Singapore Food Log: The Tree Cafe, The Cathay
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For the first time in my life that I found a restaurant which is closed at 1PM on a Sunday. I wonder if Batter Batter has earned a comfortable amount of earnings up to the point they only re-open the restaurant at 2PM. Hmm, it’s definitely weird but I suppose some restaurants probably don’t have to earn so much money. But anyway, since my friend’s suggestion is not available earlier, we decided to walk back to the Cathay to try out the pretty new cafe in the mall, The Tree Cafe.
The Tree Cafe is situated at level 2 at the Cathay and oh boy, I was kinda surprised to see the nearby Ban Heng has closed its door for good. F&B business must be pretty tough to handle with so many restaurants come in and out. To be honest, the Tree Cafe occupies the site which is notorious for F&B to come and go but let’s hope they can last longer than its predecessors. But it all boils down to what kind of food and drink that the cafe serve I guess.
For a start, the cafe seems to offer reasonable price for its dishes ranging from SGD 8+ to SGD 16+ (the most expensive at SGD 16+ is grilled salmon). It has a variety of dish I would say from rice bowl, all day breakfast, burgers, mains to pasta & salad. I’ve never seen eggs benedict costing less than SGD 10 so I’m up for it. Meanwhile, my dining buddy is in the mood for rice bowl so she goes for teriyaki beef rice bowl (SGD 8.5). The drink menu also offers latte at cheaper price compared to cafes out there with hot earl grey latte costing less than SGD 5 (I think it’s SGD 4.50). So I ordered earl grey latte hoping that they come with latte art.
Unfortunately, my wish did not come true, the barista probably need to spend more time to perfect the latte art and even the drink overall. While I can taste the taste of earl grey, I think their definition of earl grey latte is earl grey tea + a huge dose of milk until the whole drink is kinda too diluted. While it’s not perfect, I still finish the drink tho. Hahaha. I suppose I don’t like leaving some wastage. Money is after all, hard to earn.
The food is not that bad considering the price is cheaper than egg benedicts at other places. The eggs poached perfectly and surprisingly goes well with baguette. At first I thought the mayonaisse looks excessive but turns out it’s pretty good although I realise there’s no benedict sauce in this egg dish at all. LOL. I suppose the chef probably substitute mayo (which is good for a lot of stuff I have to say) for benedict sauce because benedict sauce is a pain in the ass to make, I heard. My dining buddy did not really make any comment about the rice bowl but she left a few pieces of beef in her bowl. I kinda wonder now whether the beef are not cooked perfectly and hence, she did not eat them. Oh well.
I’m not sure if I would come back again cause most of the time I will be lured to Popeye’s downstair whenever I visit the Cathay. But if I need a place to sit down to have a good chat while having affordable meal, I think I will consider the Tree Cafe. Let’s see how it goes.