The Place Located next to Birders, the few weeks’ old Nesuto is one of the latest patisserie cafe to open along Tras Street. Nesuto means Nest in Japanese, as the cakes here revolves around the use of eggs and hence the inspiration for its name. The patisserie cafe is opened by a group of friends, including the head pastry chef whom previously worked in Capella Singapore. The space here is not huge, somewhat minimalist theme with a nice marble counter finishing at the front where the cakes are showcased. We can’t help but noticed the wall here, which is a beautiful floral motif theme hand-painted for months by a local artist.

The Food We always love a good cake and tea pairing space in Singapore, and we can’t help but link Nesuto to another of our favourite patisserie in town, Mad About Sucre. The teas at Nesuto are by a local tea brand, An Tea Social, with a focus on oriental teas which are generally lighter and pair well with the range of cakes here. We understand from their in-house tea consultant that the teas are predominantly sourced from various  plantations in Taiwan and Japan.

There are two main types of desserts here – cakes and entremet. The flavours of the cakes are Japanese-French inspired, which we understand will change seasonally. We started with the Yuzu Raspberry (S$9/slice), a refreshing and light option. The mousse here is Yuzu Meringue, while the main body of the cake is made from Ivoire 35% whipped Ganache from Valrhona. We were recommend to have the Lychee Oolong (S$9/pot) tea along with it, which ended up as one of our favourite tea flavour here. Sourced from Nantou in Taiwan, the lychee element compliments and enhances the fruitiness of the Yuzu Raspbery very well.

The other cake we tried was the Le ‘Omm’ (S$9/slice), a Matcha cake with four layers of Matcha Mascarpone, Azuki Beans and hints of Rum. I am personally not a big fan of Azuki or red bean, but I ended up wiping off my portion as the Azuki element was a seamless integration into the matcha cake. The overall texture is very smooth, and this cake is recommended to go with the Oriental Green (S$9/pot) tea.

On to the Entremet section, the cakes here are generally smaller but with richer flavours. The Suzette (S$9.80) is inspired from crêpe suzette, less the fanciful flambe touches. On first look, it seems like a pretty ordinary cake but we were pleasantly surprised by the amazing flavours within. The base here is a Santiago Tart with citrus notes, topped with caramelised white chocolate using Ivoire 35% Grand Marnier Cremeux. The white chocolate taste is delicious, while the hints of orange caramel in the cake further elevates the overall flavour. The recommended tea for the Suzette is the Dong Ding Oolong (S$9/pot), which is a medium roast blend to compliments with the caramel component of the Suzette. This is our favourite cake as it surprised us the most in terms of the flavour.

Comparatively, the Noisette Rocher (S$10.50) is a much safer option and offered less surprise for us, but we have no doubt that it will be a crowd pleaser. You can’t go very wrong with Hazelnut Praline Mousse, Guanaja 70% Ganache and Caramelized Hazelnut Feuilletine. We learnt from the pastry chef that she uses the Valrhona brand for the hazelnut as leans towards the roasted flavour rather than the usual sweetness from other brands. This is paired with the Oriental Red (S$9/pot) tea from a tea plantation in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Lastly, we had one of the plated dessert, the Duo Creme Brulee which will be launched at the end of May. The top layer here is Madagascar Vanilla Custard, while the bottom layer is chocolate from Valrhona 66% Caraibe Pot de Creme. We are not big fans of Creme Brulee in general, so it came as no surprise that this is our least favourite item, not that it is bad. By Creme Brulee standards, it wasn’t overly sweet. Our only gripe as we have also pass our feedback to the team is that it tasted more like a chocolate Creme Brulee as the vanilla flavour was too faint. Still, we do enjoy the tea paired with this dessert – the Japanese Kuki-Hojicha which has hints of sesame to compliment the vanilla and chocolate of the Creme Brulee.

Rants As compared to other cafes, the prices for the cakes are definitely on the higher range, though you are really paying for quality ingredients here. The seating capacity is not huge either, ideal to check it out with a smaller group of people.

Will I Return Again? In all aspects, we enjoyed the overall experience at Nesuto. The flavours of the cakes are layered, while the tea pairing adds on a more refined touch. We will be keen to visit Nesuto as with each seasonal change of the offerings here. 

This was an invited tasting, though all opinions expressed are our own.

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 4/5
Hole in the pocket: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Overall Experience: 4/5

Nesuto
53 Tras Street
Singapore 078992
Tel: +65 6920 2922

Opening Hours:
Daily: 11am to 8.30pm

Ranted by The Ranter