Potion Bistro & Bar

I honestly didn't know that there's a small boutique hotel so near my workplace. I mean, I knew about the existence of Wangz hotel and Link hotel. Never heard of Nostalgia Hotel. We only got the Groupon for Potion mainly because the location description sounded very convenient for both of us. With me at Outram Park, and Lynn at Tanjong Pagar, 'between Outram Park and Tiong Bahru MRT station' sounded near and accessible. And this marked the first of a chain of Groupons we ended up buying because the description sounded either feasible (in this case) or tempting (in some other cases).

The deal was a half-price deal, $20 for $40 worth of food. The hotel wasn't difficult to locate, but the size of it sort of threw me off balance. It is probably the cutest, and smallest, hotel I've came across in Singapore. The restaurant is by right an alfresco style restaurant. We somehow were offered indoor seats with air-conditioning (thankfully). However, it was sofa seats with low tables. Great for drinks probably, but not the most comfortable for meals.

We went on a day when we had a late and heavy lunch. As such, we didn't really over order like we normally do. After browsing through the small menu, we finalized on a Caprese salad, a tenderloin steak and a carbonara. The mains were decided on based on the waiter's recommendation. He returned and informed us that the Caprese salad is unavailable - they were having plans to remove it from the menu (boo...), and recommended us the Mesclun salad. But we were more interested in the ingredients in the Caesar salad, but preferred the balsamic vinaigrette from the Mesclun, so we asked for a fusion of a Caesar salad without the Caesar dressing, substituted with the vinaigrette.

The salad was a decent sized and decently flavored one. Nothing out of this world but we enjoyed the bacon pieces in it. The carbonara was surprisingly good. Not overly creamy and cloying, yet with just enough richness to satisfy the palate. The tenderloin was a nice, thick piece of meat. The flavor was good, the texture acceptable, the portion comfortable. It was served on a bed of extremely smooth mashed potatoes. Overall, we had a pretty happy meal.

Carbonara fettucine

Caesar salad with vinaigrette dressing

Tenderloin steak

The staff was extremely attentive too. He came back to ask us how things are, offered to take photos for us when he saw my camera, and offered to bring us on a small tour around the hotel. I was quite impressed at his apparent pride for the hotel. We probably will not come back here, at least not Lynn, as it isn't so fantastic that it will bring her back to this little restaurant tucked away near Tiong Bahru market. I may however, bring my colleagues back some day for a celebratory lunch or something, since it's so so near our work place. The thought of the afternoon heat in a outdoor place is deterring me somewhat though. I did snap a picture of their lunch promotion, which look pretty ok.