PUBLISHED March 25th, 2017 06:00 am | UPDATED July 28th, 2024 01:47 am
Strangers’ Reunion is known for having some of the best coffee in Singapore, and rightly so. After all, the café is home to the current World Siphon Coffee Champion and three-time Singapore National Barista & Latte Art Champion, Ryan Kieran Tan. After a two-week hiatus earlier this year – where his team of chefs and baristas flew to Melbourne to visit the city’s top cafés – they reopened their doors to reveal a brighter and airier space, and more importantly, an upgraded menu.
The revamp has been a long time coming, considering the establishment’s rise to become one of the local coffee industry’s biggest innovators since launching in 2012.
Fans will remember the Berry Ricotta Hotcake and Buttermilk Waffles that first pushed the café to social media success, and now, the brunch menu sees several other crowd-pleasing additions. One such signature is the Salmon & Kale ($19.90), a piece of pan-seared salmon perched on a bed of organic locally-sourced kale, served with poached eggs and a special ingredient, ikura, for a salty kick.
The Strangers Smoked Salmon ($17.90) – an otherwise typical café find – doesn’t disappoint either, featuring a 120gm salmon fillet that’s smoked in-house with mesquite wood chips, presented whole on a plate with bread and poached eggs. This also comes with a sweet hazelnut béarnaise sauce and feta walnut crumble on the side.
Then again, too much salmon can get boring after a while, which brings us to the Crabcake Reunion ($18.90), putting the spotlight on a generous portion of succulent crab cake rounded off with creamy avocado chunks, ikura, ribboned asparagus, and again, poached eggs topped with aburi chive hollandaise.
Appealing to the health-conscious are three superfood bowls, made-to-order of course. One of them is the Coconut Chia Pudding ($11.90), which is not only great to look at, but packed with great tasting and nourishing ingredients like strawberries, blueberries, and chia seeds soaked overnight in coconut milk.
Just need something to munch on? I can’t emphasise how addictive the Honey Mustard Sweet Potato Chips ($12.90) are with its sweet and spicy sauce. Alternatively, go for the spicy smoky taste of the Smoked Chorizo Croquette ($11.90) complemented with chopped gherkins within for extra crunch.
Don’t leave without a cup of their renowned speciality coffee. The signature Magic ($5.50) is a unique brew originated in the coffee capital of Melbourne – essentially a double ristretto topped with milk in what might just be the perfect (or magical) ratio of coffee to milk. What that results in is a smoother and richer beverage than your typical espresso-based drink, but with more strength. A cold variant, the White Magic ($6.90) is also available in an Instagram-perfect bottle.
If broadening your coffee knowledge is your objective, this is an excellent place to do so, offering up three categories of mastered-to-perfection filter brews, each one highlighting various attributes of a coffee. Think the visually captivating Syphon (which co-owner Ryan is particularly adept at), the Aeropress and the Wave Dripper.
As far as cafés go, Strangers’ Reunion’s continued dedication to high food standards and quality coffee is what brings us back, despite its not-so-friendly location. In fact, we could have sworn we felt younger and more energetic after that nutrition-loaded meal.
Strangers’ Reunion is located at 35 Kampong Bahru Rd, Singapore 169356, p. +65 6222 4869. Open Sun-Mon, Wed-Thu 9am – 10pm, Fri-Sat 9am – 12am.