Mad Roaster – Mad Tasty Brioche & Mad Atas Kopi by a Lawyer in a Hawker Centre

The opening of modern cafe-style Mad Roaster at Amoy Street Food Centre has been making its mad steady parade on social media in the past few weeks, and for a madly good reason.

Helmed by 27-year-old part-time lawyer Madeline, who’s lovingly supported by her parents, the semi social enterprise stall dedicated to selling special blended roasted coffees and homemade brioches started out as a passion project to aid refugees seeking asylum applications in Thailand. The art of refugees in the form of customised colored logo stickers, which generates income for their resettlement, are pasted on each individual cup, and the refugees’ stories are narrated to raise awareness of their situations. Talk about cuppas with conscience!

Sporting its conspicuously new signboard amidst the row of faded, traditional-looking signboards, Mad Roaster on the second storey of Amoy Street Food Centre is hard to miss. Even harder to miss, are the fluffy loaves of fresh brioche laid out at the front of the stall in a transparent box.

Sliced only upon order, the Chocolate Babka ($2) thoroughly impressed us with its luscious dark chocolate swirls and laminated buttery layers. Comprising 68% pure butter, the brioche was exceptionally rich and indulgent in every bite. Slathered with a generous layer of homemade creamy custard, and topped with a liberal sprinkling of slightly salted chocolate crumbles, the brioche was too good for us to believe that it was from a… hawker stall!

You know how some foods just taste better when eaten with bare hands? Like this Chocolate Babka? We highly recommend that you enjoy the babka without utensils to fully appreciate its fluffy and soft texture in the middle, and slightly crusty exterior. Oh, and we also pretty much appreciated the rich buttery fragrance that lingered on our fingers throughout the day.

We got extra slices to take away, and they still tasted as good when reheated. Madeline shared with us that Mad Roaster currently offers two rotating flavors: Chocolate Babka and Cinnamon Brioche, with 1 flavor offered daily. The full loaf is available at $18, if there are extra loaves in the stall, or up for pre-order on their website. As they were still firming up operations, their third flavor, a classic butter Laminated Brioche, was unavailable as-of-yet. Already dazzled by the Chocolate Babka, we couldn’t wait to be back to try the Cinnamon Brioche!

We also got the unique Honey Butter Latte ($4.50, additional $0.50 for ice), Hot Matcha Latte ($4) and a classic Americano ($2.80) to accompany our babka. Among us, the Honey Butter Latte was a clear winner with its silky smooth texture laced with the fragrance of honey. It boasted a deep flavor that reminded us of caramel and butterscotch, and was extremely addictive. The Hot Matcha Latte, made with first-flush tencha matcha powder from Nishio in Japan, on the other hand, had a good bitter-sweet profile. We do not claim to be coffee aficionados, but we appreciated that the Americano had a roasted aroma and nuttiness without being too acidic.

If you are lactose-intolerant, oat milk is also offered as an alternative at an additional $1.

During their off-peak hours, you can see the mother-father-daughter trio taking turns to stick each individual sticker designed by the refugees neatly onto each cup. For such a madly good cause, Mad Roaster serves up mad excellent brioche and mad atas kopi all at a mad friendly price tag. So do swing by, to show your bit of mad goodness to them!

MissTamChiak.com made anonymous visit and paid its own meal at the stall featured here.