Cafe Cartel (Siglap)

We were looking for after-dinner dessert in the area and we ended up with Cafe Cartel as we saw their after-9pm promotion while we were deciding between the different outlets on the 2 side of the road.

I didn’t have a good impression of Cafe Cartel, due to past experience with their big-serving ribs which is cheap but nothing tasty. But to our surprise, the dessert were good (and now doubly good due to the 50% discount after-9pm promotion).

We ordered cakes and ice-cream. As the 50% discount also applied to snacks and takeaways, one of us also ordered takeaway supper.

I had the Paradise De Chocolate which is mainly cookies and cream ice-cream, stuffed into a narrow tall glass (so each scoop remains thick and does not appear to melt away as fast). The banana chocolate cake (it looks more like triple chocolate cake due to its entire-dark colour) and the caramel tiramisu were great too, according to my friends.

The place was pretty noisy, as their target customers were mainly teenagers (who care more for pricing and size, rather than tastiness) who came in groups and were all chatting away. But luckily for the timing (after 9pm) and the location (not in a busy shopping mall), there wasn’t a queue building up and so we were allowed to chit chat after all our food were finished.

Cafe Cartel is a decent place to go I must say, with the price they charge (excluding GST) and the ambience of the place. It's not some romantic place, but it's good for gatherings with a small group of friends.

I was just there with some friends. Somehow we always end up at Cafe Cartel when we're looking for somewhere we can afford and yet looks good. So here we are, eyeing the free flow of bread and comfy couch. Ok and of course the food plus half-price cakes after 9pm!

As with most the other Cafe Cartels that I've been to, I was expecting the bread to be served to us. Or at least, they would offer to cut the bread for people at the bread station. However I was somehow a little disappointed when I realized they didn't work this way there. It wasn't that they were too busy, there were 2 waiters chatting away beside me. And when I asked for more bread, they said they'll get it for me but eventually we still had to go back to the bread station to get more ourselves.

Apart from that, I feel that the people there are a rather bubbly group. It actually seems to have an effect on the surroundings, makes the place much more lively.

I ordered a seafood combo I think, because I was looking for something which has calamari! But I was quite disappointed by the grilled fish. It was rather bland. But the pork chop and fish and chips my friends ordered were not bad. They were of reasonable standard. The pork chop came with a sauce that tasted abit like Char Siew (haha!) but it went well with the meat. It was a large serving though. Would have been good for big eaters!

Finally, we were so full but we had to get ourselves the half-price cakes! So we ordered a blueberry cheesecake to share. I think the cake was not bad! The blueberry on top was very smooth and sweet, with little bits of blueberry in it. The cheesecake itself was soft and not too rich either. Sometimes you tend to get sick of cheesecake very fast, but I find this just nice. It was 2.30 after discount! Really worth it right :D

However, with the GST, our bill totaled up to 53.80 for 3. Not very cheap I must say(even with the half-priced cake! haha). Good thing students have a 10% discount (which is better than nothing)! Or else I really won't go there so often..