The Place When I heard that there is a café along Jalan Besar road called Butter Studio, it didn’t register any memory in my head as I thought that I am quite familiar with the food scene in this enclave, apparently not. Butter Studio has been opened about a year since it relocated from its premise at Changi Airport, with the main space at its Jalan Besar outlet while having takeaway counters for its pastries and desserts at the newly opened One KM mall and the basement of Takashimaya in Orchard Road. The Jalan Besar space brings in a certain refreshing element to the area, along a row of shophouses which are mostly hardware stalls. The space at the café is quite cosy for a gathering, as I find it unpretentious and perhaps not too bad a respite from the incessant traffic.

The Food There are simply too many cafes for a small country like Singapore to be sustainable in its business, hence it is definitely welcoming to hear that Butter Studio will be revamping its menu with some new additions as well as tweaks to its existing menu. I understand from the owner that the café prepares all the ingredients and pastries are freshly prepared on the actual day, such as the homemade crabcake for the Neptune Royale as well as the tarts and cupcakes. We tried a mixture of wrap, sandwich and the must-have eggs dishes, and glad to also know that this is a halal certified café.

For eggs lovers, the classic Morning Benedict ($12) has the standard ham, bacon and muffin and hollandaise sauce. Something different is that instead of using bread, we have toasted english muffins here which is a slight twist from what I usually expect from eggs benny.

The Norwegian Royale ($16) is one of my favourite because I love salmon in any form. That aside, the toasted bagels is quite flavourful, while the hollandaise sauce is unique with a tinge of wasabi, which explains the slightly light green colour. But fret not, I am not a wasabi person but I find the taste acceptable.
The Eggs Neptune ($18) comes with their handmade signature crab cake and toasted english muffin. We understand from the owner that the crab cake is prepared freshly everyday in limited quantity, so be rest assured that the ingredients are fresh. I must say it gives a slight variation to the usual offerings, with a slightly higher price than the other items as well.
From something simpler, I would recommend the Classic Florentine ($13), with warm double poached eggs and creamed spinach topped on toasted english muffins. I love how runny all the eggs are in every dish.
The Hangover Breakfast Wrap ($12) did not strike a chord with me, as I find the tortilla skin too dry and somehow the combination of the crispy hash brown, warm scrambled eggs, turkey bacon and cheese ingredients do not blend well to bring out a nice taste to this dish. This definitely needs some tweaking to the combination of ingredients.
Similarly, the Beef & Egg Sandwich ($13), with slices of beef pastrami, cheese and a sunny side up is too dry for my liking on the whole. The toast is not buttery enough, while the beef pastrami is too dry. Maybe having some sauce in this dish helps?

After so much savoury food, I was in need of some sugar rush to balance my palate. The tarts were definitely my favourite of the lot, both the dark Belgium Chocolate tart ($6.90) with approximately 50-60% cocoa, and the Sea Salt Nutella tart were not too sweet with a nice crunchy crust. The Red Velvet cake ($7.90/slice) was too sweet for me, while I also wished that it could bring out a stronger red velvet flavour.

I profess that I am not a cupcake person, so my verdict on the cupcakes may not be a testament of the consensus. On a fair note, I do not find them overly sweet and at least it didn’t come across as too dry for me. That said, the cupcake flavours are quite creative, such as the Salted Egg Yolk and the too-cute-to-be-eaten Chinese New Year inspired flavours.

Rants Some hits and misses in the dishes, particularly the wrap and sandwich. Desserts can be less sweet, that’s my personal preference though.

Will I return again? I like the tarts and some of the eggs benny dishes. Given the vast choices of cafes in Jalan Besar, it will probably be some time before I drop by again.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3/5
Hole in the pocket: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5
Overall Experience: 3/5

Butter Studio
147 Jalan Besar
Singapore 208865

Opening Hours
Sunday – Thursday: 12pm – 11pm
Friday – Saturday: 12pm – 12am
Closed on Tuesday