Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar

A new food spot along Temple Street, which change between day and night. From morning serving coffee, tea and toast; then main dishes during daytime. But once the day turn dark, it transform into a bar.

First time here you will be greet with lots of vinyl at the shopfront. So it is very interesting cafe & bar at Chinatown.

Came during lunch time for their sabroso chicken chop. Featured pieces of juicy, tender and crunchy chicken chop, together with salad.

Additionally, this place has a section for turntables and vinyls to cater to the music in you. As I was there in the day, I got the traditional kaya butter toast with soft boiled eggs and coffee set ($5.50). There’s nothing to fault the soft boiled eggs as they are made to the right doneness and nanyang pulled coffee is aromatic with the right bitter notes. The kaya butter toast was outstanding as the bread has the QQ texture while the kaya jam was mildly sweet, complemented by the thick slab of butter.
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✨ Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar
📍 30 Temple Street, Unit 01-01, Singapore 058575
🍴 [Self-Funded]

Made a visit to Chinatown to check out the new Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar which had recently opened its doors at 30 Temple Street. Being an outfit that is seemingly trying to blend the new with the old, Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar operates as a independent traditional coffeeshop in the day, but turns into a full-fledged bar in the evening. Decked out in a a pretty retro feel, the interior decor theme at Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar seeks to replicate the vibes of a Hainanese-run coffeeshop in the past — tiled walls, marbled table tops and wooden stools; pretty much a look that keeps its alter ego a secret from its day patrons. That being said, there are some hints of its bar elements being situated in different corners of the store — an example would be the various old movie posters hung around, as well as racks displaying vinyl records right across from the counter. We only managed to find out what does Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar serves up in its day menu (we only found out that the night menu was behind the day one as we made our way out) — the hot food being served in the day menu is split up into three different sections; the sections being Traditional Toast (i.e. Butter Sugar Toast, a Monkey Butter Toast that features a spread made from banana and pineapple, Avocado Spread etc.), Sandwiches (i.e. Bacon & Egg, Egg Mayo Truffle etc.) and Traditional Favourites (featuring items like Mee Rebus, and a Sabroso Chicken with Mashed Potatoes). Beverages available during the day includes Nanyang-style Kopi and Tea, as well as Fruit Drink Spritzers and soft drinks.

We were initially pretty intrigued to give their more funky options a try but since we dropped by during a rather odd hour that having something heavy wasn’t really in our agenda, we found ourselves opting for the Kaya Butter Toast — an item that we always seem to fall back on. The Kaya Butter Toast is decent; at least they didn’t seem like they were going to reinvent the wheel with this one. The bread here is somewhat crisp on the exterior, though it is noted that it is still somewhat soft to still chew through — personally not something to our preferences; the kaya also seems more like one that is gotten off the shelves rather than a homemade version based on its level of sweetness and overall texture so it really is not much to shout about. That being said, the use of Planta instead of butter was what worked for us — a really big throwback to what we have had in the days of our conscription where we often found ourselves slathering thick layers of Planta for the do-it-yourself kaya toast; something which really turned into a ritual back then as a breakfast staple for a short time of our lives; this really brings back those memories instantaneously.

Truth to be told, it does seem that Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar is trying to be a concept where old-meets-new; that being said, we felt that their stronger suit would probably be in their night operations considering how it seems to be more of their focus despite being a “secretive” element to the concept. That being said, Shun Cheng Traditional Coffee & Bar is still a fairly decent location for a conducive spot for local coffee and tea, as well as traditional toasts for those passing by the area — the Kopi is noted to be particularly strong and not overly sweetened by the condensed milk. Would likely be dropping by to check out their evening menu some time soon; not sure how well they do cocktails here, though I am also as curious if they do also serve up a different food menu here to go along with the drinks as well.