If Bedok is the “ice-cream” town of the East, then Yishun would probably be the same when it comes to the North — the town already boasts quite a number of ice-cream parlours as compared to the other regions in the north such as Woodlands and Sembawang; No Horse Run being the latest situated slightly deeper within the heartlands pretty near where Coba Coba is located.
Going for the Pandan Gula Melaka Waffles, the waffles required a bit of a waiting time considering how everyone that had made their visit to No Horse Run had seemingly ordered a waffle or two — with them only having one waffle machine to satisfy all the orders. We have also opted for our waffles to come with two scoops of ice-cream; one being the Lemongrass Pandan, and the other was the Smoked Milk with Cacao Nibs. Patrons can also opt for a sauce to go along with the waffles, which we went for the Childhood Milo — their signature sauce.
The waffles were actually pretty well-executed; liked how crisp and cakey these were whilst it comes perfuming of a light Pandan fragrance with a slight earthiness of Gula Melaka detected in its finish — provides slightly more contrast in flavours when compared to the average Pandan waffle. The Lemongrass Pandan ice-cream did come with a distinct hint of lemongrass, though probably not a flavour I would recommend to go for with the Pandan Gula Melaka Waffles given their common element featured in both — still pretty refreshing amidst the creaminess nonetheless. The Smoked Milk with Cacao Nibs was my personal preferred choice between the two — no doubt something not too surprising for those who have tried “smoked” ice-cream flavours which features a common hint of smokiness form the smoking liquid used, but was creamy and smooth while the cacao nibs provided a good contrast of texture with flavours replicating that of the bitterness of chocolate; great for those who love smoked ice-cream flavours, or yet to have tried such flavours. The Childhood Milo sauce was absolutely on-point; looking more like a thick chocolate ganache on first look, but it’s that intensely rich and thick malty, chocolatey goodness that makes it so alluring — maybe even better than Milo Dinosuar.
Despite its limited offerings when it comes to accompaniments to pair with their ice-creams, No Horse Run is a promising, new venture in the heartlands — innovative ice-cream flavours with well-executed waffles with a local touch, served with unique house-made sauces that makes it a real gem to have in the neighbourhood. Despite being pretty much early days for this establishments, it seems that they have already garnered quite a fair bit of attention from both cafehoppers and residents given how buzzy they were on a weekend afternoon. Dine-in seats are fairly limited, though they do have a few seats located around the aisles of the HDB void deck of one doesn’t mind. Probably a spot that I would love to check out again for the other interesting flavours that they carry, though would only likely to make the return once the crowd dies down a little — or would that ever happen ...