No signs, no entrance: push the gold door.
The good people of The Plain bring about The Bravery, a cavernous cafe with high ceiling. Hipsteristic decor is pushed to the edge, plywood tables with crates as stools. Huccalily disliked it because the decor seemed unfurnished and the stools were low, or in her own words, “Ta ma de, I’m wearing a SKIRT. Everything also show already.” However, I loved the decor because the cafe was carefully decorated to an extreme irony, as if it was mocking itself and its hipsterism. When the afternoon sun flitted through the colored French doors, the cafe was bathed in a sunset color.
The service was as fantastic as The Plain. We especially loved the middle-aged man and angmoh server (two bosses?) who were considerate, thoughtful and cheerful without being sycophantic. But a Malay server (another partner?) called Chiobu “hey, girls,” and she, the feminist, didn’t like that. I am surrounded by strong, independent women; I have awesome friends.
Although not halal-certified, the food was cooked by a Malay auntie, so the bacon in the Brave Begedil ($17, pictured above) was turkey. The Brave Begedil sounded very interesting on paper–two poached eggs, turkey bacon and avocado on begedil, which was hashbrown mixed with corned beef–but like PAP candidates, the dish didn’t quite pan out. The hashbrown, which tasted very Indian–a good thing–became monotonous after a while and the ingredients didn’t work together.
Both Chiobu and Huccalily had the eggs on toast ($8) each with additional items, avocado ($2.50) and smoked salmon ($5). The poached eggs were nicely done, runny, but we wondered why there wasn’t hollandaise sauce to moisten the hard toast. (There wasn’t any hollandaise anywhere on the menu.)
My beef steak ciabatta ($13.50) was the best item we had. The caramelized onions gave a nice zing to the sandwich. All four of us shared a pancakes stack ($15), with banana, ricotta cheese, honey, and crushed pistachio. The pancakes complemented the road name the cafe was on: it tasted like cum. (Strangely, the items we tasted at The Plain tasted like cum too.)
No coffee art?
Overall, we think this is The Plain Part II. Like the Plain, the coffee and service were good but not so the food. Including drinks, we paid about $95 for four or $24 for one. Rather good value.
The Bravery Cafe Singapore
66 Horne Road Singapore 209073
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T: 6225 4387
W-M: 8am-8pm
Rating: 3.175/5 stars
Written by A. Nathanael Ho.
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