Cafe Q Classified: Beautiful floral pink cafe with yam mochi cakes, sweet & savoury Dutch pancakes

I’ll admit, the reason why I wanted to visit Cafe Q Classified was not because of its food, but because of its gorgeous interior design. It’s hard to miss this floral-themed cafe when walking around Ngee Ann City, with its pastel pink hues and colourful flowers decking every inch.

Cafe Q Classified offers an interesting menu, with all-day breakfast dishes, Asian-Western fusion food, Korean kroffles and Dutch pancakes, as well as cakes and pastries. Some of their dishes even contain ingredients like wagyu beef, caviar and lobster, with prices going as high as S$45!

Given how impressive Cafe Q Classified’s interior decorations were, I was interested to find out if their food could match up to their aesthetics.

What I tried at Cafe Q Classified

We started off with the Khong Bah Pheng (S$26), which was a braised pork belly rice dish served with an onsen egg, dried mushrooms and a side of miso soup. We were surprised at how big the portion of rice was.

There were four pieces of pork belly served in the Khong Bah Pheng. Each piece was tender with a nice ratio of meat-to-fat, and had a lovely melt-in-the-mouth texture. The meat was also well marinated with lots of flavour.

The rice managed to impress me too. The Japanese short grain rice was soft and slightly sticky, and I loved the addition of furikake and salted vegetables, which made the dish all the more flavourful.

Chope: Save 20% at café Q classified

However, the dried mushrooms felt like an unnecessary addition to the dish, as they were bland and somewhat tasteless.

The bowl of miso soup on the side tasted like standard miso soup. It was refreshing and acted as a nice palate cleanser.

Overall, while Cafe Q Classified’s Khong Bah Pheng was delicious, I found the S$26 price to be a little too steep, especially given how there were only four pieces of pork belly, with the other elements of the dish being relatively simple.

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Next, we had the Garden Pancake (S$16), a Dutch pancake topped with an egg, spinach, mushroom and bacon.

I have never tried a Dutch pancake before, so I was excited to see how it would taste.

The egg served on the Dutch pancake was flowy and broke easily when I pierced it. The Dutch pancake itself was sweet with a chewy texture, and tasted similar to a crepe or traditional pancake.

The thing that stood out the most about the Garden Pancake was how it combined the sweet pancake base with savoury toppings. I felt that the contrasting flavours did not blend together as well as I would have liked them to, as the sweetness of the pancake overwhelmed the savoury elements at times.

Despite that, I thought that Cafe Q Classified’s Garden Pancake was an interesting dish and I loved how generous the toppings were.

As a huge truffle addict, I can’t visit a restaurant without trying their version of Truffle Fries (S$12). I was delighted at the huge portion of fries that was served.

The fries were crispy with an evident truffle oil taste, and the dipping sauce on the side had a watery texture. It was rich and creamy, and tasted like mayonnaise, but with a hint of a foie gras-like taste.

It’s a simple and relatively common side found in most restaurants, but at only S$12, Cafe Q Classified’s Truffle Fries were one of the better ones I’ve had and I would definitely order this again if I return.

Moving on to desserts, we decided to get the Yam Mochi Cake (S$9), which came with layers of cake and yam filling, as well as a layer of mochi.

The cake had a soft and fluffy texture while the cream had an earthy taste.

However, the purple filling within the cake tasted more like sweet potato than yam. It was crumbly, earthy and natural, and the sweet potato taste drowned out the yam flavour.

The layer of mochi was a little disappointing as it was not chewy or stretchy. Rather, it blended in with the rest of the cake. If I had not known that there was mochi in the cake, I would not have noticed it at all.

The Rose Lychee Jelly Cake (S$9) was definitely a step up from the Yam Mochi Cake. It had a fragrant floral and fruity aroma, and the cake was soft and fluffy.

The layer of jelly within the cake made it all the more texturally interesting, and I loved how aromatic the lychee and rose elements were.

I opted to get the Strawberry Matcha Latte (S$11) but was a little disappointed as the strawberry elements completely drowned out the matcha taste. While the drink itself tasted great, with a nice sweetness and tanginess from the strawberry, it tasted more like a strawberry smoothie than a matcha latte. Also, the bulk of the volume of the drink was made up of ice, resulting in me slurping down the contents of the Strawberry Matcha Latte in a few seconds.

For S$11, I found the Strawberry Matcha Latte to be too overpriced in relation to its volume.

The Strawberry Cream Tea (S$12), on the other hand, was fruity with a pretty scarlet hue. It had a nice fruity, berry profile, and was refreshing. However, it didn’t taste much different from store-bought strawberry tea bags I’ve had in the past.

Final thoughts

Cafe Q Classified certainly stands out because of its Instagram-worthy nature. I found the food to be a little pricey, but I still enjoyed the dishes that I tried. The Truffle Fries were a standout for me, and I would also return for the Rose Lychee Jelly Cake.

To me, Cafe Q Classified’s main drawing point is still its interior decoration. I wouldn’t return just for the food, but the atmosphere of the cafe makes it a great place for photos and for a nice meal with loved ones.

Expected damage: S$20 – S$50 per pax

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