Badoque – Halal Café at Simpang Bedok 2014

Simpang Bedok is another place that Frog and I love to frequent and have our prata or chicken rice at one of the particular coffee shop till now. During our dating days (before our marriage), we would have our Prata breakfast at Simpang Bedok for most of the Sunday morning. Yes not forgetting our favourite teh halia (ginger tea) that goes along with the prata! Hence this place does bring back memories for us.

Enough said of our dating days…

With the café craze and new café sprucing like mushrooms, we had happened to chance upon Badoque at Simpang Bedok. Badoque (Malay slang for eat) is a café that sell Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. It has been around for business more than a year now, and has developed a loyal customers among the local Malay community (it is Halal, definitely). Badoque has another outlet at Thomson too. The cafe’s got an appealing cozy vibe, with both an indoor and alfresco dining area for customer to choose.

Stepping into the café:

Modern, stylish café design

Here comes the food:

Naked Salmon $22

Single, thick slab of grilled fresh salmon served on top of a very huge portion of mashed potato. The sauce is made of mainly lemon zest, basil & dill. I love how the zesty tangy sauce that goes well with the salmon. I must admit that the salmon used is quite fresh with no fishy lingering aftertaste.

We both preferred the Naked Salmon over the other main course Chicken Khuzee.

Chicken Khuzee $22

Choice of couscous cooked in preserved lemon & tomato sauce.

Indeed the couscous is very tasty but overall there are too many ingredients in this dish. We did not know where to get started. The chicken is not tendered and frog had difficulty eating the chicken meat. As we did not finished the Chicken Khuzee, the service staff had politely asked for the reason during payment. We had given our honest feedback and they will let their Chef know about it. Hopefully there will be improvement in this dish. Nevertheless, thumbs up for their attentive service!

Good news! Badoque does not charge service charge and GST. Big portion serving! Go Badoque with an empty stomach as the portion are very generous

Badoque is a nice choice when planning dining outing with your Muslim friends. Personally, I have doubts if their food is considered the light-hearted Italian or Mediterranean cuisine. Perhaps it is more of a fusion considering most of their main dish comprise of heavy hearty sauce.

We will be back to try their coffee and cakes!