Cafe Oliv II - We're back for more!

After craving for a week & raving how heavenly the cafe oliv's brownie was, we finally went back again to satisfy our sweet tooth. Having read the good reviews on their soft shell crabs and lamb shank, we decided to give them a try!

Salty Egg Soft Shell Crabs Biscuit Fritter $6.90

J: I was simply bowled over when the softshell crab hits my tastebuds. This is e only soft shell crab I tried where I can find crab meat in its tiny legs & pincers. Normally for e legs, I can only taste e fried leg shell. There r also lotsa crab roe inside this softshell crab! It is also slightly saltier than ur usual softshell crab which may be due to e salty egg but not tt salty to turn u off. The biscuit crumbs make this dish absolutely crunchy & I really love their shredded sweet potato! Another surprise comes from Kevin's homemade thai mayonaise where they added thai chilli in it! I cant really taste any spicyness but this mayo is simply amazing! It's slightly sour which really whets my appetite & is my 2nd fav sauce after North Sea Fish Restaurant's homemade tartar sauce. :)

A: Well, what else can I say? GOT TO TRY IT! Soft shell crab full of crab meat & roe!

J's rating: 4.6/5, A's rating: 4.5/5

Black Pepper Chicken with Rosemary Sauce

Today we had a friend along with us! Annie ordered this dish & our 1st thought was gosh, this tastes like chicken satay! The chicken is really tender & e serving is soooo BIG tt it definitely make ur money worth. Annie mentioned that it tasted better towards the end!

Annie's rating: 4.2/5

Traditional Braised Lamb Shank $18.90 *MUST TRY!!*

J: I flew to heaven immediately when I had the 1st taste of this lamb shank. It was my 3rd surprise after the softshell crab & thai mayo. This lamb shank is sooooooo T-E-N-D-E-R that it literally falls off when u poke ur fork into it! U dont even need a knife for this dish, i swear! Just look at its pink flesh. OMG ahhhHHHhhhHHH this is H-E-A-V-E-N-L-Y!!! It's very well braised and I particularly enjoy eating it together with the oh-so-soft mashed potatoes. I just wish e lamb is much much bigger lol. more moRE, i want MORE!

A: How i wished i could give this dish a 5/5! BUT, there's definitely room for perfectionism!

J & A's ratings: 4.9/5

Brownie with Ice-cream $5.90

J: We came all the way for this & obviously it failed to disappoint. Just look! The ice cream was actually melting & wobbling on top of e brownie when e waitress brought it to our tables. We had a brownie each & my 1st brownie wasnt warm enough to make me go wow. However, as usual, e brownie is choked full of crunchy walnuts & they were more generous with e cocoa powder this time round. 1 brownie was definitely not enough to satisfy our cravings & I shared another with sis. This time round we specifically requested for e brownie to be made really warm & this is it! WOW im loving it~ =D As u would know by now tt I have actually qt a low sweetness tolerance. The reason y i really love this brownie is tt e sweetness is just right for me & i never feel sick of eating it. Their mocha ice cream really complements well with this choc walnut brownie which at e same time, satisfy my love for coffee. Had wanted to sample their black sesame & red bean ice cream but unfortunately, Kevin told us tt they were removed from the menu cos they were not popular. Oh well, im satisfied with my mocha ice cream. :)

A: Damage for today??? 3 brownies for Janelle and I!!! Annie wanted to finish her brownie but she was just to full to finish it up! You can imagine how good it was!

J & A's ratings: 4.8/5 for WARM brownie with mocha chip ice cream

Cafe Oliv fails to disappoint once again & gave us many surprises during this visit. Will be back for more & I really hope Kevin can come up with some loyalty programme cos I can foresee tt we will be his regular customers soon. However, at this rate im eating, its gonna burn a HUGE hole in my wallet! :(

Refer here for our previous visit to Cafe Oliv!

Next on my to-try-list: Chargrilled Honey Glazed Pork Ribs with BBQ Sauce

Cafe Oliv
220, East Coast Road
6-344-3114
Open daily from 11:30am - 11pm

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..

A's rating: 4.5/5

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.

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