Tiny's Cafe

Was scrolling around the phone and found out about this relatively new Vietnamese eatery that had recently opened around the Balestier neighbourhood. Hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese eateries are aplenty these days, and Tiny’s Cafe is essentially just that — located within a building named Rocca Balestier, Tiny’s Cafe is just a small Vietnamese eatery that is situated right across from Hotel 81 Balestier, as well as beside Citadines Balestier Singapore; the latter being where Balance Coffee is located. They were definitely not kidding when they used “Tiny” in the namesake of the eatery here; the shop space is indeed tight with much of the interior space being used for food preparation — that being said, patrons whom wish to dine in can still do so outdoors with Tiny’s Cafe being able to set up foldable chairs and tables outside of their own premises. Considering its fuss free set-up, the menu at Tiny’s Cafe is rather limited — itself comprising of only Banh Mi, a Vietnamese Beef Stew, Fresh / Fried Spring Rolls and Bun Cha for its hot food items. For beverages, Tiny’s Cafe does serve up a small variety of coffee; most of which being specialty coffee pulled from the espresso machine, as well as teas, fruit juice and soft drinks.

It has been a while since we have had a Ham Banh Mi; having skimmed through the selection of food items that they are offering on their menu, we thought that the Ham Banh Mi was probably the item that stood out to us the most. Tiny’s Cafe describes their Banh Mi to comprise of elements such as Pork Ham, Pate, Butter, Cucumber, Sweet and Sour Radish, Coriander, Chili Sauce and Soya Sauce; the Banh Mi is also prepared upon order as well and is thus served warm to the table. Sinking our teeth into the Ham Banh Mi, we found that the baguette itself here is toasted to a crisp on the exterior; quite the texture which we are looking for in a good Banh Mi whilst retaining some tension whilst one takes a bite into it — the baguette also being light and airy as well. There is quite a fair bit going on with the fillings of the baguette; one noticeable flavour would be the different dimensions of savouriness brought by the soya sauce and pate. It is also noted that they have used several types of ham in the making of the Ham Banh Mi; the pork ham used here comes with quite a thick cut that allows one to really have a good meaty bite — the flavours being the usual saltish notes of cured meat but not too salty as well. Interestingly, Tiny’s Cafe also included pork skin in their Ham Banh Mi; unlike most establishments that serves it though, Tiny Cafe layers the pork skin in at the bottom of the Banh Mi instead of being on the top — probably done so to facilitate for a neater Banh Mi for patrons to bite into without all of the pork skin falling off.

Of course, the sriracha helps to provide an umami, somewhat garlicky bite with a bit of spice that compliments the other elements well, but the real spice came from the chili padi included that tingles the tastebuds — this would probably be manageable even for those tolerable to lighter levels of spiciness anyway. The pickled radish and cucumber provides a good crunch to help refresh the tastebuds; the former adding a tang for another dimension of flavours for the Banh Mi, while the coriander does the same with its distinctive note of flavours typical to the vegetable. We had also tried their Vietnamese Salted Coffee; only available in iced format, their rendition comes with a lightly salted milk foam that isn’t too dense, but still creamy. The coffee isn’t too punchy, but still comes with quite a robust note whilst being sweetened by default (likely with condensed milk); quite a good rendition of the Vietnamese Salted Coffee based on others that we had tried. Overall, Tiny’s Coffee does serve up quite decent Vietnamese fare that is worth trying — a really humble establishment considering its small size, but one that is bound to satisfy especially with food served from the heart and run by earnest folks that attempts to make the dining experience as comfortable as possible for patrons despite its setup. For an establishment of its type, Tiny’s Cafe most certainly delivered; a spot which we would consider dining at again if craving for Banh Mi in the area.