five and dime eatery, river valley.

the first time i spotted five and dime was purely by chance. was on a bus heading to clarke quay, and spotted it because of how it stood out from the rest of the shops at night. it piqued my interest, but somehow i've never put it on my to-try list. after the gym that day, my friend suggested going there (since we had the luxury of being driven).

 

to be honest, based on online reviews, i was more excited by their desserts (particularly the golden custard lava cake) than their mains, but my friend who'd been there a few times, said their mains were pretty good. so we got a main each- the big brekkie ($22), mentaiko pasta ($18) and beef tataki rice ($20).

 

my friend swore by the mentaiko pasta, which she'd had a couple of times. while i found it yummy (it is mentaiko after all), i found the portion to be small for its price tag. the same sentiment applied for the other two mains. my beef tataki rice was... alright, but it's not something that i would pay $20 (before taxes) for, given the fact that it was only 120g of beef and an onsen egg (though admittedly well done) on rice. didn't finish the rice, because i was all out of beef and egg. also because i felt that the stickiness of japanese rice would've gone much better than the steamed rice they served.





so i found mains a slight letdown, given the prices they were charging. thankfully the golden custard lava cake ($12) kind of saved the day.
 

it came in a steamer basket, like those you'd find at a dim sum restaurant. really cute.

 

the moment we cut into it, the glorious golden custard oozed out. promising. and really, when you have an oozy lava cake, especially one that oozes salted egg custard, that basically already seals the deal. though, i would've liked the salted egg flavour to be more pronounced, since i'm a salted egg custard fiend. it was a pretty good lava cake, but i'm not sure it's a good salted egg lava cake, given the fact that i could barely discern the salted egg bit- maybe because the chocolate flavour was already so strong? it certainly was pretty, though.

doubt i'll be back, since it's so out of the way, and prices are on the high side for the quality and quantity of food served. still, the golden custard lava cake was worth a try, especially if you're into salted egg.

five and dime eatery
297 river valley road
http://fiveanddime.com.sg