Surrey Hills Grocer is one of the brands that doesn’t seem to rest on their laurels — while they had just launched their new outlet at Raffles City Shopping Centre just a short while ago, their lease agreement at their original location at d’Arena in Joo Koon had also ended fairly recently. With that, Surrey Hills Grocer had since took the opportunity to open yet another outlet — this time round in The Woodleigh Mall within the property’s Heritage Walk area; this would also be the same area where one can find other F&B tenants such as that of the outlet of Pepper Lunch, Tiong Bahru Bakery and Olla Specialty Coffee at the mall. True to their roots, the Surrey Hills Grocer outlet at The Woodleigh Mall location consists of both the grocer and the bistro concept — something that has pretty much been a fixture since their days at d’Arena. One would also note that the space dedicated for the bistro is bigger at their The Woodleigh Mall outlet as compared to that of their d’Arena space when they had first started out. Whilst carrying a rustic vibe with the use of wooden elements amidst an interior that also employs the use of a Royal Green colour scheme, one can also find a handcrafted Mornington train making its way around the dine-in area with the tracks that are suspended from the ceiling. Surrey Hills Grocer has been known to bring patrons a different experience with the opening of every new outlet that they have — the highlight at their The Woodleigh Mall outlet would be the collaboration with The Pancake Parlour; a pancake house that hails from Melbourne, Australia, though there are also other dishes spread across menu categories such as Soup, For Sharing, All Day Brunch, Mains, Salad, Pasta, Desserts and Ice-Cream (sourced from Van Diemens Land Creamery in Tasmania, Australia). For beverages, one can opt for specialty coffee that is brewed using beans sourced from ONA Coffee, as well as tea, smoothies and fresh-pressed juices.

Wanting to go for at least one savoury food item during our visit to Surrey Hills Grocer at their The Woodleigh Mall outlet, it does seem like the Wagyu Eggs Shibuya was the dish that stood out particularly whilst we were skimming through the food menu. The online menu actually describes the Wagyu Eggs Shibuya to be an item that comes with elements such as Braised Shoyu Wagyu beef cheeks, folded eggs, Furikake, steamed
Japanese rice and Edamame. Truth to be told, this does feel like an item that seems to be inspired by that of Japanese Omu Rice and also with a bit of influence from the scrambled egg rice bowls from Dan Lao 蛋佬 that has captured a fair bit of attention on social media for a while.

Digging straight into the folded eggs and the steamed Japanese rice with Edamame, we really liked the consistency of the folded eggs here — they are done just nicely runny whilst being creamy with an evident eggy note that was particularly fragrant especially on the very first spoonful. On parts where it is being drenched with the braised Shoyu sauce from the beef cheeks, the braised Shoyu sauce acted like a Japanese Demi-Glace sauce that is all savoury, rich and a little briny for an additional punch of flavours; otherwise, there is a bit of that Furikake that has been sprinkled in the middle of the mound of rice which provides an umami touch to the dish. As one munches on the Edamame, it gives a contrast of texture against the short-grain rice. The Braised Shoyu Wagyu beef cheeks were pretty delightful; having absorbed all of the flavours from the braised Shoyu sauce, the meat can also be described as really tender with a melt-in-the-mouth texture, though we would think that some might feel that the dish is slightly heavy-handed as thus a bit jelat to finish. We had also tried the Pancake Parlour Classic Stack during our visit to Surrey Hill Grocer’s outlet at The Woodleigh Mall — while we have heard of some ravings about their pancake offerings that are created in collaboration with The Pancake Parlour, we found the pancake stack in our Pancake Parlour Classic Stack to be a little on the dry side. No doubt it does seem to work better if we do mix in all the vanilla crème Chantilly, whipped butter and maple syrup to have alongside the pancake stack, it did also ultimately proved to be on the heavy side of things for us as well. As with all other locations of Surrey Hills Grocer (with the exception of Surrey Hills Deli at 6 Battery Road), the price point of the mains are in the range of $18++ (being the price of the Pancake Parlour Classic Stack) to $42++ (being the price of the Steak & Eggs) — definitely on the higher side which is pretty much the norm here. That being said, Surrey Hills Grocer does have its own following; and this also means that we would be seeing fans of the brand flock to this latest outlet to try what they have to offer — a opening that is likely exciting especially for those staying around Woodleigh at least!