Lola’s Cafe

Need a quaint and peaceful hang out after dinner, or perhaps a small cozy corner to grab a bite with your friends or loved ones?

If you’re around the Kovan area, head over to the new Lola’s Cafe!

Situated just 5 minutes away from Kovan MRT, this vintage hangout offers you the perfect ambience and setting for all kinds of gatherings. Despite living just a stone’s throw away from here, I’ve never came across this cafe until Kai pointed it out to me on our way home one day!

Because of space constraints, Lola’s can only sit probably around 40 pax, which is about 7 to 8 groups of 5. It tends to get a tad squeezy during weekends, but fret not if you’re unable to get a seat. We didn’t manage to find a seat when we were there, but the helpful staff ushered us to a waiting table and handed us a menu while waiting for a vacant table.

What caught my attention was the way the cafe was designed, a far cry from most cafes nowadays who are too busy improving on their food/earning bucks rather than setting an appropriate ambience for diners. For me, the environment plays a huge part in my appetite (lol), and Lola’s is indeed one of the better ones around. The vintage setting also includes sewing machine tables (with a replaced top but working pedals)!

They offer a variety of desserts and main courses, as well as freshly brewed coffee and tea, or if you’re up to it, a fine selection of drafted beers from US, UK and Belgium. We decided to just head straight for desserts, having had our dinner not long ago.

Now at this point, I must clarify that I’m not a main fan of desserts, but the hand-made pastries here are really worth a try and of course, value-for-money!

We ordered one of their Lemon Meringue Tart ($3.90 – picture as above), as well as a Banana Earl Grey Tart ($4.50 – picture as below), which happens to be one of their more popular pastries in their selection. The Lemon Meringue is a refreshing bite, leaving you with a mixture of sweetness and sourness in your mouth. For the Banana Earl Grey, I felt that the underlying earl grey flavour could be enhanced a little bit more, for you can’t really taste the earl grey due to the overwhelming caramelized bananas topped with pistachios. Because their tarts are all hand-made, the fresh crust was my absolute favourite (HAHA).

We also tried out their Stuffed Shitake Mushrooms ($5.00 – picture as below), which was stuffed with spinach and cheese. I personally found the spinach flavour a little too strong and not to my liking, but apparently, proved to be quite popular among diners.

Coupled with freshly brewed Earl Grey tea, our “supper” came up to just short of $20, which I found extremely reasonable given the location, ambience and food quality.

Satisfied with our food!

Lunch and dinner are served here at Lola’s too, so if you’re cracking your brain of where to go for lunch this weekend, why not head down and try out this up and coming joint?

A little more information on Lola’s if you’re interested: Lola’s Cafe was established earlier this year (2013) by two graduates turned entrepreneurs, June and Choo Kiat. The partners run basically the entire show themselves, with Choo Kiat as the chef and barista, and June hand making all the pastries that you see in the shop.

On the overall, I would give it a 3.5 out of 5 stars rating. I’ve not tried their main courses, but will definitely find another chance to head back and try again.

Lola’s Cafe is located at 5 Simon Road, just off Upper Serangoon Road, diagonally opposite Heartland Mall.

Opening Hours:
Tuesdays to Sundays, 11.00 am to 12 midnight

 

Psst: Did you know that Lola’s does not charge GST and service charge? :P