Towkay Kia Kopi

Got to learn about the new Towkay Kia Kopi 頭家仔咖啡 when we were going around Waterway Point at Punggol — these folks had recently moved into a takeaway kiosk space in the mall being located at Level 2; they are situated just right beside the equally new outlet of An Açaí Affair there around the area where the children learning centres are situated. The kiosk in which Towkay Kia Kopi is situated within adopts a dark decor where dark wooden elements are matched with black fittings — perhaps to give it a little bit of a slightly more upscale look that verges towards being a little bit industrial to say the least. Primarily operating as a takeaway kiosk, there are no dine-in seating space located within Towkay Kia Kopi; that being said, one can look for the multiple seating / resting areas around Waterway Point that serves as convenient spots to just sit around to consume the food if they so choose to do so. Towkay Kia Kopi does remind us a little bit of the likes of takeaway coffee looks that operate within the Central Business District; think establishments like STEAM 蒸 / Local Coffee People, Old Tea Hut / KOPIFELLAS etc. — the menu largely being central around its beverages such as their Nanyang-style Kopi & Teh offerings and is segmented into sections dedicated to Traditional, Homemade and Specialty Mix; food items that are offered at Towkay Kia Kopi will include that of items categorised into Waffles, Bread / Eggs and Bites.

Opting for a little bit of a light snack to go with our order of Kopi, we decided to opt for the Traditional Butter Kaya Toast; this is especially given how we are pretty much suckers for traditional Hainanese-style breakfast toast. Towkay Kia Kopi does not describe on the elements that comes with their food and drinks in its menu; that being said, it can be observed that the Traditional Butter Kaya Toast comes with brown toast, Hainanese-style Kaya (i.e. the one with the brown hue, as opposed to Nonya-style Kaya that comes with a green hue) and salted butter — very much the same elements they one would expect to find in a standard offering of a Kaya Butter Toast elsewhere. The toast is grilled on the spot and was executed in a way where it does carry quite a bit of a crisp; each slice also did not seem to feel too thick as well and was just about right per what one would typically expect. On first look there doesn’t seem to be much Kaya spread around the toasts but we did feel that it was still largely adequate despite being slightly heavier on butter — the butter coming in thick slabs that adds that slightly saltish note to the caramel-y notes of the Hainanese-style coconut jam.

We also went for the Kopi during our visit to Towkay Kia Kopi. Towkay Kia Kopi does seem to do brew quite a mean cup of Nanyang-style Kopi here with the Kopi being one that comes with a bold kick of the Robusta beans that was used for the brew. Opting for the normal level of thickness and the normal level of sweetness for our order, we also felt that the Kopi came with a good balance of sweetness that does not drown out the robust and thick body of the Nanyang-style brew here. Towkay Kia Kopi does seem to be a pretty ambitious brand to have found themselves opening up in the heartlands of Singapore considering the type of establishment that it is; such concepts are easily found in the Central Business District, but is pretty rare to be found outside especially within the neighbourhoods. That being said, it does seem that Towkay Kia Kopi does specialise in its Nanyang-style Kopi which we we found to be better executed than that of some coffee shops, hawker centres and food courts around — something that residents around the Punggol neighbourhood might be appreciative of. We are pretty interested with their waffle offerings which seem to involve freshly-made neighbourhood-style Pandan waffles, something that we might keep in mind to check out if craving for such items develop whilst being around Punggol.