It is not uncommon that the expectations are instantly elevated by at least a 30 percent whenever a place is glamorous and impressive looking from the outside. We would usually expect a pleasant experience in whole but unfortunately, that is not always the case. Well at least not for this new establishment in Melaka.
First stop is that beautiful common lounge next to the lift that takes you to the front desk. With a bare bricked wall that goes all the way up to the ceiling and decorations within the space of maximal concepts, this sure is the popular instagram spot.
Both the cafe and reception counter share a single first floor and the staffs are all polite and impressively friendly all the way through. Pay a visit to the courtyard as well but take note that dining at the courtyard is reserved as a privilege for in-house guests.
The menu focuses on the mainstream selection from pasta to sandwiches and salads to some roast and stews. Bica Chicken Club Sandwich (RM 22) promises baked chicken, egg, avocado, Cheddar, tomato, cucumber, and coriander aioli and as good as the combination would have sounded, I really wish I could say the same about the taste. To begin, there is no avocado in it. Also, there’s zero effort in properly assembling the sandwich but I guess we have no issues eating it deconstructed.
Thankfully, Soup of the day (RM 12) happen to be freshly preped mushroom soup with cheese croutons and this one clearly shines bright and instantly becomes the winner upon the first sip. Everyone at the table agreed to this and if I know the locals well, this one is most likely a tip-top quality for them because mushroom soup out of a can has always been common and well accepted for as long as I could recall.
At a second visit, we were seriously amazed by the texture and the taste of what may have looked decent but tasted unimpressively bland. Their rendition of Chicken Fettuccine Carbonara (RM 28) pasta maybe overcooked on purpose to tune to mass crowd, but I did not check with the kitchen on this. And I quote what Constance said – “what is even more amazing is that the bacon is tasteless as well”. I couldn’t agree more on it. It’s chicken bacon by the way.
Last and of course not least, some greens to complete the review. So I went ahead with the Bica House Salad(RM 18) which turned out underwhelming and horrendously terrible in my opinion. One doesn’t need to know the best recipe for salads to be serving a good bowl of salad, for the least they could have done is to not serve them with any wilted leaves. Half the romaine lettuces on my bowl have got brown perimeter and that certainly is not impressive at all.
We were also dubious with the Rose and Pistachio cake (RM 18) because apart from being pretty and instagramworthy, it’s really nothing more just pretty and instagramworthy.
Like many other coffee houses in Melaka, Illy Coffee is your caffeine source but forget about getting your beautiful art though. Both Cafe Latte (RM 12) and Hot Chocolate (RM 13) were visually boring, so I recommend tea or juices over coffee. Freshly squeezed juice (RM 18) or Chamomile Tea (RM 10) and even the blueberry cheese cake will be your “risk-free” choices so if you want to lounge at this pretty ambiance. I enjoyed my Grapefruit juice.
There is no evidence to confirm pleasant ambiance adding to pleasant food experience but one thing for sure, Bica and Co could really use some extra effort with their food in order to have such surmise confirmed.
Take note that there is a menu revamping in between my two visits so don’t forget to click into flickr album HERE for their MENU and more photos of this review.
Also click to read more Eating and Drinking Places in Melaka , Foodeverywhere’s Travel Journal outside Malaysia, or Sycookies Food Travelogue .
Bica and Co Café is located in Rosa Boutique Lifestyle Hotel at Melaka at:
212, Jalan Parameswara,
Kampung Bandar Hilir, 75000 Melaka
Phone: +60 6-281 9888
GPS: 2.1889511,102.258576
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bicaandco
Follow me:
Love
FOODEVERYWHERE 