A couple of nights back, our group of friends gathered at Five and Dime Eatery – awaiting a birthday boy to arrive with his sweet girlfriend (she planned the surprise for him).

Once they neared our table for 10, we shouted “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!”. Of course he was surprised and pleased all around

I digress. This blog post about the food we had and about the restaurant. So let’s get to that!

The Decor

I was the first one there, my office being the nearest to the restaurant (which is situated along River Valley Road). The reservation was under my friend Carol’s name and I loved how the table was marked with this card. Don’t you just love how nice the handwriting is?

So much effort for something so simple. It’s the little things, really.

I’m a sucker for handwritten notes.

What struck me was how small the restaurant was. But it was prettily decorated thus making it have that cozy, homely feel. I was seated at the far end of the restaurant against the wall, and these photos show my view from my seat. Carol did say that I might like the restaurant even more than Mr. Birthday Boy, and I think she’s right

I love the decor

A blackboard showcasing opening hours. There was another one beside it that displayed the specials of the day.

And there’s of course a bar:

Now that we’re done with the lovely decor, let’s get down to the most important items:

The Food

One thing I have to say is that even though the food was delicious, the dinner menu was really limited. There were 8 of us (2 couldn’t make it in the end), and we practically had almost all the mains.

For starters, we chose fried calamari which came with some sauce by the side. Do order more servings if you’re in a big group. We ordered 2 servings as the portion was quite little.

We also had meatballs:

And here are our mains!

All 4 guys in the group had this burger, aptly named “The Burger”. I think it’s because it’s the only main that seems the most filling. You have the option to add a fried egg to it like the boys did.

This was my Salmon Rocket Salad. I always try to choose salmon if it’s on the menu. This may seem like a light meal, but it was pretty filling and it was really good. In fact, it’s one of the dish recommendations in Foursquare.

All of us had a taste of this one (Mentaiko Pasta) because we were forced to, lol. It tastes unique, a tad fishy with all the fish roe in it but yummy nonetheless. It may however require an acquired taste for fusion food.

This was cajun chicken!

And lastly, fish and chips! It was served on a wooden platform. The fries was absolutely yummy

Front view of it:

It was unanimous how we love that there was a Five and Dime label on the fries carton. So cute.

For drinks, we had a mix of hot drinks like chamomile tea and hot chocolate. I had the hot chocolate (for dinner, go figure). I loved it. It’s just too little in my opinion – bigger cups please!

We also had cold drinks like orange juice and root beer float. Root beer float looks awesome!

In Conclusion

Overall, it was a pretty decent dinner with great company. You may want to make a reservation in advance (because the dining space is really limited) to snag a table.

I’m absolutely smitten by the pretty decor. They even sold some old school stationery but didn’t manage to take photos of them.

The food was gorgeous and the service was great. I just wish that the menu is not limited (don’t know about the lunch or brunch menu), but dinner menu didn’t give us much choices. Hopefully they will expand the food served because really, it was quite delicious.

So if you wanna check this eatery out, here are the details:

Five and Dime Eatery
297 River Valley Road Singapore 238338

For reservations, please call +65 9236 5002

You can also check out their Facebook Page!

I give it: