Singapore - Dean & Deluca at Orchard Central

[klyeoh]

A slice of New York in Singapore - Dean & Deluca's first outlet here seemed very "Singaporeanised": a rather glammed-up "makan" spot (with prices to match), where the typical D&D gourmet/grocery section seemed an after-thought.

D&D opens at 11am each day - the 2-month-old outlet was located in a lofty location on Level 4 of the cavernous and mostly crypt-like quiet Orchard Central mall. Imagine my surprise to see an expectant crowd of about 20-30 folks waiting outside D&D at 10.30am last weekend! "Kiasu Singaporeans", yours truly included ;-)

What we had when we finally settled down:
- Pumpkin soup (good), mushroom soup (meh). The clam chowder was not available (why is it on the menu board then?)
- Salmon quiche: pretty average tasting.
- Beef lasagne: messy block served to us here. Maybe the kitchen crew need more time to practice their plating?
- Grilled chicken with onions and melted cheese panini sandwich was exactly that - no more, no less. No taste sensation and, at S$22++, was daylight robbery - one might as well trot over to Chatterbox @ Mandarin Orchard next door and have a wonderful platter of Hainanese chicken rice.
- Smoked salmon & scrambled eggs, served sandwiched in a bagel. This was utterly disappointing - no cream cheese despite the description on the board mentioning it: I think the "cream cheese" were those little bits studded into the bagel prior to baking :-( The salmon was topped with too much chopped dill. The scrambled eggs were okay, but the construction of the sandwich made it look quite a mess and pretty unattractive.

Our lattes and cappucinnos were all served in take-away paper cups despite the fact that most clientele here preferred to dine in-house.

For dessert, the much talked-about French toast using brioche, served with caramelised bananas were not available. Nor was any type of fruit juices - despite all these items being list on the menu board.

D&D sourced much of their breads & pastries from renowned bakeries in Singapore, e.g. Maison Kayser, but the almond croissant and the custard-filled bombolone we had both tasted pretty dry, not the fresh, moist, tasty baked goods we'd expect from a good American deli.

Gawd, what a very, very disappointing experience! :-(

Address details
============
Dean & Deluca
#04-23/24, Orchard Central
181 Orchard Road
Singapore 238896
Tel: [phone]

[M_Gomez]

I agree. Those food photos look pretty unremarkable. And S$22 for a sandwich is too high even by Orchard Road standards. I think Dean and Deluca knows that many Singaporeans are suckers for anything American. He-he.

[huiray]

Ah, the salmon & eggs bagel you wrote about in another thread was part of a larger meal. That bagel sandwich did look a little odd and the lack of positive comments seemed to suggest it wasn't exceptional. Sorry to read that the meal overall was a flop.

Heh, I thought you weren't given to waiting in line for the "newest and latest"? ;-)
[http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/851423]

For the record (and my curiosity) what did the meal cost in total?

[klyeoh]

A case of curiosity killing the car, huiray. But then, Orchard Central had always been a graveyard for restaurants, and I honestly did *not* expect a crowd at 10.30am there :-D

I didn't know the total cost for the meal - one of my friends paid for it, but I estimated the bill to be around S$120 (US$96) for 3 persons.

[huiray]

Heh. :-)

S$120/US$96 for 3 for what you show you all got - that's pretty steep even by US standards. Thanks for the info.