Grand Salads Bistro, Solaris (Fusionopolis)

 Felt a little silly traipsing back to Solaris after a failed attempt the day before. Apparently they were only open on weekends by reservation, so our bad! We arrived with our 3 course set meal coupons ($17) and were promptly seated in a near empty cafe at around 1pm.

Have to say though, there's something serene about this location with some semblance of a forest just out the tall glass walls, and the quiet, clean, foliagy interior is quite calming and relaxing on a Sunday afternoon!

 We were verbally delivered the day's 3 course set meal - a tomato soup to start, 3 mains to choose from (the one we didn't pick was a greek inspired omelette with feta) and a dessert. Was kinda disappointed because the coupon (or the online menu?) offered us a lot more choices. Oh well!

The tomato soup came shortly after - wow this is really tomatoey, no kidding. It's like concentrated tomato puree + tomato sauce + diced tomatos + intense essence of tomato. Really really strong (read : sour) and while it woke me up I couldn't quite take the sourness and had to douse it in liberal volumes of pepper.

 Yea this is a tad sour, although one may take comfort in knowing this is made of 'real' ingredients, not overly processed things in cans. Kinda wish there was a small crusty bun to go along.

{ Tomato soup }

 I had the Buenos Dias, which by the name of it was some kind of Spanish omelette. Well one glance and you know it's not, it was more like a Spanish-inspired omelette, and by Spanish inspired I mean cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, chickpeas, and cheese. Hmmm. Well don't know quite what to say ... omelette was plain, the ingredients were quite literally placed over the omelette (cheese was cold). Seems like something I could make at home, in 3 minutes, with minimal skill. Veal sausage was quite ok but didn't taste like veal.

 This would have been a 'proper' omelette for me if everything was mixed in and cooked through. The 'toppings' weren't even warm (the cheese didn't melt).

{ Buenos Dias }

Spanish (inspired?) omelette with veal sausage

 Imagine your typical brunch style Bagel with Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese and Capers. Yummy! Now just replace bagel with toasted baguette, and replace cream cheese with unidentified sauce, lettuce and omelette and there you have it! In all honesty it wasn't bad, though I don't think smoked salmon and toasted baguette go well together (I would have at least NOT toasted the baguette) and again assuming store bought smoked salmon, I can whip this up in 3 minutes at home.

 I quite enjoyed this actually (better than the Buenos Dias anyway), smoked salmon and omelette on baguette was fine for me. I liked the chewy bread, but wished there was more cream cheese.

{ Day Special }

Baguette with greens, omelette, smoked salmon and capers

 Finally came dessert, which took the form of banana walnut muffin with marmalade and chocolate sauce. While I enjoy the combination of orange and chocolate, I felt that the rind chunks are a bit too big and hard, and there wasn't enough chocolate sauce. The muffin itself was tasty, but a bit too dry (usually banana muffins are quite moist, no?). That said, this was the best thing in the course for me though!

 Two complaints : not enough chocolate sauce, which doesn't help the dry muffin; and what the heck that marmalade thingy ... that's a full on orange rind. A little orange rind in chocolate does help accent the flavours, but putting big hunks of zest (albeit cooked somehow) is still ... queer. Rind was bitter, chocolate was bitter, muffin was dry and a little bland.

{ Banana Walnut Muffin with Chocolate Drizzle and Marmalade thingy }

 It was a pleasant meal albeit the quirks, the exceedingly normal food and the exceedingly bad coffee (). But if I was ever looking for a brunch place near the area it would definitely have to be Jimmy Monkey. But I have Grand Salads and its coupon to thank for letting me discover that place!

 Not sure about the food... but the Israeli owner (whose name we never got) is lovely, and it's a nice chillout place (love the high windows). Probably won't be back, however!

Main website : http://grandsalads.com.sg/?page_id=17 (weekends are STRICTLY on reservation)

HGW Link (50% recommended at time of posting) : http://www.hungrygowhere.com/singapore/Grand_Salads__Fusionopolis_/

Rating (out of 4) :