Whisk Espresso Bar & Bake Shop

June 2011

Whisk is a tiny hole in the wall in Empire Subang, comfortingly informal when you step inside. The menu is limited, but this is not a bad thing – it leaves space for the cooks to focus on what they do best (these skills are outlined in the name of the shop). There are a handful of savoury items on the menu but precedence is given to the many cakes that cover the counter, and the solid coffee menu. My lunch partner and I were there ostensibly for our midday meal and too shy to make a lunch out of cake, more’s the pity.

First to arrive was the hazelnut latte, which my lunch partner crooned over between sips. The hazelnut flavour was not too overpowering, the milk silky and the coffee superior. (Whisk uses beans from Oriole, a Singapore-based coffee company.) My beef cottage pie arrived somewhat unceremoniously in its foil case on a plate without any garnishes, but was warm through and crispy-topped. A cursory side salad wouldn’t have gone amiss and neither would the removal of the foil case, but the pie itself was good with a moist and flavourful filling of minced beef. The lamb and mushroom puff likewise came unadorned but fared much better than the cottage pie – the pastry was golden and flaky and the filling steaming and piquant.

But the main event was definitely the cakes. We loved the Granny’s cake – a light, tiered apple cake sandwiched with layers of cream cheese icing and butterscotch and flecked with tiny chips of apple. The crumb was moist without being heavy and though they’d cut us a fat slice, it disappeared effortlessly. The red velvet, though not as special as the apple, suffered a similar fate.

The macarons were a disappointment though; we packed six to go and munched them contemplatively as the afternoon wore on. They were crisp but too sweet, colourful but blandly flavoured and too tiny to be worth the effort. Go for the cake every time. Emma Chong

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