Bakerzin’s New Meal Boxes Let You Pay Less, Eat More!

With nine branches spread across the island, Bakerzin has long been a crowd favourite for its desserts, cakes and artful dishes. Pitted against the surge of café-restaurants marketing the same fancy bites, how will Bakerzin’s newly revamped menu for 2010 fare?

A new addition to the menu is the interesting meal-boxes category. Each meal-box includes a main course or pasta, soup of the day, bread, side salad, slice of cake and a choice of Italian soda or iced tea.

We opt for three of the meal-boxes, namely the carbonara, Japanese chicken curry and Barramundi fish meal-boxes.

Carbonara meal-box
S$18.90++
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The creamy smell from the carbonara meal-box wafts into our nostrils long before it even arrives at the table. I’ve always been a fan of creamy pasta, so this is a natural choice for me. The presentation is elegant, the white of the plate contrasting well with the yellow in the pasta, speckled with pink and green.

However, the pasta turns out to be a little starchy and dry, as though it has been overcooked. Having had the same dish on a previous visit, this experience left me disappointed.

Japanese chicken curry meal-box
S$21.90++
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I like the way they make the Japanese chicken curry stand out with a pile of seaweed stacked atop the rice and the asymmetrical curry arrangement. This is the standard sweet and mildly spicy Japanese curry, although its pairing with the clearly western mashed potato seems mismatched.

Barramundi fish meal-box
S$26.90++
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The Barramundi fish meal-box is the one that captures our attention. The cooking is well executed, the fish perfectly paired with a savoury sauce. The salmon salad on the side is refreshing, while the mashed potato on which the fish sits is far more flavourful than the side dishes in the other two meal-boxes. This is one item that Bakerzin should definitely retain on their next menu update. (Editor: While we’re at it, please bring back the assam (tamarind) prawn linguini and the old seafood pasta, too!)

Soup of the day is the Spicy Bloody Mary soup, which is spicy and tomato-based. One minor gripe we have is that the angular shape of the deep soup bowls makes scooping difficult.

For the cake option, you have a choice between mango and tiramisu. The latter has just the right mix of cream, sponge and cocoa powder, with a soft texture that allows the fork to slide through easily. It suffices to say that the tiramisu does not disappoint.

While we’re on the subject of the new Bakerzin menu, I have always been impressed with the menu design and layout. The previous design had a style like a glossy magazine with oh-so drool-worthy pictures. The new menu sports a simpler old-school feel with the design and paper texture, while retaining the same gorgeous studio-quality images.

Peach Italian soda
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On the whole, the new meal-box concept serves as a more affordable option for enjoying a multi-course meal. That being said, it has its drawbacks. The small plates set on a tray reminds one of airline food. For that same reason I can’t help but eye my carbonara suspiciously, wondering if it was indeed prepared way beforehand and heated up on order. The next time I visit Bakerzin, I’d stick to the ala carte orders, thank you very much!

What are your thoughts on Bakerzin’s new meal-box concept? Tell us in the comments!