Epiphyte Café – Galaxy Cake, Edible Terrarium & Attractive Pink Risotto

Entering this café is like stepping into a magical garden as the interior is surrounded by plants and terrariums on the walls and tables. This café occupies two levels, with the kitchen and a cake display counter on the first level. Cafés and restaurants have become so much more creative when curating their menu items. Nowadays, food has to be pleasant to the eyes besides tasting delicious. With such a gorgeously-designed interior, we had high hopes for their food.

The menu isn’t comprehensive but it’s good that Epiphyte Café prides itself in serving good quality food that is well-prepared. We started with Brie & Edamame Salad ($12), featuring mesclun, Asian pear, goma and crostini. This salad managed to balance sweet and savoury flavours very well and we liked the textural differences from the creamy brie cheese to the crunchy and juicy bits of Asian pear. It’s a great starter to our meal.

As we craved comfort food on that particular night, we had the Pasta Prawns ($22) and Pink Risotto ($22). The former consisted of spaghetti cooked al dente, topped with fresh Ebi Sakura, and tossed in chives, extra virgin olive oil and shallots to enhance the flavours. The prawns were well cooked and tasted of its natural sweetness.

As for the Pink Risotto, it was the highlight of our meal. No artificial food colouring has been added to give the risotto its pinkish colour. The chef only mixed roasted beetroot with the risotto to produce a natural pinkish colour. There was a good consistency and we enjoyed the creamy texture of the risotto, which had a slight smoky finish. The risotto was topped with plump, succulent scallops and parmigiana. This dish would’ve scored full marks if the scallops were a tad more savoury.

We ended our meal with eye-catching desserts such as the Terrarium ($15) and Twilight ($12). The Terrarium, containing green sponge cake, chocolate soil, fresh mint custard and apple compote, was too pretty to be devoured. It looked like a real plant. We added rum, and the entire experience was wonderful. Imagine indulging in a dessert with different textures and flavours bursting in your mouth.

The other show-stopping dessert was Twilight, which I preferred to Terrarium. This galaxy cake boasted chocolate sponge and marbling chocolate mousse, infused with Cointreau orange curd. Therefore, you get a surprising tangy twist mixed with the usual sweetness of chocolate cakes. The mousse was light and simply melts in your mouth. I’m never sharing this dessert with anyone else ever again! It’s so good I can devour one on my own!

We often find themed cafés nice to look at but not appealing to the tastebuds. However, Epiphyte Café has completely surprised us. We like that they try to align the methods of preparing food to their garden theme, like using beetroot plant to create natural colours for food. It’s a place where we can chill out after work while pampering ourselves with foods that are both visually pleasing and great tasting.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.