Beside Caffe Bene and the various Korean Bing Soo cafe, to add on to the Koreans’ cafe varieties, now we welcome The Pound to the Singapore cafe scene. When we heard of The Pound’s location, we were pretty surprise before we knew that it was Korean owned. It is at the ground floor of Sultan Plaza. Enter via the main entrance of the building and walk straight, in seconds you will see The Pound.
Cafe interior reminds me of The Tiny Roaster maybe due to the colour scheme and the lighting. And the air-con seems faulty. It was pretty warm. On the day of our visit, all the patrons were Koreans!
The cafe offers mainly cakes, in particular Pound Cake ($4) and Roll Cake ($4.50). There were 5 flavours for the Roll Cake on the day of our visit with Earl Grey and Strawberry Roll Cake as the recommended. The other flavours include Espresso, Chocolate and Banana. Over to the Pound Cake, there were 4 flavours, Coconut, Coffee, Lemon and Fig the recommended one. Other selections include the Muffin ($3), Red Velvet ($5.50), Rainbow Cake ($5.50), Brownie ($3) and Carrot Cake.
The Espresso Roll Cake was what we ordered. Somehow the cake reminds me of the Swiss Roll from The Plain Jane Cafe. As the similarity is in the amount of cream. If you like cream, this is for you. In general, it is light and not cloying sweet. The cake was soft and smooth.
At The Pound, this cafe offers mainly coffee from Hand Drip ($8) of Single Origin to Signature Blend, Dutch Iced Coffee with Single Origin ($4) or Blend ($3.50), Espresso ($3) and Americano ($3). In short, the cafe only offer only black coffee, there is no coffee with milk, white coffee. 2 non-coffee selections are the Fresh Ade ($3.50) and Tea ($3.50).
The coffee order was the Single Origin, Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Hand Drip ($8). No idea what method did The Pound use to brew the coffee. It seems like the cafe uses French Press for the brew.Neither does it tasted like the coffee was brewed via V60 or Chemex as the coffee was with absolute absence of clarity. I felt it was with a heavy body.
NAHMJ Verdict
The Pound is a great cafe for a coffee over a cake. But if you are looking to fill your stomach with Mains, this is not the cafe. Furthermore, if you are a non-coffee drinker, this may not be for you as well since the non-coffee selection is limited to 2 choice.
What we like about The Pound is patrons are given choices for coffee though it may not be comprehensive as the cafe offers mainly Ethiopia coffee beans for single origin. There isn’t a choice of different brewing methods. We see opportunities for improvement in The Pound.
The Pound
100 Jalan Sultan Road #01- Singapore 199001
Opening Hours
Monday – Saturday 0900 to 1830
Getting There
By MRT:
- East West line – Lavender station
By Bus:
- Sultan Plaza along Jalan Sultan 107, 107M, 961, 980
- Opp Textile Centre along Jalan Sultan 107, 107M
- Keypoint Building along Beach Road 100, 961, 980
- St John HQ along Beach Road 100
- Before Sultan Mosque along North Bridge Road 7, 32, 51, 61, 63, 80, 145, 175, 197
- Blk 461 along Victoria Street 2, 12, 33, 133
- Opp Blk 461 along Victoria Street 2, 7, 12, 32, 33, 51, 61, 63, 80, 133, 145, 175, 197
Rating: 7/10
