Hit&Mrs in Bangsar: Breakfast Mission Accomplished

What: Hit&Mrs, Bangsar, KL

When: February 2013

Food: Brunch

Rating: 8/10

Breakfast is, let’s be honest here, sacred. If you are going to the trouble of leaving your bed, getting dressed, and driving to a restaurant before your stomach can enjoy any morning satisfaction, you want your meal to be something a) reassuringly familiar and b) tasty. No one wants foie gras on toast, or wagyu beef sautéed in shallots; no no, breakfast is about filling, comforting, understandable staples.

Coffee tastes better in a cup and saucer...

Chef Marshad Pinot - magician of gastronomy

Thankfully, Chef Marshad Pinot, despite possessing an extraordinary creative mind and a touch of magic with his dishes at Hit&Mrs (see my previous post), understands the importance and sanctity of the B-meal, and has delivered a brunch menu that your stomach will be delighted with. “I’m not reinventing anything here,” he says fervently, as we stand in the sun-dappled courtyard of the shophouse-converted restaurant on a lazy Saturday morning, “I’m just playing with flavour combinations. With the brunch menu, I want it to be things people know and like.”

More "brunchy" options coming soon

It may be known as the Brunch menu, but the list at H&M is primarily breakfast options (at the moment anyway, more brunch options coming soon), and with eight choices ranging from the healthy (salads, yoghurt with berries) to the indulgent (fry up), from the classy (salmon with eggs) to the experimental (63 degrees C egg foillandaise), there is plenty to ensure that decision to leave your bed on an empty stomach was worth making.

H&M’s environment lends itself to the lazy breakfast: the small shophouse yawns into life on a weekend morning, and local residents begin to move about this cute neighbourhood. 

Fresh flowers add a touch of colour

Watch the busy bees at work

Inside the restaurant, the sun creeps across the open courtyard, dabbling the trickling water feature and the scrubby trees in brilliant sunlight, while a comforting breeze flows into the open but cool eating area, where the only noises to complement your murmurings are the chop and whizz of the chefs at work behind the open kitchen counter. Time is left outside with your car, and the morning stretches away luxuriously like a cup of tea without a bottom.

Hot and cold thirst quenchers

Drinks are simple and satisfying – fresh juices (RM12) and piping, frothy coffees (RM8), while teas (RM12) and even teh tarik are available for a breakfast tipple. Arriving in charming little kopitiam style cups and saucers and satisfying the senses, the coffees could not have been the better way to start the day.

They didn’t manage to hold our attention for long though, as Chef Marshad swiftly began to hit us with food that begged to be photographed from every angle. While the boys stared longing at the edible art pieces and rubbed their rumbling tummies, Monica (The Yum List) and I snapped away like paparazzi at the Oscars. 

Quinoa meets Granola to create my new favourite breakfast!

 

First on the red carpet was the Quinoa, Granola (RM25), a healthy jumble that made us ooo in pleasure at the mere sight of the granules of quinoa and crunchy granola, dotted with dried fruit and blobbed with meltingly soft fresh yoghurt, strawberries, and a drizzle of Australian honey.

Crunchy, sweet, and sloppy...and healthy!

Light, crunchy, healthy, and refreshing, this is a classic breakfast item done with a flourish, and the addition of crunchy, nutty quinoa is a charming one. Diners also have the option of ordering this dish with avocado puree and blueberry ice cream rather than the strawberries and yoghurt combo....mmmmm..a reason to go back!

Simple yet so satisfying

But we couldn’t linger on the granola because a leg was appearing out of a black limo and here was the fry up, glistening with freshly crisped brown-ness and calling out for someone to transport it into a belly. Two Eggs on Sourdough Toast, Slow-Roasted Tomatoes, Buttered Mushrooms, and Beef Bacon (RM35) are piled on a platter and look utterly divine, promising traditional home comfort delivered to restaurant standard. 

Never have I eaten such enjoyable beef bacon – I would’ve believed it was pork! – and the sweet mushy tomatoes, the slippery, peppery mushrooms, the wobbly worthy eggs, and the slice of buttered sourdough came together in a plate that will always beat a lie-in, hands down!

Colourful combo of eggs, salmon, and inky bread

Another classic outfit stepped into the spotlight and flashed a hint of Chef’s prestidigitation: Scrambled Egg, Home Cured Salmon, Squid Ink Foccacia (RM35), which dazzles with a trio of yellow, pink, and black and offers up some of the creamiest, sloppiest eggs you are likely to slurp. The ooze of eggs is just perfect for the spongy-soft hunks of atramentous bread to mop up, while the salmon refreshes the palate.

The final arrival – always one to make the dramatic late appearance – was the winning dish of French toast, but this time donning an outfit that just screamed of glamour and made jaws drop in admiration. 

Italy meets France in the Panna French Toast

The buttery, spongy Italian loaf panettone is egged up and fried for this version of Panna French Toast (RM25), accompanied by the smallest, sweetest bananas the market can offer up (pisang emas), drizzled with syrup, and finished with a blob of vanilla-infused, creamy Chantilly for a decadent flourish to a fine dish.

"Come back and eat me again soon!"

It was normal fare, but then it wasn’t...familiar food, but yet so much better than you could ever hope to make it...“Simple plus plus..” is how I would describe this rather jammy brunch menu. The words list the dishes you know you like and you know you want, while the live counterparts offer up quality ingredients presented with style, creativity, and careful attention to taste and textural combinations.

You can almost sense Chef Marshad straining at the limits of his breakfast options – how he longs to soar into the world of his artistic edible masterpieces that make his dinner menu something extraordinary! But he has made the right choice: breakfast needs to be reassuringly reliable, and at H&M you could be reassured of a meal that will keep you smiling all weekend long. 

 

Hit&Mrs

15 Lorong Kurau

Taman Weng Lock

Bangsar

59000 Kuala Lumpur

03.2282 3571

www.thebiggroup.co

Open: Tuesday-Sunday 5pm-1am, Saturday-Sunday 11am-2.30pm

Pork-free

Upstairs bar area

Watch this space for a multi-course lunch menu and a bar menu – Chef Marshad is not finished yet!