Famous stacks from Melbourne’s Pancake Parlour coming to S’pore at Surrey Hills Cafe’s new outlet

Good news for fans of iconic Melbourne-based pancake chain The Pancake Parlour – you can now order their famous fluffy stacks at homegrown Aussie-style gourmet grocer and cafe chain Surrey Hills Grocer’s newest outlet at The Woodleigh Mall, opening tentatively in the first week of November. 

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Breakfast pancakes served at the Melbourne cafes.

Photo: Facebook/ The Pancake Parlour

Pancake Parlour’s first overseas collaboration

“It took me a year to convince them,” says Surrey Hills founder Pang Gek Teng, 34, of her collaboration with Pancake Parlour. This marks the first overseas venture by the family-run Australian business established in 1965, which owns 11 outlets in Melbourne. The chain is known for its buttermilk pancakes served with a wide variety of sweet and savoury toppings. How did she win them over? “Sincerity. I sent them photos and write-ups [recounting] my five years of memories of Pancake Parlour,” says the entrepreneur, laughing. 

After all, Gek ran a grain bowl business in Melbourne for five years. While living there, she became a regular customer of the famous pancake house. Due to the pandemic, she had to wind down her food biz – which had three outlets at the time – and moved home in 2021. She launched Surrey Hills Grocer in Singapore later in the same year.

Backed by years of experience working with Australian food businesses, Gek immediately thought of approaching the famous pancake chain when planning for the new outlet. “I had to think of ways to attract people from beyond the Woodleigh area to visit and Pancake Parlour came to mind,” she shares.

For now, Surrey Hills Grocer has acquired an exclusive license to offer Pancake Parlour’s stacks at its Woodleigh outlet. “If the pancakes sell well here, we’ll consider a partnership to open [actual] Pancake Parlour outlets in Singapore,” she adds.

Surrey Hills chefs with Pancake Parlour’s senior executive Serge Meiers

Their chefs trained at Pancake Parlour’s HQ

The Surrey Hills team sent Lim Wei Kan (right in above pic) and Chan Chen Hooi (left), head chefs from the Woodleigh and Raffles City outlets, to the Pancake Parlour HQ in Melbourne for two weeks to learn how to make their signature pancakes. 

The cafe now imports Pancake Parlour’s dry buttermilk pancake mix from Melbourne – which is delivered weekly – to whip up the stacks on-site.

This is Surrey Hills Grocer’s largest outlet to date

Tucked away in a quiet corner of The Woodleigh Mall, this outlet will be Surrey Hills’ most spacious one to date (the chain has two other locations at ION Orchard and Raffles City – its first outlet at Upper Jurong Rd closed recently after its lease expired). Spanning 3,600 sqft, the lifestyle space includes a 90-seat cafe and a grocery section.

The cafe’s decor is inspired by a heritage steam train that runs in Mornington, a town near Melbourne. We’re told the team will be installing a handmade model train that will be chugging around the cafe’s ceiling soon – cute.

Gek, who owns an adorable Chow Chow Husky mix named Hugo (pictured), has also made the space pet-friendly, so feel free to bring your fluffy pals along. The grocery shop here will carry Australian pet products like treats and shampoo in a separate section named Furry Hills Pet Grocer.

The menu

Just like the other Surrey Hills locations, the menu has a good variety of all-day brunch items, pastas, salads and mains. The pancake section has six items, which includes both sweet and savoury stacks. According to Gek, the pancake dishes here are “more elevated” to suit the upscale Woodleigh cafe. This means fancier, restaurant-quality plating and more refined ingredients compared to the humbler diner-style stacks offered at the original Melbourne chain. Naturally, prices are slightly steeper here – a basic stack starts at $18 vs $15 at a Pancake Parlour outlet in Australia.

Pancake Parlour Classic Stack, $18 (8 DAYS Pick!)

Though not dreamily thick and airy (our preferred style), the three slim buttermilk pancakes are fairly fluffy and have a pleasant subtle tang from the yeasted batter. They’re also griddled to perfection, with a slightly crisp, golden-brown exterior. Served with an overzealous scoop of silky chantilly cream, whipped butter and maple syrup, this is a simple stack that hits the spot.

Bacon & Egg Stack, $22 (8 DAYS Pick!)

You can’t go wrong with this ultimate breakfast pairing: two pancakes, super crispy maple-glazed smoked bacon, two sunny side up eggs, house-made hollandaise and butter. Yum.

The Classic Stack, $20

Draped with cream, tangy house-made blueberry compote and a quenelle of creamy salted butter, this sweet stack is unapologetically rich and decadent – we recommend sharing it with a friend.

Pork Belly Benny, $28 (8 DAYS Pick!)

The pork belly, cooked sous vide then deep-fried, is incredibly crispy with moist, succulent meat, while the caramel apple puree does its job to cut through the richness. Jiggly poached eggs on crusty supplier-sourced sourdough complete the hearty, elevated take on eggs benedict.

Mala Hotpot Linguine, $32

Spice fiends will be pleased with this al dente pasta tossed in mala sauce and garnished with tiger prawns, deep-fried luncheon meat, quail egg, crispy beancurd puffs and skin.

Lava Wagyu Burger, $32 

Despite being drenched in a very rich and creamy house-made cheddar sauce, we could still pick out the wagyu patty’s juicy, full-bodied flavour. This was fun to eat but jelak – definitely meant for sharing.

The details

Surrey Hills Grocer’s Woodleigh outlet opens tentatively in the first week of Nov (check their socials for updates). Located at #01-52/53 The Woodleigh Mall, 11 Bidadari Park Dr, S367803. Open daily 10am – 10pm. More info via Facebook & Instagram.

Photos: Surrey Hills Grocer

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