Oblong @ Serangoon Garden

Oblong, the hidden little ice cream shop at Serangoon Garden

Address (Google Map): 10 Maju Avenue

Opening hours: Sun to Thu: 12.00 pm – 12.00 am Fri & Sat: 12.00 pm- 2.00 am (as per FB page)

Introduction

Oblong, is a cafe that mainly serves ice cream, waffle and pastries that is situated at the Serangoon Garden region. I actually like Serangoon Garden a lot because it’s a very laid back neighbourhood and we don’t see people rushing from places to places.

Menu written on the glass wall behind the counter. Click to enlarge

Oblong Cafe’s minimalist industrial design gives the cafe a bright and spacious outlook which all attention will be brought to their pastry counter and the scribbled menu of the glass board.

The owner also casually place some random items like the ukulele, magazines and a basketball hoop at various corners. Customers can play or read them at our own comfort and it seems to be inviting us to “make ourselves at home”.

Red Velvet Waffle with Ice Cream Combo ($10.00)

I was quite surprised when I saw that they are offering a waffle, a scoop of ice cream and a cup of gourmet coffee at $10.00. At most places, a waffle already cost more than that and a cup of Caffe Latte already cost about $4.50 to $5.00.

The portion of the waffle is smaller (but not by a lot) but it’s good enough for an after-meal dessert. The waffles is crispy and not too dry. The red velvet waffle actually doesn’t taste very different from an ordinary waffle just that there is a hint of chocolate flavour and red food coloring. The difference is actually the cream cheese that comes with it that completes a red velvet waffle.

I enjoyed Oblong’s cream cheese very much. The cheese salty taste doesn’t overpower the cream’s sweetness and i love it for it’s moist and creamy texture. I don’t even need the ice-cream and i can finish just the waffle with cream cheese.

As for the ice cream, I’m not sure is it just me or what. I thought there is a taste that don’t normally exist in handmade ice-cream. I can’t really tell what it is but it taste something like ermm… soy milk? Apparently when i posted a photo of Oblong waffle on instagram, unlike me, most people seem to comment that they enjoy their ice-cream very much.

Buttermilk Waffle with Ice Cream Combo ($10 with drink)

Unconvinced, i ordered a Buttermilk Waffle just to have another shot on their ice-cream and this time i ordered a hazelnut flavour, and there is the same exact taste in a different flavour. Am i the only one? Let me know if you feel likewise.

Considering that the regular waffle cost exactly the same as the Red Velvet Waffle, i will go for the red velvet any time. It’s not that the waffle is bad, but the red velvet is better.

Conclusion

Enjoying a cup of coffee and waffle ice cream at Oblong on a weekend late morning is very much enjoyable because of the lack of crowd. This place is actually quite crowded at night after 8.00pm.

Oblong also offers dessert combo for their lava cake and brownie at a price of $10.00 with a drink. I should applaud their effort for maintaining an affordable price for their reasonable quality desserts and hope they maintain it this way. Overall, i recommend their red velvet waffle with ice-cream over their normal waffle.

The only drawback is for the lack of ventilation in the cafe while they are toasting their waffle and that makes your clothes smell after staying in the air-con cafe for an extended period of time.

I had also wrote about another cafe that sells Red Velvet Waffle to make a comparison. You may read more about it here.

Red Velvet Waffle from Stateland Cafe

 

Stateland Cafe at Bali Lane (Bugis)

Stateland Cafe

Address: 30 Bali Lane

Opening hours: Mon – Thu 12.00 pm – 10.00 pm, Fri – Sat: 12.00 pm – 12.00 am, Sun: 11.00 am – 6.00 pm

Introduction

People eat with their eyes first. This is what I always believe and that leads me to a small cafe a Bali Lane. Among so many cafes, Stateland Cafe stood out for it’s Red Velvet Waffle and Butter Toast in the virtual Singapore Instagram world.

I visited this cafe on at 11am on a Saturday and there is no crowd. Upon stepping into the cafe, the first thing i noticed is for it’s industial-theme interior. From the rustic old school electric fan, red metal railing, aluminium hanging light, to the black and white photos hanging on the wall, i can see that there are much thought put in for the interior design.

Menu: Click to enlarge

Red Velvet Waffle with Ice Cream ($14.90)

This is what caught my attention on instagram so this is definitely on my to order list. I was waiting in much anticipation as it took about 25 minutes for the dish to be served. I give this dish a 90/100 for it’s appearance and not so much for it’s taste though.

I love the ice cream. On the menu, it says that there are chocolate in the waffle but sadly I can’t taste much of it because the cream cheese taste basically overpowered the waffle. The waffle itself is also rather dry. I prefer a lighter cheese cream that is sweeter and more moist rather than salty and dry. Sad to say that this dish don’t work very well for me but I think there is potential in this dish.

Hazelnut Honey Toast with Ice Cream ($14.90)

After visiting Bangkok’s After You Dessert, i really miss the Shibuya Toast and i thought that Stateland Cafe’s Honey Toasted concept is quite similar to Shibuya Toast. Chocolate Ice Cream, Nutella Spread, Honey Syrup, Thick Toast with Salted Butter sounds lovely as a dessert, however it’s not very much so when all appears in a single dish.

Due to the rich flavour of the Nutella spread, i can’t really taste the toasted buttered bread and there is almost no need for the honey syrup as the whole thing is already very sweet. The only thing i can figure out from the bread is for it’s crispy texture.

I thought it will be better if the Nutella Spread is served separately from the butter toast like how the honey is served. Another suggestion is probably the Nutella can be drizzled (maybe by adding fresh milk or something and cooked to dilute the nutella) over the toast instead of spread. Probably it’s my mistake and i should order the original honey toast if i wanted something not as sweet.

Caffe Latte

I am not an expert in coffee but Stateland’s Caffe Latte is evidently more milky than usual. There is little espresso taste. It’s probably less than a shot of espresso or it’s a different kind of coffee bean used on that day. I don’t know. I love the steamed milk taste so i got no issue with that.

Conclusion

Actually i am not that satisfied after visiting Stateland Cafe and i immediately took to cab down to Loo’s Curry Rice for my lunch part two. Maybe it’s a wrong choice of dish ordered on my part. So kindly leave a comment if you think that there is any dish that is worth ordering and i will probably try it on my next visit.

Overall, I like Stateland Cafe, their friendly folks and the industrial-look-yet-cosy feel of the cafe. I think the concept of the dishes is good. The only thing is just basing on the two dishes i ordered, there should be more thoughts given to it as we won’t necessary get a good dessert by just putting many ingredients that we adore into one dish.

Please note that this cafe only transact in cash term. They don’t accept NETS and credit cards.