Best eats of 2024: Best cafe – Dearborn New Bahru

Where: 03-04, 46 Kim Yam Road
Open: 9am to 3pm (Wednesdays to Mondays)
Info:

instagram.com/dearborn.newbahru 

Has Singapore, as a society, finally progressed past the need for eggs Benedict? Well, maybe not, but one new opening offers a tantalising taste of how brunch can be done differently. 

At Dearborn’s fresh outlet at New Bahru, you will not find the lukewarm scrambled eggs, plasticky strips of smoked salmon or plates of pasta with barely perceptible flavour that terrorise diners at lesser cafes. And instead of increasingly eye-watering prices approaching $30, nothing here costs more than $17 (though portions run small). 

Dearborn began in 2018 as a modern American fine-casual supper club run by former Waku Ghin chef de partie Christopher Kong. He pivoted to selling granola during the circuit breaker in 2020, and has not looked back since. 

His Everton Park outlet now serves as a “Granola HQ”, where the brand’s star product is baked and packed.

The New Bahru joint, on the other hand, is a breakfast club, microbakery and provision shop rolled into one, with a compact menu focused on thoughtful dishes you will not find elsewhere. 

They include dishes like steel cut oat congee ($17). Warm oats are cooked just so in a garlic pesto blend blooming with aromatic fragrance. Tucked within its velvety folds are nuggets of sweet and succulent scallops and prawns. 

Of course, no Dearborn joint would be complete without the signature dishes that made it a cult favourite.

One perennial highlight is the potato and egg ($15), in which a 63-degree sous vide egg is gently blanketed in potato espuma, smooth as silk and just as luxurious. A sprinkling of roast potatoes, sourdough croutons, chive oil and puffed grains helps to create a dish so elegant and precise, it feels like it belongs in a far more upscale eatery. 

The advanced granola bowl ($15) is, in some ways, the apotheosis of Mr Kong’s six-year journey to perfect this craft. It is the granola bowl for people who do not like granola.

Laden with locally made coffee yogurt from Annie’s, hazelnut and maple butter, cherry compote and Dearborn’s best-selling Dark Chocolate Hazelnut and Sea Salt granola, it feels almost too decadent for breakfast. 

This is not a place that coaxes you to stay. With its snaking queues, one-hour dining limit and cramped sharing tables, it does not necessarily serve up the slice of weekend relaxation some cafegoers might seek.

But you can relax at a dozen other places around the island. A good cafe breakfast is harder to find.