Open Farm Community

A slice of the Elysium Fields in Singapore… the sun shines, children run through the sculpture garden, fresh herbs scent the air and even the cocktails are good for you!
We thoroughly enjoyed our Saturday lunch at Open Farm Community. I have long been a fan of Tippling Club and Open Door Policy and we finally snagged a reservation at Open Farm Community (tip: indoor seating fills up fast!).
While the prices were hefty, when you keep in mind that the ingredients emphasize the freshest and most natural possible, somehow your wallet won’t wail quite as loudly…
Food was good, service was extremely attentive and snappy and the ambiance was convivial.
The only thing we might not order again were the clams… after paying 2.50 /​100 grams of clams in decadent squid ink butter at Dancing Crab, it was very difficult to reconcile paying ~20 for a small bowl of clams.
PARTING THOUGHT: We lucked out as our visit coincided with the once a month farmer’s market… everything from cocktails by bar stories to small batch gourmet goodies to purveyors of fresh seafood and meats were on feature, adding to the festive atmosphere!

— Let’s start with the Flat white — 5.5sgd — harsh, overcooked, thin milk. (⁶⁄₁₀)
— Design and layout — 9.5÷10. The glass walls, surrounding nature and light ceiling makes it a really spectacular place to hang out for lunch or dinner. Chairs are nice soft canvas type, very comfortable. Tables are a little unstable.
— Not suitable as a working café. Extremely suitable if for fancy group meetups, dates, or if you just want to feel sophisticated.
— While I appreciate the food decorations, I must note that all food has a mild-​strong Indian style of taste. The food comes slightly spicy.
— Eggplant with filing — simply not very well done at all. (⁵⁄₁₀)
— Salad with half boiled eggs, bread, meat was very well done. (8.5÷10)
— Main course of (fried) fish — mediocre at best. The fish felt like it came from a frozen source. Although I might be mistaken and the fish really is more gelatinous than chunky. I’m not buying the subtle South Asian spice that’s neither strong nor flavorful enough. It’s like making curry with minimal curry ingredients, then naming it something else entirely.
— Pasta was superbly well done. Highly recommended. I really enjoyed the seafood addition to the pasta.
— Coconut ice cream — taste wise (⁷⁄₁₀). Texture — melted far too quickly, lack of cream (³⁄₁₀). Why are there torched /​baked mangoes? It does not actuslly make it taste any differently.
— Lemon tart was very good. I see the other revierwers praising it as well, it was actually very well done. (⁹⁄₁₀)
— Conclusion — marvelous place for a beautiful evening. Food was mediocre, although the general pricing and fanciness should entice one to enjoy it more. Highly recommended if you want to impress your peers with your fine dining choices, and at those prices, they’ll enjoy the dishes without a doubt.

The hippie food trend of the year (and probably next) revolves around seasonal and locally sourced food and Open Farm Community is serving up by far the most polished and marketable urban farming and restaurant concept at their sprawling 35,000 sqft hub at Dempsey. Chef Ryan Cliff brings to the table wholesome dishes, using as much produce as he can from the on site gardens and local farms.
My favorite dish at OFC is the Coal-​baked omelette with smoked haddock, tarragon and grain mustard mornay. I was surprised at the portion given that the rest of the dishes were minute (relative to their price point). This makes for the best brunch dish and i would gladly polish off the creamy eggs with chunks of salty fish. Now where is my bread?
Sauteed local clams with pita and lemon meuniere sauce. Lovely briny morsels here but the portion was pathetic. A crunchy bread would work better than the pita, which turned kinda tough after being in the open for a bit.
Local pumpkin with Minden Road pesto and pita bread. Well i love pumpkin but this is something anyone can do at home. For the price, i can easily buy a few pumpkins, instead of having just one sad sad slice. So nope, do not order this. And i don’t see how the pita even goes with the dish. In fact, it contributed to the overall dryness of this dish.
If you would like a vegetable dish, then go with the Baby eggplant with spicy togarashi, quinoa, curry oil and sourdough. At least it’s more well thought out in terms of flavors and textures. I would say this has quite a Mediterranean-​Asian flavor.
For something more substantial, go for their handmade pastas which come in varieties other than the regular spaghetti and linguine. A hit for us was the Mud Crab Spaghettoni with Thai curry sauce, crunchy yellow squash, coconut, crispy shallot thai basil. Those delicious sweet chunks of crab! Plus the chewy udon like spaghettoni with the mild creamy coconut curry. Can’t get enough of this!
The Strozzapreti with 48 hour Barolo braised oxtail, parmesan wafers and wild thyme was also favored by some of my dining companions. The meat was a little too salty for me and it still had a gamey flavor. The texture was great though.
A pretty and comforting dish was the Smoked duck cappelletti with baby spinach, dark brown chicken and thyme tea. I would finish the broth but i could not get past the thick pasta shells. Some tweaking needs to be done as the pasta stole the flavor from the meat.
The Roasted baby chicken, braised leeks with hazelnut butter and wild watercress salad surprised me with the tender and juicy flesh despite its dryish appearance. It’s nothing very spectacular though.
The 250g Charred Wagyu Burger with garlic fries and mayo was MEH. It was bland and blah and absolutely not worth the price tag or calories. A stronger tomato relish with pickles, cheese that melts better, and generally just a tad more seasoning (like pepper and salt).
Sat at the Chef’s table and had full view of the open kitchen. :)
Hits and misses but some dishes will have me coming back. Plus i really love the space here. :)

Surprisingly managed to get a booking for Sunday brunch, which happened to be Valentine’s Day. When we arrived it was still only ¹⁄₃ full.
Service was prompt and attentive, which was good as I had read some bad reviews of the service.
I had a strozepretti pasta with oxtail, and my fiancée had a chilli crab pappardelle. Both were well cooked and al dente, if not a little small. We also had a nice side broccoli and snow pea salad which was very good.
For drinks we ordered a parsley/​Apple/​kale juice and avocado/​mango smoothie. Both… were terrible. My juice was watery, and had no semblance of Apple /​kale /​parsley flavour. The avocado smoothie was similarly bland. It may as well have been a tofu smoothie.
Overall, food was good and so was the ambience/​concept/​service, but points lost for the awful drinks. And at $ 112 for 2 people, massively steep pricing. 24hrs earlier we were sitting in a swanky suburb of Melbourne having brunch at a nice café, and our meal only came up for $ 55.
Unfortunately for OFC, it just becomes one of the multitude of good/​decent but overpriced places in Singapore, leaving you no reason whatsoever to return for a second try.

The reviews pass by fast and I always like to publish something really nice for every even hundred so for number 700 it is time for the open farm community. They are bringing the locally sourced and even own grown concept to Singapore and they are doing in it a lovely garden like setting in Tanglin.
They have both a nice café with an outdoor terrace with a ping pong table as well as a more tranquil restaurant. The outdoor seating area is perhaps a bit warmer but I still prefer it as it has some greens around and the inside while beautiful is a bit noisy when full.
The menu has some great starters, mains and sides for example the burger and the pork are both superb but to me the stars of the menu are the pastas. The Strozzapretti with oxtail was amazing and I could have eaten it all (but had agreed to share it). The rigatoni with mushrooms, pancetta and stilton was also equally good. The desserts were also good (especially the caramelized mango) but I would in retrospect rather have ordered another pasta.
The wine selection is interesting and after sampling the excellent wine flights (one for white at 20 SGD for four different wines and one for red at 22 SGD) I was really impressed at their wines. Fairly affordable and still very good. The quality consciousness is also seen in the coffee that is roasted by CommonMan.
Service was attentive, friendly and they managed to keep the service level through the meal despite it being a busy night. So overall this is definitely one of my favorite spots in Singapore.

Lovely place for a lazy afternoon lunch. The service was attentive and great place for kids to run and learn the different types of vegetables, herbs and edible plants. For an alcoholic refresher, try the OFC Gardens Cup.

I love the concept of this place and the food is great. Great place for a relaxed brunch or dinner.

Nice ambience, but food is so-​so at best and pricey. Attitude of the service staff could be better, especially the maitre d’. A little too fusion-​y for my taste, would not return.

Nice place for a weekend brunch, loved the natural light filtering through its ample windows and lush greenery surrounding the restaurant.
Reservations HIGHLY recommended. We visited on a Sat morning at 11, right when it opened, without a reservation. We were turned away by the hostess, who informed us that the restaurant was fully booked till 3. She did offer to seat us at the bar, thankfully, which held only 4 people. Other customers who arrived later without reservations were turned away disappointedly — not a very smart move, given that I saw many empty tables that were being held for later reservations. Service staff weren’t very forthcoming nor friendly either, and the food did take some time to arrive. Not ideal for the brunch rush hour.
Coffee is by Common Man, so they were expectedly decent. :)
We tried:
— Eggs Benedict with poached chicken, spinach, semi-​dried tomatoes, sourdough & green curry hollandaise sauce ($ 24): eggs were beautifully poached, yolks were a rich golden orange. I particularly enjoyed the twist on the hollandaise though. The green curry taste definitely shone, though it might not be for everyone.
— Truffle scrambled organic egg, shimeji mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, baby spinach & sourdough ($ 24): would recommend ordering this dish. The egg was soft and flavorful and the mushrooms were generously portioned. Went excellently on the sourdough.
— Lemon tart with basil ice cream ($ 17): I’d heard so much about this dish before visiting that I HAD to order it (despite the price). It didn’t disappoint. Presentation was gorgeous and was reminiscent of a Mille-​feuille. I’d have preferred the lemon curd to have been on the tarter side though. The basil ice cream was refreshing and went wonderfully with the lemon. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Portions aren’t big for the price, but we left satiated. Would return to try its other dishes during lunch/​dinner!

Ate here twice in a one week trip and would have gladly been back every night, time permitting. It’s a wonderful combination of:
— great flavors
— a healthy, inspiring, and creative menu,
— a bright, comfortable, and lively space, and
— warm and genuinely super friendly service
This place is helping to change the face of western dining in Singapore which is normally dominated by: fish and chips, sub-​par knuckle-​centric Bavarian food, questionable tapas, and overpriced steak and lobster.

There we go again … Let me present you the the SG50 unofficial Unilocal event.
Upom setting my foot, i was like «WOW» the greenery is really soothing to the eyes and gives me a cosy feel. The outdoor seating gives me a very family feel maybe its because i saw a family spending their Saturday with their dog too. This restaurant is unique and maybe they have already tell you by naming the restaurant as (Open Farm Commuinity) They grow their own vegetable and herbs in an open farm for dinners to view and it’s quite interesting to walk around them to take alook at the different types of herbs and vegetables.
This restaurant has a see through concept, as it’s surrounded by glass panel. It’s a glass house, I think it would be romantic at night.
Ok … Let me touch on :
Service wise they seems that they can’t really handle a big crowd as they tends to mix up the order. The serving for us is on average side
Guess what i order …
Truffle scramble organic egg, shimeji mushrooms, portobello mushrooms, baby spinach & sourdough $ 24
The scramble egg is alittle too salty for me and the rest of the food is good. Not too sure what’s the best on the menu but I would definitely be back again to try other food

We attended a Unilocal Elite brunch event here (for Nik’s birthday month!!!) and then life got crazy, so I’m just now writing this review.
The company, of course, was superb. The food was really good, but the menu was really tough if you’re trying to follow the Paleo lifestyle. Hubby order the roasted wagyu rump with ratte potatoes, poached eggs, red onions, chili bearnaise and brioche bun. Because of the quantity of food, he ended up eating the bread to fill up. I got the eggs benedict with poached chicken, spinach, semi-​dried tomatoes, and green curry hollandaise sauce. I had them sub the sourdough for more spinach. I left hungry. Again, the food was awesome, but didn’t fit Paleo and portions were on the small side, so this place gets a 3.5÷5 for me.
I really did love the setting and the style of food they prepare, and would like to try my luck with their lunch or dinner menu. It’s still on my to do list and I promise to update this review once I’ve given those two menus a shot.
Ultimately, go. Try. Enjoy. :)

Came here with the family for a late Sunday lunch. The kids loved the pasta but the barramundi less so. However, eggs and fish were a hit with us.
The garden was fun to walk through.

This is the first true farm to table in Singapore. Tucked among the trees off of Holland Road before you hit Dempsey Hill is this great new secret. It used to be a casual bar the husband and I used to go to when we arrived here in 2013. I think it served the 9 hole golf course that was across Minden Road. However when the golf course closed to make way for progress (aka The brown line) It closed. Then Jim Thompson used it for a bit as a our side bar area. Now its Open Farm Community. As a member of the community I welcome it!
Totally redo its reminds me of the farm to table restaurants in the USA. Very shabby/​rustic chic interior with wood floors and walls, floor to ceiling windows facing the herb farm. Small bar area, open kitchen and cool lighting with reclaimed rot iron panels on the ceiling with fairy lights,
Try the chilled avocado soup, its to die for. I order it every time, clean, fresh, cooling for this climate. Mains I’ve had are the barrumindi grilled to perfection and rigatoni is done with a pesto sauce that is not too oily or too basil infused. I also have had the warm broccoli salad with pine nuts, just devine, It is truly warm and not hot or luke warm.
If you are in to clean eating, this is a place you need to try. Make reservations as the word is out, this place is the best clean eating restaurant in Singapore.

I was here for one hour with no time to linger, so this is what I got out of the 60 minutes I was there:
— WOW, this place is too cool for school. You feel like you’ve been transported to a mini-​farm in not-​Singapore, and the restaurant building lets in heaps of natural light so you won’t be able to stop those damn Instagrammers from posing and taking endless selfies in addition to the food.
— I was told that the pastas were really good, so I went for the strozzapreti, which had oxtail (not sure where it’s sourced from) and garnished with fresh herbs, which I’m pretty sure came from the farm. Very yummy, but expensive AF!
— Portions are on the small side, so order a side + main if you have an appetite.
Bottom line– I love what they’re going for here, the food is good, and I want to come back. However, with all nice things in Singapore, you’re going to have to pay for it. Coming from the US, things that are locally sourced are priced a lot cheaper, and unfortunately that’s not what’s happening here. I can only hope there will be day everyone in Singapore will be able to enjoy healthy, locally sourced food– without having to pay an arm and a leg. Idealistic Mich, signing off!

Upon reaching this place, I was reminded of the Grounds of Alexandria which I visited while I was in Sydney.
Located at Dempsey Hills, this place is definitely a gem. I love the interior design and the ambience of what this place have to offer.
While browsing through the menu, was stuck on whether to get Risotto, gnocchi or the eggs benedict dish. Decided to go for Risotto instead.
Food came approximately 15 minutes after ordering. Since I was with other Unilocalers for brunch, we chit chatted while we waited for our foods to be served. Time past quickly and it was time for me to try what I ordered.
Pumpkin & parsley risotto with caramelized seeds & fresh herb dressing from the garden sounded good but I realized this dish need to have acquired taste after a mouthful of risotto. The flavors are mild but at the same time confusing as I could barely taste the caramel from the seeds but was able to feel the crunch from the seeds after a bite. The pureed pumpkin gave a smooth texture to the dish but since there were many hidden ingredients that pops up with different flavors, I wasn’t able to tell which taste came from which. I love the seaweeds on the side. Gave the risotto more of a crunch. For the rice, I was wondering whether it was supposed to be hard instead of soft. A little confused here too as I was expecting it to be soft.
This place only have one long communal table with high chairs. And we were given a time that we had to finish our food by as there might be another large group that come after us. Portion was a little small but I guess if you considered this place to be fine dining we should expect quality instead of quantity. Price was a little steep as well.
Servers are pretty attentive especially when cups are towards little to no water. If you are coming during the weekends, I suggest that you make reservations especially for big groups.

Bring your family, friends, and date (s?)! This place is a gem in Dempsey. It has a hipster ambiance and offers well-​balanced Western dishes that not only satisfies your tastebuds but your visual senses!
The Eggs Benedict with poached chicken was Eggs-​ellent! I was surprised to see how golden the egg yolk was as it oozed out and soaked the sourdough bread. The portion is quite petite though so if you come hungry, get their recommended pasta selections or the wagyu ramp that also comes with poached eggs.
Note: We came on Saturday for brunch and it was pretty crowded (and noisy) so I’d make reservations!

OMG!
I love the concept of this place and how they’ve executed it.
From the space to the décor, the the lights, to the menu. Everything feels as if you’ve been transformed to the Rural South (America).
The menu made me salivate and slightly raise my heart rate, and it took us at least 15 minutes to decide what to eat!
It’s been a few weeks, but I remember we had some seafood salad with Yuzu, spaghettoni, Beef dish, and 2 desserts.
Wow! All were simply incredible, and mouth watering. A real creative journey for the palate and the experience as a whole was chilled, relaxed, and felt supreme all at the same time.
Me and my dinner date sat outside, near the farm, on the patio with the dim lights, cool wind blowing, and bench all by ourselves.
The service was cheery, knowledgeable and overall excellent! The staff seemed to really be enjoying themselves.
The bill? I don’t remember exactly, but it was about $ 70 per person. Not bad.
Definitely my recommended place in town!

according to my source at MOCA, they initially approached MOCA to rent their space.
but that didn’t happen and now OFC sits where botak’s backyard used to be.
a nice 35,000sqft of green land.
i like the space, very welcoming, like your own garden (probably because i don’t have one?)
whilst not all that you eat at the restaurant comes from their minden plot, it is more likely than not harvested locally or within 400 km, as for them freshness is key.
feel free to wander around if you happen to arrive whilst the restaurant is having it’s 3−6pm siesta.
there is ping pong to be played, lawn bowling and sand pit for the kids.
the farmacy, takeaway shop, is also available during that very sleepy hour for your caffeine needs, amongst others.
today, i was there a shade before six and they were still in the midst of a pow wow talk.
but at the stroke of six, they were ready!
no queue, no wait, just yet.
the restaurant has a very casual vibe and staff were friendly and knowledgeable, albeit a little tentative.
their tablet touting, german maitre d flashed and introduced me to some of their signature dishes.
seeing how i’m such a visual animal, i quickly zoomed in on what i wanted.
fermented carrot ‘tartare’: all the traditional condiments just no meat!
this starter reminded me a lot of the carrot dish i had at eleven madison park!
nothing more fresh, natural and simple than this.
yet all the individual elements worked well, came together and delivered.
you might need more slivers of their rustic, lightly toasted, olive-​drizzled bread to polish off the orange hued goodness
pumpkin & pine nut tortelli with local yabbies & minden pesto.
homemade pasta, mama mia!
cooked to perfection, well i was the first and only customer at six.
but it is so hard to get tortelli cooked just right and they did, well done.
a hearty dish that will definitely remind you of home.
love the colours, taste and texture that combined to make this a lingering and memorable palate experience.
fresh juice mix (mint) — mint, kale, watermelon, cucumber
tastes better than it looks and was definitely healthily refreshing.
as for the economics, i can see some people balking at their prices.
though on the higher end of the affordability spectrum, their serving portions were sufficient, even for my post fasting ferocious appetite and the fact that you can taste quality make it acceptable to me.
p. s. a change from paper to cloth napkins might just push you towards that fifth star!