The hunt of the week is thus Dutch Baby Cafe! This is an establishment opened by Japan Food Company and the signature is their Dutch baby pancakes. The pancakes look really friendly to the cameras and even though I encountered online reviews which were generally mixed, I am sufficiently curious to want to try.
Apparently their udon is popular as well and we happened to visit the store at a time where they just changed their menu! This Lemon Chicken Udon ($13.80) is one of their new additions and I must say I give it the thumbs up. I'm not a fan of udon because they are typically fat and not shiok to slurp in my opinion. This version however comes with thin udon noodles which makes it a pleasure to slurp. The noodles are Q and easy to eat. I also found that the taste of the lemon chicken very unique from other chicken noodles I have eaten and that's in a good way. I need to point out though that the soup is MSG laden. But for $13.80 I'm not complaining.
The highlight of the day is of course the Dutch baby pancakes served in a hot pan. We picked Caramel Apple ($12.80) which comes with caramelized Apple with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on a Dutch pancake. My brother especially liked the pancake texture which was soft and aromatic. I felt that the caramelized apple went well with the pancakes. Unfortunately, I feel that the ice cream can't handle the heat and melted before we were even half way through leaving us with liquid ice cream.
Would I come back again? Honestly with the ever expansive number of new cafes opening and old popular cafes I haven't tried, Dutch Baby Cafe isn't high up my list. I will however pop by if I am catching up with a friend in Orchard Road and would like to introduce them to something new at the heart of town. I suspect I might come back to eat the udon again if I'm alone and want a noodle fix.
Dutch Baby Cafe
290 Orchard Road, The Paragon, #B1-13