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2013-10-02
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When you first walk in to the cafe, you'll find the atmosphere very cosy and relaxing. In the afternoons and evenings, there are no fancy lightings or lamps, just the natural light coming in from the windows. (However, sitting by the window would invite glances from people queueing up for taxis) The furniture and natural lighting makes for great food photography and hanging out with your friends. From their menu and decor, I infer that they are famous for their fries and desserts. The prices are
Fortunately, there are promotional sets available at the JCube outlet and I've dined at Pique Nique twice, once for lunch and once for high tea. On both occasions, my stomach and wallet walked out in delight.
They have an on-going high tea set promotion everyday until 6pm, where you get a slice of cake and tea/coffee for just $8.50++. Reasonably priced. I had English Breakfast Tea and a slice of Passionfruit Meringue Cake. The passionfruit cake was good as it was creamy and moist, but it was a little on the sweet side. The portion of cake is reasonably sized as well for the price. The tea was quite a surprise as I didn't expect to get a whole teapot full of English Breakfast Tea with real tea leaves inside (instead of a Twinings sachet of sort), considering that my friend who opted for coffee only got a single cup. There was enough tea to refill my cup 4-5 times and even then it was fragrant and didn't taste diluted.
My lunch visit happened last week when I found out that they had awesome $6 lunch deals, with $3 add-on for a starter (soup or salad) and dessert. Considering that the main courses cost 15-20 bucks in the menu and the desserts were at least 5 bucks, this was really value-for-money. I opted for the Meatball Pasta and Crab Chowder soup. The portions were generally filling. The meatballs were more like 'pieces of meat', but they tasted great and the tomato sauce of the pasta was not too overbearing (I cannot stand strong tomato flavours). The pasta noodles on the other hand were cooked perfectly, not too soft. The soup was generous with the crab meat and other add ons, but it was served mildly cold. The bread that came with the soup was also hard to bite.
For dessert, you get to choose between 2 pieces of macarons or a cupcake. The range of cupcake flavours they have on display was more attractive to me and I decided to go with the Violet Flower Cupcake. I've never seen, let alone taste, a violet flower flavoured cupcake before, but suffice to say, after tasting it I'd want more. It has a unique sweet flavour to the cupcake base that is generally pleasant. It also comes with a generous serving of buttercream icing which was not too sweet. The interesting thing about the cupcake was a little purple tube at the side that I had assumed to be a piece of candy or stick biscuit. It was filled with raspberry puree that you could pipe onto the cupcake on your own. That was a major plus point for me: I love playing with my food. The raspberry puree was a little sour, which blends nicely with the sweetness of the cupcake. Mmm.. simply sinful.
I wholly enjoyed my whole Pique Nique experience, both times. I don't think that the main courses are really worth 15-20 bucks on the daily menu (unless the portions were larger), but go for the desserts. They're really good.Post
