Saturday cafe lunch with BB at Upper Thomson, $64.30 for the spread. 😍😋👍🏼

What was on the table (collage view):

Prawn pasta with crispy element: thin slices of fresh prawn or salmon on top of a pasta dish, garnished with microgreens + radish chips, on a dark plate
Prawn tom yam noodle bowl: thick noodles in a deep red-brown chilli-tamarind broth, with prawns on top, bonito flakes, scallion + bean sprouts piled in a tall mound
Prawn omelette dish with onsen tamago: stir-fried prawns with vegetables, accompanied by an onsen tamago (slow-poached egg) in a soft cup, all on a banana leaf
BBQ sticky pork waffle stack: pork belly chunks glazed BBQ-sticky-sweet stacked over a savoury waffle, with golden waffle fries on the side

The 4-dish spread suggests a larger-portion sharing lunch at a cafe that mixes Asian and Western dishes (the menu range hits Italian pasta, Thai tom yam, Chinese stir-fry, and American BBQ comfort food).

Upper Thomson is one of Singapore’s mature cafe districts, with a strong concentration of independent cafes along Upper Thomson Road and the Sin Ming area. The neighbourhood has been a brunch / cafe destination since the 2010s, with venues like Mellower Coffee, Habitat Coffee, One Man Coffee, Smoke and Mirrors offshoots, and various Asian-fusion cafes anchoring the scene.

What makes Upper Thomson different from Tiong Bahru or Holland Village:

Less polished, more local: feels like a neighbourhood, not a tourist trail
Mix of old kopitiams and new cafes: side-by-side coexistence
Big-portion comfort menus: cafes here lean towards Asian-fusion brunch / lunch rather than purely Western brunch
Quieter weekends: less queue pressure than Tanjong Pagar or Chinatown

The dishes shown represent the Asian-Western fusion cafe menu that grew across Singapore from 2015 onwards:

Pasta with Asian ingredients: prawns, salmon, sambal, tom yam, mentaiko all crossing onto Italian pasta
Asian dishes with Western plating: stir-fries on banana leaves, served with onsen tamago like a ramen topping
Waffle as a savoury base: pork belly, fried chicken, beef cheek all stacked onto waffles
Tom yam noodles: the Thai soup borrowed into the cafe brunch menu

At $64.30 for four mains at a mid-tier cafe, this comes to around $16 per dish. With BB (Burpple Beyond) 1-for-1 deals, the effective per-pax cost lands around $25 for the meal. Solid Saturday cafe pricing.

The prawn theme across three of the four dishes suggests either a seasonal menu emphasis or a deliberate prawn-forward ordering (we like prawns).

Overall: 4.2 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid Saturday cafe lunch spread. The tom yam noodle bowl was the standout for me. Would re-visit.

Original IG post