With a Pinch Of Salt Cafe, Singapore

June 8, 2010 | 27 Comments

With A Pinch of Salt Chicken leg

More cafes and restaurants are coming up with fanciful and catchy names to get the attention of customers. On the few times that I passed by the Tanjong Katong area, I noticed that there’s a bright cheerful cafe, With a Pinch of Salt.

With a Pinch of Salt is a cafe at Tanjong Katong in the East of Singapore. If you haven’t seen it before, the cafe is situated directly opposite the LICK little ice cream Kafe and the famous Punggol Nasi Lemak.

‘It’s only a cafe, don’t take it so seriously.’

Stepping inside With a pinch of salt, this was the first sign that greeted us. The color theme of the cafe has a close resemblance to that of a nursery, very warm, jolly and friendly. It’s one of those places that will make you smile no matter how bad your day was.

When the waitress brought the plate of Jumbo Chick’s Leg ($11.90), we were stunned like we’d been tasered. “No way..!” The portion was way bigger than what we’ve expected!

“NO WAY..! No, no, no.. Yes!”

‘OMG‘ was the only response we had for the chicken leg. I took a look at the menu again, it was only twelve bucks. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief and looked at the menu once more. It’s either my eyesight had deteriorated or the restaurant had made a mistake. But either way, we were not complaining.

With A Pinch of Salt Cafe

Another item that we picked was the Old Uncle Mac’s Favorite ($16.90). Steak, lamb chop, pork, chicken, bacon, ham, potato wedges, and a sunny side up – this dish had it all! I would totally order this on my next visit!

The Beef Stew ($11.90) was definitely not the most attracting item on the table. I wasn’t even confident that my photoshop skills were able to give it a makeover so much so that I did not put up a photo of it. Picture this: a bowl of rich, mellow and tender beef with potatoes that absorbed the essences of the stew.

With a pinch of salt singapore

I had my favorite Chicken Corden-Bleu ($11.90): deep fried chicken breast stuffed with ham and melted cheese – splendid! It would be even better if they had used drumstick instead of chicken breast as the latter was slightly dry after the deep frying process.

My friend has been ordering the Dory Garlic Crusted ($9.90) whenever she comes to With a pinch of salt. Naturally, I was curious about the appeal of the dish. With a thick crust of garlic coat around the dory fillet, the whole dish was very appetizing in both smell and visual sense. But it’s probably not the best thing to order if you are not a fan of garlic.

A pinch of salt cafe

The portions of the food at With a pinch of salt surprised us. Now now, what trouble have we gotten into? Among the 7 of us, we ordered 3 appetizers, 7 main courses, and 2 desserts. Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t be an issue since there’s seven of us to share three starters and just two desserts. The problem came when each main course was almost big enough for two. Uh-oh!

One of the starters was a dozen of Escargot ($16.90 for 12). It was funny when we counted the leftover shells and discovered that there’s only eleven escargots. After looking at the photos that I took to confirm it, we came up with a conclusion: the snail must be camera shy!

Love at first sight is Chocolate souffle ($4.90). This dessert was the main reason why we were at With a Pinch of Salt for dinner. My friend was raving about it for the whole night and I couldn’t take it anymore! All the pictures of chocolate souffle floating in my mind were driving me nuts.

We had two chocolate souffle. Our lives are complete (for now).

With a pinch of salt

With a Pinch of Salt is a nice and cheap cafe in the East of Singapore that offers decent food at huge portions, and affordable prices. Forget about the hyped-up-and-always-crowded Everything with Fries, I am coming back to With a Pinch of Salt soon.

When I tweeted about my dinner at With a Pinch of Salt, some folks commented that they had encountered bad service in the cafe. Other than the mystery of the missing snail, the dinner went pretty smoothly for us.

Have you been to With a Pinch of Salt, and is it true that the service there is trashy? Will you go back to a cafe that has good food, reasonable prices, but lousy service?

Restaurant Review
With a Pinch of Salt
297 Tanjong Katong Road
Tel: +65 6348 2297

Category: # Restaurant Review, * East Singapore, Dining Guide Singapore, Food Photography, Singapore Food Blog
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Comments

27 Responses to “With a Pinch Of Salt Cafe, Singapore”

  1. Angeline
    June 8th, 2010 @ 1:36 pm

    Another great place to check out in the east! I’ve seen this place so many times but always didn’t try it because of the nasi lemak just opposite! This restaurant bear a resemblance to miss clarity cafe ya?

  2. ladysuki
    June 8th, 2010 @ 2:15 pm

    Ya! I love this place a lot~~~ but hor.. a bit inconvenient to go leh..

    see how much food my friends and i “gobbled” on our visit!

  3. jiaying
    June 8th, 2010 @ 2:45 pm

    isn’t the east awesome? :)

  4. Jenny
    June 8th, 2010 @ 3:40 pm

    The squid ink pasta is pretty good too. Service-wise, the ladyboss was friendly and warm, so were her staff in our last few visits. Hmm…

  5. lj
    June 8th, 2010 @ 4:33 pm

    Portions do look huge..hehe

  6. lotsofcravings
    June 8th, 2010 @ 5:56 pm

    love the names, people should get more creative in malaysia too.

    somehow the size of chickens in singapore surprises me (especially since most of it is taken from msia)..its freaking huge! well at least from wat i could see from all my chicken rice meals.

  7. stefanie
    June 8th, 2010 @ 6:47 pm

    I love it when you blog about the places to go in the east because it gives me ideas on the places I can go during weekend.

    Will you be going to Two Fat Men?

    I will love to know what you think ?

  8. Shirin
    June 8th, 2010 @ 7:48 pm

    love their layout! so kitschy! and the food looks yummy! x

  9. Sharon
    June 9th, 2010 @ 1:18 am

    I have been to With A Pinch OF Salt a few times, recommended my friends over too.. so far, the service has been good.. especially the friendly lady boss..

    They even got lunch and hi-tea specials.. very cheap, and the food are quite nice..

    Check out my post at With A Pinch of Salt:
    http://sharonandheradventures.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-birthday-to-me-with-pinch-of-salt.html

    Their eat all you can hi-tea only $5/$8 (wkday/Wkends):

    http://sharonandheradventures.blogspot.com/2009/02/with-pinch-of-salt.html

  10. J2Kfm (Malaysian Food Blog)
    June 9th, 2010 @ 11:03 pm

    Missing snail? Haha .. either that, OR …

    Someone’s too hungry. :)

  11. chelle
    June 9th, 2010 @ 11:51 pm

    That really looks like a kindergarten! The blue happy looking walls! (: Chocolate souffle looks yums. Makes me want to eat something really chocolatey. Like now. Nearing midnight. Not. a. goood. idea.

    Hmmmm. I would say no, I wouldn’t go back cos service is very important. If the service is bad, why would I want to go back and pay that attitude when I can get food elsewhere that I think is worth it?

  12. ladyironchef - Singapore Food Blog
    June 10th, 2010 @ 9:00 am

    angeline: you always go to punggol nasi lemak? is it really so good? haha yea it’s somewhat similar to miss clarity cafe

    ladysuki: hahahaha if a Westie like me can go all the way to Tanjong katong for dinner, I am sure everyone can do it! :D

    jiaying: I have to admit in certain way, yes! lol

    jenny: yea the lady boss was friendly, but her staff not so. i am a super big fan of squid ink pasta!! will go back and try it! thanks for the heads up

    lj: portions ARE huge! my photos don’t do it much justice! haha

    lotsofcravings: I think lotsofcravings will be a great name for a cafe/restaurant! hee yea i get what u mean, the ‘kampong’ chicken from Malaysia is much smaller!

    stefanie: hahahaha you are an Eastie right! Yea i heard about two fat men, it’s on my agenda! be patience okay! hee

    shirin: is there such a word as kitschy? lol! it’s cheap and affordable. With a pinch of salt is somewhat like an indie cafe, a hidden find in Singapore

    Sharon: yeah i heard when the lady boss is around, service tends to be better. When i went it was not too bad.

    j2kfm: No dude! we really count the leftover shells! unless someone was too hungry and gobbled up the shell too! :p

    chelle: hee I give you the permission to go get some food (even if it’s midnight)! yea i guess, but what if the food is really good? and cheap?

  13. Angeline
    June 10th, 2010 @ 3:29 pm

    Their chicken wings are to die-for. Super crispy and juicy! Not forgetting their lovely rice and super shiok chilli! :D

  14. Stefanie
    June 10th, 2010 @ 11:23 pm

    Yes,brad. I am an eastie. But I don’t mind travelling for good food.

    I am also waiting for you to find a good brunch place in the east. So that I don’t have to drive all the way to Rider’s cafe.

    I will be waiting.

    Happy Friday to you.

  15. chelle
    June 11th, 2010 @ 3:04 pm

    Well, there are other cheap and good food in Singapore too! Haha. Oh well, maybe another one more chance to see if the service improve. And if it’s still the same…Let’s just say byebye! (:

  16. chelley
    June 18th, 2010 @ 1:09 pm

    I went to Pinch of salt with Jenny and we could not finished the food at all! We ordered 2 plates of pasta, cheese fries, escargots, dessert and chicken wings I think, LOL!!!

    Service was not on par and it was not because they were rude but they hired a lot of waitresses who can’t speak English well so we had a hard time trying to convey them what we wanted and they got a few things wrong as well. I will still go back though cus the food was not bad at all!

  17. ladyironchef - Singapore Food Blog
    June 19th, 2010 @ 9:33 am

    chelley: the portions were really HUGE right? hee we almost couldn’t finish the food too! yea i won’t mind going back cos the food is pretty decent, portions huge and it’s affordable :D

  18. Daphne Maia
    July 3rd, 2010 @ 7:31 pm

    Nick and I are here now, and we ordered escargot (him, not me. Yuck), jumbo chicky leg for me, and squid ink pasta for him.

    Waiting for the chocolate souffle now. Woohoo!

  19. ladyironchef - Singapore Food Blog
    July 4th, 2010 @ 11:21 am

    Daphne: Glad you and nick like the place, shall blog about two fat men soon :D

  20. Joshua Wong
    July 16th, 2010 @ 5:47 pm

    I made a reservation at this place, but I didn’t get to eat when I arrived, because they were so understaffed that tables and seats were allocated in an ad-hoc fashion. I was quite disappointed in the service level and decided to go somewhere else.

    So, definitely a negative impression.

  21. ladyironchef - Singapore Food Blog
    July 21st, 2010 @ 6:34 pm

    joshua: honestly, i haven heard very good things about the service. But given the price, i thought that the food was pretty decent.

  22. Aerina :)
    August 18th, 2010 @ 10:37 pm

    The baked rice was superb filling~ It was really awesome. But i didn’t like the green pepper in it. :x Today was my visit though. The astmosphere there was really cool. Quiet and homey. My friend ate the crispy chicken chop but she wanted it to be pan-cooked. It was yummy too. Just that the portion was too little. If it was bigger, it would have be yummier. :) I dont mind going there again :)

  23. ladyironchef - Singapore Food Blog
    August 22nd, 2010 @ 6:29 pm

    aerina: Yeah for the price, i think it’s pretty affordable. I definitely will go back again : )

  24. RT
    October 22nd, 2010 @ 9:29 am

    Hi LadyIronChef,
    I just visited this place yesterday cos of the raved reviews on it.

    Hoever, much to our disappointment, only the decor and the service was good. Other than that, my friend and I were totally appalled by the food!

    Set menu came with salad – not freshly cut, but chopped up carrots and lettuce that were frozen then served to us! Think they could have prepared it a few days ago and left in the fridge!

    It came with dessert – bread pudding. It felt more like a slice of gardenia bread soaked in vanilla sauce.. =(

    Old Mac – Lamb chop with lamby smell. Fish with lokang smell. Potato wedges were fried in overnight oil. Beef,egg,sausage were the only saving grace.

    Corden Bleu – Tough chicken breast. Overly fried. Can’t even cut it up with the jagged knife! Think about it!

    We cancelled the choc lava immediately after seeing all the above.

    Though the price is reasonably affordable, just DON’T TAKE THIS CAFE SERIOUSLY. P.S: Don’t expect anything when you come.

  25. Sarah
    November 16th, 2010 @ 11:08 pm

    RT: I seconded ur thoughts on Little Pinch of Salt~only been there once with my friend and both of us were quite disappointed by our food exp there. the review is not always a true reflection of the food standard there, but i guess everyone has diff view to what is tasty~

    Definitely wont come back again for their mains, apart form the deco, the food is really under average~

    But thanks LadyIronChef for effort provided to introduce us to diff food places~really appreciate it!^___^~Living is all about trying regardless of what the results are like~

  26. Aarti
    February 1st, 2011 @ 9:15 pm

    Hi,

    I went to ‘With a Pinch of Salt’ with my sister recently, and though the concept is interesting, the food was disappointing. We ordered the beef stew, and it was really tough. So tough that my sister actually choked on it. The desert collection was sad for a place that calls itself a cafe.

    But I suppose we were just unlucky with the food choices. There were a lot of families around,so I supposed the other dishes are worth it. For example, if you’re a Risotto person, then you should try the dish they have, it’s very comfort-food-ish

    Sadly, I wouldn’t go back ’cause for restaurants first impressions are everything.

  27. Roy
    March 5th, 2012 @ 8:26 pm

    Open until what time ?

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