Breaking Bread at Wildflour Cafe + Bakery The Fort

I‘d like to think that I’m not so fashionably late with certain trends.  Sure, I’m a little behind that some people, but for the most part, I’m just really late when it comes to writing about it.  The whole bakery-turned-brasserie is one such example.

It’s been there for the longest time in Europe, but has recently gained steam in Asia in countries like Singapore.  Wildflour is probably (still) the most popular nowadays, but there are both old and new ones up and about.

You can’t be a bread maker without bread.  They start you off with a baguette, which is crusty on the outside, while fluffy inside served with butter topped with a dash of sea salt.

We start with the Mussels and Fries, made with white wine, garlic, butter, and parsley.  Was OK, but nothing to sing about.  The Belgian/French way to eat this is to use up the shells to scoop the next mussel.

Do not miss the Roasted Bone Marrow.  Looks awesome, albeit a bit expensive considering how much bone marrow costs in the market, but would go for this again.

They serve it with a mango salsa to balance out the oiliness of the marrow and goes well with the baguette.

If it becomes too much, cleanse up with the Good Morning Sunshine smoothie — made with fresh bananas, strawberries, blueberries, Greek yogurt, agave, and fresh Batangas milk.  Refreshing for breakfast.

There are a number of ways to go about Wildflour.  Although the concept is fairly European¹, it does cut across different cuisines.  You can stray the Italian way by going for Chicken Meatball Sandwich.  Bold flavors here with mozzarella, a rich tomato sauce, served on a ciabatta bread.

Go for the Caramelized Onions, Bacon, Gruyere Tarte Flambee.  It’s a close cousin of the pizza with the sweetness from the onions and some smokiness from the bacon.  Nice.

You can go the boring route *koff!* Pork Chops *koff!*  Sure, they’re nice, big, and fatty — but pork chops? Really?

Go with the Crispy Duck Confit instead.  Wasn’t very good, not even close to the ones in France, skin wasn’t crispy, although the side apple salad was a mild surprise.  Still, it’s a bit more interesting than Pork Chops.

I would come back for the Steak and Egg, which is a 100-gram flat iron Wagyu steak served with a poached egg on kimchi fried rice.  The meat was a tad tough and overcooked, but overall, this was awesome.  Loved the kimchi fried rice.  Tangy, had that acidity from the kimchi and was amply spicy for the morning.

If you haven’t guessed, I’m a beef person so I would go for the Kitayama Steak and Fries — their version of steak frites. It’s a 200-gram flat iron Wagyu steak served with fries, a side salad, and topped with Bearnaise sauce.  Bernaise is one of the basic French sauces which is based on butter.  I won’t bore you with this, but the point is: you don’t need the sauce.

The fries seemed like the ones you can buy on the supermarket pack, but just look at the perfect medium rare on the steak!  It was a lot more tender than the Steak and Egg and a lot more beefy in flavor.  Wagyu beef² for 800 bucks is not a bad deal IMHO.

For a bakery, I don’t think they do desserts very well.  We tried the Salted Chocolate Cake, but it was nothing spectacular.

The Valrhona Chocolate Pot Au Creme, which comes with sea salt caramel and peanuts, wasn’t bad at all, but is a bit expensive.  Sure, it has very good texture, but it was more like a dip that needed something else.  Valrhona chocolate is expensive, but I’m not enough of a chocolate aficionado to crave for this one.

The Tiramisu Creme Brulee was named one of the top desserts in the Metro by some magazine (or article)³ so I gave this a shot.  A bit too much creme brulee and too little tiramisu⁴.  Not my cup of tea.

They, of course, have the cronut craze, which they are thankfully shutting down in a few days!  I don’t eat healthy, but I don’t need that much grease in me.

Overall, it’s still pre-dominantly French in cuisine and isn’t actually bad.  There were misses, of course, and it was a tad expensive.  I’d skip dessert but would go back for some of the mains.  Will this trend keep going?  I think it will.  But everything’s a trend lately.  I don’t care for them and I don’t hate them⁵ — the food just has to be good.  Not much else matters.