Chye Seng Huat Hardware

For the "uninitiated", Chye Seng Huat hardware looks just like another hardware store in the Lavender/ Jalan Besar area - as the cafe owners decided to retain the shopfront/ look of the premises they took over even after turning it into a cafe. I've been interested to visit after reading about this relatively novel concept a few months back.

D and I had a loose agreement to check out this place, but somehow we never got down to it, and I decided to visit it anyways first when my sis-in-law and I decided to meet for breakfast/ brunch yesterday morning :P

You can get more background about this place and a rave review about Chye Seng Huat from Chubby Hubby (complete with gorgeous photos); or from Ladyironchef if you prefer something brief. I will just write about my little outing there :)

Like what many bloggers have described, the entrance to the cafe is really quite nondescript. You enter through this very inconspicuous painted grey door and this is what the cafe facade looks like from the inside. I have to say the whole place was quite hip and tastefully done up - with nostalgic touches without giving me the 'trying too hard' feeling. And its pretty exotic street address "150 Tyrwhitt Road" certainly contributes to its hip factor. 

The cafe interior - it was pretty relaxed on a weekday morning. I really like these tinted brown glasses they had for drinking water.

I went for a french toast with berries - the french toast was pretty moist and delicious, though I wished they were more generous with the berries. At $8.50 (if I didn't recall wrongly), I thought this was quite reasonably priced. The espresso with milk was good too! Smooth and easy to drink.

This was the relatively appetising cake display rack - with some pretty interesting sounding cakes like hazelnut ginger tea cake. One blogger I read said the cakes were nothing to shout about, but at least they still look pretty tempting. Something to try on my next visit perhaps! :)