Non Entrée Desserts Cafe @ Rangoon Road

Located at 204 Rangoon Road, and the place is just beside one of the popular bak kut teh eatery there. If you are looking for main course, there is none here. Unless you count those sugary treats as one. Described as a place that take on classic European desserts, pastries and artisanal gelato.

Was there as an interlude between our cafe hops and it was pit stop #4. Gosh, we were having so many sweet stuff that day.

shop sign

door front

Its door front is painted bright yellow. Can't miss it. Quite heartening to see rattan furniture being adopted at this place. Retro cool.

alfresco

The place was rather packed on a Saturday. Once you step in, you will notice the gelato and then the cakes and subsequently, the chandelier.

chalkboard menu

chandelier and chefs at work

seat and nice tiles

Here is a collage of the ready-to-eat cakes on display that day. They have white florest, gold bar, chocolate charlotte, montblanc and strawberry shortcake.

(top clockwise) White Forest, Gold Bar, Mont Blanc and Chocolate Charlotte

pretty in red

Since we had overdosed on our sugar quota for the day, the three of us decided to just share one plated desserts from the seven available choices. Finally decided on Rubbery Ducky, only to be informed that it was not available. Then, wanted to try Tiramisu but without the alcohol but that was not possible since some of the ingredients were already infused with liqueur. But went ahead and ordered Tiramisu anyway since it was the next available desserts that we perceived as of the 'lighter' variant.

When the desserts was served up, we were surprised to see a Rubber Ducky. Checked the receipt and lo and behold, we did order a Rubber Ducky. Glad they were able to make one for us because it was just too cute!

Rubber Ducky @$12.90+

Essentially, Rubbery Ducky is made from 'exotic' gelato, mango puree, lemongrass foam and underneath it was creme fraiche pudding and sago. This was their take on mango pomelo sago (楊枝甘露).

creme fraiche pudding, sago, mango puree and lemongrass cloud

Rubber Ducky was pretty refreshing, sweet and very Asian.

Hyde & Co @ 785 North Bridge Road

Was our monthly cafe hopping time with the usual gang but minus some. Met up with the lovelies Kris, Jennifer, Rachelle and Ivan at Hyde & Co for cakes and coffee.

welcomed

First time to this small little cosy cafe. Captivated by the lovely colours of lychee rose, we ordered a slice of that, plus a slice of ondeh-ondeh cake. For mains (and for sustenance), we ordered up the Pulled Pork Mantou and a Mr Frosty to share.


Started with the cakes first. Liked the flavour and fragrance of the lychee rose, but the chiffon was too crumbly and a tad dry. The ondeh-ondeh cake fared better in terms of texture and moistness. Sweetness level was nice.

lychee rose & ondeh-ondeh cakes @$7.90 per slice

moist and buttery ondeh-ondeh cake

And of course, one need to have coffee when having cakes. Mine was a piccolo latte, served with heart and some cutesy art. The colourful marshmallow and the blue teacup added to the charm. It was a very pretty cup with smooth coffee that was not too bitter and rather mellow.

piccolo latte @$4.50

Here are the other latte art that we got or rather, can we say, requested for? Haha, thank you Damien for indulging us!

swan art for the mocha

cutesy bunny for the guy's latte

and, a somewhat cheeky looking kissy doraemon

Of course, we must have food. Rather hungry by then. Mr Frosty is a plate of s'mores brioche french toast, chocolate sauce, marsmallow fluff, vanilla ice-cream, caramelized banana stuffed in between the toast and a few segments of orange.

Mr Frosty @$18

Pulled Pork Mantous @$14 (5 pieces)

The pulled pork man tou could have been great with its tender flavourful meat, if not for the oily man tou and a slightly too sweet sauce. Sweet buns combined with sweet sauce for the pork, equated to some jelakness.

The shop has a friendly and cosy vibe.

CreatureS @ 120 Desker Road

It was an impromptu decision to visit. All of us were packed into Ivan's car, and Kris punched a few numbers on her phone, talked abit and voila, we had a table at CreatureS on a Saturday evening. Interesting district, this Desker Road. Think dark lanes, some cafes and plenty of traffic. Parking was tricky, though there was one pretty near the junction about 100 metres away from the shop.

menu

Our table was upstairs and noted that there's an alfresco seating at Level 2 as well. Place was well decorated with plenty of flowers and plants. The washroom has a spa-ish feel to it.

centerpiece at Level 2

table for party of 8

table with a view

Ordered desserts as we already had our dinner elsewhere. Got two of their bestsellers to try, and some fries for munchies.

The Asian Herb Fries tasted a bit like, uhm...twisties. Haha, yeah. Mainly of curry, pepper and salt seasonings. Bar food for the cocktails, perhaps. Speaking of cocktails, spotted one that I'd like to try in future; Creamy CreatureS thats concocted with dark rum, gula melaka, and rosemary perfurmed milk froth. Sounds good but didn't order that night since we were there for desserts. Desserts and cocktail? Hmm, not for me.

Asian Herb Fries @$12++

If you'd like a cake with local flavours, try the orh nee (yam) or durian cake. Since we had to make a choice, we chose the durian cake. Made of pandan genoise sponge, pandan vanilla chantilly cream and of course, most importantly, the mao shan wang durian paste. Pardon my ignorance, had to look up the wiki for genoise (genoese) cake which is basically Italian sponge cake, where whole egg is used as opposed to yolk and white beaten separately.

Durian Cake @$12++

I like sponge cake, cream and durian and this slice had all of those, so this was pleasant. The durian paste tasted good and has strong fragrance but unfortunately, there were some dry bits in there as well.

Next up, was the heavy duty CreatureS Chocolate Cake. If the item carries the shop's name, it better live up to the expectation! No worries, as this one did and did it well. Bouncy espresso chocolate sponge layered with thick soft layers of chocolate sitting ontop of homemade salted caramel sauce and sprinkled with himalyan salt, resulted in a very intense and right-in your face saltiness and chocolatey gooeyness. Yums. When it gets a tad too heavy, the coconut ice-cream is there to balance things up a bit.

CreatureS Chocolate Cake @$18++

Would strongly suggest that the cakes to be shared. Durian cake as desserts between 2 pax, and the Chocolate Cake between 4 pax (at least!).

FATCAT Ice Cream Bar @ 416 Bedok North Avenue 2

"Journey to the East" That's practically what it was. Moving via MRT from North-West to the Eastern region took about an hour and 15 minutes with one train transfer. Subsequently, took bus 255 from Bedok Interchange to Blk 416. Someone just told me that it was within walking distance from the MRT. Hmph. Now only you say. Haha! But that's alright, the bus stops directly opposite of the block, so one needs to just cross the road to get there. Yes, it was true. The notorious queuing time was an hour, so thank you msginginly for securing our table. Kopi time with fellow hoppers; msginginly, jellylovesfood, runningman and chubbybotakkoala.

le menu

pondering over the many choices

The place was forever busy, with people waiting outside and packed to the brim inside. Was there on a weekend, around 430pm. For sharing, we had the (by now much raved about) charcoal salted egg waffles with two scoops of ice-cream and a deconstructed strawberry shortcake. The service staff at the ice-cream counter seemed harried, so one better quickly tell her what you want to try!

While waiting for the desserts to be prepared (which took quite a long while of probs more than 15 minutes), one could order the alcohol spiked spheres. Friend who tried it, liked it.

lime mojito sphere @$4.50

If not, how about a cuppa coffee? The regular 5 ounces or the smaller 3 ounce glass.

latte

Finally, the dessert arrived. Liked that the staff took the time to explain/introduce the desserts that we ordered.

Deconstructed Strawberry Shortcake @$12

The Strawberry Shortcake came in a carefully assembled deconstructed manner. An interesting dish with soft fluffy cake strewn ontop of chili/curry crumble and decorated with some elderflower, some cream, fresh strawberry slices and some dried thin strawberry gelly, and ice-cream flavours of fior di latte and raspberry. All eaten together for that contrast in texture and taste where one gets sweet, spicy, salty and sour. The marshmallow had a texture that wasn't what I had expected...

yummy fluffy cake and ice-cream

The charcoal waffles came less decorated than the deconstructed cake but can still see the effort in plating.

charcoal waffles with two scoops of ice-cream @$15.40

Poured the sauce all over the waffles and we dug in soon after.

let's dig in!

Likeable and tasty. How could one say no to salted egg yolk sauce? We chose two scoops of ice-cream that has similar colours. Should have taken the sea-salt matcha flavour but then, this one came with salted egg yolk sauce already. Hmm. Could do with more salted egg yolk sauce though. The butter beer ice-cream was interesting and tasted of beer! Butterscotch was sweet and creamy.

Good to try.

Whisk & Paddle @ Tebing Lane

Tebing Lane is at the 'other' part of the world for someone who lives in the west. Located all the way in far-away Punggol for us westies. This was our last stop during one of the cafe hopping weekend. and I must say, the cafe has some very pretty table-tops. Choose those tables for instant 'chio' backdrop for the food.

Disclaimer: Our group got a plain black coloured glass table-top.

This place also has a corner where children can play while parents enjoy their coffees.

menu

 After having way too much coffee and the sun was burning down on us, decided to have cold non-caffeinated drinks instead. Thatcher's Rose cider for $18 per bottle. They do have quite an extensive alcoholic drinks in the menu ranging from beer, ciders, wine, cocktails, whiskies and cocktails.

rose cider

Feel free to have a look at its desserts counter. The chocolate fudge cake was calling out to us. Resistance is futile.

how about a slice of cake?

Ordered a couple of items to share.

cheesecake with berries compote @$6

warm chocolate fudge cake @$6 (with single scoop ice-cream $10.50)

The cheesecake was rather light, and I think I had forgotten to sample the berries compote. Haha! The fudge cake looked really good. Liked those chocolatey gooey goodness. Of course, two is not enough. We had some waffles as well.

Tropical Brulee @$13.50

Only half a waffle though. The chocolate waffle was of the crispy kind. Ice-cream on waffles, what's there not to like? The caramelized banana was pleasant.

For people who lives around the area, Whisk & Paddle seemed like a nice place to visit on weekends and there's ample parking.

Yahava KoffeeWorks @ Jalan Gelenggang

One of those places that either you are staying near the area, or need a car to get there. Or, you may want to follow Derrick's tips on navigating to Yahava via public transportation. How did I get there? Hehe, friends get you everywhere! Special thanks to Ivan and Hence. If you're driving, there's a public car park nearby, with limited capacity of course.

The shop itself has a large sign-board and viewable from afar. Once, you're at its doorstep, you'll notice its door handle/knob that's different from others.

Yahava has a fairly large space to accommodate cafe-goers. At its backroom, one could probably see an on-going coffee appreciation workshop in session. Barista courses are available too. Find out more from this link.

what's available

beans and brews

the mechanics

The place was pretty cosy, very relaxed vibe. Felt almost as if it has a do-as-you-wish kind of atmosphere. Ordered some koffees and cakes to sample.

collective order - affagato, the rose late (for SG50), hot chokolate, mokha and black coffee

danish and scones

cakes

Spent some time choosing the cakes. Finally, made the decision to try matcha and the earl grey cakes.

matcha cake

earl grey cake

Preferred the green tea cake for its spongier and lighter texture. The earl grey cake was a tad too dense for my liking.

In terms of drinks, I totally dig the Rose Latte. You'll love this if you like drinking bandung. However, it can do with more coffee. Well, I did mix it a bit with the Kintamani black coffee and it tasted good!

Rose Latte

my order of Mokha @$5

Yahava KoffeeWorks

Website: www.yahava.sg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YahavaSG