Jalan Besar is fast becoming a hipster area for cafés, bakeries and quaint little eateries. With Loysel’s Toy first opening at a little industrial building in the Lavender area around 3 years ago, to the popular Chye Seng Huat Hardware that popped up last year, and many more.
The Bravery is a new kid on the block, joining the growing café scene there just a few months ago. It is an offshoot of The Plain, a 3-year old Melbourne inspired café at Duxton with clean décor and a chill feel which seems to be more about the coffee and keeping the food offerings fairly simple.
And the branch didn’t fall far from the tree, it seems. Having a slightly more raw, grunge-y feel with deconstructed walls, smattering of light bulbs on strings, metal chairs and the like, The Bravery also gives off a very relaxed, hip vibe – a place for people to enjoy a nice chat over a cup of coffee.
Food offerings were fairly simple and straightforward, it was mainly either eggs, toast or sandwiches. Besides the special of the day, which when we went on a Sunday earlier this month was a rather appetizing sounding Cajun Chicken Wrap (S$10), so kindly described to us by a polite and conscientious young male server.
We decided to go with the classic choices though, with Z picking Eggs on Toast (S$8), eggs done sunny side up topped with lamb sausages (+S$4) and turkey bacon (+S$3.50) and myself the same dish but done poached and topped with smoked salmon (+S$5) and avocado (+S$2.50).
Unfortunately I had a bit of a flu that day, so was not able to fully taste my food – but what I could taste was alright, and I was overall quite satisfied with my well poached runny eggs, good fresh smoked salmon and avocado, and yummy buttered multigrain toast.
Z was not too pleased though, as he felt the turkey bacon was kind of dry and unappetizing and was annoyed that the place didn’t serve chilli sauce (though I did try to tell him that it’s not really THE norm to have it… but anyway).
As for the coffee… perhaps it’s just me, but I discovered at The Bravery that lavender flavoured coffee really wasn’t my kind of thing. To me, the flavours just didn’t gel – the soothing taste of lavender and the slightly bitter punch of coffee.
The bf’s mocha was alright, though could have been a bit stronger I felt. But I suppose the coffee here is meant more for you to sip and enjoy, rather than to wake you up.
Overall a nice place to relax over some nice coffee and simple, healthy-ish fare (I found the food less oily than some of the other cafes out there, plus they don’t douse the eggs in hollandaise here and PLUS they use multigrain instead of white bread), but I guess it’s not for everyone (Z didn’t like this place at all).
Found the prices pretty reasonable too, and the beef ciabatta looks really delicious so perhaps I have to make a trip down again… but with someone else I suppose!
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The Bravery Café
66 Horne Road
Tel: +65 6225 4387
Website: http://thebravery.com.sg/
Open from 8am to 8pm on all days except Tuesday.
