LUNA (Joo Chiat)

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TOFU - $8.50
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This block of “tofu” cake is exclusively at their Joo Chiat outlet. Silken tofu hazelnut praline with vanilla sponge and vanilla mousse. Not your typical 死甜 cakes. I love the spacious cafe and the friendly atmosphere
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Luna
@luna.singapore

Adorably shaped like a three-tiered Christmas tree, the LUNA Triple Chocolate Christmas Tree Cake 🍫 features three layers of mousse - dark chocolate 🤎, caramel milk chocolate 💛, & yoghurt cream cheese white chocolate 🩶, on a base of almond sponge & crispy feuilletine. What a decadent treat! ✔️
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My favourite layer is actually the 2nd one - caramel milk chocolate! 💯 But if you eat all 3 layers together, the flavours are definitely harmonised! 👍🏻

Yet another name that should not be unfamiliar to cafehoppers, LUNA’s latest outlet at Joo Chiat Road is possibly the biggest news for those whom have been following through the latest updates in the F&B scene recently. Having first established in 2020, LUNA is a name that is best associated with pretty entremets situated in the heart of the Central Business District — its first outpost being located at 53 Amoy Street, being located just a short distance away from Amoy Street Food Centre. They have since expanded their operations with a second outlet being located at 121 Joo Chiat Road — the establishment being situated near the end of the road closer to Paya Lebar then East Coast Road. The new outpost also sees a new design language for how the interior of LUNA is being decked out — rather than going for a simplistic yet chic, upscale look that is classy without being overly pretentious like how it is at their Amoy Street space, their new space at Joo Chiat Road adopts a rather raw and industrial look with unfinished walls, beams and pillars whilst featuring cement floor and marble-esque tables; the whole side featuring a black, grey and white colour scheme that can be said to be a little bit monochromatic. With the opening of this new outpost, LUNA has also introduced some new items exclusively available at Joo Chiat Road alongside its signature line-up that was available previously at their Amoy Street location — apart from the all-time favourites such as the Luna 2.0 and the Orh Nee Cake, there are other new items such as that of the Cassis Chocolate, Rhubarb Strawberry and Caramel Banana Chocolate; just to name a few. Apart from those, there are also a small variety of quiches for those whom are looking for something savoury to have.

The Tofu is probably one of the most talked about outlet exclusives from LUNA at Joo Chiat, and possibly for good reason as well — the cake comes in a pretty minimalistic aesthetic; just a square with rounded corners (possibly using a commercially-available cake mould that other patisseries also uses — the shape and size is relatively reminiscent to other similar ones that we have came across before) and comes in white with an edible gold leaf over the top to finish that look. Based on the description on the menu, the cake features elements such as silken tofu hazelnut praline, vanilla sponge, vanilla mousse and toasted buckwheat. Personally, we felt that the silken tofu element works well on its own — it provides a rather neutral sweetness that gives the entremet sort of a soy beancurd-esque sweetness, though it does seemingly give the hazelnut praline a rather odd finish that we can’t really quite put a finger on to describe its flavours; something a little bitter and not quite pleasant, if one may describe it to be. The toasted buckwheat does provide a crunch that is similar to that of crunchy nuts for a textural twist — the vanilla mousse seemingly encapsulating all the other elements to gel everything together with its custard-like notes; the vanilla sponge being the base which was soft and fluffy, with the texture being fairly consistent to the mousse layers above which we liked.

Whilst we remembered our very first visit to LUNA at Amoy Street when we got to try their Kouign Amann and the Orh Nee Cake to be pretty outstanding, we could help but to feel that the standards seem to have slipped at their newest outlet at Joo Chiat Road. While the silken tofu and hazelnut praline elements did not seem to have particularly come together well for the Tofu, we were also not particularly impressed with how stodgy the pastry base was for the Smoked Salmon Pesto Quiche that we had; the pastry at the bottom just seemingly refused to give way even when sliced apart, and that there were times that the filling just came off from the base with the base still refusing to be sliced through as we tried to cut the quiche apart. The Dirty could have used a smaller cup for better presentation considering how our cup was less than half-filled for the full serving size — there was also a lack of balance between the milk and espresso shot as well. Perhaps it was the hype created on social media over their opening that heightened our expectations of LUNA — that being said, we do hope that they could look into their offerings to refine them further; they are a spot with some potential, and it would be interesting to see how they would fare amongst so many other established names that have set up shop in this part of the East.