I went to The Playground Coffee a couple of weeks back when work took me to Pioneer. Given that I would never have travelled to Jurong West on my own even if it's for the food, I decided to indulge in some instagrammable brunch food before I left this ulu corner of the west. The Playground Coffee is a new cafe that fits the bill for the typical cafe hopping culture in Singapore. Located in Nanyang Community Centre, it serves a very niche community who probably have a long travel every time they leave home.
As it was a weekday, they had some attractive lunch sets where you pay for the main and add $7 for an additional drink and cake. I made this trip with a colleague of mine and settled for the Salmon Grain Bowl ($16) while he picked the Hearty Breakfast ($16). I found the food to be very competent for a neighbourhood cafe and was pretty thankful for the healthy meal. I enjoyed the quinoa in the bowl but would have preferred if the Barley was excluded the next time. I guess while everything was competently prepared, I didn't find any standout factor in my meal.
As for the Hearty Breakfast, my colleague's comment was that it tasted like how a typical big breakfast dish should. Average was his comment. I took particular pleasure in the plating, liked the vibrant colours that stood out of the bowl.
I didn't feel like drinking anymore caffiene or soda given my pretty intense consumption over the past couple of days so gave the set lunch a pass. Instead, I ordered a separate dessert called Death's Nectar ($8) which is basically brownie with warm hot fudge and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This is really good! As someone who loves all things chocolate besides chocolate itself, I took particular pleasure in the richness of the chocolate fudge sauce. The brownies were soft and warm which goes exceedingly well with the cold vanilla ice cream. Awesome dessert!
My colleague went along with the set lunch and got a red velvet cake as his dessert. The cake was pretty delicious. The cake was coated with a cream cheese icing while the red velvet sponge is layered with milk chocolate. Taste is awesome but a little too rich that it's pretty difficult to finish solo. I think most of the cakes are pre-made so the cake is a little on the hard side given that it is frozen for hours. I like hard cakes but if you like your cake soft and fluffy, this isn't the cake for you.
In the past, there was a shortage of cafes in the West and The Playground Coffee would definitely cater to the Westies well. Given that, there's a rise in cafes springing up in the West, The Playground Coffee would have a challenging time trying to get a slice of the market share. That said, their food is very decent. I did note that their pricing is tilted a little to the high side considering its location. Whether this backfires on them remains to be seen. I won't specially travel to Jurong West to eat this again but if I'm around the area, I'll treat myself to Death's Nectar one more time!
The Playground Coffee
60 Jurong West Street 91, #01-04, Nanyang Community Club, S649040