Queue @ Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe SG

Located at the bustling Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 3, the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe Singapore is the world’s first 24/7 themed cafe in the world.

And Hello Kitty fanatics in Singapore have already been going crazy over the cafe, with it attracting long queues since it opened its doors in Singapore on May 12.

The Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe Singapore has been attracting long queues since its opening.

In fact I heard that the queuing time on opening day had been as long as four hours – and the limited-edition Singapore themed Hello Kitty plush toys, each selling at $49.90 at the cafe, were literally sold out within hours of opening! Last weekend too, there had been a message posted on the cafe’s Facebook page to tell its customers to prepare more time to queue for their food, due to the “overwhelming response.”

Headed to the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe Singapore with my family

My family and I decided to brave the queues.

My family and I decided to brave the long queue.

So I began to wonder whether this chance to taste some Kitty themed food was worth the wait. And as a Hello Kitty fan myself too, this was something that I simply had to find out. So recently, I then decided to head down to the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe Singapore together with my family, to check out the place.

The cafe itself is not that hard to find. Located at the Changi Airport Terminal 3 Arrival Hall, some degree of walking is required from the Changi Airport MRT Station, but if you keep on walking ahead after you get off the escalator, you will eventually see the cafe.

The decor of the cafe is amazing.

When I first set my eyes on the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe, I thought that it was not as Kitty-themed as we would have expected. While there are a couple of Hello Kitty statues inside the cafe, as well as Hello Kitty’s iconic bows scattered around the cafe, such as engraved into some of the wooden chairs, I thought that the Orchid Garden floral theme resonates more strongly throughout the cafe.

So to some extent, the decor of the cafe had reminded me of a rather pretty flower garden with a few Hello Kitty elements thrown in. I figured that this had been done intentionally, so as perhaps not to completely alienate the husbands or boyfriends of the mostly-female Hello Kitty fans.

With my mum at the cafe.

Queue was shorter than expected

To my surprise, the queuing time was shorter than I had expected. Based on the media reports that I had heard, I was mentally preparing myself to queue for at least an hour, but within about half an hour, my family and I were seated comfortably in the cafe.

I had to have a photo with the Hello Kitty statues.

I had to have a photo with cute Hello Kitty.

While queuing, the restaurant also tries to help their customers save time, by giving us a menu as we are waiting. This means that we are able to decide on our food immediately upon sitting down, rather than wasting time browsing through the menu first.

The Food

The food came out of the kitchen quite fast too – about 10 to 15 minutes after we had placed our orders, our main dishes came. This was probably because some of the items may have been prepared in advance, and just needed heating up, or plated.

This is the Hello Sunshine breakfast dish.

We selected the following dishes.

Hello Sunshine ($16.90) – an all-day breakfast dish, comprising of a bread bowl containing sunny side up eggs, mushrooms, chicken sausages and cheese, paired together with a Mesculin Salad.
Take A Bow ($18.90) – A beef stew with Shiitake mushrooms and vegetables, topped with puff pastry.
Let’s Do the Salsa ($16.90) – A toasted Focaccia sandwich with shredded chicken, cheese and vegetables and topped with mayonnaise and served with vegetables on the side.
Rose, Rose, I Love You ($17.50) – An orange sugee cake served with strawberry buttercream and a peanut buttercup gelato on the side. For this item, which had been the only dessert that wasn’t out of stock that evening, we had put in a special request for an extra piece of Hello Kitty chocolate ($2.50) to be added to it and that had been the cutest-looking little chocolate that I had ever seen!

This is the Take A Bow beef stew.

What I really liked about the food at this cafe was the presentation – each item that we had ordered had been Hello Kitty themed. For example, both the “Take A Bow” and the “Let’s Do The Salsa” dishes had the iconic red Kitty bow printed on in edible ink, while the “Hello Sunshine” bread bowl was in the shape of Kitty’s face and there was also an adorable piece of Kitty-shaped carrot sitting on top of the salad.

The taste of the food that we ate though, was so-so. While our dishes had been served warm, the flavours were decent, but nothing much to shout about and did not really blow us away. But then again, who would come to a Hello Kitty cafe because of the taste of the food?

Let’s Do the Salsa, a chicken sandwich dish.

Overall Comments

If you are a Hello Kitty fan, then I highly recommend that you visit this cafe, if you have not been yet. A tip is to go on weekdays and off-peak meal hours when the queue is at its shortest. Though the Kitty plush toys may be sold out already, there are still other souvenirs at the merchandise corner, such as garden potted plants and postcards that you can still check out and purchase at the cafe.

Our dessert, the cutely-named Rose, Rose, I Love You.

In short, the food here may not be the most tasty, and neither was it the cheapest food around, but then, the main purpose of visiting themed cafes such as this, is for the sheer cuteness, the Kitty theme and the Instagram opportunities, after all. I am sure that is what all the Hello Kitty Orchid Garden Cafe Singapore customers, like me, are paying for.

However on the other hand, if you are pretty neutral towards Hello Kitty and all things kawaii though, then it may be better to check out this cafe after all the hype has died down.