I went to the flagship Cafe & Bar of Oriole Coffee at the Pan Pacific service suites, which is right smack between Somerset 313 and my fave shopping haunt - H&M.  It was raining and my friend was hungry (I was a bit peckish too) so we headed to Oriole as she loves their coffee.

Loved the decor of the place which rustic with the wood but yet modern with the metal shelves behind the bar.  Ok...food!

 I ordered their prawn bruschetta (please pronounce this as brus-ketta...it's Italian so 'ch' is pronounced like a 'k' while 'c' in Italian is pronounced like 'sh'). I like that the bread was toasted but yet soft and not chewy.  I also liked the garlic flavour from the prawns all the way down to the tomatoes.  However, as a bruschetta, it was severely lacking that yummy olive oil flavour and basil.  Made me wonder whether they used virgin olive oil instead of the extra virgin olive oil as claimed on their menu. Another thing that I didn't quite like was that the prawns were unnaturally crunchy (hello sodium bicarbonate). Hmm...for $10++, I was a tad disappointed although I can't really put it on my 'never-eat-again' list.

My friend ordered their Philly cheese steak sandwich ($17++).  Ok...this is a keeper! You can't go wrong with beef, sauteed onions, roasted peppers and cheese between two slices of soft buns.  Yums.  It comes with a side of wedges and salad.  They even garnished the wedges with slivers of parmesan cheese.  How sinful can you get?

To end the full meal, my friend ordered her favourite Citrus Sin ($6++) coffee which is sweetened with orange juice, apparently.  I took a sip and I couldn't taste the orange.  Was she supposed to squeeze that wedge of orange into the coffee?? *Shrugs*  Love the coffee art though.  I'm really not willing to pay $6 for a cuppa coffee or tea so...that's the part that has me going "eeks".

What I really like about Oriole is the charm of the place.  It's what a cafe is - chic but yet casual without any pretentiousness.  I might visit again at night when there's live music but I suspect that it will be packed with like-minded people.

Oriole Cafe & Bar
96 Somerset Road
Pan Pacific Services Suites
#01-01
Singapore 238163
Tel: 6238 8348
www.oriolecoffee.com