Casa Verde, essentially means, “green house” in Italian and what an apt choice for a name! Casa Verde is nestled within the Singapore Botanic Gardens close to the Visitors’ Centre, away from the hustle and bustle of Orchard Road, yet with the added convenience of being just 5 minutes drive away. Sitting 110 diners, 80 of which are situated within the al fresco area, Casa Verde is a collaborative effort between the venerable Les Amis Group and Buko Nero restaurant.
Lunch is a semi-self service affair, where you go over to the counter to place your order. Dinner, on the other hand, is slightly more service-oriented where the order counter is shut and you have wait staff coming by to take your order. I am pretty sure many will shun going there for lunch but really? I really much preferred it to remain this way – the whole idea of queuing up and placing an order at the counter just seems to fitting for the environment. Casual, relaxed and where company takes precedence. P.S. Pets are allowed in the al fresco area!
I’ve been here for both lunch and dinner due to its close proximity to home but make no mistake,on each and every occasion, both the service and food seemed rather good, self-service or not. They topped up the glasses without being asked and always seemed to be around yet being non intrusive.
I can’t speak for you but Jack’s Place was my first foray into the realm of proper Western Food. I humbly admit that up till that point of time, the only Western restaurant (if you can ever categorize them as restaurants), was McDonald’s. I used to visit Jack’s Place almost once a month, always right before my piano lessons when I was 7-8 years old. It was also at Jack’s Place, that I had my first bite of a Beef Steak (and have never looked back since).
Indeed, Jack’s Place’s no longer posses that dimly-lit old world charm about them, yet dining here, with their steaks served in their signature hot plates definitely brings back wonderful memories of yester years.
A recent invitation by the One Rochester group offered me the opportunity to visit one of their restaurants within East Coast Park. Much like its sister restaurant One Rochester, COAST@1-TwentySix, features a communal menu and an indoor & outdoor concept.
A direct lift from the press release mentions that Coast “Takes cues from coastal dining trends in picturesque destinations like the Almafi Coast, the Hamptons at Long Island, New York City, COAST seeks to propagate 1-TwentySix as a chic seafront lifestyle dining mecca in Singapore.” I’ve yet to visit the above mentioned places (although, I do intend to visit Long Island soon), but I was very keen to see first hand if COAST manages to live up to their own aspirations.
