Cafe Review: Jimmy Monkey Cafe

Finally found an opportunity to check out Jimmy Monkey Cafe. It has been on my radar for a while but with my ever expanding cafe list plus the fact that JMC is located at One North (which is essentially the Far West), i have not been able to visit till recently. One of the pull factor was of course the coffee. The rise of these third wave coffee makers in Singapore has indeed pleased the coffee drinking community. Never will we have to settle for Starbucks again! (even though i occasionally do but that's because their locations are more convenient!) 

Anyway, because i was due to go for a meeting in the west, i decided to just pop by JMC. Located at the isolated One North Residences, Jimmy Monkey makes an ideal spot to chill out with a book and a cuppa. It is set up by a Melbournian who was keen to recreate a true blue Aussie cafe experience and you can tell they are serious about the coffee with their Slayer espresso machine (one of it's kind in SG) and Giesen roaster. Nothing beats the aroma of freshly roasted beans to wake one's senses.

A fair selection of pastries and hot food. The croissants look big and poofy and the muffins don't look too bad either. I think the molten lava cake was recommended by reviewers on HGW.

Sadly, i developed a headache and decided to have a small scone with a side of sausages instead of the smoked duck with cheese toastie ($15). Shall give that a try another time. The scone came warmed and smells like hot cakes! This is a raisin scone and i would consider it to be more dessert than savory. I usually like to butter mine with salted butter but that combination didn't go well with the sweetness of this one. I tasted a hint of cinnamon and maple (hence the hotcake smell) and it was like eating a very dense fruit cake/bread. Not my usual type of scone (read about what i like here) but it's not that bad. Slightly above average when warmed and you should not continue eating when it's cold.

Was really disappointed when they served me the set reason being that they told me it's clotted cream and trust me when i say it isn't. Whipped is not clotted. They are oceans and stomachs apart. So don't lie to me. If you wanna know what clotted is, try the scones at Regent. I swear that's awesome. The jam was overly sweet and tasted quite artificial. Definitely didn't touch mine.

Of course i had to have something savory to go with the food so i added on the sausages. They are not spectacular but they were savory and moist enough. I would consider this to be more of a white sausage but with more chew to it. You can pass on the bread because it tasted really stale and tough. I think it'd be nicer if it's fresh because there's a nice saltiness to the brown bread which would go well with a big breakfast set. 

The cappuccino was nothing but spectacular and mind blowing. I usually take my coffee with sugar and my judgment on a good coffee is largely dependent my tolerance of its taste when i do it without sugar. Third wave cafes are awesome because they are acutely aware of the taste of the beans and they prepare it in a way that brings out the natural sweetness of the beans. I love that it's not very acidic and the milk acted as a natural sweetener to the drink. It was very smooth and the froth was lovely. It didn't even break when i added sugar (yes i cheated but sugar makes a lot of difference to coffee!). I am dying to try the affogato with crushed violet crumble. Sounds absolutely enchanting.

Definitely a cool joint to hang out at on lazy weekends. Especially with the Lazy weekend menu that serves breakfast till 4pm. Nothing beats getting great coffee (note that i didn't say food) on a lazy afternoon.

May or may not give the food another chance. Could someone try the other dishes and let me know if i should head back there another time? I still have more than a dozen different places i wanna try and i don't know if i can spare this a second visit.

Jimmy Monkey Cafe & Bar

9 one-north gateway
#01-51 one-north residences
Tel: 6777-8470
Sun to Thurs: 8.30am - 8.30pm
Fri & Sat: 8.30am - 10.30pm
Closed Mondays