Was scrolling around social media recently and heard about the new Boy Cafe that had recently opened its doors within the coffeeshop at 16 Teck Whye Lane — the concept is opened by the same folks who run 803 Thai Food, which used to run two outlets; one being situated within the same coffeeshop where Boy Cafe is located, while they also used to be located in Jurong East at Blk 326 Jurong East Street 31 which had shuttered fairly recently. Despite Boy Cafe being located in the same coffeeshop as 803 Thai Food, Boy Cafe occupies a unit that is a couple of units away at the other side of the coffeeshop next to a stall that serves Chinese mixed economic rice. Serving up what some would call “Western Cuisine”, Boy Cafe does seem to be one of those stalls that are positioned to serve up cafe-esque western dishes that some niche stalls like Breakfast Club and Bread First Everyday carry — think the likes of Big Breakfast platters and Rosti that is available all-day. This does make sense though, especially since there is an existing Western cuisine stall named Chicken Palace Western Cuisine already in the same coffeeshop. Apart from serving up all-day breakfast platters and Rosti, they do also serve up pancakes as well as soups, salads and snacks (think the likes of finger food here) — interestingly, Boy Cafe also does serve up Thai-style porridge (as they claim) in the morning as well.

Having made our way to Teck Whye just for the Rosti, we found ourselves ordering what is essentially the “full works” for their Rosti offerings — the Rosti with Sausage and Egg. We were informed by the ladies at the counter that the item does require 10 minutes to prepare — pretty understandable and actually rather quick considering how we were the only customers settling for Boy Cafe when we made our visit during a weekday dinner service. Collecting our order when we were paged by the electronic buzzer to do so, it is interesting to see how Boy Cafe serves it in a plastic plate shaped like a pan — some effort in presenting the dish with some aesthetic appeal; it also comes with a dollop of sour cream on the side as well. Going for the Rosti itself, the Rosti comprises of shredded potatoes that comes well-sized enough to carry a good bite; they were also tightly packed whilst the shreds also weaved into each other, allowing one to actually pull the shreds out using a fork. Whilst the Rosti comes slightly browned on some parts, we did feel that the Rosti could do better just slightly more crisp. That being said, we found that the Rosti was not overly greasy, whilst the sour cream helps to further bring out the savouriness of the potatoes here. The sunny side-up comes pretty on point here; soft whites and that runny yolk that bursts as one pokes it the fork, while the sausage was actually a cheese sausage that eagerly squirts savoury cheese as one chews into the snappy sausage — a bit of a surprise element since it is not explicitly mentioned to be so on the menu itself.

Given how we had only tried the Rosti with Sausage and Egg during our visit to Boy Cafe, we did find the quality of their fare to be pretty decent in general. We would also think that they do deserve some credit for bringing such a concept into this part of the North West — there really are not many interesting dining options around this end of Singapore, and whilst such a concept might not be new around the island, it is still worthy of a mention after all. The Rosti with Sausage and Egg was pretty much what one would have expected out of a Rosti dish — there are some Rosti out there that seems to be more of a fried potato fritter than that of a Rosti, and we were glad that the Rosti with Sausage and Egg from Boy Cafe did not turn out to be that way. We also liked how they have had surprise elements such as the use of cheese sausage rather than just a sausage that is slightly more premium in quality than the usual — it does help to add on to impressions of the dish just by a bit. Prices of the dishes sold at Boy Cafe can be said as a little pricey when compared to the other stalls within the coffeeshop, though we did find that there is some merit with Boy Cafe charging just a little bit above what we would find as reasonably priced in a coffeeshop setting. The Western cuisine that they serve up doesn’t quite constitute to the usual; they are more cafe-like, and yet all dishes at Boy Cafe are priced below $10 with the exception of the Commander All Day Breakfast that is priced at $$11.90 — this dish featuring German sausage, malt bread, bacon, ham, baked beans, scrambled egg, corn nibs, hashbrown and cherry tomatoes. We would not say that Boy Cafe is a must-visit spot; their location does prove to be a little inconvenient for most folks staying at other parts of the island — still, Boy Cafe is a spot that those staying at Teck Whye / Choa Chu Kang would appreciate having especially when the cravings for a good breakfast hits.