Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant @ Purvis Street

Clinton St. Bakery has finally set its foot on the sunny shores of Singapore. Rated as “best pancakes” by New York Magazine twice, I was excited to taste the legendary pancakes. Thus on Monday morning, together with Daniel, Nicole and Nicholas, we made our way down to Purvis Street. The location was described to be a match of the vibes of Clinton St. Baking Company & Restaurant on the Lower East Side of New York City. We reached at about 11am, slightly before the crowd started to stream in, and managed to get a table easily.

Besides the pancakes and chicken & waffles, the service crew has recommended the salmon burger to us. The made in-house salmon was served with avocado, tomato, baby arugula and tartar sauce on the burger bun. I like how well seasoned the salmon patty was and with bits of onion, there was a crunchy texture with every bite you take. There was also generous serving of sides such as house slaw, greens and pickles. In my opinion, this is definitely a burger that I would come back for. =)

The famed pancakes with warm maple butter ($18) come with 3 flavours to choose from – wild blueberries, banana walnut, or chocolate chunks. When the pancakes arrived at our table, there were woo and wow for the thick stacks of pancakes. Indeed one of the fluffiest and fatest pancakes that I have ever seen. Unlike the usual pancakes, it has a savory and buttery note to it which I totally enjoyed with the luscious maple butter. However, if you have the pancakes plain, without any condiments, there was a mild aftertaste that hinted the heavy handedness of baking powder usage. Nevertheless, if I am not too picky, it is one of the better pancakes that I have eaten. For peeps who are looking for the pancake recipe, I have found one online which I have yet to try. I will update it asap once I tried it.

Another famed dish is the chicken & waffles ($21). I would highly recommend to order the Buttermilk fried chicken plate ($25) instead if you are the mood for buttermilk chicken. For the waffles & chicken, it comes with only a piece of chicken breast while the buttermilk fried chicken plate comes with thigh, drumstick and breast meat which is more value for money. Personally, I am not a huge fan of breast meat and this “breast” was slightly tad dry and tough for my liking. Perhaps a drumstick or thigh would fare better. No doubt the fried chicken batter is very aromatic and crispy. Definitely worth my trip to go down again if there isn’t a queue in front of me. And yes, please top up another $7 for the sugar-cured bacon. If you are a bak kwa lover, this will be your thing. Yumz.

I have read somewhere that the shakes were quite filling thus I have chosen a cup of latte instead. A 3 coffee beans blend of Columbia, Brazil and Guatemala is being served. So if you prefer something with high acidity, this might be your cuppa joe. Nicholas has ordered a blueberry shake($10) while Nicole ordered a root beer float ($10). If you like something sweet, root beer float might suit you better. My personal preference amongst the two was the blueberry one which was packed with antioxidants, not so sweet and the consistency was not too thick.

We ended the luncheon with a Black and White layer cake ($9.50). The chocolate layer was rich, bittersweet and sinful while the vanilla layer was quite a contrast in terms of texture. This would really be my slice of perfect cake if it was made up of only the chocolate layer (I am biased towards decadent chocolate fudge).

While there are hits and misses but given that it was the first week of its operation, I am impressed with the food served. There was nothing too bad that I would curse and swear and leave the entire dish untouched. In fact, most items we have tried were above the average. I foresee the queue to continue for the next few months unless you go there during off peak hours or early in the morning. But do bear in mind, most items are available only after 11.30am. On days when you are feeling tai tai, the deco here might just suit your mood as well. 😉