Halycon & Crane

Halycon & Crane is a little nest of calm inside Paragon Mall. By the same people behind Birds of a Feather, this café is smartly decked out with Chinese wooden umbrellas and screens, low (for a mall) lighting and a pretty colour scheme. Halcyon & Crane is inspired by Chengdu, the charming city in China’s southern Sichuan province where the cafe owners come from. The menu is a blend of modern  European cuisine with a Sichuan influence. We ordered the King’s Chicken Hash Benedict ($21) – not the usual take on eggs ben and all the more exciting for that. This dish features house-made English muffins topped with gong bao chicken packed full of flavour, sous-vide egg and Cheddar cheese. With a side of spiced roast potatoes. Lighter options range Pistachio & Apple Birches Muesli ($17) for breakfast to Smoked  Tuna Tataki  Salad. The Specialty Beef & Tomato Braised Rice ($28) is a comfort soul dish of 16 hour cooked Angus brisket, in a tomato base with kamut, buckwheat and barley grains or for something spicy the Chicken & Mushroom Capellini noodle soup ($23). Halycon & Crane have got the afternoon tea crowd in mind with their all-day desserts: Avocado Cheesecake ($16), Berries Trifle & Cheese in a glass ($15) or the Matcha Molten Lava. Don’t miss coffee – the heart of the business – the Beetroot piccolo and latte sees two coffees (the former a pretty pink sweet and demure coffee) on a board with candy floss, a thirst-quenching glass of soda water and some fruity nibbles – a sweet caffeinated ending that ticks all the right boxes.