Jones The Grocer

I asked for a cheese platter for one as my snacking companion wanted something sweet and I don’t like sweets.
The guys were so nice and built me a plate of triple cream (omg!) that was totally buttery melt in your mouth ish and just so amazing. It tasted almost like a sheep’s cheese but I’m sure it was cow. Then they added a semi soft smoked cheese too and some cranberries. Totally Yums and entirely for me. #soguilty #lovecheese

Whoever told me that Jones the Grocer is good, please do me a favour and talk to the hand! My experience here was so terrible, I don’t think I’ll ever want to go back again!
It was a Friday evening, with only a small number of tables filled. My friend and I sat down to order. The Manager took our order but doesn’t seem to know what we were ordering, thus he repeated our order 3x. Irritating, but it’s ok. That’s not the worse, we ordered a bottle of beer and requested for water to be served. We sat for close to 25mins, nothing came, not even water. (it’s beer from a bottle, how long does one need to take a bottle and a glass?)
The food took so long and they were mixing up orders at various tables, everyone was running low on tolerance to the less than capable service team.
The food tasted alright only, totally not good enough to win us back from the lackluster service.
All I have to say is, «No, thank you!»

Jones is dead, we’ve already moved on to other places. And we are very unlikely to go back.
The new Jones is a mere shadow of its former self.
We were regulars for years at this and one of the other Jones, until the management changed, the prices went up, and the food quality went down.
We knew something was amiss when we went on a weekend and the usual queue was not there.
They changed the previously experienced staff, the new staff is mostly Filipino and well-​mannered, but they have to contend with regulars like ourselves who knew the place before they were there.
This is a perfectly good example of yet another Singapore institution where the original people build a restaurant (French in this case, Italians in others) then management either fires them and puts locals in their places, or it’s a complete change of staff, and the place looks the same, but is not as good.

The berry tarts were decent. The coffee was excellent. The muffins were too dry.
The actual food looked good but the ambiance seems too industrial for it to really be a nice restaurant. The couple next to us on a date seemed out of place.

Came here to get some crisp bread and check out their cheese and jam selection.
The selection here seems decent, although many were way over priced :(
Nonetheless, for the lack of a better choice, I guess Jones is decent to satisfy your cravings.
The café seems prettty noisy though, but the ambience definitely feels relaxing enough for a bunch of friends meeting up.

I always love to browse around Jones the Grocer, admiring its varied types of cheeses, gourmet jams, dairy products and what not. Trying the samples on display is another favourite of mine, which always results in an impulse buy. That is, until I came across Jones the Grocer at Mandarin Gallery.
Since it is a branch from the one at Dempsey, I thought standards in food and service would be the same. But I was wrong.
The Lemon Tart we ordered was beyond subpar — it was just a hardened piece of sugar. The crust was so hard I had to use a knife to cut a piece. I can hardly taste any lemon at all but it was all sugar and super sweet. Cannot believe that Epicure listed this place in their Top 10 for Lemon Tarts — thank god it was way before my time when I was there.
We ordered a pot of Hojicha to share. When we asked for a refill of hot water, the waitress told us that if we refill the taste won’t be as good as the first brew to which I gave her a puzzled look and said it’s okay and I want to have a refill of hot water. And then she gave me a reply that annoyed me — «no sorry we don’t do refills.» Well, can’t you just tell me that before you gave your first reply, to which I know now is ingenuine and fake?
Well, I didn’t believe her and decided to ask another male waiter the same question of having my pot refilled with hot water. His immediate response was «Yes m’am, do note that you are only allowed refill of 2 times — and instantly his response validated my suspicion that the waitress was telling me an untruth!
Goodness.
Tip: Lemon tart here not recommended. If you are here for mains, do go to the one at Dempsey, service and food much better!

Jones loses its Mojo.
We arrived at 12.20pm to be told that they no longer do all day brunch during the weekends and the kitchen has packed up the eggs, and other breakfast items.
However when you look closely, they serve poached eggs on their salads?!
What I think they really mean to say is we want you to buy the more expensive lunch menu instead of the cheaper brunch menu.
Customers appear to be leaving in droves but yet the ‘management’ team isn’t making a change here on their ‘policy’. Apparently customers have written to the management team but no change has been made.
Since when was a restaurant here for themselves and not for their customers?
We understand the need to make a profit but service driven by greed becomes a disservice.

I had lunch here on a Tuesday about 1pm. Service was incredibly slow. I had water and wiener schnitzel with frites — very good food but did I mention that service was slow?

Met up with a friend for lunch here the other day and ordered the caesar salad, mochachino w/​soy, and a strawberry tart. The chicken caesar was yummy, I liked the fact that this salad is not drowning in sauce. I normally order my salads with the sauce on the side b/​c restaurants like to drown salads in sauce. Whats the point of a salad when you’re eating so much sauce?! The caesar came with a poached egg and small bacon pieces. Reminds me of the frisee aux lardons salads I used to order at Les Halles in New York. Yay! Food that sparks up good memories is worth every bite. The mochachino was all right. The strawberry tart was tiny sized which was ok because I wasn’t in the mood for a heavy dessert. Overall, I’d come back here for some of their brunch offerings.
This location is definitely different than the Dempsey location because you definitely feel like you’re in a café/​bistro restaurant rather than eating at a specialty grocery store. Will probably come back on a lazy afternoon for a solo lunch at some point. Mandarin Gallery gives off that laid back relaxing upscale afternoon vibe you’d get from a spa.

Jones the Grocer at Mandarin Gallery is a cool place to hang out on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The atmosphere is sophisticated, yet the clientele is casual. I love the attentive service, and the food is decent. It’s always a bit pricey, but so are all the other places where people would have a sit-​down breakfast/​lunch on a weekend. I prefer this location to the one in Dempsey as it is often not as crowded and feels more intimate. I usually get a flat white and the eggs on toast. I hear the sandwiches during lunch time are also quite good, though I haven’t had them.

I’ve always thought that Jones the Grocer café is darn overpriced in Singapore. My first memory of it was the brunch that i had some weekends eons ago at Dempsey Hill. The food was unmemorable but the hefty bill at the end made me swear not to return again (I obviously did not stick to that resolution).
I gave it a second shot at Mandarin Gallery. It is my less crowded alternative when WH is packed to the brim. Given a choice i would stick with WH but when one is hungry, one loses all capacity for logical reasoning. Being the usual greedy self, i ordered the English breakfast ($ 22) and i could barely finish half of it. The big brekkie consists of two large pieces of sourdough bread (bigger than my face), a large sausage, scrambled eggs, bacon and sauteed mushrooms. Do not attempt to go at this one alone. Really. It may be worth it if you share though. Anyway I have since found a better alternative with better tasting food at Lots (though it’s really kinda out of the way).
So what really changed my opinion of Jones was their cakes. Cheap and good cheesecake, red velvet and other pastries. If you don’t want to spend too much, have one of that and a coffee.

Another decent place to have brunch or breakfast, thanks to the wonderful location and setting, Jones the Grocer offers a pretty good smattering of food that will certainly delight.
The biggest problem it has at the moment is the consistency of the quality of the food served. I’ve been there many times for breakfast and while they’ve been good, the lunch offerings aren’t really well done. The duck salad was pretty atrocious and overloaded with leaves and not enough duck.
My advice would be to skip lunch and dinner and just go for the much safer option of dining during breakfast or brunch hours to avoid any disappointment.

The original atas /​yummy mummy place, Jones opened to much fanfare in Demspey many years ago. They’ve kept the same formula at their outlet in the Mandarin Gallery. Clearly people like it because it is always packed.
However I’ve always found their coffee, cakes and food to be not much to shout about. It’s very stylish and it’s a very pretty place but that’s about it.
But it’s a nice place to come to because it’s so pretty. I’m certainly guilty of that, and I don’t even like it that much! Weird.

Jones The Grocer is one of those cafes that would qualify as ‘atas’, pricey with excellent service, non-​local cuisine and extraordinarily packed nonetheless. It serves as mini supermarket, café and bakery, with air-​flown produce that are difficult to find locally.
The actual variety of food from the café is rather limited but I have had excellent breakfast/​brunch with eggs cooked in various manners here. What really gets me though are the breads, cheeses and desserts. My usual takeaway, if available, is the brioche, a soft, fluffy and sweet French bread with chocolate chips inside. There is also a variety of cheeses here that you can buy back. I once had a meal with a French guy here who enjoyed the cheese platter and the variety of blue cheeses he had ordered, and who knows their cheese better than the French. The open Wagyu burger is also decent but not really tasty enough to be worth it, in my opinion.
A meal here can easily set you back $ 30 but I would still return for the desserts and breads, and service.

It’s hard to find such Cafes — where coffee and cakes are given main priority. It’s not commercial — and the coffee is authentic, it’s not Starbucks, and it’s definitely more premium and has very Melbourne/​San Francisco vibe. This place has a very Melbourne-​coffee vibe and it’s very chi chi, though casual, at the same time.
What I Love: The service here is amazing. Water is served immediately, and the menu is very comprehensive. There is a wide array of coffee, and finger food, even tapas. I love the décor — and how the food is displayed — the cakes and pastries are very beautifully lined up. It really makes you want to just sit and chill there.
What I Don’t Love: The price. This place is not Starbucks — so coffee is treated like black gold. A cuppa would set you back $ 7 – 8. The food is pricey too. But the quality is good. Portions are small, however.