White Dog Cafe

Been here a few times for lunch on a weekday. Honestly I must say that I won't come here if the set lunch wasn't offered. Having eaten the ala carte menu (it was my boss's treat), I concluded that it simply wasn't worth the high price. Sorry boss :D

Don't get me wrong, the mushroom soup was good, and the duck confit was ok. It just wasn't good enough to justify the price. If i remember correctly, about $24 for the duck.

anyway I won't say much about the food, so as not to bias your taste buds. lets jus leave it at... its all about the set lunch!

Environment:
Casual and very Swensen like.

Food & Service:
Service is good though closing the bill could take unbelievably long. My wife and I tried the Tenderloin and Seafood pasta. The tenderloin, at medium rare, almost melts in my mouth and portion is just great for 2 to share. The pasta is al dente though seafood alittle lacking in perfection.

Price:
Expected of a Swensen alike place though drinks are a little pricey. S$3.50 for a glass of coke is not really what I would be willing to foot.

Final take:
Overall, it's a good place for a family meal with decent food and great steaks. A little early on their last order though, at 930pm.

i thought it was quite a cool name for a cafe and many youngsters dine there too. so i thought why not give it a try? we ordered the white dog platter as it simply looks so good and appetizing! i guess we were hungry, cos the appetizer took forever to come! when it did, all the forks went into the middle of the table and within 15mins, everything was wolfed down. spic and span. there were wedges, spicy drumlets, tempura, spring rolls, calamari with salad in the middle.

perhaps food taste better when shared. when each of us had our mains, it turned out to be a disappointment. everything was just average. some even had quite a peculiar taste to it.

for pasta, you can choose between spaghetti, linguine & penne 

i had wursts - sliced pork sausages in tomato based sauce with linguine. pork sausages are fine with me. perhaps it's the tomato based sauce that didn't sit too well. i don't know how to describe what i didn't like about it either. it was just strange. 

the others ordered seafood medley - mussels/prawn with linguine served in squid ink sauce. verdict: strange too

salmon pasta: the thing with salmon is that it's especially fishy when you cook it. salmon still tastes best as sashimi!

baked rice with chicken: the cheese didn't infuse with the baked rice. wasn't as nice as it could have been

hawaiian pork chop: i must say it's not bad. the best mains among all that we ordered.

you don't get quality but you get quantity. we felt really full. no more space for desserts. perhaps this will be a nice place to chill - to try their desserts and drinks. apparently those got better reviews than their mains.. 

ambience-wise:you can get a view of the port and even wave to the merlion on sentosa.  

Went for dinner with 2 of my colleagues one weeknight.

Prices for dinner were actually quite steep. As there were no sets available. Everything was ala carte. We ordered Aglio Olio, Squid ink pasta, fried calamari, and something else i cant quite remember.

As it was quite some time ago, I cant really remember what we really tasted, except that the portions were puny and very salty, especially the mushroom soup.

But the fried calamari was good! Firm and not mushy. This was the only thing that saved the day.

All in all it was passable, but I would give it an extra star for the yummy calamari. I would go back again for lunch again probably, to give it another go.

 They offer daily set lunch set( soup, main course, coffee/tea ) with an array of main courses to choose from. Set lunches starts from $10.80++. You can top up the difference for other soups or add ice cream to your set
The chicken consomme's terribly bland!Do top up $2 more for the creamy mushroom soup. We ordered the dory set and grilled salmon set..both were delicious...

we were seated just next to the windows...so we had a pretty good view of the sea.. i would say it added some extra points to the place... Service was so so..nothing to shout about..nothing to complain

 

the place can get rather crowded during lunch time..and noisy as well... otherwise... can give it a try if u have not dine there.. but not a place u would wanna go back too often. 

popped in, in search of a quick dinner after finding the prices to be reasonable from the big menu outside the restaurant

found the decor and furniture cosy. nice sofa seats along the full panel glass windows looking out to sentosa. (though i won't say it's really a nice view)

ordered a Amatriciana penne, a Chicken Sausage penne, a Kiwi Passion Fruit Juice and a Paradize (iced mocha with ice cream)
the pasta were not fantastic. the penne was hard. the bacon in my Amatriciana were in fat strips, quite hard to deliver to my mouth.
the drinks were pretty ok, though i had much better mocha with ice cream elsewhere.

service was ok. pour your own warm water though. (they will serve u the cups and one big bottle of water and thats it)   
peeked at the other tables and found that they do make some effort into the presentation of the food.

since it was a quick dinner, we did not try the cakes, though they look not bad.

an affordable place for friends gathering, couples and families. but don't come with high expectations.

It was a lazy Friday afternoon and we were mindful to escape the lunch crowd. We were aimlessly looking for a place to lunch with a thereupatic view of Sentosa and the cable cars when we were greeted with the lavish set-lunch menu at White Dog Cafe. They had loads to choose from for a main course, with an accompanying soup and coffee to hold it all up. And when I say "lavish', I really mean generously lavish. They had categories of main dishes: pastas, baked rice, meat, asian, burgers, sandwiches... and in each category, they listed a choice of no less than 4 dishes to choose from. And that was just their set-lunch menu? No kidding!

We had the "Chef pasta in aglio olio", and the "Beef Tenderloin (served with rice - they call it starch)". We also opted for their day's soup - Chicken soup. Yes, not exciting to say the least, but we like to leave some space for the chef at our dining places to have a taste of their personalities with whatever they have. So chicken soup it was (though you can upgrade your soup with an additional $2 or something).

My initial impression of the soup was that it was some clear chicken stock. But it was more of an east-west fusion. An interesting taste that lasts when the soup's taken warm. We were both pleasantly surprised that our initial impressions of what looked like a simple chicken stock turned out to be quite a uniqe personality. Having had something interesting to start the meal, we were anxiously anticipating the mains. Hmmm... what's going to tease us next?

The beef tenderloin came, and they came in tops with their presentation. Then with just a slice and a chomp, we knew it was all hype and couldn't deliver. It tasted like an average food court western stall order for their sirloin steak (without the hot plate). We ordered for a medium-done tenderloin, but it came out too well-done. The texture was tough, and the sauce was forgettable. The starch (the rice) seemed like the focus instead and was the dish's saving grace.

Then came the next dish. The pasta was interesting! Though portions were a little bit small. I felt like they were giving their best effort to salvage the so-so beef we had earlier on... as if the kitchen knew they kinda screwed-up earlier. It had a full bodied taste, and I could catch on the garlic, the olive oil, the spices and herbs - yet it was not an overkill. Nice. I wished they had a pinch more in their serving. It left me wanting a little bit more. I slurped it all up, and was just short of licking the sauce from the bowl. Hmmm... if only they added sunflower seeds - it would have been delectable!

I'll have to confess that the view distracted us from the initial pale service that was afforded us when we strolled into the place. Staff were not the cheerful smiling type, and those poor unenlightened poker faces seem to misunderstand that the mechanics of waitressing was some engineering science to measure efficiency and cleanliness.

Yes the initial impression of "whiteness" of the entire place sheltered from the merciless sunlight being stripped of it's UV rays (thanks to tinted glass) would pass of as an Aussie joint at some harbour down-under. Everything was clean and chic. And to top it off - a view of Sentosa to shelter us from the non-chalent staff in black.

I feel that the place doesn't know what it wants to be. I can just imagine it asking "do I want to give the most variety with low price, or a clean and chic ambience, or efficient engineered waitressing?"

If you don't mind the robotic service, good place for a standard lunch in 40mins. Not so good for a lazy chill out place.