Food review: FATCAT Ice Cream Bar
It seems good ice cream and waffles in the heartlands is turning from a successful trend to a joyful delight that's here to stay.
We ate at the FATCAT Ice Cream Bar over the weekend and enjoyed their creamy and flavourful ice cream, fluffy waffles and were even surprised by their experimental cold brew coffee. Certainly the relatively non-central location shouldn't be a barrier to visiting them.
- Location: FATCAT Ice Cream Bar
Blk 416 Bedok North Avenue 2
#01-25
Singapore 460416 - Opening hours: Mon, Wed, Thurs: 1pm to 10pm
Tues: closed
Fri: 1pm to 11pm
Sat: 12pm to 11pm
Sun: 12pm to 10pm - Price: about $15 for charcoal waffles with 2 scoops of ice cream
Butter Beer and Butterscotch ice cream with charcoal waffles ($15)
FATCAT charcoal waffles, with Butter Beer ice cream on the left and Butterscotch ice cream on the right. Served with salted caramel sauce and dried lavender garnish.
We love all things butter, so it was easy to make a decision out of the variety of unique ice cream flavours from FATCAT.
The Butter Beer ice cream was creamy and malty, a great combination that's important when attempting to emulate the eponymous drink from the Harry Potter universe. There was a slight acidity and tangy-ness about butter beer flavour, so you might want to steer clear if you don't want your ice cream very mildly sour.
Otherwise, it was a great ice cream flavour that would pair very well with waffles. The warmth of the waffles and the sweet, buttery flavour of the Butter Beer ice cream was a match-made in heaven. The maltiness in the ice cream gives it an added complexity to complete the taste.
Despite having a similar name, the Butterscotch ice cream was very different from the Butter Beer flavour. The Butterscotch pretty much tasted like butterscotch, which is a good thing.
The Butterscotch ice cream wasn't too sweet and had a strong butter fragrance to it. What really set it apart was the actual butterscotch bits hidden inside. We had never eaten butterscotch ice cream like this before. Eating the butterscotch bits was like searching for treasure, adding a nice crunch to each bite. It had a brown-sugar complexity to its sweetness too, and wasn't simply syrupy.
When paired with the warm waffles, it's great! The Butterscotch ice cream almost acts as a creamy and buttery topping for the waffles.
And you'll definitely want to eat the waffles at FATCAT. We ate the charcoal waffles, which looks good in photos, but only because the regular waffles were sold out. The charcoal waffles are great, but it costs $2 more than the regular waffles, and we have no idea whether the charcoal waffles taste better than the regular ones.
Our charcoal waffles came with salted caramel sauce and dried lavender as a little garnish. The waffles were served warm, and boy were they crispy. There was just enough bite in the centre of the waffles to make it solid yet fluffy.
It's noteworthy that the waffles were warm, and not served hot. This meant the ice cream didn't melt quite so quickly. There's nothing worse than ice cream soup on waffles.
Matched with the rich and creamy ice cream, the dessert was pure bliss. The salted caramel was good to provide some added sweetness, and the hint of lavender made it all taste ever so sophisticated.
This is a dessert we'll want to return to.
Cold brew coffee ($6)
FATCAT's cold brewed coffee with milk.
I asked about the butter beer drink, but decided against it in the end. Instead, I was informed that FATCAT had been experimenting with their cold brew coffee. They had white cold brew coffee that was steeped in Valrhona chocolate and strawberries to enhance the flavour profile of the coffee.
This was really interesting because they coffee and strawberries weren't blended nor mixed in to the drink. This was more akin to soaking orange and lemon slices in water at restaurants. A hint of the flavour seeps through, but the water doesn't get converted to orange juice.
Naturally, I was excited to participate in their experiment. The coffee itself was unexceptional (nothing like the rich and complex nutty/chocolate-y flavours in something like Jewel or Straight Up Coffee's cold brew coffees). But that's where the chocolate and strawberries came in. They really did add subtle fruity and chocolate flavours to the coffee.
What really surprised me was how I felt I could taste the Valrhona chocolate in the coffee. The chocolate didn't make the coffee sweet - no sugar was added into it. But the texture and nuttiness of the chocolate was very subtlely brought out with every taste. The experiment was an experience.
I'ts fun to taste this cold brewed coffee (if it's still available), though at the end of the day there are other cold brew coffees out there that I prefer better.
Parting thoughts
FATCAT Ice Cream Bar is certainly a dessert place we'd want to visit again. The range of ice cream means many more visits are merited, and the quality is assured from what we've experienced.
Do we enjoy the smart life with this? Yes, though more so for the waffles and ice cream than the drink we tried.
Who should eat this? Anyone who loves ice cream or waffles. Or both together.
Who shouldn't eat this? Anyone who doesn't like desserts, maybe.