Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

Finding parking around Nimmies Pastry Cafe was our first indication that we were not the only people with brunch plans. Street parking around Taman Melodies gets tight, so be prepared to leave the car further away and walk.

Our welcome at the door was efficient rather than warm. The waiter managing the entrance seemed more interested in crowd control than hospitality, but thankfully that feeling disappeared once we stepped inside. The converted-house cafe was cosy and inviting, and the pastry display was dangerously good at making us reconsider how much breakfast one table actually needed.

We eventually ordered a mix of local food, brunch standards and pastries. Some were exactly as predictable as they sounded. One beef rendang, however, completely messed up the ranking.

Mozzarella Sticks Were a Safe Start

The Fried Mozzarella Sticks with Tomato Dipping Sauce did not need to prove anything.

They arrived hot with a crisp coating and properly stretchy cheese inside. The tomato dip added enough acidity to cut through the richness and the whole plate disappeared quite quickly once everybody realised nobody was pretending to eat lightly anymore.

Not groundbreaking, but very easy to share.

We Did Not Expect the Beef Rendang to Be This Good

The nasi lemak itself was a handsome plate. Blue pea coconut rice sat alongside egg, peanuts, ikan bilis, cucumber, papadom and sambal, with enough accompaniments that every spoonful could be assembled slightly differently.

The fried chicken version was decent, but the Beef Rendang was the reason we kept returning to the plate.

We generally do not choose beef first. In fact, we have a strange habit of avoiding it and then becoming annoyingly enthusiastic when somebody cooks it well. It happened with the lamb in our Turks KL review, and apparently Nimmies wanted its turn.

The beef was tender, but tenderness alone does not make good rendang. What we liked was how thoroughly the sauce seemed to have worked into the meat. It tasted concentrated and properly cooked down, with richness and spice rather than a wet gravy simply sitting around the beef.

Somehow, a pastry cafe served us one of the top three beef rendangs we can remember eating.

We were not prepared for that.

The Grilled Chicken Sourdough Looked Better Than It Ate

The Grilled Chicken Sourdough came open-faced, piled with grilled chicken, tomato, rocket and avocado over toasted sourdough.

It certainly photographed well. Eating it was less exciting.

The sourdough had a decent chew, and there was plenty of chicken, so nobody could accuse the dish of being stingy. But the individual components never really came together. We kept getting chicken, then bread, then greens, rather than one particularly memorable bite.

Nothing was bad. Nothing made us want another one either.

For a cafe with this many more interesting choices, we would probably skip it next time.

Nimmies’ Breakfast With Rocket Salad Is Exactly What It Says

The Nimmies’ Breakfast With Rocket Salad was substantial enough that we immediately understood who this dish was for.

The plate came crowded with scrambled eggs, beef bacon, chicken sausages, cubed hash browns, sautéed mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, rocket and sourdough. Portion-wise, it was respectable. Nobody ordering this should leave wondering whether lunch needs to happen immediately afterwards.

Our eggs were soft and creamy, the beef bacon brought plenty of savouriness and the hash browns gave us the necessary fried potato element because apparently breakfast has rules.

But taken as a whole? It was a big breakfast. A perfectly competent, filling, photogenic big breakfast.

Nothing on the plate changed our understanding of eggs, sausages or toast. That is also completely fine.

If you want something familiar, this works. If you are only visiting Nimmies once, we would order the rendang instead.

At Least One Pastry Had to Make It Onto the Table

It would have felt mildly irresponsible to visit somewhere called Nimmies Pastry Cafe and leave without eating a pastry. So we ordered the Almond Croissant.

This was much closer to what we hoped for. The outside had flaky layers and enough crispness to scatter crumbs across the table, while the almond filling made the centre denser, nuttier and sweeter.

What mattered was balance. A bad almond croissant can feel like somebody stuffed cake batter into a croissant and called it breakfast. This one remained recognisably pastry first.

We would happily order another, preferably before filling the table with everything else.

Would We Queue for Nimmies Pastry Cafe Again?

Probably, but there is a limit to how long we are willing to stand outside for scrambled eggs.

Nimmies is popular for understandable reasons. The space is warm once you get past the door, the menu is enormous, portions are decent, and the pastry cabinet provides enough temptation to derail whatever sensible ordering plan you arrived with.

Not everything landed for us. The grilled chicken sourdough was forgettable and the Nimmies’ Breakfast was more dependable than exciting. The mozzarella sticks were good sharing food, and the almond croissant reminded us why “Pastry Cafe” is in the name.

But the dish we would return for was still the Beef Rendang.

We went into Nimmies expecting croissants to win. We left talking about beef.

That was not the plot we predicted.