Worth it? Pablo Cheese Tart Singapore Cafe – Matcha, Cheese & Soft Serve Ice Cream

12 August 2017 Gwendolyn

Pablo Cheese Tart from Japan has finally landed in Singapore! Just three days after its opening, I have decided to brave the queue to see what it’s worth.

Pablo is located at Wisma Atria Level 1, selling Pablo’s signature Freshly Baked Cheese Tart in Original $15, Matcha $18 and Chocolate $18 flavours. The Pablo Mini $3.50 is available now while the Pablo Mini Matcha and Chocolate both at $3.80 will be selling in the later part of the year.

On the menu are also Soft Serve Ice Cream $3.90 in either Cheese or Matcha, and Pablo Smoothie $7.80-$8.50.

Arriving at slightly past nine, the queue had only half circled the cafe. As the cheese tarts were baked in batches, I waited a while before the queue started inching forward.

It was relatively fast and I reached my turn in less than an hour.

I had the Matcha Cheese Soft Serve in a waffle cone. The soft serve was creamy and smooth, quite light in the matcha and cheese flavour. Some might like it as the overall taste wouldn’t get so overwhelming. To me, it felt neither here nor there.

The Pablo Mini had pillowy-soft cheese centre. The crust was quite crunchy and a little bit flakey on the surface. It just felt a tad dry as I chew on more. Perhaps more moisture would be better.

See my verdict on Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart instead

I was really excited for the Freshly Baked Matcha Cheese Tart with Shiratama and Azuki!

About 15cm wide and 6cm thick, the large matcha tart boasted a custard-like and gooey cream cheese layer encased within a thin, flakey crust.

At the bottom of the matcha cheese custard was a layer of very soft and chewy shiratama balls and smooth azuki beans.

I found that the taste blended quite well altogether. I don’t usually fancy red beans but still did finish this.

The crust was not what I expected. Instead of the buttery and powdery kind, it was like a thin pastry with a glossy coating. I was skeptical at first but after a few more bites it didn’t taste that bad. In fact, the crust was firm enough to hold the tart well.

The matcha cheese filling wasn’t up to my expectation. Though I mentioned it tasted alright overall, to coin it as MATCHA and CHEESE is an overstatement.The flavours were barely distinct; it felt more like eating custard (and custard is tasty as a separate entity).

If you refer to the photo right at the top of this post, you would notice the interior was quite wobbly.The texture wasn’t very firm; it fell apart when I sliced through. I read some reviews online that mentioned it ‘watery’. That aside, I tried eating it right after it was refrigerated which produced a firmer and cheesier texture.

I had Tokyo Secret’s Matcha Cheese Tart before. Perhaps another option?