Jones the Grocer @ Mandarin Gallery

Since I have received a request from a friend to post more entries on this food blog (happiness!), I am encouraged to be more diligent in the updating.

Remember the time I went with the sister to have brunch at Imperial Treasure? Well, after shopping and walking around at Orchard Road, we got really tired and wanted to sit down and have tea or desserts. We decided on Jones the Grocer since both of us haven't tried that before, and for a moment we couldn't really think of any other places so we settled on this.

I came to know of this place by working on another cafe in the same building (some of you might know), and I always wanted to try it out someday, but knowing it's really pricey, I never really got around to trying it. It's a gourmet food retailer, selling cheeses, gourmet pastas and so on - gosh, one bottle of pasta sauce costs $19!!! That's crazy. For me, at least.

Anyway, it was not that crowded when we reached there around 4 plus 5pm. We were still full from lunch and we ordered small bites to share.

 

The wide variety of cheeses in the glass case behind there reminds me of times in Europe and Scandinavia

I saw "tapas" on the menu and decided to order it since I didn't have the chance to try it when I was in Spain (yes how silly right I know). It listed a whole chunk of food and I thought since tapas refers to a wide variety of appetizers or snacks, the entire chunk would be included in the $12. Who was I kidding? This is definitely a higher-end-than-usual restaurant for me. The waiter then explained that each row of words was a separate dish, haha! So we chose the smoked salmon with avocado one. 

Reading food reviews from other blogs, it seems like this place is known for their over-priced and under-portioned dishes (LadyIronChef), and my! When our dish came, I raised my eyebrows. 

Tapas $12 - Smoked Salmon with Avocado and Crème Fraîche on Foccacia

  
As good as it tasted - the avocado and sour cream was a good combination with the smoked salmon - I don't really think it's worth the money. I can simply buy the ingredients from NTUC and make it myself! Normally I don't really fancy smoked salmon unless they're soaked in mayonnaise and sometimes they can be really fishy, but this combination was refreshing.

 Mudslide Mocha - Not bad.

They also have main courses like Confit Chicken ($27) and Jones Open Wagyu Beef Burger ($27) if you're going there for lunch or dinner.



How much was spent: Around $12 per pax
Would I go back? Maybe only...



Address: 333A Orchard Road #04-21/23 Mandarin Gallery 

Tel: +65 6836 6372