skyve wine bistro, newton

best pancakes I’ve had in singapore – and I’ve had many – and otherwise decent brunch food at this hard-to-find cafe near newton circus. that first part of the sentence needs to be put into context: I’m still waiting for the likes of IHOP to open in singapore, and have since given up on having proper flapjacks – but these ones are pretty darn good, though a rather fancy ricotta version.

I take brunch very seriously – you should, too – and this place does it well. a large open space with lots of sunlight from the floor-to-ceiling windows, just the right hum from boisterous kids and brunching ladies – reasonably priced and portioned – if only it were a little more public-transport friendly.

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that’s just being fussy though, as this place isn’t so hard to find nearly as much as the weather is too hot to walk in these days. we did a scatterbrained turn around the compound trying to locate the place, only to realise we would have saved a lot of trouble if we’d turned left, at the entrance instead of right. we were justifiably hot and bothered (not that way) by the time we entered – and on a “boy-the-food-better-be-worth-it” bender. or at least I was.

we started off with the sous vide eggs benedict, plopped atop an english muffin and plate laden with bacon, mushrooms and sweet corn kernels. I’m not really sure what the sous-viding does for poached eggs – feels a little gimmicky, and in any case, aren’t traditionally cooked poached eggs already meant to be soft and yielding inside? but it made for a decent – and rather large spread – and I liked the mushrooms and corn (which you don’t often get with your bennie).

our pancakes arrived midway – seemed a little miserly with two almomd-flake-sprinkled circles alongside sliced bananas and a tiny ramekin of syrup – like a revelation. these were fluffy, but densely substantial – with brown griddled sides and a lovely richness from the cheese – meshed well with the syrup. so simple – and really good.

a different animal to my otherwise-favourite pancakes at barracks, which is in-your-face indulgent and so over-the-top it’s likely fallen off, these are elegant and surprisingly filling. those two rounds are pretty much enough.

we finished with the bowl of granola, essentially a cut-pour-and-layer operation of granola clusters beneath some yogurt. this was the weakest dish by far – and such a pity, because it’s let down by unexceptional ingredients. there was a good portion of tender dried apricots and fresh strawberry pieces strewn throughout, but the granola was too-sweet (feels like a low-cost generic variant rather than artisanal sort – you know what I mean) and worst, the yogurt was the sweetened watery fake-vanilla sort! the sort you have as kids and then realise when eating it as adults that it’s a bare fascimile of what yogurt could and should be, and is more pudding-like than anything.

and there was too little of that (I don’t know if you can have too little of a bad thing, actually) – so we had to ask for more to moisten the dry granola. such a pity – it was a good portion.

it’s a beautiful space – the sort you imagine ladies-who-lunch would love, and all that light streaming in is lovely at brunchtime. there’s a mild sense of chaos in there – but the good sort, from kids running about and being noisy – but it adds to the enjoyment. mostly good food (unless we got very lucky), and good portions at reasonable prices – those ricotta pancakes are particularly worthy of investigation.

Skyve Wine Bistro
10 Winstedt Road
Singapore 227977
tel +65 6225 6690
$$: fifteen to twenty a person