The Marmalade Pantry

After the earlier episode, we headed to The Marmalade Pantry (not only wanting to check out the food selection but also to "scrutinize" their service standards!) Over here, there was no queue & the minute we stood at the waiting area, we were immediately attended by a friendly service staff. We were even given the option to choose where we wanted to be seated *Thumbs up*.  As this cafe was ran in an open concept manner, there was not much of a done up. Furnishing was kept to the minimum but I love the little vase of flower on each table which gave the cafe a crisp & cheery feel! =)

The simple table sheet with its name on it

I love this little vase of flowers :)

After browsing through the menu, we decided to order their signature Steak Sandwich for sharing. As for drinks, we were totally spoilt for choices. We debated amongst the smoothies, hot floral tea & the shakes! In the end, we decided to go for the shakes! YP ordered the Oreo Cookies whilst I ordered the Fluffy Strawberry. Haha, how can we miss out desserts? YP saw the Chocolate fudge cake & couldn't resist ordering a slice. (",)

The Oreo Cookies shake ($9) was "overflowing" when it came (as can be seen from this peek). The shake tasted too milky for our liking. There was just a very faint whiff & taste of the cookies & cream which to me, tasted more like any other chocolate milkshake  :(

Oreo Cookies shake

The Fluffy Strawberry Shake ($9) came in a sweet pastel pink colour (which was so NOT me for those who know me, haha). But I do love my strawberries! ;) As it was very milky, the strawberry taste simply faded out into the background....how disappointing.

Fluffy Strawberry shake

When the Steak Sandwich ($20) was served, we were totally sold by the service here! Guess what?! When we ordered this, we told the lady to cut the sandwich into half since we were sharing & that's what they did & even better still, they actually put the halves into 2 serving plates (with full garnishing of the chips & wild rocket salad). Aint that impressive?! We were too baffled for words. Honestly, this is the 1st time that I encountered cafes which bother to put it into 2 serving plates as usually, they would just cut it into half & put it back onto the same plate. Need I say more about their service? =)

We got them to do the beef in medium. The outer part of the beef was crispy (which I especially loved) however, cant say the same for the meat. The beef was a tad too chewy & required quite some chewing to finish it. The chips were those of the healthier version i.e. the yam & sweet potatoes type which I personally do not really like the texture of it, found it hard & dry. This reminded me of the blue potato chips served in Food Barn (which was no longer around) several years back. The wild rocket salad was done in Vinaigrette dressing which was refreshing.

Steak Sandwich

There was only one word that we kept using on the Chocolate Fudge cake ($7.80) throughout the whole session. Haha, the word was "HUMONGOUS" Yes with capital letters! When it came, we were like "o gosh, is this called a slice?" It looked like it could serve at least 3-4 people in one go! We cautiously took a bite as we were trying not to topple the big slice of cake off the plate.

The chocolate fudge cake was not at all how YP or myself had expected it. There was no thick fudge on top of the cake, neither was there any fudge in between the layers of the cake....hmm, how "interesting". The texture of the cake was a little too dry & it was not fine at all. :( YP also commented that she did not like the chocolate shavings used on the cake. For me, it tasted very much like the Sara Lee chocolate pound cake which I used to have in my childhood days! However, sad to say this, I found my Sara Lee cake to be nicer than this! Thank goodness, we only ordered 1 dessert to share. YP was commenting if she were to finish this off, she would definitely stay off chocolate cakes for the next 1 month or so. LOL

Chocolate Fudge cake

This was how the cake looked like when we were halfway through struggling...

The aftermath of it! *haha, salutes to YP who ate most of it, turning the initially triangle looking shape to a rectangular one!*

Overall, the food was pretty average however, as you can guess we were very HAPPY with the service provided. The setting of this place creates a lovely ambience to chill out on a lazy Thursday afternoon whilst watching the world go by! ;)

The Marmalade Pantry is located at ION Orchard #03-22/28.
You can check out their website, http://www.themarmaladepantry.com/