Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant

So in my utterly mundane life of eat, sleep, work, repeat, I’ve come to realise that I do appreciate a nice chillax breakfast outing. Polished wooden tables, bright natural sunlight streaming through the windows, this is exactly what Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant is. 

One of the latest hip places to be at, at my first outing to Clinton Street for an early breakfast, I was quite surprised to find the place very full. However, the thing with going early is that the full menu is not available yet, so there are some dishes that you would not be able to have.

Over the few outings that I’ve been here, have been able to try several dishes and desserts from the menu such as:

Eggs benedict – poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce over a toasted buttermilk biscuit. So instead of a normal muffin bread, they substituted that for a buttermilk biscuit instead. I could not really appreciate the switch, I found the biscuit a bit too salty and ended up not finishing it.

Spanish scramble – three eggs, chorizo, tomatoes, caramelized onions, scallions, melted monterey jack cheese with hash browns and sourdough toast. Three eggs is really generous, and the mixture of chorizo and melted cheese is a winning combination.

Clinton St Omelette – three eggs with choice of two fillings, served with hash browns and sourdough toast.

Buttermilk fried chicken with honey-tabasco sauce, slaw and jalapeno corn bread. This is only served from 11.30am onwards. The honey-tabasco sauce was more honey than tabasco, but the buttermilk fried chicken was awesome. The breading was crispy but the chicken was deliciously tender underneath. Notably, the jalapeno corn bread was also really good, the right mix of heat and salty.

If you still have space in your stomach, go for their desserts. Ironically, for a place that prides itself on its cakes and pies, they weren’t serving pies when we asked about their pie of the day specialty on the menu. The standard staples available which we were able to try on our visits were:

Pineapple upside down cake: If there is a cake to try, this should be it. The butter pound cake was wonderfully moist, but not overly heavy that one would feel “jelat” after a few bites. This was a really easy cake to enjoy and we actually had no problems finishing it!

Peanut butter ice box pie: dark chocolate ganache with whipped peanut butter mousse, cracker crust and chocolate shavings. We really liked the crust a lot together with the ganache.

In all, the food is what you expect from a typical brunch place. Some hits and misses with the dishes, but their buttermilk fried chicken and the desserts is certainly something to try.

The one thing that mars the experience at Clinton Street Baking Co. & Restaurant is its service. Even with a reservation, don’t expect to get your table immediately and be prepared to wait. Furthermore, the “first come first serve” policy doesn’t necessarily work here. Seating is based on the party number and the tables available. So if there’s a table of four available, but you’re just a party of two, don’t expect to get that table first over a party of four.

Nonetheless, if you’re patient enough, you could certainly look forward to enjoying a nice brunch with your friends and family.

Add: 31 Purvis St