Sunday, December 21, 2008

Peaberry and Pretzel

I trust my guts instinct that this place is going to be good and thus explains my enthusiasm to pop by the place. Frankly speaking, I have always thought that Sunset Way is just a sleepy HDB town but never did I expect this place to be a hippy dining spot. What makes this place different from Holland Village and Clarke Quay is the surrounding tranquility and serenity, making this location a romantic place for couples, a quiet place for gatherings and a complete different perspective of city life.

The indoor dining area is warmly lit with the English lamps and decorated with the embroidered lamp shades. The use of golden framed mirrors and cushioned seats provides comfortable seating for gatherings. It kind of provides a similar feel like Sweet Indulgence. In short, it is a dimly lit, nicely decorated, small and slightly expensive dining place.

Judging from the comments posted on HungryGoWhere, most felt that this is not a recommended place for main course, particularly if budget is a factor. Moreover, the limited selection of main courses offered may not justify a trip to this place.

Anyway, it was alittle disappointing that they ran out of pork knuckle and thus we have decided to order a THE HUGE PLATE which is basically a huge assortment of sausages and cold cuts accompanied with traditional sauerkraut and potato salad. I wouldn’t recommend this dish since it gets very cloying to eat so many sausages in a go. They were just too salty but have to admit it was a wide selection, ranging from cheese sausages, mutton sausages and beer-flavoured ones.

The huge plate with a selection of sausages, ham, salami and accompanying traditional sauerkraut and potato salad ($34.90 excluding 7% GST and 10% service charge)

Decided to settle with a dessert platter for one despite Yuan’s pleas and this is basically 5 desserts of petite portions of the best P&P’s chef has to offer.

Dessert platter with Varlhona warm chocolate pudding, Raspberry crème brulee, Strawberry tiramisu, Peaberry espresso logcake and Strawberry Cheesecake ($14.00 excluding 7% GST and 10% service charge)


Since the café adopts an open-kitchen concept, the eggy whiff of the chocolate pudding can be smelt in the air and the attention in which the chef gives to each creation can be observed from where we were sitting.

Before I forget, they do serve complementary bread, nicely warmed up with margarine, they do refill upon request but we were saving room for desserts.
__________________________________________________________________

Fen's comments

Despite a disappointing main course, I have to say that I am satisfied when it comes to the desserts I had for that evening. Unlike weird tasting ones from Pastry Bar and Nectarie or extreme sourish from Obolo, the 5 desserts served for the evening was light and refreshing. When this was eaten individually, I would say there is nothing to rave about and it would not have justify a return trip. However, it wasn't the case since we have ordered a dessert platter.

The Varlhona Warm Chocolate Pudding and Raspberry Crème Brulee were served warm in whisky glasses. Although the chocolate pudding was to be a dessert with molten lava of chocolate with vanilla-bean sauce, there was no molten chocolate lava oozing out. Thus, the overall taste was soft, moist and bitterly rich like a chocolate souffle.

The Raspberry Crème Brulee, on the other hand, was a direct opposite of a rich custard base. Beneath the layer of crispy caramel was a light raspberry mascarpone mousse. I only guessed that it was a Crème Brulee due to its crispy layer of burnt sugar. The good thing about this dessert is it being not too sweet and light.

Strawberry Tiramisu, served in the martini glass was a good variation of the layered Venetian dessert. This refreshing and summery desserts has just the right number of layers and thickness of light mascarpone cheese that melts-in-the-mouth and strawberry flavoured finger sponge are of the right texture and balance of sweetness and sourish.

On the contuary, I didn't like the Peaberry espresso logcake, which is supposedly an espresso-infused chocolate mousse and milk chocolate mousse with chocolate fudge cake. It has a similar taste to the Bailey Parfait from Pastry Bar, smooth mousse but its chocolate and espresso lacks the omph factor. Too mild to my liking.

Strawberry cheesecake was a complete disappointment. It lacks the cheese factor and is completely off from what I have from Obolo and Checkers Deli. For good cheesecakes, this is definitely not the place to go.

Though there are food that I didn't in this place, it is understandable that there are always hits and misses in any eatery. Thus, I would say I have fallen in love with the place and I will be coming back for their Pork Knuckle.

Don't miss out on my next entry as I didn't write the last dessert in which Yuan and I have ordered...

And of course, I am definitely not the first to blog on this place so do check out SD Food advisor for better pictures, the lovely dessert pictures on Singapura Daily Makan Photos, Timeless facade (apparently P&P didn’t impress him that much) and yellow & her true colours.
__________________________________________________________________

Yuan's comments

The huge plate was certainly not recommended unless you are really a fan of sausages. This is also the first time which I have eaten mutton sausage. The down side is that it should have come with some sauce. Either mushroom sauce or BBQ sauce. It is kind of dry on its own.

The real star was really the dessert platter. I have previously mentioned that dessert platters tend to be disappointing. However this one left me dumbfounded. Fen and I compete to finish this platter. The good thing about this platter is that it does not use extreme flavours. Not too sweet nor too sour. Generally light and refreshing.

My personal favourite is the chocolate pudding. It taste similar to the bakerzin warm chocolate cake except that this one is more mousse like.
__________________________________________________________________

Peaberry and Pretzel
Blk 106
Clementi Street 12,
#01-52
Singapore 120106
Tel: 6777 3477

Operating hours
12:30pm to 10:30pm (Tues to Fri),
10:30am to 10:30pm (Weekends),
Closed on all Mondays except PH
http://www.peaberryandpretzel.com.sg/



Peaberry and Pretzel has closed but re-opened as Buttercake N Cream.

6 comments:

bossacafez said...

waaaa the desserts look good indeed! and the place really reminds me of....nectarie!

when r we going?? faster plan, else i'll bombard u at yr fb wall like last time heeeee!

red fir said...

You know fen, I think in the quest to suss out the newer bakeries and pâtisserie for cakes, you may have missed out the old ones which imho still have the nicest cakes around. Worthy of mention are Bakerzin and NYDC cheesecakes, the former's cheesecakes though not too rich but they're very smooth and the latter's very rich coz it's American. I'm not a huge fan of cheesecakes (besides the Jap light cheesecake) but when I do crave for any, I only (I emphasize only) go for Bakerzin's Bloom lemon cheesecake. I love love it! And there's QC at Bakerzin, unlike at Can***.

For NYDC, it's cheesecakes everything I promise and the Ugly Cake. In fact all their cakes are good. There's carrot cake too if you're still in the carrot cake phase.

Oh yes, Marmalade Pantry/Toast's cheesecakes are also rich and good. Get them at Toast coz Pantry charges them much higher though they're the same cakes.

Fen said...

Evan: Yea, I like the presentation of their desserts and it does remind me of Nectarie and Pastry Bar... Since P&P is pretty near my workplace, I am flexible so let me know if you wan to drop by but I think I want to try their pork knuckle...

Ice: Actually, if you notice my older entries, my focus is more on the older bakeries and patisserie but as I get to read other blogs, I started to venture new places and frankly speaking, out of 10 visits, 9 seems to disappoint... Somehow or rather Yuan and I don't feel satisfied apart from a big hole in the pocket...

Have to admit Bakerzin is one of the best all-rounder when it comes to cakes and I have 14 entries of BakerZin's cakes on this blog... I don't fancy Canele's cakes, love at first bite but hate it after you finish the entire cake (apart from Le Royale) but the 11 entries were due to comments dropped by various readers, so subconciously, I have tried a fair bit of their selection...

I will definitely drop by NYDC, BakerZin and Toast's when I am doing the cheesecake special but that is one cake I dread eating alot... Like you, American cheesecakes don't appeal to me due to its rich taste... but Fiesta cheesecake is a different story all together...

SLYuan said...

ice: thanks for your recommendations. I guess we are kind of sick of Bakerzin's cake. Nice no doubt but it gets boring as you visit it more frequently. Have to admit NYDC's cakes are good. But it is too rich and may not taste as good if you have the whole piece on its own unless you love those very rich cheese cake. I guess apart from tasting desserts one of our favourite pastime is to explore places in Singapore which we normally wouldn't go. e.g. Bedok North, Sunset Way etc.

Anonymous said...

pity the pork knuckles are finish, i heard its their signature!

how much is the things u had? the pork dishes and the dessert platter.

Fen said...

Yea, tat is why I am going back for their pork knuckle... this time round I am calling them to reserve one for me to avoid disappointment...

Hehe, u missed out the fine prints on my entry, hehe... Dessert platter costs $14.00 while the HUGE plate is $34.90, prices are subjected to 7% GST and 10% service charge

Blog Widget by LinkWithin