Toothsome Cafe

We accidentally chanced upon this café which is still in the soft launch phase after going to Do.main bakery which is located along the same stretch of road. At first glance, I thought the outlook of the shopfront kind of resembled that of Tiramisu Hero. The entrance to the cafe was made into a lawn, with a couple of outside-seating tables for those who prefer outdoor seating. 

Nice logo!

However it gives a different feel as compared to Tiramisu upon stepping in, the interior seating was spacious and what caught our eye were the cakes on display. They do sell a variety of pastries like egg tarts, baked chicken puff and HEC (ham, egg and cheese) square puff. Seen this before and find it familiar? Yes, if you have guessed it right, Toothsome Café comes by way of the successful folks behind 8Tarts n Pastries who have decided to spread their feathers out to a café to join in the already bustling scene. Other than selling pastries, they do sell western grub like pasta, baked rice, light bites and even coffee/tea. Menu is kept simple here till their kitchen fully sets up.

Gingerbread cookie or cupcake for you?

Cakes Galore!

We went straight for the afternoon tea set promotion of a cake (blueberry swissroll) with coffee/tea (iced hazelnut topped up a dollar for iced drinks) at $5.90. Swissroll was light and good enough for an afternoon tea indulgence. The hazelnut latte was more on the foamy side and perhaps the chamomile citron or white ginger pear tea would be a better option.

Since the only 8Tarts N Pastries located in the east resides in Tampines Mall, the opening of their café at Tanjong Katong could be more convenient for Easties to buy not only their pastries but also have a try on their pretty affordable western mains/bites with no service charge and GST! #cafehoppingsg #sgcafe

Address: 368 Tanjong Katong Road, Singapore 437125

Opening Hours: 1030 to 2130 (tentatively)

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/toothsomecafe

V360 Cafe (Jurong West)

The long infinity wait for a café to opens in the west and I meant far west (Jurong and beyond) is finally over with the opening of V360Cafe in JurongWest. Housed under the HDB, V360Cafe gives one a homely feel with its painted interior, high ceilings and dim lightings.

Picture from V360 Cafe FB page

When asked why V360Cafe is chosen as the name for the café, the chirpy staff answered that V stands for View and V360 represents a 360 degrees view. Amazingly, if you take a 360 degree panorama view in the café, the paintings on the wall would collate nicely together to form a beautiful picture on its own and is said to resemble a certain location in this world (Korea- Jeju; how come I didnt recall seeing this when I was there last year lol)

Interior of the Cafe

The menu was simple and doesn’t boast too much of items for now. Just like any café, they serve coffee from latte to affogato and if you don’t like your coffee to be plain, you can opt for flavoured latte such as vanilla, hazelnut, mango or strawberry. If you aren’t a coffee person, they have chocolate blend or artisan tea selection from the Gryphon tea company. 

Coffee or tea for you?

If you are looking for standard brunch items like eggs benedict and big breakfast, it is not available here. Instead, they do serve savoury items like classic viennoiserie sandwich, lasagne and quiche. Cakes and tarts outsourced from external bakers were on display and they also offer Belgium waffles with ice cream (seems like a staple item in almost every café these days)

Cakes, Eclairs, Tarts

Having a heavy xmas lunch earlier on, I zoomed in straight on their sweet bites. The giant neon pink raspberry macaron caught my eye (pity that the pistachio flavour went OOS) and upon recommendation of the staff, I ordered a decadent chocolate caramel cake to go with my robust cup of flat white which is ordered off the menu. The moist cake was overpowered with the dark chocolate with little depth of caramel flavour, but I have no complains since I am a fan of dark chocolate. 

Top Shot 

Now for the highlight: Giant Raspberry Macaron - two light and crisp cookie shells sandwiching raspberry jam - it is the ultimate indulgence for dessert lovers. More often than not, giant macarons are throwned off proportion, leaving the centre cookie gummy and outermost ring over-baked but this is not the case here, the ratio is just right. The jam filling might be a little stingy here but at the cost of $2.50, its a steal. Better more if you get a set of 4 (chocolate, pistachio, raspberry and salted caramel) as it costs $8. 

The gorgeous macaron

[Revisit on 11 Jan 2015]
On a second visit, we tried their lemon ginger mint tea which is rather refreshing and the ginger taste was neither too overpowering or spicy, perfect on a rainy day if coffee is not your cup of tea.

lemon ginger mint tea from Gyrphon

We also tried their belgium waffles with two scoops of ice-cream (dark chocolate and salted caramel) at $8.90! The ice cream surprised us as it does not melt too fast and has sure withstood the test of time/sun (food photography) Belgium waffles tasted more like a cake-light doughy pastries, would been best if it was only made upon ordering.

Ice cream withstood the test of sun (shot taken outside the cafe)

Latte, tea or ice cream?

V360Cafe is more of a family cafe than a hipster one. I like the idea that they have a loyalty card to reward returning customers. Their menu might need a bit more of diversification and given that most of their sweet bites are outsourced externally from bakers, chances of out-of-stock cakes/macarons would be high if there's a sudden crowd surge. Westies would definitely be excited at the opening of this cafe and can skip heading to the crowd-swarmed Westgate or Jurongpoint for their caffeine fix. #cafehoppingsg #sgcafe 

V360 Cafe

Address: Block 526 Jurong West Street 52 #01-321

Opening Hours: 11am to 930pm, extended hours on weekends
Website: http://v360cafe.wix.com/v360cafe

 Instagram: V360cafe

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/v360cafe

Compound Coffee Co.

Good news for the south-westies, as a new café pops up in depot road area. One would be surprised to learn that Compound Coffee Co., a boutique coffee roaster is located with the very instagrammable Interlace Condominium.

Picture courtesy of www.theinterlace.com

For now, the café only serves for the residents due to management and security issues and would slowly open up to the public in time to come. We had the lucky opportunity to visit the café during its first few days of opening after bypassing the angsty security.

We were greeted by the sleek clean white interior design of the café upon stepping in. It could accommodate approximate 20 persons with either round table seats for big groups (3-4pax) or bar seats for some me-time. Compound coffee serves coffee ranging from the standard Americano to flat white to filter brew and simple bites outsourced externally.

Round tables for small groups

Have a read on their BARISTA magazines

The café is crowded with the residents and their kids when we visited in the late afternoon and the occasional sharp cries of babies would put off many who would want to enjoy a quiet time here. Using slayer espresso coffee machine, compound coffee brew their own coffee beans in house and serves up coffee that’s smooth in texture with a slightly acidic tone.

The flat white that we had was of medium body that goes well with their savoury items which we ordered. The filter brew comes served in a dispenser, cute right? It tastes rather refreshing and citrusy with a hint of blackcurrant taste. Seems like fruity flavour filter brew seems to be trending these days?

Flat white

Filter Brew

We ordered the ham and spinach quiche and croque monsieur from their savoury menu and were pleased with both. Quiche has slight crispy crust that goes well the flat white and the croque monsieur was very generous with the gooey cheese! Yays for cheeselovers like us. Being a sweet tooth, we ordered their bread with honey infused cookie butter upon recommendation form the staff. Although we loved the cookie butter, this fell short of our expectations as the bread was too dry and perhaps yakun steamed toast would be much better than it. The scone we ordered was soft and fluffy but could have been better if served with strawberry jam or clotted cream by the side.

Foreground- Quiche; Background- Bread with honey infused cookie butter

Ham & Cheese Toast; Scone

 In all, we found compound coffee pretty cosy if not for the baby cries and good for a catch-up with friends but given the spurge of café openings this year round, they might need some unique (made-in-house) to really attract the crowd should they open up to the public in future. It is certainly a one stop convenience for its residents to have a spot for coffee and light bites (since they do not have a kitchen) within the condominium premises, residents of other condominiums would definitely be jelly of this special privilege of the Interlace residents.

Address: #01-08 The Interlace, 180 Depot Road, S109684

Opening Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 7am-7pm. closed Mondays (Currently only serving residents)

Instagram:compoundcoffeeco

 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compoundcoffee