Penny University - Halal Artisanal Cafe in East Coast

Rejoice my muslim friends! We just found Penny University, a cafe in the East that has great ambience, serves great food, and the cherry on top? It is halal certified, making it a perfect hang-out for everyone. Over here, you can enjoy all of the classic western breakfast such as Big Breakfast and Eggs Benedict, all with a halal twist. With a rustic interior decorated with dried flowers and art pieces, Penny U is a cosy little cafe along East Coast Road.

Starting off with some caffeine (obviously), there are a wide variety of beverages available, including non-caffeinated as well. We got a classic White ($4.50++) with oat milk ($0.50++), Spiked Muddy ($6.50) and Vanilla Steamer ($5.50++).

The beverages were rather affordable for a cafe as a cuppa can easily go up to $6.00 in other cafes. Penny University also has a unique take on their coffee, as with the Spiked Muddy, which was gula melaka with coffee and literally looked like coffee spiked with bits of mud. We thought it might be too sweet and gelat but it balances the bitterness of the espresso very well. It comes in a little mason jar that looks aesthetically pleasing!

As for the Vanilla Steamer it tasted like a warm glass of melted McDonald’s Vanilla Ice Cream! Sweet and fragrant, although a little small for the price.

But the real star of the show were the mains! We went for the Full English Breakfast ($20++) and Classic Eggs Benedict ($18.50++).

The Full English Breakfast comes with your choice of poached, scrambled, fried egg or sunny side up together with a sausage, sauteed mushrooms, turkey bacon, hashbrown, grilled tomatoes, baked beans and sourdough. The sausage was actually pretty spicy even though it didn’t look like it! It was a hearty stack of comfort food that was warm and freshly prepared, especially the scrambled eggs that were creamy and melts in your mouth.

As for the Classic Eggs Ben, you can choose between smoked salmon or turkey ham (we highly recommend the salmon) to go with their poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and rosemary lemon sourdough. The poached egg was done to perfection and splitted gracefully when we cut it open. The hollandaise sauce was also sweet and umami, a perfect complement to the sourdough which may be otherwise hard to have on its own. The bread was quite toasted and crunchy but I would have preferred it to be fluffier and soft.

All in all, a pretty cafe down the streets of East Coast Road with halal food that is great for hanging out in big groups. We really enjoyed the mains and won’t hesitate to come back for more.