Ms Skinnyfat

A Food & Travel Blog from Singapore

Cafe Review: Black Bird Cafe

By Sunday, April 22, 2012 , , , , ,

I'm always hard pressed to find adequate brunch places in town. My favorite is of course Wild Honey but even their variety of breakfast from all around the world isn't enough to keep me going back every time. It's pathetic really, the lack of quality dining places in where we call the heart of shopping in Singapore. Anyway, i'm glad to have found out about Black Bird Cafe at Handy Road, right next to The Cathay. The location used to house 1 Caramel but they have since moved on. So 1 Sunday, i suggested having our extremely irregular meet up with the FYP gang at Black Bird. A major plus point of the cafe is that its convenient location makes it easy for all of us to run along with our errands after.
Did a quite check and found out that there's a brunch menu which is served from 10am – 3pm. Made a reservation to ensure we get seats because i heard that it gets pretty packed on the weekends. When we got there at 11, it was surprisingly quiet. We hung around till 1pm and the place was still empty. Guess everybody is lazing at home but good for us because we had the whole place to ourselves. 

Somehow the cafe felt very warm and us girls were busy fanning ourselves. The waitress took note of that and immediately set the temperature to cool the place down. Very attentive. I like.
The Brunch Menu is pretty limited- Big breakfast, Eggs Ben, Ham & Cheese Omelette, Croque Monsieur, Buttermilk Pancakes, Bread Basket, a couple of sandwiches and salad. There is also a choice of 1 Main of the day. The prices are reasonable, all items priced below $12 except for the Big Breakfast ($18). However, several items were unavailable that morning, so it really depends on your luck.
The coffee served here is from Havana. Which uses the hot air roasting technique to enhance the caffeine level of the coffee. I couldn't taste the caffeine in my Iced mochaccino ($6.50), it tasted pretty sweet and harmless with all the chocolate and milk. But damn i sure did feel the coffee when I was high as a bird in yoga class after brunch. Obviously the silly me has conveniently ignored the double shot espresso with full extraction description.
I went with the Eggs Benny ($12). I'm quite boring when it comes to picking items for brunch. It's usually Eggs Ben or Big breakfast (due to its sheer variety). 2 perfectly shaped poached eggs came dressed with a light hollandaise sauce on top on the crispy muffins which were perfectly toasted. Despite the small servings, i was extremely satisfied after my meal. I guess that's partly due to the effects of the caffeine. 
Anyway, the eggs were perfectly cooked. The eggs bled a sunset yellow all over the slightly spongy muffin which nicely absorbed that rich flavor. I like the hollandaise sauce which wasn't overpoweringly sour. It actually has a nice creaminess texture to it and i tasted a hint of cheese. Love it. 
Alexis (read about her review here) had the Buttermilk Pancakes with maple syrup ($10). It costs an additional $3 each for strawberries, bananas or back bacon. That to me was quite a ripoff. I expect my pancakes to come with sides! However, the scrambled eggs only cost $2 which was reasonable. Anyway we all agreed that FfT would give us something better for a similar price.

The pancakes were not served piping hot and we had to send it back to be warmed up. Always do the butter test. If it doesn't melt, it's not good enough. Alexis thought that she could taste a wee bit of buttermilk but it's just really mediocre pancakes to me. Too spongy and thick for my liking. Somehow Macs is our standard for consistent pancakes. Revel in the simple things in life.
Nette wanted something small and so she order a BLT sandwich without avocado. The irony is that it was pretty huge compared to what i ordered. The bread has a nice powered crust that crackles nicely when bitten into and also has a firm spongy texture. Despite her lack of appetite, she managed to finish most of it. Verdict- she likes it and that is big for a fussy eater like Nette. :P

Some hits and misses but i think on the whole it's better than many of the other establishments that does brunch in town. Great place to chill out on the weekends. Just about time for brunch now! Ta!

Afternote: Tried the Croque Madame (i topped the Monsieur with an egg) and it's the most fab. Black Bird is the place i'd go to in town for Croque Madame and a strong cuppa.

Blackbird Cafe
6 Handy Road, #01-01A The Luxe
Tel: +65 91858116
Mon–Thu: 11am – 10pm
Fri–Sat & PH Eve: 11am – 12am
Sun: 10am – 10pm
Sun Brunch: 10am – 3pm

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2 comments

  1. Finally more frequent updates! :)

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    Replies
    1. Haha have i been very slow in updating? If only i could make this eating and writing a full time job. :P

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