&made by bruno menard, town

decent cafe in rather quiet pacific plaza, next to isetan shaw. this is a much-hyped cafe, due to the presence of yet another celebrity chef here. there’s something repellant to me about hype, especially with the number of restaurants that usually don’t perform nearly as well as people say it will.

this place, well it didn’t wow me but it did have a couple of interesting dishes. pleasantly surprising was the fact that it really wasn’t too expensive. the place is done up in a artsy-mod style with reds and whites and (beautiful fonts in) black. I really like the decor actually, it’s a bit like having a scrapbook made out into a cafe with beautiful prints and fonts. the air conditioning wasn’t working very well that day so it did end up somewhat sweltering.

the menu has a range of desserts, toastie options, salads and a couple more things that I’ve forgotten now. the idea of a toastie at a relatively-upmarket cafe is probably laughable but they do have a couple of interesting combinations such as the one we got of broccoli, smoked salmon and curry powder. I think cream cheese might have figured somewhere in the description, but it escapes my memory at the moment.

the toastie was made also with a buckwheat crepe on the outside, with cumin sprinkled on top, which elevates it from trashy white-bread status. the flavours meshed together surprisingly well, and the slight sourness you can from the buckwheat was quite a perfect counterpoint. it isn’t, by any means, a large portion, but served with a salad in the side made for a reasonable brunch.

my own salad was a more laughable portion, designed to look big but really the individual ingredients were just spaced out sparsely. the tomatoes were quite tasty and non-mealy (ah, the luxury of beautiful imported fruit), the salad rather oily from the garlic oil they doused it in though I requested dressing on the side – which means you need to be very specific if you’re particular about these things. It wasn’t a bad salad though.

we left without trying dessert, though there was one about a salted caramel lava cake.. mmm. might be back to try that one.

all in, quite a pleasant cafe with a small menu and friendly staff (though you should probably try to sit in the main dining area as they often forget to look at the side) and not really expensive at all.