The Loft Cafe

The Loft Cafe, also known as The Loft Pancakes & Waffles, is named for its second story location, overlooking the streets of Chinatown. Not to be confused with another similarly named bistro located elsewhere in Singapore. 


The ambience at The Loft Cafe is welcoming and cozy. Designed to be a great place to relax, the tables and chairs are spaced nicely, and they even have a bookshelf and magazine rack for browsing. The Loft Cafe also offers computer terminals for surfing, or power sockets to plug your gadgets. 


Service is excellent, as staff are friendly and polite. The Loft Cafe is a family-run operation, even the various family members also chip in to help serve. 


However, food at The Loft Cafe is a disappointment. Now, I'm an optimist by nature and for the sake of objectivity, I usually visit any place I write about at least two or three times. Sadly, I've had some of the worst food in recent memory at The Loft Cafe. The chef seems to struggle with simple cooking techniques and ingredients, over cooking or under cooking most of the food I've had, and I'm afraid to try more complex dishes. Even worse, the poor quality of food doesn't seem to be a fluke or a bad day, but is quite consistently under average overall. Because of this poor quality, the food ends up being over priced and totally not value for money. The exceptions are their pancakes, which I think are really good, and should be given a try. 


If you really must dine at The Loft Cafe, order food that doesn't require much preparation, like museli, toast or panckes, as they seem to do these quite well. Sandwiches and salads would therefore be a good bet. As for drinks, go for either tea, beer or water. Skip everything else. But personally, I wouldn't recommend anyone to dine here unless they improve on the quality of food. Which is a real shame... especially as The Loft Cafe has very good ambience and service. 









The Loft Cafe Breakfast Platter consists of 8 components, of which 1 doesn't need any cooking skills, namely, the muesli. Of the 7 remaining components, only 3 were cooked well... The tomatoes and mushrooms were grilled to perfection and still juicy, the toast was beautifully toasted and crisp. The strip of bacon was decent but oily. However, the scrambled eggs were overdone, no longer creamy or smooth and the texture resembled an omelette skin instead. The ham was over cooked as well, and had turned dry. It also seemed to have a slightly foul smell. The chorizo sausage was under cooked, and the middle was still cold. Overall, I consider this dish to be a total failure, and one of the worst I've ever eaten in a restaurant or cafe. I didn't finish it. 

The Loft Cafe Breakfast Platter

The Farmer's Omelette was decent. The fillings of mushrooms and ham were reasonably packed, but slightly overcooked. The oddly placed strip of bacon did help to life the overall taste of the dish, as bacon makes everything taste better. The salad had a simple vinaigrette, and the toast was done beautifully. Decent but not outstanding dish, and a safe choice to order. 

Farmer's Omelette

The Buttermilk Pancakes With Apple Cinnamon is a signature dish here, and fortunately, is one of the dishes they do really well. In fact, this is probably one of the better pancakes I've had in Singapore. Soft, fluffy, yet light, with nicely caramelized apples. Good, I recommend ordering this over the rest of the items on the menu. 

Buttermilk Pancakes With Apple Cinnamon

The Hot Chocolate was a let-down. I felt it was too weak and thin, and in fact tasted like milo with a dash of chocolate powder. Terrible. 

Hot Chocolate

The Latte was really weak, and probably one of the worst I've had. Comparing on an objective level, even the mass coffee chains and kopitiam coffee is better. Go for the teas instead, like the Nymph Of The Nile Tea, which being pre-packaged, at least has a consistent acceptable standard. 

Latte

Nymph Of The Nile Tea

I love the ambience and interior of the cafe. It offers a great place to relax, with a view of the street. It even has magazines and books for browsing, and power sockets for your gadgets. Pity about the food though. 

The Loft Cafe Interior 01

The Loft Cafe Interior 02