Five Oars Coffee Roasters: Beloved Cafe Reopens at East Coast

Five Oars Coffee Roasters is no stranger to the cafe scene, having been a Tanjong Pagar mainstay for several years now. Known for a minimalist and beautiful space, as well as a spacious shop floor, they moved out of the premises at the end of January.

Now though, you’ll find them at East Coast with a brand new look.

The East Coast is saturated with cafes at this point, but clearly remains a popular choice for new cafes to set up shop. Even on a Monday lunch, Five Oars was completely full, which led to a wait time of about 15 minutes. Expect this to at least double on a weekend though.

Five Oars at Tanjong Pagar featured minimalist grey walls and lots of greenery, and whilst you’ll still find plenty of plants, the industrial interior has been replaced with red brick walls, giving them a more rustic aesthetic.

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As usual, there are seats both indoors and out.

However, bar the tables facing the road, the other seats outside are not the most conducive for eating, though they make for a great area to lounge, as the seats were either too high or too low.

Inside, you’ll find an enormous island counter at the heart of the action.

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It was before 2pm when we visited, and weirdly almost half of the brunch menu and some mains had already run out by that time.

To be frank, it’s a little annoying when you’re presented with a menu where half of the items are unavailable, and I’ll chalk that down to the fact that the long weekend had just passed, where they might have had a lot more diners than anticipated and ingredients quickly ran out. That, or poor planning.

Either way, seeing as they have been around for years, I was quite disappointed.

For food then, we had the Mushroom Scramble (S$16), with home made sourdough topped with scrambled eggs, feta, crispy kale, and cauliflower. The dish was decent— the eggs being delightfully buttery and creamy. The toast on the other hand was overdone, as the crust was tough and difficult to cut into.

The Bacon & Hash (S$21) on the other hand, was done quite well. Featuring a hearty dollop of rosti made in house, it came with delightfully runny poached eggs, a slice of thick-cut bacon that wasn’t too tough, wilted spinach, and mushroom cream for added flavour. Everything came together quite satisfyingly, though I would have liked a tad more balance as there was quite a bit more rosti than everything else. Thus my last few bites were all rosti and nothing else.

The house blends for coffee here are called Mahogany and Cypress, the former a robust roast of chocolate and nutty notes, while the latter is supposed to be smoother, featuring a balance between stonefruit acidity and toffee sweetness.

We had the Iced Black (S$5) and Iced White (S$6), which were full-bodied and registered quite acidic.

It’s nice to have Five Oars back, and I won’t be surprised if they go on to greater heights in the East Coast, even despite the stiff competition.

If you’re looking for a rustic aesthetic space, don’t mind waiting for a seat, and seek out comfort brunch food rather than innovative dishes, Five Oars is the place for you.

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