Singapore Food Blog - O' Coffee Club @ Raffles City

Location: City Hall, Central Business District (CBD), Singapore

Note: This piece was written base on the dining experience in Raffles City Shopping Center's outlet. Experience may differ from those in another branch.

This opinion will be an affront to most people - Starbucks and Coffee Bean are highly overrated. For fans whose taste buds are attuned to their offers, they may depend their preferences, a point which I would not contest upon. I praise their loyalty to the brand and applause their choice. However for one who hold no loyalty to any particular brand and who is on the lookout for novel beverage offerings, O' Coffee Club seemed to be a particularly good choice to me. Which is why I am dedicating this post to one of their outlet, the one located on Level 3 of Raffles City Shopping Center.

O' Coffee Club of Raffles City enjoyed a corner of the shopping center next to Swiss Cafe.

'The place to gather' - an apt slogan which we heartily agree.

Fancy an evening high-tea? Just order a pot of hot tea and a slice of cake to relieve the stress of a hectic day.

Colorful bottles of syrup - the true reason behind all those fruity and flavorful drinks.

'The place to gather' - that is an apt slogan for O' Coffee Club, for we did just that while sipping coffee in this cafe. The cafe provided soft illumination to provide an inviting atmosphere, perfect for chatting and to relax. To slowly enjoy my cup of coffee amid the hubbub of the cafe turned out to be a superb way of releasing all those pent up stress from work.

A long list of coffee, ranging from power espressos packing a punch to gourmet coffees siphon brewed from a variety of coffee beans, to even milder flavored coffee and ice blends for pretenders like me, is readily available for giving your day a kick start. O' Coffee Club also caters to fans of the other caffeinated siblings, that of tea leaves albeit at a much reduced length of list, understandable given the name of the cafe.

For me, the name Iced Blackberry Coffee along with the suggestive 'Signature' beside it held a certain allure, which became my choice of the day. It turned out not as satisfying as I would hope, although I wasn't sure what to expect from the coffee. Maybe I was attracted to trying how blackberry would taste in a coffee, and the taste somehow not turning into something I enjoyed. Surely the coffee should not be blamed for that.

Not a fan of coffee? Not a problem. It may call itself O' Coffee Club but the cafe understood that not every patron wanted caffeine nor would they care for some in an evening visit. The long list of beverages included fruit smoothies and blend, one which my wife and my friend ordered one apiece, to chocolates and milkshakes. A pinkish Ice Rambutan and the milky white Minty Lychee Tea Freeze gathered a nod of approval from all of us with their refreshing and fruity taste.

A comparison of size. From the list of smoothies we ordered Ice Rambutan (SGD7.20), a suggestive pinkish hue in a low and wide glass, an amount enough for 2. We gave our badge of approval to this for its refreshing and fruity taste. Anyone entering O' Coffee Club from a hot and sunny afternoon definitely should get one of this. The sweet and savory taste of rambutan would feel your palate in cool waves with each sip of the drink and each scoop of shaved ice.

Iced Blackberry Coffee (SGD7.90) was not up to my expectation, though to be frank, I wasn't sure what to expect from a blackberry coffee. Maybe it should taste more like Ribenna? But then it wouldn't have the taste of coffee to sate my cravings. The taste was less bitter and I could not detect any blackberry flavor. On the positive side, the coffee came with chunks of coffee jelly, though the combination of coffee taste jelly in a glass of ice coffee felt rather redundant.

Minty Lychee Tea Freeze (SGD7.90) felt out of place to be listed under Iced Teas and Freeze. It would be more appropriate to place it in the same section as Ice Rambutan. It was hard to tell that tea was involved in the making of this drink, with the subtle minty taste coupled with savory lychee flavor overwhelming everything else. This would be another refreshing drink to lighten up your day when the heat is unbearable. The lychee bits lingering within the drink gave the drink a more natural ingredient, although they did get stuck in the straw more often than not. Maybe O' Coffee Club should consider changing to thicker straws.

Just the available range of choices in O' Coffee Club dispelled other international coffee chains out of my mind. It offered a much wider range of choices, along with a major list of possibilities beyond coffee for our delight. Coupled with the fact that we were enraptured by those refreshing fruity iced drinks and freezes, it is a sure thing that we will revisit the cafe very often.

Suitable for:             for a cup of coffee or any other specialty drinks they have to offer

Cost:                            your average price for a cup of coffee in any Singaporean cafe, not too expensive but it is no kopitiam.

Website:                    Official homepage

Contact:                     +65 - 6636 8208

Address:                     #03-30/30A Raffles City Shopping Center, 252 North Bridge Road, 179103 Singapore.

Operating hours:   Daily (9.00 a.m. - 10.00 p.m.)
                                       Breakfast hours (9.00 - 11.00 a.m.)

Directions:                Disembark at City Hall MRT and make your way up the escalator. Turn left into Raffles City Shopping Center and go two floors above to Level 3. Locate the shop through the directory.