Canteen Food for Thought

11th March 2012. Written by Xin Li.
Located near the Tanglin Gate of the Botanical Gardens, Food for Thought is nestled in lush gardens of the Singapore Botanical Gardens. The café is a recent expansion of the well-established Food for Thought.

Unlike its 8Q counterpart, SBG Food for Thought was catered for the families (they have a playground just outside and kids were running amok) and ordering was not taken by waiters but made at the counter instead. The whole atmosphere reminded me of an IKEA canteen, except that Food for Thought has a more elegant interior complete with little touches of greenery.

We ordered some sides including the Creamy Mushroom Soup (6.00 SGD) which turned out to be too salty for us. The bread cost an additional 1.50 SGD.

The Garlic Mushrooms (3.00 SGD) were decent but we could easily make these at home.

My Brother-in-Law and Mum opted for the Crispy Chicken Cutlet (8.00 SGD) under the Local Lunch option. It came with Pineapple Salsa and a choice of Steamed Rice/ Homemade Butter Toast or Crispy Fries plus an additional $1 if you opt for local black coffee/ tea or iced lime tea from 11am – 2pm.The Crispy Chicken Cutlet was ordinary at best.

The Mains were strangely not available despite it being stated that it would be from 11am to 8.30 pm on Sunday. Hence, my sister and I went for the pasta options instead. I had the Garlic Prawns with Red Capsicum Linguine (16.00 SGD). It was ordinary too but below expectations for Food for Thought given that I had tasted their pastas at 8Q before. The prawns were slightly overcooked and the pasta was too dry not to mention the wait for this dish was pretty long.

My sister on the other hand, had the Basil Almond Chicken Linguine (14.00 SGD). You probably would have guessed it, was ordinary too.

Portions were decent but the taste that makes me want to dine at Food for Thought again and again was just missing at their Singapore Botanical Gardens branch. The sight of many leftovers from other dinners is not an encouraging sight too. In the end, we decided to skip the desserts and settle the bill.

Food for Thought
1 Cluny Road
Botany Center B1