Your café hopping trip planned for you – and more!

Always wanted to go café hopping with your friends? Not sure where to start? Lazy to research which cafés to go to? Join us on a café hopping journey at the prime location for cafés: Tanjong Pagar. Lyfeportal spent a whole afternoon at three cafés - Coexist Coffee Co, Hvala Craig and Birds of Paradise. Though the last place may not be considered a café, we definitely still enjoyed a nice dessert there! These three cafés are less than a 5mins walk away from one another.

We started our journey from Outram Park MRT station and walked about 10 mins before reaching Coexist Coffee. An alternative route would be from Tanjong Pagar MRT station.

Coexist Coffee Co.

Piccolo $5 l Magic $5.50

A great pick-me-up coffee, especially for office workers and students. The coffee has an intense flavour with a nice fragrance. Slightly acidic and has no flowery notes. You can tell that the coffee is of good quality, which is pretty decent for the price.

Har Cheong Gai Burger $18

The burger consisted of a homemade brioche bun, prawn-paste marinated fried chicken, homemade sambal belachan, cucumber, and lettuce, complete with a side salad and tater tots. The dish was underwhelming as the chicken was salty and not crunchy or juicy enough. The spicy belachan gave it a strong taste and when paired with the chicken, it was too overpowering, making the taste imbalanced. Would have been great if there were more vegetables, or pickles could be a good addition. Personally loved the tater tots, stayed crispy even nearing the end of the meal and tasted good even without any sauce. Overall a heavy dish suitable for people with a strong palate.

Breakfast Sandwich $12

The breakfast sandwich featured a homemade brioche bun, a double layer of spam, amazing scrambled eggs, avocado, lettuce and mayo. The egg was the best part, great well-made, soft and fluffy scrambled eggs. The spam was thin and crispy and overall the dish was not too salty. Though the lack of sides made the dish look a little lonely, the well-complemented combination of ingredients made up for it. If you are visiting the place with friends, we recommend ordering some sides or snacks for sharing as the portion might be small for some.

Total spend: $47.67 (inclusive of GST & service charge) for a 2-pax meal

Great hang-out spot with a nice ambience, perfect for a chill afternoon catching up with friends. Noticed some people doing work here and you can get the WiFi password by asking their staff. There are also some power outlets near the tables at the side of the wall. Overall, a 3.5/5 experience!

Address: 1 Keong Saik Rd., #01-02, Singapore 089109 (Located in The Working Capitol)

Opening Hours: Monday-Sunday 8.30 am-5.30 pm

Menu & reservation: coexistcoffee.co

Hvala Craig @ Craig Rd

Matcha Hojicha Latte $5.90

Strong matcha flavour, great quality tea that was thick but not too overpowering. Not too sweet, perfect when you’re craving a satisfying matcha drink. Slightly bitter matcha taste but it was still acceptable. Goes well with the matcha cake if you’re a great fan of matcha.

Matcha Cake $9.90

Thick matcha fragrance. The cake sponge was more dense than airy, while the cream was not too oily. Overall the sponge and cream complemented well. The cake might be a little crumbly so do be careful while eating. This is definitely a must-order for matcha lovers!

Total spend: $18.59 (inclusive of GST & service charge)

Highly-raved dessert place with quite a few outlets. Great ambience and the whole place feels very zen. This Hvala outlet at Craig Rd is vegan-friendly and offers many dessert options. We really wanted to try their black sesame-flavoured desserts but unfortunately, they weren’t unavailable. Would definitely come back again to give it a try! The prices are a little steep but such dessert prices are generally quite high so overall still worth it. 4/5!

Address: 40 Craig Rd, Singapore 089678

Opening Hours: Monday-Sunday 12-9.30 pm

Menu: https://www.hvala.com.sg/pages/outlet-menu

Birds of Paradise Gelato Boutique

White Chrysanthemum (with cacao nibs)

Mildly sweet and light in flavour, refreshing and perfect when you’re craving something sweet but not too heavy. The taste was similar to Yeo’s white chrysanthemum drink but more atas, with a milky taste. I’ve tried white chrysanthemum ice cream at other cafés but this really hit different. The cacao nibs added flavour and gave it a nice texture as there was something to chew on. The slightly bitter cacao nibs made it less sweet, and unexpectedly went great together.

Pistachio (+$1)

Nice nutty taste and smell, but sweeter than expected. The sweet aftertaste made the ice cream a little cloying after a while. As pistachio is an ice cream flavour that is gaining popularity, I’ve definitely tried better pistachio ice cream elsewhere.

Total spend: $9 (inclusive of GST)

A huge and great variety of flavours and ice cream had a very smooth texture. The store is marketed as a gelato boutique but they tasted more like normal ice cream than gelato. Sadly, there were no seats in the shop so we had to choose takeaway and find somewhere to sit. Luckily, we found a windy exercise area with seats and a swing right behind the café. Rating the experience a 3.5/5!

Address: 53 Craig Rd, #01-01, Singapore 089691

Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 12-10 pm

From here, we took a 5-min walk back to Tanjong Pagar MRT station. We then took the MRT down to Raffles Place to visit CapitaSpring, a beautiful place to chill with an aesthetic view.

After having so much delicious food, what’s better than a slow walk with a pretty view? CapitaSpring is a 51-storey building, soaring at a height of 280 metres.

Located right at the centre of town, it features a bird’s eye view of the bustling Singapore skyline. This is one of the best views you can get free of charge! Green Oasis (levels 17 to 20) and Sky Garden (level 51) are open to the public.

At Green Oasis, there are many chill areas and best of all, there are power outlets that you can use! The area is surprisingly very clean, without a single insect in sight, though the plants are all real. There is also, Jungle Gym, a mini exercise corner that is unlike your basic exercise corner below HDBs. You can spend an entire day there as there are also toilets and even restaurants in the building.

Unfortunately, we did not manage to explore the Sky Garden. This place is definitely worth a visit, go before it gets crowded!

Address: 88 Market St, Singapore 048948

Opening Hours: Mondays-Fridays (excluding Public Holidays)

8.30-10.30 am

2.30-6 pm (last entry at 5.30 pm)