The Humble Scoop - one more reason to visit Katong Shopping Centre

Katong Shopping Centre along Mountbatten Road was the first air-conditioned mall in Singapore when it first opened in 1973. The mall was part of a vibrant retail and entertainment scene in Katong which included Odeon, Palace and Roxy cinemas, Tay Ban Guan Shopping Centre and Sea View Hotel. In recent years, most people visit the aging mall only because of the numerous domestic helper agencies there. Katong Shopping Centre in fact has a few hidden gems which Katongnites like to keep secret. One of them is The Humble Scoop – a small ice cream parlour with locally-inspired ice cream flavours.

The Humble Scoop in Katong SC

The Humble Scoop is located in the basement of Katong Shopping Centre, next to the popular Dona Manis Cake Shop. The ice cream parlour occupies a very compact space. The corridor fronting the shop is so narrow that we, without an extra wide angle camera lens, found it impossible to take a photo of the shop frontage.

The Humble Scoop makes its ice cream fresh on site. So most of the compact shop space is taken up for food preparation and storage. The sitting area is minimal and the furniture is very basic.

The Humble Scoop Menu

The offering at The Humble Scoop is straightforward – Ice cream, Waffles, Coffee & Tea. What makes the ice cream shop different from others is the unique flavours of their house churned ice cream. On their Facebook Page, The Humble Scoop explained their underlying philosophy as “recreating flavours that we grew up with into scoops of ice cream!“. That translates into interesting flavours such as Kopi C, Salted Coconut & Gula Melaka, Pulut Hitam and Sugar Cane. A number of the flavours have witty names like “Orh Bee Good” and “Orh Haw” which only true blue Singaporeans can understand.

The items on the menu are reasonably priced. A single scoop of ice cream starts at $3.90 and waffles with double scoops are $10.80 and a cup of latte is $4.

Waffles, Ice Cream & Coffee

I was in Katong Shopping Centre recently and decided to head to the Delicious Boneless Chicken Rice 美味起骨雞飯 stall. Alas, there was a snaking queue at the chicken rice stall. Since I was not feeling too hungry, I decide to walk around the basement of Katong Shopping Centre to check out the F&B options there. My exploration was a short one as I soon ended up in The Humble Scoop, attracted by the tongue in cheek ice cream names and reasonably priced waffles and coffee.

I ordered waffles with a single scoop of premium flavour Muah Chee Ice Cream ($7.80) and a long black ($3.50). The coffee was served first and it was not bad at all.

The freshly made waffles were quite thick and were crispy. They were slightly denser than I had expected but were sufficiently fluffy and enjoyable. The highlight was of course the Muah Chee Ice Cream which was topped with crushed peanuts. The ice cream was smooth and the toppings provided the contrasting texture. The Muah Chee Ice Cream went very well with the waffles.

I enjoyed the ice cream with waffles so much that I decided to buy a tub of Orh-Bee-Good (pulut hitam) ice cream ($18) to take home. The pulut hitam ice cream was not as smooth and creamy as the muah chee ice cream but it was flavourful and there were bits of black glutinous rice that made it more interesting.

Simple Delights

The Humble Scoop is an unpretentious ice cream shop run by friendly and enthusiastic people. They don’t seem to take themselves too seriously but there is no mistaking that they are dedicated to concocting good ice cream with interesting local flavours. They simply deliver delightfully treats. Katong has no shortage of ice cream shops but we will be heading to Katong Shopping Centre more often, now that we have discovered The Humble Scoop.