Among the several cafes that popped up following the subsequent shoplots after Jalan Radin Bagus, Tinterland Selfiii Coffee is one of them. The unique selling point of this cafe is suggested in the name of the cafe - you can order a cup of coffee with your selfie on it, making it more special than any other barista coffee art.
Tinterland is located in the more "rural" part of the new shoplots, but is on the same row as Coffea Coffee - just turn in from Jalan Radin Bagus opposite Super Chili Pan Mee, go straight on and there it is.
The entire cafe uses mostly wood accents - wooden board floors accented with angular metal details. The cafe is divided into the indoor and outdoor section, with bar-style tables with tall stools, and tables for various party sizes. A wooden shelf displaying loaves of bread that makes the place seem like an actual bakery.
As opposed to other coffee joints, the staff comes to you with a menu as you take your seat. And as opposed to a lot of other coffee joints that I know, Tinterland has little to no local staff, which is what I prefer personally, as it's a little hard to order customized coffee if you can't effectively communicate with your server or barista.
I went there at a little over 11.20 p.m. with my SO, so there wasn't much of a crowd. Lighting indoors was yellow, but bright enough to give off a nice, almost homey ambiance. Dainty individual cakes and desserts as well as full sized cakes are displayed next to the cashier counter.
A selection of hot coffees and teas in pots, as well as iced beverages and frappes are available, as are some actual meal options, which I didn't bother to browse the menu for (so much for being a blogger).
I made the embarrassing mistake of heading straight to the cake display where I was greeted by a member of staff, who I assume is also not local. While I attempted to order an opera cake and coffee, the staff informed me that I had to order coffee from the staff that attended to us, and then refer to the staff who served us for the cake.
First of all, there were a few staff standing around when we sat down, and while we were in plain sight of each other, NONE of them approached us with the menu, but continued to just stand around staring at us.
When one of them finally did approach us (with atrociously long nails), I tried to order the opera cake from him, but he directed me to the cake display. With some difficulty, we got what he was trying to say - you first order your coffee from your server, then you order your cake from the counter with a referral to your server (to identify bills, I guess).
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| This was how it was served to us - on its side. Immediately unimpressed. |
The opera cake was pretty much unceremoniously delivered to us while we were ordering our beverages. An opera is basically a tiramisu, but in cake from - almond sponge soaked in coffee, stacked in between layers of chocolate and hazelnut cream. The most notable other opera cake I've tried was from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and that was how I defined a good opera cake - moist, rich, with thick layers that adhered well to each other.
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| Opera cake right way up - MYR 10. Easily shared between 2-3 persons. |
At first I thought they resorted to using some sort of rolled out bread as the almond sponge, but it turned out to be just rather unattractive-looking sponge. I think something they could have done to improve the aesthetics of the cake was maybe to sprinkle some cocoa powder over the top a la tiramisu, or drizzle melted chocolate over it. I liked the orange chocolate ball decor, but perhaps there's another way to put it on the cake than an unattractive splat of chocolate.
It wasn't too rich, but it seemed to me that it had been in that fridge for an entire day. There wasn't too much of a coffee flavor except for one particular bite halfway through, and the layers started to fall apart three-quarters of the way through.
Banoffee Frappecino (left) - MYR 14.90; Lychee Lemonade (right) - MYR 12.90
I ordered a lychee lemonade for my SO, and a banoffee frappe for myself (toffee, not coffee). The lychee lemonade was decent, but tasted a little too much of lychee than lemonade. The frappe was decent for the first few sips despite the very artificial flavors, but then it the absurd amount of sugar in the beverage just leaves your tongue numb and your entire digestive system upset. I worked out about 4 hours later, but still felt really sick halfway through.
To be honest, the only reason why we went to that cafe was because I originally planned solo coffee at Coffea Coffee, but the SO wanted to join, and he had some stuff to do that delayed the plan. Coffea Coffee closes at 12 a.m., so I assumed their last order time is at around 11 p.m. Tinterland's closing hours clocked at 2 a.m., so yeah.
In conclusion, not a place I would visit again. Hipster cafes make better cafe and edibles.
No charges for service and/or government tax applicable. WiFi password: selfiii123
Location - 6.5 / 10
Atmosphere - 8 / 10
Food/beverage quality - 4 / 10 (terrible... just terrible, especially for my frappe)
Price - 7.5 / 10 (pretty much the same as other novelty coffee prices)
Value for money - 4 / 10 (I could better coffee and cake elsewhere for almost the same price)
Service - 4 / 10 (slow staff, communication problems, attitude can be improved, etc. etc. etc.)
TINTERLAND SELFIII COFFEE AND BREAD
No. 29, Jalan Radin Bagus 3,
Bandar Seri Petaling,
57000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel.: + 6016-666 7033
Operating hours: Monday - Sunday, 9.00 a.m. - 2.00 a.m.
Info taken from: Tinterland receipt and OpenRice.my
Photos taken with Samsung Galaxy Note 3
Edited with Adobe Photoshop CC (apparently you can still use it after your trial ends)
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