Wild Honey @ Mandarin Gallery

Wild Honey is another well known place for brunch, though recently they have been under the spotlight for the wrong reason.

http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/wild-honey-restaurant-slammed-for-favoring-foreigners-over-singaporeans/

http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/wild-honey-apologizes-to-gary-tan-for-the-misunderstanding-but-continues-to-delete-his-messages-on-facebook/

Undeterred, I decided to visit this place which I have heard so many extreme comments about. Some of my friends claim that their food is really fantastic, while others swear that it is overrated. The only way to confirm this is to pay a visit myself. 

The place does not accept reservations, so I arrived early this morning (I took leave from work). Just before they were open at 9am, there was already a short queue of around five people in front of me. If it was the weekend, I think there would be more than twenty.

'European', $18

This is Wild Honey's version of Eggs Benedict. It differs from your usual Eggs Benedict in mainly two areas - the bread and the ham. Brioche was used for the bread, and it tasted strongly and delightfully of butter. It was also quite light, and I liked the colour of the crust - it was a very nice dark brown which made it look very appetising. For the ham, Italian prosciutto was used, which was thinly sliced and wrapped around the poached egg. 'European' is a refreshing change of the normal Eggs Benedict and I would definitely recommend this to anyone else.

'Tunisian', $20

This was the dish which one of my colleagues condemned, saying that she could only finish half of it because it 'sucked so bad'. My gf ordered this, and after trying it, my first impression was that it had a very Mediterranean and Middle East taste. Which its name sort of hinted at already, by the way. This taste would definitely not go down well with some people, which explains why my colleague hated it. But my gf enjoyed it. As for me, I was quite neutral on this. The pan of shakshouka (tomato, onion, red pepper, chilli) was also littered with Chorizo sausage and topped with two eggs. 

The verdict? Wild Honey is indeed overrated, but just a tiny bit. From the queues and the ravings from many, perhaps my expectations were set a bit too high. Still, I found the food to be quite delicious, and the service was excellent. (Maybe this was the result of the latest incident?) The coffee was a bit too pricey though, at $5 a cup - so we didn't order any and went elsewhere for our coffee fix.