Cafes are the current in thing in Singapore. If you can find a nook, you will probably find a cafe. Not all of them serve nice coffee and food but their ambiance does give our little tiny dot of a country an up on our chic factor. Recently, the hubs and I were particularly excited to explore one of the cafes that had rave reviews, accompanied with brilliant and bright photos. Unfortunately we left with a semi hole in our pockets (prices were exorbitant for a cafe!) and hungry unfulfilled tummies. The saving grace was a corner seat and some space for the children to sit, eat and explore alittle. It really left us wondering how do the many youngsters in the cafe afford to pay such crazy prices for food and drinks. Errm, wasn't Macs considered kinda expensive when we were younger?
Maybe we are old foggies. Actually, scratch that. We are NOT old foggies, we are young and hip. Some cafes are just not very friendly to our pockets, tummies and children.
On the very same day we visited Eat Play Love cafe. While their Thai-Western cuisine menu wasn't all that impressive, their prices are pretty reasonable. We were unable to order savoury items as the kitchen was preparing for dinner, but the local dessert we decided on was refreshing for a warm humid afternoon (it's also alittle hard to go wrong with grass jelly and nata de coco).
Their weekends are normally crowded so it's wise to call ahead to book or check if there are seats available. Better still, go on a weekday afternoon where children are either sleeping or in school. You just risk having a grumpy pants doing craft.
Happy troopers!
Grumpy serious pants
If the basic pack may seem alittle kiddy for older children, you can pay extra to purchase other craft activities. The prices for these crafts are not exactly cheap and i'm pretty sure i'll find the same item with much a lower price elsewhere.
The current craze in the cafe is shrinky dink plastic where you purchase a piece of shrinky dink plastic for $5, draw on it and pop it into the oven where it will shrink and harden up. We thought $5 was too much to pay for a piece of plastic so we played with some scraps that were left on the tables and wowed at how the plastic really shrank and well, hardened up. Hehe. It is waaaay more fun and entertaining than how i described it.
The oven that shrinks the plastic
Will i return back to the cafe again? Well, probably, if I'm in the vicinity with time to spare or if my girlfriends organise a play date there. But I don't think i will make a deliberate trip down unless the cafe offers a greater variety of crafts and materials. Personally, $5 isn't a reasonable sum to pay for some paper, stickers and glitter when such materials are easily found in greater quantity and lower prices in the stationary stores. Similarly, i don't agree with paying high prices for the alternative activities that they provide for older children.
Given that it is a craft cafe, i guess i would like to see a greater variety of crafts available for children of all ages. I wouldn't mind paying alittle more for better craft ideas, more materials and maybe even a member of the staff there to guide the children into creating their little wonders.
Would i recommend the cafe? Well, yes, especially if you are not into cleaning up the mess at home. And if the little ones are driving you up the wall with their insane amount of energy.. this would be a good place for the adults to chill and the children to have some fun. Even Noah enjoyed himself watching the older ones and taking in the mad explosion of colours in this happy place!
