Waffles (1 pc) with Classic Chocolate Ice-Cream Ice-Cream / Gelato with waffles being served in a hawker centre isn’t quite a new thing anymore these days — we had seen other operators such as that of Ice-Cream Frenzy and Gelato Paradiso come and go at other more buzzy food centres around, but coming across a stall that serves waffles with ice-cream and gelato at a hawker centre is still pretty rare nonetheless. Occupying half of a fairly well-sized unit at Toa Payoh Lorong 1 Market & Food Centre, this unnamed stall that carries a signboard indicating Korean Waffle Ice-Cream and Ice Cream Brownie shares its space with an outpost of Han n Han Peanut Pancake stall — the same food centre is also home to other notable names such as Come Daily Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee, Pure Soya Bean, the original outlet of Uggli Muffins and Teochew Handmade Pau; just to name a few. This unnamed stall is actually run by the same folks behind Jumpstartbakes (they still use the same social media handle to this date) — they were previously located at Sprout Hub at City Sprouts, and have since been rebranded as Butter & Flour ever since their move to Toa Payoh though the branding is not particularly evident. Apart from serving up Waffles with ice-cream, Butter & Flour also serves up croffles, croissant sandwiches, kueh-kueh and even Mac & Cheese as well.
Things to note about Butter & Flour’s Waffle is that the waffle can be ordered either as a single piece, or a stack of two pieces one atop the other as-is or with ice-cream; also, only one ice-cream flavour would be available (which is considered an add-on to the waffle), and the said flavour would also be dubbed as the “flavour of the week” — this means there would not be much of a flexibility for choice of ice-cream flavours, though they are also not an ice-cream parlour but more of a dessert kiosk in a way. Any topping would also be considered an add-on; the only exception being the “Chocolate and Honey” drizzle which is free of any additional charge. Patrons can also opt for fresh cream, also without any additional charge. During the day we had made our visit, that ice-cream flavour turned out to be the Classic Chocolate flavour, which we had opted for our order. Since we made our visit during the late afternoon (most stalls in the food centre would have already long ended their day), the preparation was speedy and we did get our order within 5 minutes. Truth to be told, this was a fairly simple item and the classic chocolate ice-cream, chocolate and honey drizzle, and the fresh cream were really just pretty decent whilst being nothing to shout about. We were, however, pleasantly surprised by the waffle; the waffle here may lack of some sort of crispness that some may have a preference for, but we really liked how fragrant the batter was here given how it wafts of an aromatic buttermilk note that perfumes the taste buds — probably even better than what some specialty coffee joints are putting out there at a price point way higher.
One may argue about the ever-increasing pace of gentrification that our hawker centres are going through over the years — from food items that tends to appeal to the hipster audience, all the way to items that are priced at a premium that showcases “better produce”. One thing is for certain though; it is interesting to see how hawkerpreneurs do seem to have their very own take on what they want to serve to the table. With reasonable prices and food that is of a decent quality, Butter & Flour does seem like an affordable decent option at a competitive price point against that of specialty coffee joints; whether this would appeal to the folks patronising hawker centres though, probably time will tell …
