Juniper
At first glance, ukafe @ Isetan The Japan Store Lot 10 looks like the ideal place for private parties or functions as the entire cafe which seats 45 people can be used for the event. However no matter how good the food is, I think that a cafe must be able to be organised enough to serve the several dozen diners promptly.
After the launch of Puma ONE football boots, media were ushered to this cosy cafe for lunch and the waiter informed us to order anything on the menu at the counter. The menu items are quite limited in choices but that’s fine with me as too many choices can be confusing and it is much better that a restaurant specialises in a few dishes, in my opinion.
I think that ukafe is a cheerful little cafe and the items on the menu looked promising as one can choose between rice or pasta or udon dishes. Not a fan of udon, I ordered the Salmon Cream Plate @ RM26 (rice, grilled salmon, mixed mushroom cream stew, red quinoa, mixed salad with japanese salad dressing). One can choose either black or sushi rice or half-half. For drinks, I ordered the one of the ice blended smoothies, Blueberry Yoghurt @ RM15 (they can adjust the level of sweetness of the smoothies).
The smoothie was thick and rich with blueberry flavour, not too sweet, just the right level of sweetness. The Salmon Cream Plate came with the grilled salmon on top of the rice. My salmon could have done with a few more minutes on the grill as I like mine a bit crispier. I noted that some other diners’ grilled salmon was more grilled than mine. The mixed mushroom stew was creamy, like carbonara sauce.
Service was slow even though I wouldn’t say they were short staffed. They forgot the Salmon Cream Plate of one of the diners at my table and the poor lady waited more than an hour even with constant reminders that she hadn’t had her dish yet.
