The Providore Mandarin Gallery

Went for dinner on a Monday evening, we had Italian platter (mozzarella), lamb shank, iced latte and chocolate cake. The cheese was a good choice as it’s not too overpowering. Lamb shank has great taste but it’s a little tough. Chocolate cake was amazing, and the iced latte is awesome. We visited this joint twice and both times were wowed by the service. Will be back!

Explored this place by chance as it was one of the few coffee houses open on CNY. We tried few drinks & some breads. Everything was good. But staff and service is not great. Not sure what is the reason they all look very unhappy & 0 on enthusiasm. Highlight was price of water, which is 2 SGD per glass, which does not makes sense at all, it just reflects on the class of the place. Will give this place a miss. I think this place can do wonders if equipped with great staff n service.

I’ve never had a meal here, so can’t comment on that, but I’ve had coffee and dessert here a few times, as well as bought from their deli. Service here is generally okay. The deli has a nice selection and the location is quite convenient. It’s rather pricey but the quality is good. Their coffees are nice. You can see a long black and a single origin drip below. The latter is a tad pricey and the presentation gimmicky, but the taste is good. Their pastries are nice (the pain au chocolate in the photo was rather good); the cakes, less so. I do miss Antoinette for cakes. If you just want coffee or tea and a slice of cake, you may wish to look at the Ma Maison cafe that now occupies Antoinette’s old space on the same floor.

I always feel this place could be better. Sat for ages with our masks on as we had no drinks. Everywhere these days give water when you sit down so you can remove your mask right? I had the club sandwich which was tough to even cut through as the bacon was so hard. Anyway they changed to Egg Benedict which was passable. Jo had the salmon bagel which she enjoyed though. Service was slow but the recovery was good which I appreciated.

It’s a good place for having wine since they have wide selection of natural/organic wines. I don’t recommend it for food cuz it’s terrible. First we wanted to order baramundi, they told us they they have no avocado so they’ll replace guacamole with sour cream :D hello? Are you serious?! We ordered 2 dishes; lamb shank and grilled halloumi. Lamb shank was totally tasteless as if they had forgotten to season it at all, also very dry. Grilled halloumi and humus was ok but too little portion for the price. I might come back to try other wines but definitely not to eat.

This place isn't short of customers. It has its followers. The coffee is good and fairly priced. The egg Benedict overall was tasty. Here comes the issue: 1. Egg Ben. - menu said "wilted spinach". Wilted spinach means cooked spinach. The Egg Ben was layered with fresh baby spinach leaves. This to me is kinda misleading. 2. The guy who attended to us had "I don't want to work" written on his forehead. It felt like as if we were inconveniencing him to seat us, take our order and served us breakfast. We were seated almost under his nose, yet it felt like we were invisible, until we had to call for service. This is the reason I would avoid a restaurant like this like a plaque. It isn't cheap either. This is where I absolutely believe that mandatory service charge should be abolished.