Have passed by the new Luvall Coffee when they were still finishing up their renovations before their soft launch — Luvall Coffee is the latest addition to the Kampong Bahru neighbourhood, which had seen quite a fair bit of movements in the F&B establishments operating there in recent years. Luvall Coffee takes over the space previously occupied by Nuage Patisserie & Boulangerie; an establishment that is best known for their bakes and French danishes which we had also loved when we made our visit there. There isn’t too much of a visual difference in the interior decor of Luvall Coffee against what Nuage Patisserie & Boulangerie was when they had occupied the space previously — much of the layout of the space has been kept the same, with the counter space displaying the various breads, danishes, mini pound cakes being on the left side of the store upon entry just right before the display chiller where items like the choux pastries and tarts are kept. That being said, it seems that the folks at Luvall Coffee did extend the counter further to include an espresso bar fitted with a Tempesta Gara espresso machine, as well as a photowall with the Luvall Coffee branding just right beside. Another noticeable change will be the switch-up of furniture which includes larger seating for the comfort of the patrons. Luvall Coffee does seem like an establishment that is heavily focused on their specialty coffee offerings based on namesake; that being said, it does seem that the establishment is big on their in-house handmade breads and pastries — for savouries and more substantially-sized food items, there are sourdough sandwiches featuring various combination of ingredients, while they also do offer French boulangerie, pound cakes, tarts and choux puffs; one can also pick up loaves of sourdough bread for takeaway as well. For beverages, Luvall Coffee offers patrons with the espresso-based specialty coffee, fruity coffee (think combinations like Black Lemon, Lychee White, Melon White etc.), drinking chocolate and Matcha.

Since we had pretty much just recovered when we made our visit to Luvall Coffee, we were actually more intrigued by their Fire Roasted Tomato and Basil Sourdough Sandwich which sounded a little lighter on the palate against the other two options that were available on the menu during the day that we had made our visit there — the two other options for the sourdough sandwich was the Avocado and Smoked Salmon, as well as the Cold-Cut Pastrami Beef. As items that are all listed under the “Signature Menu” section of the menu, all of the three options comes with their in-house Handmade Sourdough Bread by default; that being said, patrons do get the option to upgrade to a sourdough waffle at an extra cost of $1.50 on top of the original price of each item. We went for the default option of the in-house Handmade Sourdough Bread for our order. The menu describes the Fire Roasted Tomato and Basil to come with elements such as fire-roasted tomato, basil, cottage cheese drizzled with chef’s made honey drizzle.

Summing everything up, the Fire Roasted Tomato and Basil is pretty much like a sourdough sandwich that features burrata as a filling in-between; we liked how the cottage cheese wasn’t too heavy, though we weren’t too sure about the chef’s made honey drizzle either — if there is any sweetness that it has added to the dish, it does seem a little faint to register with our tastebuds. That being said, they do seem to be really generous with the fire-roasted tomatoes; these were bursting of zingy and tangy notes as much as they were refreshing when one chews upon them, while the basil basically adds a herb-y aroma that lingers at the back of the tongue that resets the tastebuds. During our visit, we had also given their Apple Pie Choux a try; there were a few different flavours of choux pastries which Luvall Coffee offers but the Apple Pie Choux was something which stood out to us considering the slightly different aesthetic that it bears as compared to their other choux pastry offerings — specifically, the Apple Pie Choux is styled just like an apple with a red pastry shell and stick of chocolate stuck in the middle that resembles a stem. Inside, the Apple Pie Choux is filled with cream that is seemingly infused with cinnamon, and also featured small cubes of caramalised apple in between — gives a bit of a crunch to the pastry cream without being particularly sweet at the same time. Prices of the food at Luvall Coffee is decent, with the sourdough sandwiches priced between $11.90 to $15.90 and the choux puffs priced around $3.80. Not a spot that we will make an out-of-the-way visit for, but not a bad spot to consider dining at in the area — though the competition does seem tight around the ‘hood for sure …