ROUSE

In terms of ambiance, Rouse nails it. They’ve struck a good balance between keeping a shophouse feel but adding modern industrial touches with the furniture. The décor is also a mix of modern and vintage hipster, which we all know is the rage nowadays.
I like how they are open on Mondays, a day that a lot of F&B businesses are closed. If you’re looking for coffee or western café food, they fit the bill.
I ordered their caesar salad, which they described as «massive” — and I thought that they were right. I couldn’t finish it! However, I think part of the reason I couldn’t finish it was because I thought something was off with the caesar dressing. I found that it was heavy on the anchovy and that it tasted too fishy for me.
They have 11,000 followers on Instagram (!) but their food doesn’t impress me, unfortunately. If I were to visit next time, I’d probably just stick to the drinks.

We appreciated the venue for being clean, quiet, for accepting booking.
We were disappointed with the food: fries not cooked enough, limited choice of coffee which is a paradox for a coffee place. Also, the music was high pace electronic, probably not what customer expect in such place.
The pricing is moderate, but we expect at least the food to be properly cook.
As a matter of fact, we will not come back and had a very disappointed experience.

3 weeks in and it’s clear to see that Rouse have got a little while before they can take their training wheels off. We were excited to try their Krabby Patty — but that, along with two other brunch dishes were already sold out for the day. The meals we did order didn’t arrive until after a substantial 30 – 45 minute wait and after customers whom arrived after us got their food first. Clearly there was a bit of a miscommunication between FOH and the Kitchen, but they were really apologetic about it.
The Beef Wrapped Asparagus ($ 16.90) was a pretty okay dish, but after the long wait, we really wanted something that was more WOW. And WOW we got when we tried the Muesli Brioche Toast ($ 14.90) — I love sweet breakfasts that don’t take a nose dive into the realms of no return sugar comas. The housemade compote was excellent and coating their French Toast with Muesli was a great way to combine two breakfast classics! This dish was a real winner.
We had two rounds of coffee — $ 5.50 each for a flat white is pretty standard in Singapore but after being spoilt by the affordable prices at Nylon, I was really hoping that newer cafés would follow suit too. The first round was definitely better than the second, but still some pretty solid coffee. The service here is exceptional — the staff loudly chime a «hi» and a «bye» to all who leave and enter. We ended up staying to enjoy the ambiance and coffees till just after 6PM and the café was still bustling! I’m sure that Rouse will shape up to be a great addition to the Little India café scene when they take some time to settle in and find their feet!