Graze, 4 Rochester Park

Nestled within the folds of the small but still lush green grove of Rochester Park, Graze stands as one, amongst six other colonial styled wine and dine locations cut off from most of the urban hubbub and concrete cacophony of busy Singapore. This is especially true when in the early mornings of weekends during the short moments of peace just after dawn before the last of the chirping birds fade into the noise of the impending day.

This was one such morning for myself and my two other breakfast companions. Having heard of this place mentioned more than a couple of times, I was definitely more than intrigued by the offerings of this place.

Being the first foray into verdant shades of the locale, we walked.

We anticipated eagerly of the breakfast to come whilst basking in the open air under the soft rays of the morning sun that manage to penetrate the canopies of the sheltering trees......ok, I'll quit the bull and head straight to breakfast. What we got was the Cast Iron Pan, Banana Pancakes and serving of their omelette. The serving of ice cold water, poured from glass pitchers filled with strawberries was followed by the order and subsequently greeted by a complementary starter of a slice of thick "door stopper" toast for each of the breakfast guest accompanied with a cold dish of butter, raspberry jam and orange marmalade.

More into the toast. Apart from the fact that it comes thick sliced and freshly toasted, the preserves that come along with them did a great job of whetting our early appetites. A closer look.

Golden brown bread slightly charred at the edges spread with cold melting butter folded with cool sweet preserves. One can just imagine sinking teeth into the crispy slice of the morning. Yum. Just look at how that generous marmalade tops the buttery surface of the toast.

The arrival of our breakfast orders.

The glow in you never thought existed in the sunny side up.

This is the Cast Iron Pan. Bacon, eggs, seared tomatoes, baked beans, pan fried mushrooms, baby potatoes and hearty sausages. All the breakfast-y goodness in the confines of the iron pan.

Really, this is as good as good gets. I have more photos than I would like to put up. One can taste the gristles, the rough texture of grounded meat/stuff, feel the skin snap when you slice it through with a knife. And the bacon, I can't begin to describe how great it is to have strips of meat so fatty. The yolk of the egg came really runny which was excellent for dips. There were also mushrooms, potatoes, tomatoes and baked beans... pretty much the all rounder power breakfast. A note here, the pan isn't really as big as it may look in the picture. I was a little surprised since I was expecting something of a really large iron pan, but it wasn't as enormous that I imagined it to be. That's not to say that it didn't fill.

May not be sunny side up, but this is still golden

Contrary to what the menu describes, the omelette does not come served with toast. I do not know if this was an oversight. It comes with the option of several choices of topping which can be seen from the menu. This one comes with sausages, smoked salmon, ham and cheese. There is a surprising sweetness in the omelette which came paired pretty well with the cheese. There wasn't any visible cheese in the egg though. All of it was in the egg and the taste was the proof of it.

Pancakes gone bananas. And walnuts!

Which brings us here to the banana pancake. This comes with vanilla ice cream, a rather generous portion of walnuts, red current (and sauce) and grilled bananas. I'm not sure if it shows up well enough for you all in the pictures. Warm and fluffy and each piece is what I approximate to be the equivalent of two McD hotcakes. And these are heaps better.

And now to a bit of the downside. We did get ourselves coffee and tea. The cappuccino was decent. But that was all it is. Definitely nothing to shout about. The hot lemon tea was also simply just that. Nothing exotic or even remotely beyond the realms of mundane as a beverage. At $8 a cuppa, I did feel that it was way overpriced. Coffee and tea aren't expensive drinks.