I love dogs, I love dogs, I love dogs
I have to keep telling myself 'I love dogs' when writing this blog and actually it’s the reason I type away!
When we think about dogs and restaurants in Asia most of us will automatically link the two together and think something along the line of ‘Canine and Cashew nuts’ on the menu. Well in this case I’m glad to report ‘NO’, quite the opposite.
Singapore is renowned for being a very cosmopolitan city and if you are a canine you are in luck, as the city is now opening its doors, should I say restaurant doors, for your beloved dog and that’s not as the contents of the menu, it’s as a guest!
Yes in some ‘niche nooks’ you are welcome to come along to experience their cuisine with your beloved pooch. Let’s think about this for a second: you walk your dog in the morning and then go to work for pretty much an eight hour shift. Unless you are lucky enough to have a lunch beak which allows you time to go home to walk again, your dog remains loyally waiting for your return in the evening. What better way to return his love for you than to have a ‘Doggie Date’?
I have visions of dogs lining up at the ‘Pooch Parlour’ for a short back and sides, braids and bows and adorning a neat little dickie bow instead of a collar. Once ‘pooched’ up, stepping onto the sidewalk and escorting mum (or Dad) to the table.
Do any restaurants in Singapore actually serve a menu for the dogs to have food from, not be on? Well let’s see!
Now I know there are some 54+ dog friendly foodie establishments in Singapore alone and I don’t have enough space in this blog to write about each one. So as an example let’s find one who ‘really’ thinks about the dog and that’s the Happenstance Cafe on Opal Crescent.
At Happenstance They will serve your beloved ‘Scooby’ something from the Pasta menu. Puppy pasta can be veggie, for the life of me I can’t think why, it’s a dog, so it must be an owner thing! Or meat, that’s much better, with cheese and salmon oil topping (ewwww). For the doggie desserts you can nip over to Paw Pet-Radise on Balestier Road for Strawberry and vanilla ice-cream tart from the Superdog Kitchens, but please limit your dog to one, nothing worse than having or seeing a fat dog!
For me the nicest surprise is to find out that a certain ‘mahussive’ (the new trendy word of 2016) American coffee house has put a great deal of thought into your dog. You can actually purchase along-side your Frappe a doggie drink called “Puppuccino” for ‘Scooby’. Now that’s cool.
Just as a teaser for you: Latest statistics for Singapore suggest that in 2015 there was 62,000 ‘registered’ dogs, not counting the strays and non-registered pooches. The last human population census showed 5.47 million in 2015, just divide one into the other and bingo there is approximately one ‘registered’ dog for every 88 people in Singapore. Predictions estimate a jump to nearly 72,000 registered dogs in 2016. Just a thought but that’s a lot of ‘Doggie Dishes’ that could be served weekly!
Most of the 54+ Singaporean restaurants allow your dogs into their establishments, not necessarily to actually eat there, so I say, “Come on” Chef’s and Proprietors get creative and start dishing out more canine food and high chairs, we have some serious ‘Doggie Dating’ to do and just listen to the tills go “Ka-Ching”.
