In Short : Delicious and generous servings of soft serve, with local South East Asian flavours; funky fit-out; take-away only.
The heat and humidity in Singapore, on most days, can be overwhelming. We found this out first-hand as we wandered the streets of the Haji Lane quarter of Singapore. As we walked along Baghdad Street, we noticed large groups of people on the road curbside, looking relatively cool and happy, fervently digging into, and enjoying a large cups of soft serve ice cream. We had inadvertently stumbled onto the latest food craze that’s hit the area and that was Overrun Singapore soft serve ice cream parlour, which specialises in soft serve ice cream featuring local flavours.
What is soft serve? Soft serve is different from ice cream in that they have a smoother and creamier texture due to air being introduced during freezing. They also tend to melt faster so they have to be eaten really quickly. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s, the 24-hour convenient store, 7-eleven, used to sell a range of soft serve ice creams in Singapore called Mr Softee. Out of all the variety of flavours they had, their most popular flavour was the Chendol Mr Softee. Unfortunately, for local Singaporeans, 7-eleven ceased serving their soft serve ice cream altogether, resulting in a lot of disappointed people; myself included!
After years of missing the taste of Chendol Mr Softee, enter Overrun Soft-Serve Singapore, operated by Mr Idris and his wife. The place started off as a humble family-run coffee shop in late 2015, serving sandwiches and coffee. But in March 2016, they decided to switch to selling soft-serve, and that’s when the business turned viral. In fact, the soft serve business was so good at Overrun, they stopped selling everything else and just focused on two soft serve items on their menu; their chendol soft serve being the main-stay in their menu, and one additional special flavour each week for extra options. That way, you don’t have to ponder too long about what to order. For an extra $0.50 to $1, you can also jazz up your soft serve with additional items like durian, caramelised cookies, roasted peanuts, chocolate cookies, rainbow cornflakes, and marshmallow bits. The decor is in keeping with the area, with street art decorated walls, and a dark edgy feel.
The Chendol soft serve is the perfect local treat for a hot Singapore afternoon. First, the cup gets filled part-way with luscious twirls of milky white, creamy soft serve before the gula-melaka (palm sugar) and pandan jelly bits are added to it. The cup is then filled to the brim with soft serve again, and then finished with more gula-melaka syrup, pandan jelly bits, and coconut flakes. You can really taste the distinct gula-melaka sweetness from the soft serve, coupled with a different texture from the pandan jelly. The amazing part is it was not too sweet, despite the generous amounts of gula-melaka. Each mouthful is a perfect balance of sweet, milky coconut creaminess, transporting you back to the familiar Chendol Mr Softee taste from the past. If you are feeling adventurous, we would recommend you try the Chendol soft serve with a scoop of Durian (the King of Fruit) Pulp for an extra oomph.
Little Coco and Viner Sammi loves her chocolate. So we ordered a weekly special in kids size for her, the Milo Dinosaur soft serve. It consisted of twirls of chocolate soft serve, dusted with a generous topping of Milo chocolate drink mix. One might think that its chocolate overload but really, it was just chocolate bliss in a cup.
This is one family-run business that has clearly found the formula for success by introducing local flavours in their foods. Overrun’s soft serve are the perfect dessert to cool you down, or end a meal. A word of warning though, their batches usually sell out around 6pm so you want to be there early to ensure that you do not miss out on Singapore’s best kept soft serve secret.
Name : Overrun Singapore
Address : 18 Baghdad Street, Singapore
Google Maps : Map
Hours : Tue-Sun : 2pm-9;30pm
Website : www.facebook.com/pg/OverrunSG
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