If you eat out around the Central/North-East area of Singapore namely at Plaza Singapura, Nex, Raffles Place and 313 @ Somerset, you might have noticed this cafe called Hot Tomato. So just an overview of the cafe:
Hot Tomato Coffeehouse was established in Jan 2006 at Republic Plaza. Due to its overwhelming success, other outlets are launched, namely Hot Tomato Express, established in June 2007 at Plaza Singapura, and Hot Tomato Café and Grill, in late 2009 at 313@Somerset. We thank our customers for their invaluable and continued support and maintain our commitment and dedication towards culinary excellence and service.
Well what happened what that last Wednesday, the boyfriend decided to give me a treat (again!) at any restaurant of my choice at 313 Somerset. My initial choice was Marche, but the hostess treated me like I was invisible. Like, I was telling her seats for 2 and she blatantly ignored me. I was SO pissed that I wanted to complain to her manager but the boyfriend was like, don’t make a scene!
So fine, I shall NOT patronize Marche because of that pathetic idiot. So we walked around and finally decided on Hot Tomato because I felt like having pasta. Moreover, I’ve eaten at the branch over at Plaza Singapura and Nex and it was not too bad.
Btw, yes this is right after my lunch date with Rachel as seen here:
As mentioned above in the About section, Hot Tomato is categorized into different types at several locations. There’s:
1) Hot Tomato Cafe & Grill
2) Hot Tomato Express
3) Hot Tomato Coffeehouse
Click on each link to find out more!(:
The one I went to is the first one, Hot Tomato Cafe & Grill @ 313 Somerset:
Hot Tomato Café & Grill is a lifestyle family restaurant. It marries the charm of the Parisian sidewalk café and the tastiness of a specialized grill house with the best cuts and seafood catch. The menu uses the Grill primarily as its core menu and the Hot Tomato Kitchen.
All our cuts are carefully seasoned with sea salt, olive oil and fresh herbs and put on the char broiler to bring out the natural flavours of our premium cuts.
Credits: http://www.hottomato.com.sg/hottomatocafe&grill.html
So again, let’s have the pictures do most of the talking shall we?
So first up, an unglam photo of the boyfriend. Just to clarify – he DELIBERATELY makes the worst faces whenever I take a photo of him. So it’s not that I’m a bad photographer. HAHA
And I couldn’t resist taking a photo. Hurhur, *pokes handcrafted weaved necklace*
Sorry! I totally forgot to take photos of the menu as we were super hungry! Just ordered, gave them back their menus and I was like, crap! I forgot =.= But no matter, I got their menu from the Hot Tomato Facebook page.
Generally the menu is about the same at all locations but maybe presented differently. I can’t remember.
You can also upgrade your meal as seen above. It’s just SGD 2.90 for a soup of the day (usually tomato and basil soup) + garlic bread + drink – That’s for the all day upgrade. There are also other upgrades such as the soup only/cake only and a 20% off promotion during non-peak hours.
And finally..the food! 🙂
The fries serving is extremely generous (and cheap!). The boyfriend sprinkled more salt on it as it wasn’t salty enough for his taste. I dipped it in mayonnaise(:
I opted not to upgrade my set as it was tomato soup, so I went for the ala-carte mushroom soup. Just decent, but has a weird taste, not sure what it is. I finished it though.
The portion is pretty decent for the price. Salad was fine, dressing was some lemoney-thingy but so I threw some mayonnaise on it. The Aglio oglio is not bad, just a tad dry, but nothing that mayonnaise can’t solve. Yes I know, it’s weird to eat it like that, but it’s my personal preference. Didn’t try the sauce. Mayo trumps all.
Beef was grilled to Rare perfectly, I’ve been to steak restaurants that can’t even get it right! And best of all, it’s not dry. Still juicy and yummy and dripping with blood *YUM* – comparable to Astons.
I tried a piece of each (pork chop & sausage) since the rest were the same. Sausages are what you get from the supermarket I guess, so you can’t go wrong with it. Pork chop was okay, but a little too tough for my taste (personal taste). The boyfriend liked gnawing on it though.
On the whole, I think that Hot Tomato is a pretty worthwhile place to check out whether you’re on a date or just hanging with friends. The food is decent, portioned very well and most importantly, it is affordably priced. Very value for your money and it’s a place to consider other than Astons.
Meanwhile the ambience and entire set up is fun and casual making it a great place to relax after a heavy dinner with friends/date. Note that this is applicable for only at 313 Somerset as the outlet at Plaza Singapura is extremely noisy and crowded, to boot.
There’s nothing bad to say about service as food is served promptly and the servers do remember your orders/requests. Most of them are from The Philippines, hence you can expect a level of good service and welcome.
I will not deliberately eat at Hot Tomato if I’m around that area, but it is on my to-consider list especially if the boyfriend is on a budget.
Hot Tomato Cafe & Grill
313@Somerset, #B3- 35/36
Tel: 6884 6631
Website: http://www.hottomato.com.sg/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Hot-Tomato/120197141342800
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