Tiong Bahru Bakery by Gontran Cherrier is one of my favourite cafes in town at the moment given its location at Raffles City Shopping Centre, which is like connected to 3 of Singapore's MRT rail lines. Despite patronising them on a few occasions, I usually "tar-pow" or take away my food from there as I usually like to have it for teatime or for the next day's breakfast. What I like about this outlet of Tiong Bahru Bakery is that it has ample seating and the water feature gives it an open-ness that I find to be calming. This is especially since the water feature cuts through the middle of the cafe, giving each quite a bit of personal space to each table. The concept is simple: You go up to the counter and choose which pastries you want, then you choose which drinks you would like to go with your pastries, and then proceed to pay up and then you may sit wherever you wish. Plain water is provided, as is a free flow of packaged butter and jam. In a few words, I would say that Tiong Bahru serves excellent pastries, and although prices are slightly high at the moment, it's certainly a good alternative to commercialised coffee joints such as Starbucks or The Coffee Bean.
Tiong Bahru Bakery also serves excellent coffee of the "40 hands brew", a similar one to the one you will find at Common Man Coffee Roasters. I've had the latte on 2 occasions and the taste has been consistent, which I'm pleased with. Pictured below is a layman's guide to ordering coffee, showing the amount of coffee, milk and water in each drink, which I found extremely helpful.
Their croissants, which are not pictured here, are definitely one of the better croissants in Singapore, trumping those made by Maison Kaiser, San Moulin, Paul's and DONQ. They are extremely flaky and crisp (even on the second day) and it tastes extremely good even on its own without any condiments. Its variants include chocolate, almond and orange croissants, which all have their own distinct flavours, but I prefer the original one personally as I feel that it is the most crispy.
Large Latte ($7.50)
Like I mentioned earlier, a little bit pricey for the size of the cup, but the quality of the coffee and the luxury of space makes it worth it to come here. I would also say that their coffee is one of the stronger and better pressured coffees in Singapore. Their latte art is very ordinary though. I would have liked more variation instead of getting hearts all the time but ohwell -shrug-.
Kouigh Amann ($4)
One of Tiong Bahru Bakery's signature pastries apart from their Croissants. This pastry is extremely sweet on its own, which is why I like to take it with salted butter to balanced out the taste. It also happens to be one of the victims of the price increase (it used to cost $3.50) so sales for this have definitely dropped since then. There is also a chocolate variation of this ($4.20) but I prefer the original. MUST TRY if you are here for the first time.
Apple and Raisin Brioche (4.20)
I'll be the first to admit that I love things that are value-for-money, and hence when I realised that the Apple Crumble cost a whopping $6.80 for a 10cm by 5cm size with a thickness of about 0.6cm, I immediately went to source for an alternative. My answer? The Apple and raisin brioche. The filling is pretty much the same, and I find the brioche a much more crispy and pleasant on its own than the crumble which looks a bit on the dry side.
Expect to pay: $10-15
#B1-11/12
Raffles City Shopping Centre
252 North Bridge Road
