The husband and I came by the ARC for the first time as we had to send our macbook to The Repair Hospital and decided to explore the mall for breakfast options. Not many were available so we settled on Room Coffee Bar.
Loved the quote on the wall in the background. This was just a no-frills cafe with a very straightforward and limited menu.
Breakfast menu
Beverage menu
Once we had placed our order and made payment at the counter, we were given this number stand so our food could be delivered to us at where we were seated.
Long Macchiato $4.50
I’m no coffee connoisseur but I do enjoy a good coffee perk-me-up to start the day with and most of the time, I’d go for a macchiato which is espresso with a small amount of foamed milk.
At first sip, this macchiato did ignite my senses but in a rather unpleasant way. It was simply too bitter and sour for me to enjoy it properly and the more I drank, the more tart it was. Pity. The only appealing feature of this was just the biscotti which had a lovely zesty taste to it.
Iced Mocha $7.00
The husband’s choice was definitely better than my macchiato but not by much as it was quite watered-down with a weak taste of coffee. He was equally unimpressed.
Hubby commented this looked like a modest ‘milo dinosaur’. Someone’s really getting more and more ‘localised’ these days, lol.
Quiche of the day $7.50
At first glance when this was served to our table, I was very sure this wasn’t the ‘crustless’ quiche we had ordered because this obviously had a shortcrust pastry shell. And indeed, I double-checked the receipt we had and it was printed as ‘Quiche of the day’ which was 50 cents cheaper than the crustless one. Most likely the crustless quiche wasn’t available (or was our order misheard though we repeated our words twice?) but the guy at the counter didn’t inform or clarify so our order was automatically substituted with this one instead which we didn’t mind as we preferred our quiche to have crust anyway. For non-carbs diners, please check your options just in case.
The quiche was a true saving grace. Its crust was buttery, crumbly and moist – exactly the way I love my quiche to be. The filling was also jam-packed with an array of ingredients. I wasn’t sure if the meat was chicken or duck though but its combination with the finely diced vegetables really gave depth and textures which you could see from the cross-section and it was also less wobbly than some quiches that had higher ratios of custard to ingredients. Though this pastry wasn’t huge in size given its price tag (easily finished in a few mouthfuls), it was still a very delectable treat. Even the salad leaves that were drizzled with a simple sesame dressing was equally gratifying.
Eggs Benedict $11.00
The hollandaise sauce was almost non-existent, lol. Did the guys know we are on a diet or something? Definitely not the prettiest eggs benedict we had seen but those buttered English muffins underneath the poached eggs and honey baked ham were (thank goodness) scrumptious! The muffins were light and chewy in texture with crevices for the butter to seep beneath so every bite was salty and buttery.
The honey-baked ham was mediocre, in fact a little on the dry side. The eggs were almost over-poached as the outside was too firm but we were happy to see the runny yolk cascading down the white like a mini volcano. We just missed a good creamy sauce over the eggs as that’s the highlight of an eggs benedict.
Overall, we felt the food definitely fared better than the coffee though the former wasn’t exactly amazing. Very unlikely we’d be back to try other food on its menu but I wouldn’t mind having its quiche every now and then. And it’d certainly help if the same guy who took our order did not slam food/plates onto our table with a black face. Come on, everyone has bad hair days especially in the mornings but you don’t have to do that to let off steam! Tsk tsk.
Room Coffee · Bar
460 Alexandra Road #01 -18
PSA Building (Alexandra Retail Centre)
Tel: 6438 4230
Website
Operating hours
8.00am to 8.00pm (Mon-Fri)
9.00am to 6.00pm (Sat, Sun & PH)