La Vie: New All-White Pâtisserie at Jalan Besar
Jalan Besar is quite the hotbed of cafes, with many calling this area home, from LUCID to Apartment Coffee to Antea Social.
Now there is a new pâtisserie in town by the name of La Vie, which features a minimalist all-white interior, grey accented furniture and colourful artwork on the walls to liven things up a bit.
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It’s easy to miss La Vie when walking down the street, as there aren’t any prominent signs from the humble exterior, but you’ll know you have arrived by peering in through the expansive windows illuminating the shop floor.
Currently in their soft launch stage, the staff at La Vie mentioned they are in the midst of formulating new cakes and flavours which will become part of a more permanent menu offering, though they did already have quite a few interesting flavours on display.
I was particularly excited to try their fruit cakes on a typically hot afternoon.
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First, the Chloe (S$8.50), placed behind in the photo above, which features a lychee mousse, rose sponge, lychee bits, and get this, lychee popping boba. How interesting.
The mousse of the Chloe was wonderfully light on the palette, and the sponge was moist and baked perfectly. The lychee flavours really came through on this one, with the popping boba providing a burst of juice with each bite.
The Kaiser (S$9), pictured in the foreground, featured a mango mousse instead. Baked with a passionfruit sponge, mango bits, and yes, this too was topped with mango popping boba. Similar to the Chloe, the Kaiser was refreshing, though I thought there could have been more mango mousse to balance the flavours properly. Aside from that, this was pretty good too.
Lastly, the Baileys Tiramisu (S$8.50), which came in a cute flower pot, featured espresso and baileys soaked ladyfingers with mascarpone zabaione. This was pretty good too, and the coffee flavours were not too overwhelming.
Over on the drinks menu, we had the Iced Vanilla Latte (S$6.50) which was the best of the ones we ordered, and was smooth and milky. Coffee here was alright but not the best the competitive cafe scene has to offer— but given that their focus is on cakes, it’s not something I’ll begrudge them for.
The Iced Green Tea Lychee (S$5), however, was oddly bitter, though the flavours did come through.
The Ultraviolet (S$6) came with a very pretty gradient, and was essentially sparkling melon oolong tea with butterfly pea, but was a little bland to me.
As for the Iced La Vie En Rose (S$7), it looked nice but just tasted like an iced chocolate as the rose was completely overpowered.
La Vie is a nice enough place to head to for dessert or afternoon tea if you’re in the area, but loses out a bit to more established players like Pantler and Luna with their wider selections and heartier cakes. Price wise, La Vie is definitely on a comparative level to the bigger names.
I enjoyed the popping boba here at the very least, as it gave their cakes a burst of juice with each bite.
Perhaps when they’ve gotten more into the swing of things and more cakes on the menu, they’ll have more to offer.
For now, it’s a decent start.
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WHERE | 204 JLN BESAR, SINGAPORE 208890
