The breakfast plate

Must Tries – Breakfast plate, mushroom toast, banana cake

Curiosity was what brought us to this new café in Tanjong Pagar. With a name like Selfish Gene Café, we simply could not resist checking this place out. Turns out, Gene, the owner was ‘selfish’ because “he will not serve food he would not eat.”

We did not quite understand how that was being selfish. Perhaps Gene, who’s a psychology graduate, did this to keep his diners in suspense and coming back for more. On the culinary side, Gene was trained at Le Cordon Bleu Sydney and worked under Chef Emmanuel Stroobant of Saint Pierre.

Selfish Gene Cafe's interior

Selfish Gene Café offers a variety of savoury sandwiches, refreshing salads and home-baked goodies. While they have a relatively small menu, the café offers weekly specials based on customers’ suggestions on what they would like to see on the menu via the café’s Facebook page.

We were recommended the breakfast plate ($15.80) which consists of scrambled eggs, sausage, ham, mushroom and toast. The addition of berry compote and tomato confit gives the dish a unique edge.

Mushroom toast

The mushroom toast ($10.80) with delicious mushroom duxelle on ciabatta bread is worth trying too. The bread was soft and chewy, and enhanced with a spread of light cream cheese and olive oil.

What sealed the deal for us was the banana cake ($5.80). Homemade by Gene, the cake was moist and not overly sweet. We liked that he had added crunchy crumble, peanut butter and caramelised banana to give the dish more depth. We simply loved it.

Banana cake

Selfish Gene Café

40 Craig Road

Tel: 6423 1324

Opening Hours: 10am – 6pm (Closed on Tuesday)