Champagne Brunch

Okay, there's your typical weekend brunch and then there's champagne brunch. Champagne brunch has been almost like a tradition here in Singapore. I remember experiencing it for the first time around 7 years ago, on one of my first trips here. Champagne brunch happens on Sundays, from somewhere between 11:30am and 3:30pm in most of the big hotels here in Singapore. The concept? It's brunch - well, it's a big spread of food - from sushi, to fresh oysters, to roast lamb, to all kinds of cheese, to chocolate fondue, etc, and of course, free-flowing (yes...) champagne. Depending on which hotel you go to, you get Moet & Chandon, Taittinger or Veuve Clicquot (my personal favorite). Price is a bit steep, I must admit. But considering food and alcohol prices here in Singapore, anything free-flowing will be more than worth it! Price range will be somewhere around SGD 125 - 150+++. And yes, if you convert that to Philippine Pesos, you're looking at around PhP5,000 for a single meal... I try not to think about that, especially since this is not the first time I'm going for it!

Anyway, I was off to my 3rd champagne brunch in Singapore last Sunday, and I was excited mainly because - it was at the Equinox, which is the highest point in Singapore, it's on the 70th floor of Swissotel (my first one was at the Hyatt, the second one at the Fullerton). Secondly, I was with friends - Clair, Chris, Dan, Kyrsa, Dave and James (it was a send-off for Kyrsa and Dave who are moving back to Seattle), and apart from Dan and myself, it was the first champagne brunch for everyone and, sad as it may seem that we were sending off two people, I knew the brunch was going to be fun. It was from 11:30am - 2:30pm and at 11:35am, I was being escorted to our table, where Kyrsa, Dave and Dan were already seated.

Three hours later, I find myself full, but really, more drunk, because I must admit, we all had more champagne then we had food...

And as we were signing off the bill, instead of wanting to go home to take a nap (which is what I did the first two times I went for champagne brunch), we found ourselves sitting in the bar right next to the restaurant, drinking more champagne (can you believe that!!!). We ended up ordering 3 more bottles of champagne (note that the guys gave up after the first bottle and started drinking beer, so the 2nd and 3rd bottles were shared between the 3 girls...) and by the time we left the bar it was already dark, which meant around 7ish...

Then we said we shouldn't all go home hungry (yes, our last meal was at around 2:00pm) so we all decided to grab a bite to eat. Which brought us to Chijmes - across the street - at Harry's Bar, where we found ourselves ordering a bunch of appetizers, and yes, more booze.

This whole activity ended at 9:30pm and by that time, I had absolutely no idea how much alcohol I've consumed. I was drinking for 10 hours straight!!! Seriously, WTF!

Anyway, got some nice photos, especially of the view on the 70th floor. And I'm sure after reading this you're all feeling tired and stressed just imagining the amount of alcohol involved, so I hope you enjoy! ;-)


P.S. Yes, I did wake up early enough to be able to make it to work the next day, thank God! ;-)