If location is (nearly) everything, then celebrity chef Chris Yeo should have no problem with his outpost of the popular Straits Café. The gorgeous restaurant couldn't be more prominently located, at the corner of California Drive and Burlingame Avenue, directly across the street from the train station. Fans of the other locations won't find any surprises here. The restaurant artfully melds together a variety of Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines, such as the Vietnamese-style spring rolls bursting with sausage and ground nuts and the curry vegetable Indian samosas. Yeo's menu is a delight of exotic tastes, including the delicious Indian-spiced crab cakes served with a sweet mango salsa, and the ayam kalasan, which is a crispy chicken dish in a warming chili sauce. The Indian butter chicken, braised in a creamy tomato sauce, is not to be missed. The restaurant also does a great job with vegetarian dishes, notably the sayor lodeh, which delivers still-crisp vegetables and chunky tofu in a mild green curry sauce. The kick-in-the-pants Singapore Sling is the house's specialty drink, but the minty mojito is the real treasure here. |