Five Oars Coffee Roasters (Upper East Coast Road)

Five Oars Coffee Roasters is a café and coffee roaster at 6 Upper East Coast Road, in the Siglap part of the East Coast. It serves its own coffee with brunch plates by day and a fuller menu of pasta and mains in the evening.

The East Coast café opened in 2021. The brand also runs a café at 43 Tanjong Pagar Road and a takeaway coffee bar at Asia Square Tower 1. According to the team, it all began with a group of friends talking about coffee in a living room.

What to order

The kitchen makes its own sourdough, brioche and pasta. The day menu is mostly brunch, with some lighter bowls and salads. Choices include:

• Egg dishes such as eggs your way, çilbir (Turkish poached eggs with yoghurt), bacon shakshuka and pork ham Benedict
• Heartier plates such as beef cheek and mash, smoked salmon rösti and duck hash
• Fresh pasta, including carbonara, crab rigatoni and wagyu bolognese
• Sweet plates such as sourdough waffles, red velvet pancakes and honey French toast

At night the menu adds dips with house sourdough, scallop ceviche and grilled octopus. Mains include Jamaican chicken, Iberian pork rack, steak frites and rack of lamb. There are more pastas too, such as beef cheek gnocchi and a creamy sea urchin and scallop pasta. A short list of monthly specials changes through the year.

Popular sides include mentaiko mac and cheese, truffle fries and tater tots. Dessert runs from tiramisu to sticky date pudding.

The coffee

Five Oars roasts its own beans and sells bags of them online. The bar makes espresso drinks, black or with milk, as well as filter coffee. To try more than one style, order the Voyage of the Month. It is a small white coffee and an espresso, served with a palate cleanser.

If you skip coffee, there is matcha, an iced strawberry matcha latte, chocolate, tea and kombucha. The drinks list also has craft beers and wine by the glass or bottle.

The setting

The East Coast café is much larger than the first Tanjong Pagar shop. When it opened, reviewers reported room for about 90 people. They described a rustic look, with red brick walls, grey concrete and plenty of plants. There are both indoor and outdoor seats.

Good to know before you go

• The café takes bookings for dinner only, through the Five Oars website. In the daytime, you just walk in.
• Weekend brunch has drawn long queues in the past, so it helps to arrive early.
• The menu marks vegetarian dishes. Options include the wild mushroom risotto, arrabbiata rigatoni and a portobello Florentine with poached eggs.

Nearby

A brunch here pairs well with a walk or a bike ride at East Coast Park. For hawker food by the sea, try East Coast Lagoon Food Village. For a seafood dinner, there is Hua Yu Wee Seafood Restaurant.

See more restaurants in East Coast and Bedok, browse our cafés and bakeries in Singapore, or read our café and coffee guides. Planning a day in the area? Start with our East Coast and Changi guides.