Coffeeman (Toa Payoh)

Walked past the Coffeeman at Blk 184 Toa Payoh Central prior to its opening some time back — was pretty curious about what it has to offer and found out more about them via their social media pages. It seems that Coffeeman isn’t particularly new to the F&B scene in Singapore — Coffeeman is actually a re-branding of the former The Upper Room which used to be located at the library of Nanyang Polytechnic; their Toa Payoh Central location is likely to be the establishment’s second outlet. Situated at Blk 184 Toa Payoh Central, Coffeeman is located a short walk away from Toa Payoh MRT Station / Toa Payoh Bus Interchange / HDB Hub — one can find them around the areas where outlets of R&B Tea and Secret Recipe at Toa Payoh Central can also be found. Occupying a hole-in-the-wall unit in the HDB block, Coffeeman operates pretty much like a takeaway kiosk for beverages, sandwiches and toasts — its pastel green colour scheme does seem to set the stall apart from their neighbours; all of whom are not F&B operators. For its location at Toa Payoh, Coffeeman serves up sandwiches and toasts — think sandwiches such as a Braised Beef Cheek Sandwich, while toasts refers to that of the Hainanese-style breakfast toasts such as the Butter Sugar Toast, Peanut Butter Toast and Kaya Butter Toast that we grew up being pretty familiar with. Coffeeman does serve up an extensive list of beverages on its menu though; apart from Nanyang Kopi and Teh offerings, they also do serve up Milo, Horlicks and Honey Lemon — just to name a few, as well as specialty coffee and ice-blended drinks which they dub as the “Frosties” series of drinks.

Being folks who can’t give their local Kaya Butter Toast a miss, it is needless to say that the Kaya Butter Toast was the item we set our eyes on when we skimmed through the menu of Coffeeman at Toa Payoh Central. Available in both ala-carte and set format, the Kaya Butter Toast Set sees the Kaya Butter Toast being bundled with the patron’s choice of beverages as well as two soft-boiled eggs. Wanting to skip on the soft-boiled eggs, we decided to go for the ala-carte order of the Kaya Butter Toast instead. Some waiting time would be required, and patrons would be called with the queue number which is being printed on the receipt upon payment. Interestingly, the Kaya Butter Toast at Coffeeman comes with wholemeal bread as the default and only bread choice for their toasts. Sinking our teeth straight into the Kaya Butter Toast, we did feel that the Kaya Butter Toast seems to lack that crispness that we are looking for — the toast still being largely soft for the most part. What makes things up for their rendition of the Kaya Butter Toast was the proportion of kaya spread and strips or butter that it came with; we found that there was good balance of sweetness from the kaya amidst that saltish butter — quite something which we are looking for in a good Butter Kaya Toast.

Apart from trying their Butter Kaya Toast, we had also given the Kopi Masala from Coffeeman a go. It is undeniable that the focus at Coffeeman seems to be their beverages — notwithstanding that we had only given just one of their many beverages a go, we were really impressed with how their Kopi Masala went; we found their Kopi Masala being actually better than what some mamak-style establishments would have served up. We liked how the Kopi Masala delivered that caffeinated punch much like how Nanyang-style Kopi would usually carry; all that whilst not being overly sweet at the same time as well. Considering how the Kopi we have had at Coffeeman is the Kopi Masala, the Kopi Masala carried a particularly strong hint of spices — likely from the cardamom and cinnamon spice blend that one would usually find in masala beverages; one that is undeniably gingery and absolutely comforting to have especially during a cold, rainy morning. Overall, our visit to Coffeeman can be said as a pretty good one; no doubt we did find their Kaya Butter Toast to be not as crisp as what we would like it to be, but we enjoyed the proportion of kaya to butter — they seem to have gotten the basics pretty right here. More importantly, the Kopi Masala was nothing short of being satisfying — a really well-proportioned cuppa that we would probably crave for again. With their toasts sets priced at $4.80 and the sandwiches set priced from $6.80 to $10.80, we would say that Coffeeman does serve up pretty decently-priced local-style breakfast sets for its toasts sets — something which we could see the folks staying in the area would appreciate. It remains to be seen if Coffeeman might open up more outlets within the heartlands in due time to come, though we would say that we are pretty keen in giving their other beverages a go if we happen to pass by them in the future!