Espressamente Illy @ Studio M ....... an Italian Coffee Experience?

Just recently, HY and I wanted to visit Kith Cafe and decided to give it a miss and walk out instead. The seats outside were all taken up by folks who wanted to laze away the morning. Right inside, the kitchen was cooking non-stop and the whole place smelled greasy. Business is too good for such a small space. There's no way I could have enjoy myself inside the cafe without being affected by that grease filled air. We decided to skip Kith cafe and take a short walk towards the comforts of Espressamente Illy @ Studio M.

Espressamente is the Illy brand Italian cafe that claimed to bring the Italian coffee experience to the world. In Singapore, this cafe is located at the ground floor of Studio M at the junction of Martin Road and Mohammad Sultan Road. It looked very idyllic when you look at it from across the road on a weekend afternoon.

Illy is a global coffee brand name that finds it's origin in Italy. Illy used to be known more to supply the beans to local  cafes and even have their coffee nicely packed in stainless steel containers and sold globally on the shelves of supermarkets. Espressamente is their cafe business that finally set foot onto the shores of Singapore.

Here in Espressamente, I enjoyed a cup of Neve Fondente. This cuppa is described as "An encounter between an Illy espresso and an excellent hot chocolate with an enjoyable hot cold contrast". Such a delectable name and description that made it impossible for me to reject. For one that like hot chocolate, this must be the one to order. With the cuppa, Espressamente also provide a small stick of Valrhona chocolate to compliment the coffee.

The interior was a slick, comfy, clean feel with cushioned seats, all lined up in the longish-shaped space. The walls were appropriately decorated with coffee themed art pieces and photos.

Apart from having coffee, we got ourselves some food which was pretty good!

Ciabata Al Pollo - Home baked ciabata with smoked chicken breast, Percorino cheese and fresh pesto. The ciabata was delicious but we didn't like the corn chips. Not that these corn chips were awlful, just that we never liked corn chips as much as potato chips.

A close up of the ciabata, revealed the chicken breast that was made very tender. The ciabata here was crispy on the outside but light and soft on the inside. HY and I both liked this home made ciabata.

There's also the American style BBQ Half Chicken. The chicken was nicely cooked. Every part of it was tender.  I felt that it would have already tasted terrific without the generous drizzle of BBQ sauce.

Even though we spend some enjoyable "chillax" time at Espressamente with their equally enjoyable Italian coffee, the experience just wasn't like what Espressamente wanted to provide in the first place, "To provide a genuine experience of Italian coffee". It was Italian coffee alright, but the ambience and experience was totally different from what we experienced in Italy. In Italy, every small cafes to the Cafe Gilli of Florence or the Cafe Cova Milan, there'll be "stand-up" coffee drinking where everyone mingle around the coffe bars to have a quick cuppa and socialize. It gave a very friendly, open and warm feeling just standing there drinking coffee and chat.

Anyway, I shouldn't be picky. It's so difficult to uproot one culture and directly implant it into another society with a totally different cultural background and hope that it works the same. The Espressamente cafe experience is really very different from what we had experienced in Italy. That being said, Espressamente is still a very good chill-out place for good Italian coffee and to top it up, it's opened 24 hours!

*Photos taken with my iPhone 3GS

3 Nanson Road

Tel : +65 808 8888

Singapore

Espressamente @ Studio M website