JQ Chef Cafe

Located just within 3 minutes walk of Toa Payoh MRT is JQ chef café. Helmed by Johnny Quek a Singapore-​born chef whos knows the 5-​star touch required to be the personal chef for private dinners of high profile clientele. JQ Chef Café has just opened very recently in the same location of Les Patisserie, which has now moved to Upper Thomson. I visited on a sunday at 1145am and they were serving their brunch menu which runs from 1130am till 5pm on weekends only. Their prices are nett and they seemed reasonable.
They also have a wider variety for main dishes, such as pork ribs and pasta.
The truffle fries seemd to be a popular side dish as almost the entire café smelt of it, everytime a staff came out of the kitchen with a side of truffle fries to be served. Not to mention the staff taking my order at the cash register, went on to ask if I wanted truffle fries, after I had given my order. Waffles! Yes their chocolate mashmallow waffles have been hitting instagram all over this past week!
Checking out their cake display, I couldn’t help notice that their cake offerings looked exactly like les patisseries.
The dining area was left exactly the same as their previous tenant. It still has the same comfy, homly feel but when packed full of customers, you can feel a little squished.
1. Cuppacino $ 4.50
I needed my caffeine fix for the sunday afternoon and decided to go with this. The latte art was cute but it didn’t give me any «kick» for the day. Or maybe because I was too tired to begin with. Nonetheless it was nice to have a lil munchie to go along with it!
2. Eggs Florentine $ 11.90
Eggs! Yes! Perfectly poached eggs on smoked salmon and a brioche. For $ 11.90 I think it’s rather reasonably priced not to mention the brioche was pretty well toasted! Crispy crust together with the egg yolk was amazing!
They are also pretty photogenic, YAY! for us instagrammers! The thickeness of the brioche is what I loved about this dish. The salad had a nice touch of cubed fruits as well. Just wish there was more salad dressing.
The egg yolk was amazing! Watching the liquid gold slowly and gently flow out onto the smoked salmon. Yeap! It’s the begining of an amazing brunch! They were pretty generous with the smoked salmon too!
3. Salted Caramel Waffle $ 9.90
Moving onto waffles, instead of going with the chocolate mashmallow waffle that has been going all over instagram, my friend and I noticed that this waffle came with salted caramel ice cream! Yes! That’s right salted caramel ice cream! Can’t say no to that can I?
Friends definitely gather together wheneber there’s waffles and ice cream involved. Pretty sure this is a proven theory! The waffles were more of the crispy waffle kind, and yet slightly cake-​like in the center. I wish you could choose your texture of the waffles, like crispy or fluffy.
With those peppero sticks with strawberries and blueberries, this was a hit with my inner sweet tooth! The salted caramel sauce with the salted caramel ice cream was on point for me! Though it’s not the best salted caramel ice cream, JQ Chef Café is no ice cream parlour, but at least they did a good job picking a decent ice cream supplier.
Overall, I like JQ Chef Café’s take on offering café food in a heartland location at affordable prices to the neighbourhood. Though their menu may look like a very typical café menu, Johnny definitely takes it to a different level! The staff were all happy with smiles and were very friendly with any question I had including me trying to poke for any upcoming christmas surprises :)
Verdict: 1) Lovely waffles 2) Friendly Staff 3) Convenient location 4) Great brunch offerings