Review of Benten Cafe – Anbiry Baburu Ice-Cream

Having survived the Swensen’s Ice-Cream buffet at Ion Orchard, we decided to take on another challenge involving ice-creams – The fabled Anbiry Baburu Giant Ice-Cream at Benten Cafe Illuma!

Before you even enter the restaurant, an array of yummy-looking plastic food greets you.  After seeing how humongus the cup vase of ice-cream sundae is, we started to have second thoughts about ordering it.We sat down and strategise on our next move to tackle the Anbiry Baburu (the name sounded so catchy :-)).  Filling an empty stomach with huge portions of ice-cream didn’t sound like a good idea so we ordered Garlic Shrimp Pizza ($11.80) and Teriyaki Chicken Yakisoba ($11.80) as “appetisers” before we tackle our “main course”.

Sharing these 2 meals among the 5 of us will warm up our stomachs and at the same time, not too filling.  The servings are manageable and yummy (see pictures below) – the shrimps in the Garlic Shrimp Pizza were very fresh!  The Teriyaki Chicken was very appetising too – perfect meals to whet our appetite for what’s coming up.
Guess what the above looking-at-the-pizza group pose implies?  Pizza too big or too small :-).  Neither!  They are actually rehearsing their group photo expressions for what’s coming up next – the Anbiry Baburu sundae!

The Anbiry Baburu ice-cream sundae ($38.80) – a variety of fruits e.g. banana, pineapple, kiwi with chocolate sticks, brownies and cereals and of course, Ice-Cream of various flavors.  I shall let the pictures and our expressions do the talking…

There are 3 layers of ice-cream separated by 2 thin layers of cereal mixed with chocolate and strawberry coatings – heavenly concoctions: sweet + crispy!  It’s so big that we had to either stand up to eat it or bring to our own side of the table to scoop out the goodies!  Ok! Enough posing and talking, let’s eat!

After struggling with this sundae for about 45 minutes, we finally saw the bottom of the vase!  One more round of victory, tired, full, shocked expressions.

See the mess we made.. thankfully the staff at Benten Cafe were very friendly and helpful!  I felt very embarrassed that they had to keep on changing our plates – 3 rounds -> Once for the Pizza and Noodle “appetisers”, once for the Big ice-cream sundae “main course” and another for Caroline’s Birthday Cake.

We rate Illuma Benten Cafe:

• Food (Garlic Shrimp Pizza + Teriyaki Chicken appetising, ice-cream with fruits yummy): 4/5
• Ambiance (Refreshing bright-colored decor, very soothing dining environment): 4/5
• Service (Staff friendly, eager to help e.g. take photos, clean up the mess we made): 4/5
• Location (just 5-min walk from Bugis MRT station and conveniently located on 1st floor Illuma): 4.5/5
• Value (reasonable pricing esp. the ice-cream @ just $6+ per pax): 3.5/5

Map of Benten Cafe @ Illuma