Five Oars Coffee Roasters (FOCR) New Cafe, Tanjong Pagar (Relocated to Siglap)

see Five Oars Coffee Roasters Cafe at Siglap

Five Oars Coffee Roasters (FOCR) is another new ‘hipster cafe’ that has opened in Singapore. It is along Tanjong Pagar Road, near the junction with Maxwell Road. Like many such restaurants, it serves western style cuisine, including all day breakfast kind of food, pasta and well brewed coffee. A night menu offers more serious food options after 5pm.

Like many similar cafes, Five Oars Coffee Roasters cafe is done up in a modern, light-industrial style with bare concrete floors, plain white walls and simple hard furniture. The most attractive part of the cafe is the naturally ventilated area in the front where a green oasis provides a pleasing focal point. The air-conditioned space is more spartan, like a school tuckshop. The walls are painted with a two-tone colour scheme – white with a dark colour at the bottom, which reminded us of government buildings in the past.

Unlike many similar cafes, Five Oars Coffee Roasters cafe is huge. The entrance looks like the size of a regular cafe but the inside opens up into a big space. The spaciousness is a nice change.

Five Oars Coffee Roasters Menu

Here are pictures of the Five Oars Coffee Roasters Menu for day, the night menu and the drink menu. We were there for brunch and selected some items from the day menu.

The furniture and utensils were basic but combined well with the industrial look of the FOCR cafe.

Our meal started with some buffalo mid wings ($8.50). A common item found in many places. But this was one of the better ones that we have tried. The chicken wings were well seasoned and cooked just right, moist inside and a crisp surface.

The chicken rosti ($16.50) was made up of a base of potato rosti, pieces of chicken breast and topped with two soft eggs and some cheese and cream. It was not bad but not remarkable either.

The similar looking Mentaiko Royale ($21.50) was a more interesting dish. Made up of muffins as a base, pieces of salmon and topped with eggs, avocado, mentaiko, and some crispy fish skin that gave it some crunch.

The best dish of the day was the Spaghetti Granchio $18.80). That was a basic spaghetti with tomato sauce. The generous crabmeat and the balanced taste of the sauce were what made this dish memorable.

We could not have brunch at a place called Five Oars Coffee Roasters without trying the coffee. We tried the cappuccino ($5) which was available in two types of beans – the house blend and the other one a single origin from Ethiopia. We tried both for comparison. Other than one being slightly stronger than the other, we could not detect major differences. Both were good tasting coffees.