PRAIRIE by Craftsmen: Bukit Timah's New Beautiful Cafe with a Courtyard
Coffee lovers will be no stranger to Craftsmen Specialty Coffee, with their outlets dotted all around the island from Holland Village to Novena. The same team has now launched a new concept by the name of PRAIRIE, which by definition refers to grasslands typically found in North America, which informs the concept and theme of this cafe-cum-restaurant.
UPDATE (April 2021): The Craftsmen Coffee group has already begun expanding the PRAIRIE brand, with a second outlet now in River Valley decked out in pastel peach, pink and reddish hues. Check out the full review of the new PRAIRIE here!
Just a few steps away from Botanic Gardens MRT station, PRAIRIE is technically located at Cluny Court, but is accessed from the side just next to the ramp that enters the basement carpark.
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With a long grassy walkway, you’ll be greeted by a big sunlit courtyard with plenty of seating available.
Turn a corner and walk in through the doors, where you’ll find the interior seating, drinks counter and kitchen.
When it comes to cafes in Singapore, space is not a luxury many can afford, so it’s genuinely quite impressive to see the amount of real estate PRAIRIE occupies. The brightly lit interior is also genuinely quite aesthetically pleasing.
With clean walls, interesting arches, pastel colours, tiled floors, counters and walls, as well as spots of greenery to liven up the atmosphere, PRAIRIE brings to mind spaces like Apollo Coffee Bar and Merci Marcel Orchard, some of the most aesthetically pleasing cafes around.
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Open for all 3 meals, you’ll find a menu with pretty safe choices all round.
Breakfast offerings include Eggs on Toast, PRAIRIE Breakfast, Smashed Avocado Toast etc., as well as a selection of pastries you can’t go wrong with, such as croissants and muffins.
Lunch is served from 12pm to 3pm, where the kitchen then takes a 2 hour break and resumes for dinner service from 5pm onwards.
Mains come up to around S$25 to S$35, which is most definitely on the pricier end of things.
We had the PRARIE Beef Burger (S$25) which was alright but nothing very much to shout about. With the basic cheese, lettuce, and tomato combo, it was pretty bog standard by all accounts. Bacon, sautéed mushrooms or caramelised onions would have definitely helped to make this dish a tad more special, and helpfully are only available as add-ons. The dish came with a pretty generous serving of fries though.
Apart from the burger, we also had the Truffle Mushroom Risotto (S$25), served with a hearty bed of quinoa, truffle pâté, forest mushrooms and parmesan. The first few bites were quite impressive, fragrant and packed with flavour. I particularly loved the bit of melted cheese running throughout the dish that was not overpowering, but added nicely to the textures and flavours of the risotto. Halfway through though, the risotto got admittedly a little cloying, but the portion was quite decent.
As you can expect, coffee here is what you’d get from Craftsmen Specialty Coffee, which means you’ll get a pretty wide selection of interesting flavours, from butterscotch to coconut to gula melaka latte.
PRAIRIE is a nice addition to the cafe scene, and the huge space does bring to mind cafes and restaurants overseas. I especially liked the interior decor, but for the price you pay, the food is just alright. I’d be interested to see if they revamp their menu somewhere down the line, but for now, it’s a nice enough place but you can definitely find better elsewhere.
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As an aside, keeping an eye on their Google reviews, we thankfully didn’t run into excruciatingly long wait times for the food, or a big shortage of items on the menu, so hopefully they have ironed out those kinks at the very least.
WHERE | 501 BUKIT TIMAH RD, CLUNY COURT #01-05C, SINGAPORE 259760
