Cafe Iguana @ Riverside Point

For our most recent Gurlie meet-up, we did a democratic vote to decide what to eat, and Mexican came out tops. So the Gurlie with the recently-fat wallet decided to give us all a treat for being nice this year.  Just kidding. God knows how horrid I’ve been this year. Anyway, she recommended Cafe Iguana and, since it’s my first time to the outlet, I was eager to do some eat-eat-snap-snap-blog-blog.

By the way, please do not expect too much out of the photos this time, because 1) I do not own a great camera, so all it can do it snap whatever it can and expects Photoshop to do the rest of the magic and 2) the place was dimly lit when we visited in the evening and I’m not a great fan of Flash, so naturally the photos are grainy. Still, for illustration purposes, I’ve decided to post them on.

Friday night’s far from a fantastic time to visit Cafe Iguana unless you have a booking done, because we were told to wait for at least 45 minutes for our table of 6 unless we wanted to take the bar seats. So by the time we got seated at around 8pm, the place was bustling with the rowdy TGIF working crowd, and our stomachs were growling Canon in D.

Some of the must-try dishes:

This was given a thumbs-up from the Gurlie with the recently-fat wallet, so she ordered this again this time round. The Vegetarian Bowl (S$24) is basically a wholesome bowl of rice with black beans, roasted tomato salsa, guacamole, sour cream, queso fresco and accompanied by a veggie skewer. The guacamole is OL-SO-FANTABULOUS, I wanted to holler out loud, but I would probably be overwhelmed by the yumseng-ing crowd at the barside.

I adored their Red Snapper Enchiladas (S$25). The Snapper fillets were wrapped snugly within the soft tortillas and topped with tomatoes and melted cheese. It sounds like the kind of dish you could easily whip up in the comfort of your own kitchen but, trust me, you wouldn’t get the fish right without anchochili. It comes with Mexican rice too, but I only finished half a portion of the rice after finishing my tortillas. It would go well with guacamole too, I’d reckon.

I bet the Boyfriend loved this (S$24), judging from the way he wolfed down the first half. The deep-fried tortilla skin was light and not too greasy, and the filling was grilled vegetables and cheese. Best part? Guacamole and sour cream! As tantalising as it sounds, Boyfriend’s eating speed slowed after the first half, which simply goes to show that the serving wasn’t small to begin with. It comes with Mexican rice, but you can skip it and stick to finishing the Chimichangas instead.

Boyfriend has swore not to go back there again, after the belt-bursting experience. Plus it was quite difficult to communicate with the service staff when the noise level escalates during Happy Hour and beyond, so it becomes a perpetual shouting match across the table. But I would return, probably with another group of friends during the non-peak hours, just for the margaritas (which we had popped into Harry’s after the dinner for) and the authentic Mexican food. Who knows, maybe I have some guacamole-loving Mexican blood in me?

Overall:
Ambience: 2.9/5
Food: 4/5
Price: $$ - $$$
Service: Mediocre/Satisfactory/Good/Excellent

Eat where:

Venue: Cafe Iguana, 30 Merchant Road, #01-03 Riverside Point, (S)058282

Check out http://www.cafeiguana.com for their opening hours and menu!