La Ristrettos
So this cafe has been on my bucket list since forever, but I've never visited because of the distance from my workplace and its early closing hours on weekdays.
It was only yesterday when I had a medical appointment at Novena Medical Centre (the building this cafe is located at), that magically a connection was made between two remote wires in my brain; that a) I needed lunch after my appointment, and b) I wanted to read at a cafe. And swimming in the depths of my memory and discarded bucket list was La Ristrettos, a place that fulfilled all these requirements!
The cafe was very small, but its size made it cosy. Looking for it was like looking for hidden treasure in the maze of clinics in Novena Medical Centre!
What you see above rather accurately reflects the amount of indoor seating in the whole cafe - there was a smaller table for 2 not shown in this photo (the only 'private table' in this place). Where I was standing when I took the shot above, my left is the counter and kitchen - and you can see that their bar is exposed to cafe patrons. My right leads to a small door to the outdoor area, which is shown below:
It isn't a place to go to for a romantic date, and the cafe resonates with the conversations of everyone in it.
I ordered the Mushroom Frittata ($13), which is an Italian mushroom omelette with ham, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cheese. It's served with 2 slices of sourdough bread. I liked that it was served super hot with a warning not to touch the dish, and the plus points for me on this were the egg-mushroom-tomato combination, my must-have in any breakfast buffet.
That said, the minus points for me were the saltiness of the ham, the plant interspersed in the frittata that tasted like coriander, and the peppery taste around a section of the frittata near the edge. (Because I dislike the taste of processed meat, coriander / parsley / arugula, and black pepper.) These are my personal dietary preferences, so you may not agree with me on them being minus points.
The noise in the cafe didn't stop me from enjoying my read - a chapter on passion in education by a French psychologist and ardent researcher on the concept of passion, Robert Vallerand. The book's title is Building Autonomous Learners - a collection of articles on enhancing student and teacher experiences in school, edited by my Professor (aka boss) John, with Professor Liu and Richard Ryan (THE founder of the Self-Determination Theory)! I highly recommend this book to you if you enjoy thinking about the psychology of motivation in students and teachers in school.
Oops I went off tangent for a while there. Back to the food - I read on the Smart Local that their Panini Uova E Pancetta (panini bread with egg, bacon, and provolone cheese with salad), Ristretto (a kind of coffee), and Pear Tart is good too, but I didn't try any of them. Maybe I'll visit again after my next appointment.
La Ristrettos
10 Sinaran Drive, Novena Medical Centre
#08-37, Singapore 307506
Tel (65) 6397 7165
Monday - Friday 8 - 6 pm
Saturday 8 - 2 pm
Sunday Closed
