I went in search of good coffee yesterday and my search took me and my mum to two places: Highlander Coffee Cafe in Kampung Bahru/Blair Road area and Wiener Kaffehaus near 6th Avenue. Both were set up as specialist coffee houses by enthusiasts. One by a pair of Singaporean engineers in pursuit of their dream and higher coffee standards and the other by an Austrian who wanted to replicate the Austrian coffeehouse experience in Singapore.
I have to say I was disappointed as my expectations were high. I'd say the staff of both were eager to please and were definitely trying hard, but the coffee, for places which specialise in coffee, and roast and grind their own beans, the actual drinks turned out to fall short.
Both places are nice to sit and drink in: the Highlander is a cheery, newly renovated shophouse unit in the conservation Blair Plain area near Outram MRT station. They just reopened so perhaps that accounts for the less than knowledgeable staff, who presumably will learn as they go along, and I'm sure if I go back in a few months, I'll be able to ask questions about the beans etc and get more confident and knowledgeable answers. I liked most of the decor except the neon bits didn't really go with the shophouse ambience. The training area was behind a door and since there was a training session in progress, I wasn't able to take a peek at it.
The Wiener Kaffehause is meant to be a replication of an Austrain coffeehouse and has traditional leather covered, dark chocolate coloured seats and lots of lovely Gustav Klimt reproductions adorning the walls and a couple of art deco lamps here and there. The staff were certainly friendly and warm without being intrusive which I appreciated. The only thing missing was that since they do not roast the coffee on the premises, it doesn't have that coffee aroma hitting you once you walk through the door.
For those of you who would like details on the drinks: I had an expresso machiato at the Highlander Cafe and this turned out to have a very pretty clover pattern done with the crema but the taste of it was sour which I dislike very much in coffee. I'd rather bitter than sour and in fact I'm one of those who never adds sugar to coffee because that seems to result in a sour aftertaste once the initial sweetness wears off. The whole cafe smelled great as did the actual expresso, and one of the reasons why I dragged my mum along was that she has a far more sensitive nose and palate than I do, and I wanted her opinion since my taste buds and nose aren't quite as reliable as hers. Turns out she had the same opinion as me except more exaggerated. So I rest my case. Either that or having been brought up on kopi tiam beans, she's a Malaysian kopi devotee.
In the Wiener Kaffehaus, the decaffinated cappucino was better although it left me wishing I had ordered an expresso machiato as well so that I would be able to taste the coffee without the milk getting too much in the way. However, I still am not convinced it was as good as it could have been. It didn't have a sour aftertaste but it was not as full bodied as it could have been. I do also think it got a little bit overfoamed. My mum's verdict on the cappucino was again similar to mine but less enthusiastic.
The big hit was sachertorte which my mum positively gobbled up, she liked it so much...I found it just a little dry but the taste as my mum atested to, was a wonderful mixture of chocolate and a touch of almond and cherry.
The best coffee of the western roasted variety that is, I've had in Singapore, still remains in Da Paolo's restaurant along Jalan Merah Saga. It caught me by surprise as I simply wasn't expecting great coffee and it was at the end of a business lunch. And I'm generally not too picky and ordered a decafe cappucino but when I took the first sip, I was very pleasantly surprised and now I know what coffee aficiandos fuss about. It was a taste bud opener. Sadly the gastronomia place under the same ownership does not do decaf any longer so I've stopped ordering coffee from there.
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