[CLOSED] The Reading Room

An easy and deadly drink.
Citrusy, limey, sweet. (Left) Old Fashion $15.00
Bourbon, bitters, sugar, citrus zest.
Old Fashion is not old fashion. Love this drink.
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House Wine:
Chianti $9 per glass / $68 per bottle.
Medium body, with black berries on the nose.
Easy red and goes very well with the Beef Bourguignon.
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Dinner Set:
2-course at $22.80/pax
3-course at $32.80/pax.
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Featuring:
Entree for 3-course set menu
Portobello Fries.
This is so so good. Crispy, crunchy and juicy on the bite.
Shameless asked for 2 orders.
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Truffle Fries.
The room is filled with aroma of the earthly Truffle & there are bits of truffle in the mayo dip.
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Fish N’ Chips
Typical English Fish n Chips.
Halibut, a poor man’s cod, is fried in secret (no beer) batter.
The batter breaks like glass when cut into the fish.
Very fresh skin on Halibut.
Everyone enjoy the fish.
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Beef Bourguignon.
One and half bottle of red wine was used when cooking the beef, leaving the beef in a pool of beef jus.
Folk tender and so flavourful.
The mash is stunning, so much flavour.
You can really feel the love and passion that goes into the cooking.
This beef Bourguignon recipe is passed down by Gion’s grandmother. We love this dish.
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The Reading Room
19 Bukit Pasoh Road
S089833
Tel: 6223 1608
Opening hours:
Mon-Wed: 11am - 11:30pm
Thur-Fri: 11am - 1:30am
Sat: 10:30am - 1:30am
Sun: 10:30am - 11:30am
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Thank you Debbie @debsho22 @quandoo_sg for the invite; @jemabate for hosting; @thereadingroomsg for the wonderful wine and dinner; Service Team for the warm hospitality as always.

I visited TRR at 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon and managed to get 30% off food items via an Eatigo booking. Despite that, our bill with two appetisers, one pasta and one drink (not applicable for eatigo discount) came up to approx $50. The main culprit was the lobster pasta (U.P.$28.80). Although the appetisers were good, I can’t find any justifications to pay $50 for such substandard food in an area where renowned cafes with great food and coffee are a dime a dozen. Might be worth just visiting for the appetisers or a drink to get a feel of the ambience at TRR, but don’t get the lobster pasta.

Personal recommendations:
- TRR’s Signature Spicy Wings
- Portobello Fries

Another chef recommended item on the appetisers menu at TRR, the portobello fries are basically strips of portobello mushroom fried in batter and served with garlic aioli. This was the first dish to arrive at our table and it was freshly prepared plus piping hot.

The batter here is a winner. It’s almost tempura-esque, but denser. I love the contrast in textures in the dry crispy batter and juicy portobello strips. Whatever herb blend they use, it imparts enough saltiness to the mix that you actually don’t need any dip. If you’re in the mood for dipping, the creamy garlic aioli provided complements the crisp batter well too. The fries are a little oily from deep frying, but they’re not dripping in oil and still bearable. The crispness of the batter still held up well even after the fries had cooled down, still super crunchy and satisfying!

So much yes with this.

One of two chef’s recommended appetisers on the menu, the spicy wings comes in 6 or 8pcs. Each drumlet or winglet counts as a piece, so the portion size isn’t super huge. I love the tanginess and slight spiciness of the red sauce, especially with the slices of garlic on top to amp up the heat. Each piece of chicken was crisp, even after being slathered in the thick sauce. The chicken was also tender and juicy.

My advice would be to get this and the Portobello Fries to share if you want to check out TRR’s library-dining concept but skip the mains and go elsewhere for a more satisfying meal.

Walked past TRR multiple times when around this area but it’s never stood out since there’s an abundance of truly exceptional cafes in the area. We finally visited on a weekday afternoon at 3pm and it was a quiet place to recharge, catch up on some reading (from the variety of books available at the place) or have a relaxing meal.

We tried one of the chef recommended pastas - one of two lobster pastas. The Lobster Pasta with white wine reduction was essentially spaghetti with lobster cooked in white wine, butter, tomato, garlic and arugula.

This was the last dish to be served since we’d ordered some appetisers, but it was the most underwhelming of all. The pasta was overcooked and too soft, plus the white wine reduction was pretty tasteless even though there was butter in there. There was a very very subtle hint of white wine, but not enough to shine through. The sauce was too watery overall. We only enjoyed the lobster bits, which weren’t the easiest to enjoy although they had been chopped. It still took a fair bit of manoeuvring to get the meat out. While the lobster wasn’t bad, it also wasn’t the best. Didn’t bother with the garlic bread after a bite. It was too dry and crispy, to the extent of being hard. Not much garlic flavour either.

Honestly felt this was not worth the hefty $28.80 price tag and I would’ve been pretty mad to pay full price for this. Thankfully we were using eatigo for 30% off so the bill wasn’t so painful but still not worth the quality of this dish. I would return for the appetisers, and maybe to try other food, but I’d steer clear away from this for sure.

Nestled inside a bookstore is a quaint little cafe that served up a pretty good cup of coffee that was smooth and flavourful. A relaxing place to spend on a late afternoon.