Food - Kooka Café

After a tiring week spent in school as an OGL for the FOC, my Saturday was spent getting a shirt custom made (will post about it soon), shopping and chilling at this café I discovered on Purvis Street - Kooka Café.

While walking at Seah Street, adjacent to Purvis Street, my companion and I were hungry for some dessert as we are wont to do at that timing between lunch and dinner - about 4pm. We walked past this cafe, which looked quiet and cosy enough from the outside. After making exploring the length of the street, we decided to have tea here, and it quickly became my new favourite cafe.

Tiny and cosy - perfect for a cafe.

Self-serve area. Customers get the cutlery and drinks themselves, but you won't feel like you're at a fast food restaurant!

There was a tea set for $7.50, which came with pastry and coffee. However I was pretty taken with the sandwich I saw some other customers eating, so I convinced my companion to share one with me. I really wanted some beef, and was eyeing the roast beef sandwich (labelled the crowd favourite on the menu) but finally settled for the ham sandwich, composed of honey roasted ham, gruyere cheese and tomatoes. The sandwich came with salad on the side, with balsamic vinegar dressing. I love balsamic vinegar, and this made for a good, quick bite. The sandwich was perfect. The bread was nicely toasted, and the cheese was melty enough without being too gooey and messy. I don't like my cheese to be too cheesy as well, so that was good, and the ham tasted really hammy, but in a good way. In all it was scrumptious, and bodes well for the roast beef sandwich which I will definitely be going back for very soon.

Ham Sandwich, ~$7.90

With "main course" out of the way, we could finally get down to the main reason we were there in the first place: dessert! There was quite a big selection of desserts placed just so in the display fridge. We had a little trouble deciding what we wanted, since I basically went,"I want everything!" when I saw all the cakes available. There were lamingtons, which was made of chocolate, vanilla and coconut according to the owner. But that's for another time, because we decided to get the carrot walnut cake and yo yo's. Kooka serves organic fairtrade coffee as well, and I happened to have a craving for coffee, so I ordered a cappuccino.

Carrot Walnut Cake

The carrot walnut cake was came with a cream cheese icing which we found too sweet. Nonetheless, I quite like carrot cake, and enjoyed this particular one because it had raisins in it. It is a little too sweet on the whole, but not bad.

Yo yo's!

I thought the yo yo's looked like macarons, and wanted to give them a try. A quick Google search taught me that yo yo's are actually two cookies held together with a cream cheese filling. The cookies were just right - not too soft and not too hard, and the cream cheese filling tasted like the one used on the carrot walnut cake, but here, it was just right. I would have finished it in a bite, but I made myself enjoy it in two. Hahaha. Definitely ordering it the next time!

Dessert went quite well with my cup of cappuccino. The coffee was a little cold than I preferred, but tasted great. There was no need for any sugar, and I just had it on its own. I'm not much of a coffee connoisseur, but this is one cup of coffee that I like!

Alright, that's all I have on Kooka Cafe for now. I love the place. Its laid-back atmosphere, coupled with the fact that it wasn't crowded like most Starbucks on a Saturday afternoon made me fall in love with it. I am already looking forward to visiting again, probably next weekend. We'll see how that goes. Till then, have a good week!

See you soon.

Kooka Café
18 Purvis Street

Contact No: 6467 0288

Opening Hours:

Mon–Wed: 10am – 7pm 

Thu: 10am – 9pm 

Fri–Sat: 10am – 10pm 

(Closed on Sun)