really good desserts at this small store in a surprisingly hipster part of serangoon – I live near the area and never knew this place even existed (except for all the posts floating about the blogosphere on this place and its cajun neighbour). I didn’t really know what to expect, actually – I tried to come with tempered expectations in case it didn’t actually live up to the hype – but came away liking it quite a bit.
warning: giant photos up ahead as I’ve been playing with a square crop with my photos – more on that later.
it’s a small space (so be prepared to wait), but gorgeously decked out in kitschy retrovintage furnishings and what I feel is rather old-school american – which also leads me to ask: have you also noticed that hipster places in singapore take on a vintage persona from history that never quite happened to us? I feel like this place could fit in fantastically in seattle, but here seems a little like an isolated microcosm of american fifties-style coffee shops.
there’s an open kitchen for a slice (oh, punny) of the action beside a glass counter laden with truffles, tarts and cake – and also a very adorable kid’s corner with books and the like (I suppose the idea is to leave them there so you can enjoy your food without distraction).
and the food? pretty good, really. we had two waffles – one plain with butter for the dad and a chocolate-ice-creamed one for mum – both of which came warm, crisp outside with soft insides. I think this ought to be a sure-order; it’s a rather large portion as well. we also had a bread pudding – served with crème anglaise – topped with flaked almonds and well-heated; as well as a still molten chocolate lava cake. I think the latter was more impressive – the chocolate was sufficiently dark so it wasn’t too sweet, and it brought to mind the soufflé I had at cut (in a good way).
we didn’t try their specialty of root-beer cake, which was probably just as well since most reviews seem to fixate on how uninteresting it is – the desserts we had were better than you’d get at most cafés, and good enough to consider this place a specialty establishment. well-worth a return, and especially so after dinner at the fat cat (which I’ll tell you about in a later post!).
Wimbly Lu Chocolate Cafe
15-2 Jalan Riang
Singapore 358987
tel +65 6289 1489
p.s. how do you like the square format? I like how focused it is – it really draws your attention, but it blogs a little awkwardly. it brings to mind the glorious – but antiquated – days of the medium-format cameras, and less impressively our current much-instagrammed times – so I’m in a bit of a quandary about it all.
andmorefood 
Great review! Totally agree on the ‘vintage-persona’ point! I like the usual format you have for pictures but having said that, the square-format could become part of the signature of the blog.
thank you bernice! I like the usual format better too – I think this takes some getting used to!
aha. i heard about this place often but yet to check it out. but i stay far from serangoon and prob will drop by if i go chomp chomp for dinner. anyway, i have a food blogger friend from KL who’s in town for a makan trip and i prob will meet her while she do some food review. you keen to join us?
it would be pretty interesting to have three people snapping away at the table – where are you guys thinking of going?
I love the square format. Makes me think of Tastespotting and Foodgawker thumbanails. Not a bad thing :)
Just one scoop of ice cream for the waffle? Was it enough?
thank you! I do like it as well – but I think it’ll take a bit more playing with to be comfortable.
we had just come from a pretty heavy dinner so the single scoop worked – but it would probably have been a problem otherwise!
Nice post, I haven’t checked out the place myself, but I’ve also heard of similar praises. I think the smaller squares work great, but the bigger ones can be awkward depending on the viewer’s screen size. Just a thought!
hi there! – my greatest bug about this format really is exactly that: it looks really gorgeous on its own but loses some of that on narrower screens (I had a friend who said THE PICTURES ARE GIANT); the tiny ones remind me a tad of instagramming (which I have a bit of a bug about). I think the longer crops render a lot more pleasingly.
I like Wimbly Lu’s natural sky light (and the mornings when the crowd isn’t in yet). Good to have passed on the rootbeer cake, it’s just meh but the brittle that they have – though tiny in portion – is lovely! I’m a big fan of the vintage-y crockery :) Looks like you live near me, let’s go eating some time soon!
I haven’t been there that early before! do they do a good brunch?
also yes we should! have you been to the cajun kings or that pizza place?
brunch-wise, typical eggs and more offerings. I was mainly focused on desserts in wimbly’s. heh.
yes, to both :p I’m trying not to join the darn herd but my “try new things now” buzzer was louder than my resistance. cajun kings is nice-ish but our local crab/seafood is way better. the buttermilk fried frog legs was awwwesome. pizza, not bad overall :) (i love how i typed to the point) let me know which you want to try, or if there’s anywhere else in serangoon/kovan that I’ve ignored :D
oh I like how you say darn herd because that’s exactly how I feel when I go to restaurants that are still new enough to be within the hype-zone (literary license, thank you). oh if it wasn’t great there isn’t any point in heading there again – there’s a restaurant at serangoon gardens called plonk that has this designer vibe to it, but no online menu, and barely any presence. I’ll go check out their menu :D
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