Saturday, August 30, 2014

Ah Bong Kitchen - Italian Food In a Coffeeshop - 56 Eng Hoon Street

Today, we go on an adventure to Eng Hoon Street.  We are looking for Ah Bong Kitchen.  Ah Bong? What a name.  Let's go.  The address is 56 Eng Hoon Street, but where was this place?


We had to walk around the entire block to find it.  Well, we didn't realise the place would be in a coffeeshop facing the junction.  Still, it was good fun exploring.  This part of Singapore is very interesting, very quaint.

Ah Bong's kitchen is owned by a young chap (mid 30s), who decided to pursue his passion.  He specializes in Italian food.  While his menu is limited, it is definitely enough for lunch.  Here was the menu for the day.   Notice the Creme brulee was sold out.

A simple sign - Ah Bong's Italian.

There is the owner of Ah Bong himself, crew cut, taking our orders.  He would painstakingly cook our pastas too. Very hardworking and passionate, to say the least.   Understand that he previously held a cushy corporate job.  But cooking was far more interesting for him!

The store is located in this quaint coffeeshop.  Quite an experience to have pasta in this setting.

In the evenings, this beer store is open.  Not now though.  Somewhat a pity.  I think Ah Bong's pastas would go well with beer.  Just make them a bit more spicy.

Snapshot of the menu of the Two Face outlet.

We had to make do with coke and coffee from the uncles here.

Here comes the food.  We ordered everything off the menu, except the Creme brulee (sold out! pity!).

This was the Ah Bong's Pot Pie - $7.  Puff pastry on top.

My boy liked this.  First, eat the pastry.  Then start eating the stew, which contained good servings of meat and potatoes.  Tasty.

Ah Bong's Pot Pie!

Next, we got the Chorizo Bolognaise (Spanish Sausage, smokey tomato sauce) - $6.

A hearty portion.  Generous amounts of meat.  The Tomato sauce was indeed smokey, tasted a bit unusual.  As a result, my kids didn't really like this.

Another look at the Pot Pie, before we move on to the other dishes.

The Aglio Olio for $6.  Vegetarian, generous portions of Zucchini and very good taste, though a tad too oily for my liking.

Yumz.

I poke my fork into the Agio Olio.

Chef J's Comfort Pasta - $5.  Onion jam, bacon.  Sorry, but this didn't work for me.  It was too salty for my liking, though I think some may find the taste interesting.

The plates were cool.

Mac & Cheese - Smokey bacon, shitake, cheese - $5.  This was a winner.  True comfort food, with a slight twist.  Traditional Mac and Cheese tends to be more dry.  This version was more moist (even saucy!).
Kids loved it.  I can't think of anything wrong with this.  Definitely not as salty as the Comfort pasta.

Good stuff!

A few pictures of the junction as I stand outside the coffee shop.  See the Eng Hoon street sign.


The coffeeshop, from outside.   Ah Bong's store was farthest away from where i was standing.

Verdict
Worth a visit, if not for the Mac & Cheese, then the Agio Olio.

On reflection, it did feel a bit out of place to have high quality pasta at a traditional coffee shop like this one. I think the idea is cool - who says you can only have good pastas in fancy restaurants?  The downside was that the accompanying drinks did not live up with the quality of the pasta.  Imagine, I had pasta with Kopi-O. It just didn't gel well.

There was already a pub-like join operating out of the coffeeshop, but it wasn't open when we were there for lunch.  A spicier version of the Agio Olio with a beer would have been perfect.

Cheers!

Note: This is not a sponsored advertorial.  We paid for our food as per menu prices.

Back to my FOOD landing page.

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