Da' Food EnthusiastBruneians are obsessed with salted egg dishes, myself included. And so, for my first ever collaboration with ‘Neue’, I believe that it would be fitting to have an article out about where you can find ‘Salted Egg Fries’ in Brunei.
Over the past few weeks, I visited Piccolo Cafe, Twelv Cafe, Bake 250c & Spoonfull Restaurant – eateries that are KNOWN for their salted egg fries. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Piccolo Cafe (@piccolocafebn)
Piccolo Cafe is located at No 11, Ground Floor, opposite Waterfront, Jalan McArthur, Bandar Seri Begawan
The salted egg fries here are really thick and of good quality! They are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside and most of them were firm.
However, the salted egg flavour was lackluster. I could barely taste it on the fries. Even though they provided me with a dip, if I’m being honest, the quantity given wasn’t enough for the amount of fries served. But I was informed that you could have more dip … FOR AN ADDITIONAL DOLLAR?! The fries were already pricey to begin with – BND 7.90 to be precise.
However, in their defence, out of the 4 places I visited for this article, Piccolo Cafe, when it comes to portion of fries served, this cafe comes out tops!
Furthermore, they have some of the best fries I’ve had i.e. NORMAL fries without any coating. They are really, really good … IF the price was right, that is. (I wouldn’t want to spend more than BND 5 for just plain fries!)
Twelv Cafe (@twelvcafe)
Twelv Cafe is located at Unit 1, Ground Floor, Block D, Bangunan Hj Abdul Rahman in Kiulap. It’s at the same building as Country Patch
Twelv Cafe has a different way of adding the delicious salted egg flavour onto their fries.
The fries served were not perfect – there were limp. They weren’t the chunky sized ones. Furthermore, they weren’t coated with salted egg that much either.
The way I look at it, it’s similar to chili beef fries. However, instead of chili beef, it’s salted egg bits with onions, curry leaves and chilies. To enjoy the full flavours, make sure you mix all of these with your fries!
I absolutely loved Twelv Cafe’s salted egg fries. It felt as though you were eating a savoury dish. There was a generous serving of salted egg concoction – it was enough to be mixed with all of the fries.
How much, you ask? Just BND 6.50.
Bake 250c (@bake250c)
Bake 250c is located in Kiulap, the same building as Sweet Deli Bakery or Little Audrey’s
When it comes to pricing, Bake 250c’s salted egg fries are cheaper when compared to Piccolo Cafe and Twelv Cafe.
It costs BND 5.50 here – the same as Spoonfull Restaurant’s, which I will talk about later.
In terms of presentation, Bake 250c takes the crown – it had the most beautiful presentation out of the lot. Don’t believe me, take a look at the photos for yourself.
For the amount of money that you pay, the portion of fries served was somewhat generous.
However, in terms of taste (quality), it was not as good when I last reviewed Bake 250c’s salted egg fries for my own Instagram account so I was quite disappointed about this.
The salted egg taste is slightly better than Piccolo’s, but some of the fries were not coated and some of them were even overcooked!
Spoonfull Restaurant (@spoonfull.bn)
Spoonfull Restaurant is located at SEAMEO VOCTECH building in Gadong
The salted egg fries here are thick in size and I really enjoyed the texture of the salted egg coating. All of the fries were fully coated with salted egg, which is excellent.
However, they were a tad too sweet for my taste, so I did not favour them as much.
To me, any salted egg dish should be salty, NOT sweet. That’s just my personal preference.
Even when it comes to buns (pao), I won’t enjoy it if the filling was sweet.
If you’re preference is more on the sweet side when it comes to salted egg fries, this place would have to be your go-to restaurant!
In terms of portion size, for $5.50, I thought that what I was served here was the least when compared to the other three places I visited.
So which is my favourite?
After reading about what I had to say about salted egg fries served at these 4 fine establishments, you must be wondering, “So which is the writer’s favourite?”
I just want to make one thing very clear here: I am judging these salted egg fries based on (1) salted egg taste (not sweet taste), (2) serving size and (3) pricing.
In my opinion, the undeniable winner would have to be Twelv Cafe!
Even though the fries were not so perfect, the salted egg flavour easily won me over! Moreover, it was not so pricey.
I have to be honest: I would not even mind ordering two plates of these salted egg fries all for myself! (They are just THAT tasty!)
What do you think?
Do you agree with my choices? Are these really the best spots for salted egg fries in Brunei? I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a comment below or reach out to ‘Neue’ via Facebook or Instagram.
*Editor’s note: This story was written in collaboration with our local friend from Da’ Food Enthusiast who you can follow on Instagram by clicking here.