let-down. It comes with 2 large slices of bread.Focaccia is quite popular in Italy and is usually seasoned with olive oil and sometimes herbs, and may be topped with onion, cheese and meat, or flavored with a number of vegetables. However, their version is different. . The bread is orange in colour, probably flavoured with orange zest, taste weird. I thought that the bread is dry and taste flat.

All sandwiches are served with potato chips. It’s great for some munch. I feel that the potatoe chips tatse better than the bread!

The service is generally good here. The cafe is quite crowded especially when there are tourists or visitors visiting the museum as they would pop by and have some cakes and coffee here.

Careshop de Cafe (CDC) is a cafe cum a retail store for care products. You can purchase health products here ( a little weird though). The cafe offers light meals such as sandwiches, coffee , salads..etc which is an ideal place for the office workers to grab something light here.The cafe looks simple and neat. You would have to order & pay @ the counter & wait for your food to be served.


They offer light salads, sandwiches, pastas, mains , bento sets and desserts. The pastas & sandwiches are popular here ( according to the waiter ) .

The Caesar ($3.50+)

I requested for less croutons and they kindly separated the garlic croutons & dressing . Salads are supposed to be healthy but this salad seemed to be loaded with loads of cheese !


Grilled Chicken chop, brown sauce, garlic mash & veggies ($11.90+)
The Grilled chicken chop was recommended by the waiter as one of the popular dish here. Well, the portion was HUGE! It was a bit of a challenge for me to finish this up & somehow I regretted ordering the Caesar salad in the first place.Seriously, the chicken chop was tasteless even though it was seasoned with black pepper. The meat taste like frozen chicken meat which I could easily make out. The brown sauce was slightly coagulated and starch granules could be seen … . The chicken skin was also slightly rubbery (like eating chewing gum). The only thing that I like is the greens served by the sides.

Verdict : I happened to be in the vicinity to visit my friend & try out this Cafe but was disappointed with the food. Thankfully, I didn’t come all the way here from the West & left unsatisfied.

The Menu
Skip the main course … order the sandwiches or the croissants ( at least it’s their speciality ) and perhaps the fruit tarts.
I had a roast chicken sandwich with wholemeal bread, top up$ 3.50 for the soup of the day and free flow of coffee.

Soup of the day : Chicken soup
There were chunks of chicken meat and potatoes in the soup. The soup was warm and hearty but perhaps too much MSG?

Wholemeal sandwich with roast chicken and seafood mayo
Being a health conscious person, I only take Wholemeal /Wholegrains bread. The chicken meat is palmed-sized and they didn’t skin off the chicken skins ( where the fats are found). The seafood mayo were from ayam brand .

Creamy Pot Pie ( Chicken)
Choice of Chicken/ Beef
Mum had this creamy pot pie with chunks of chicken meat and potatoes. The flaky crust was huge and ultra flaky! They were very generous with the chicken but again, too much MSG.
Verdict: Too much MSG in the food and the service needs improvement too.

Prego is an italian restaurant that is part of The Fairmont hotel.There were several entrances at the side but I just could not find the main entrance.

Prego features a pizzeria, wine bar, rotisserie, takeaway counter and deli. Freshly baked breads, cakes, salads, sausages, cold cuts and pastas are available from the deli counter.Prego conveys a sense of fun in a casual atmosphere. Strategically located at the corner of bustling Bras Basah and Beach Roads, delight in a hearty Italian dinner whilst people-watching. One must try it’s signature dessert- The Tiramisu.

I decided to had the February Executive 2 course set lunch priced at $45++ . There is only a choice of salad and 3 main courses available.

Complimentary Bread

It was just an ordinary bread roll but it taste terrific with the home-made tomato sauce & olive oil. This is a favourite and popular with the customers here.

Insalata Di Pollo

It is basically a salad with grilled chicken breast, mesclun, cherry tomatoes, cheese , balsamic vinegrette and olive oil. The portion is just too small and sadly, the grilled chicken breast taste bland and flat. Perhaps I am biased against chicken meat but this fared badly. I left the thin chicken pieces untouched.

Fettuccine con panna funghi e Piselli

This was my main course. The other 2 choices were beef and rabbit meat which I do not really prefer thus I decided to have the pasta. The Fettuccine pasta comes with mushrooms and green peas with cream sauce but I requested them to remove the green peas and replaced by vegetables. However, they merely add in more mushrooms. I asked them and they told me it wouldn’t taste good if other vegetables were used.The mushrooms were ok, chewy and flavourful. The cream sauce was a little heavy so I requested for some home-made tomato sauce to cover it.

My verdict: Overpriced! I paid around $52 for the above 2 dishes ,the serving was so small and they are simple dishes that anybody could simply whip up at home. Definately not worth the hefty price tag.

Caesar Salad ($11+)

A large serving of Romaine lettuce with soy turkey bacon bits.

Big Fish Harvest ($29)

” Combi of char-grilled Cod and Salmon, approx 100g each, served with Garlic butter Queen scallops on bed of watercress and lemon butter sauce”.( as described)
The cod … looks awful and the portion was small than my palm.
The salmon fillet & scallops were tad overdone… rough texture.
I like the watercress & lemon butter sauce which was the only saving grace.

I was a little disappointed with the drop of standard … perhaps they have a change of chef? Neverthless, I ” MAY” still return but… only for the butterfish.

P.S No GST charge but 10% Svc charge still included.