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Confused Cooks

2.17.2012

Headed over to Confused Cooks one weekday afternoon to use up this voucher that I've gotten sometime back. It wasn't that difficult to find as it was located on the street parallel to the once very popular Haji Lane. The interior of the small and cozy cafe was adorned with many Polaroids, framed pictures, and not forgetting the line of empty beer bottles.

The only service staff stood with a blank face while waiting for my friend and I to get seated. She then handed us the menu and without saying a word, and went back to sweeping the floor. Wow!, that left me really confused and made me wonder if she was the waitress or perhaps, just a cleaner. Having placed our orders, she took off for the kitchen and did not ask us whether we wanted any drinks. 

I had the Gnocchi with Prawn that was pan-fried with olives. It had a distinct buttery fragrance but was lacking in taste. It was quite a bit of challenge to finish up this flour-based dish as there was not a lot of texture to it. 

My friend had the Cheeky Chili Chicky Pasta - linguine with homemade dried chili paste chicken. It bore a strong taste of the green capsicum which complemented the dried chili sauce. It was a pleasant surprise - this style of oriental stir-fried pasta with chicken chunks which resembled that of the Kung Bao chicken. 

The dessert - Smurky's Souffle came about 10 minutes after the waitress cleared our table. It rose beautifully to an appropriate level, retaining its moisture on the inside. I really enjoyed the souffle, with the little blueberry bits that went very nicely with the traditional egg taste. However, there seemed to be a tad too much sugar crystals that were brushed onto the bowl to aid in the raising process. This resulted in quite a bit of those crunchy sugar grains leftover at the side. The accompanying vanilla ice cream (supposedly homemade) was also not to my liking.

I have always enjoyed going to small independent cafes, for we can usually find enthusiastic and friendly servers. But this was obviously not that case for Confused Cooks. If you were to ask, I would say no to returning to this cafe unless if you are caught in the rain along Arab Street and would love to seek shelter in a quiet cafe with no one interrupting you. 

(i apologise for the lack of photos accompanying this post as it would probably deter you further from visiting this cafe. i believe that the presentation of the food (as well as service standard) is definitely not something they place emphasis on)