I’m always on the look out for a nice place for brunch in Singapore. For me, a good brunch restaurant, or rather restaurant serving brunch needs to have:
- A couple of good egg dishes
- A good ‘Big Breakfast’ dish
- A couple of good potato dishes
- Good and well cooked bacon
- Good coffee
I searched for places to eat brunch near Yishun, and discovered One Man Coffee on Thomson Road.
One Man Coffee is located on a somewhat chaotic street with lots of F&B options and lots of road works and construction going on for the upcoming Thomson MRT line.
The facade of One Man Coffee is simply painted black, unassuming, yet standing out like an ugly duckling amongst a flock of ducks. Walking in, I immediately got the feels of a seasoned hipster cafe in the US, from the simplistic bulb lighting to the rustic wooden tables.
Service was effective though lacking the warmth that one would find from western cities.
The menu was short and sweet, just the way I like them.
I ordered the Gashouse eggs ($13) with an extra side of bacon, while the missus ordered the All-In Brekkie ($19). Flat whites ($5) were the beverage of choice for the both of us.
First, the coffee.
Flat White
Good size, and with a lovely creamy layer of microfoam along with passable latte art.
The coffee itself was a bit weak and could use a bit more coffee or a bit less milk. Otherwise, quite decent.
All-in Brekkie
This was a beautiful plate, and certainly very ‘instagram-worthy’ (groan).
The scrambled eggs were nice and creamy, though the bread tasted more like toasted wholemeal bread than sourdough.
I loved the caramelised pan-fried mushrooms, the slightly chewy slightly crispy bacon and the very flavourful chorizo sausage.
Having half an avocado and a mesclun-like salad was a nice healthy touch to balance out the other heavier components.
All in all, this would probably be one of the better thought out breakfast platters I’ve had in Singapore, and would be my favourite if I could have a side of house-made hashbrowns.
Gashouse Eggs
I chose this for myself instead of the All-in Brekkie because it was the most raved about dish at One Man Coffee, on the social circles, and well deservedly so!
On the surface, it looked like a large grilled cheese on a thick brioche-like toast with an epic cheddar/parmesan cheese crust. Cutting it open released a runny egg buried in the center, which provided a rich satisfying sauce for the bread. This was quite unique, and tasted simple but excellent.
It also came with a housemade ‘bacon jam’, whatever that is, that was a little sweet, salty and smokey. An interesting contrast to the richness and sogginess of the main component, though quite unnecessary in my opinion.
That’s it for this short feature, I’ve been looking forward to return to One Man Coffee to try more things but unfortunately it had proven to be quite challenging to attract my wife and friends over to that neighbourhood. Also, I’ll probably end up ordering the Gashouse eggs again, because it really was that good.
Go give One Man Coffee a try, and let me know what you think! I think these guys deserve all the support, and hopefully we can see them expand to the town area some day!