Our June brunch selections are in. This month dim sum from Hakkasan, dan bing from Omelette Woods, titillation from T8 and a bargain brunch from Xuan in the Andaz. ***

Hakkasan

Hakkasan's brunch offering is surprisingly generous, and we dare say we prefer it to their dinner experience. It's a multi-course affair that begins with one of Hakkasan's signature dishes, the crispy duck salad with pomelo, pine nuts, shallots and and greens. Following that they bring out two courses of gourmet dim sum selections, like crystal dumplings stuffed with morel mushrooms, crispy duck spring rolls and a truffle pumpkin puff. The mid course is a choice of soup, ranging from Cantonese classics like royal sweet corn soup with lobster and chopped gailan to a spicy Hunan-style vegetarian spicy and sour soup. For mains, you can choose between dishes like Angus strip loin stir-fried with merlot sauce or Chinese honey-glazed Chilean sea bass. Finally, desserts. They show pretty strong, with sweets like fives spices caramel apple with ginger ice cream or their lemon pot, a house-made lemon curd with lemon mousse and meringue. It's a lot of food. Rest assured, you'll leave really full. How about drunk? Well, that's up to you. They offer three different price points. The basic menu for 278rmb per person gets you a choice of tea and a mocktail. Bump that up to 398rmb, and you get a flute of bubbly or still wine. If you're really keen to hit the sauce, there is the premium option for 798rmb. This gets you a choice of three signature cocktails and all the bubbly and/or wine you can put down. Add 10% to all of that, of course, for the obligatory "service charge." Sat–Sun: 11am–3pm For a full brunch listing click here

T8

We were expecting to bag on a meal billed as the “Titillate Weekend Brunch”, but we can’t. T8’s set brunch menu actually impressed us. It’s not cheap—two courses for 258rmb, three courses for 328rmb, or four courses for 398rmb—but that’s to be expected for a fine dining spot inside Xintiandi proper. The menu has a large Mediterranean focus, with appetizers like tomato soup topped with nuts, olives and mushrooms; scrambled eggs with manchego cheese and an omelette stuffed with asparagus, pumpkin and red bell peppers. In mains, they’ve got stuff like mozzarella and parma ham pizza; a wagyu beef burger with chili sauce and fried egg; seared red snapper with mango and red pepper puree. Pretty much café fare that's been classed up for the white collar crowd. Desserts, or as T8 likes to call them, “Sweet Endings”, are more on the frilly side: cream Catalan with fresh fruit and sorbet, a deconstructed pina colada of thinly sliced pineapple flavored with lemongrass and coconut. Only the 398rmb package includes juice, coffee and tea. A cup of coffee is in the 40rmb mark, so for those planning on drinking more than just water, the four course set probably makes the best, erm, deal. You can also add 388rmb for free flow Perrier-Jouet champagne. T8 tacks on a 10% service charge to all of that. Overall, "Titillate" is a safe bet for those weekends caught babysitting hard-to-impress out-of-towners. Sat–Sun: 11:30am-4pm For a full brunch listing, click here

Omelette Woods

The name “Omelette Woods” might be a little misleading for those of us who are used to the Western variety. This place doesn’t serve that eggy pocket of minced vegetables and meat. What it does is danbing, a savory crepe grilled with a thin layer of eggs scrambled with scallion, sliced into bite-sized pieces and topped with a thicker, sweeter variety of soy sauce. It’s one of the most popular breakfast dishes in Taiwan, and the Taiwanese owners of Omelette Woods do the stuff justice. They sell the original, no-frills danbing for 8rmb each. If you want the damn frills, then you can add ham, bacon, meat floss or corn. Those are 10rmb each. If you add diced pork chop, chicken, smoked sausage or sautéed mushrooms and the danbing comes out to 15rmb. In the deluxe variety, Omelette Woods does shrimp and bacon danbing for 18rmb, and a “Hawaii” for 20rmb. If it’s your first time trying danbing, we’d suggest approaching these fillings with caution and starting with the original first. We didn’t like the smoked sausage one so much. They’re repping Taiwan hard too, with B.B. hot sauce, Apple Sidra and Taiwanese comics lining the bookshelves. The thick sweet toast desserts are here as well. We tried the “butter flaky” (8rmb). It was decent, but not great. Same goes for their Americano, which is only 12rmb. The place also has hamburgers, sandwiches and stir-fried noodles, but we didn’t try that—though we’d guess those would also reach “not bad for the price” status. Daily: 8am-8pm For a full brunch listing, click here

Xuan

Xuan at the Andaz has a weekend brunch menu that’s one of the more affordable ones we’ve seen among hotels in town. It’s all a la carte, and includes all of the breakfast and lunch staples you’d expect from a Xintiandi spot that tries to simultaneously woo locals, tourists and foreigners living here. That means a lot of egg dishes: eggs Benedict, egg en cocottes, omelets, scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, crepes and quiche, all in the 58–78rmb range. In sweets: buttermilk pancakes, French toast with caramelized apples and waffles topped with berries and cream (all 42rmb each). The one set-like option on offer is a brunch plate with smoked salmon rosti, eggs Benedict, arugula salad and French toast for 88rmb. Alternatively, there are two “Local” options, including a 28rmb “Chinese pancake, egg, bean sheet with bean paste and chili sauce” that sounds an awful lot like the 3rmb version we get around the corner from our office once a week. They also just started a yoga-brunch promo wherein participants of Andaz’s Sunday outdoor yoga session get a discounted “Healthy Yoga Brunch” with fresh juice or smoothie, an entree and a fruit salad with yogurt and passion fruit. More details on that here. An additional 10rmb on any order gets you bottomless coffee or tea. Overall, everything we tried was on point, albeit a little unexciting. But, the ingredients were fresh, the wait staff nice and the space is trendy without trying too hard, so it’s a solid option if you’re in the Xintiandi area but don’t want to blow a lot of cash. Sat–Sun: 10am-3pm For a full brunch listing, click here