Food Feast at Chinatown! Happy 3rd month anniversary to SF~

Cafe Oliv IV- What an honorable surprise~!!

Can u believe it? This is actually our 4th visit to cafe oliv and each time we went, there r still sooo many items on the menu tt we want to try but have yet finish going through them all! Their food and service just make us keep wanting to come back for more... so here is our weekly cafe oliv fix. Oh gosh, at this rate we're eating, its gonna burn a super big hole in our pockets *faint

Need I say more? This pic shows it all... big fat juicy cheese sausage~ Lol sis actually got spurt by the cheese when she 1st cut into this humongous sausage =D The brown sauce was really tasty, prob a little similar to black pepper sauce without the peppery spicyness. We've no idea what it was, shall ask Kevin next wk...

German Chicken Cheese Sausage Platter $8.90

Authentic homemade grilled sausages accompanied with brown sauce.

A & J's rating: 4/5

When the mini trio burgers arrived at our tables, our 1st reaction was omg, soooo cute!! Very very very kawaii really! U cant really gauge the size of the burgers from the pics, u just gotta c them for yourselves haha! These burgers r really TINY. Perfect for ladies who enjoy trying a little of everything :P We had the cod fish and tenderloin mini burgers and oh my, they were really JUICY. Each bite we took, the sauce just kept dripping out from e other end of e burger lol... Fingerlicking delicious~ Both burgers contained bacon, cheese, mushrooms and big leafy lettuce... We unanimously preferred the cod fish to tenderloin even though the beef was really juicy and tender~
(J: I was actually suffering from toothache tt night but still managed to finish off e yummy burgers! I wonder what was the sauce used hmmm... The seasoning in the wedges reminded me of mcdonalds curly fries)

Oliv Mini Trio Meat Burger $14.90

Grilled mini tenderloin steak, mini cod fish steak, BBQ sliced pork stacked mini burger buns, cheese and bacon served with mesclun salad and wedges.

A & J's rating: 4.5/5

Chatted with Kevin for a while and really liked the 1st 2 recommendations... Being their regular customers, we asked for discounts and without any hesitation, he waived the service charge off our bill! :D Anw back to our dinner, we mentioned to Kevin tt we would be back next wk to celebrate our youngest sis bday and asked him for recommendations. He actually recommendated crab pasta which was not yet included in their menu and personally whipped up this italian delicacy for us! Wow, we felt really honored to be able to try it before others~ Thanks Kevin!!

Kevin was really generous with the portions of crab meat. Every mouthful of linguine we took was filled with oh-so-sweet-and-fresh crab meat! Yes, its crab meat not crab stick ok haha. The linguine was well cooked, although it could be just slightly overcooked for me (J)... But sis felt tt it was perfectly done... Kevin suggested tt we should stick to tomato or olive sauce in order not to overwhelm our tastebuds and cover the taste of the crab meat. We were really glad we chose tomato sauce... Although not as sweet as Bistro 103's rendition of tomato cream sauce, there were strong and rich flavors of seafood... It was simmered for hours with seafood which brought out the flavors really well. Slightly tangy and sweet~ We love it!

(J: For Bistro 103, I was attracted to the combination of spaghetti and tomato cream sauce while for Cafe Oliv, it was more of the sauce and crab meat goodness tt attracted me...) 

A & J's rating: 4.5/5

Sidetrack a little, Cafe Oliv could be coming up with a new menu with even more items to be added prob in dec! Omg we cant wait~ We r simply spoilt for choices...

What's dinner at cafe oliv without our must-order warm choc brownie with mocha chip ice cream? Because they alr know our preference for really warm brownies, our brownies were heated for 1.5min instead of the usual 1min haha. But there was slight disappointment though, this batch of brownies were really dry and Kevin said it could be due to the position where they placed their boxes of brownies, facing the fan leading to loss of moisture. Sis had hers changed... while I thought mine was moist and halfway through enjoying my brownie fix, it became harder n drier like what sis had before... However, I was alr feeling too full to get it changed again... Well, we certainly hope Cafe Oliv can resolve this problem soon and bring us back our heavenly brownies~ We are contemplating if we should continue ordering our no 1 fav brownie next wk due to e recent inconsistencies in the quality of their brownies... Should we or should we not?! Find out next wk~

(J: Even as I'm blogging now, the taste of the crab meat pasta still lingers in my mouth lol)

Click here for our previous reviews on Cafe Oliv.

Cafe Oliv- Found my desserts heaven in sg~!

Janelle and I had a long day of interview today. We decided to head off to Cafe Oliv for a big treat! The restaurant was empty when we entered. It was already like 7.30pm and there was no one there?? Don't be deceived by it! People only start streaming in after 8pm. Why does people at east coast road have their dinner so late? haha

We ordered Chargrilled Bratwurst Snail & Spicy Italian Sausages with Rosti Potato $14.90

A's rating: 4.25/5, J's rating: 4.3/5

A: I like the rosti in Cafe Oliv! It was different from what I've tasted in Lauterbrunnen (Switz). Rosti is actually a national dish of Switzerland, usually served with sour cream. Rosti in Cafe Oliv was made using shredded potato and they pan-fried it, topping it with bacon, adding additional crisp to the rosti! It was not overly seasoned and it tasted great with the bacon and sour cream. Both of us find the spicy italian sausage must tastier than the bratwurst snail sausage. This would have been a perfect dish if not of the snail sausage. Oh, they also add final touch to the dish by adding fried shredded sweet potato! We had to ask the owner to find out what it was! Janelle even thought that it was "cuttlefish" initially. haha

J: This rosti is one of the best ive tasted so far. Sometimes e rosti can be too oily, nua n salty. I love the crispiness of the top layer of rosti with bacons and e lighter, softer texture of the bottom layers of rosti with the sour cream. The taste of the spicy italian sausage was so overpowering tt it rendered the snail sausage almost tasteless. But the snail sausage was bland on its own too.

We also ordered Oliv Tradtional Beef Stew with Fennel, Potato and Pilaf Rice $12.90. We ordered the dinner set menu which includes a soup+main+drink+dessert ($16.90).

The mushroom soup was very creamy and we both feel that it would be better if there were chunks of mushrooms in the soup. Definitely not ur usual campbellis mushroom soup!

Here's come our beef stew!

The Pilaf Rice

This hot steaming stew is delicious! It was a perfect combination with the pilaf rice. Actually we do not know what is pilaf rice. You could feel each individual rice grain in your mouth! The so called "Li Li Fan Xiang!" It tasted great wih the beef stew, especially when you bite each mouthful of rice with large chunks of beef. Yumm..

J: I thought the beef could be more tender. There were a couple of beef which were overdone n e tendons made it hard for me to bite off the beef. I actually feel that the pilaf rice was very good bcos each n every grain is very separated n i love the bite of e grains. I would gladly finish the rice on its own with the gravy from the beef stew lol.

A & J's rating: 4/5 beef, 4.5/5 pilaf rice

And finally our desserts! Mudpie!

The presentations of the desserts were awesome! We find this mudpie amazingly delicious! It was a combination of coffee ice-cream + chocolate bits + chocolate ice-cream drizzled with coffee sauce. We initially thought that it was chocolate sauce! The coffee taste was not overpowering and not too sweet to make u feel sick after eating a while, which we both like about. Eating the bits of chocolates with the ice-cream was simply delicious! Best mudpie I've tasted so far, even better than Island Creamery.

J's & A's rating: 4.5/5

We decided to get additional dessert as desserts were having a half-price promotion ($3, UP $5.90) on tue and thursday.We ordered the brownie with cookies & cream ice-cream. Brownie with ice-cream was the highlight of today! The brownie was heavenly! The 1st bite into the ice cream brownie blown us to heaven~ oOOompHHH aHHhhHHH this issss A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! Chunks of walnuts can be seen and the brownie was so soft that it dissolve almost immediately in your mouth! It was not too sweet and definitely v shiok when served warm with the ice-cream. Janelle and I were like snatching the brownie among ourselves n scraping the plate, not wasting every bit of brownie left! haha. It was THAT GOOD!! We couldnt't help smiling when we started eating the brownie! It's been a long time since we've experienced such a heavenly dessert, other than the bread pudding in London.

Brownie with Cookie & Cream Ice-cream

Feeling insatiable after finishing the brownie within a min, we succumbed to the growlings of our stomachs which were hankering for more brownies! We're such a glutton pigs! haha! This time we ordered Brownie with mocha chip ice-cream. We're in heaven! It's the best dessert we've eaten in Singapore. The only dessert that would make both of us come back for it again! The brownie tasted much better with the mocha chip ice-cream. Next time we will just order this combination! The mocha ice-cream was very aromatic n shiokfully delicious in combination to our warm brownie choked full of nutty chunky walnuts drizzled with choc fudge! This really gave the extra punch tonight! (J: Personally I feel that the mudpie was gd but bcos its all cold coffee & choc ice cream mudpie, it was less shiok as compared to warm brownie with cold ice cream. This brownie with mocha ice cream can definitely satisfy both ur cravings for choc & coffee!) We feel that the cookies and cream ice-cream was pretty normal, nothing fantastic.

Brownie with Mocha Chip Ice-cream

J's & A's rating: 4.8/5 for brownie with mocha chip ice cream. This brownie would have scored 5 if they can replace their ice creams with better ones like from seventh heaven or island creamery :P Btw their ice creams r not made by themselves so they're actually ordinary ice creams.

Having such a good dinner and 3 yummy desserts, we were almost too full to move! (J: I'm suffering from sore throat now bcos I had such a fabulous meal lol) I bet the owner, Kelvin was shocked that girls of our size could finish so much food! Bill for tonight totalled up to $41.60 for 1 soup, 1 drink, 2 entrees + 3 desserts! And no GST!! We will definitely come back on thursday again! Because desserts are half-priced on tue and thur! We will try out new yummylicious food again and DEFINITELY our BROWNIE not to be missed!!

Visit http://www.cafeoliv.com/ for more info.

Cafe Oliv
220, East Coast Road
(Near Church of the Holy Family, Katong)
6-344-3114
Open daily from 11:30am - 11pm