Coffee Bar K

When I was in Shanghai, I used to love going to the likes of Bar Constellation and Shanty – very Japanese bars that made killer precision cocktails, with crazy varied selections of whisky/ sale/ shochus to boot. Many a night, me and my homies spent, nursing our whiskies splashed over cool hand-chipped globes of ice.

Enter Coffee Bar K, a gem of a bar in Singapore I raved about two years ago, made excessive repeat visits to back then, forgot about since, and recently revisited. Sweet was my re-visit – almost like meeting up with a dear old long-lost friend.

The bar was exactly as I remembered it. Oh, to sink into the plush black leather sofas at the bar and be handed a warm towel, asked for my drink order and pampered with platters of snacks. I took my time picking my poison – so many choices of gin/vodka/whisky/wine/liquer base cocktails, luckily they rate the alcoholic content of the cocktails and whether they were suited to the male or female palate (ok, this was admittedly sexist). The Moscow mule was my usual drink but tonight I picked a Honolulu, something light to end off my earlier buffet dinner.

Service was quietly efficient, just the way I liked it. The cute Japanese bartender has left though, in place there was another bartender that had a funny porcupine hair style and looked a tad sulky for my liking. Luckily the Filipino waitress was warm and friendly.

Prices for a cocktail was about $20 and there is a cover charge of $15 after 9pm (which includes above-mentioned snacks - wasabi chips/ ham/ fruit platter). Worth every penny. I have an old friend visiting from Shanghai soon, I must bring him to my new found oasis here. For old times’ sake.