The Cuter The Cafe The Greater The Disaster
Not everything is daijoubu sometimes
BY: JOLENE TEO
(Not) An Art Hoe
Images via TikToker @cloudywithafishball
As we cannot travel out of Singapore as easily as before with the pandemic, Singaporeans have been looking more towards exciting and fun local experiences to keep themselves entertained on a weekend. Besides looking for good food or binge watching the next big Netflix drama like Squid Game, one activity that is often enjoyed is cafe hopping. Cute cafes often offer unique and fun experiences like playing with dogs and cats or renting out board games. Some themed cafes even collaborate with different franchises and cartoons such as Sanrio, featuring decorations, food, drinks and merchandise with different characters. But sometimes it seems like the cuter the cafe the greater the disaster, here are some of the times things have gone south with these kawaii cafes in Singapore.
Hello Kitty Shit Show
Hello Kitty has a pop-up restaurant by Kumoya at Orchard Central and like any cute restaurant goer, TikToker @cloudywithafishball was filming the experience when met with a nasty surprise earlier last month. While Fishball was enjoying her shabu shabu with a friend, a pipe had burst and gave a whole new meaning to piping hot. Very sus brown water started to rain down from the ceiling onto the staff and customers, and the TikToker captured the disastrous scene on video.
The liquid flooded the floor of the eatery which led to the TikToker scrambling to finish her “expensive meat” despite the “funky smell” before evacuating. The video garnered over 8.4 million views and over 1.2 million likes on her TikTok account. A part two even showed the water leaking down to the floor below. Fishball praised the Orchard Central and restaurant staff for working to resolve the issue, and many supporters in the comment also mentioned not asking for a refund because this was beyond their control. Luckily it was not actually poop water, but a “false activation from the mall’s fire system”.
Can sense the kanchiong in this screengrab.
7 cats died at cat cafe
Cuddles Cat Cafe used to be located at *SCAPE, a central location making it easy for visitors to drop by and cuddle some cats. However, the cafe was shut down after less than four months of operations back in 2014. The cafe had initially brought in 30 cats for the establishment, but 7 had died even before the cafe was open (R.I.P. nine lives really not enough).
Image via TODAY
AVA first launched investigations after receiving a report of mismanagement of diseased cats there. The owner of the now defunct cafe, Jonathan Tan Wei-De, was found to have breached AVA licensing conditions by not keeping the cats in good health and ensuring they tested negative for toxoplasmosis, a disease that can infect animals and humans. Luckily he was sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment, S$3,500 fine, and closure of the cafe. It is unclear what happened to the remaining 23 cats but let’s hope they are doing well.
Image via The Straits Times.
Byebye Gudetama
Lovers of the adorable Gudetama Japanese cartoon surrounding an animated egg, would have visited the Gudetama Cafe at Suntec City before it closed down in 2019 alongside its neighbouring My Melody Cafe after a 3 year stint. Run by the owners of the Soup Spoon and Joe & Dough, the cafe was decorated with the anthropomorphic egg down to the furniture and food.
Images via TODAY
When the cafe first opened, it enjoyed long queues and many pictures shared widely on social media. Sadly, all good things must come to an end, the cafe closed after “the end of our partnership and license agreement with Sanrio Co. Ltd”. The cafe closed with special discounts off its food and merchandise in its final months, and while there was no major disaster, could character cafes be losing hype in Singapore since back then?
Image via TODAY
These cute cafes do provide a different experience that helps one to forget that they are trapped in Singapore, and can imagine they are in Japan or Korea taking cute pictures. Just fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong on your trip down, especially after paying more than your usual cup of kopi at the kopitiam for the experience.
JOLENE TEO | (Not) An Art Hoe
Jolene Teo is a contemporary and modern art enthusiast, writer, curator, and cultural researcher. She enjoys exploring the areas inbetween art, design, critical narratives, pop culture, and the cult of collecting. She is socially awkward but will talk to you about plants, art, anime, and life. Some part of her still wishes she can become an artist one day. Send her memes @joteo_
