Amoy Street Food Centre may be closed for upgrading works, but Mad Roasters ain’t resting on their laurels — apart from their Joo Chiat location being still up and running, they have also recently started operations with their pop-up operations at Moonstone Bar, as well as a brand new outlet at Depot Heights Shopping Centre, which is also their very first individual location with a cafe-esquire setting. Decorated rather simply, the interior design seems to suggest function over form, though we still found the slightly tropical theming somewhat welcoming despite its simplicity. Apart from serving up their usual Cinnamon/Chocolate Babka, they do also serve up two new savoury items at Depot Heights Shopping Centre — the Grilled Cheese Brioche, and the Avocado Brioche Toast.

I have pretty much abstained from ordering flavoured lattes for the most part; while my past visits to Mad Roaster were for their Flat White and cold brews, I have heard quite a fair bit about their Honey Butter Latte and decided to have one in its iced form this time round. Sure enough, it did not disappoint — it does carry that familiar, once trendy flavour profile of Honey Butter amidst the cuppa. For those who can’t really picture it, this was similar to Kopi Gu You (i.e. Butter Kopi) but in a form of a Flat White/Latte, though it does come with an additional dash of pretty gentle sweetness that gives sufficient contrast to the savoury notes from the butter which also gives the coffee a rather smooth mouthfeel. And when we speak about coffee, one can never leave out the logo art of the stickers pasted on their coffee cups/cup sleeves here — they are still that social enterprise actively involved with featuring logo art designed by refugees; a sticker dedicated to the story of the refugee is also pasted at the back to create awareness as well.

From just simply a hawker stall, Mad Roaster had come a long way, especially given how it has rode through the waves of COVID-19 being an operator of a hawker stall in The Central Business District. Nobody quite knows what else the pandemic will bring, but this is definitely an exciting phase for the folks behind Mad Roaster whilst staying true to their roots of not just being yet another name in the F&B scene, but also one that cares for the community at large.