Daniel's Cafe   (Closed)

There are around...25 seats? They can easily move the sofas around, as they did with our table. The sofas aren't really comfortable but that is beside the point. Doesn't really matter if the food is star.

Service:
Satisfactory. There weren't any waiters idling around. Tonight Daniel's was a dude ranch. They were all very helpful, and nice. Water glasses were filled quite promptly. Gave us individual plates for sharing the food even before we asked. Good!

Food:
Appetizers-around $40 each
Spicy chorizoUnlike what I had in Barca a few years back - but still, quite yummy and flavorful. Very thinly sliced - I prefer thicker slices, and a bit of bite. I found the flavour quite agreeable though - not spicy even for me. In fact my palate forgets even being tingled with chili. Hmm.

Spanish Tortilla - vegetarianAgain, this was unlike the authentic spanish tortilla. It felt more like a dauphine potato omelette cum pancake. Potato discs were layered very methodically one atop the other. I prefer diced potatoes. The edge was not crisp and there weren't any interesting ingredients inside the tortilla as you would find in Tapeo...so I prefer the Tapeo tortilla - but I suppose there is no comparison. I expected the tortilla to be significantly oilier because that is how it is made but this one was surprisingly light. That's why it wasn't as yummy. Most yum food is fat. It is regrettable. In other words it was quite bland, but if you eat it with a bit of tomato puree (?), it tastes alright!

Next time i will try the sauteed mushrooms. The garlic prawns looks nice too but the company was kind enough to accommodate my food preference. No, please go ahead. You are too kind.

Mains:
Mixed/wild mushroom linguine with sticky mushroom sauceWould go for this again. The mushrooms were plentiful and perfectly seasoned. A mixture of shiitake, oyster and shimeji (um. this is only my guess). They were delicious, fried with garlic. The linguine was al dente and each strand had a silky coating of the rather sticky mushroom sauce. I guess they mixed cornstarch into the reduced mushroom juice. It was flavorful and moreish. Suggestion: use more $$ mushrooms! and perhaps play around a bit with Asian flavors for the sauce.

Chef's recommendation - Lasagne bologneseI'm not a avid lasagne fan. But I was on amicable terms with this one by the time I finished it. The lasagne sheets were not floury. They still had a bit of bite, which is fascinating because it's supposed to be baked in the oven and I thought wouldn't it be very difficult to control pasta texture in the oven? Interestingly enough these sheets had a bit of bite. The bologne was quite special in that the ground beef was almost pureed into a paste. There were hardly any 'meatlumps' in between the layers. It was yummy - meaty, slightly tart because of the tomato paste and slightly cheesy. Again, the block of lasagne held together well - it was a coherent and cohesive lasagne bologne. There's also a béchamel sauce (thanks B for correcting me ) bedding. Didn't think much of it. I stayed away from my share. Empty calories!

Pesto angel hair with garlic fried shrimpI didn't try the shrimp, but I thought the pesto flavour wasn't strong enough. Needed more of everything, especially cheese and garlic, and salt. Not sure if there were pine nuts in the pesto. The angel hair was lightly coated with pesto but it was oily.

Conclusion:
A rather pleasant place to have a long dinner and a nice chat. Quite economical too - we only spent $82 each and were quite stuffed. They have free WIFI too.. what more can you ask for? Coming from someone using a smartphone without data plan ._. Will be back!