Seeds Cafe

 

The next time you are looking for a cosy place to chill in the Queenstown vicinity, why not try out Seeds Cafe?

You may be interested to know that it is a cafe that provides barista and kitchen management training for students from the Rainbow Centre, so as to prepare them for meaningful employment in future. 

To be frank, you wouldn’t find the food or coffee here particularly outstanding. In fact, compared with other cafes in the heartlands for instance, the prices here are just that little bit steeper.

But look beyond all these with a mentality that it’s for a wholesome cause. Apart from contributing to a more inclusive society, all proceeds from the cafe go towards sustaining the cafe’s operations to keep it going, allowing the Rainbow Centre students to continually have a place for their vocational training. 

In terms of the food standards, you will have to temper your expectations a little - in fact, some of the food are pre-prepared, and only warmed up using a microwave based on observation.

Japanese Curry Omu Rice with Chicken Cutlet ($15.90)

Our order of omu rice came at a very decent portion. The Japanese curry was more sweet than spicy with slices of carrot that were slightly crunchy. The fried chicken was lightly-fried such that the meat was still juicy. The omelette was creamily good. In short, everything tasted good on their own, but it just did not come together well enough.

Bulgolgi Burger ($14.90)

This was the best of the lot for me. Nicely-caramelised onions, and the beef bulgolgi was tender & fatty enough. We would have preferred fries rather than chips, though. And I am still trying to figure out why there’s a missing section on our bun. 

Rainbow Cake ($7.90)

Beautiful hues & neatly-layered, this was so visually-pleasing. A little too dry for our liking, but it was the last lonesome slice without any adjacent pieces to help retain its moisture so that was probably why.

How apt, though, to have a slice of rainbow cake here at the rainbow centre. I really think if they come up with a good version of rainbow cake, it would be such a natural signature dessert.

Cappuccino ($5.90) & Iced Tea ($6.90)

Rounded off the meal with a hot beverage for me and a cool one for my little girl. Cappucino was a standard machine-expressed one but the iced tea was made in-house. You needed to add your own syrup to sweeten the tea - but the problem was that the syrup solidified immediately upon addition to the drink. So something to work on there!

Ambience-wise, the cafe has a cozy design but ventilation via the food exhaust could be better. As it is an open kitchen, you do get the smell of the food lingering in the air, and later on on your clothes. You can check out students’ works hanging on the walls too, and if something does catches your eye, do feel free to enquire how you may go about purchasing it!

Parking is also readily available within the Rainbow Centre campus (visitors lots please). You can spot the cafe easily as it is near the front entrance.

Seeds Cafe

501 Margaret Drive S(149306)

(Within Rainbow Centre compounds)

Opening Hours: 8am to 5pm on weekdays

8am to 1pm on Saturdays

Closed on Sundays

Date of Last Visit: 21st July 2022