First 25 Cafe

This is more of a 3.5 star review, bordering on 4 stars. First up, I enjoy the homely feel to the café. Nice white walls, with a bright «First 25» adorned in light bulbs. Décor was great, and I can imagine it filling with light in the day.
On to the food, which I felt had more hits, and a few missteps.
1) Spaghetti Aglio Olio with Grilled Squid and King Prawn
This dish was problematic for me. Whilst the grilled king prawn was yummy, I felt the spaghetti was too dry. Was possibly the driest spaghetti I’ve ever had. One of the chefs explained that the office folk around the café preferred something more healthy, and thus they reduced the amount of olive oil. A bad move, in my humblest opinion. Additionally, for lunch, diners get only one King Prawn and for dinner, two. As the star of the dish, having just one prawn might leave the diner feeling unsatisfied. Might be a better idea to have this for dinner instead.
2) Gnocchi with Spicy Miso Butter and Bacon — this was a far better dish and completely cheered me up! Apart from the super umami spicy miso butter (there is a god as this was invented), the bacon and onsen egg were a fantastic combo. I’m biased because I love bacon and anything with bacon is always a winner in my books! Hahahaha! But seriously, this dish was enjoyable. Highly recommend.
3) Roast Chicken — nicely done. Still moist and tender. Not tough. A solid dish not always appreciated. People don’t understand that roast chicken ain’t always done properly, and this one was.
4) Pork Hamburg Cutlet — this one was also good, perhaps even better than the roast chicken! Served with Potato Dauphinoise, Vichy Carrot & broccoli, it was a yummy delightful fulfilling dish. And plating is good too! Me likey!
5) Truffle Curly Fries — I think all my friends unanimously agreed that this was the best dish of the night. Very fragrant, springy and still crisp even it sat there whilst we took pictures! I would come back literally just for this.
All in all, the young owners (both 25, hence the name of café, geddit geddit?) are enthusiastic and love their food. Much effort was put into crafting the food and menu. By and large, it works.
I would come back again to try their coffees too. :)

Diagonally opposite 100AM shopping mall, there is a little café located in the middle of a row of old shophouses. Tonight I am invited to this café for a food tasting session. Although I have been to 100AM so many times in the past, I have never noticed this row of shophouses until today. For such a cold and wet night, the interior of the café offers a cozy and homey feel.
Warm Mushroom Salad ($ 9+)
Baby spinach, Shime Ji Mushroom, Fennel, Asparagus, Shallot, Pine nuts, Butter emulsion
Smells of truffle oil when served. It is a light crisp, peppery and nutty salad.
La Rustichela Truffle Fries ($ 12+)
The fries is smell quite yummy of the truffle oil, topped with shredded parmesan and chopped spring onion. It is served with truffle aioli.
Eggplant Parmigiano ($ 16+)
Eggplant, Black miso, Parmigiano, Bread crumbs, Spice tomato sauce
It is quite crispy on the outside, while inside is filled with the juicy eggplant.
Charlie’s Son Wings ($ 13+)
The skin of the wing is quite crispy, but inside the meat is a bit tough and dry.
Yuzukosho Pork Rack ($ 27+)
Signature
Fregola sarda, Cream, Bacon, Chive, Pork rack
One of the café’s signature dishes. Fregola sarda is a type of pasta which looks like little balls. Here it is cooked with bacon bits in a creamy sauce. It tastes savoury good with its QQ texture and abosrbed the smoky flavour of bacon. The pork is quite tender and juicy on its own, without the usual fat and oily texture that one expects from pork rack.
65 Degree Grilled Ribeye 200g ($ 26+)
(Grass fed, AUZ) Ribeye, Baby carrots, Mashed potato, Mushroom sauce
The ribeye is quite tender and juicy. The mashed potato is infused with truffle oil.
Smoked Uni Carbonara ($ 27+)
Signature
Spaghetti & Parmigiano, Wagyu, Chive, Truffle Oil
Another one of the café’s signature dishes. It looks quite pretty with the soft poached egg in the centre. I could hardly taste the uni in this dish, although it seems that uni has been mixed into the sauce. The sauce is quite watery, even after breaking the egg and mixing, the sauce can’t thicken much. I also can’t taste the wagyu in this dish. But can taste chunky topshell meat in it.
Overall the food is not bad. Service is not bad too with water refilled regularly. There is no GST but there is 10% service charge here. Prices of the dishes listed above are subjected to changes as the café is revamping its menu.

They have a pretty decent sized dining room. There’s ample space between tables and can easily accomodate huge groups of patrons. The walls are lined with white glossy tiles with very rustic looking lamps mounted on the wall to provide lighting throughout the dining room.
One glance at the menu and you spot things like Gnocchi with basil cream, wagyu bolognese, nacho cheese fries, truffle fries, smoked uni carbonara, 65 degree grilled ribeye. First 25 café definitely sets itself up as an Asian Fusion and Italian café.
1. Warm Mushroom Salad $ 9+
Warm Mushroom SaladWhen this dish was served, you could easily smell the truffle oil in the salad! I loved that they choose to use pine nuts as it added a crunchy aspect of the salad. The Baby spinach, shimeji mushroom together with their high grade butter made a very light but refreshing salad. The shimeji mushrooms were small in size, but every time I dug my fork into the salad, I was guaranteed a mushroom! First 25 café is pretty generous in ingredients!
2. La Rustichella Truffle Fries $ 12+
What’s a café without their rendition of truffle fries? The truffle fries were served on a wodden platter, sprawled out with cheese flakes over the top!
Okay, so the truffle smell for the fries for some reason wasn’t as strong as the Warm Mushroom salad. The essence of the truffle oil was very evident in the fries either. But together with the white truffle pumpkin sauce, it did bring out the «truffle-​ness» of the fries.
La Rustichella Truffle Fries — White truffle pumpkin sauceThe fries also didn’t turn soggy either. So hurray! For non-​soggy fry lovers.
3. Charlie’s son Wings $ 13+
These wings were crispy but yet also slightly on the dry side.
Charlie’s son Wings $ 13+The wings were decent in size and for this price, instead of a salad, maybe some celery sticks and carrots? The crispiness is spot on, and that’s where the wow factor ends for this dish.
4. Smoked Uni Carbonara $ 27+
This dish was a very interesting one, seeing the roe perched ontop of the poached egg, sounded by carbonara. It made a very picturesque dish. But unlike typical carbonara dishes that make you gerlat, this was slightly more of a lighter dish with a lighter taste too. The flavour of the egg wasn’t able to bring out any flavour of the pasta.
Smoked Uni CarbonaraI was able to easily spot chunks of crayfish meat that tasted fresh and tender. The meat itself was able to absorb the carbonara sauce, hence giving the meat some flavour.
5. Eggplant Parmigiano $ 16+
The browness of the bread crumbs was on-​point! It made the parigiano look fuller in size and definitely made me excited to try this!
Despite their simplistic presentation, the eggplant parmigiano was pretty sizeable and I felt decently full after consuming it. This is probably one of the main courses that I wouldn’t mind ordering again the next time I’m here. You can also pick this out as a side to share.
6. 65 Degree Grilled Ribeye 2006 $ 26+ *Highly Recommended*
Grassfed auzi ribeye, baby carrots, mashed potato and mushroom sauce. On first look, this dish wasn’t just simply thrown together, it was decorated with care. Just like the care it took to nurture this grassfed ribeye. The mashed potato was so smooth and creamy, it was like no other mashed potato I had ever tasted! It also gave me a lingering truffle after taste!
7. Yuzukosho Pork Rack (Signature) $ 27+ *Highly Recommended*
Yuzukosho Pork Rack (Signature)Having visited a few fusion cafes recently, I know it’s not easy to come up with a unique fusion dish that has both Asian and Western flavours. This Yuzukosho Pork Rack scores ¹⁰⁄₁₀ on both east and west ends!
The Pork Rack itself is slightly chared on the edges giving it a beautiful browning colour on the exterior but yet on the inside, the meat is a consistent pale pink colour.
I think this is clear winner on their top signature main course dish.
I cannot help but notice the recent trend of Asian Fusion cafes that are moving away from the typical eggs benny and brunch. It takes alot more to attract the tastebuds of Singaporeans.
The café has a very cute and cosy environment, together with the free wifi, it makes a good hang out spot. Couple that with their location in Tanjong Pagar, they are sure to attract the office crowd during weekday lunches. They have a few good signature items and just need some minor tweaking to be a full fledged Asian Fusion café

Very good food but unfinnished concept.
I got a tip from my Unilocal frieds about this place and, as it is just around the corner from my office I decided to give it a go for dinner after a long day at the office.
Let’s start with the important and good stuff: I loved the food. I had the striploin and kimchi fries. The food was perfectly cooked, beautifully presented and tasted great. 5 stars.
Unfortunately, the greatness now stoppes with the food. I realise that the place is new and that it needs a little time to «settle». My main gripe was with noise: sure it’s cool with bare tiled and concrete walls, but, this place was an echo chamber! Get something on the walls! The waiter had to ask me to repeat my order 3 times. And, the place was only ¼ full. Even the music dissapeard in the echo.
I’m sure the echo situation will be sorted out as the concept is polished up. And I’m really looking forward to good back for some of that excellent grub.
Oh, almost forgot: get some steak knifes; it’s such hard work to tear the meat apart. ;)

Quaint little café serving set lunches at an affordable S$ 16, includes a starter where you can have a choice of Caesar salad or soft shell crab salad (I always go for the soft shell crab one), a main course, and a choice of dessert of either Cheesecake or Panna Cotta.
They have a variety of coffees, chocolate drinks and special sodas.
Friendly staff, lovely lady owner, and unique fusion dishes.