The Providore Mandarin Gallery cafe - improved and reopened Aug 2016

The Providore Mandarin Gallery cafe that overlooks Orchard Road has recently undergone some changes and has reopened, bright and refreshed. Although there is some gloom in the retail scene on Orchard Road because of cautious consumers and reduced tourism (see Straits Times article Cautious consumers, falling retail sales, high cost and strong dollar leading to empty malls ), it is still hard to get an indoor table at the Providore cafe. They must be doing something right.

According to The Providore webpage, they “have expanded the menu with new items such as the duck rillette platter from the deli, and roasted chicken leg and pan seared trout from our main menu… (and) also added a selection of craft beers…” We did not get to try the new stuff, but the food display area looked updated and modern.

Here are pictures of the Providore Mandarin Gallery cafe menu. We ordered free range eggs and toast ($12.50), gluten free orange and almond cake, flourless chocolate cake ($8.50 each). Coffee is $5 each.

Here are pictures of the simple breakfast of eggs and toast with butter. This is a dish which almost anyone can easily make at home, but there is something about having breakfast in a nice cafe that makes it that much more enjoyable. The free-range egg yolks did look more orange and tasted better than regular eggs.

Both the cakes were quite small in size. Both were gluten free. The orange and almond cake was the star of the day. The topping of a slice of dried orange was sweet and slightly bitter and added zest to the cake. A bit pricey at $8.50 per piece, but they are perfect to eat with the coffees which were also very good.