Omotesando Koffee Singapore — Worth The Hype Or Not?

This cuppa is brewed with a house blend called No. 1: Arabica coffee beans harvested from Brazil, El Salvador, Indonesia, Ethiopia, then roasted in Japan. The coffee is hand-dripped with a Kalita Wave dripper, which is a cup with three holes at the bottom to filter coffee, drip by drip. This laborious process is said to impart more flavour to the coffee and indeed, this black brew is smooth with a fruity hint. But for all those who prefer their kopi gao, take note this is milder than robust machine-brewed espresso.

The café’s signature drink. Watching this being made is entertaining: first the barista prepares the cappuccino, then loads it with ice into a special blender that creates cartoonishly large bubbles on the coffee’s surface. He then dramatically sprinkles a generous dusting of cocoa powder on the rather cute bubbles. Though it is velvety and thirst-quenching with a chocolatey fragrance, it is too milky. We almost couldn’t taste the espresso in it.

This contains the same No. 1 house blend of beans, but extracted with a top-of-the-line La Marzocco Strada ET espresso maker hand-assembled in Italy. Frothed Meiji milk is poured on this. It's nicely full-bodied, but unfortunately, there's a slightly burnt aftertaste. The coffee is brewed by a Japanese barista from Omotesando Koffee’s sister café Toranomon Koffee in Tokyo. But he’s only in town temporarily, and he’s assisted by a Singaporean barista who used to work at Oriole Coffee.

(From left) The cafe’s original Japanese founder, Eiichi Kunitomo, 42, who’s from Tokyo and Hongkong franchise owner, Russell Stradmoor, 28. The two men teamed up with Junny Lee, 34, who is behind Singaporean co-working space The Work Project, to open this Omotesando Koffee branch within its premises in the CBD.

As Omotesando Koffee Singapore is housed in a sterile albeit sleek office building, and not a Japanese mameya (traditional wooden house), it lacks the quaint charm that attracted fans to its unusual location in Tokyo. But if you really miss the original cafe, consider this an interpretation. “We have a stone floor emulating the space in the [cafe’s original] garden, a tatami ceiling, and bamboo slats,” shares Russell. There are no seats for now — only tenants of The Work Project get to enjoy their brews within the common seating areas of the office space.

Don’t expect tummy-filling food to be served at this kiosk. “We feel that implementing a kitchen would take away the [minimalist] look of the shop,” says Eiichi. But the cafe’s signature bite-sized kashi (sweet custard pastry) cubes we tried in Tokyo in this photo will be on the menu “soon”, freshly baked locally by “trained staff” in an offsite kitchen. There are also plans for “Singapore exclusive” beverages featuring tropical fruits.

The hand-dripped coffee here is expertly brewed, though the other beverages like the caffe latte and iced cappuccino are hit-or-miss. We can't say it's worth a special trek to the CBD, especially since there are no seats here to enjoy your cuppa. There's about a 15-minute wait for the drinks during peak hours, and queuing can get messy when everyone is eagerly parking themselves at the counter to watch the baristas make the brews.