The Dempsey road area is known for some pretty quiet and chill dining places. Fancy some good pizzas, burgers and pastas? Today let’’s check out Baker & Cook and Plank Sourdough Pizza establishment with a dinner dine-in there.
The restaurant cafe establishment offers a variety of quick bites, including vegetarian friendly and vegan options in rather conducive Café setting. It tucked in the rustic setting just off the buzzles of town.
Furthermore, the restaurant cafe establishment is distinctively separated into two buildings. One distinctively labelled Baker & Cook, and the other Plank Sourdough Pizza. They are both operated as one establishment. You might remember Plank Sourdough with their pizza branches in other parts of Singapore, such as Namly estate and Swan Lake Avenue.
Moreover, there is free parking offered on the private carpark in front of the establishment. Notably there is also a small swimming pool there at the Dempsey cluster. Interestingly, it offers aqua aerobics and swim lessons. Notably the place is not very accessible by public transport.
Great for quick bite or a meal
Moreover the cafe is home to a deli bar offering a pretty large selection of Donuts, sandwich rolls and fresh bread, including a section dedicated to parma ham.
Their dine-in menus includes pizzas, burgers and pasta staples. Breakfast offerings (From 8am to 3pm) includes their Eggs Benedict ($17.90) and Dutch Baby Pancake ($22). They are pretty good, as well as their all-day salads. All payment modes including Credit cards, are accepted.
In addition to their dine-in menus is a selection of sandwiches and cakes from the bakery counter. The bakery forms a large part of the establishment. It sits centered and flanked by wooden tabled seating good for groups. The ambience of the cafe is very chill. Being secluded from the bustles of the city.
Moreover, the cafe interior is open spick and very Zen-looking with lots of wood in a relaxed, cosy and family-friendly restaurant. Surprisingly, the place is not overly packed at all even on a weekend
Plank Sourdough Pizza
Plank Sourdough Pizza is the first pizzeria in Singapore specializing in sourdough crust pizza. The pride themselves in offering the best curated sourdough pizzas. Additionally, Plank Sourdough is largely known for their stone-oven fired pizzas. Interestingly this restaurant here also have a large stone pizza oven sitting center stage in the Sourdough Pizza hut.
Pizzas are served from lunchtime (12 noon) onwards till closing (10pm) daily. You have an option to have delivered on long wooden platters (plank) or as traditional 30cm diameter rounds. If variety is what you want, there is a no-brainer going for the more space-efficient foot long plank specialty.
Topping options includes BBQ chicken, Pepperoni, Lamb and Fennel, as well as classic mozzarella and seafood. Prices range from $10 for a basic mozzarella to $13 for the meatballs. Dessert menu offerings also includes Plank Affogato ($10), Cheese plank ($14.50) and Banoffee Plank ($14.50). It tad reminds me of the dessert pizzas we previously had at John’s Pizzas.
Also, the pizzas has a very light feel, especially on the crusts. It does not fill you too quickly and are great for sharing in groups. 3 pizzas can about feed 2-3 people. Besides an occasional glaringly burnt spot or two on the pizzas, the pizzas on the whole were delicious.
However, I felt that the amount of toppings could have been more generous for the price. Notably, you do pay a premium dining here, which makes it not as value-for-money for dinner looking to stretch their dollar.
Other food works
In addition to their pizzas as a selection of entrees sizable enough for a dinner. Sitting up on the list is their Mo & Jo Famous Cheeseburger ($25), followed by their Ribeye steak ($32). Their Ribeye comes with mix soft polenta, pea salsa.
Their burgers are competitively prices for the offering, though tad more pricey in the likes of other joints like Wolf burgers and Fat Papas. Also, the burger beef patty here appear to be made-made, topped with melted cheddar, mustard and tomato relish between sourdough buns. They are served with a side a straight cut fries. The lettuce is really fresh too.
Furthermore, their spaghetti bolognese as part of their children’s menu was cooked al dente and sauce flavourful. Though a Risotto will be a more filling choice if you are hungry.
However, I found dinner course varieties here quite tad lacking. If you are looking for a larger selection of pasta and cooked foods like chicken or lamb besides pizzas, you are quite in abit out of luck. It would be nice if there is a larger pasta or even a tenderloin steak selection. But I guess this could be too much to ask for a bakery.
Lastly, to complement your pizza, the establishment also serve a selection of fresh salads, sweets (Udders ice cream at $5 a scoop), craft beers and wines. This is on top of the dessert pizza offerings mentioned earlier.
Get an indoor seat
Notably, outdoor seating serves as overflow seating when the interior seating is full. However, do try to get an indoor seat during your visit. All seating is allocated by staff, due to limited seating availability in the cafe. Also, if you walk-in without any reservations, and there are no available indoor seating, you might be asked to sit outdoors. At night, the outdoor seating is very dark, you might need a torchlight to read the menu or let be know where your food is with the mosquitoes.
All in all, Baker & Cook Plank Sourdough Pizza is a good place for their range of light sandwiches and range of wood-fired oven sour dough pizzas. Also, I recommend the place as more of a lunch and tea-break place than a dinner place, with a rather chill environment to boot for a mid-day break. Well, that is until their menu entrees selections could be expanded to include more dinner varieties. Baker & Cook is still largely a bakery at heart and they are good at what they do best- really good breads and pizzas.
Verdict:
Must Go! | Worth Trying | Shortlist Optionally | Should Avoid
Dempsey Baker & Cook Plank Sourdough Pizza
Core Collective Dempsey
30C Loewen Road
Singapore 248839
Opens daily: 8.00am – 10.00pm
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