Review: New cafe Bites & Brews brings bold flavours back to brunch

As someone who loves sauntering around the Joo Chiat area on weekends, it felt like music to my ears when I found that a new cafe, in the form of Bites & Brews, had opened up in the neighbourhood.

Sure, the area’s already riddled with cafes and eateries — there’s far too many now for me to call a favourite — but despite being new, Bites & Brews stands out from the crowd, with its background, unique interior and selection of standout dishes.

The backstory

As a brand, Bites & Brews started in Shanghai in 2016, founded by the F&B company Bibimi Group. The cafe adopts a barnhouse aesthetic and serves up Western comfort food.

Fun fact: The first Bites & Brews in China was only 14sqm in size, which meant diners had to share tables with one another and strike up conversations.

Arriving on our shores a whole eight years later, the Singapore outlet is Bites & Brew’s first international outpost, and while it’s not quite the small and quaint spot it started out as, the 60-seater cafe is dressed similarly to its original, complete with pet-friendly al fresco seating.

Our verdict

The first thing my dining companion and I loved instantly about Bites & Brews was its location — it is strategically situated away from the main, bustling Joo Chiat road, on the more peaceful Crane Road. 

Expectedly, Bites & Brews’ decor is a hodgepodge of wood and fabrics, with rustic elements befitting of its OG barn-style aesthetic. Despite the liberal use of heavy, wooden furniture and elements, we loved how airy and spacious the space was.

If anything, we also liked that its heavily-furnished interior is a stark contrast from the typical minimalist approach that many cafes attempt to adopt, and gives it a homely, almost lived-in feel.

From the few dishes we tried, it’s clear that the cafe doesn’t shy away from flavours, or spiciness, for that matter. In fact, this approach also spills over into its drink selection, which sees chillies in coconut water, and even fresh rhubarb juice stirred in with cold-brewed earl grey tea.

We also found the portions here sufficiently filling — if you want to try more than one dish each, we recommend rounding up a few friends. 

The brief: Order a generous selection of dishes and a couple of drinks for the table, and prepare your stomachs for one of the tastiest brunches in a long while.

What it’s good for

While many seem to make a beeline for its mapo tofu lasagna, we chose a much heftier (and meatier) option: The jian bing breakfast burrito (S$18). It’s a hunky portion of barbecued beef brisket, spring onion omelette, green chillies, bean sprouts, hoisin sauce, and mixed greens bundled up in a Chinese pancake, or jian bing. 

Lest you think that’s already a lot of ingredients, the burrito also comes drizzled with spicy mayo and is served with a heap of fresh spinach. 

As anticipated, this stuffed burrito packed quite a punch, with sweet and savoury flavours coming through every bite. Having the burrito tightly rolled made it easy to eat with our hands — although the use of cutlery does prevent getting saucy fingers (either way you decide to have it, it’s still super delicious).

The seasoning for this burrito, while yummy, is quite heavy-handed, so I’d advise sharing this dish if you want to make space for more items on Bites & Brews’ menu.

Eggs Benedict for brunch can be quite a bit of a cliche (at least we feel so), but throw in a lamb shawarma benedict (S$28) on the menu, and suddenly, it seems tempting again — and we’re glad that the choice to order it wasn’t in vain. 

The lamb shawarma chunks were great as additional protein and added character and vibrant flavours to an otherwise run-of-the-mill eggs Benedict dish. But we reckon the harissa hollandaise, in all its spiced, creamy glory, was the one that made all the difference. 

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The curry chicken focaccia (S$24) was a dish that the team trialled during its soft launch, but has now included as a permanent addition to its menu. It comes with a choice of fries or salad as a side, but let’s just say it’s quite hard to say no to fries.

We expected hearty chunks of curried chicken (which is what you’d usually get when curry chicken is on the menu), but to our surprise, we received a curried patty made with minced chicken. We didn’t mind one bit — it wasn’t disappointing, just different, with the patty’s texture being similar to otah.

Texture aside, the curry chicken patty was impeccably seasoned and inclusion of green apple slices, which were slightly tart, balanced the flavours beautifully.

We were also surprised by how spicy it was, especially for someone who doesn’t consume spicy foods often — if you have a penchant for a bit of fire in your meals, you’ll love this deceptively simple focaccia sandwich.

You won’t typically catch us having orange coffee (S$7), but the one at Bites & Brews uses housemade orange cordial, so we decided we’d give it a go. 

It proved the right decision, as the orange coffee tasted amazingly refreshing, and the addition of orange jelly bits made for a fun burst of sweetness — it’ll be tough to find a similar version of this locally that tastes just as good, we think.

What it could improve on

Wanting to soothe our tongues after the spicy curry chicken focaccia, we opted for the cafe’s sea salt Sicilian pistachio (S$5.50).

It’s not easy to find good quality pistachio ice cream, and ordering this proved our hypothesis right — on first bite, we were hit by an overwhelming milky taste, and as we continued to dig in, we found ourselves increasingly disappointed by the lack of a punchier pistachio flavour. 

Additionally, we’d have liked it if the menu had a symbol for its spicy dishes or have its staff caution diners on the space level, as some of its spicy dishes were spicier than anticipated. 

The menu already specifically calls out seafood, vegetarian and signature items, so it would be helpful to know which ones could potentially warrant extra water refills (or an icy treat), just as the curry chicken focaccia did for us.

Our quick takes

Is it conducive to conversation? Yes. There is soft background music in the background and the restaurant is surrounded by private housing, so it’s fairly peaceful.

Is a reservation necessary? Plenty of seating is available — indoors and outdoors — so you’ll likely be able to get a table without a reservation.

How to get there? Bites & Brews is a 12-minute bus ride from Dakota MRT station Exit A.

HungryGoWhere paid for its meal at this cafe for this review.

Looking for more dining options in Joo Chiat? Check out Bingo, a new bakery with hand-crafted pastries. If you’re still undecided and want more options, read our guide to cafes in Joo Chiat for a laid-back weekend of coffee and cakes.

Bites & Brews Singapore is on GrabFood delivery service and offer free delivery (up to S$3 off) with GrabUnlimited.   

Do explore the new GrabFood Dine Out  service for awesome deals.

You can also book a ride to Bites & Brews at Crane Road.