Other than being known as ‘The Lee Hsien Loong constituency’ or ‘Westerner bridge’ area, I must say Ang Mo Kio is a rather colourful place with that kampong spirit – people are friendly and sincere, and cafes are mostly the down-to-earth types.
I have extended the previous Ang Mo Kio cafe guide to include many new entrants that are under-the-radar, such as Grillhood Café Acoustic Café.
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Obsessive Chocolat Desire (OCD) Cafe
529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, #01-2353, Singapore 560529
Opening Hours: 12pm – 10pm (Mon – Thu), 12pm – 1am (Fri – Sat), 2pm – 10pm (Sun)
OCD Cafe Opens Till 1AM Fri & Sat
Not Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, but Obsessive Chocolat Desire – for the love of both chocolates and ice cream.
The pricing is wallet-friendly, plus their ice creams are not categorised into normal and premium flavours like many other ice cream parlours.
Ice cream is priced at $3.60 for a single scoop, $7 for double scoops, additional $1 for cone and $4 for a normal or sesame waffle.
16 flavours are available at any one time ranging from their signature chocolate flavours (as their name implies) to classic ones such as Vanilla and Strawberry Cheesecake.
The highlight is definitely their five choices of chocolate ice cream from different origins: Madagascar 33% Milk, Ecuador 40% Milk, Belgium Dark 60%, Brazil 72% Dark, Africa 85% Dark.
The Sesame Waffle ($4) was an interesting find since it is not common to find one in Singapore.
Made with a crispy exterior contrasted with fluffy interior, the sesame waffle was fragrant on its own and complemented well with the richer ice cream flavours.
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Galettes
529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 #01-2365, Singapore 560529
Opening Hours: 12pm – 10pm (Sun – Thurs), 12pm – 11pm (Fri) 10am – 11pm (Sat), 10am – 10pm (Sun)
Unique Crepe Café Serving Crepe Suzette And Crepe Cakes
The creperie serves up a comprehensive menu resolving around the French crepe, with sweet and savoury creations, and crepe cakes.
They don’t just buy or source their crepes from elsewhere. You can see their service staff make their crepe cakes LAYER by LAYER – and that is likely to take hours.
I had the Crepe Cake instead ($6.50) with flavours of Crème Brulee, Dark Chocolate, Lemon and Strawberry.
The cake was on the lighter end and not too sweet, with beautiful thin layers. I am comparing this with the other familiar brand, and I wished that the cream could have been smoother and more delicate.
While the café serves up a small repertoire of bites such as Paprika Fries ($6.50), Spam Fries ($8) and Sweet Potato Fries ($7), I thought that the Har Cheong Kai Wings ($8 for 6 pieces) were note-worthy with that distinct prawn paste taste, and juicy, well-marinated meat.
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PocoLoco
408 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 #01-779 Singapore 560408
Opening Hours: 12pm – 3pm, 6pm – 10pm (Mon – Fri), 12pm – 10pm (Sat – Sun)
Affordable Italian Food With Hearty Pastas
You might have just walked past this Italian restaurant at Block 408 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 10 with its unassuming exterior.
A quick glance of its menu, and I saw that its basic pasta dishes of Aglio Olio and Pesto were priced at $9, while the higher range of Manzo – pasta with beef in truffle cream sauce; Granchio – crabmeat in pink sauce; Zafferano – seafood pasta with saffron sauce; and Lasagna were all $12.
I had the Granchio ($12) and the pasta came al dente, with generous portion of sweet crab meat swimming within, all tossed in a cream sauce added with tomatoes.
PocoLoco managed to strike a balance for the sauce, otherwise it could have been too rich and heavy, or diluted.
For a sweet ending to the meal, the signature desserts here include Crème Brulee ($5), Tiramisu ($5), and Lava Cake ($6).
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The Workbench Bistro
Blk 332 Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 #01-1881 Singapore 560332
Tel: +65 6452 0810
Opening Hours: 12pm – 10pm (Mon – Thurs), 12pm – 11pm (Fri), 10am – 11pm (Sat), 10am – 10pm (Sun)
Lava Burger and Salted Egg Pasta at Ang Mo Kio
The Workbench Bistro is one of Ang Mo Kio’s ‘longest’ standing hipster café, serving some interesting dishes from Egg Lava Beef Burger, Crab Cake Burger, Salted Egg Chicken Pasta, and S’moreffles (S’more + Waffles).
The Egg Lava Beef Burger is popular for its juicy beef patty, grilled bacon and cheese. But the highlight is the lava egg in the middle of the patty.
The Workbench Bistro also offers MANY items which includes salted egg – Salted Egg Chicken Pasta ($15.90), Salted Egg Chicken Burger ($16.90), Salted Egg Wings and Salted Egg Potato Wedges.
The Salted Egg Chicken Pasta ($15.90) includes crispy chicken chop over linguine tossed in raw salted egg, curry leaves and chilli padi.
The cutlet complemented the pasta much better than the Ver 1.0 (where grilled chicken was used), and the pieces were crisp and juicy.
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Grillhood
603 Ang Mo Kio Ave 5, #01-2661 Block 603, Singapore 560603
Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm (Mon – Sun)
Serving Mains & Pastas From $7.90 Onwards
Located at the heart of a matured estate, Grillhood Café is the place to visit if you are looking for a ‘chillout’ spot with home-recipe cafe dishes at affordable prices.
Some of the prices you are looking at: Veggie Pasta ($7.90), Classic Tuna Sandwich ($7.90), Spicy Chicken Burger ($8.90), Cajun Chicken ($9.90), and Pan-seared Barramundi ($12.90).
Maybe they are a dollar or two more expensive than the kopitiam Western food stall, but portions are good and this is an air-conditioned environment.
What was recommended included the Chicken Quesadilla ($8.90) with sautéed onions and capsicum; Pan-Seared Barramundi ($12.90) served with wedges, garden salad and salsa; and Spicy Chicken Burger ($8.90) with sides of side of tortilla chips.
In addition, you can top-up $5.90 to get a soup of the day or coffee with a single scoop of ice cream. Grillhood Café (Ang Mo Kio)
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Acoustic Cafe
421 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10 #01-1159 Singapore 560421
Opening Hours: 10am – 7pm (Mon, Wed – Sun), Closed Tues
Music-Centred Café At Ang Mo Kio Selling Brookie
Perhaps even residents of Ang Mo Kio may not know there is an Acoustic Café at Avenue 10. The name would suggest a café that is passionate about music as much as coffee.
At first glance, you might think the panelling on the wall in this 10-seater cozy café is merely part of the decoration.
Their recommended food and drinks include Brownie ($3.50), Brookie ($4.00, $1 more for Vanilla Ice Cream), Mocha ($4.70), Lavender Tea Latte ($4.50), and Acoustic Milk Latte ($3.00).
However, they are actually acoustic panels, manufactured from high density glass wool and coated with a special coating on the surface to absorb unnecessary noise and echoes.
The one item that caught my eye though was the Brookie ($4), a 2-in-1 combination of a classic Brownie and Cookie.
I was expecting the cookie to be crispy and hard, but it wasn’t. Slightly chewy in texture, this reminded me of the Subway cookies.
The brownie part was chocolatey and crispy on the outside, while soft on the inside. This could do with an ice-cream pairing for that extra oomph. Acoustic Café (Ang Mo Kio)
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GRUB – Bishan Park
510 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 1 (Bishan Park 1) Singapore 569983
Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm (Mon – Fri), 9am – 10pm (Sat – Sun)
Burger Bistro at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
Although it seems
After crossing a bridge from the carpark, you see families taking slow strolls, children playing with balloons, happy dogs being walked, and just an almost entire view of lush green. Very refreshing and relaxing for a weekend visit.
Opened by Cookyn’s Mervyn Phan and team, Grub’s most popular items are burgers with local twist such as the Har Cheong Gai Burger ($15), Grilled Satay Burger ($15), and Grilled Chicken Burger with terikyaki-glaze chicken thigh and enoki fritter ($15).
Also look out for the Mala Xiang Guo Burger ($17) which we created for the Toggle programme “Foodie Makeover 美食大翻新” – it has become a permanent item on the burger menu.
Essentially, it includes many ‘essential’ ingredients of Mala Xiang Guo such as luncheon meat, sliced pork, lotus root slices, and spicy Szechuan pepper corn sauce. The purplish-red bun is due to the beetroot included in the burger. Mala Xiang Guo Burger (Grub Bishan)
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Denzy
506 Bishan Street 11, #01-404, Singapore 570506 (Bishan MRT)
Opening Hours: 12pm – 10.30pm (Mon – Sun)
Gelato Cafe Found At Bishan Bus Interchange Offering Unique Flavours
Located in the Bishan heartland right beside the bus interchange, Denzy offers a cozy and fuss-free space with about 20 seats.
All gelato is churned in-house, with ingredients made from scratch.
For example, the almond and macadamia nut pastes are created by stone grinding for 10 hours; while the yoghurt is sous-vide to make yoghurt based gelato.
Similar to other ice cream and gelato bars, Gelato (Single $3.60/ Double $6.40/ Premium flavour additional $1), Waffles ($5), Cone (additional $0.50) and Coffee (Black $4, White $4.50) are offered on their menu.
What makes them different from other ice cream places is the variety of flavours here, some of which are quite less-commonly-seen and interesting.
Instead of classic flavours such as Vanilla, Thai Milk Tea and Rum & Raisin, signature flavours include Persian Prince made from almond and saffron; Blondie Beach using white chocolate, lime & salt; and Elderflower Mojito Sorbet which is actually non-alcoholic.
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Shamrock Café
5 Clover Way, Clover Park Singapore 579079
Tel: +65 6352 5515
Opening Hours: 9am – 6pm (Mon – Fri), 9am – 6:30pm (Sat), Closed Sun
Under The Radar Cafe At Clover Way Near Bishan
The name “Shamrock” is perhaps inspired by the road the café is on, as “shamrock” is a young sprig of clover.
Clover Way? It is a secondary road at Bishan, somewhat near Marymount MRT.
Their “Eat and Treats” menu features a small selection of bakes such as Black Pepper Chicken Pie ($3.60), Curry Chicken Pie ($3.60), Cakes ($5.80 – $6.80), Gelato ($3.80 for a scoop), Cold Pressed Juice ($5.80 – $6.50) and Waffles ($5.50, $9.00 with gelato).
They have also included other mains such as Cold Tom Yam Pasta ($8.90 a la carte, set meal with $12.50).
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Bober Tea – Bishan
200 Bishan Road, #01-01, Singapore 579827 (Located at Bishan MRT Station Exit C next to 7-11)
Tel: +65 6262 0407
Opening Hours: 11am – 10pm (Mon – Sun)
Popular Bubble Tea Shop At Bishan MRT
Artisanal bubble tea brand Bober Tea 御波坊, though a relatively new comer in the growing bubble tea industry in Singapore, has gained quite positive reputation and reviews.
Though they are loved for their Brown Sugar Crème Brûlée Milk with boba pearls, they have a plethora of other creative drinks.
Other must-try original creations are Brown Sugar Roasted Oolong Milk, Salted Caramel Milk Tea, Hokkaido Chizu Matcha to Black Sugar Konjac Jelly Milk Tea.
These chewy bobas are freshly made at their outlets. That QQ-texture chewiness is a result of cooking at 65°C for optimal chewiness and soaking for two hours to absorb all the brown sugar goodness.
If you enjoy pearls with a texture just in between, theirs are both soft and chewy.
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