Caffè Affogato

Ambience: chill and good location
Their ice cream flavours like mango sorbet, strawberry, pistachio, 70% dark choco are my fav. Waffles not my preference as I like crispy waffles. This was quite eggy and not very crispy.

The Affogato Bar has been a spot that we had been visiting for quite a while over the years — was actually pretty saddened to hear about their closure when they had announced about it recently on their social media accounts; the folks had after all previously ran another concept named The Affogato Lounge at Keong Saik Road, which was a short-lived affogato-centric concept that closed its doors several years ago. With the closure of every chapter comes new opportunities; it turns out that the closure of The Affogato Bar at Cluny Court had led towards the opening of Caffe Affogato at The Star Vista. Occupying a corner shop unit that is located at level one of the shopping mall, Caffe Affogato can be found along the same stretch of shops where Lemuel Chocolate is situated in the mall; it is also situated rather close by to Dewgather Coffee House as well for those whom are familiar with the mall. Occupying a rather modestly-sized shop space, the counter would be the first thing that one sees as they walk into the space; much of the dine-in seating surrounds the glass facade of the shop space that it occupies — the space mostly being decked with white walls and floors for a clean look against the furniture and fittings featuring wooden accents. Currently still in their soft launch phase, Caffe Affogato serves up a rather lean menu as compared to what they have before — there currently isn’t any Affogato that is being listed in the menu; the focus is pretty much centred around their bagel sandwich and single bagel offerings instead as well as a range of ice-cream and sorbets that one can find in the display chiller beside the cashier. Beverages available at Caffe Affogato centres around espresso-based specialty coffee that is pulled using beans roasted by Ozone Coffee Roasters — a departure from the beans roasted by Dimattina Coffee which were used at The Affogato Bar previously, as well as Chai and drinking chocolate. There are also a range of special concoctions there are listed on both the Signatures and Coffee Float sections of the menu as well.

Visiting Caffe Affogato on the weekend during its dinner service, we were aiming to go for one of their bagel sandwiches for something savoury to have. Amongst the six different bagel sandwiches which they carried on their menu, the Turkey & Basil was one that seemed to have stood out to us based on the description of the item on the menu itself. The menu describes the Turkey & Basil Bagel Sandwich to come with elements such as turkey ham, fresh tomatoes, brie, mesclun mix and sweet basil cream cheese coming with toasted bagel. Interestingly, the Turkey & Basil Bagel Sandwich is also the only non-vegetarian bagel sandwich that comes with a vegetarian option, though that would be at a top-up of $2. The menu does mention a waiting time of up to 20mins for all bagel sandwiches “if it’s a busy day” — all bagel sandwiches are also made fresh upon order; that being said, it didn’t quite take that long for them to prepare our order. The bagel sandwich comes as-is; sliced into half and came with a wrapper for easy consumption and tightly packed with ingredients. Taking a bite into the Turkey & Basil Bagel Sandwich, it gave quite a firm bite — the elements that came with the sandwich does give a really breakfast-y feel, all that with the portion size being seemingly substantial. The toasted bagel does come dense with a good bite; the brie providing a savoury note while the cream cheese attempts to bind all of the elements together with its creamy texture — there was a slight hint of basil aroma that can be felt considering how the cream cheese was infused with basil here. The slice of tomato gave a refreshing tang that cuts through all of that cheesiness before one reaches the turkey ham — that came with a typical note of cured meat, though not overly salty and did feel like one that was of better quality. Beneath the turkey ham would be the mesclun mix; the leafy greens creating a crisp texture while cream cheese is further spread beneath it atop the bottom bagel to bind everything together. Basically, a pretty substantially-sized and well-designed bagel that was a joy to have.

Having visited The Affogato Bar and The Affogato Lounge previously, we really liked how their focus of their concept had been all about their Affogatos. We do recognise that the Affogato-centric concept doesn’t seem to do particularly well with the locals here — perhaps it could have been the pricing of the Affogato line-up in general, or that locals just do not have a sustained interest in Affogato in general; we hadn’t noticed many of their patrons whom are ordering their Affogato offerings especially in the later years of The Affogato Bar’s operations. There has always been something unique about the Affogato that was previously served up in The Affogato Bar and The Affogato Lounge — their inventive take on Affogato being a unique selling point in the saturated F&B scene in Singapore. Considering so, we were rather surprised how Caffe Affogato did not offer any Affogato-based items during its soft launch phase — the closest being their range of Coffee Floats; a bit of a shame considering how “Affogato” is still in the namesake of the space and also their roots from The Affogato Bar / The Affogato Lounge. Needless to say, we did hope that they can consider bringing some of those back as they move into full-scale operations. Meanwhile, the Iced Kohī Jelly from the Signatures section in the Drinks menu hit the spot; basically a latte with coffee jelly sweetened with cream — we recall The Affogato Bar’s coffee coming with a particularly punchy body with a heavier note compared to other specialty coffee joints, and this remains to be true at Caffe Affogato, with the jelly providing a good textural contrast as one chews on it. Bagel sandwiches are priced between $12 to $15 here; a pretty reasonable price compared to other similar offerings from bagel sandwich specialty shops. Caffe Affogato does make for a good dining choice whilst around The Star Vista, though we are looking forward to the day where they bring back some of their inventive Affogato onto their menu — that was after all what they were big on and all about.