Makan Place – Creamier Ice-cream and Coffee

Nestled in the heartland, in an unassuming, unpopular part of Block 128 Toa Payoh is a cafe that is packed with the young crowd.

Situated next to a PAP Community Foundation centre an empty shop front and a TCM stall is Creamier Handcrafted Ice-Cream and Coffee. Perfect for a sweet tooth. A group of us ended up there after a gathering and had some really nice ice cream and fellowship.

The store is perpetually filled, when you enter the fragrance of freshley made waffles waffles through the air into your nose, overpowering you.

The small shop front is made even more cozy with the queue. The whole time we were there, the queue rarely went down.

The ice cream here is all hand-crafted, many ice-cream stalls now make their own ice cream and its at this point that differentiation of quality starts to come in. Apart from the regular dishes, there are some really interesting flavours, such as this the sea salt gula melaka, guava orange peel sorbet, satsuma imo, ginger marsala and white peach chardonnay. You can find out more by going to the store 🙂

I have a question though, the stall is situated right in the middle of a playground and a number of burners that are used to commemorate the dead. Looking at the menu, I reckon the owners are Christians so what happens during the lunar seventh month?

Stupid question aside, we waited for a while to get our ice cream. Although in the heartland, the prices of the ice cream and coffee are not really heartland.

We had sea salt gula melaka on the left and strawberry lemon sorbet on the right (each SGD 3). The sea salt gula melaka is a two faced beast with a twist in the end. When you first put it into your mouth, there is a rush of salt that later turns sweet, the creamy ice cream flirts with you on your tongue.

Our craving not filled, we then ordered waffles with ice cream (with ice cream SGD 11). The one on top is sea salt gula melaka (it’s an accquired taste, we have accquired tastes, shoot us) and the one below is earl grey. The waffles really smelt good. Each waffle comes decorated with a mix of liquid chocolate and honey. Sugar rush anyone?

Creamier is not the first modern eatery in an estate, some others such as Two-Face in Tiong Bahru have also sprung up to complement the old chic like Holland Village.  These stalls have added a chic-ness to the old housing blocks. A juxtaposition of functionality and artistry in the same place. Certainly worth a trip, especially after working out at the Toa Payoh Town Park.

Is this the rise of a new trend in Singapore, a move away from the old shopping belts and into the heartlands each organically developing its own food culture?

I certainly hope so.

How to get there