The Book Cafe

To spend my new age wandering alone on a Saturday afternoon gave me time to reflect on how the past year have been to me.

Coincidentally, a cafe that I have meaning to try out was located right across from where I was taking my refuge.

Forgot to take a picture during the day

When you enter the Book Cafe, it looks like any casual dining cafe with tiny tables and alfresco dining. However as you venture in, a dimly lit room with strategically placed lamps, couches, coffee tables and silent readers greet you. Walls of magazines and books are all available for browsing as you sit in your corner, escaping the harsh realities of the rat race.

Of course if there were more more natural light, it would have been great.

If you woke up late and don't want to lose out on reading time, this cafe serves all-day breakfast. So you can surf with their free wifi while eating warm hash browns. The free-wifi probably explains the explosion of laptops there.

Since it was close to 2pm by the time I got out of my cave, I decided to go with Bangers and Mash (mash potatoes with bratwurst sausage). Panda came a little later and he had the all-day breakfast.


The mash was not some instant nasty mush since you could still taste the uneven bits with every bite. The sausages were quite decent and went really well with the brown sauce.

The Chipolatas and Bacon with scrambled eggs, Japanese tomato, hash brown and toast hit the spot with Panda. The dish had no complaints on my part but neither was it to die for. Just an average standard brunch offering. However the part of the meal which caught my attention was the cafe lattes. No burnt taste and a decent sized cup ended the meal. Plus the coffee art was really cute.


Panda had an unfortunate encounter with the serving staff. She ignored him as she chatted with another staff and he waited there for a couple of minutes mentally willing her to take notice of him so that he can get the menu. She turned to him after her conversation and asked (with a surly face), "Oh, you want the menu right?" before handing it over. That is really bad hospitality service. After that he waited for her to come take our orders. Since no one bothered to come, I thought it was a self-service sort of cafe and went to order and pay. I am used to it as a few cafe practice this method.

What disturbed my inner zen was the same staff had a super bored face as I paid her. Did I not order enough so she feels that her time is wasted on me? I noticed near the end of the meal that the staff treated the Caucasians aka white folks, differently! When they called for the bill, she immediately sent the bill over and waited patiently as the diners sorted out the money.

It is hard to get a place that makes decent coffee nowadays and Book Cafe is one of these places. Hugging a warm mug to myself, while reading National Geographic on a weekend is a joy. I probably give the Book Cafe another try later in the year as I really do like the selection of reading material available and lay out of couches. Hopefully I won't get the same serving staff.

I don't want a place where the staff thinks I am unworthy of their attention.

The Book Cafe
Address: #01-02, Martin Road, Seng Kee Building, Robertson Quay, 239070 Singapore
Tel: +65 6887 5430
Email: info@thebookcafe.com.sg
Opening Hours: Sunday - Thursday (8.30am-10.30pm), Friday - Saturday (8.30am - 12 midnight)
Price : $$

Note: There were a couple of girls there who said quite loudly that they don't take pictures of their food because they are not food whores. (-__-) Ahemm... excuse me but there are some out there who actually write reviews. I said quite loudly in return, "I'm going to take pictures for my blog! Documentation of my life journey! Some people lead boring lives." After the  surly staff, I'm was put in a bitchy mood, plus I only had a camera phone to work with.