Food For Thought @ Botanic Gardens

My FTB mates met up last Sunday to have our graduation pictures taken. It was a fun filled day and I was glad we did it! 4 years of friendship and more to come :)

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

Credits: Angeline's meticulousness and awesome zi-pai skills

We started our photo-taking journey in school and ended off at Botanic gardens, as Benny claims there's this awesome tree at Botanic gardens. The tree was indeed unique but from the way he described it, I was expecting a magical tree or smth lol. I suggested having dinner at Food For Thought as there were a few blogger reviews on FFT in Botanic Gardens and imma wanted to check it out. Fortunately we managed to persuade Benny to change his dinner plans and we al + Benny's Gf headed over to FFT :)

Food For Thought @ Botanic Gardens

FFT in Botanic gradens is MUCH bigger than the one at 8Q and I especially like the communal setting of this eatery. It's an ideal place for a large group to just chill and hang out! I also thought the service was really good, waiters/ waitress were friendly albeit they became alil grouchy when it was approaching closing time (understandable...) I was dying to try their breakfast menu but apparently their so called "All Day Breakfast" is served from 8am- 5pm. Eh.. how is that All Day?? 

On to the food, Sophie ordered the Basil Almond Chicken Linguine which looked pretty good.

Basil Almond Chicken Linguine @ $14

Benny ordered a Slow Roast Pulled Pork Burger which looked better than mine. I think the burger portion was kinda small but you could always top it up with fries and drinks.

Slow Roast Pulled Pork Burger @ $8

Yang Fan had the Grilled Ribeye with Honey Shallot Chutney. After the 3rd dish came, I think FFT has pretty much established the fact that they serve visually appealing food. Taste wise, Yang Fan did not complain so I guess it was ok?

Grilled Ribeye with Honey Shallot Chutney @ $23

The only dish I can comment about is the Grilled Basil Pesto Chicken Burger which I ordered. I thought their buns tasted different: light and fluffy. The chicken was ok and the basil was a little too oily for my liking. Nonetheless the burger wasn't yucky, it just wasn't fantastic enough to persuade me to order it again. 

Grilled Basil Pesto Chicken Burger @$9

We were all gasping in delight when Adeline's Slow Roasted BBQ Baby Rack Pork Ribs arrived. It was HUGE! and it looked uber yummy! We all got a taste of this magnificent dish and wow it really taste good! The pork ribs were so tender and juicy; falling straight off the bones. The sauce was also really good; sweet, smoking and tangy all in one. I'm definitely gonna order this the next time I dine at FFT.

Slow Roasted BBQ Baby Rack Pork Ribs @ $20

Thankfully my FTB friends are dessert lovers too, albeit not as crazy as I am. We ordered 3 cakes to share: the Old Southern Red Velvet Cake (their signature dessert), the Hazelnut & Chocolate Cake and the Passionfruit Cheesecake.

I always thought Red Velvet cakes were confusing. How on earth is cocoa + cream cheese a good combi? My virgin experience was a cake baked by Jia Mae and I knew Red Velvet cakes are not my kinda thing. FFT Old Southern Red Velvet Cake was really crumbly and had a really rough and grainy texture. The cream cheese frosting tasted like any other carrot cake frosting and had no faults on its own. However, the sponge cake just tasted really wrong. According to Sophie, their OSRV is not suppose to taste like that. She commented 8Q's tasted a whole lot nicer. 

Old Southern Red Velvet Cake @ $6

The 2nd cake, Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake redeemed FFT. This cake consists of layers of chocolate ganache, chocolate sponge and some crunchy wafer all packed and covered in a chocolate shell. It was super rich, super dense and will definitely satisfy all kinds of chocolate cravings. One and only complain, its a tad too sweet. 

Hazelnut and Chocolate Cake @ $7

It was a tough choice but we (YF and I) settled for Passionfruit Cheesecake instead of Durian Mousse Cake as we were unsure whether the rest like durian. The Passionfruit Cheesecake looked really pretty but tasted bleah. I didn't quite care for the meringue topping and the cheesecake wasn't smooth at all. I thought the passionfruit flavour could be stronger and the base could be crunchier. 

Passion Cheesecake @ $10

On the whole, FFT Botanic Gardens had some hits and misses but I guess the communal setting, GST included pricing, absence of service charge and awesome ribs are good enough reasons for me to head back and explore their other options. :)