E18hteen Chefs!

For the uninitiated, Eighteen Chefs is a cafe sort of cosy little restaurant set up by Benny Se Teo, the restaurant's head chef, who is the only Singaporean to have trained at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen London kitchen.  Now, those who are familiar with Fifteen will know that JO takes on delinquents off the streets and train them to become chefs managing his restaurant. I am an avid fan of JO and his 15 TV series, so imagine my excitement when I chanced upon 18Chefs! My  boyfriend and I went to the newly opened Yishun10 outlet (just beside Northpoint), thinking it was just another middle range sort of western restaurant - one level below the likes of Swensens and Billy Bombers. 

We strongly recommend that you give it a try!!

Here are some pictures we took!

Nice pictures of the chef when he was training in London.

Artistic picture of one of the chefs.

I loved the cement kind of industrial look! Gives it a strong and hardy kind of character, just like youths!

Crispy garlic bread with my half consumed pumpkin soup ( it was too good to hold back any longer!) I love it when they serve garlic bread with soup! They are best buds don't you think so? =)

Root beer battered fish and chips! OMG! This was wayyyyy better than I imagined it to be! The fish was so fresh and moist on the inside, it literally breaks and falls apart once you cut it open. The batter was superrrrr crispy with a tinge of sweetness to it (due to the root beer?). The chips are very potatoey.. so I dun think they are those frozen kind? Not too sure though but I just hate processed food. And the home made tar tar sauce is to die for laaaa! Oh and comes in a generous serving as well! Finished every bit of it! Yummmyyy! 

All for only $13.90 - comes with soup, garlic bread and ice cream!!

Spicy tomato minced beef baked cheese rice was my bf's choice as it was their signature dish. The cheese, omg the CHEEEEEESSEEEE!!! It stretches like 15cm longgg? Gosh! I swear its even better than Swensens' baked rice! I'm serious!! My bf was drooling over it even on his way back!

=) $7.50 ONLY! Its wayyyyy too cheap for such a good dish!

Simple classic dessert to top it off! Sweet.

For me, this was more than just a dinner as I always have a soft spot for youths and delinquents. Contrary to popular belief, I feel this bunch of people in the middle of the developmental spectrum are very vulnerable in their own way - on one hand, they are not protected by the ignorance of a child to make mistakes, on the other hand, they lack the maturity of an adult to be making sound and right decisions! They are pretty much in a state of liminality and without proper guidance (often lousy parenting, sad to say), they can really get into all sorts of trouble! Seeing the youths at the restaurant serving us and cooking up a storm really sent a warm fuzzy feeling deep down within me. They remind me that people do make mistakes and people do come good, if the support is there and if they want to. It further reinforced my belief and conviction in what I do in my line of work. Yes, they may be wearing skinnys half revealing their butt, yes, they have interesting hairstyles covering half their faces, yes they may take more smoking breaks than others and yes, they may be covered in tattoos but really, who are we to judge them? At least their service was good and the food great! Will definitely return and even bring more friends there to create awareness about the good cause!

CHEERS to E18HTEEN CHEFS!!!

Find out more about E18hteen Chefs right here:

http://www.eighteenchefs.com