Giving British food a good name: The Queen and Mangosteen @ Vivocity

After dining at Madam Kwan's last week, we made another visit to Vivocity this week and tried another restaurant for the first time. The Queen and Mangosteen has been around a while but we've always walked past it for some reason. Today, our attention was caught - and held - by the large board outside displaying the restaurant's full menu. Perhaps it has always been there and I just never noticed it before.

 

They have their own custom paper napkins here. That's the sign of a classy joint, with prices to match. Of course, the very classiest joints eschew the paper stuff and provide cloth napkins folded into some complicated origami structure. The vibe at the Q&M (hah! sounds like the chain of dental clinics) is much too relaxed and casual for cloth napkins.

Some notes about the decor:

The Victorian-style lamps are a nice touch and add to the general low-light ambience of the place. I think the intention is to recreate the dim, cool, wood-panelled interior of a British pub. It was indeed too dark to take good photos with a smartphone. However, there was enough light to see what we were eating. 

Adorning one wall is a deconstructed portrait of Queen Victoria. They took the liberty of cutting up the old girl. The result has some interest as a piece of artistic expression. It certainly creates a rather different impression than the original:

A bit of Google-fu unearthed this painting as the original source of the Q&M's wall piece. This is a 1859 portrait of Queen Victoria painted by the German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter. It is part of the Royal Collection, which presumably means that it is hanging in one of the royal residences in the UK.

Anyway, enough art history and on to the food:

 

Alas, it's a weekday which means a working day on the morrow. Hence, no alcohol for us. We compromised and ordered mocktails instead. Since soft drinks cost $6 a pop, we decided that forking out an additional $4 for mocktails made sense. On the left - Lychee Mint. On the right - Virgin Pina Colada. A splash of rum and mojito does elevate a Pina Colada to great heights, but I thoroughly enjoyed this virgin version.

My main course was the Breaded Escalope of Veal. The veal inside was a little dry but breadcrumb coating was delicious. Rather than a gravy-based sauce, this was served with honey mustard, which turned out to be a perfect sauce to complement the flavours of the meat. The potato salad was plentiful and very tasty.

DH had the Grilled Marinated Yorkshire Pork Rack. It came with olives (yummers), mashed potatoes and a salad of rocket leaves. He declared the dish a success and cleaned the plate.

Damage done for this dinner for 2 was in the double-digit zone, but not by much. Still, the quality of the cuisine and the variety in the menu justifies the price.