Eleven Strands – Delectable Café Food Opposite Serangoon Stadium!

Resting in a quiet corner just opposite Serangoon Stadium is an inconspicuous café called Eleven Strands.

At Eleven Strands, western cuisine is the heart and soul of its menu. Here, you can find a plethora of pasta dishes, mouth-watering mains, indulgent desserts and small bites.

Eleven Strands has an al fresco dining area at the back of the café, but we sat indoors to escape the sweltering heat.

One of the dishes that we had was the French Onion Soup ($10) which came with a slice of baguette that’s lined with a strip of gouda cheese.

While I could taste the mild sweetness of caramelized onions, I felt that the soup lacked the depth of flavour and richness that’s characteristic of a good bowl of French onion soup. It lacked that “oomph”.

For mains, we decided to have the Braised Beef Cheeks ($25).

The braised beef cheeks sat in a bed of potato mash that’s drenched with red wine sauce. The beef cheeks were tender and I could cut through every piece effortlessly! I made sure that I coated the beef  in as much red wine sauce as I could, as the pairing was just amazing.

And I thought that the dish couldn’t get more impressive, but I was wrong.

The potato mash was well-seasoned, smooth, velvety and a little creamy. It was the perfect accompaniment to the rich and savoury beef cheeks. The dish also came with sautéed bacon & mushrooms which were a tad too salty.

We also had the Crab Meat Pasta ($25). You have a choice of red or white sauce for your dish, and you can also pick your preferred pasta. There’s handmade tagliatelle (add $4), linguine, penne, spaghetti and fettuccine.

We decided on the white sauce and linguine for our Crab Meat Pasta.

To call the white sauce in the Crab Meat Pasta “savoury” is an understatement — it’s that good! The white sauce was sufficiently thick, and coated every strand of the al dente linguine evenly.  You can find pieces of juicy crab meat throughout the dish! I noticed that the natural flavours of the crab meat had worked its way into the sauce as well, making the sauce so much richer in flavour.

Incorporating cherry tomatoes into the Crab Meat Pasta was a great idea. The sweetness of the tomatoes made the dish even more appealing and appetising.

Lastly, we had the French Apple Tart for dessert.

You can think of the French Apple Tart as a thin crepe enveloping an apple pie filling.

Lightly dusted with icing powder and topped with almond slices and candied pecans, the French Apple Tart was served warm. The warm apple pie filling and  cold vanilla ice cream, which is made from REAL vanilla beans, was simply a match made in heaven!

It’s so difficult to find cafés that serve good food. While I felt that the French Onion Soup could use some work, the rest of the dishes (especially the Crab Meat Pasta) are definitely worth coming back for.

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.