It seems like many people are very excited about the arrival of Caffebene, a South Korean cafe chain, in Singapore, considering the number of times I've been seeing pictures of the food and drinks there on various social media platforms. Pardon me for being ignorant but even though I've heard of the brand before, I've never tried it in South Korea so I don't feel the hype or get what it is all about. Nor am I a fan of bingsu (similar to our local ice-kacang in a sense) which is said to be one of the biggest selling points of Caffebene. It certainly does look appealing but the portion size is indeed daunting for a person to finish especially in this season when it rains almost every afternoon. Last but not least, as for the coffee which Caffebene takes great pride in, it will probably never win me over because of the fact that I don't drink coffee at all.So why did I go there anyway if there was no strong pull factor in the first place? Well, let's just say that I was being curious. Hearing people rave all about it, I thought that it was only right to pop in for a visit and see if it really is as good as it seems. Knowing that it will probably be a long wait on weekends, I deliberately chose a weekday afternoon to visit the first outlet at Vivocity. Much as I would expect the place to be crowded as it is the school holidays now, about 95% full on a weekday afternoon with office workers, tai-tais, families with kids and teenagers forming the bulk of the customers is really not my idea of a chill-out cafe.
Before I visited the cafe, I did some research online to see what kind of items it offers on its menu. In the food department, there are waffles, honeybread, gelato and bingsu while for drinks, there are coffee, frappeno and non-alcoholic cocktails to choose from. However, when I was at the cafe, there were also cakes and sandwiches that were not mentioned on the site so I'm not sure if these will be offered all the time. Based on the selection so far, this looks like a place which I'll probably swing by for desserts after the main meal rather than have a full course meal at.
As for the dessert, I chose the walnut-base waffle with Korean rice cake which came with some walnuts and a generous portion of soybean powder sprinkled over the waffle along with some almonds and walnuts. The aroma of the waffle was very noticeable from the moment it was handed over at the counter and further accentuated by the soybean powder. Much as I don't really like the thick and dense waffle, I thought it was still done pretty nicely and tasted good without the usual accompanying syrup or ice cream. The rice cake had a red bean filling and due to the heat from the waffle, became really soft and easy to chew. Surprisingly, the rice cake went well with the waffle despite being vastly different types of desserts. My only grouse is that the soybean powder kept falling onto my clothes with each mouthful of this dessert so be sure to shake the excess powder off to prevent this from happening.
In conclusion, would I go back to this cafe again? Well, the crowds can be rather intimidating and I certainly don't fancy sitting in a noisy cafe to relax. Having said that, I thought that they had a few items which I'm pretty interested in so I may just return for the sake of trying them out on a day when the hype has sort of settled and I won't have to jostle for space with the other customers. The issue is, going by the crowds I saw, it doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon which is definitely good news for the cafe.
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