Most people know by now how Tiong Bahru has gone from a sleepy residential estate to one that’s bustling with cafe hopping yuppies. I haven’t been to Tiong Bahru for a long time, not in the past year anyway, but have seen it featured in numerous write-ups in the last few weeks. Feeling like I’ve been missing out on something good all these while, I dragged the boyfriend along with me to explore one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore one public holiday, with the hopes of dropping by 40 hands cafe for a (good) cup of coffee.
The streets of Tiong Bahru were a lot quieter than I expected and walking through the block of flats with low-hanging ceilings and dated exterior, I started to doubt what I have heard and read. It looked as sleepy to me as I knew it to be. Then, we realized that 40 Hands was closed, and so was PoTeaTo (a new cafe/eatery opened a few doors down from 40 hands), which explained the deserted nature of Yong Siak Street that day. I was pretty disappointed, and perhaps a little sulky, having walked a (seemingly) long way from Tiong Bahru MRT station and not being able to have my afternoon fix of coffee. Yes, pretty bratty. I know. Anyway, to cut the long story short, we walked a little farther and found Drips bakery cafe.
I have heard quite a bit about Drips, particularly with respect to their very popular fruit tarts, so I was pretty stoked about checking the place out. Walking in, we were greeted with a spacious and pretty simple setting. A couple of simple tables and colourful stools decked out the major sitting area, and a counter where the baristas do up the coffees and another counter where pastries/cakes/sandwiches are ordered occupied the space. They do all day breakfast, some quiches and pastries as well as pretty good sandwiches, alongside a selection of cakes and tarts.
Further in the back of the café is a pretty chilled out sitting area with a slit of natural sky light, lined with couches decked out in colourful rugs and adorned with boldly patterned cushions that seem to send out a rather hippie vibe. Pretty neat ^^.
I plopped myself down on a couch right in the back of the cafe, and if I hadn’t wanted a taste of their tarts that badly, I would have never gotten up again.
But the tarts beckoned, and I duly went along. They were out of their special fruit tart (damn these public holidays, all those people stealing my food), so I got their Blackberry Almond Tart and their Cherry Brandy Tart instead. We also got an iced latte and a flat white to go along.
Plunging into their Blackberry Almond Tart was an absolute delight. Whole tangy blackberries embedded into a well-balanced custard, laid out on a slightly crisp, yet buttery and crumbly pastry – no wonder people rave about their tarts.
Blackberry almond tart 🙂
The Cherry Brandy tart was nice and had the same wonderful pastry. I didn’t like it as much as the cherries were a little too sweet and that drowned out the natural flavour of the fruit that I like very much. I immediately thought of my favourite sour cherry tarts from Windowsill Pies…and that sparked a new crave. Uh oh 
Anyway, their coffees were decent. Not downright impressive, but then again, their tarts are supposed to be the star of the show, and indeed they were. Having had a brilliant blackberry almond tart, the bar is set for their Special Fruit Tart. Now, a second visit is necessary isn’t it?
That Bottomless Pit 