About
If you’ve only ever been down Upper Thomson Road for the pratas, you’re missing out on the treasure trove of little indie bakeries, cafes, and restaurants tucked away in the small streets along the stretch. Thus Coffee is one of them, a specialty coffee joint in a charming residential area along Jalan Kuras, just a couple of minutes away from the Lower Peirce Reservoir Park. The space isn’t massive, but it’s very chic, done up with handsome wooden touches and a brushed concrete floor that announces its serious-coffee intentions. They’ve got an in-house roast and blend that they use for their coffees which promises a robust pick-me-up, but beyond a cuppa the food here is also to die for. Think subtle variations on the all-day breakfast menu, including treats like their in-house breakfast plate that features sous vide eggs on a fluffy muffin, paired with apple cider sausage, back bacon, mushrooms, and baked beans. Or the Salmon & Kale Toast, a fluffy brioche toastie topped with smoked salmon and avocado, creamy eggs, and a spinach and feta salad.
Lunch plates here take a heartier turn, with numbers like the Korean-inspired Chicken Cutlet Jyolmeon, chewy Gochujang-drenched noodles topped with a crispy chicken cutlet and sunny side up egg. The pasta here isn’t your garden variety stuff either, with punchy plates like the Linguine Puttanesca, bursting with ripe olives, piquant capers, chunky tomatoes, and briny anchovies. No self-respecting millennial outfit is complete with a grain bowl, and here the Wagyu Beef Grain Bowl takes pride of place, featuring tender beef atop a mélange of pearl barley and quinoa for some good artery-clearing health benefits and lots of toothsome flavour. Come for the mid-day coffee but stay for the mid-day snack and maybe dinner at this charming, Instagram-worthy haunt in one of Singapore’s most idyllic little neighbourhoods. (Feb 2018)