PaiGu

What better way to spend a public holiday in the middle of the week than a long brunch? And what better way to recover from a hangover than sangria at 11am?
It was with this thought in mind that I made my way to Artichoke Cafe & Bar on a Tuesday for some breakfast and good company.

With no reservation, we were forced to sit outside, although we were lucky that it was a relatively cool day in Singapore. Tucked away in the courtyard behind two buildings, we were suddenly transported away from present-day Singapore to colonial Singapore. The wicker chairs, the red-painted outer wall of the cafe, the white-paneled windows and doors… the place had its charms, no doubt. But would it live up to its potential?

Artichoke’s brunch menu is relatively simple, although I could see the ingredients were high quality and a lot of thought had been put into piecing together the items on the menu. The quality menu was lost on its servers though, who were clueless as to what the menu contained, what the ingredients were, and what they themselves were doing there. Needless to say, service was slow and confusing, but it was hard to be mad at the servers who were so utterly clueless. It would be like scolding newborns!

I started off with a sangria to put me in the mood for a slow day. Instead, I was jolted awake by how absolutely awful the sangria tasted. It seemed like their idea of sangria was citrus soda with white wine. A place like this couldn’t afford to cut up some real fruits for a sangria? Sangria is such a straight-forward drink, how could they screw that up? I wasn’t feeling the love. What they gave me was barely drinkable, so I let it sit and watched the condensation slide down the glass as we waited for our food.

I opted for the scrambled eggs and bacon chop, which turned out to be a good decision. The maple-glazed bacon chop was thick and meaty, with just enough fat to be tender and fragrant. The scrambled eggs were on the runny side, purposefully so.

I also tried my friend’s hash browns, which were crisp and delicious (and oily, as hash browns go). Originally, I asked for ketchup to go with the eggs and hash browns, but they said the kitchen didn’t have any. A brunch place that does not have any ketchup? Just as I was working myself into a huff, I asked if they had maple syrup and, lo and behold, they did! The tension was quickly diffused as I embraced my Canadianism and poured a generous portion of maple syrup over everything on my plate.

While the food turned out to be good, the service was in a constant state of hopeless confusion, and the sangria was an unmistakable failure. I would probably not return unless a friend of mine decided to host a meal here, and even then it would only be for the ambiance.

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