RIDERS CAFE @ SADDLES CLUB

Sat, 4June 2009

RIDERS CAFE PTE LTD
51 Fairways Drive
Singapore 296965
Tel: 64669819
Fax: 6366 7456
Web: www.riderscafe.sg
Opening hours: 8am to 10.30pm
Tuesdays - Thursdays, & Sundays Kitchen closes at 9.30pm
8am to 11pm Fridays & Saturdays. Kitchen closes at 10pm
Close on Mondays
Contact: Willa Wong Mobile 96783712
Email: willa@riderscafe.sg



You will fall in love with this secluded equestrian place which is at the end of a long driveway through Fairways Drive off Eng Neo Road. Then turn left and you will come to a roadend with two colonial buildings and one of them houses RIDERS CAFE.

In the morning, you will enjoy the beautiful fresh air and pure quietitude at the place here saved for the horses clip clop clippity clop sound along the road to the greens or their stables and no where in Singapore can you get that close to these equestrian friends and we did. My friends were certainly enthralled to take pictures with them and see the circus-like parade when a few more horses passes by.

The notice board at RIDERS CAFE do remind patrons to keep clear of the stable area and that they are NOT ALLOWED to do the followings :

1 FEED THE HORSES
2 PAT THE HORSES
3 RUN BEHIND THE HORSES
4 RUN TOWARDS THE HORSES




Prior to this, my friend RANI have asked me to suggest a nice place to hold her birthday which falls on 1st July (co-incidentally another fren, MICHAEL's birthday is on the same day and he has also casually commented that the idyllic settings of RIDERS CAFE is comparable to having breakfast in Perth).

I immediately suggested RIDERS CAFE to RANI but I warned them there is no aircon and with the recent hotter than hot weather and the secluded place with no means of public transportation nearby, most of them were dismayed with my choice but I left at that knowing they will be overwhelmed by such a unique getaway with good ambience and certainly they enjoyed mother nature's surroundings and laidback settings and left with desire to come back for dinner another day. It's DA PLACE to hangout on a weekend.



The place was crowded to the brim and we were told ahead that we have to leave by 2.30pm as they are expecting another group of 40paxs at three pm. We were seated under the whirring fans with windows on both sides of the squarish dining place and the heat was not at all disturbing and we enjoyed the whole atmosphere which was breathtakingly serene.










The waitress, a young gal who served us was pretty attentive and took our orders without any mistakes despite that we had 11 different minds with different ideas on what to order yet were slow in firming up our individual final order. The plates were changed quite promptly without us asking and I am pretty appreciative of such gesture and that makes the dining here fuss free.



My glasses and my Panasonic LX3 cover and a copy of the SIMPLY HER Magazine from the stacks of magazines offered for you to relax and browse whilst you wait for your meal to be served; such bliss!!!


Since it was on a Saturday, both breakfast and lunch menu can be ordered and we had BUFFALO WINGERS at $10 or $16 for which you can have a pick of spice level ranging from mild, hot or bloody hot. This was very nice and recommended although the nite before I had it even better at Santa Fe. The marinade is well absorbed into the tender chicken wings and this was soon devoured and left us asking for more. Generally buffalo wings are coated with flour mixture, then deep fried before dipping into butter, hot sauces and cayenne pepper that leaves them glistening and spicy.


We also went for Seafood Marinara @ S$20. Nice but nothing unusual with ingredients like mussels, scallops and prawns.

SEARED ASPARAGUS is not often served in restaurants as a dish by itself and I was pleasantly surprised that this was on the menu for S$5.00. The CREAM OF MUSHROOM with rustic toast at S$9.00 was perhaps more expensive than others possibly at $6.00 but the serving was generous.

The Fish and Chips using dory was hard crusted I think as I see my friend tearing away the batter but alas most health conscious person would do this nowadays staying away from fried stuff.


I do dream of scones with whipped cream, butter and jam with tea but tea time is strictly 3pm and I just had to forego this. I just came from East Coast Jago Carrot Cake so I just wanted some something light and I ordered RIDERS BREAKFAST at S$13.00 instead with choice of bacon or sausages and toast bread with butter and strawberry jam and I asked for poached eggs instead of sunny side up and it was just simple fare that I wanted this morning.


CHAMOMILE TEA WITH HONEY at S$5.00 a pot for two was certainly very refreshing, the Margherita was meant for the birthday girl but we each took a sip but I like the vanilla milkshare at S$6.00 best of all.


And what did the birthday gal had on her special day? She ordered the GOGONZOLA RAVIOLI which comes with sage cream sauce and her verdict? very nice, not too much and it was delightfully light. Price S$18.00, average not cheap either but most ravioli are handmade, I believe although nowadays machine do churn out good raviolis.

The STEAK ONGLET @ S$18.00 was medium done slightly rare and this is the way it is supposed to be. It was served with rustic mashed potatoes and the steak came in two slabs. Tasty, not a tad chewy nor hard.



The popular dish by choice was the GRILLED HALIBUT with potato gratin at S$19.00 and three of my frens have ordered this. Fish is fresh but again halibuts are frozen fish so it must have been quite fresh from the supplier then!


Total bill came to $266.00 after 15% discount enjoyed with Citibank cards which is quite reasonable.

The Birthday GAL held my hands and thanked me that I made a great choice in such a lovely cafe as obviously she was well pleased. My pleasure !! In turn I must thank Willa for all the arrangements including our indecision on timing and logistics like to be seated nearer the window, she was obviously very wonderful listening to our requests and the few calls we made.

Owner, Jan Yeo formerly from the IT industry was a gem that day too having assisted our way out of the place through the woods cos we wanted to walk through the stables. I encountered a slight mishap that we met with a monkey came from behind and flared her fangs at me and I did the "Heiniken ad shout" and ran but unfortunately dropped my IPHONE. That "monyet" picked up my IPHONE and gnawed and chewed fiercely on my IPHONE holder that it became torn and tattered and I pretty scared that I will be loosing my gadget to a monkey (to our joke after the incident that the monkey is hungry and needed to call for food). With some quick thinking, we offered leftover birthday chocolate banana cake and it decide to throw away my phone for this. Such drama...


HAPPILY SPENDING SATURDAY BRUNCH AT RIDERS CAFE WITH MY GROUP OF 10 FRENS, SUCH JOY!