PIVOT – NEW Cafe With Japanese Hojicha Cake and Tamago Sando, At North Canal Road

2:18 AM | Labels: asian cuisine, asian food Recipes, asian recipes, DanielFoodDiary.com, eating in singapore, Singapore Food, singapore Food recipes, singapre Recipes

I wouldn’t have expected a hipster cafe opening at this particular spot along North Canal Road, which is surrounded by local eateries and restaurants catering to the CBD crowd.

But it is a welcomed addition.

For those of you looking for new coffee places and eateries near Raffles Place, you can also consider Tanamera Coffee & Roastery Singapore (Change Alley Mall), Flash Coffee (Oxley Tower), Infinity Café (Marina Bay Link Mall), and Syohachi Wagyu Hamburg (One Raffles Place)

Being the newest addition along North Canal Road, PIVOT has a colour tone which reminds me of Baker’s Bench Bakery at Bukit Pasoh.

The 36 seater-space has an industrial finishing with matte cemented walls and wooden furniture pieces that gives off that chill vibes.

Their food menu is short and concise, focusing mainly on Bakes such as Croissants (Plain $4, Pain Au Chocolate $4.50/ Almond $5), Cakes ($7 – $9) and Tamago Sando ($7).

I did see some Japanese influence in their food menu such as their Tamago Sando ($7), Hojicha based – OH! Gee Cha ($8.50) and Kinako powdered Fields of Yellow ($8).

All of them looked really tempting by the way.

I decided to go ahead with the only savoury food on their menu – the Tamago Sando ($7).

The sandwich is made with homemade egg mayo in between Shokupan bread, topped with a sous vide egg, sprinkled with black pepper as a finishing touch.

The Shokupan bread was really light, soft and fluffy, complemented well with the creamy and oishii homemade mayo that was not overly rich.

The sous vide egg also added some moisture to the overall texture.

As a matcha and houjicha-holic, the OH! Gee Cha ($8.50) called out to me.

OH! Gee Cha ($8.50) is a play of the word “Hojicha”. The dessert came included with Hojicha Genoise (which is an Italian sponge cake), piped with Hojicha mousse, apple compote embedded, and Hojicha tea leaves with Hojicha crumbles on top.

The apple compote added some textural contrast to the otherwise soft and creamy mousse, with a refreshing twist to the cake.

The Hojicha taste in both the sponge and mousses layers were on the lighter side and could do with a more intense kick, considering that the tartness from the apple compote did overpower the tea flavour at times.

All their pastries are baked in-house, including the Lemon Law ($7), nothing fanciful except the name, which is essentially a lemon tart with a meringue on top.

A decent pastry with a crumbly and buttery tart base, while the lemon curd was strong, sour and citrusy.

Coffee beans is supplied by TAD Coffee (Singapore Barista Champion 2017) and comes in Black (Espresso $3.50, Iced $5.50) and White (Single shot $5, Double shots $6, Iced $6.50) with options such as Oat Milk (+$1), Vanilla (+$1) and Rose (+$1).

I will suggest to get the double shots espresso as my White (Single shot $5) was a tad milky and lacked the caffeine kick.

The White (Double shots $6) with Rose had a subtle floral taste to it, medium bodied and well-balanced.

Pivot will possibly be the next dining destination for OLs working nearby to pivot on for some quick and light bites, yet satisfying their coffee and sweet cravings.