Wow, it's been more than 5 months since I last posted a food review! Actually, I found some nice restaurants but I just haven't had time to post them. Well, let me begin with the highly rated cafe - Operator 25. This little gem is located on Wills Street as part of the Wills Court apartment on the ground floor. It was opened in 2013 but I only visited it recently. Why? Because of its popularity. Yup, it's a popular place for brunch. I always saw a queue lining up outside of the cafe on the weekends. So I thought I better wait for the crowds to die down. But it hasn't been the case.
On a beautiful Sunday, we decided to give it a go regardless. Well, it wasn't too hard to get a seat though, probably because we were early. To my surprise, the cafe has baby high chairs too. I was under the impression that this is not a kids friendly cafe before as I didn't see many families at the cafe. They just proved me wrong. :D I like the setting of the cafe too as it's modern and cozy.
We ordered a Balinese marinated pork, a smoked sardines and a Yuzu matcha latte for ourselves as well as fruit toasts for our little one.
It didn't take too long for the fruit toasts and match latte to be served. The toasts came with Pepe Saya butter and a choice of spread. Unlike the usual fruit toasts I get from the supermarket which has mostly raisins, this fruit toast was full of yummy different fruits. It was nice and not overly sweet.
My Yuzu matcha latte looked good. It has a hint of lemon which is quite interesting. It was okay for me as I'm not a fan of matcha latte. Somehow, I'm just not used to having green tea with milk other than Starbucks's green tea frappuchino.
Our mains took slightly longer to be served but it was all right. Both meals were served about the same time. We were pretty impressed with the food at first sight. The Balinese marinated pork is such a beautiful fusion dish. The tasty marinated pork was tender, the squid ink brioche was soft and I especially like the sambal and pickled vegetables. The whole dish was perfect and with just the right balance of flavors but not overpowering.
I was curious to see how smoked sardines taste like when I chose the dish. The dish came out looking great. The smoked sardines were not overly salty as I previously thought it'd be. The manchego cheese which has a distinctive flavor was good and went down surprisingly well with the rest of the food. It's interesting to see how these variety of food/flavors bring out a great dish. I bet the chef must have done a bit of experimenting with the food before getting to these yummy dishes.
Now, it's obvious why there's always a crowd outside the restaurant on the weekends. It's definitely not inspection or auction of any apartment units next door!