11 February 2016

Pantler (Telok Ayer)

Review February 11, 2016 0

My Chinatown journey continues into the adjourning Telok Ayer area. Recently, we braved The Rotisserie during lunch hours, and had delicious Thai Milk Tea from Cha Thai.

My original plan to check out the brew at coffee roastery Sarnies was foiled when we stood in front of the darkened store and realised it was closed. My sister suggested Pantler, an cafe serving exquisite desserts and coffee further down the street. DanielFoodDiary mentioned that Owner-Baker Matthias Phua and Chef Tomoharu Morita churn out the pastries served here; the latter, formerly a member of the award-winning pastry team at Grand Hyatt Tokyo. That's some impressive pedigree.

We had the Ricotta Cheese Tart ($8), which my sister fancied. She especially loved the light filling, and said it was one of the most impressive tarts she had. Me? I love the pie crust, which was uniformly crisp and gave every forkful an appealing crunch.

We ordered the ricotta tart with a Flat White ($5.80) and a Latte ($5.80), but the coffee took a long while to come. We almost finished the tart, but put down our forks and waited for the coffees so we can pair them together.

First taste: Holy ****. Wow. It's worth the wait. The latte art isn't anything fanciful, but the milk was perfectly smooth, and gave the brew a sweetness that rendered sugar unnecessary. It's a little on the pricey side, but the taste makes it worth every cent - and minute. It's a bit of a pleasant surprise, since my desire for good coffee was what brought us to Telok Ayer in the first place. No one online mentioned the coffee here, but their brew was what impressed me the most. It really deserves a special mention. Kudos to their barista. And their coffee blend.

Pantler has friendly, pleasant staff, and we saw Matthias himself behind the counter taking orders. The cafe is understaffed, and the barista was juggling both coffee duty and counter-duty. There were three of them rushing around filling in the orders, but they still couldn't keep abreast of all the orders coming in.

I bought a slice of Yatsura ($8.50/slice) to go, because it is extraordinarily raved about online. Owner-baker Matthias Phua mentioned that it was his favorite dessert here. It has a chocolate ganache layer and a crunchy biscuit-like layer that I enjoyed. It was pretty good, but not really spectacular. The cake's execution is similar to Melbourne's Le Petite Gateau's Mango Passionfruit Brownie, AKA the singular most impressive cake that crossed my lips. Closer to home, Laurent Bernard Chocolatier's Pleasure (Ngee Ann City) is more expensive, but makes up for the price difference taste-wise. But this is no slouch either. (I still love you guys.)