Watanabe Coffee

Overpriced and nothing like the original genre. But a good place for meetings, if you can handle the slow service, because both it and the food quality for the price point mean the café is half empty even on weekends, despite its extraordinarily busy location.
We came for the breakfast sets. The idea comes from Japan, where you can find low priced cafes where salarymen swallow a quick pizza toast and filter coffee before heading to their offices. Efficiency and cost are the deciding factors, understandably that means the coffee quality takes a backstep.
Unfortunately, Watanabe caught my attention by advertising being a roaster. This is a departure from the style. I thus had high expectations of my «Dutch-​style» drip coffee… and they were most certainly not met. Either the coffee is stale, or it is roasted to such a high level as to be practically burnt. Since the beans I saw come off the roaster were a nice medium roast, I assume the former. I noticed the menu said $ 5 for a drip coffee, and $ 8 (if I recall well) for a «special house roast» or similar wording, which implies that the regular coffee does not come from their home roasted beans. Well, I can’t complain. At the price point of the set, and considering the origin of the genre, it’s not supposed to be a light roast filled with floral tones and a long finish. Still, disappointing.
The service was slow not because of the incompetence of the staff — on the contrary, they did a marvellous job — but because the café is SEVERELY understaffed! There were only two people on duty, and this is not a «8 seats at the counter only» sized place. They looked pretty exhausted but dutifully processed all the orders as well as they could. My coffee arrived well after I had finished my toast and egg, and we waited 4 minutes to be seated despite a half empty café. It’s OK if you expect it.
The food — except toast — is extortionately priced. In fact, for 2 dollars more than the paltry looking «wagyu» roast slice (the thickness of a chashu slice at Sapporo Ramen) you can head for Bistro du Vin and have a 3 course lunch which is still awesome after all these years in the finest French bistro tradition, including foie gras stuffed ravioli with roast hazelnuts where the foie gras actually seems to have increased in size in the last 4 years… I disgress.
The sofas and the armchairs are comfortable and the tables nicely spaced apart, so this is actually a great location for business meetings compared to alternatives in the area. This redeeming feature will probably see me back, as the average hipster café is usually packed to the brim and communal tables don’t make for the best business setting.

We had the umi rice, salmon baked rice and wagyu rice. Dishes came out fine tasted ok and looked ok. Nothing special but perhaps priced a little high? Just based on the cost of latte at 7.8 and that is before gst and service charge. Think be better off to get at starbucks. Oh yes the food are all a tad sweet otherwise service is good.

Watanabe Coffee is conveniently located in Shaw House, and they have a full menu of coffee, food, and drinks. We stopped by for coffee and ice cream, and the place is comfortable for chatting and taking a shopping break, which is nice because service moves at a glacial place. But first, I’m happy to say that both the inhouse roasted coffee and cold Dutch coffee were very good. The Dutch coffee in particular was very robust and strong and even when iced, it doesn’t lose its intensity. However, it took about 25 minutes for the coffee to come out and then another 10 minutes for the ice cream. I cannot understand how it could take 35 minutes to get a scoop of ice cream unless someone forgot. But they did not explain it in that way so not sure what was going on. They had 3 servers so I’m guessing that the operational constraint is with the coffee and kitchen, but they can also do much better with setting expectations.

Came here on a weekday about 4pm and got in without a queue with a friend and ordered a matcha latte and cod roe pasta, with matcha pudding and some bubblegum-​blue drink for my friend.
My friend wasn’t too impressed, but I felt my latte was okay, and I loved my pasta. The pasta here has a very chewy consistency, and every strand was coated with creamy mentaiko sauce and topped with a mound of nori. Very tasty.
Service here is a wee bit slow, but the environment was pleasant enough to have a chat in. I am not sure about prices, but I do remember the pasta’s portion was on the small side, and slightly pricey for what it was.
I would come back for the pasta.

Located right next to the entrance of Isetan Scotts is Watanabe Coffee. Only a few weeks old and it’s getting pretty popular to both the Japanese and locals. As with typical Japanese cafes, there’s wooden benches that line the entrance, the idea is to sit there while waiting for your table. When I arrived at 130pm, I only managed to get a table at 230pm for 5 adults. A one hour wait, as they do not take reservations during lunch hours. Also take note, they only have two large tables to accomodate more than 4 pax.
Looking through the menu, their drink prices caught my eyes. $ 8.10++ for an iced matcha latte! Their dutch style cold brew at $ 6.80 was the highlight of this café, with the word «Coffee» in the shop name, you would think they are proud to serve it.
1. Dutch Style Cold Brew (L) $ 6.80++
It was incredibly bitter, even after adding condiments, but you could definitely feel the effect of this strong coffee! Apparently, they only make 10 cups of these every 8 hours. Interesting!
2. Matcha Roll Cake $ 11.80++
I love Japanaese roll cakes! This is no exception, the cake was moist and the cream was delightful. The green tea powder used to decorate the plate was a nice addition, and it was authentic and quite bitter. A good tea time snack!
3. Ramune Float $ 2 add on (with the roll cake afternoon set)
By it’s own, it is priced at $ 9, a rather expensive ramune, which you can get at Daiso for just $ 2 in a bottle. It tasted like every ramune but their ice cream was pretty dense and didn’t melt in the drink. Instead, I had to use the metal spoon to scoop up the ice cream.
4. French Fries with Truffle Salt $ 10.80++
No lie, the whole café smelt of truffle! These fries were addictive. Not something I would normally order, but it was well worth the calories! The fries were crispy and not oily, the salt was evenly distributed and the smell is just so good!
5. Matcha Ogura Honey Toast $ 16.80++
Probably their best seller, as almost every table order one. It is a pretty instagrammable honey toast. It is huge, and I would recommend sharing it amongst 4 people! It comes with green tea ice cream, vanilla ice cream, red bean, whipped cream and 3 mochis.
We tried cutting into it gracefully, but made a mess. The whipped cream melted too quickly. The bread on the outside was toasted well, and on the inside, white and fluffy bread that was quite airy, with a slight crisp on the edge.
I think there’s a few hits and misses here at Watanabe, first of all their service could be improved. The lady at the entrance was so busy, she was pretty rude to a number of people waiting in line. I did sit on the bench for an hour and observed her attitude, I ended up handling the menu to several people waiting in line with me, as they were all asking for menus, but she kept ignoring them. Yes, the café is full. Yes the shop is very busy, but don’t act as if you’re too busy to help others in line.
Secondly, the food is quite pricey and not very impressive. However, they do carry alot of the typical Japanese favourites. I lost count of the number of Japanese families with young children that surrounded my table.
Last of all, they need to either figure out a way to get people to leave when they’re done eating or add more tables. I witnessed several parties using their laptops or reading magazines once they were done eating and no effort was made to hand them their bills. In the mean time, the queue outside the shop continues to grow with potential hungry customers.

A nice, cozy café where people can socialize and work. If you are in need of several cups of good coffee, this place is for you! The syphon coffee came in a round flask that served ~3 cups. It was smooth and not too bitter.
The soy chai latte was mediocre – it could have used more spice than sugar water.
The matcha pudding was good but overly too sweet because of the added syrup on top. The coffee paired well with the pudding.
I would recommend the ice matcha latte though! The matcha was not overpowered by the milk and it was just the right amount of sweetness.
If it weren’t for the slow service (it took ~20mins for the drinks), this place would have received a ⁴⁄₅.
Note: Free wifi upon request