Was in the Lavender area to collect IC for my friend, which of course created the perfect excuse to further check out the cafes in the area. Haha. And by sheer luck, another girlfriend had made plan to collect her IC too.

So with that, we met and walked over from ICA building which was akin to walking over from Lavender MRT station since both (MRT station and ICA building) were just side by side.

Knowing that the cafe was at the building beside Textile Centre and facing the main road (North Bridge Road), my girlfiend and I managed to find our way to the cafe fairly easy by heading in the correct direction.

Upon taking our seats, the staff presented us with the menu and informed us to place our orders at the cashier.

And from the menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), we ordered:-

1) Tolido’s truffle fries, $10.50 (above) – Shoestring fries, mixed with premium truffle oil. Topped with shredded parmesan cheese. This was normal although my girlfriend exclaimed upon seeing the fries served in a dimsum basket. She thought it was a little off for Western food to be put in a Chinese basket. Haha.

2) Rosti, $14.90 (above) – Lightly fried, fresh, shredded russet potatoes and egg. The last rosti I had was years back at Marche when Marche was still located at Heeren. Ha. But if my memory did not fail me despite the many years, Tolido’s version was definitely better. The exterior was fried to a beautiful shade of golden brown and was crispy. As they were generous with the ingredients, it was nice to bite into a thick layer of soft shredded potatoes. One may choose to have it with smoked bratwurst ($16.90) or smoked salmon ($20.90) instead of cheesy sausages.

3) Panini-grilled sandwiches, $12.50 (above) – Includes a side of salad & chips. We chose turkey ham over other flavours of pork bacon or tuna, onion & tomato. And this was normal with ham, lettuce, tomato thrown together with some mayonnaise. I did feel a little cheated when I order something that could be put together by myself.

4) Baked turkey ham macaroni cheese, $10 (above) – Creamy macaroni baked with turkey ham, topped with mozzarella and parmesan cheeses. An easy dish to execute at home, but I was happy spending my money on this as it tasted great! I like that bigger sizes macaroni was used for more substantial bites.

5) Banana pancakes, $9 (above) – Triple stack of fluffy pancakes with bananas. Not too bad. Banana pieces were also included in the batter. The pancake stuck a little to the (top of my) mouth just like how I personally prefer mine to.

6) Latte, $5.50 (above)

7) Sea salt caramel latte, $6 (above) – Something different. Amidst the sweetness of caramel, there was the faint taste of sea salt.

I say, if one is in Lavender and is looking for more cafes to cafe hop to after having tried the more popular cafes like Artistry and Symmetry, Tolido’s is a good cafe to try next.

And we could tell the staff was a closely knit group from the fun they were having. Which was a good thing cause when staff are happy, service will be better (with smiles) and food will be tastier. There’s a saying of how happy people dish out better tasting food. Although it would have been better if the staff practised a little restraint and not overtreat the cafe as their house. As we tucked into the food, the peaceful atmosphere was often disrupted by the staff’s loud conversations which were thrown from one corner of the cafe to the other.

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