Selfish Gene Cafe

Walk along Craig Road and you might actually miss this cafe. Located at number 40, it's the last grey coloured shophouse at the quiet end of the road. We visited on a Sunday afternoon and although it was deceptively calm and quiet on the outside, the cafe was actually almost packed to the brim inside.

At the door, you will be greeted by this vintage converted sewing machine, where you help yourself to the menu, water and find a table (if any).



Generally, the cafe is really warm and cosy, but since it was a full house Sunday, noise gets trapped inside the boxy shophouse. Don't expect a quiet sunday brunch here. But surely there's a reason why people flock like bees to honey to this place right? Apparently, Gene (the cafe's owner) is selfish because he will not serve food that he would not eat (hence the cafe name, get it?). Perhaps this is a strong signal that the food has gotta be DECENT and people really like quality food whipped out here.



So you place your counter located inside the cafe and they give these cute yellow paper cups containing your number, receipt and change. A really nice idea to cut down waiting time (for payment that is)

I had the B.O.B. ($15.80) all day breakfast set, which is only available on weekends.



Not sure why it's called BOB (reminds me of a certain singer), but this is a delightful dish served with perfect runny poached eggs slapped atop Norwegian smoked salmon, creme fraiche and multigrain bread. I really enjoyed this dish; the salmon wasn't overly salty and I was quite content munching on the yolk soaked salmon and bread combi. The salad is served with tangy lemon vinaigrette dressing, which really completes the meal.

For other scrambled egg lovers/ deluxe breakfast set lovers, do try their Breakfast Plate ($15.80), which has a little of everything: eggs, sausage, ham, mushrooms, tomato, brioche:



I had a cuppa Chai latte ($5) to go with my breakkie set. I would have preferred a slightly more spicy version of it, but for those who like their milky chai latte teas, you will probably get a nice balance in this cup.

AND FOR DESSERTSSSSS;



You have to try the Banana cake ($5.80) here. Each bite is chock full of banana flavour, it's really not something you can get elsewhere, unless you blend a sack of bananas and bake your own. It has a nice warm and extremely moist texture and it goes so well with their crumble and peanut butter sauce topping. The only downside? It's really really small. If not for my lunch partners, I could have popped the entire loaf in one mouth.



The other dessert item we had was the Lemon Tart ($5.80) also only available on weekends. The lemon curd inside was really well balanced- not overwhelmingly one sided sweet or sour, but a really nice refreshing balance of both. The slightly italian meringue went really well with the lemon curd tart and again, the dessert is unfortunately really small. (Photo was zoomed in!)

We came to the conclusion that Gene is indeed really selfish, for only serving certain good stuff on weekends and also shrinking their desserts to nano-bite size. But for small eaters and people cannot resist the allure of desserts (and their associated calories), the mini desserts and a nice cup of coffee/tea is something you would want to grab at this cafe. Plus, the small dessert size really forces you to take small bites and slowly savour the every bit of goodness.