On Amoy Street, in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, a café has just opened with an unlikely pitch: pairing traditional Korean architecture with the affogato, that quintessentially Italian coffee dessert. AiFOKATO, which until now only ran a takeaway counter opened this year in Telok Ayer, has launched its first full seated space at 97 Amoy Street.
The décor leans into hanok, the traditional Korean house: warm wood, natural light, and a patch of greenery that stands out against the surrounding office towers. The concept stays true to the brand’s original idea: a “do it yourself” affogato, where customers pour their own hot espresso over a scoop of gelato, choosing from twelve possible combinations.
Four gelato flavors are on the menu (Korean matcha, Madagascar vanilla, pistachio, dark chocolate), with the affogato priced at S$10. Those after something colder can go for the Gelato Shakerato at S$9, while straightforward coffee drinkers can get an espresso from S$4 or a matcha latte for S$6.50. A butter mochi box to share, also S$9, rounds out the menu. The café, which is not halal-certified, opens 10:30am to 9pm on weekdays and until 10:30pm on weekends.
The combination isn’t coming out of nowhere. Singapore has seen a steady run of hanok-inspired cafés over the past few years, fueled by local enthusiasm for Korean aesthetics. What’s different here is the pairing: not a reinvented Korean dish, but an Italian coffee ritual, served inside décor lifted from Seoul, smack in the middle of an Asian business district. A kind of triple culture shock, for the price of a coffee.