Singapore Food Blog - Brunch @ DOME, Plaza Singapura

Location: Dhoby Ghaut, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore

Updated: This branch has ceased operation.

I am not unfamiliar with DOME cafe, having tried it in Malaysia a few times. Lingering memory of good food and fragrant coffee offered by the cafe originating from Western Australia left me with longing. And on a few fine mornings, I just had to quench my insatiable thirst for its coffee by visiting the branch tucked in the middle of Plaza Singapura. After all, it did promote its coffee as "World's Finest Coffee".

Once in DOME Cafe, it is essential not to miss out on your coffee. 

The little cafe corner wasn't usually packed with breakfast takers, but neither was it devoid of people. There were usually families trying to make their kids take their breakfast, some lasses giggling to their girlie secrets, and some lone patrons nursing their own cup of joe while reading the papers or scrolling off the tablets. The decor of the unbounded area was the usual you would expect from DOME cafes around Singapore or Malaysia - oakwood furnishings amidst green panels and large mirrors. But then of course, anyone bothered to look up would notice the more impressive upturned dome with compass points and painted murals, a fit for the name of the cafe.

The menu, the ceiling mural and the breakfast takers. DOME Cafe emphasizes a lot of employing wood in its decor, from the mirror frames to the menu holder, the latter of which is an undeniable combination of elegance with usefulness. Notice that the inverted dome (a consistent appearance in all DOME Cafes) does not has the cardinal points - it is not E,W,N,S. It actually spells its name out, thus is gets a little confusing when you saw E and W yet could not make sense of the other two letters immediately.

To get to the cafe without ordering coffee would be a shame. It is after all a cafe famous for its coffee. My barely awoke friend sometimes got himself a double espresso for the punch, but I preferred the milder Cafe Vienna, with its whipped cream and topped with a generous sprinkle of chocolate powder. Sometimes if I was bored while waiting for my meal to arrive, I would just stare at the curtain of cream floating serenely and slowly down the glass to reach the bottom, a quiet symphony in its own right. Of course, my favorite remained the biscotti which came with our coffee, an almond crunch of a cookie to go with our caffeinated fix.

Not every one of us gravitated towards caffeine. My wife's inability to stand too much caffeine (she would get too excited with an accelerated heartbeat) meant that an alternative was required, and that was where some ice teas came to the rescue. A well made choice of Crushed Orange Berries Tea provided the refreshing and cooling beverage to soothe the throat after a meal.

A Double Espresso (SGD4.80) would be a great wake up call in the morning for the caffeine craving mass. On the less enthusiastic side, Cafe Vienna (SGD5.80) would be a nice cup to nurse in the morning. Whipped cream smoothen the texture of the coffee but the bitter punch still linger albeit made much milder by the cream. One of the things I loved about DOME Cafe's coffee is that most of them came with biscotti, tantalizingly crunchy with an almond taste. To have a bite between drinks or to dunk into the coffee to soak up the caffeine is entirely up to the drinkers choice.

Not craving for any coffee? Crushed Orange Berries Tea (SGD5.70) would do well as a refreshing replacement. The slightly sweet glass of refreshment has a hint of orange within, some say they tasted more orange than berry. Whichever side your taste bud lean towards, there is no doubt that this glass full of crushed ice is something you wanted by your side after wandering in from the hot late morning.

A coffee in the morning without anything solid in the stomach would be harmful to the gastronomy system. Fortunately apart from serving good coffee, DOME Cafe also serves good food. The price may not be comparable with a bowl of noodles, but this is Western dining, and to compare it that way would not be a fair comparison. The choices of breakfast involves the usual culprits of Western styles - bacon, eggs, jam and butter, toast and tomatoes.

I usually got myself a hearty meal, enough to bridge the timezone between breakfast and lunch. Such is the way of a lazyworm who wakes up late in the late morning. Pardon my lifestyle. DOME Cafe catered for people like me, who sometimes enjoy the array of choices they listed under All Day Breakfast. There is very little in the world to beat having crunchy toast, fragrant scrambled eggs and salty bacon as breakfast, something which my friend agrees dearly with me.

But I did not bind myself to only take toast and egg for brunch in my past visits. Delicious as they may, they just could not keep my tummy from growling after a few hours, keeping me stranded between lunch and dinner. If the hour got too late, I would get myself something from the Hot Kitchen, Baked Rice or Pasta sections where pastas and meaty meals lingered to be noticed. This is a section which would fulfill a diner's appetite for a more filling meal. It is unfortunate that the portion of the meal would be less than satisfying, and coupled with the tempting taste you could hardly resist flipping the menu for desserts.

Bacon and Egg on Toast Set (SGD10.80) - a hearty and Western way to make your day. Toasted to a slight crisp, the 2 pieces of bread toast made good company to the salty bacon and fragrant scrambled egg. Spread the jam or butter on your toast generously to get a tastier breakfast!

Chorizo Sausage and Hawaiian Chicken (SGD14.20) hooked me up with 2 of my favorites - sausage and garlic cream. The sausage was tenderly chewy but the garlic cream did not contain as much garlic flavor as I would have liked. Slices of mushroom matched the tenderness of the sausage like a couple.

Grilled Porcini Mushroom Chicken (SGD16.50) - a signature dish from DOME and one of my personal favorite. Sweet porcini mushroom sauce topped the dish of boneless chicken thigh, with baked potato and eggplant balancing the diet. The chicken was well done with solid texture, and consuming it with a swirl of mushroom was irresistibly good.

Smoked Bacon Carbonara (SGD14.60) - it's bacon in the pasta, what else need be said? Thick creamy sauce tests the limit of your resistance to its briny taste, and when you give in and keep digging more into your mouth, you have my permission to relish in the bacon slices' chewy texture and salty flavor. An irresistible pasta dish that is a must order for bacon lovers!

Breaded Fish Curry Baked Rice (SGD12.20) is another personal favorite. The buttered rice was baked to a perfection, a solid texture neither too hard nor too soft. Breaded fish fillet sticks added a crunchy goodness to the whole dish. Despite the "spicy" caution, the curry is not spicy at all, and curry lovers should not expect much from the lower than mild taste of spice in the dish.

Seafood Baked Rice (SGD12.20) is generously stuffed with seafood, from tiger prawn to baby octopus to white clam, and a Mexican sauce gratin with cheese topping an oven-baked buttered rice. Tempting fragrant greeted us upon serving.

And what better way to end a brunch than to brush off leftover crumbs of delectable pie from the plate? I had only ordered one dessert from DOME before, a pumpkin pie, and it was a memorable one. I could still imagine the lingering taste of sweet pumpkin, an irresistible flavor which melted in my mouth. I must definitely get another dessert off DOME's menu to try in the near future!

Pumpkin Pie (SGD6.20) is an irresistible offer from DOME. Topped with a piece of cookie and dotted with pumpkin seeds, this sweet temptation is a must have! Scoop the soft custard into your mouth and feel it literally melt, filling your throat with pumpkin flavor. Crunch through the solid pie shell and feel yourself resisting the urge the lick every single crumb off the plate.

Plaza Singapura's DOME outlet may not win any award with best decoration, but it does its best to serve your every needs. The small footprint of this outlet does deduct a few more points from being the ideal dining spot in the mall, but I am definitely attracted by the few personal favorites there that I am returning to the cafe often.

Suitable for:            for family or friends, or just for usual dining; especially recommended for breakfast because of their coffee

Cost:                           an occasional visit would not strain your wallet

Website:                    Official homepage of DOME Singapore

Contact:                     +65 - 6884 3601 (phone)/+65 - 6884 7601 (fax) (Plaza Singapura branch)

Address:                     68 Orchard Road, #03-92 Plaza Singapura, Singapore 238839.

Operating hours:   10.00 a.m. - 10.00 p.m.

Directions:                Disembark at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station and make your way up the escalator. Head towards the new extension wing (it is further from the escalator from MRT once you reached the Ground Floor) and go to the third floor.