Secret Recipe, CPF Building

May 28, 2013

In my line of work, turnovers are pretty high so it's sometimes heartbreaking when the colleagues that you have come to call friends go elsewhere. You suddenly find yourself having to find new lunch buddies, or bitch friends (aka friends that you trust to bitch about work with). Jase is one of the few people that I've come to call a friend that I care to mix with outside of the work environment.

Because he works at the Tanjong Pagar area, we met halfway at the CPF Building for lunch at Secret Recipe. Secret Recipe is one of those affordably-priced Halal eateries with better sweets than they do savouries. Cakes here are cheap, ginormous and more-than-decent but the savouries are a mixed bag of hits and misses. Just remember to dial down your expectations when dining here.

To my surprise, inspite of my tampered expectations, I liked the Minestrone Soup ($5.20). It was choc-a-bloc with vegetables, and the tomato-based broth was sweet and tangy and rich. I particularly liked the buttery herby garlicky baguette.

The Spaghetti Meatballs ($12.90) was disappointingly amateurish. Very much reminiscent of Pastamania but I suppose it caters to the same crowd. The beef balls were huge but too dry and lacking in flavour. I think even Kang (who is a total noob at cooking) could have done a better job with the meatballs.