Second Floor Cafe — Restaurant in Zhongshan District

i shared photos of place before food cause while the food was as expected : true to west better than most trying to do west in east this cut of bacon 🥓 was thick the eggs fluffy the carb -- cinnamon bun-ny -- far less icing & walnut welcoming & matching savoury sides of this appetizer cum mini sprunch (my abbreviation for sprawling brunch -- as one would picnic south of France 🇫🇷 or summer farm table under Tuscany 🇮🇹 sun)

the ambience & company were the highlight

from the little girl who became fascinated with the lapdog that would later come to rest to the foreign couple having a couple-y lovey dovey Sun brunch for 2 to the group of mixed tw-foreigner of 4 to the many more tw families who came (as often do) to be in USA without getting on a plane

& lotta good memories in 🇺🇲 evidently

umm blintzes to go with your Blinken foreign policies ?

buying dated arms from our friends abroad aside who doesn't / wouldn't take a date -- a prospective love -- to 2nd fl cause that's what this place is -- a cache for ppl with cachet

from the QR menu to the twice a year updated menu the place screams we remember why we count ourselves western in the east

2nd floor café is a refuge for the homesick -- if you call 🇺🇲 home

superb staff -- attentive, open, used to whole lotta west owners who must've called 🇺🇲 home for some time & brought the same spirit to this mini chain of happiness bought in

drinks that impress food that instinctively touch on psychic places we've associated with all the Sundays spent over crosswords & all that lazy goodness of a childhood seemingly without care

the feeling is more than anything hardest to replicate in any cuisine

what does it feel to brunch in America on a Sunday ?

2nd fl approximates pretty damn...

I really want to love this place, at some point I was having UberEats delivered to me every other day. Then stop because of various concerns. Just to give it another try a few weeks/months later and once again stop.

I have on several occasions suspected the cleanliness of the food preparation. It's not the packaging nor delivery of the food and none of the incidents were terribly egregious. It's unfair for me to give a low rating for one location when I've experienced the above cross all of their establishments.

In no particular order: I've had bits of egg shell in my food, several times, fine whatever. It's where the egg shells were found. Today, I've had it in my steak between the sous vide slices which is bizarre. I've had some sort of non-human hair in my buffalo wings. It was rather thick, 5cm, tapered towards the tip, and very dark. It looked like whiskers from a large dog and I have a dog myself but this was under the wings inside the box with their branded tape sealing it. I've had some scrap of peel off of some fruit/berry in my coffee. This isn't that bad if it was intentional however it's an iced latte. Human hair while I was dining-in with my wife, I picked it out and continued eating. I did notify the waiting staff as a "FYI I found hair".

I get it, I've eaten at food carts or hole-in-the-walls where the establishment would not pass a health inspection but I expect better. I do not want the establishment to ban dogs but this is the kitchen area where these things were introduced...

Truffle Fries ($250): They were nicely fried and tasted so amazing with the truffle and the cheese shreds.

Beet Guava & Apple Juice ($200): It tasted quite sweet, fleshy and extraordinary.

Caramel Crisp Ice Cream with Brownie ($220): It was delicately decorated and the caramel cream and the lotus biscuits went so delicious with the brownie and the ice cream. However, they made it complimentary for me because she misinterpreted her words and told me to change my seat.

In conclusion, I didn’t reserve and barely got a seat downstairs. It was very nice and passionate of the staff Eason who informed me in advance of ordering that the foods would be served late due to the loads of customers. However, it actually was faster than expected because the fries were delivered in less than 20 minutes. I haven’t encountered a such excellent service for a long time. Therefore, if they feel sorry about their service, they might make your meal cheaper as an apology (in this branch but I don’t know about if the other branches do that or not).

Besides, it was not located inside the department store Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Nanxi III but on the first lane right behind the department store. Overall, it’s a 10 out of 10!

FYI, you scan the QR code (English available) to the place order and 10% service charge...