Miss Clarity Cafe

The interior design of Miss Clarity Café’s raised a few eyebrows. To describe as “girlish” would be an understatement; more appropriately, it looked like the owners had been inspired by Schwan Stabilo highlighters and based the colour scheme on it. But hey, it's Miss Clarity's café (not yours) so unless you have a thing against the fluorescent “i'm totally hangin’ out with my Bratz Dolls” decor, the rest of us shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

In fact, I think hordes of people don’t seem to mind. We arrived at the café a couple of minutes before twelve and the restaurant/ café was ¾ full with one table consisting of about twenty people. Do I sense a cult appeal? Fifteen minutes later, the restaurant operated at full house and I was alarmed- Could they cope or would I be sorely disappointed?

For $3 more, your main course becomes a set lunch, complete with soup or salad AND drink AND dessert of the day. The salad was a bowl of greens, topped with supermarket-bought thousand island sauce- fuss free and forgettable. The soup of the day was supposedly carrot soup but in a shade similar to cream, it was definitely suffering from an identity crisis. Although, it was sip-pable, I suggest saving your calories for the better stuff.


Oyster Mornay

Served on a bed of some-stone-pebble-thing, the Oyster Mornay drew wows for its presentation. Subsequently, the ‘wows’ gave way to an orchestra of ‘mmms’ and ‘yeaas’. as we polished off the oysters in record timing. Baked palm-sized Chilean oysters (still in their shells) topped with mozzarella cheese and béchamel sauce. For a real Show-me-the-Mornay good time, prick off the oyster and slurp away!


Show me the Mornay


Black Angus Roast Beef

Done medium rare, the Black Angus Roast Beef Sirloin cut a handsome shade of red. However, it was tougher than expected and perhaps next time I should go for the rib eye instead. To me, the fat trimming was a highlight- how could anyone cut out the fats when they are having steak?! The roast beef on served on a bed of roast potatoes and shredded cabbage, which I very much enjoyed. Points taken off for the thin watery gravy.


Black Angus Roast Beef

In a place where tablecloths and wine glasses cease to exist and a squeeze bottle of ketchup claimed center-stage on the table top, we were just plain intrigued by what the chef could come up with. Since we weren’t particularly interested in dory or chicken dishes, the Lamb with Provence Crust stood out for obvious reasons. The dish was pretty well done (love the flavoursome sauce and gritty crust) save for the fact that the lamb chops were on the tough side.


Lamb with Provence Crust

Dad initial choice of fish and chips invited “but that’s so boring.. choose something more adventurous” feedback and “something more advanturous” turned out to be Seafood Paella. Somehow, I felt that by offering this dish, the restaurant was setting itself up for failure.. I mean not many fine-dining restaurants offer paella so how would this unpretentious home-run café fare in this no-man’s challenge?


eafood Paella

True enough, we were a little disturbed to see the paella served in a claypot. To me, it resembled the forbidden lovechild of heartlander Lup Cheong Claypot Rice and exotic Spanish Senorita Paella. But I can’t bring myself to dismiss the Seafood Paella on sight- [insert melodramatic music] sometimes I find myself rooting for the underdog Mum & Pop-ish kind. To cut them some slack, it was brimming with seafood (chef, please chuck the fake crabsticks) and the bubbling within piqued our interest so we let it sit for about five minutes before tucking in (in my case, scalding the walls of my mouth).


eafood Paella

The result was a tear-jerker but in a good way. You know when the underdog finally triumphs over the beauty queens and football jocks, and scores with whatdoyaknow nerd-turn-hot-babe? Yup that was what happened with this Seafood Paella. Having soaked up tomato-saffron sauce, the rice was bursting with flavor and grainy with an edge. Like the authentic paella, the best bits are worth scrapping for. Funny enough, I prefer this unauthentic paella because I find the traditional version to be too oily. Note: if you are traditionalist at heart, stay away from this paella. You have been warned

When I googled Miss Clarity Cafe, I found reviews both lauding and bashing Miss Clarity Cafe. However, there was a common thread running: Miss Clarity Cafe was undeniably inexpensive and value for money. This got me thinking- If you were to pay a third of what you would nomally have, would it be too much to ask of you, as a patron, to halve your expectations?

True, it is the chef's responsibility to produce dishes to the best of his ability and it is onus of the restaurant to deliver the value but that being said, I think as patrons, we have to keep our expectations in check, especially when the experience in question doesn't cost us an arm or leg.

By the time we were done, we were reeling from the hearty mains but there was still dessert. Though I know this is a point of contention with some patrons but we were actually relieved to see a 2 inch by 2 inch bread and butter pudding. Prior to tasting, I have heard, or rather read much about Clarity’s bread and butter pudding so that got me all excited. Unfortunately, it arrived all drenched in vanilla sauce, I knew it wasn’t going to be ‘happily ever after’. The pudding felt clumpy and was sorely missing in texture. It reminded me of the Spanish Miel, which I don’t happen to be a big fan of. Period.


Bread and butter pudding

I might have sounded quite harsh but a return trip is most probable. Service was great- there seemed to be this sense of pride with what the kitchen was churning out, and there are still many many items that beg a review. I am not big on pasta but the squid ink linguine and lamb shank pasta sound inviting. I might even do a 'chicken' dish.. Next time round, I would order the bread and butter pudding, vanilla sauce on the side. Ooo, I see a Varlhona Chocolate cake too…

Miss Clarity Cafe
5 Purvis Street #01-04
Singapore 188584
Tel: 63394803
http://www.missclaritycafe.com