49 Seats The Centrepoint — Restaurant in Singapore

A bit thick skin today, tagged along with my better half on her schoolmates’ gathering for lunch at “49 Seats” located at The Centrepoint.

Had not been to Centrepoint for few years, so much had changed. Yet some renovations still going on. Took some time to locate the restaurant.

An unusual eating place. Looked casual and “bland” from the outside, but on entry, it’s spacious. The walls were “plastered” with all sorts of things related to food and dining, like egg trays, metal plates, trays, spoons, etc. And the walls of one section was plastered with their paper menus. The decor - you either like it, some found it ugly. Well, I thought it was interesting.

The metal seats were not so comfortable and I didn’t like the screeching sound when the chairs dragged on the cemented floor. Our group felt that the air conditioning was lacking. We had to request for change of seats to an area less warm.

After sitting down and viewing their Menu, we realized we had to go back outside to queue again to order and pay for our meals first…hmm…not so good. Though we entered the restaurant quite early, we found ourselves queuing behind quite a number of people. The restaurant did not accept payment using Credit or Charge Cards - only Cash, Nets, Paylah and luckily also Grab Pay. There’s no Service Charge - big plus point.

There was a Promotion Set Lunch for $17.90 (plus GST) which came with a Main Course, Soup of the day and a drink. Not too bad really.

For the Main, wifey ordered the Fish & Chips with Tom Yam Seafood which also came with two side dishes (fries and pasta). Whereas, I ordered Seafood Pasta with Salted Egg Tom Yam Seafood.

Despite the not so comfortable environment there, we must say that the food served were very good. And the portions were quite big. For small eaters, the Special Set Lunch was sufficient for two persons. For our Tom Yam Seafood, there were lots of clams besides pieces of mussels and prawns.

The Soup of the day was a decent Mushroom Soup. Nice too.

With expensive (and difficult to get) manpower in Singapore, this eatery made up for respectable good decent food. And although there were just 2 waiting staff cum cashier, they were genuinely helpful and tried their best to oblige the customers.

Overall a good dining...

Extraordinary service*

Day/Time: Sunday lunch about 1plus.

Our second time here as a family as the children liked the food, music and ambience.

This time, I made a boo boo by not requesting for non-spicy for my kids. It was only when the food arrived that I realised my mistake. We tried to eat the spicy pasta but it was way too spicy, even for the adults. We decided to tell one of the staff about it and asked for some cream sauce to reduce the spiciness while he said he would check for us. Instead of just attending to my request, “staff Damien” came to us, and without hesitation, offered to replace the dishes for us. (Note: payment was already made at time of order). My child even asked if we had to pay for the replacement dishes.

Just before leaving, I realised nobody asked me for additional payment. In fact, I could have just left. Decided to look for staff Damien again to thank him for the kind gesture. Could sense his smile and sincerity when he asked if the kids were okay with the second serving and that he had rather that we let them earlier than to suffer. 😅 I then realised this “unusually friendly staff", who welcomed us when we first came and introduced us to the menu though we said we have been here before, told us about the wait time to manage our expectations, asked us if everything is okay while we waited for our food, is actually the branch manager.

After I thanked him profusely for this really kind gesture, I had to ask him how to leave a review for 49 seats (because customer satisfaction appeared to be his priority rather than 49 seat's review). Kudos to this family friendly and customer orientated crew!

We will be back!

Kid-friendliness: Offered to swap out spicy options for non spicy ones without making us feel like it is our fault.

Updated - So we are back again in early July 2023 and though Damien did not recognise us at first, he could recall the above incident when I briefly mentioned when he asked it was our first. time. Glad to be back! This time I managed to take pictures...

[✨FUSION DISHES✨] Pioneers of tom yum pasta in Singapore, this restaurant started out at Kreta Ayer Road back in 2012 with a seating capacity of 49 seats. Although the eatery can now house more patrons, you'd still find a semblance of its past at its current location at The Centrepoint #01-49 🍴

Open till late at night, the industrial chic restaurant serves affordable western fusion cuisine with no service charge. Finally headed back to try the OG!

Scroll to the end for menu 🔚

🌟 𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗬𝘂𝗺 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗴𝗴 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝘂𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗮𝗳𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗮 Creamy and flavourful, this fusion dish is one of their signature items (and not unwarranted)✨ With option of up to spiciness level 49, the pasta came with a generous amount of ingredients (including mussel, prawns, chicken cutlet and a substantial amount of clams). Enjoyed the tangy note! 🍝

🌟 𝗣𝗮𝗻 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗙𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗔𝗹𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶 𝗦𝗮𝘂𝗰𝗲 For those who don't take spice, consider their grilled fish with rich alscampi sauce. Not lacking in terms of ingredients either, we found a good amount of seafood hidden within the sauce 🐟 Soft and well-marinated, the pan fried fish also came with a choice of 2 sides (we got mashed potato and garden salad) 🥗

🌟 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗘𝗴𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝗻 Tossed in salted egg sauce, we were thankful that this came in a generous portion because we couldn't help reaching over for more!

🌟 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗶 Another side that we tried is the deep fried calamari. The crispy snack came with mayo dip 🐙

With the blazing heat, it was hard to resist the sprite float that came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top🍦Another good choice of beverage is the sour plum coke to cut through the strong flavours.

Overall, we enjoyed the meal and found that the dishes came in generous portions. When it comes to the ingredients, the chefs don't scimp on that either. Would definitely recommend the tom yum pasta!✨

📸 Full review on Instagram...