I'd been meaning to try the new Saturday brunch since it launched in April, when Nancy Silverton flew in from LA herself to kick it off. And on a golden Saturday afternoon, there is no table I'd rather be at than Osteria Mozza Singapore, the only outpost of the one-Michelin-starred Los Angeles institution.
This semi-buffet brunch was the best way to slow down this long weekend. My biggest gripe with buffets has always been the interruption the moment you're mid-story and someone needs to physically get up and forage. Mozza has quietly solved this. The format is designed to feel hosted, not self-served, with live stations anchoring the room and a proper order-to-table setup for the exclusive stuff, all inclusive and part of the brunch.
The entrance is flanked by a Moët & Chandon cart, bottles chilling in a gold ice bucket, champagne flutes hanging overhead like an upside-down chandelier. I stopped for a photo. You would too. Free-flow Champagne or Campari cocktails are available as an add-on, and I'd recommend making that decision early, ideally before you're seated.
We started at the Mozzarella Bar with the caramelised onion focaccia warm enough to pull apart, a roasted corn salad with the brightness of something made that morning, and a charcuterie and Italian cheese spread that required actual restraint. Then came the real question: pizza from the live station, or Nancy's famous blueberry pancakes? Someone at the table wisely said both, and that settled it.
At the live pasta station, the rigatoni alla vodka tubes were perfectly al dente, coated in a sauce that somehow managed to be simultaneously silky and punchy: tomato, cream, a whisper of vodka sharpening the edges. Scattered with fresh herbs, served in a wide Le Creuset pan, it looked as good as it tasted.
This is the part of the format that transforms a nice Saturday brunch into a slow laid back indulgent memory. The tableside exclusives are where brunch earns its keep. We ordered eggs purgatory, which arrived in their own cast-iron skillet, simmered in a tomato sauce with a slow, creeping heat that catches you mid-bite; meatballs with whipped ricotta and poached eggs, the grass-fed steak and eggs with salsa verde, and those world famous blueberry pancakes. A single wide pancake, blueberries baked directly into the batter, so they burst slightly during cooking, the surface dusted in icing sugar with a cold square of butter melting at the centre. The texture sits somewhere between fluffy and dense. The butter, as it melts into the warm surface, creates its own sauce. Don't overthink it. Just order two.
One slice from the live pizza station and you understand what all the fuss has been about since Mozza first landed in Singapore. The pizzas, made from a combination of flour types with long fermentation and fired in a custom-built oven using Californian almond wood, produce a cornicione that is crisp, airy, and light. The Margherita on this Saturday was a picture: deep red tomato base, molten cheese pulled back from the crust's edges, fresh basil scattered across. The char on the base provided the kind of bitterness that balances everything and makes you reach for another slice.
After all of this I walked around to see the alfresco area where there's also a resident DJ spinning sunlit beats drifting through the space. It gives the whole afternoon a laid-back Californian energy, which is, after all, exactly the point.
No Italian brunch ends without dessert. The tableside tiramisu scooped generously from a large format bowl, mascarpone properly boozy and the sponge soaked through was the right way to lock-in and bid an adieu to this memorable afternoon.
Osteria Mozza, Level 5, Hilton Singapore Orchard, 333 Orchard Road.
Saturday Brunch runs 12:30 pm – 3:00 pm. Brunch pricing is SGD$108++ per adult. Free-flow Champagne or Campari cocktails available at additional charge.
Reservations strongly recommended.
