good, delicious brunch, in a very cool hipster hangout in the still-cool neighborhood of kampong glam. so this place, it’s eminently likable. is it weird that I think that someplace this cool ought to be rather irritating? it’s done up in concrete, the hostesses are young trendy females, the baristas wear baseball hats and graphic tees, and the menus are all done up illustration-style. but the food is delicious, the wait isn’t long – and there’s a good, orderly queue system.
very, very likable.
I’m past the fantasy idea that cafes serve decent food as a matter of course – there are too many that sell themselves on the interest of their local coffee (a beverage I’m not partial to) or their too-beautiful furnishings, and too little attention paid to what actually comes out of the kitchen.
so when a place lives up to its surroundings, it’s distinctly satisfying.
the portions are pretty reasonable. a big breakfast came with smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, sauteed mushrooms, and a mushroom with toast – and my breakfast trio was a cereal parfait, softly-cooked truffle egg en cocotte and toast with some sort of berry butter. the eggs were soft and delicious, and while I would have preferred a more oaty muesli in my parfait, it was all good.
that same crunchy flake and cluster cereal melange made another appearance in my order of granola – but this time with a dark purple berry compote and deliciously creamy greek yogurt. mix it up, let it sit and soften slightly, and it’s plenty breakfast for a cereal lover.
so great food, and good sizes.
they also have one of those electronic queuing systems where you take a ticket number and they text you when your turn arrives, so while you might have to wait outside in the abominable heat for a bit (I did say this place was trendy and popular, right?), at least you know there’s a system behind getting your seat (amongst the things I brought back from london was an obsession with queues and an immense annoyance when queuing norms are flouted).
very, very easily return-able.
Symmetry
9 Jalan Kubor
Singapore 199206
tel +65 6291 9901
$$: 20-30 per person
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u have to try their mushroom eggs and bacon cheese balls and mushroom beignets on your return visit. awesome stuff!
BEN-YEAs! how did I miss that!
OMG. You always manage to find the most interesting/awesome places to eat in Singapore! HOW? D: ON MY NEXT VISIT, YOU MUST SHOW ME AND THE BF AROUND!
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IMO, the food isn’t as consistent any more. I really liked the place after visiting the first time about 1.5 years ago, and have even recommended lots of friends to go. Since that first time, I’ve been there several times in the past year at the request of different groups of friends, and find that the food is too salty at times, overly bland on other occasions. While the food is still decent about 70% of the time, I would think twice about taking that 30% chance with inconsistency when I’m paying $30 or more per pax every visit.
Service/queue system-wise, one particular incident left a very bad impression. My friends and I got a queue number, went off for a while and returned to Symmetry after a 40-minute wait, just to make sure we didn’t miss any calls for our queue number. We were told that we probably had to wait for another 15 minutes or so, so we stayed put instead of wandering off again. While hanging around, we saw a couple who obviously didn’t have reservations or a queue number (but presumably knew someone from either the serving crew or management), getting a table ahead of at least 5 or 6 other groups waiting for seats. What happened? They got off a taxi, the chap walked up to the ipad kiosk for reservations, glanced at it and told his companion, “Ah, don’t bother. I make a call.”, and proceeded to do so in front of some of the waiting customers, saying, “eh i’m here. can get us a table now? I didn’t book and don’t want to wait so long leh”.
A server attended to them less than 5 minutes after the call, and greeted the with, “Hey, long time no see. Come, take this table”. Needless to say, the people waiting around who witnessed this started gawking and muttering among themselves.
Yes, perhaps some places do practise family/friends’ privileges, but to allow “authorised queue-cutting” when there were people who have waited for a long time is simply poor management by whomever allowed it. It may have been one isolated incident that I was unfortunate enough to encounter, but that one time was enough to turn me off the place. Sure, it may not matter to them to lose one customer and her referrals, but for the sake of its own reputation, I hope it’ll have more respect for customers who are willing to wait and pay.
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