Where can you drink traditional kopi on Singapore's Beach Road?

YY Kafei Dian at 37 Beach Road is an old-style Hainanese coffee shop. Eatbook ranked its kopi second of 15 Singapore stalls in October 2025, at S$1.50 for a kopi-O and S$1.70 for a kopi. It opens from 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends, until 19:00.

What is Kurasu on Waterloo Street in Singapore?

Kurasu is a Kyoto coffee company that opened its first overseas shop in Singapore in 2017 and moved its flagship to Waterloo Centre, 261 Waterloo Street, in 2020. It is open daily 10:00–18:30, and in 2023 its espresso with milk started at S$6.50.

Cafés in Civic District & Bras Basah, Singapore

Q: Which MRT station is closest to Waterloo Street in Singapore's Bras Basah?

Bras Basah station on the Circle Line, opened in 2010, sits at the southern end of Waterloo Street, next to the Singapore Management University city campus. City Hall station serves the Civic District to the south, including the National Gallery at 1 St Andrew's Road.

North of the Singapore River lies the Civic District, the colonial core of museums and memorials, where the National Gallery fills the former Supreme Court and City Hall.⁴³ Bras Basah spreads north of it. The name is Malay for "wet rice", probably after rice laid out to dry beside a small river and soaked by high tides; an 1836 map spells it "Brass Bassa Road".¹

Coffee here comes in two layers. Beach Road and Middle Road were the center of Singapore's Hainanese settlement, and a few of its coffee shops still trade.⁵ Around Waterloo Street, Bencoolen Street and Seah Street, between temples and museums, are the specialty bars and pour-over counters.

Local tip: For a kopitiam breakfast, YY Kafei Dian on Beach Road opens at 07:30 on weekdays; Kurasu on Waterloo Street opens later, at 10:00.

At a glance

132Cafés listed

32With opening hours

07:00Earliest opening

03:00Latest closing

Opens earliest: Cheerful Goat Cafe, from 07:00 (Daily 07:00–18:00).

Closes latest: Rochor Original Beancurd, until 03:00 (Mon–Thu 11:00–01:00 · Fri 11:00–03:00 · Sat 12:00–03:00 · Sun 12:00–01:00).

Most listed streets: Middle Road (8), Bencoolen Street (6), Beach Road (5).

Most common features: wheelchair access (9%), open late (8%), takeaway (8%).

Getting around: City Hall, Bras Basah and Bencoolen

City Hall station serves the Civic District itself.⁴ Bras Basah station, on the Circle Line, opened in 2010 at the southern end of Waterloo Street, which the Singapore Management University city campus cut short in 2006.² Waterloo Street itself became two-way in 2016.²

Coffee starts early around here: Cheerful Goat Cafe and Yuungo open at 07:00 every day, and The Glasshouse at 07:30 on weekdays. Ah Nam Kopi, at 50 Stamford Road, serves Monday to Friday 08:00–17:00 and Saturday until 15:30.

Beach Road's Hainanese coffee shops

When Beach Road still faced the sea, it was the main landing place for Hainanese immigrants, and the community spread over Beach Road, Tan Quee Lan Street, Bencoolen Street and Middle Road.⁵ In the kopitiam heyday the Beach Road area had almost five coffee shops to a street, each family roasting beans to its own method.⁵

YY Kafei Dian, at 37 Beach Road, keeps the style. Eatbook ranked its kopi second of 15 in October 2025, at S$1.50 for a kopi-O and S$1.70 for a kopi, and listed it open from 07:30 on weekdays and 08:00 at weekends, until 19:00.⁶

Waterloo Street: temples and pour-overs

Waterloo Street was laid out in 1837 as Church Street and renamed in 1858 after the 1815 battle.² Its northern end became a pedestrian mall in 1998 to cope with the crowds at Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple, busiest on weekends and public holidays; Sri Krishnan Temple stands beside it, and the Maghain Aboth Synagogue, from 1878, is further down the street.²

Kurasu, the Kyoto coffee company, moved its Singapore flagship to Waterloo Centre in 2020, and in 2023 its espresso with milk started at S$6.50.⁷ It is at 261 Waterloo Street, open daily 10:00–18:30, and Clap Cafe, in the same block, opens 08:30–19:00. Apartment, at 139 Selegie Road, opens 10:00–18:00 Monday to Thursday and at weekends.

Seah Street, Funan and the museum cafés

Ask Coffee Roastery is at 32 Seah Street, a few doors from Entre-Nous Creperie at No. 27. On North Bridge Road, PPP Coffee is at No. 107; the former Papa Palheta opened its first store under that name at the rebuilt Funan mall in 2019.⁸

For coffee with art, Courtyard Cafe is at 1 St Andrew's Road, the National Gallery, which opened on 24 November 2015 and holds more than 9,000 works of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art.³ The cafe opens at 09:30 Monday to Saturday and closes at 19:00, or 20:00 on Fridays. Later, suns Living Room at 51 Armenian Street is open until midnight, and Rochor Original Beancurd at 2 Short Street until 03:00 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Cafés in Civic District & Bras Basah

At a glance

(Working Title)

Alchemy

Aniplus

Apartment

Baoer Cafe

BYD by 1826

Cafe Eurasia

Cafe Grafunkt

Cafe Monochrome

Cheerful Goat Cafe

Clap Cafe

Compose Coffee

Courtyard Cafe

Crossings

Fahrenheit Specialty Coffee

Foreword Coffee

Kurasu

matchaya

Narrative Coffee Stand

O’Coffee Club

Pinhole Coffee Bar

Singapore Coffee

suns Living Room

Yat Ka Yan

Ah Nam Kopi

Alter Ego

Create Healthy Lifestyle

Rochor Original Beancurd

Two Cranes

Yuungo

Angelina Tea Room & Patisserie

Ask Coffee Roastery

Auntie Teo Place

Avenue'J Cafe

Basq & Bean (巴斯克与豆豆)

Bricolage

Coffee chains in Civic District & Bras Basah

Starbucks

Toast Box

Ya Kun Kaya Toast

The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Fun Toast

Killiney Kopitiam

Luckin Coffee

Huggs Coffee

Cedele

Heavenly Wang

Joe & Dough

PS.Cafe

TCC - The Connoisseur Concerto

Dimbulah Coffee

Hoshino Coffee

Kopi & Tarts

Tanamera Coffee

Coffee Hive

Tiong Bahru Bakery

Han's Cafe

Nanyang Old Coffee

Rocky Master

Alchemist

Bacha Coffee

Flash Coffee

Kith Café

The Coffee Academics

Tim Hortons

Blue Bottle Coffee

Costa Coffee

Dôme Café

Gloria Jean's Coffees

Joe & The Juice

Café Kitsuné

Kopi Kenangan

Spinelli Coffee

Getting around: City Hall, Bras Basah and Bencoolen

Beach Road's Hainanese coffee shops

Waterloo Street: temples and pour-overs

Seah Street, Funan and the museum cafés

Sources