All these talk about eggs of late may make some crave for good-old brunch food.
Eggs Benedict is considered quite a ‘staple’ in many brunch menus in Singapore, typically consisting of an open-faced sandwich of two halves of an English muffin topped with a poached egg and hollandaise sauce.
While this egg dish is popularised in New York City, many Singapore cafes have added their own spin, included with mackerel otah otah, beef cheeks, unagi, to even using prata as the base.
Common Man Coffee Roasters
22 Martin Road #01-00 Singapore 239058
Tel: +65 6836 4695
Opening Hours: 7:30am – 5pm (Mon – Fri), 7:30pm – 6pm (Sat – Sun)
After a number of years in operations, Common Man Coffee Roasters continue to enjoy popularity and its Beef Cheek Eggs Benedict is one of those dishes that has been there since Day 1.
Instead of the usual poached eggs with bacon and sausage, the Beef Cheek Organic Eggs Benedict ($24) with two poached eggs on top of tender slow-cooked braised ox cheeks and lightly toasted artisanal sourdough toast.
The combination with the rich melting tender-licious cheeks and poached eggs make this an indulgent combination.
This is served alongside with some dressed rocket leaves to provide greens to cut that richness.
Wild Honey
Scotts Square #03-01, 6 Scotts Road, Singapore 228209 (Orchard MRT Station)
Tel: +65 6636 1816
Opening hours: 9am – 8:30pm (Sun – Thurs), 9am – 9:30pm (Fri, Sat, Eve PH)
Wild Honey must be one of the cafes that started the eggs-brunch trend in Singapore. The mother of all brunch cafes, perhaps?
Its strength is in its large range of savoury and sweet all-day breakfast dishes, includes a strong line-up of inspired vegetarian dishes.
One of the most popular Eggs Benedict dishes is The Norwegian ($28) presented in a slightly different way. This dish has been on the menu since 2011 – that’s almost a decade!
The poached eggs are wrapped with Norwegian smoked salmon (rather than on top), served with grilled asparagus spears, ikura and Hollandaise sauce on top of whole-wheat brioche.
Over at Scotts Square, there is the Delancy ($26) which includes hand-sliced beef pastrami with poached eggs on sesame bagel, available exclusively at this outlet.
Godmama
Funan, #04-07, 107 North Bridge Road, Singapore 179097
Opening Hours: Lunch 11am – 3:30pm, Dinner 6pm – 10pm (Mon – Fri)
Brunch 10:30am – 4pm, Dinner 6pm – 10pm (Sat – Sun)
Godmama may be known as a modern Peranakan restaurant, but they also offer a brunch menu during the weekends from 10:30am to 4pm.
Interesting items include the Babi Assam Baked Eggs ($17.90), Ayam Buah Keluak Burger ($21.90), Durian Pengat Buttermilk Pancakes ($18.90), and Otak Otak Benedict ($19.90).
The Otak Otah Benedict ($19.90) gives the typical brunch dish a Peranakan twist, but the addition of grilled otak otak fish mousse made using Spanish mackerel, and served with toasted bread, poached eggs and creamy hollandaise sauce.
I loved the light aromatic spiciness of the otak otak, and you still get pieces of fish within.
Also included on the side were crispy Indonesian-style Emping belinjo crackers which were rather addictive.
Kith Cafe (Ascott Orchard)
11 Cairnhill Road Singapore 229724 (Somerset MRT)
Tel: +65 6734 8640
Opening Hours: 6:30am – 9:30pm (Mon – Fri), 7am – 9:30pm (Sat – Sun)
With a number of branches around, Kith Cafe is a great place for catching up with friends or having a meeting with business associates over brunch and coffee.
There are two outlets that I would usually visit that are very close to town – at Ascott Orchard and Winsland House II.
Avocado on Toast is the IT brunch item and Kith Café does their Poached Eggs & Avocado ($16) well – a healthy treat of creamy crushed avocados, roma tomatoes, kale, walnut pesto poached eggs on sourdough.
Poached eggs seem to be featured on many items on their menu, such as the popular Better than Benny ($18) with crispy bacon, roasted tomatoes, kale, hollandaise sauce on sourdough; and Kith Black Curry ($19.00) which has chicken curry, mixed green salad, saffron rice in banana leaf and… that oozy poached egg.
Symmetry
9 Jalan Kubor #01-01, Singapore 199206 (Bugis MRT)
Opening Hours: 10.30am – 9pm (Mon), 10.30am – 11pm (Tue – Thurs), 10.30am – 12am (Fri), 9am – 12am (Sat), 9am – 7pm (Sun)
Nestled in the serene spot along Jalan Kubor, Symmetry is a restaurant-bar offering French-inspired fare that pays homage to the idea of food-sharing.
Taking inspiration from both the Australian dining culture and French cuisine, Symmetry wants to emphasise the dining experience of sharing.
Other than the Symmetry Big Breakfast, Portobello & Burrata, Merguez Shakshouka, Asparagus & Crab Salad, and Eggs Sur Le Plat, one of the recommended is the Symmetry Eggs Benedict.
The Symmetry Egg Benedict ($24) may look unassuming with the usual butter English muffin, sous vide eggs, maple-glazed bacon and hollandaise.
But dig further within and you would find carmelised onions and mushroom duxelles which adds more complexity in textures and flavours.
COMO Cuisine
18A Dempsey Road, Singapore 249677
Tel: 1800 304 6688
Opening Hours: All Day Dining 8am – 9pm Last seating 8pm (Mon – Sun)
Breakfast: 8am – 12pm (Mon – Fri)
Brunch: 8am – 3pm (Sat, Sun, PH)
COMO Cuisine at Dempsey Hill may be slightly off-the-radar, but with its classy charm and tough of elegance, is the restaurant to head to for that leisure, unhurried meal.
Other than the Croque Madame, the all-time favourite breakfast dish at COMO is the Eggs Benedict ($2), of poached eggs with Parma ham, spinach, poured over with hollandaise sauce, on top of house-made sourdough.
Also glad to find Prosciutto (thinly sliced Italian dry-cured ham) on the classic egg dish, which added that mild saltiness and light crisp.
Lola’s Cafe
5 Simon Road, Singapore 545893
Opening Hours: 10am – 11:30pm (Tues – Thurs, Sun), 10am – 12am (Fri – Sat), Closed Mon
Residents staying near Hougang should be familiar with Lola’s Café, which is the to-go-to brunch place in that area.
Known for its unpretentious food, it is typically packed with groups of families and friends.
Go for the Crab Cake Benedict ($18) which consist of handmade crab cake on toasted English muffins, topped with miso hollandaise sauce and furikake.
Not forgetting the poached eggs as well. As you cut across, the combination of oozy egg yolk, moist crab cake and unique miso hollandaise may just create that mini explosion in your mouth.
Xiao Ya Tou
6 Duxton Hill #01-01, Singapore 089592 (Tanjong Pagar MRT)
Opening Hours: 12pm – 11pm (Mon – Thurs), 12pm – 12am (Fri), 10am – 12pm (Sat), 10am – 5pm (Sun)
Many may not know that the quirky Xiao Ya Tou serves up weekend brunch.
Though slightly under-the-radar of late, it is quite a quirky place, that serves up modern Asian and zhi char fare, all in a playful and nostalgic setting. Look out for all the retro toys and posters.
If you are looking at something Hong Kong-ish-Japanese-local for brunch, then I think this is a right place.
The weekend brunch recommendation is the Unagi Benedict ($23).
This egg dish exemplifies the mix of several cultures, with sous vide eggs in a deep fried mantou bun, topped with Yuzukosho hollandaise sauce, and the star ingredient – Japanese-style grilled teriyaki eel. Cut it up, watch the yolk ooze, then mix it all up.
Halcyon & Crane
The Paragon #03-09, 290 Orchard Road Singapore 238859 (Orchard MRT)
Tel: +65 9727 5121
Opening Hours: 9am – 9pm (Mon – Thurs), 9am – 9:30pm (Fri – Sun)
I was most intrigued by the King’s Chicken Hash Benedict ($21), because “gong bao chicken”.
The dish consisted of English muffins topped with gong bao chicken, sous-vide egg and cheddar cheese.
There were some components that I liked, namely the mildly spiced gong bao chicken with a fragrant aroma while it was steaming hot; and the accompaniment of spiced potatoes which was inspired by a “tu dou” street snack in Chengdu.
The house-made English muffins were also soft and nicely grilled, especially tasty when it absorbed some of the gong bao sauce.
While the cheddar cheese added that layer (possibly to look like Hollandaise sauce) that made the dish more photogenic.
Also, I was somewhat disappointed with a sous-vide egg rather than a poached egg for an egg benedict item, because you do not get the fuller, firmer, thicker set whites.
Springleaf Prata Place
1 Thong Soon Avenue, Singapore 787431
Tel: +65 6459 5670, 8119 2297
Opening Hours: 8am – 12am (Mon – Sun), Closed every first Mon of the month
Other outlets at
57B Jalan Tua Kong, The Rail Mall, JCube B1-11, Sunset Way 01-64, NeWest Condo
Okay, I know this inclusion is off compared to the above nine, but I thought it would be fun to add a localised prata entry.
Springleaf Prata Place at Thong Soon Avenue is a one-stop air-conditioned family restaurant that is popular with families, with a number of branches all over Singapore (57B Jalan Tua Kong, The Rail Mall, JCube B1-11, Sunset Way 01-64, NeWest Condo.)
The Plaster Blaster ($5.90) made me recall the year of 2014 when eggs benedict and brunch items started flooding social media the first time, with Instagram pages filled with photos of oozy yolks. (Does anyone remember that period?)
You get prata topped with poached egg, ham and poured over with Hollandaise sauce.
While I applaud them for their innovation, I am not entirely sure this worked well after the crispy prata soaked in all that gooeyness.
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