The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf: All-Day Breakfast

The Halal Food Blog Team never had a good impression of food at The Coffee Bean.
Sure, it was a great place for a coffee (or an Iced Pure Chocolate!) but the food was... lacking.

I guess it all boiled down to one experience. Our first dining experience at The Coffee Bean in fact.
It was a few years back and it was at the outlet located at Changi Airport T2.
It was pasta and it was horrible.

And we always joked about going back to The Coffee Bean for another "great" meal.
So you can imagine our caution when we heard people telling us about the "fantastic" and "delicious" breakfast menu at The Coffee Bean.

One weekend, we woke up (in the afternoon) and walked over for some All-Day Breakfast goodness.

Salmon Brioche Eggs Ben ($11.90)

You guys probably read our review on Swensen's Breakfast so you know I'm a sucker for Eggs Benedict.

The Coffee Bean actually does have a more traditional Eggs Benedict on the menu but I thought I'd go for the brioche instead. In case you were wondering, Brioche is actually just a type of bread with a higher egg and butter content which gives it a unique crumbly but rich texture.

As always, smoked salmon is my preferred topping of choice (which is why I didn't choose the traditonal Eggs Benedict) and the smoked salmon here was of a superb quality. I really really enjoyed it!

The Hollandaise sauce was not too bad and went well with the brioche but it does tend to overload after awhile because of the richness of the brioche. But the side salad is just nice to cool your palette with some fresh and sweet flavours.

But what about the egg???

When I said in our Swensen's review that I was disappointed with the eggs there, can you imagine how I felt here? Probably like 10x worse.

It's supposed to be a poached egg. I complained that the Swensen's one was not runny enough but this one was worse because it was not runny at all! Yikes! Oh well. At least I enjoyed the smoked salmon.

And by the way, don't let looks fool you. It's REALLY filling because of the brioche.

Country Breakfast ($11.50)

The Country Breakfast was a bit more traditional.
Scrambled Eggs with some baked beans, hash browns, a black pepper sausage, brioche and a side salad.

When I look at this, I can't help but think to myself that it's something that most of us can whip up at home.
Scramble some eggs, get some hash browns, sausages, veggies and beans from the supermarket and maybe use some bread or a muffin. Sounds simple right?

Hahaha it ALWAYS sounds simple but most of us just want a hassle-free breakfast without cleaning up am I right? Well, if you're looking for a hearty choice this is probably it.

Nothing special or spectacular taste-wise I guess. Hash browns were a little soggy actually but the eggs were cooked better than the ones I had that's for sure. Overall quite okay lah for breakfast.
But the black pepper sausage was delicious by the way. Black pepper kick early in the morning!

And by the way, the price of your breakfast gets you a choice of either a hot or cold beverage.
You can choose from a list they have. We had the tea!

Adam's Verdict:
Salmon Brioche Eggs Ben 2.5/5 -- Country Breakfast 3/5

Maryah's Verdict:
Country Breakfast 4/5

I have to say that the menu offered does look very promising and I can see why so many people have actually been raving about the breakfast at The Coffee Been and also Beanstro.

I have a feeling there's going to be a Part 2 to this post. Maybe even a Part 3 and 4?

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

EHub @ Downtown East
1 Pasir Ris Close #02-08

Tel: 6582 0208
www.coffeebean.com.sg/coffeebean

Operating Hours:
8am til 10.30pm Sundays til Thursdays
8am til Midnight Fridays & Saturday

Swensen's - Breakfast

My darling wife tells me one day that Swensen's offers a special breakfast menu on weekends and public holidays. This is big news because they were offering a dish that I was absolutely obsessed with at the time...

So we put in our best efforts to wake up early on weekends when I wasn't working so we could visit Swensen's. It would only be like 2 months later that we finally managed to make our way down!
Would it be worth it?

Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict ($12.90)

Eggs Benedict!
I'm a sucker for Eggs Benedict and I'm a sucker for smoked salmon.
So with this dish, I'm automatically a double sucker!

And it's pretty rare to find a Halal version of Eggs Benedict because it normally consists of ham or bacon instead of the smoked salmon. So thankfully there seems to be a new trend of this Halal version being offered at a few eateries so that's great!

Did you know that Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon (instead of ham) is actually called 'Eggs Hemingway'?

So how were the Eggs Benedict at Swensen's?
Well....

Unfortunately the eggs were not very well-poached. When I think of Eggs Benedict, I think of poking into the egg and the runny yolk just flows out and spreads the whole thing with yolky goodness. The yolk in this case was pretty much just about 4/5 cooked so it was mostly solid with just a little bit of runny parts left as you can see from the picture above.

The Hollandaise Sauce (normally egg yolks, butter and lemon juice) was a little bit on the sour side. Perhaps too much lemon juice I reckon? Plus it only came with some baked beans and no other trimmings like a side salad or anything like that so many might find the price tag a little hefty.

The best part of the whole dish was the sourdough bread the eggs are served on.
Swensen's still has some of the best sourdough I've ever had and that was the best part of this dish.

Hearty Steak & Eggs ($14.90)

The other dish we tried was the Hearty Steak & Eggs.
That's right. Steak for breakfast. Fierce or what!

It comes with a slab of steak (which is a pretty decent size) smothered in sauteed onions and mushrooms, a sunny-side up, BBQ baked beans and 2 special buns with a surprise inside!

In case you were wondering, those are the BBQ baked beans that come with both the Eggs Benedict and the Hearty Steak and Eggs. They're actually not bad at all!

The 2nd picture shows the steak all sliced up. Not really the thickest steak ever (well, it IS breakfast) but it's cooked well enough so that it's still tender and juicy. Unfortunately the sunny-side up was again a disappointment. I guess Swensen's just doesn't do eggs the way I like em...

Oh and I almost forgot the buns!

Surprise!

That's actually baked honey butter cream in the middle of a Ciabatta bun!
It's actually really tasty! Just think of soft butter with a sweet honey tinge to it!

Adam's Verdict:
Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict 2/5 -- Hearty Steak & Eggs 3/5

Maryah's Verdict:
Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict 1.5/5 -- Hearty Steak & Eggs 2.5/5

There are actually quite a number of other breakfast items being offered. More traditional breakfast favourites like pancake, waffles, french toast, omelettes and even sandwiches!

But yet again, the service at the Tampines Mall Swensen's left a lot to be desired.
Not the first time but I sure hope it's the last time.

Swensen's (Tampines Mall)

Tampines Mall
4 Tampines Central 5, #03-30
www.swensens.com.sg
Tel: 6781 5489

Operating Hours:
10.30am-10.30pm (Weekdays)
8am-10.30pm (Weekends)