Butter By Two Men Review: Butter-Themed Cafe With SG Breakfast Croissantwich, Bagels And More

Butter By Two Men has a menu centered around butter

Update: Butter By Two Men is now permanently closed.

Two Men Bagel House is on a roll: Two Men Rice Bar, their rice bowl concept in Tanjong Pagar, opened last month, and over the weekend, they launched yet another concept—Butter By Two Men. Housed in Trifecta, Singapore’s newest and perhaps hippest sports facility in Somerset, the entire menu at Butter By Two Men revolves around butter, if you haven’t already guessed.

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Food at Butter By Two Men

Every item on the menu at Butter By Two Men is prepared with one of nine house-made butters: Smoked Maple, Salted Gula Melaka, Sriracha Honey, Garlic, Caesar, Caramelised Onion, Smokey Tomato, Spicy Takana, and Spicy Peanut. If you’d like to try them in their purest form, go for a Butter Flight ($10), which gets you three butters of your choice, plus a plain, sliced and toasted bagel, croissant, or a pancake.

They all taste remarkably different, but my favourites were the Spicy Takana, where takana is a peppery-tasting pickled Japanese mustard and Salted Gula Melaka, studded with chunks of actual, crunchy gula melaka.

Where Two Men Bagel House specialises in bagelwiches, Butter has diversified the spread to include croissantwiches and butter jacks—fried pancake rolls. I dove straight for their Heritage ($15) croissantwich, a no-brainer for its local brekkie-in-one interpretation.

There is a huge, thick slab of that salted gula melaka butter that won my heart, plus house-made pandan kaya, pastry creme, almond flakes, and quarters of Hanjuku egg in a pastry that’s supplied to them by Mooi Patisserie. I couldn’t imagine finishing this all by myself, but the custardy kaya and savoury egg, with the cold slab of butter were a hit combination.

Of three butter jacks on the menu, we opted for Lox N’ Roll ($15), where a crepe-like pancake is rolled with garlic butter, smoked salmon, slaw, pickled cucumber, capers, and a Sumac red onion salad. Sumac, in case you didn’t know, is a spice powder derived from a berry. It’s got a slight smoky, earthy flavour, with a citrusy sweet-sharpness not unlike lemon.

The crepe is made fresh daily, but not to order. I enjoyed how it was nicely thin, such that the medley of ingredients were able to stand out—kudos to the team for balancing all of it, in spite of how many different elements were going on in the same wrap.

Then, Two Men Bagel House’s signature bread rolls appear on the menu in three variations: Poo Bear ($19), Sweet Chicks ($18) and Sup’ Beef ($20). Here, you don’t get to choose your bagel; there’s only plain ones available.

Poo Bear was a unique combination of spicy peanut butter, Spam, scrambled eggs, pork floss, garlic aioli, and—check this out—condensed milk. Because we took a pretty long while before digging in, the scrambled eggs had lost their creaminess, but we were surprised by how well the sweet and savoury ingredients worked together, so the overall bite was not too sweet nor savoury. I’d definitely recommend having this ASAP so the eggs are as creamy as they were intended. Plus, you can never go wrong with Spam and eggs.

P.S.: I went back for Sweet Chicks and it was as much of a blast, if not more. Think juicy, deep-fried chicken thigh dashed with sriracha honey butter for a sweet-spicy kick, and added zing from spicy aioli, refreshing slaw, pickled cucumber, and melty double cheddar.

At this point, the aforementioned items are only available on Butter’s day menu, which runs from 8am to 4pm daily. At 5pm, they switch to a dinner menu, headlined by three butter rice dishes, and three butter noodles. Each butter rice dish starts with a base of Japanese rice, cooked with dashi and butter for a most tasty treat.

Choosing was tough, but we wound up with Locomo ($24), where it’s paired with a beef hamburg blanketed in buah keluak demiglace, drizzled with sour cream, and matched with house salsa, Asian greens, and a sunny-side-up.

Slicing into the hamburg patty revealed a perfect pink doneness, and an oozing core of caramelised onion butter, which added loads of extra flavour, and juiciness.

It’s a close fight with the buah keluak demiglace—where buah keluak is more of an acquired taste, this was tempered down to a milder, chocolatey, and easily acceptable flavour, which my colleague, who’s never had buah keluak before, found surprisingly palatable.

I really enjoyed how the heavier beef and demiglace were given balance with the salsa and slaw, rounding out the plate. My only qualm was with how this is a dinner-only dish.

The soy milk broth of Snowcapped ($20) is made in-house: a reduction of soya bean milk that’s sieved and thickened with butter, and served cold with egg noodles. These are closer to ramen, with a chewy springiness to them. Served on the side is house-made chilli oil, which you can get more of if you want more of the spicy oomph.

An onsen egg is nestled on top of the noods, with takana, scallions, Romaine lettuce, cucumber, and a wedge of lime that, squeezed on the noodles, adds a bright edge.

Give it a really good mix to properly enjoy this cold dish. It may seem a little on the steep side, price-wise, but the portion makes up for it.

For proteins, you get house-made char siew. I did think that maybe thicker, juicier slices might go better, but the thin, well-charred pork delivered on flavour nonetheless.

Also on the dinner menu are a selection of side dishes, of which we picked Crunchix ($15), Buttercups ($12) and Corn A’ Nation ($10).

Not your usual karaage, Crunchix is topped with a brown butter chilli crunch that has a Sichuan pepper kick to it.

When I first tried the crunch, I’d thought, “Ugh, mala,” but having it with the juicy fried chicken made me eat my words.

Corn A’ Nation gets you a whole bowl of corn kernels tossed in Caesar butter, with a buttery crumble, and umami savouriness from shio kombu.

Meanwhile, salted gula melaka butter gave the charred Brussel sprouts of Buttercups a mellow sweetness, and the crunchy pecans were a nice touch, unlike your typical walnuts or almonds.

Only available before 4pm is Creamy Thai Tea ($8): don’t skip this thinking it’s regular cha yen. Instead of condensed and evaporated milk, this concoction has a house-made butter espuma! The tea flavour could be stronger, IMO, but the slightest tinge of salt from the butter made this indulgent drink worth the calories.

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Ambience at Butter By Two Men

The vibes at all of Two Men Bagel House’s establishments are hip and vibey; you can expect no less at Butter By Two Men, fitting right in with the skate shop it shares the space with, as well as the surf pool right outside. Choose to dine in air-conditioned comfort within the cafe itself, sit on the steps outside, or get your food to go, and enjoy it anywhere within the Trifecta complex.

Trifecta is located just above Somerset MRT Station, across from Orchard Gateway, making Butter By Two Men extremely accessible, and right in the heart of Orchard Road.

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The verdict

‘Tis not your usual cafe grub at Butter By Two Men. The nett prices and large portions make it that much more attractive. I only wish the full menu were available throughout the day, so I might have the rice bowls and noodle dishes whether it’s at lunch or dinner. They’re still figuring out their opening hours and if they’ll continue splitting the day and night menus, so fingers crossed!

Stick around the busy shopping street, and when you’re feeling peckish, you can check out the Marimekko Cafe in ION Orchard, or Gyutan-tan for beef tongue hamburg and Japanese afternoon tea sets!

Address: 10A Exeter Road, #01-01, Trifecta, Singapore 239958
Opening hours: Daily 8am to 4pm, 5pm to 10pm
Website
Butter By Two Men is not a halal-certified eatery

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Photos taken by Raelynn Ng.
This was a media tasting at Butter By Two Men.