I was invited back to Citrus By The Pool for a food tasting session last week as they had recently launched a new brunch menu.
For those of you who haven’t heard of this place or haven’t been here yet, Citrus By The Pool is a halal-certified casual dining cafe and restaurant located at Woodlands Swimming Complex. It is truly a hidden gem in the north of Singapore as it offers a pretty good range of Western eats and Asian delights at wallet-friendly prices. If you want to know more and also find out how to get here via public transport, read my earlier blog post -> Citrus By The Pool @ Woodlands Swimming Complex.
Here’s their new brunch menu – three dishes which can be customised with add-on options. Brunch is served from 11.00am to 2.00pm on weekdays and 9.00am to 2.00pm on weekends and public holidays.
Unlike its regular menu whereby every main course comes with one free can drink, the brunch menu doesn’t include beverages so you’d need to order that separately.
We had Flat White (S$4 for hot/S$4.50 for cold) and Caffe Mocha (S$4.50 for hot/S$5 for cold), both of which were freshly brewed. The Flat White wasn’t acidic and was aromatic & smooth – tasted good even without sugar. Same went for the Caffe Mocha that had a nice hint of cocoa.
The Citrus Deluxe Breakfast (S$15.80) came in a very sumptuous and substantial portion. The jumbo black pepper sausage was juicy, crunchy and had a strong aromatic flavour of black pepper. The scrambled eggs was very well done – all moist and fluffy albeit under-seasoned.
They used a healthier alternative of turkey bacon which was chewy and not crispy like regular streaky bacon. The lighter layers of the bacon tasted like luncheon meat whereas the darker part was like lup cheong (Chinese sausauge). Not oily and tasted pretty good.
I also loved that the toasts were thickly-sliced baguette and not sandwich bread. The baguette slices were buttered on both sides (with salted butter so more flavourful) and they were toasted nicely till crispy and crunchy but not to the point of being brittle and crumbly.
The greens had no dressing but added some freshness to the dish.
Benny Goes Fishing (S$14.80) is inspired by the Eggs Hemingway or Eggs Atlantic which is a variation of Eggs Benedict but with smoked salmon.
The house-made Hollandaise sauce tasted heavy of mustard but when combined with the poached eggs, salty smoked salmon, creamy avocado, crunchy lettuce and crispy bread, everything seemed to marry. Hence to enjoy this to the fullest, you would really need to grab a bit of everything in each mouthful.
The eggs were fantastically poached.
Runny yolks and wobbly whites – this is egg porn, man!
The Berry Yummy Stack (S$13.80) looked bright and pretty.
The blueberry pancakes (yes, there were traces of blueberries inside) were soft, fluffy and airy; they tasted good on their own with a nice berry flavour. The berry sauce wasn’t overly sweet and didn’t taste artificial too. I loved the freshness and slight tanginess of the blueberries, strawberries and raspberries that really balanced out the overall sweetness of the dish so this didn’t taste cloying at all.
The pancakes came with butter but I requested for extra maple syrup so I could enjoy the pancakes in two ways. One half with the berry sauce and berries and the other half with butter and maple syrup.
In Conclusion
The Citrus Deluxe Breakfast and Benny Goes Fishing were like Aglio Olio versus Carbonara and since I’ve always preferred something more creamy and saucy, I must say Benny Goes Fishing would be my favourite brunch dish of all. And the pancakes simply offered the perfect sweet ending to my meal.
If you’re coming here in pairs, I suggest that you order all three items on the brunch menu to share. If you can get the best of three worlds, why not? 🙂
Citrus By The Pool
Woodlands Swimming Complex
3 Woodlands Street 12
Singapore 738600
Tel: +65 6366 6581
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Citrusbythepool
Opening hours:
11.00am to 11.00pm (Mon-Fri)
9.00am to 11.00pm (Sat-Sun)
Disclaimer: This was an invited food tasting session. All opinions expressed here are my own personal views.