Thursday 26 January 2012

The Book Cafe

Had a free day so decided to go to a cafe to catch up on some reading since I haven't done that for damn long. K doesn't like to read (although he denies it) but I'm a bookworm. Or I used to be until uni took up all my time. 

Have wanted to visit the Book Cafe for damn long since I read so much positive reviews about it online. But I've got to say, unless you have a car, it's really really inconvenient to go there. You've got to walk quite a bit, probably 500m to the nearest bus stop, and doing it in the middle of the afternoon with the sun beating down on you wasn't fun. But at least we didn't have much trouble finding the place thanks to GPS.

Passed by some really nice shophouses on the way there. 

I have got to say I was a bit disappointed with The Book Cafe. Having read all the positive reviews, I expected the place to be more spacious and cosy and home-y. But in reality it was actually quite small and crammed up. But I do still like the atmosphere that it gives. There were some ang mohs sitting outside using laptops and stuff (there are power points) but it was too hot so we headed inside.

It wasn't really crowded that day, probably because it's a weekday, so we had no problem snagging one of the famous sofa seats.

And yes, I admit that the sofa seats are really really comfortable. You kind of sink in into the cloth and just feel very enveloped. Quite a nice feeling I must say.

They have quite a large selection of books and magazines, as you can see from the shelves. But with the space so cram, I really don't think you'll have much desire to walk up/behind other tables just to take a look at the available choices. A guy (the one sitting with the girl in the previous photo) did, and he kind of bumped into another table. So I would say it's better to just read your own  book/use your own laptop/read the newspapers provided.


The staff were all really friendly, non of the black face attitudes you see in other cafes (like The Raindrop Cafe, urgh), and they won't really disturb you after you've made your order so you can just sit there for hours reading and you won't get chased away. So I actually did enjoy the ambience and environment. But K said he preferred Starbucks as he wasn't very impressed with the menu, and he also prefers the Starbuck atmosphere.


So like I said, K didn't really like the place that much (I felt that it was pretty nice though), so we weren't expecting to stay long. So in the end we only ordered a drink to share.

The ice cocoa with marshmallows ($7 after GST) was a bit too pricey in my opinion. It wasn't really thick and chocolatey like how I liked it to be, and there were only four marshmallows. :( Presentation wise it was pretty decent, but just felt like the taste did not match up to the price.

2 comments:

  1. Do we need to pay to sit there if we don't order any drink?

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    1. Hey! I don't think they'll ask you to pay to sit there, but since the cafe is small it may not be very nice. :)

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