// Update: Mykii Brasserie Cafe is now closed

Many food lovers always like to go Holland Village as it has always been one of the popular dining spots in Singapore that has so many different restaurants. I recently came to know that Mykii restaurant actually serves brunch on weekends. It wasn’t  even on my list of Brunch Places in Singapore when I had compiled it back then.

Breakfast at Mykii Brasserie Cafe is available on weekends from 11.30am – 4pm, and there are three brunch menus to choose from: Hearty Deluxe ($38), Gourmet Chic ($28) and Classique ($28). We had a Hearty Deluxe brunch set which came with a starter of homemade bread & muffin/scone/cupcake, Mykii Brunch platter, a choice of main course, dessert, coffee/tea and fruit juice. I know, that’s quite an handful isn’t it? In addition to that, we shared another Gourmet Chic brunch set which was essentially about the same as the Hearty Deluxe brunch set – less the main course.

Most of the time, I prefer to order from the ala carte menu, rather than having a brunch buffet. There’s no need for so much variety for breakfast, I’m a cereal-eggs-pancakes-desserts kind of guy. I like to keep brunch simple – nothing too heavy.

The scones are sturdy, yet crumby, hard on the outside yet so moist inside, it’s the type that I will love to have every morning. On the other hand, the Oreo cupcake was just okay, very sweet and a little too dry. The homemade bread, however was excellent. While waiting for the food to come, we couldn’t help but spread the room-temperature butter onto the bread and wolfed down two slices each.

The Eggs Benedict was more than just a pretty face. The magical combination of eggs and bacon always works. While the holladaise sauce wasn’t as buttery as I would like it to be, it’s just assuring to have Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

Mykii’s Brunch platter consisted of French chipolata sausage, grilled fresh tomatoes, streaky bacon with farmhouse eggs. For the eggs, we chose to have the ocean’s catch omelette with squids and prawn with a tangy thai-sweet chili mayonnaise. Hearty and satisfying, this is my classic interpretation of a big breakfast.

By the time the Iceland Smoked Salmon Sandwich arrived on our table, our stomach was already almost filled to the brim. I had no idea why it was named the Iceland smoked salmon sandwich, but I do know for a fact that the fries that accompanied the sandwich were delicious. It was nicely cut, and had a great potato taste. They were also light and not too salty; we finished every fry without feeling guilty.

If you have been around for some time, you will know that I have always been against the marriage of chocolate and banana. There are plenty of different options like orange chocolate and chocolate mint, but yes, I do not like chocolate banana.

The Chocolate Banana cake here did not change my opinion of the popular dessert, but at least it wasn’t that bad. For one, the bulk of the cake was chocolate ganache and only a thin layer was the banana component. I have nothing against banana, but chocolate banana doesn’t work for me.

I was elated when the dessert menu had a choice of Sweet Morning Platter, which was petite old English pancakes with pear compote, smoothie shooter, and vanilla bean gelato. When the dessert came, the size of the pancakes caught us by surprise. Again, I blamed myself for not reading the menu carefully, petite old English pancakes.. Yes it’s petite, small, tiny or whatever vocabularies you can think of.

Well, it wasn’t too bad. It’s pancakes, you know – pancakes always taste good. The slightly sourish smoothie shooter provided a good counterbalance to the sweet duo of pear compote and ice cream. Ooh, there’s vanilla beans! Perfect. Just the way I wanted to end a good and hearty brunch.

Compared with the other brunch places in Singapore, Mykii probably won’t be among my favorites, but that’s not because it’s not good. The food was pretty decent, not top-notch, but good enough. Their brunch menu really spoils me with so much food, and I’m very sure that my stomach will hold a protest very soon if this goes on.

Actually come to think of it, the beautiful part about breakfast food is the simplicity of it. Having a cup of coffee while reading Sunday Times, beginning breakfast with starter-eggs-mains-desserts, and most importantly, having it with your favorite person – what more can you ask for?

Go and have a good breakfast today! Sundays are meant for brunch.

Restaurant Review
Mykii Brasserie Cafe
17d Lorong Liput
Holland Village
Tel: +65 6468 2838

It wasn’t merely a coincidence when the seven of us stepped into Nectarie Patisserie, fate has brought us together. The group of us; all dessert enthusiast, were looking for more after our previous encounter. Our eyes literally light up at the mention of desserts, our saliva flows at the thought of desserts, and our imagination run wild at the sight of desserts.

Just like the number 7, while some sees it as their lucky charm, others dismissed it as pure speculation. Things could gone either way, and our adventure was just the same. Some people could have feel that the place was great with its nice ambience and pretty cakes, while others might have given their verdict that it was crap and terribly expensive for the petite slice of cake. But for us, the company’s was all that matter, even though the cake didn’t exactly deliver, to our lofty expectations.

We were supposed to be in Seventh Heaven, but that failed to materialise, & we found ourselves in Nectarie instead. While the core of us were the original members behind this, we found new friends who shared our common interest.

Choices. Often people had to make their decision in an instant flash. Inside and outside. We were torn between both sides, until reality stuck. The sun had decided for us.

The inside was a long narrow streak, quite unlike what you’ll normally see. The use of mirror and glass to elongate the place, plus the tall table and chairs were clever, and necessary.

We started with the Pistachio white chocolate ($7.50) eagerly, egged on by one of us who was a fan of pistachio. For the pistachio purist, this was unacceptable. The taste of the nut wasn’t strong enough, and the whole cake was sweet. However for the neutralist, the cake was not bad. The green layer did taste more like kaya than pistachio, but the cake was very smooth, i like the thin layer of raspberry jam which contributed to the sweetness of the cake. Althought some might have felt the cake was too sweet, but personally i like the overall subtle taste.

We favoured the Parfait of dark & white chocolate ($7) over its chocolate cousin, the double chocolate mudcake. There was dark chocolate, white chocolate, and the rather chewy layer. Everything seemed perfect, chocolate with chocolate is after all a fail-proof option. But somehow, the whole dessert couldn’t click, something was amiss.

Whether the Granny smith apple crumble ($6) was created by the granny or not, we do not know. But what we know was the crumble skin was crispy and flaky. Served warm, this dish wouldn’t disappoint you. The only gripe, the apple fillings were too little compared to the thick crumble skin.

I have been told that the Caramelized bananas with chocolate ($7.50) here is good. In fact, it ranked among the top 50 cakes by Sunday Times. Undoubtedly the best cake Nectarie has to offer, the banana and white chocolate mousse was velvety and rich. But that wasn’t the best part, eaten together with the crunchy base, the taste was divine. And all of us unanimously agreed it was the star.

If the caramelized banana with chocolate was the best, then the Dark chocolate Opera ($6) would definitely be on the other end of the score sheet, the worst. Even before we got started on this, our dessert enthusiasts already noticed the cake was too dry. Indeed, the texture and taste was almost dehydrated. Disappointing.

We can’t possibly neglect the unique combination of chocolate and coconut in the form of the Chocolate terrine with coconut mousse ($6). I’ve no idea what’s a terrine, my best bet would be chocolate layers. The whole cake was on the sweet side, just like how desserts are supposed to be. The chocolate actually covered the taste of the coconut, so the others were actually eating them layer by layer to discover the coconut mousse.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Tiramisu ($7). I adored them, and they are definitely listed as one of my favourite desserts. Thus I’m always easily satisfied by the simplest and often i ain’t a good judge between an excellent tiramisu and the normal one.

Nectarie’s rendition was unusual for the fact they didn’t have the the typical layers found in others. The sugar & coffee icing were very beautiful indeed. The finger biscuits soaked in kahlua and espresso were right in the middle of the mascarpone cheese. I thought they were too soggy, a fairly average one, just as we suspected.

Total bill was $73 for 7 people, 7 slices of cakes, & 7 beverages. The promotion of 50% off per slice of cake with each drink meant that we need to get 7 beverages to enjoy the discount for our 7 cakes. This is only applicable during weekdays 1-3pm. With most the drinks fairly expensive, it made it seems like we were still paying for the cake, only that it came with a “free” drink.

I’ve noticed one thing, most of the cakes are decorated with raspberry dips on the white plate which made the whole dessert looked pretty. But while it’s nice as a decoration, to have it on every plate of dessert is a tad too much. Simple is beautiful. Yes?

Nectarie Patisserie actually wasn’t that bad, their desserts were generally okay, but for the prices you are just expecting something more, and they failed to come up with that x factor. The ambience is nice. Check. The cakes are pretty. Check. But somehow the taste failed to surprise us. I ain’t sure whether i’ll go back again, but for you people who hasn’t been there, this might just be one cool place to check it out, once.

Nectarie Patisserie
3C River Valley road
#01-05 The Cannery, Clark Quay
Tel: 6305 7628

Check out the rest of the dessert enthusiast entries:
Fen @ sgcake.com
Evan @ bossacafez
Sihan @ Fundamentally-flawed
Vicki @ herlittleblackdress

Until our next dessert enthusiast outing.. Seventh Heaven & choupinette’s calling!