Loysel’s Toy

Quaint coffee shop off the Kallang Riverside Park. Coffee is wonderful and the dessert was yummy. Calls out esp on salted caramel cheesecake. The ambience is hippish and have both indoor and outdoor areas. Excellent place to have morning tea or an afternoon leisure cup of tea. By hey have beer too!

In this ulu ulu location we were expecting a bit more especially after reading reviews. The cappuccino are nice, the crumble cake also but the staff was not very, welcoming or even giving a simple smile. Considering the effort to reach there we will most probably not come back in this café but may try Kilo restaurant/​lounge in the same building instead.

One of the pioneer third wave coffee cafes that have survived despite stiff competition. The coffee here is always pretty good. Love the location away from the hustle and bustle. But woe behold should it rain because you will likely get splashed on if you are seated outside.

Came here for brunch and yes, like the previous reviewer heard a lot of hype about this place.
Food choices are limited, and everything tastes bland. I had an egg sandwich — bread topped with scrambled eggs, a poached egg and a slice of melted cheese on top. Sounds good? Seems like it cant go wrong? It went wrong :(the scrambled eggs were tasteless, the bread tastes like cardboard.
very disappointing

I am not happy. Not happy with the food here.
I came here for lunch with a couple of colleagues since we were on work assignment nearby. After hearing so much hype about this place and how Mr Toy started the Papa Pahleta «coffee movement» here in Singapore, I came with very high expectation and very hungry.
The food choices were pretty limited all listed on the single page menu. I ordered a cold brew with a plate of egg ben trio and paid $ 21 in total, which I think was pretty steep. The two poached eggs were decent but does not look appetizing as it sat on the bun with sides of greens and potato chips (from packets). Cold brew was ok, nothing to write about.
Two colleagues ordered Beefy Burger and thought the slices of beef were dry and rubbery and lack of flavor. They uses beef slices instead of beef patty and just when we were about to sing praises, the cooking failed us. Clearly there’s something wrong with the cooking that day. We paid $ 16 for the medium sized burger.
Another colleague ordered the pulled salmon wrap. This is probably the most decent dish that day as huge chunks of salmon were used and wrapped together with greens and drenched with onion marmalade and sour cream. We paid $ 14 for the wrap.
The food quality here definitely needs improvement. The four of us left the place feeling rather unsatisfied and will never return again for food.
Maybe just for coffee.

I passed by Loysel’s Toy when I was going to Pact and told myself that I would be back.
Visited Loysel’s Toy a few weeks back and love the décor of the place. What I don’t love is that it was packed! Luckily we were sharp enough to spot a seat for 2 at the wooden ‘bar counter’. Otherwise, given the heat, it would be madness to sit outside.
Verdict:
— Ice Lemon Tea — I always thought it was silly to order an iced tea at a place renowed for coffee but I was curious as to why most tables had at least a glass of ice lemon tea. I ordered one myself and I didn’t regret it. It was the most refreshing thing I ever tasted so much so that I wanted another glass. The potent concoction seemed to be a mix of lime, lemon and lemongrass — perfect for a hot day!
— Flat white — full-​bodied and good as ever!
Tip: A mini renovation could be done to expand the place and have all of it air-​conditioned.

A short walk from Lavender MRT, this café has a real peaceful feel as it is set back some ways from the main road via a pathway along the Kallang River. You can catch a nice breeze in the outdoor courtyard and chill out with your coffee and food. Whoever chooses the tunes here has pretty decent taste, as I often find myself whipping open Shazam to see what they are playing.
In terms of hard product, the coffee is very good. The food is mediocre and could be improved, but the vibe of the place is pleasant enough to reach four stars. Dishes are generally bland and uninteresting, although the ‘Big L’s Breakfast’ is filling and does the trick if you’re just looking for a straightforward big greasy plate of eggs, sausage and tomato.
Great spot for a lazy Sunday afternoon brunch. The real unique thing about Loysel’s is the laid back atmosphere, which can be hard to find in Singapore at times.

Great little coffee shop within an easy walk from Lavender MRT. The atmosphere is casual and bright. Good good coffee and a pastry /​dessert selection with many options to choose from. The cake slices are generous and the almond croissant looked massive. Everything looked to be very reasonably priced.
I had a latte and a lemon tart for under $ 10, and both were very much enjoyed. Also love that the coffees come with a little biscuit on the side!!!

I smell coffee just right as I enter this café! LOVE IT! The food was good, could be better… Love the bacon and eggs benedict! The coffee was by papa palheta… It was good! Though I should order espresso, cause the cappuccino was too milky for me… Gotta try and visit one more time in my next holiday… ;)

The original Papa Palheta at Bukit Timah Road may have closed, but for those of us who miss the staff, the quiet courtyard, and the room that could have been from any city in any era, echoes and traces remain in a quiet café in a park by a river. Parts of it are still there, just slightly different than before.
With songs from the 50’s in the background, and old recycled wood given a new lease of life as tables and bar counters, Loysel’s Toy in some respects resembles it’s younger sibling, Chye Seng Huat Hardware. Loysel’s Toy differs in that it has it’s own identity, as a quiet haven in a riverside park, with a busy interior café and a breezy exterior seating section.
Loysel’s Toy can be seen as an evolution of Papa Palheta. Papa Palheta was a coffee boutique, while Loysel’s Toy was a full service café from it’s very beginning. Some of the original concepts remain — a food menu which caters to what can be done well — but some new ideas have emerged over the years which have worked well. One is the bike rental option, which cleverly takes advantage of the riverside location.
The most important part of any café is the quality of coffee, and regardless of location, this can make or break a café. The espresso shot that I ordered consisted of a small volume of coffee, covered by a layer of medium dark brown crema. There was no bitterness evident, just a burst of robust, full bodied coffee, with hints of blackberry-​like flavour present also. The potency never gave rise to burnt flavours — something that I have seen before in other cafes. This tells me that the roasting process has been very carefully controlled, and calibrated to bring out specific flavour elements in the coffee beans used. The mouthfeel is thicker than shots in other cafes, and tells me that the extraction time is right where it should be — not too long, bringing out bitterness, and not too short, leaving out some of the best parts of the ground coffee. It reminded me a lot of the espresso shots in the original Papa Palheta on Bukit Timah road, which remain as some of the best espresso shots that I have had in any city or country that I’ve been to.
It’s worth noting also that the water used in Loysel’s Toy goes through an elaborate filtration process. It’s an interesting touch that I don’t see in every café, and speaks of the attention to detail, and the commitment to quality coffee, that was evident in the original Papa Palheta, and remains in Chye Seng Huat Hardware.
Lattes and milk based drinks in Loysel’s Toy are single shot drinks. This is stated on the menu, and the option to add extra shots is available. This is certainly recommend, as the latte that I ordered was quite pale, and the robust espresso character above was lost, with milk as the dominant flavour. I added an extra espresso shot to the mix, and the difference was very, very evident. The potency was restored, but tempered by the milk, rather than being lost. Combined with the velvety smooth foam, and finished with some well executed latte art, the double shot latte combined the best elements of texture and flavour. 50 mls of fluid is a small volume of coffee, but it’s sufficient to turn a very mild latte into a very good one indeed.
The coffee menu is exactly as expected — a good combination of espresso, milk based drinks, and brewed and filtered coffees. The addition of Chye Seng Huat Hardware has seen the coffee roaster move to Tyrwhitt Road, and the resulting space has been put to the good use with the addition of a brew bar. This allows for a variety of brewing methods to be catered for. A retail section is present also, with a mixture of coffee beans, keep cups, paper and chemex filters available. The retail section is smaller than Chye Seng Huat Hardware however, and does not contain the same extensive selection of items.
There were two different coffee blends available when I visited — the original Terra Firma blend, and the 1000 cups blend. Both are robust, but differ slightly in the levels of acidity evident in each.
It may be slightly out of the way, but the café in the park by the river is definitely worth visiting — just remember to order an extra shot in any milk based drink!

Loysel’s Toy — The Coffee Crafters
Loysel’s Toy is the first outpost (café) established by Papa Palhetta — one of the leading Third Wave Coffee Roaster (coffee artisanal) in Singapore. If you look at their website, the name Loysel’s Toy is a way for the owners to pay homage to Edward Loysel de Santais, the first person who invented the first espresso machine.
Located across ICA at Lavender, in Kallang Riverside Park facing the Sungei Rochor & Sungei Kallang, this place allows Singaporean to get away from their metropolitan lifestyle to just come here and relax.
I have been to this place a few times, it is actually one of my favourite place to stop around Kallang area. Plenty of parking spots at the side of the road.
How is the coffee? Three main ingredients for a good cuppa: Excellent coffee bean (check, normally Terra Firma beans by Papa Palhetta); great machine (check, they are using Synesso coffee machine) and of course the barista (trained by the disciple of Ryan Tan, a 3 time winner of Singapore National Barista Championship).
The latte here is smooth, creamy with a cocoa taste, without the bitter and burn after taste. Quite frankly, I am not an expert in coffee or coffee beans. By my general rule of thumb is if I can drink my latte /​cappuccino without sugar, the coffee is good. If I feel like I am going for second cup, then the coffee is great. If sugar is needed, then I perceived it as horrible and I won’t come back for coffee any more. In conclusion, I think the coffee here is great.
To compliment our coffee, we ordered a earl grey cake. Although it look thick and huge, it is light and moist. The dark spots is actually the dust of earl grey tea, which give a nice twist of flavour to the cake. I am surprised that I actually like this cake, although I am not a fan of earl grey tea.
Service is minimum. You order and pay at the counter, and they will deliver your order. Water and other stuff is self service.
Overall, I really enjoy coming to this place for coffee. I never had a chance to stop by for breakfast, so can’t really comment on the food except for the wonderful Earl Grey Cake. Cheers!
Food & Drink: 8.5÷10
Value: ⁸⁄₁₀
Service: ⁶⁄₁₀
Ambiance: ⁸⁄₁₀
*** If you want to check out the complete review with pictures, please click on my food blog. The link is on my profile page

I have a thing for monikers, nomenclature and its likes. Some places, they have names that are pretty self-​explanatory, like Go! Go!Curry! — obviously a place that serves curry as their main fare. Others, however, have obscure names that just prod me to turn to my best friend, Google, to unravel the mystery behind them. Well, Loysel’s Toy, like their sister joint, Papa Palheta, is one of those names that got me Googling, even though I realised later on that there is a brief write-​up on their website. Some things, you just gotta find out yourself!
So the story goes like this; this man called Edward Loysel de Santais, invented the first espresso machine that took the world by storm during its introduction at the Paris Expo in 1855. No surprise that this man is an engineer who happens to have a penchant for coffee (either that, or he has a need for speed because his invention could brew coffee at a much faster rate), and he devised a way to use steam pressure to bring hot water up to a certain height, and the weight of the water, as it descends through an elaborate tubing system, applies the brewing pressure. Hmmm, I am not sure how the intricate network of tubes serves to augment the pressure that is already generated by the height factor, but perhaps Bernoulli could enlighten us? :p So yup, after understanding the name, I then came to appreciate the presence of the hugeass vintage coffee machine that sits in the corner of Loysel’s Toy.
Back to the coffee at Loysel’s Toy. From the same awesome people who brought you Papa Palheta, the people at Loysel’s Toy are committed to making every cuppa a perfect brew.
What sets Loysel’s Toy apart from the other coffee joints is it doesn’t need to be at a prime location to garner business. Before this, I haven’t even ventured to Kg Bugis before. All I knew of Kg Bugis was that it was by the river (or is that a canal?!), and there are a few obscure warehouses there. But on any weekend, this place is abuzz with people, who have flocked down to this little warehouse by the river/​canal, for a nice cuppa and an escape from the mundane. Even if you are not a coffee junkie, this is a hip place to be seen, in a not so hip location. If you are a coffee junkie, then you will be duly impressed by the coffee at Loysel’s Toy. There is nothing to not like about a coffee joint that sells fantastic coffee, with an idyllic lifestyle to boot.

Cute location. A little hard to get to if you do not have a car.
Retro-​chic is what I would describe the place. We only had a coffee, so I can’t comment on the food. The coffee is decent, quite like the cuppa at CSHH. But still not as robust and full bodied as I like it.
But I like that it is a little out of the way, just at the fringe of the city. Free parking just by the street and they also rent out bikes for trips down the Kallang River.

This coffee joint is by the same owners of Papa Palheta’s. The location is pretty nondescript and exciting, and housed in an old warehouse where the metal chairs are makeshift — you can bring them wherever you need them to be. They have indoor and outdoor seating — sometimes, this place hosts parties at night. It is a walking distance away from Lavender MRT.
The Café Latte costs $ 4 is balanced and fragrant. The milk wasn’t too rich and it It’s one of the most balanced latte. The coffee is most certainly good, since their Barista Ryan Tan won the 2011 Singapore National Barista Championship. The Affogato ($ 7) is strong — and the barristas are generous with the Vanilla ice-​cream which adds to the strength of the Affogato.

Loysel’s Toy has been around for a while now and i visited the place quite some time ago actually. I haven’t gotten down to writing because i don’t like writing about bad food and that was what i felt about Loysel’s– a huge disappointment despite all that hype when it first started.
The out of the way location is typical of most specialty coffee joints in Singapore. Kith, Toby’s Estate, Broers, FortyHands etc. I like that these cafes are a little out of the way. I like the quaintness of it all and i also like that it deters most lazy people as well (for my own selfish reasons). BUT, in my honest opinion, there’s no way i’m going to be back there again. It’s not worth the ride over.
I had the Big L’s Breakfast (S$ 15) — Scrambled or poached eggs, sauteed mushrooms, garlic pork sausage and grilled tomato with toast. This was really bad, and i already lowered my expectations for something that costs 15bucks. My first reaction was that Coffee Bean does a better breakfast than Loysel’s. The eggs were dry and bland. Sausages were no better with the cardboard-​like texture. The toast was stale as well.
The Iced Mocha (S$ 6) was very diluted. Good mocha wouldn’t be served using chocolate syrup. I’m ok with the regular syrup sort but i do expect better from Loysel’s since they are serving Papa Pahleta’s coffee.
Honestly if you want Papa Palheta’s coffee, you can pretty much get it anywhere else.

One of the first few to start the trend of third wave coffee appreciation in Singapore. Loysel’s is the retail outlet of the coffee lab that is Papa Pahleta.
If you drive it’s not that hard to find, just turn left to Kampong Bugis along Kallang Road just heading towards Lavender MRT and the ICA Building. Go all the way in and you’ll see a lone building to your right. Loysel’s is on the first floor.
There are seats inside or out. Outdoor is a nice spacious and breezy place to hang out and have a good chat over a real cup of coffee. I definitely enjoy their flat white, its always consistent (they have other ways of making their coffee too, like drips, etc). I also like to order the lemon tart to go along with it. It’s a good contrast to the coffee but could be punchier in the lemon flavour. I really love the doily on the plate! Little flirtatious details in décor…
There are also bicycles for rent just outside the store. $ 10 for an hour or so, you can go for a ride along Kallang River after your cuppa! I’ve never tried it but have always noticed the pretty bikes and the sign.
Final verdict: It’s not just for hipsters, it’s for laidback coffee lovers and friends looking for a good place to catch up!

I first visited this after going to Papa Palhelta before as it is by the same owner. It is super out of the way and can only be accessed by car. It is a very chillax place with limited indoor and mostly alfresco sitting. It can get warm sometimes though. However on windy days it is ok.
What you might observe on weekends is the «hipster» crowd that goes there to see and be seen. I am serious. They are not there for the coffee.
Again the place has good coffee, I suppose. Their sandwiches are not too bad too but very limited. This is not a place for good food, as it is overpriced and I heard that their cakes are not too good as well.
Since I work just opposite, I find that the novelty of the place has reduced as well.

Regulars of loysels will know that you’ll often catch parents having a family tea-​time (or rather, coffee-​time) with their little kids or dogs and they can really run free in the area. You can even rent bicycles now to do a little drifting along the winding canals, well, just cause.
With the right baristas behind the machine, capps at loysels are smooth with a good body of foam for a nice mouthfeel when you sip the drink. Plus, nice art on the drinks is always a happy pill for us. Don’t add sugar and just sip from the side to avoid spoiling the art.
We loved it back when Loysel’s started when you can order special brews like the French Press and Syphon but we figure their other establishments will do just the job. Don’t forget to pick up some desserts to go with your coffee. Grab the almond croissants before they run out or have a slice of the cake. Their bakers do know how to do an awesome one.

My only issue with Loysels Toy is that its abit ulu and it closes so early.
But if I have the car on a weekday and need a good cup of coffee, I wouldn’t mind heading there to get myself one. ‘Its great when you open the door to the café and the first thing that hits you is the smells of fresh coffee. Its not the biggest place and they dont take reservations so always hope that luck is on your side when trying to get a table inside.
Besides the coffee, I’d give special mention the the Lemon Lime Tea. Quite possibly my favourite shaken tea so far. I like how you can taste the lemon, the lime and green tea all at once. It doesnt hit you like a clump of flavours. Instead is comes as a lovely marriage of refreshing flavours.

Hard to get to via public transport, but its just a short cab ride from Lavender MRT station. Its slightly ‘remote’ location ensures however that it isn’t too crowded, making it a lovely place for a cup of coffee on a weekday.
The coffee there is great — the baristas certainly know their stuff, and they consistenly deliver the ideal temperature and the level of creaminess that I like in my cappuccino :) Also loved the almond croissants — flaky and crisp, and not overly sweet.
Their savoury foods are very mediocre though, the bacon in my sandwich was cold, oily and salty — did not live up to expectations at all.
In summary, great place for an afternoon tea and coffee, not so great for a meal.