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Sofra Turkish Cafe and Restaurant, Marina Square, Singapore

Sofra Turkish Cafe and Restaurant, Marina Square, Singapore

Address: 6 Raffles Boulevard Marina Square, #03 129A, 039594
Opening Hours: Daily 11:30am – 10:00pm
Sofra Menu

@candidcuisine The Knafeh / Kunefe – guaranteed best dessert you'll eat ever #sgcafe #sgfood #sgfoodie #wheretoeatsg #sgcafehopping #sgrestaurant ♬ Say So (Instrumental Version) [Originally Performed by Doja Cat] – Elliot Van Coup

When wanderlust hits, the only outlet I can go to is food. And earlier that day, I was feeling adventurous. I like discovering new dishes, especially in countries I have yet to go.

On top of my list is Kunefe, or Knafeh, a middle-eastern dessert / pastry that’s coated in Kadayif noodles and soaked in syrup. Inside, it’s filled with unsalted melted cheese. Traditionally, they serve this dessert in Turkey and Greece with clotted cream.

So imagine my delight when I discovered that one of the few Turkish restaurants here in Singapore serves authentic Kunefe ($10.90). They can also serve it with Pistachio ice cream, but that day, it was already sold out. I have no point of comparison, so I’m just going to comment as it is. Perhaps, once I’ve gone to Istanbul, I would gladly revisit this review!

Sofra sg 2

But while it was an interesting dish to try, I wasn’t really impressed with Kunefe other than its really long cheese pull. Maybe because the restaurant made me wait a long time — 30 minutes, to be exact — just for them to prepare the food. I liked the cheese pull, but the sweetness was too subtle. I wanted something that was drowning in syrup like I’ve been seeing in Turkey.

Also they made me wait for 30 minutes before serving this to me, so my Turkish coffee had gone cold. I thought Istanblue’s Turkish coffee was better than this one, where the dregs of the coffee were frozen because I didn’t feel like drinking it anymore. The price is steep too at $6 and it didn’t taste robust.

Sofra sg 1

I’m not sure if I want to go back to this restaurant. They were pretty lax in safe distancing measures and went against the safe distancing protocol too, seating 3 tables of 5 for some holiday celebration. The restaurant isn’t worth the risk.