Food Places - Alkaff Mansion Cafe

Remembered watching the show The Game Plan on Channel 8 which ended recently? Then you probably might have a slight retention of this place from watching one of the episodes. And yes, it’s located in Singapore.

This is, the Alkaff Mansion.

Situated at the top of Telok Blangah Green, this old colonial building was previously owned by the Arab families, underwent a whopping 5 million dollar revamp to become what it is now, a combination of Italian restaurant, café and bar by the people who brought you Spruce!

As a result of being located along the Southern Ridges, you would definitely find yourself doing some sort of unexpected hiking to this place, be it from under the Henderson Wave Bridge or Hort Park if you’re taking a public transport. A wiser choice would doubtlessly be taking a cab or driving up.

Nevertheless, despite all the hassle to getting there, the scenic view upon reaching the mansion makes it all worthwhile. Its like what I would say hike out of Singapore. All the lush greenery, benches, water features and the architecture itself that makes you have a feeling that you’re overseas is already enough to blow you away!

As you can see, the seats were sheltered all around the alfresco area, but the heat was proven too much to handle and we opt to be shifted to the inside. Although small in the inside, the interior is decorated in a way it looks posh and classy.

Serving from all day breakfast to sandwiches to main courses, we settled with the above four eventually. Pretty appealing to the eyes isn’t it?

And so we heard so much about the Banana Pancakes with Blueberry Sauce ($12.8) being really awesome, it was of slight disappointment when it came to the table. 

Although the pancake was moist and nice, there wasn’t really enough blueberry sauce to dip, it’s just weird to be eating nice pancakes but no sauce to go with it. However, the biscuit crumbs were commendable as they give a bite to the touch!

Nope, you’re not seeing it wrong. That the Eggs Benny on Waffles ($12.8).

YES. WAFFLES.

Weird as it seems, but you’ll be amazed at how egg benny goes well with waffle! Waffles were soft, light and fluffy quite something you would expect from an ice cream parlor just that in this case, with eggs, bacon and mushroom!

 Alkaff Breaky Set ($14.8) is not amazing but kind of not bad in the sense that they include a hash brown and asparagus which makes it slightly different from the typical breakfast out there. Eggs are down to your personal preference because they let you have it your way.

The most zero wow-ed in this trip to Alkaff Mansion would definitely be The Club Sandwich ($14), it’s really just ham, greens and sunny side up stacked in between toasted bread with fries at the side, probably something you can make even without stepping into your kitchen.

Wrapping up, the Alkaff Mansion Café is definitely a place value for the money. Probably give you a hearty meal at less than $20 and worth going at least once, be it the food or scenery. But take note that the breakfast/brunch menu ends at 4pm!

So what are you waiting for!

Alkaff Mansion Café

10 Telok Blangah Green, 

Singapore 109178

Phone:  +65 6510-3068     

Website: www.alkaff.com.sg

Food Places - Dean & DeLuca

Although opened in June just this year, Dean & DeLuca hasn’t really caught me in the hype to visit it like asap due to the poor reviews on the service and the edibles I have read on through varies food blogs and hungrygowhere.

However, on a random Sunday I just so happened to drop by the area with a couple of friends and we thought to ourselves, why not just give it a risk?

Well risk taken indeed. Ever since then, Dean & DeLuca has become one of the few places I frequent whenever I have the chance to drop by Somerset area.

Located at level 4 of Orchard Central, initial thoughts were that the exterior and interior design of the flagship store in Singapore was pretty similar to the ones located at the States and other Asian countries in the sense that they all adopt the open kitchen concept, being spacious and modern interior finishing.

Very much alike the brother and sister outlets around the world, Dean & DeLuca Singapore was no exception for being well known for their wide and flavourful collection of breads, pastries and cakes by themselves as well as other famous bakeries such as Maison Kyser and Bakers&Cook. Seriously, I was in awe by the varieties as I first approached the counter and it took me at least a good 5 minutes to pick what we were going to order. 

After being spoilt for choices, we settled for something by Dean & DeLuca and just so coincidental that both are of my favourite cakes, the Red Velvet Cake as well as the Strawberry "Not So" Shortcake. 

And there you have it. That's the 3 layered Red Velvet Cake ($8.5) filled with all the cream cheese goodness. For the price of this cake almost doubling the usual Red Velvets out there, visually not so worth it till you press the fork into the cake and slowly devour it. Then you start to realised. 

It's so freaking worth it! The cream cheese would what I would say hitting the biting point and the cake was so moist. With the two combination, perfect would almost be the worth to describe this cake. 

But there's something that would be a major turn off, which I would reveal later though.

Next up, as you can see would be the Strawberry Shortcake ($8.5). What I would say would be that this is one of the better strawberry shortcakes as compared to the rest I tried so far. 

Weird enough, first bite gave me this uncertainty of what I'm having actually. Tasted a little like strawberry yoghurt, yet the softness of the cake feels damn fluffy. Nevertheless, after a few bites, we were totally digging it. 

Here comes the bad news, it seems that the cakes are not always available though. So, if you're lucky enough! You might just get to order it!

Now cakes aside, Dean & DeLuca also serves All-Day Breakfast such as waffles, pancakes and such! This gives shoppers around the area another alternative as to other All-Day Breakfast places apart from Wild Honey etc.

This above would be the American Country Breakfast ($22), pretty generous serving I would say. Although large in serving, the combination are quite similar with those you would see at other brunch places at a slightly cheaper price. Apart from that, thumbs up for the mushrooms as well as scramble eggs that will make you crave for more. 

Lastly, would be the Berries and Flap Jacks ($18). 

Just look at that beautiful stack of fluffy buttermilk pancakes stacked up nicely with the special whipped cream in between  and dressed nicely with the triple standard berries. Doesn't just the nom-appeal makes you hungry already? Trust me man. I've yet to been to a place where they serve pancakes as fluffy as this gets.

Overall, I would say Dean & DeLuca definitely deserved more than just bad reviews. This visit there totally changed my perception of them especially with their cakes and pancakes which I would urge you guys to try it out!

Dean & DeLuca opens everyday from 11am till 10pm but sadly they do not accept reservations, so be there at the correct timing to avoid the crowd and disappointment! 

Dean & DeLuca Singapore

181 Orchard Road, 

#04-23/24 Orchard Central, 

Singapore 238896

Phone:  +65 6509-7708     

Website: www.deandeluca.com.sg