Blue Balls Bike Café

Beer battered fish fillet was fried to golden brown and served with potatoes fries, vegetables and tartar sauce. I was elated that the fish n chips had met the expectations.

A few newly-opened cafes have been making their rounds across social media recently and one of them is Blue Balls Cafe — a bike-themed cafe that is situated at 44 Pasir Panjang Road. For those whom are unfamiliar with the area, the cafe takes up a stand-alone space with the same grounds as Anytime Fitness Pasir Panjang, and is located pretty close by to the Pasir Panjang outpost of Eat 3 Bowls as well. Having an al-fresco dining area that is pretty much only sheltered by an awning, as well as an outdoor dining area apart from the main indoor dining hall, the al-fresco dining area does seem to be pet-friendly, whilst patrons who are less keen to sit in the area can actually choose to sit in the outdoor area that is accessible through the indoor dining hall. The cafe does exude some industrial vibes with the large use of brick walls and cemented floors, as well as the mix of metallic and wooden furnishing and fittings — does somewhat remind us a little of Wheeler’s Yard where a similar approach was used as well; from the colours of the walls to the hanging of the bicycle parts. Walking into the dine-in area, one is greeted by a display rack of biking apparel that showcases the items available for retail; on the other side, the display chiller is stocked with the cakes and wraps available for the day. The menu here features hot food ranging from mains (mostly meat, fish or poultry dishes), burgers and pastas, as well as soup and salads, bites that are good to share at the table, and a small selection of desserts. Beverages include smoothies, specialty coffee, teas from Teapigs Tea from UK and canned drinks; just to name a few.

While one can argue that a lot of thought was placed in the decor and environment of the cafe, the food could be said as something that probably has some room for improvement. While the Grand Tour Fish & Chips that we had was rather uninspiring, the Echelon Mussels Pasta left a slightly better impression. Featuring elements such as mussels, white wine, butter, garlic, chili, parsley and linguine, the broth that the linguine was tossed in had that slight alcoholic zing that made it taste pretty close to a rather decent Vongole — all that spiked with a bit of spiciness coming from the bird’s eye chili that they have included for the kick. That being said, we felt that the noodles could do with a bit more cooking time for that truly al-dente texture, while the quality of the mussels could admittedly been better since the quality just seemed to vary between the pieces that were in our plate.

A lot of the hype on Blue Balls Cafe seems to be placed on the interior — no doubt a very conducive environment which we found ourselves enjoying and even staying for longer than we would usually. Whilst we only tried a select few items off their menu, we felt that their offerings seem a little generic and just doesn’t seem to be made to impress — probably something that may appease the most basic of taste buds, though mostly a tad off for the seasoned cafe hopper. Nonetheless, they have done quite a good job with the interior here; something that is likely to attract avid cafe hoppers as well as bike enthusiasts alike — though one should manage their expectations on the food which could do with more attention to details here.