Spruce

Came here for brunch during my birthday celebrations. C made a reservation so we got a private room that was long and narrow with nice photograph Pros of the private room - erm, the privacy. Cons - stuck with just one server, and he just so happens to be a really lousy one... more on this later.

Of course boring, old me will order The Spruce Big Brekkie $16 (Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes, Grilled Vegetables, Roasted Mushrooms with Toast and Butter) -


Oh, it was just normal. I was probably just craving breakfast that day, but I should so order other things than my usual... luckily, we ordered a few more things to share...

I read somewhere that the Ahi Tuna Tartar with Toasted Ciabatta and Avocado $21 was good so I made it a point to order it as one of the sharing dishes -


And it really was very very good! The tuna was very fresh and went really well with the avocado on the ciabatta toast. A bit on the expensive side, but a definite must order if you come here.

Also tried the Waffle $5 -


And Banana Hotcakes, Honeycomb Butter and Blueberry Syrup $13 -


Both were not too bad, but not spectacular.

Also tried the Creamy Macaroni and Cheese $7 -


which was quite yummy. Not too rich, and at a good price too.

I tried the Arnold Palmer -


when we asked the waiter, he told us that it was half lemonade and half ice tea. Apparently, and obviously enough, invested by Arnold Palmer the golf player. A nice refreshing drink! And perfect for me as I love ice tea and anything sour :D

So back to the service that I talked about in the beginning of the post... the server we had was completely hopeless. He took forever to get our orders, then half an hour later, comes back to let us know that one of the orders were not available. We were damn hungry and horrified to find out that half an hour later, the kitchen had not even started preparing our food! We asked him for some bread as we were seriously starving by this point, but by the time he brought the bread, the food already came. Not that the food came that quickly, but that the waiter took that long to bring us some bread!

We all liked the food - well-prepared, tasty and decently priced and hope to come back again to try more dishes... and hope that we get a better waiter the next time?


Spruce
320 Tanglin Road
Phoenix Park
Tel : 6836 5528

Epicurious

Came here for brunch on a Sunday and was lucky enough to get the last seat in the house - it's still a relatively popular place for weekend brunches.

The meal started with complimentary Mini Muffins -


So small and cute! Just the right size to keep us mildly satisfied while we waited for the rest of the food to arrive...

I had the Ratatouille Omelette (two-egg omelette filled with a herb, tomato, eggplant & zucchini stew and topped with Parmigiano-Reggiano) $12 -


Ok, so you can't exactly see the ratatouille, but it's inside the omelette :) I love omelettes of every shape and form!

Also tried the Veggie Pu Yi sandwich (char-grilled eggplant, bell pepper, artichoke heart & sun-dried tomato) $10 -


There's just something about grilled veggies - it's so simple yet tastes so good!

I was craving something sweet so ordered the Choco-nana Sandwich (chocolate spread, banana and strawberries) $5 despite not being a huge banana fan -


It was just ok, and it seemed a silly to be paying $5 for a nutella sandwich...

I've come here a few times and always had a good experience here. The food is consistent and relatively healthy, and there's such a homely feel about this place. A great option for a lazy Sunday brunch


Epicurious
60 Robertson Quay
#01-02 The Quayside
Tel: 6734 7720
http://www.epicurious.com.sg/

PS Cafe (Palais Renaissance)

This place opened around August - I heard about it then coz some friends were walking around Palais Renaissance before my birthday dinner at Marmalade Pantry. I’ve since been there three times :) so this is a culmination of all those visits.

My first trip there was for brunch, I had the Welsh Rarebit Trio $12++ -


Such a weird name right? Don’t worry there’s not rabbit in any shape or form. I thought the portion seemed small when I was first served it, but it was actually pretty filling. The toppings on the three slices of French loaf was crabmeat, spinach and bacon and tomato. The poached egg gave it a breakfast twist.

The other thing that I had a bite of was the Crab Tart –


Slightly unimpressive especially when compared with the Crab Caesar that I tried at Marmalade Pantry just downstairs. I can’t remember exactly how much it was but I think it was about S$27++ - I reckon it’s overpriced and not that great value.

The next trip here was for brunch again. I had the Breakfast Stack -


A very decent portion and all the little bits of the dish (grilled asparagus, poached egg, portobello mushrooms, roasted tomatoes) came together to make a perfect breakfast, erm or brunch :D

Also tried the Egg White Omelette (egg whites with feta, mushrooms and spinach) –


It wasn't bad but the fact that it was just egg whites kinda put me off... too healthy :P

The desserts here are a definite must-try, if you can get past the fact that they're so expensive :s

The Stick Lemon and Chewy Florentine Cake was our attempt at trying something non-chocolate.


It was lighter than expected, but I kinda prefer very lemony cake so it could stand to be a tad more sour.

Ordering the Chocolate Crunch Doorstop was a given the moment I saw it but it was pretty expensive at $15.90++ -


It's layer after layer of decadent chocolate - bottom layer of brownie, nuts, followed by mousse and topped off with Maltesers. To die for... but do keep a glass of water handy, it is extremely rich and thirst-inducing.

The Double Chocolate Blackout is another one of PS Cafe's signature desserts -


Multiple layers of chocolate fudge cake - so many layers that it can't even stand :)

I've sat at both the indoor and outdoor seating areas and the outdoor definitely wins hands down. The colonial feel of the decor and furniture is enhanced by the revolving ceiling fans. You also have to check out the bathroom - it's really pretty!

The service here is surprisingly better than most places I've been to recently - attentive, with constant top ups of ice water, and always there when you need service.

A really nice place to have a meal - food is pretty good and not over-priced, but always remember to share the desserts! The fact that they have slightly different dishes from the other branches, together with the fact that the ambience is great, and the better than average service, I would totally come back here again.


PS Cafe
390 Orchard Road
Level 2 Palais Rennaissance
Tel : 6887 2207
http://www.pscafe.sg/

Cicada

Came here as part of my birthday celebration feasting, erm a few months ago :)

It's located at the up and coming Wessex Estate and it's next to impossible to get to if you don't have a car. The place itself is pretty nice, but not many tables considering it's got quite a bit of space, especially outdoors.

The menu was not all that extensive - I settled on the "Infamous Cicada Burger" $28.90++ :


It was actually not too bad - nice and juicy without being under-done. One of the better Wagyu Beef Burgers I've had... Didn't like the fries much tho - but that's probably a personal preference, I prefer the skinny crispy type.

The vegetarian-in-the-house ordered the only veggie option : the Moussaka -


It was truly horrible. We all agreed that it was the worse possible way to cook eggplant, no idea how they managed to make such a yummy veg so absolutely tasteless. The bechamel sauce didn't help the flavour at all. Yucks yucks yucks.

The meal was quite disappointing so we were hopeful that dessert would go some way in changing our minds. I settled on the Peanut Butter Brownie Crunch Cake -


I had high hopes when the dessert was served - doesn't it look gorgeous?? The high hopes were quite quickly dashed when I started eating it... it wasn't bad, but it was bizarre how a cake that looks like it would be so incredibly sweet, wasn't. Weird... and I read other reviews of this restaurant where there were pictures of this cake, and mine seemed to have an extremely thin layer of peanut butter :s

Service was also quite bad - the waitress who took our orders was so confused that she kept serving the dishes to the wrong person. And some dishes took an inordinately long time to arrive.

Recently tried Pietrasanta and that's a better option if you want to check out the restaurants in this area...


Cicada
7 Portsdown Road
Tel: 6472 2100
www.thecicada.com.sg

Oomphatico's

I was actually here twice - once in January and again recently in June. Ok fine, June is not that recent :P When I was here in January, it was for coffee so I didn't think it was worth blogging about. But after I had brunch here, I decided it was enough to make up a proper post :D

The menu here is kinda, well, confused. Besides all the breakfast dishes, there are also salads, sandwiches, pasta, soup, risotto and rice, pizza, pasta and noodles. It's confusing coz the dishes range from western (Spaghetti Carbonara) to Thai (Tom Yum Koong) to Fusion (A Thai in New York Sandwich - light chicken filet with basil sauce topped with a soft fried egg). Hence the many tags for this post...

But we were here during brunch so we stuck to the interesting sounding breakfast dishes. The Gorilla's Breakfast $14.00++ had olive bread, portobello mushrooms, arugula salad, sundried tomato and fresh mozzarella, served with fig jam -


Yup, in case you didn't already know, gorillas are vegetarian :D The bread can't be seen as it's underneath it all. I didn't try the fig jam but the other ingredients actually went pretty well with each other to make a very healthy and light dish.

The Pancake Lasagne $12.50++ is not quite pancakes or a lasagne...


Rather, it was zucchini, pesto and mango chutney between layers of crepes. Surprisingly yummy, yet another succesfully innovative dish! One gripe I had though - we ordered two of this and the second one came more than half an hour after the next one. Not sure if the waitress screwed up the order or the kitchen messed up, in any case, it was really annoying.

We also tried some desserts, Pom Pom (warm apple and raisin bread pudding with vanilla ice-cream) $8.50++ :


and Fragrant Attraction (delicate mounds of sticky rice cakes with spiced mango and coconut custard toppings) $10.50++ :


The bread and butter pudding was not bad but too filling for one person to finish on their own. Didn't like the Fragrant Attraction much, especially since I was recently in Thailand and really good mango sticky rice...

When I was here for just coffee, I had the Cafe Granita $9.50++ :


which I slurped up happily. Mostly coz I don't normally have this type of drinks (so fattening!), so when I do, I really enjoy it :D

Food here is interesting, and those dishes I tried were good. Might be worth coming back to try more dishes. It's got a nice atmosphere - perfect for a tete-a-tete with girlfriends or a family outing with the kids (especially since the staff are known to burst into song and dance and everyone are welcomed to join in). But do watch out for the spotty service...


Oomphatico's
163 Tanglin Road
#01-03 & 01-35/36 Tanglin Mall
Tel: 6733 9088
www.oomphaticos.com

Barracks

G could not think of a place to go for X's birthday tea so I suggested trying this place out... also giving me the opportunity to blog about a new place :) G made reservations in advance and were given a greenhouse-type room with floor to ceiling glass windows all around. But G&X decided that it would be too noisy coz it's enclosed (and we tend to talk really loudly sometimes), so we moved to a table in the main dining area instead.

The wait staff here are dressed in school uniforms - cute idea for the girls, but the guys looked too bizarre as some of them are a bit on the old side... but some of the girls actually look like there were of school-going age. In case you are thinking of going there to perv, the latest review said that they are no longer in school uniforms...

Forgot to bring my camera so had to use K's handphone camera - thanks, K! We were there for tea so only managed to try the desserts. The desserts all came served in mess tins - I had the Peanut Butter Cake $11+++ (right) and that's the Bergamot Pound Cake $7+++ on the left :


The Peanut Butter Cake was good, but not quite enough peanut butter to satisfy my peanut butter craving. A bit disturbing to have childish hundreds and thousands on a elegant, grown-up Bergamot Pound Cake, but the cake was good with just a hint of earl grey tea.

Also tried the Green Tea Tofu Tiramisu $9.50+++,


Big Barracks Strawberry Shortcake $9.50+++ and Carrot Cake $8+++ :


Nothing spectacular about the Green Tea Tiramisu and I'm so not a fan of Carrot Cake. The Strawberry Shortcake was my 2nd choice for dessert so I was glad I managed to take a bite of it - it was pretty good!

Plenty of other desserts on the menu that I wanted to try but didn't have enough stomach room for - Chendol Pannacotta, Chocolate Almond Cake, Triple Chocolate Brownie... and the rest of the menu sounds really interesting and will probably be back to try more stuff.

Service was a bit inconsistent - the staff (especially the younger ones) didn't know the menu as well as they should, but they were extremely attentive with topping up our glasses of water.

Nice ambience with a creative menu, worth a visit.


Barracks
8D Dempsey Road
#01-01 to 06 Tanglin Village (Dempsey Road)
Singapore 249672
Tel: 6475 7787 / 6479 9212
www.dempseyhouse.com

The Garden Slug

Tucked away in a quiet neighbourhood in East Coast is this simple little cafe. They have a brunch menu and I was totally tempted to have "All Day Breakfast" which I pretty much have if it's on the menu. But in the spirit of trying new things, I forced myself to order something different...

And ended up having the Orange-glazed Pan-seared Buttermilk Chicken
Tender (boneless chicken glazed with a light, citrusy sauce) $13.90 -


Which was pretty ok but something about pan-fried chicken just gives me the impression of diet food - way too healthy. The mash was yummy though.

We had Bruschetta $4.50 to share -


And Auds had the Brazilian Lamb Chop (Marinated in wine & garlic, served with chunky mint pesto sauce) $16.90 -


Her exact words about it are "I finished them but I wouldn't remember them enough to want to go back again."

The food is pretty average, but prices are reasonable, and it's a nice place to chill and and spend a lazy weekend. A bit out of the way for me, but the Easterners might want to check out this place.


The Garden Slug
55 LOrong L Telok Kurau
#01-59/61 S425500
Tel : 6346 0504
www.thegardenslug.com

Gourmet Plus

Was looking for a place to have brunch in the East and decided to try out the stretch of eating places along Frankel Avenue... Cedele is tiny here and we couldn't get a seat so ended up trying this place which is right next door.

Not a terribly extensive brunch menu so I ended up ordering the pancakes which was around $10... and this is what came :


Just two pancakes, maple syrup and absolutely nothing else... not even a small wedge of strawberry. They were relatively fluffy pancakes, but 10 bucks just seems like too much to pay for two pancakes and nothing else. The very next day, I had homemade blueberry pancakes (ok, so it was really pancake mix) and they were delish!

K had the Scrambled Eggs with Salmon -


Isn't that a cute plate??

The food here just seemed a bit on the expensive side, especially considering the location and the fact that the food is really nothing to get excited about. Hmm, unlikely to come back here unless I'm stuck along Frankel Avenue and every other place is totally packed.


Gourmet Plus
117 Frankel Avenue
Frankel Estate
Tel: 6441 1120
Singapore 458232

Café Rosso

Read about this place a while back and thought of trying it out but the place always seemed empty when I walked past so I wasn't convinced that it was worth a visit. But on a particularly unimaginative Sunday, I suggested this place to S when we were thinking of somewhere to have brunch.

Needless to say, I ordered breakfast food - Tuscan Breakfast $18.50++ :


Scrambled Eggs, Sausages sauteed with Potatoes and Tomatoes, and Toast. I like how the sausages are sliced into little pieces - perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon when even cutting up a sausage seems like too much work :P The scrambled eggs were quite yummy too.

The price might sound a bit steep but the set comes with a pot of tea...


... served in very nice Bodum-type pot and cup.

The desserts were sitting pretty in the display case so we just had to order some to try. This looked interesting and the label didn't explain what it was so we asked the waiter -


Mont Blanc $6.00++ is made up of a thin layer of cake, whipped cream topped with squiggles of chestnut cream. 'Chestnut cream?!?', I hear you say... yup, we were very curious too so we gave it a try. Very interesting taste - the squiggles are soft and creamy (for some reason I thought it would be firm), with just a hint of chestnut flavour. A bit on the sweet side though. Apparently a very popular dessert in Japan, but this is the first time I've seen it here...

And in the spirit of adventure, we tried another interesting-looking dessert -


Mille Feuille $5.00++ is french for "thousand layers". It's really layers of puff pastry interspersed with layers of cream. Nice and flaky, but what a mess to eat!

Perfect place if you're looking for somewhere quiet and private to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon. The rest of the food is Japanese-style Western food and looks like it's worth a try too. You must defintitely have the desserts here.


Café Rosso
17D Lorong Liput
Tel: 6466 8637

Menotti - The Original Italian Café (revisited)

Everyone knows how much I like eating breakfast foods at non-breakfast times, so of course I had to have Eggs Florentine when I saw it on the menu at Menotti during lunch time. Oh, that and I love creamed spinach - despite the fact that it looks quite unappetising...

Eggs Florentine is a variation of Eggs Benedict - poached eggs with hollandaise sauce, resting on a bed of creamed spinach and mushrooms, with toast. I had the Eggs Benedict the last time I was here so I decided to try the Eggs Florentine $14.00+++ this time -


Don't ask me why but I just like creamed spinach... it was really filling and I couldn't finish all of it, but I did like it.

Didn't get to try any desserts the last time I was here so I purposely saved some stomach space to try some of the scrumptious looking desserts...


Looks gorgeous, yah? The receipt says it's called Morbida $5.90+++ - what an awful name for a dessert! It was all chocolate mousse - and it's a tiny little thing, but so rich that it took quite a bit of effort to finish it. Yes, I'm willing to leave food behind but no matter how rich the dessert is, I always finish all of it - totally sacrilegious to leave any dessert behind :)


Menotti - The Original Italian Café
252 North Bridge Road
#01-17 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel : 6333 9366
www.garibaldi.com.sg

Cedele

I am totally Cedele-obsessed… Well, to be more accurate, I'm Cedele pancake-obsessed. I have eaten at Cedele nearly every weekend the past two months – mostly at the branch at Wheelock but a few times at other branches as well. And I've tried all the different types of pancakes available here.

Starting with the Wild Blueberry Pancakes with Sausages $10.90++ (found under the All-Day Breakfast Menu at Wheelock) -


It was blueberry season recently and I was wondering how lovely they would taste in pancakes… So I totally had to order it when I had brunch here one weekend. Hmm, something not quite right about having pancakes with sausages... The blueberries were a bit dried up, which I guess is to be expected after cooking… but still it was pretty good.

On another trip here, I had the Macadamia Nut Pancake with a Single Scoop of Ice-cream $8.90++. This is found under the dessert section of the menu.


Little bits of macadamia nuts in the pancake went perfectly with the vanilla ice-cream… Just heavenly!

Still on a pancake-craze, I decided to try the last pancake available at Cedele – Apple Cinnamon Pancake. This is actually found under the All-Day Breakfast Menu, but I requested for it to be served with ice-cream instead. Had it with TWO scoops of ice-cream after finding that one scoop wasn't quite enough when I had the Macadamia Nut Pancakes. This cost $10.90++ -


I kinda expected the apple in the pancakes to be in chunks rather than slices, but no complaints – the pancakes were good… and I would even say that the pancakes are consistently good… or maybe I just have low standards for pancakes, as anything with ice-cream just cannot taste bad :)

On a side note, I recently tried making pancakes and it really isn’t easy to get them browned on both sides evenly… or maybe it was just me.

Another must try here is the Dessert Platter (found at the Wheelock branch). For $10.90++, you get a choice of four out of the eight desserts available… and they do change the desserts ever so often. When I was there recently, the desserts were different from when I had it a few weeks ago.


The desserts pictured here are : Mini Pavlova (I always order anything meringue related if it’s on the menu), Raspberry Wholemeal Cake, Tiramisu, Orange Cheesecake. I am a big fan of variety and being able to try a bit of everything so this is absolutely perfect for me :)

One thing that annoys me about Cedele is how terrible the service is… and it’s the same situation at every branch! The service at the Wheelock branch is so amazingly slow that I’ve taken to going straight to the cashier to pay rather than waiting for them to bring the bill…

Besides the gorgeous pancakes, nearly everything else on the menu is good too. Other than the bad service, Cedele is one of my favourite places to go for a meal… I can’t wait to go there this weekend! :)


Cedele by Bakery Depot
www.cedeledepot.com (check website for locations)

Mezza9 Sunday Champagne Brunch

Every once in a while, my group of girlfriends will find a reason to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon indulging in the Champagne Brunch at Mezza9 - this time the flimsy excuse was a farewell party for J who is moving to HK.

This is my favourite place to go for Champagne Brunch... ok, so I've only gone for two - the other being the one at Four Seasons where we were pretty much chased out of our seats as soon as the next seating started (FYI - There are two seatings for the Champagne Brunch at Four Seasons : 11am and 1pm).

Here at Mezza9, you can start your Champagne Brunch from 11am... take your time to eat until 2pm... enjoy some coffee or tea at your table or adjourn to the Martini Bar and chill out till 4pm. Now that's the way to enjoy a Champagne Brunch!

I had a feeling they wouldn't allow people to photos of the buffet spread so I decided to just take pictures of the food instead... and I was right - saw a guy taking a photo of the food on display and he was told by the staff that photography was not allowed.

So for this post, and the upcoming posts on buffets I've gone for the past few weeks, you will have to bear with photos of poorly plated food - what do I know about food styling?!?

Any self-respecting Champagne Brunch would have the requisite seafood spread of Freshly Shucked Oysters, Lobster, Prawns, Mussels - I always start off my buffet here...


The oysters here are really fresh - shucked right in front of your eyes... but that also means that a queue always forms here as the guy can only shuck that fast. The lobster is really good too! Had about two servings of seafood :)

On to the next course!


Had the Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce, Sausages, Devilled Eggs, Codfish, Smoked Salmon and another serving of Lobster.

The Japanese section here is one of the best I've had at hotel buffets...


I had the Tuna and Salmon Sashimi, a few sticks of Yakitori, and some random Dim Sum from the Chinese section just to fill up the plate.

After a few rounds of food, I finally made it to dessert and I was so happy to see so many desserts that I seldom get to eat!


Meringues, Pavlovas, Chocolate Macaroons, Brownies, Cherries and Strawberries... I was so stuffed I didn't even manage to try the Chocolate Fountain!

All that gorgeous food and free-flow of Taittinger champagne (I had 4 glasses :) makes this brunch at $108+++ one of the best Champagne Brunches in town... and one of my favourite ways to spend a Sunday afternoon.


Mezza9
Grand Hyatt Singapore
10 Scotts Road
Tel : 6732 1234

Graze

Finally made it to Graze! Read on Chubby Hubby's blog that Graze had a Breakfast/Brunch menu, and that did it for me - nothing I like more than having breakfast food for lunch...

Of course I had to order The Cast Iron Pan $18+++. Is your mouth watering already? :) With sausages, bacon, egg, tomato, mushrooms, potatoes and baked beans, it had everything I liked! It was yummy, but then it's kinda hard to go wrong with this kind of food... Don't be fooled by the picture, the iron pan is really not that big, but it is enough food for one person.


Also ordered the Waffles with Nutella Ice-cream $13+++... how do you say 'no' to Nutella ice-cream??? A perfect waffle, lots of strawberries and a scoop of delicious Nutella ice-cream... Was kinda bizzare eating savoury food and dessert at the same time but I just could not bear to see the ice-cream melt! Maybe I should have told the waiter to serve it later...


Thinking it wasn't enough food, we also ordered the Omelette $16+++. As if we didn't already have enough meat, we had as toppings sausages, bacon, mushrooms and tomatos. The omelette was baked rather than fried and was much lighter than I expected... and as you can see, it's spilling with toppings, just the way I like my omelettes!

Pretty nice place to chill out and while away a Sunday afternoon... and I'm definitely coming back to try their adorable cupcakes.

Graze Restaurant
4 Rochester Park
S139215
Tel : 6775 9000
www.graze.sg