Dean & Deluca (Hillv2)

We were four years too late for the opening of Dean & Deluca in Singapore (to much fanfare and rave reviews). With the Orchard Central flagship outlet apparently closed for renovations, we hopped down to the outlet at HillV2 for brunch.

Relatively spacious with high ceiling windows to allow for lots of natural light in against a predominantly white background of walls, tables and chairs, D&D seemed pretty quiet on a weekend late morning. The handful of customers seemed like residents of the neighbourhood (my conjecture); not quite a good sign of things to come?

Truffle Scented Carbonara - This was a weekend special and I'm usually a sucker for carbonara. Just not this one. For starters, the sauce was thick but lacked depth or richness and came across as creamy at best. Spaghetti was a little soft and I couldn't make out any scent of truffle. The only positive came from the generous serving of bacon slices and crisp bacon rashers. Very average overall.

American Country Breakfast - Huge servings aside, the American Country Breakfast was a disappointment in many ways. For starters, the sausage came across as bland. Ditto the scrambled eggs, which really could have used a little more milk as well. The toast was crisp but lacked fragrance whilst the side of hash brown was a tad too hard. Seriously average.

Caramel Cheesecake - I didn't quite take to this as the moist base lacked the crumbly texture that I personally like. But both the cheese and caramel didn't come across as too overwhelming. Overall an average eat.

Brioche French Toast - This dish looked absolutely delicious but although the flavours were pretty good, the toast itself was quite a letdown. Coated with cereal which gave a crunch on the outside, it was disappointingly limp and soft on the inside. I would have expected the insides to retain a certain measure of compactness and firmness but alas! Drenched in caramel sauce and topped with berries, bananas and served with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, the whole concoction tasted a little like sticky date pudding.

With 50% off, we paid $45, which isn't expensive for the quantity of food. However quality is lacking which probably explains the sparse crowd during weekend brunch hours. I won't be back, not even with the 50% reduction.

See all my pictures here.