Went to Food For Thought for dinner a couple of days ago. Been hearing quite a bit about the place, and read about it online. It looked like the kind of place I liked, so was quite excited to go and try out the food.

Food For Thought is what I would call a “restaurant with a heart”. Be it part of Corporate Social Responsibility, or whether the owners truly believe in them, Food For Thought supports quite a number of humanitarian causes. These include drives to provide food, clean water, and education for needy children and people around the world.

Through sale of items/merchandise, as well as donations by customers, Food For Thought raises money for these causes. One clever idea is, while they do not charge for water, they encourage customers to donate $2 towards Living Water International so that clean water can be provided for someone in Africa for a year.

Even the idea for the lighting at their Queen Street joint was birthed out of a desire to recycle pasta sauce jars.

While I am no tree-hugger, I applaud them for their efforts in helping make the world a better place…which is why I feel like such a *bleep* for what I am about to write.

Before I continue, let me first qualify that it was my first time there, and perhaps it is not fair to judge them based on that one visit and the few items I ordered. Still, I believe I have to be objective, despite all the good that they are doing.

As I looked through the menu, one thought that struck me was that they had quite a limited range of food items. Four breakfast items, four types of sandwiches, four kinds of salad, four mains (actually five, but Steamed Lemongrass Sea Bass was scratched out from the menu), five pasta dishes (all Linguine), four risotto dishes, and four desserts. The rest of the menu was taken up by either sides or drinks.

While I had heard positive reviews about their sandwiches, they were only served till 5.30pm. And since I didn’t really feel like having pasta, I was restricted to the mains.

I opted for the Crispy Curry Chicken and Spicy Chilli Fries because (1) I like crispy chicken, (2) I like curry, (3) I like spicy fries. The menu also said that the dish would come with buttery corn salad and roasted tomatoes. I like corn, and I love roasted tomatoes, so it was quite a no brainer actually. To top it all off, it was a Chef’s Recommendation!

(Also because the other dishes seemed a little too funky for my liking…for example, Chai Spice Brûlée Salmon, Hoisin Har Cheong Baby Back Ribs, and Really Good Steak with Blue Cheese Butter. If the Lemongrass Sea Bass was available, I would’ve gone for that, but alas…)

I also ordered the Mushrooms with Bacon and Onions as a starter. I must say that I was underwhelmed by the presentation as it came in a little ramekin with some shredded spring onions strewn across the top as garnish. The mushrooms looked like they were a tad overdone as they were too black. The bacon was not crisp as it was soaked in oil, and the onions were too caramelised, such that they added a strange sweetness to the mushrooms and bacon.

The Crispy Curry Chicken arrived shortly. The portion was huge, if nothing else. It was basically just a breaded chicken cutlet that was either fried and sprinkled with curry powder (or vice-versa). The fries were overly salted…and the tomatoes were NOT roasted.

Those who know me, know that I love fried chicken. Any kind of fried chicken. So, when I say the best part of that meal was the salad…well, I guess that says it all. The wife ordered the Creamy Beef Striploin Linguine…but that was nothing to write home about either.

Throughout the meal, two words kept going through my head as I ate…cafeteria food.

Like I said earlier, I could have ordered the wrong item on the menu. But for what it’s worth, if I don’t like something even though it is my favourite food, then maybe something is not quite right. By the end, even the dessert could not save the meal. The Crème Brûlée of the Day seemed to be green tea flavoured. Let’s just say I stopped at two spoonfuls…even though I usually like crème brûlée.

Food For Thought seems like a great place because of all the causes they support. The staff was friendly, and the service decent.

If only they’d put a little more thought into the food.
 
Food For Thought is at:

8 Queen Street
Singapore 188535
Tel: +65 6338 9887