what?
swedish cafe and bistro
where?
arab street
good..
halal
yummy
cute place
friendly people
not so good..
pricey
how to get there?
1. alight at Bugis MRT
2. check out the locality map at the station, use ur iphone gps, surf www.streetdirectory.com, surf www.gothere.sg, or just ask around for arab street
more
Located in the corner of Arab Street and Beach Road, fika is, I have to say, out of place. In this location, you would expect to find Moroccan, Lebanese, and all sorts of middle-east restaurants, but definitely not a Swedish eatery. I mean, it’s “ARAB” street after all, not “EUROPE” street :p. It is also surrounded by textile and souvenir shops, which makes it even more out of place.
When I say out of place, I didn’t mean it in a bad way though, on the contrary, finding this place makes me feel “cool”. You know, the feeling that u get when you find a “secret” place that none of your friends know. It makes you feel like you’re a part of a “secret” community which comprises of people who know this place. You’re suddenly cool now that you know something that your friends don’t. LOL okay I better stop this.
Anyways, let’s get back to the topic. The place is a Swedish café and bistro. So the whole place is decorated “Swedish” style. Not that I have ever went to Swedish or anything though, so I can’t really say whether this place looks like a typical Swedish café and bistro. So let me just try to describe it. It’s has a whitey snowy theme. White tables, white chairs, white chandeliers, white open bar, white doors, white window frames, well, okay you got the point. It is then complemented with snowflakes decorations here and there.
The place is not big, but big enough for you to feel comfortable. It has outdoor as well as indoor tables. The outdoor tables are actually quite cool for hanging out with friends, but they’re only good for 2 or 3 people at maximum, so if you’re going there with a bigger group, the outdoor tables are definitely not an option. Fret not, the inside tables are just as cool. True, you will not get the afternoon breeze (or get to smoke if that’s what you’re after), but you get air-con, yay!
All in all, the shop is cute, European style kind of cute. Miri said it looked like a Barbie house, which, in my opinion is not. I think Barbie house should be all pink.
Moving on.
The foods are western foods, I suppose they’re Swedish foods, but I don’t know because, once again, I’ve never been there. The foods are big in portion and yummy, if you like pasta creamy cheesy kind of foods that is. Here’s a surprise, even though they serve western foods, the foods are HALAL, whoopee! If you lived in Singapore for quite some time, you’ll know that usually, only Malay foods are halal, and unfortunately, I’m not very fond of Malay foods, Singapore style Malay foods to be exact. So this is great!
The staffs are friendly; they seemed like a fun group of people. Not that I talked to them other than for ordering foods and asking for bill, but they do give a friendly aura to the place.
As for the price, well, unfortunately, for my current payroll, they’re not too friendly. The price of the foods is above 15. My Swedish meatball was 20 (GST included and all). So I wouldn’t recommend you to go to this place every day, except, of course, if you’re an expat with a job that pays you at least twice as mine does.
Here’s a snap of the menu, there’s actually more, but I don’t know why I only took a shot of this side.
In conclusion, this is a cool place if you have lived in Singapore for a while and you’re bored of Kopitiam and malls. It’s a good place to get a taste of the Swedish meatball as well. I know you can have Swedish food in IKEA for a lower price, but you can’t really hang out there. In fact, last time I went to fika, someone even did her nails there. You can’t be THAT relaxed eating in IKEA. In addition, the Swedish meatball at IKEA contains pork, yuck.
todo: saturday afternoon, outdoor..
soundtrack: swedish band
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