Penny University @ East Coast Road

Penny University is one of the cafes that has been in my neighbourhood for quite some time, but I haven't visited them until a few months ago when I decided to meet up with a friend there. In brief, it's a quaint cafe that serves fairly affordable mains and drinks, and I suppose the ambiance is decent too. More on this as we go along.

When you enter the cafe, you are greeted by a friendly group of staff that really makes you feel welcome. The decor in the cafe is nondescript - an assortment of old tables and chairs, and the usualsmatterings of couches, but I found their shelves and cue balls classy and gave the place a very homely touch. On certain days, you can choose the type of espresso beans you want in your coffee-related drinks, which was great for me because I always like to shake things up and try new flavours.

As you can see above, their table placards have changed over 2 visits. My first visit was on 30 November 2012 and that was when they still had the wooden numbers, and individual sugar containers per table. On 18 June 2013, they were replaced with quaint looking hand-made placards and the sugar containers are now on a common table.

PennyU is reputed for their Muddy Espresso in Cold Milk, which I found to be one of the best for cold coffee drinks in Singapore. The milk brought out the flavour of the coffee rather than suppressing it. The hot version, Espresso with 5 oz milk also reflected a similar, but somehow slightly differing flavour from its cold counterpart. Both are pictured below, with the Muddy Espresso on top.

Turkish Eggs with Sourdough Toast.

The picture on top is from my visit last year and the one below is the one from this year.

This is my personal favourite for a main as there is greek yogurt in the dish as well which tastes awesome when you dip the sourdough bread into the spices, eggs and yogurt. Slightly spicy, although not so much on my subsequent trip here. As you can see, the amount of chili oil varies from time to time.

Pictured below are 2 variants from my 2 trips to PennyU. The one on the left is marmite toast with tomatoes, but it is no longer on the menu. In its place is its successor - Eggs on toast (Maasdam Cheese and Marmite). Both are really good (which is why I posted the picture of the old marmite toast), but it was certainly a step in the right direction by pairing it with poached eggs and maasdam cheese. That being said, the cheese made the dish pretty salty overall, but it works out well when consumed with the eggs and salad.

Salmon and Cream Cheese on Sourdough Bread. 

This tasted good, although I was definitely disappointed that I did not get it with the bagel (they ran out of bagel so sourdough bread was the substitute bread). The bread was toasted to perfection and the bread was not too salty overall, despite the fact that both salmon and cheese can make a dish too salty.

Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon.

This was quite similar to my modified choice of salmon and cream cheese on sourdough bread, except that the hollandaise sauce replaced capers and black pepper. Also, this dish came with 2 poached eggs. It actually boils down to personal preference, as you could have easily ordered poached eggs at the side to enjoy with the salmon and cream cheese bagel (sourdough bread). I like the hollandaise sauce here more than some others due to the fact that the lemon taste is stronger.

Savoury

Pictured here is another dish that was given the axe. It's basically brioche toast accompanied with butter and maple syrup, and a side of strawberries and blueberries. As you can see, the portion of fruits and syrup is much less than desired, so it's probably one of the reasons that it got taken out of the menu. However, while it was in the menu I saw quite a few people ordering it. Personally, I would prefer pancakes to brioche toast as that's something still lacking in PennyU's present menu.

Hot Chocolate

A staple anywhere you go, good old-fashioned hot chocolate. I wouldn't go so far as to say that this hot chocolate was exceptional, but i would give it a 7 out of 10. I would have preferred the hot chocolate to be thicker and more bitter. Definitely this falls behind compared to the Wild Mocha Dolce served at Wild Honey, when comparing the price.

In summary, I would still go to PennyU if I happen to be in the area, especially if prices remain as they are. They have good food and decent strong coffee. If you are a fan of pressured coffee and espressos, this is definitely one of the places to go. Their menu could use a little more diversity, but given that its just a humble coffee joint, I feel that they're doing just enough at the moment. Will be coming back here for sure!

Expect to pay: $15-20 per person

402 East Coast Road

Tue - Thu: 08:30 - 18:00

Fri - Sat: 08:30 - 00:00

Sun: 08:30 - 21:00

Closed: Mon