[ Food Review — 20% off + no GST/SC too! ] What’s better than being able to get brunch food? Being able to grab brunch food at n i g h t, that’s what! While C^2 and I were perusing the frankly disappointing café dinner choices for the night, we realised/remembered that hey, Craftsmen is in Holland V, and they open until late!

I’ve only been to Craftsmen a couple of times, and only to their Siglap brunch — where I had their salmon waffles which were pretty good for café fare! — so I wasn’t sure if this branch would live up to my prev exp. What I enjoyed about my prior visits was the ambience: the space was open, the atmosphere was relaxed, with the added bonus of pretty good coffee and food.

The Holland V branch was a lot narrower and closely packed, and while that’s not the fault of the brand (gotta work that space, yo), it did impact my initial impression — it just felt like any ol’ café spot. But on the plus side, the service was warm and friendly! (Take note F&B peeps, this is one of the best ways to cultivate not just customers, but regulars.)

I was originally looking forward to some waffle action, but since I’m not feeling robust enough to risk buttermilk, had to make a 15-min decision detour before settling for their Kimchi Sourdough ($20) open ‘wich w/o cheese. After deliberating for equally long (heh), C^2 ordered the Smoked Salmon Brioche open ‘wich ($19) w/ a side of Tater Tots ($7).

What I’d intended to be a light dinner went out the window when the plates arrived — my goodness, they’re bigger than we’d expected! Even the tater tots arrived as a tiny mound, and despite having two fans of fried potato present, we could not demolish more than half of it, welp.

One thing I’ll give Craftsmen is that they know how to make a plate pop. Not just visually (love when photos take themselves!), but the contrast of textures and flavours made the entire process a really fun one: The sausage+bacon anchored the dish; the bite of kimchi contrasted it; the rich, runny yolk tied it all together; the sprouts+pomegranate seeds lifted it back up. (Personally think the cheese would’ve made it too heavy, I’d suggest skipping it too.)

Guess this is my new fav dish here!