Ang Mo Kio is just a direct bus away from our house so we always frequent AMK Hub for grocery shopping and dinner. We'll always pass by eXplorerkid at Level 4 but it has never once attracted me to bring my kid inside because, it looks dark and small from the outside. In short, it doesn't look fun at all.

One fine day, we're so sick of eating Ichiban Sushi every single time we're there so we suggested Scarlet Café by Eighteen Chefs instead, which happens to be just beside the playground. She was rather reluctant to switch from her usual restaurant and I think she chose the right time to cleverly mention that she really really wanted to go in and play. 

So yeah, we made a deal. Meal was properly taken without any misbehavior and we fulfilled our promise by bringing her to the playground. BAD MOVE.

As what we can see from the outside, the playground is SUPER SMALL with just a structured active play in the center and a small toddler area, which is not properly partitioned away so people were still walking and running near the area. To give some credit, the position of the structure play area is quite good for parents who just want to sit down and see the kids while they play inside by themselves. It's not against any walls so anywhere you choose to sit around, you'll still catch a glimpse of your kids.

But for parents like us with a younger child who need to follow her in, it was complete disaster. Even though we're having quite a hard time with our necks and backs in most active playgrounds, there'll always still be some spaces where we can straighten up and rest a bit inside. Here, it's on fours ALL THE WAY and the slides are so tiny even I had a hard time squeezing into, let alone Papa. What's worse, the place is so small that she wanted to go out after a mere 15 mins. We paid for the admission fee which entitles us to 2 hrs playtime. Talk about anger much.

Initially, I was upset with her that she became uninterested to play after only a short while when she was the one who requested to play. But after putting myself in her shoes, I couldn't bring myself to scold her because I wasn't having any fun either, why should I expect her to enjoy this place?

I can't think of an age group who'll fully enjoy this place; a no-no for small kids because parents will probably have aching issues after half an hour, for bigger kids it's too small and will get bored easily.

Guess eXplorerkid @ Ang Mo Kio needs to brainstorm and find their place in the market soon with so much competition around. Their other branch in Downtown East is soooooo much better.

Here's their Facebook page and admission rates (Adventure Highlands is not applicable to Ang Mo Kio branch):

Source : eXplorerkid website