This month we welcome autumn with brand new brunches from Liquid Laundry and Sproutworks, as well as a popular option at Coffee Tree and several permutations of pancakes at WK Hawaii. ***

Liquid Laundry

Liquid Laundry's weekend brunch is just one gravy-drenched, pork-laden exercise in good ol' American excess. Sharable dishes are worth a look. Be sure to order a "bacon flight"—three different varieties of bacon cured with maple, coffee, and habañero. The same goes for the "McBretzle Sliders," little breakfast sandwiches of ginger-sage pork sausage with scrambled eggs and cheese sauce—LL's take on the Egg McMuffin. They make their own bagels too, and you can get them with a choice of schmears like smoked salmon dill, banana peanutella, or sun-dried tomato feta. As for eggs, they offer anything from a simple smoked beef brisket Benedict to smoked pork neck over corn grits with a poached egg and green tomato jam (pictured above). And they thumb their nose at the bacon and egg breakfast with "Because Your Middle Name is Boring": two eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, and roasted tomatoes. They've got a few options for the more calorie conscious too, like a kale salad with baby tomatoes and harissa yogurt or the "Skinny Bitch," an egg white frittata with spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, portabellas and a red pepper coulis. But who are we kidding? If you're truly counting calories, you're probably in the wrong place. And, of course, to go with all that are their rolling selection of craft beers and cocktails like the "Sangre de Maria" a bloody Mary made with jalapeño-infused tequila. Prices range from 25 to 108rmb. Sat–Sun: 11am–3pm For a full brunch listing click here.

WK Hawaii

It's Mature, that swank Japanese bar and grill, by night. But by day it's an ad hoc—what most people nowadays hang with the overused handle "pop-up"—cafe. Nothing about the place really changes. They just hang a few branded, foamcore-mounted posters on the walls and play "The Hukilau Song" on the stereo. Still, their pancakes are a bit of alright. You can get the basic variety with butter and maple-flavored syrup or, of course, blueberry pancakes too. They also top them with three different berry jams or mango and orange. You can even get a pancake French toast hybrid, cooked on the griddle, dredged in egg and then thrown on the griddle once more. Then there is the signature pancake, the one the put on the sandwich boards outside to lure you in, the haupia pancake (pictured above). It's an adaptation of a popular Hawaiian pudding made from coconut milk. A short stack of three is sandwiched with fried bananas and smothered in a coconut milk syrup flecked with flakes of toasted coconut. That combo pretty much speaks for itself, doesn't it? For something more savory they also serve Hawaiian dishes that look terrible, but might taste pretty good, like loco moco, which is basically a hamburger patty over white rice with a fried egg and brown gravy. Prices range from 30 to 90rmb. Available daily. Daily: 10am–5pm For a full brunch listing click here.

Sproutworks

Sproutworks’ Xintiandi location does a “brunch” that ends at 11.30am, which is really more of a breakfast, but oh well. It’s Sproutworks. “Breakfast” is not hip enough for a place that blasts Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars at 10am, probably. Anyway, here’s the deal—in addition to its usual spread of prepared salads, Sproutworks adds a selection of homemade bread, yogurt, blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs and frittata to its menu. There’s also stuff like roasted cherry tomatoes, grilled tofu steaks and fresh fruit bowls. For 50rmb, you can choose three of these items. 65rmb gets you four selections. It’s a good amount of food if you’re not particularly hungry. The frittata and the brown rice congee (20rmb, a la carte) are standouts. The prepared salads are always on rotation, but dishes tend to feature in-trend health foods like kale, quinoa or beets. Since Sproutworks is a quick-stop type of place, reservations aren’t necessary. When we went, there were several tables full of people who came straight out of yoga class, people dining alone while working on laptops (there’s free wifi here) and young families. Sat & Sun: 8.30am-11.30am For a full brunch listing, click here.

Coffee Tree

Coffee Tree in Ferguson Lane is usually so crowded on weekends that we’ve been putting off getting brunch there for a while. No, it doesn’t take reservations. We finally stopped by recently, as early as we could to avoid the queues, but still ended up waiting half an hour next to a lineup of Baby Bjorns. It’s popular for good reason, though. The food—New American café fare—is offered up at excellent value: two courses and a drink for 138rmb, or three courses and a drink for 168rmb. Bottomless coffee is included in both sets. In traditional breakfast food, they’ve got sweet stuff (waffles, pancakes, French toast), greens (spinach and feta, Caesar and tuna nicoise salads) and breakfast plates (cold cuts with cheese, American and Continental). Otherwise, there’s a list of pastas (lasagna, vegetable farfalle and seafood) and sandwiches (pesto panini, roasted pork belly, chicken laffa wrap) to choose from. Coffee Tree isn’t doing anything wildly creative, but the execution on these simple dishes is solid. The portions here are big—each dish we tried could have been a meal of its own. Plus, that included drink is an actual drink, not some cheap pour of soda or Dole “fruit juice”. The peach and basil smoothie, white wine, mojitos and so on usually run for 45-50rmb alone. It’s a trendy place, so expect a lot of oversized sunglasses and Instagramming going on. Sat & Sun: 9am-5pm For a full brunch listing, click here.