You can look forward to new and fun events happening all around Singapore every few weeks. This week, the HHWT team visited Southeast Asia’s first-ever LINE Friends pop-up cafe, My Little Buddy Cafe at Kumoya located in Orchard Central! Find your favourite BT21 and Line Friends characters all over the cafe and even in your food! ?+? The pop-up cafe is only happening for a limited time, so if you’re wondering if it’s worth a visit - here’s my review of the whole experience! ?
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If you love BTS or LINE Friends, or BOTH, you’ll be in for a treat. ? I owned a couple of LINE Friends merchandise myself but my collection paled in comparison to the selection of soft toys, keychains and trinkets on display. Even before entering the cafe, you’ll be able to see shelves stacked tall with various BT21 and LINE Friends goodies! If you’re hoping to bag one of these soft toys as memorabilia, the prices range from $20 to $93++.
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There are smaller trinkets on a rotating shelf too. We definitely spent a bit too much time looking at the merchandise but if you’re only visiting once (because this cafe can get pretty crowded at lunch and dinner time), you’ll want to make your visit worth it and see everything that’s on display.
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The interior of the cafe was split into two sections - one side had decorations and murals of the LINE Friends and the other side, the BT21 characters. ? Choose which side you want to spend time at (to get the best pictures) and grab a seat. If you can’t decide, we’d suggest taking the middle ground and sitting at the booths that split the two sides of the cafe, just like we did. Disclaimer though, your photos might end up coming out a little darker than expected with some shadows as the booths have very minimal lighting. ?
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There are plenty of photo opportunities and you definitely can’t miss the little photo board by the entrance! There’s even a claw machine where you can try your luck and skill at grabbing one of the plushies, so don’t forget to take some pictures there too.
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This cafe is Muslim-friendly, using halal-certified ingredients and with Muslim servers and cooks, however they were not able to get the eatery halal-certified due to the nature of this cafe. The manager himself comes over and explains to us that as a themed cafe, they often change menus every 3-4 months following the theme and concepts (ie. We Bare Bears, Cinnamonroll etc.). Halal-certification takes a long time - roughly about 6 months, and because the cafe changes themes so often, the certification isn’t able to keep up.
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Once it was time to order some food, we were faced with a dilemma, there were so many adorable and delicious looking LINE Friends and BT21-inspired food that we just couldn’t decide. You can choose from two menus, one for LINE Friends and one for BT21 respectively. We decided to mix it up and get a combination of both character themes to spice things up a little, starting with some refreshments, the CHOCO Apple Citron Soda ($13.90) and RJ and KOYA Apple and Momo Iced Tea ($13.90)! ?
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After much deliberation, we decided on the COOKY and SHOOKY Fried Chicken Burger ($25.90) and the TATA and VAN Bulgogi Rice ($27.90) as our main out of the 5 available options curated by the talented Little Miss Bento, Shirley Wong (check out her work on Instagram @littlemissbento)! ? And we also got a side of Karaage Chicken with Soy Glazed Sauce ($15.90) which was super crispy. The burger was really yummy, especially paired with the side salad and hot fries! And if you love TATA and Van from BT21, you won’t have the heart to dig into the glutinous rice-shaped TATA. ? The Bulgogi was really juicy and sweet!
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And no meal is truly complete without some dessert so we decided to go with the BT21 My Little Buddy Chocolate Fondue Churros ($25.90)! It comes with chocolate fondue heated with a candle, a scoop of vanilla ice cream and various marshmallows and crunchy rice krispies decorating the skillet (YES, a skillet!) holding 6 pieces of thick, deliciously golden brown churros. ? We enjoyed this the most because everything tasted so delicious and it was even quite addictive with the crispy cinnamon dusted churros dipped in chocolate fondue and loaded with melty ice cream. If you love hot and cold desserts together, this is the one for you!
I’d suggest coming with a gameplan, whether it be on what to eat or which soft toys you’ll want to buy because there’s so much to see that you’ll get overwhelmed! Fortunately, the staff are very friendly and patient, so you can ask for their recommendation if you really can’t decide. ? Walk-ins are welcomed but you can skip the queue on your visit by booking reservations here!
My Little Buddy Cafe @ Kumoya
Halal status: Muslim-Friendly
Price range: $11.90-$28.90
Address: Kumoya @ Orchard Central 181 Orchard Road, Orchard Central, #04-08 Singapore 238896
Opening hours: Daily;11AM-9:30PM (last order at 8:30PM)