Singapore's first planned housing estate from the 1930s, now home to art-deco blocks, independent bakeries, specialty coffee, and a beloved heritage hawker market.
Order Cereal butter prawns, Claypot ee fu noodles, Baby kailan with preserved egg
A Michelin Bib Gourmand zi char kitchen that has been operating since the 1970s and once fed Anthony Bourdain. The Bukit Merah dining room is loud, fluorescent and wholly unpretentious. Order the cereal butter prawns, claypot ee fu noodles and baby kailan with preserved egg for a table that will not stop talking about the food.
Order Cai Po Dashi egg sando, Gyu sando, Matcha strawberry cloud
The Tiong Bahru outlet of homegrown Japanese-inspired cafe Hello Arigato, opened in late 2024 on Seng Poh Road. The menu reads as a sando counter, with gyu sando, tamago sando, and the Cai Po Dashi egg sando, paired with a matcha programme and Uji-matcha cloud drinks. Clean Nordic-inspired interior, small but consistently full at weekends.
Order Kouign-amann, Croissant, Alain Ducasse espresso
The flagship of the Tiong Bahru Bakery chain, housed in a classic 1940s art-deco block on Eng Hoon Street. Croissants, kouign-amann, tarts and seasonal pastries from trained French patissiers alongside Alain Ducasse's Manufacture Chocolate coffee blend. Singapore's most visited morning cafe.
Order Signature cupcake, Eggs benedict, Flat white
The Tiong Bahru flagship of Plain Vanilla is a neighbourhood institution for cupcakes, seasonal bakes and unhurried weekend brunch. Signature flavours change monthly and the kitchen produces some of the most reliable eggs benedicts and grain bowls in the estate. Multiple locations across the island but this is the original.
Order Golden waffles with ice cream, Sea salt gula melaka scoop, Kopi peng ice cream
A beloved Tiong Bahru cafe that merges hand-churned ice cream with specialty coffee in a 1939 art-deco pre-war block. Signature flavours including sea salt gula melaka, earl grey lavender and roasted pistachio are the draws; the golden waffle with two scoops is the definitive order.
Order Tomato tartine with ricotta, Country sourdough loaf, Seeded sourdough
A sourdough bakery and brunch cafe that took over the former Forty Hands unit on Yong Siak Street in 2023. The bench mills sustainable whole-grain flour and runs micro-batches of country sourdough, seeded sourdough and pastries through the morning. The brunch kitchen plates tomato tartine with ricotta and Thai basil, plus a rotating chef's menu. A core stop on any Tiong Bahru cafe crawl.
On this list, shown aboveTiong Bahru BakeryPlain Vanilla
Order Natural wine by the glass, Salted egg carbonara, Wagyu beef patty melt
The Bukit Merah successor to Wine RVLT, opened by founders Alvin Gho and Ian Lim in 2025 after their Carpenter Street wine bar closed. Revolution carries the same missionary natural-wine programme into a sleek Henderson industrial space designed with Fritz Hansen, alongside an unboxed bistro menu that runs from RVLT-era chicken nuggets with fermented tomato sriracha to salted egg carbonara and hua diao white clam linguine. The most direct line to Singapore's natural wine pioneers.
A two-storey 1951 market building where the wet market occupies the ground floor and over 80 hawker stalls fill the upper level. Many stalls are still run by the same families as the original opening; this is the neighbourhood hawker centre of Singapore's most fashionable estate. The char kway teow, bak chang and tau suan (mung bean dessert) are all locally celebrated.
A self-guided food and neighbourhood tour of Tiong Bahru using audio file route guides that cover the estate's art-deco architecture, independent bakeries, specialty coffee shops and hawker market. The format allows participants to eat at their own pace while following curated recommendations from local food experts.
On this list, shown aboveTiong Bahru Market
Order Avocado smash, Flat white, Smoked salmon toast
A Melbourne-trained specialty coffee cafe relocated to Yong Siak Street in Tiong Bahru after building a following at its original Haji Lane address. The brunch menu leans Australian-cafe, with avocado smash, smoked salmon toast and rolled oats, paired with single-origin filters and milk drinks from the in-house espresso programme. A go-to for cafe-hopping mornings on the Yong Siak strip.
Also on this listTiong Bahru Bakery
