The Late Morning Escapades

Jimmy Monkey serves great food and coffee, though being an Australian-inclined café the choice are limited to bread-based western. Here is the all day sourdough and egg with additions of bacon and wilted spinach. Great crispy bread, decently-runny egg (adjust the seasoning by yourself as the egg by itself is not heavily seasoned), crispy bacon. They offer 4 different spreads and I chose vegemite. Wholesome brunch indeed!

Don't think I have ever made an appreciation post for my favorite bagel here - Hangover Helper [$13]. It is the typical big brekkie, say scrambled eggs, bacon, tater tots, parmesan and aioli in bagel form. They also stock up on drinks, both in-house and canned/bottled. Since they open only till the afternoon it's where you can get your morning/brunch/noon booze too!

Located in SMU, this café offers hyped food and environment for students and general masses who like to hang out at a university environment. In frame is B.E.C. (is it Bacon, Egg and Cheese? - $10) with sesame bagel. It is a typical café fare big breakfast in bagel format and similar in composition with one menu item in a renowed bagel house. Overall it taste good due to the aioli and cheese. The scrambled egg seems to be done with a lot of butter as the paper wrapper was drenched with it, that the bacon becomes a bit soggy with it too. If you like butter this is great but very messy. They are really generous with the bacon serving though. The black coffee ($4) is good too - no acidic aftertaste (I don't like coffee with high acidity or fruit-ish notes), just nice and quite balanced. The indoor space is bright, airy, well socially-distanced, rustic and instagramable, with more seats outdoor including the SMU wooden benches facing the National Museum.

Bread Yard's mains are generally fantastic and at the same time, almost always filling. Here is seared tuna bowl [$14] served with a breadstick, and well, bread is their specialty so ultimately there is no doubt about that. In other photos I see the tuna is still red and all but this is white-ish. Another lesson learnt is that I should have asked for more wasabi to make the dish even more flavorful.

Everything was done nicely - they are a bakery first so there is no doubt on the sourdough. Sausage is meaty and juicy, and the earthy tone of the mushrooms is great to complement everything. The egg is runny and seasoned enough for most people (I will put more salt though as I love salty stuff). The bacon fats and flavor really came through even though I prefer it to be crispier. No parts of this dish particularly stand out, but they co-exist well together to bring each other's quality well.

Perhaps I should have ordered the dessert waffles, or was it just a bad day? I have gotten tons of recommendations for Wimbly Lu's waffles, so I popped by their smaller café, that is a little bit out of reach by public transport to try. The breakfast waffle [$19 full, $12 half] is just so so. The waffle is neither dense, crispy or airy, it is in between that it seems confused. The bacon isn't crispy and I can't really taste the juice/fat coating it nicely. Fortunately the iced chocolate with Bailey's [$14] is quite nice, it tastes more like Bailey's which I don't mind at all!

It is the now-defunct Ronin's recipe and especially good for those who have not moved on like me. Crispy sourdough and perfect runny eggs - would have preferred it to be slightly more salty/buttery but all's good!

The cinnamon roll is more on the thick and dense side and the cinnamon were sprinkled just enough to give hints of cinnamon but not until it overpowers everything. I will have it for a slightly heavier pastries breakfast. Flat white [$5] is quite strong, not acidic and the nutty notes, which I am a fan of, came through strongly and nicely. The two complement each other really well. With the current safe-distancing measures and the rain when I visited they operate about three tables on the walkway, which can be crowded from the neighboring cafés, restaurants, fast food joint and services, therefore I recommend takeaways unless you love people walking around you most of the time.

Though I don't find it extremely fragrant, the truffle flavor came through at every bite. It goes really well with the egg mayo and the croissant is so buttery and flakey! I love!
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P.S. They accept BYO cup but not BYO container.

My Habitat Coffee experience has been hit-and-miss, but this time around this is so so good even after traveling such a distance! The pancake is still thick, dense yet fluffy at the same time. The generous sweet toppings and the sauce and cream are given in just nice proportions. This would be enough to last me till the end of these travel restriction I guess. For delivery during this pandemic period there is a minimum order of S$30 and do contact them beforehand to confirm the delivery slot availability.
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Oh I did not take picture of its cold brew, aptly named Liquid Gold, but it is golden! There is slightly more coffee than milk (the combi that I like), not sweet, and not burnt either (as I got a super bitter coffee during my previous visit there).
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In frame: Stuffed berries hotcake [$15]

Have been wanting to try out this place but it is almost always packed to the brim on weekends, so I am so happy when they offer delivery together with Fat Belly's offerings. Nicely done toast, coated with caramelised sugar just like a crème brûlée but not over the top hence it is not jelak and really enjoyable. They are generous on the toppings, which balance out the sugar-y feels of the toast. The cream is my highlight - liquidy, flavorful, and compliments the toast really well!
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In frame:
• Brûlée French Toast [$20 delivered]

Did a bulk order sometime back (with a 4-for-3 mains promo), and I got myself the food I've been wanting to try: Osaka Fluffy Pancakes! The delivery comes with five thick green tea pancakes, three sauces, and a couple of strawberries, blueberries and seeds. The proportion of pancake to topping is not balanced, there are too many pancakes and very little toppings. After two pieces it felt very starchy and jelak, and it was not so fluffy despite the name. Their rice-based food items look fine, though.
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The bottled matcha was very rough, not the smooth type that I enjoy.
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In frame:
• Osaka fluffy pancakes [$14.90]
• Cold whisked matcha [$7]