Christmas 2013 fell in the middle of the week. It was one of those rare occasions where I stayed in Singapore to have a taste of being a tourist in Singapore. It’s not easy to plan for a day trip in Singapore, especially for a fussy guy like me. Hence, I came out with a simple itinerary, which comprised of good food (reviewed and recommended by some blogs) and those commercialized tourist spots for a couple of us to walk around. Some says “No plan is always better than a master plan”, this is really true for our case, as we didn’t achieve much (of the plan) in the end of that day.
Anyway, a good day always starts with scrumptious breakfast. Our buddies and I decided to go this place, called PS Café. There are a few branches around the island. My friend suggested the one in Palais, as according to him, the ambient and the foods served there are good. So, we headed there for a late breakfast or brunch, to be exact.
Below is the brief review on how I felt about this café.
Ambient/ Environment:
This particular PS café is located in a shopping mall called Palais Renaissance, an extremely quiet shopping mall on public holiday, like Christmas, was super odd. I realized that none of the shops, except for restaurants and cafés, was opened. Look at the PS Café from far, there’s a strong festive feel spreading out from the café. It reminded us that it’s Christmas day, not just any public holidays, which was very good and beneficial to someone who got infected by the hottest disease to all modern people (including me, obviously) – The vicious short-term memory lost.
Stepping inside, a lay-back European feel was easily noticeable. All of a sudden, the tense feeling that I always feel in Singapore had all gone. Hmm, so far so good then.
Food:
To me, good foods + a good cup of coffee are always the recipe for a perfect café. There were 6 of us coming all the way here for the brunch. As usual, we ended up ordering 5 brunches and 2 desserts to share. I will keep the review short and concise.
I ordered myself a cup of Cappuccino to start off my day. Looks good, isn’t it? It tasted good, but not great. The foam was smooth enough; however, the coffee taste was too light to my liking. I was quite baffled by the chocolate they put on top of my Cappu.
First dish to be served was the Egg Benedict. Looks like a piece of art huh? It tasted great too. The poached eggs were well cooked; the bacon was crispy and tasty; the bread underneath was soft. The combination of everything was just wonderful.
Next to be served was Green Goddess Pesto Pasta. This was a rather green and very healthy dish. It’s a cold dish which simply tossed the pesto pasta together with green vegetable, such as broccoli, string beans and some basil (maybe). A couple of pieces of cheddar cheese were placed on top while it’s being served. All I can say is that this pasta is the healthiest pasta that I have come across thus far in my life. The cheese was a bit too salty to my taste though.
Next up was something that’s completely different from the Green Goddess Pesto Pasta. It’s one of the heaviest meals of the day, called PS. Bacon & Eggs. It’s somewhat like those big breakfasts that we have seen in any brunch cafés. This huge plate of thing comprised bacon, scramble eggs, sausages, roasted mushroom, toast and baked tomato. The combination of all these was just great; none of the items was overpowering the other.
After the heaviest of all, a special dish was served- The Mushroom Wellington. This thing was something similar to the meat pies that we normally eat. We could almost call it a mushroom pie. The skin, like any other butter skin, was crispy; the filling was juicy, the mushroom taste was all locked by the skin. This was the first time I tried this, which gave me a rather special experience. However, surprises could only work once; I will pass this dish for my next visit, if there’s any.
The last to be served was the Brunch Burger. Look at the thickness of this thing! I believe none of us has mouth that’s big enough to actually bite it through from top to bottom. The ingredients used to make this burger were fresh. The patty was juicy and nicely grilled. The bread was soft. To my surprise, I didn’t find this burger too heavy. It may because of the great balance between the meat patty and vegetables.
After the main courses, we ordered 2 desserts to share- Ultimate Fudgy Brownie & Sticky Date Pudding. I don’t recommend either of them, as they are way too sweet.
Services:
Some of the waiters there were not friendly enough to do service industry, some I could even call them rude. They didn’t have much smile on their faces, as if they didn’t really like to work there or even in service industry. I would rather have self service style than those black-faced waiters to serve.
Verdict…
The foods served here were of certain standard, I would say they were above average, in term of taste and surprise. However, I would suggest the operator of this café to do better filtering job while hiring the waiters & waitresses. Sometimes, a warm smile could certainly make the food tastes nicer.
Price wise, sorry to say, it’s as good as the foods they served (or you can say it’s as unfriendly as the waiters working here..). I honestly believe that we could have comparable foods at two-third of the price (if not half) we paid here. To be frank, I wouldn’t mind paying extra for a great café.
The PS Café is good, but not quite there yet.
lifebeginsat24th 