The Chir Cafe + Bar: New Korean-Inspired Cafe at Holland Village
While the pandemic has put a damper on cafe openings, it’s heartwarming to see new cafes still sprouting up— and calling Holland Village home is The Chir Cafe + Bar, a new Korean-fusion cafe which opened it’s doors just this January for lunch and dinner.
I’ve been speaking a lot about a lack of USP in many cafes lately, mostly serving the same standard brunch fare— avocado toasts, big brekkie plates and the lot. So it’s nice to see many enterprising cafe owners diversifying and introducing different flavours into their menu offerings, such as Kream & Kensho, Daizu, and now The Chir Cafe + Bar.
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Perhaps it’s because many have caught wind of this new opening, as it was packed even when we arrived at 2pm on a Saturday.
Seating space is a little tight, and you can see they’ve made the effort to pack in as many tables as they can in the single-storey shop.
Soon to open is MAGO, a Korean hair salon on the second floor, which is said to be run concurrently with the cafe in due time.
Despite the crowd, we thankfully didn’t have to wait too long, as many diners started pouring out after 2pm.
Instead of a physical menu, the paper table mat provided has a QR code for diners to access their menu.
Wonderfully, you’ll find a rather extensive menu of Korean fusion dishes. Brunch is available from 9:30am to 4pm, with inspired dishes such as Bulgogi Tartine, Fondue Chicken Burger, and Chir Chicken Croffle (that’s croissant + waffle for those wondering!).
You’ll even find Gambas (Spanish prawns) and Homemade Shakshuka (a popular Middle Eastern and Northern African dish) available all day, alongside pastas, starters and desserts like Sea Salt Chocolate Truffle, which are also available for both lunch and dinner.
We had the Bulgogi Cream Pasta (S$16) and Chir Chicken Croffle (S$17.50).
The Bulgogi Cream Pasta is served with linguine, white wine cream sauce, a mixture of shiitake, button and portobello mushrooms, as well as bacon, a poached egg and Grana Padano cheese, topped with a serving of bulgogi beef, naturally.
What I liked about the dish is that unlike other carbonara dishes I have had elsewhere, which is usually pretty salty thanks to the hearty mix of bacon, the savoury flavours of the sauce are balanced with the sweetness of the marinated bulgogi beef. The meat is both tender and juicy, and well-seasoned. As such, this mix of flavours meant the dish never got too cloying, and I easily finished it all without needing other flavours for respite. My only gripe was that the yolk wasn’t as runny as I would have liked.
As for the Chir Chicken Croffle, you’d expect a croffle to be quite crispy thanks to the croissant layers, but it was surprisingly quite soft. And add the buttery flavours of the croissant and you have a rather interesting dish. The fried chicken is not as juicy as say, ones I’ve tried at Forty Hands East Coast, but it’s decent. The croffle portion is rather small though, but tasted good when accompanied with the in-house maple butter syrup.
The drinks menu is similarly quite decent in range, with coffee provided by the folks at Hook Coffee, a homegrown brand founded by two Singaporeans. We had the Iced Sea Salt Caramel Latte (S$6.50) and Cappuccino (S$5).
The Sea Salt Caramel Latte looked quite impressive, and the blend of sweet, savoury and bitter flavours came together quite nicely. The cappuccino was similarly pleasant to drink as well.
Apart from coffee, they have a selection of teas, a small range of canned drinks, Australian wines, as well as cocktails, soju, and beer, which are available all day too.
Overall, the food here is pretty decent, and makes for a nice addition to Singapore’s cafe scene. Not all dishes are Korean-inspired, but I think they’ve hit quite a sweet spot in terms of the range of food offered, and at relatively decent prices too.
With The Chir Cafe + Bar, I’d say 2021 is off to a pretty promising start for cafes.
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WHERE | 26A LOR MAMBONG, SINGAPORE 277685
