Gelobuna

It seems that Cluny Court has been through quite a bit of change after most of its tenants located outside of the mall had moved out of their respective shop units — this includes F&B establishments such as that of The Affogato Bar which had made their move to The Star Vista recently, as well as Ollella x Swish Rolls with the former making its move to Far East Square, and the latter having just opened their own location at the basement of Paragon. Since then, we have seen more commercial brands like Tiong Bahru Bakery take up tenancy within the building, though the new opening of Gelobuna still suggests that there is some indie F&B appeal to Cluny Court after its revamp. An establishment that aims to be “one place for artisanal gelato and specialty coffee” based on their bio on social media, Gelobuna might be a new name to the local F&B scene, though it does seem to be affiliated to brands that already has a presence in the local F&B scene — there are suggestions that the spot may be affiliated with PaPa Gelare by CoffeePlus and CoffeePlus; both brands having a presence at the Farrer Gardens neighbourhood at Queen’s Road near Farrer Road MRT Station. Indeed, the similarity in branding is pretty stark; while the decor and facade of Gelobuna can be said as pretty ultra-modern with a sleek look considering the use of metallic elements throughout the whole store, the splash of red used from the exterior to the interior is pretty consistent with the colour which CoffeePlus uses as a theme. As expected, the main offerings at Gelobuna would be their gelato — patrons would be able to opt between having their scoops of gelato in a cone, cup or with a waffle. Meanwhile, the beverage menu at Gelobuna mostly comprises of espresso-based specialty coffee, as well as drinking chocolate and Fiji water.

We were pretty much in the mood for surprises on the day which we made our visit to Gelobuna, so we left our dining partner to try some of the flavours which they have to offer in the display fridge and went with some of the flavours that we were presented as options to go along with a waffle. Our choices of the two scoops of gelato to go for would be the Pumpkin Pie gelato and the Muah Chee gelato. Some waiting time would be involved for those whom are enjoying their gelato with a waffle since the Waffle at Gelobuna is only prepared upon order; similar to the practice that most ice-cream / gelato parlours around the island adopts — it is interesting to note that we were not provided nor informed of any options on adding a sauce / drizzle for the Waffle here. As we dug into the Waffle, we found that the texture of the waffle was pretty decent being plush and of the sort that seems to focus on the fluffiness and denseness of the waffle from within, though one thing that really marred the entire experience was how alkaline or metallic the Waffle seemed to have tasting — almost akin to the addition of too much baking powder into the batter to the point that we found it difficult to finish the waffle anyway.

As for the scoops of gelato, we did feel that the flavours were decent but they do seem to deviate a little from what they were intended to be; perhaps being so due to how they seemed to be holding back on the level of sweetness of their gelato creations. The Muah Chee (which was also indicated to have no peanuts according to the description card in the display freezer) was more like a sesame-flavoured gelato at-heart; the flavour was lacking of any stretchy bits of mochi for a texture that replicated Muah Chee, nor carried any distinct note of sweetness from rice grains that usual form the flavours of rice cakes in general. When it came to the Pumpkin Pie, the gelato did carry a hue of yellow that seemingly resembles the colour of the flesh of pumpkins, though the flavour profile of the gelato seemed to heavily focus on the spices such as cinnamon that one can find in the making of a pumpkin pie. What seems to be lacking is that underlying sweetness of pumpkin, while they could also look into adding some crumbles that could replicate the texture of the crust of a pumpkin pie that would give some contrast of textures to further elevate the gelato flavour. Overall, a product that one could tell that some effort was placed into the creation, though the execution could have been refined; a little bit of a shame especially considering how the texture of the gelato was actually smooth, creamy and a little sticky. Overall, Gelobuna isn’t really a bad place to stopover for some gelato and specialty coffee if one is around the immediate area of Botanjc Gardens MRT Station; that being said, we do think they could easily push themselves further if they are able to rethink how they do gelato — perhaps a spot that things will get a little clearer as time moves along once they get past the initial days of its operations.