The new Toast Box Coffee House is more than just a typical local cafe – it is a stroll down memory lane with a wider variety of food and beverages. Popular for soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast, and kopi or tea in the morning, the homegrown Nanyang coffee chain – which celebrates its 18th anniversary this year – has opened its first Toast Box Coffee House on Seng Poh Road in the Tiong Bahru Conservation Area.
It offers a familiar yet unforgettable dining experience that pays tribute to the distinctive neighbourhood that celebrates both tradition and modernity as well as the charismatic kopitiam that remains a quintessential Singaporean icon. It is located in the former premises of Old Tiong Bahru Bak Kut Teh, a local hero eatery.
The 100-seater Toast Box Coffee House recreates the old-school kopitiam experience where locals gathered to converse and drink coffee. It exudes a retro vibe with green glass accents, a tribute to older buildings in Tiong Bahru with green-tinted windows.
The ambience is complemented by vintage items, rustic rattan and wood furnishings, and marble-topped tables. Dine indoors or outdoors where there are wall fans.
Old favourites and outlet-exclusive dishes
Time to eat. Besides bestsellers, the coffee house also offers a variety of new and exciting items. If you’re unsure of what to order, start with the Egg Sandwich ($4++) consisting of a creamy, soft-scrambled omelette sandwiched between soft, fluffy house-baked bread.
Toast Box has also come up with new iterations of its traditional toast favourites. Go for the citrusy Lemon Cream Toast ($2.60++), a refreshing pick-me-up that’s perfect for any time of the day, or the Black Sesame Toast ($2.60++).
Toast Box Coffee House’s French Toast ($4++) is an elevated, fluffy version with a premium home-baked, block-shaped bread that is first steeped in a milky egg mixture, then pan-fried on all sides to achieve a beautifully-crisp and golden brown exterior with a moist creamy centre reminiscent of bread pudding.
As for mains, Old School Hainanese Pork Chop Rice ($9.80++) is a nostalgic favourite, featuring crispy, golden-brown breaded pork loin pieces drenched in a sweet and tangy tomato sauce. Another is Kampung Fried Rice ($6.20++) with fried chicken, garlic, and shallots that’s topped with anchovies and peanuts.
If you like noodles, outlet-exclusive Claypot Hokkien Prawn Mee ($7.80++) is a filling dish of yellow noodles (or thick bee hoon) and succulent prawns steeped in a rich, umami-laden prawn broth. It is served with a homemade belacan chilli sauce, and topped with fried pork lard. Other delights include the Claypot Curry Chicken with Rice, and Claypot Laksa.
Fans of fish soup dishes will be glad to find First Street Teochew Fish Soup’s third outlet within the store (it has humble origins dating back to 1988 at Upper Serangoon Road).
First Street Teochew Fish Soup offers a selection of fresh fish served with meticulously prepared, clean-tasting soups. A must-try is the Chinese Pomfret Fish Soup ($16.90++) featuring thinly sliced, tender fish in a flavourful broth made from fish, pork, and chicken bones simmered for four to five hours. Wild-caught fish delivered daily accounts for the freshness. Dip the fish into the home-made taucheo chilli sauce made with fermented soya bean, light soya sauce, chopped chilli, and garlic.
The Seafood Porridge ($8.90++) and Minced Pork Porridge ($7.90++) are sure to please Teochew porridge fans. The former features a collagen-rich broth brimming with seafood, including slices of batang fish (Spanish mackerel), small prawns, fresh squid, and fish cake slices.
The Chinese Pomfret in Teochew-style ($28.90++) is ideal for sharing. It features premium Chinese pomfret, hand-sliced to 0.6cm to 0.8cm for a melt-in-your-mouth texture, alongside minced meat, Chinese mushrooms, ginger, tomato, tofu, and sour plum.
Complete your meal with the Grass Jelly series, Sago Coffee or Sago Teh ($3.20++ each).
Desserts to die for
If you can’t resist the allure of desserts, order the Kueh Dadar ($4.20++), a crepe filled with coconut shavings and drizzled with gula melaka; or Kueh Sago Gula Melaka ($2.80++) with three bite-sized, chewy rice cakes with gula melaka at their centres that are coated in grated coconut.
Speciality coffee retail counter
A first for the brand, Toast Box Coffee House has a retail counter where customers can choose from six types of in-house roasted coffee beans: two Nanyang kopi blends, including the Toast Box Signature Blend, and four single-origin coffees, such as the Sumatra Mandheling blend that boasts a rich, extraordinary full-bodied character.
The retail counter also grinds the beans and packs them in a 250-gram metal tin. Gift ideas for friends and family are also available, including Toast Box coffee tins, sauce sets, coffee accessories, 2-in-1 Sachet Kopi Sets, Hainanese kaya, and various sauces.
Toast Box Coffee House is located at 58 Seng Poh Road, Singapore 160058.
