15 Minutes

Just only about a month old, 15 Minutes is a hip, up and coming café located at the new LASELLE College of the Arts building along Prinsep Street. First-time visitors here may find themselves trying to draw a similarity between Timbre and 15 Minutes because of the drinks bar and live band performances, but from what I see the latter certainly has a younger crowd going for it and is a place for budding singers and band members to get those precious minutes of stage time.


If fame is not exactly your thing (for now), this is still a great place to chill-out with friends and schoolmates after a day's work. Enclosed in an architectural glasshouse, 15 Minutes is divided into two levels - the upper deck where the food is ordered and served, and the lower deck, where the bar and live band stage is. The couches you see above are on the lower deck, and here you can have your drinks, your food and your merry band of friends as you listen and groove to the tunes for the night.


When I was there a couple of days ago, a group of LASELLE students was performing and just listening to their lead singer sing tells me that there is much hope yet for Singapore - I'm beginning to think Singapore Idol is increasingly being modelled as a comedy - I simply loved her rendition of Maroon 5's "Won't Go Home Without You" and I do hope we get to hear more from her and her band soon.


A couple of steps up, the upper deck houses wooden "class"-like benches and makes up the main dining area. Great for class gatherings don't you think, the perfect setting to reminisce those college, poly or uni days where news and the latest gossips are abound around the special class bench. Meanwhile, as you can see in the picture on the left, there's also chairs on the side for you to watch whatever is going on at the lower deck - guess that includes people-watching as well ;)

The food, I have to admit, isn't something worth raving and screaming about, but it certainly isn't bad either. I would think for a new eatery like 15 Minutes there would be a few fine-tuning in the works and I do hope one of them would be about extending the menu a wee bit more, maybe add in some delectably sweet desserts as well. For now, I have a good feeling about this place and I can see it growing even more popular with the younger crowd.

Chef Burger: 3.5/5


I have high expectations for my burgers, in part because I eat so many of them ever so often, and I have to say the Chef Burger here is pretty decent. I like the way the bread was toasted with butter (nice!) but found the beef patty itself a tad too overcooked. The patty seemed hand-pounded alright, which is a plus point. And oh, fries were thick and crisp - I like.

Fish and Chips: 4/5


Daphne gave this a pretty high score and I felt it was pretty justified insofar as the freshness of the fish and the taste of batter are concerned. I do feel it was a bit overfried though, and I personally would prefer that the overall texture of the fried batter be smoother than what it looks like here.

Spicy Prawn Aglio


Daphne's mother had this and she felt it was not bad. Portion appeared a tad small though, and it wasn't as spicy as the staff made it out to be.

Spaghetti Bolognaise


Daphne's younger cousin had the classic spaghetti bolognaise, which came quite... wet and gravy-like. Daphne insists it's quite good, so did her cousin.

Southern Fried Chicken Wings: 3.75/5


If you're in need of some pub grub while enjoying the music or some beers, you could get a small bucket of deep-fried chicken wings (nine mid-joints) for $5.90. I was wondering why nine not ten parts, since the typical chicken wing is made up of two parts yes? Oh well haha. The chicken wings were alright, but it made me miss those chicken wings at Cuscaden Patio even more!

Service
Very good. The staff are sincere and polite, waitresses have nice smiles too.

Price
$12.90 for the chef burger
$12.90 for the fish and chips
$9.90 for the spicy prawn aglio olio
$9.90 for the spaghetti bolognaise
$5.90 for the southern fried chicken wings
$4.50 for a glass of apple or lime juice
$3.50 for a glass of sprite

* Prices subject to the usual 7% GST and 10% service charge.

Place
LASELLE College of the Arts, 1 McNally Street.
Behind Sim Lim Square and/or Burlington Square.