Brunch & Munch @ G Village, Desa Pandan

We spotted this restaurant, Brunch & Munch @ G Village, Desa Pandan, when we dined at Vanilla Sky @ Desa Pandan some time last year.  But, it was only recently that we stopped by to try the food but noticed that G Village was still pretty deserted with not many shops open for business since we were there last.

Opened in October last year, the Brunch menu serves up a more substantial serving that'll satisfy any brunch, lunch and dinner appetites while the Munch menu offers starters, lighter meals or in-between meals in smaller portions for you to munch any time of the day.

As you walk into the restaurant, you'll be confronted with this eye-catching centre piece decor of a gigantic egg structure and you can pretty much guess what's their core focus here....yes, eggs......and pork! :D

Here are some of the dishes we managed to try (over two visits) starting with the Brunch Menu of Smoked Pumpkin Soup with Bacon @ RM12 served in a cute but dainty coffee cup, with a slice of toasty bread, topped with cream, garlic oil and scallions.

The pumpkin soup was just nicely thick and creamy although I didn't get much of the smoked flavour.  It was nevertheless still a decent pumpkin soup with bits of bacon inside.

The next dish of Scottish Eggs @ RM18 featured a soft-boiled egg in spiced minced pork with a sweet hot sauce (as described in the menu) and a side of pickled cucumber and fresh salad.  I suppose this is their take on Scotch eggs which consists of a hard-boiled egg encased in minced meat, coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried.

This egg was somewhere between soft and hard-boiled...I'd say the egg yolk was soft-boiled with the yolk still slightly runny and the white firm.  I've never eaten authentic Scotch eggs before, so I wouldn't know how this compares to the real thing.  It was alright although I wished there was a bit more of that tomatoey sauce on the plate.  I especially liked the thin slithers of pickled cucumber that brought some freshness and crunch to the dish.  Even though this was from the Munch menu, beware if you're a light eater as this was pretty filling! ;)

Another item from the Brunch Menu was the Pork Corn Belly @ RM18 consisting of bite-size roasted pork belly cubes cooked in dark soy sauce served with a side of hash brown or steamed rice.

The best way to describe this dish is probably chunks of "siew yoke" stir-fried and caramelised with dark soy (like what we'd do with leftover roast pork sometimes but this is way better, of course).  These little nuggets of pork were quite addictive.  The sauce was more on the salty side and would have been better eaten with steamed rice than hash brown (as we found out later).

The Blackstone Benedict @ RM12 was basically a poached egg with bacon and sauteed spinach on top of a charcoal bun served with grilled tomato slices and some fresh greens.

The poached egg was well executed but the charcoal bun was a bit hard.  Though I've had many egg benedicts already, it was the description of the Meyer-Lemon Hollandaise that attracted me.  [#Tip: Meyer lemons, while moderately acidic, don't have the same tang as regular lemons...and are known to be much sweeter (and more expensive) than their counterpart, the regular lemons.]  So, was this Meyer lemon hollandaise any better?  Nope, couldn't taste the difference....haha! ;D

Finally, the last thing we tried from the Munch menu was the Not So "Boar" Ribs @ RM15.  When this slow-cooked 100g marinated ribs arrived at our table, I was taken aback by the rather huge slab and had to confirm with the server that this was indeed the munch portion (since this was also offered in a bigger portion in the Brunch Menu).  So, for small-eaters, this dish alone would be quite sufficient.

Though the ribs were fork tender, I felt that the meat didn't have enough seasoning and came off as rather bland.  However, the sauteed cabbage with bits of bacon cooked with dark soy sauce offered some saltiness to the ribs but there wasn't quite enough of it on the plate.

From the Brunch Menu, we had the Meat-"Boar" Spaghetti @ RM26.  No surprises for a properly executed dish of aglio olio spaghetti stir-fried with bacon and chillies, served with pork meat balls and sprinkled with parmesan cheese.  Only downside, the portion was really small.  Yikes, we now have a dish from the brunch menu that looked like it belonged more to the munch menu! >.<

The other brunch-sized dish was the Caramelised Pork Belly @ RM30 with sauteed cabbage, fresh salad and steamed rice.  The sauteed cabbage was pretty much similar to the one in the Not So "Boar" Ribs dish earlier on.

Now, if you're a lover of pork that wobbles (I'm not saying it's me), then this is the dish for you.  The stewed pork belly in dark soy was immensely tender, even the wobbly parts (I tasted a small piece), with a nice caramelised exterior.  But, between the pork corn belly and this one, I definitely preferred the former.

The Assam Boi Fizz @ RM8 fizzled out! :(  I didn't get much fizz nor taste of assam boi while the Careless Whisper @ RM12, a homemade smoothie of peach-mango-banana, sounded like a great combo but tasted like it was made with essence than fresh fruits.  This is one careless whisper you'll soon want to forget (even if George Michael whispers in your ear)! =D

The other two drinks were much safer choices, an acceptable Iced Latte @ RM12 and Fresh Orange Juice, also @ RM12.

My Personal Opinion

There are quite a lot of porky dishes here to fill any porcine pleasures and some were alright but none stood out with a 'wow' factor that me feel that I must have it again.

Will I return?  Maybe.....but not anytime soon!

Brunch & Munch
Unit G-05 G-Village Jalan 1/76 
Off Jalan Desa Pandan
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-4065 0860