Singapore: Outram Park, Your Locality Cheat Sheet

I always believed that the best way to exploring a place is with the guide of a local. This applies to wherever you go. Do you agree? But this is a luxury because we don't always have a friend in every city and town that we may venture! The next best thing: travel posts by locals dedicated to telling you where they would bring you - and what you can do and check out when you're there. This is the inspiration for today's post - quick tips to exploring Singapore in 2017 featuring Outram Park. Yes, all the fantastic, new places in this area all gathered in one place. It's been long since my first locality cheat sheet featuring Bugis (very popular, and useful I hope!) and so here's a second one.





Explore this district with your locality cheat sheet in hand:
Outram Park. A quiet neighbourhood at the edge of where downtown Singapore begins. This is one of my favourite places to wander for its slow-paced charms and a whole lot of hidden gems! Hit up the Potato Head Folk to snap a shot of this iconic building refurbished and preserved for its nostalgic charm. The blocks of Pinnacle@Duxton are right in the backdrop, an award-winning 50-storey residential Housing Development Building.

Potato Head Folk
36 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089143



A classic initiation to the Singaporean breakfast can be found at Tong Ah Eating House 東亞茶室早點. Try out our kaya butter toast, half-boiled egg (crack it in a saucer, add a dash of soya sauce and pepper) and teh peng here. You can get a similar breakfast in the chain restaurant - Ya Kun, but having breakfast here is a less 'everyday' experience.

Tong Ah Eating House
35 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089142




Wander around the little lanes of Outram Park and you might chance upon some graffiti walls to take some photos for memory keepsakes! You can look for 20 Teck Lim Road on the Google map for this one as pictured. In this area, it's a photography playground with the shophouses as your background!


For the love of cafe-hoppers in the region - there are three notable cafes mentions in this post. The first cafe is The Populus Coffee Food & Co.! Populus is famous for its Pulled Pork Grain Bowl ($18) and Buckwheat Pancakes ($20). All I can advise is... share the calories with your fellow travel buds. Ha. More to come.

The Populus Coffee Food & Co.
146 Neil Road
Singapore 088875

Photo credits: x

The second cafe stop is the latest opening in late 2016 that got everyone fan-girling and fan-boying over its interior: Botanist. Most would know it as a sister cafe to one of the hugely successful older cafes in Singapore, Pacamara. Botanist is good for its coffees and Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks ($24). You can continue your hipster journey with its interior design inspired by greenery and huge Slinky graffiti.

Botanist
74 Neil Road
Singapore 088839

Photo credits: x

The third cafe stop has got to be The LoKal, a winner in its own right for its mouthwatering Sticky Date Pudding with vanilla ice-cream. The lusciously sweet sticky date pudding was nettedly moist and soaked up the sauce readily and complemented the creamy cold vanilla ice-cream nicely. I only wished I could have a bigger stomach to finish every bit!

The LoKal
136 Neil Road
Singapore 088865


For a lunch place - Man Man by Teppei is one of the places to hit up. How and when did Man Manget so popular? There are theories, but join in the queue if you are an unagi lover because this is a pilgrimage you have to make. Eels are cut and served fresh straight from the tanks!

Man Man by Teppei
1 Keong Saik Road #01-01
Singapore 089109


For dinner, if you are looking for a 'local Chinese' setting, jostle with the crowd and find yourself a table at Kok Sen Restaurant. Order some of the signatures such as Chinese Spinach With Assorted Eggs, Claypot Yong Tau Foo, Big Prawn Hor Fun, Sweet & Sour Pork, and you're good to go.

Kok Sen Restaurant
30 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089137


I have already made it a habit to pop by Open Book Cafe 草根书室 at Bukit Pasoh every now and then because I love the Taiwanese feel of this bookstore-cafe. While the pastries and coffees are average, I highly recommend anyone who loves Chinese books to enter to soak up the literary atmosphere here.

Open Book Cafe 草根书室
25 Bukit Pasoh Road
Grassroots Book Room
Singapore 089839


Next up - desserts! When I first stepped into Apiary, I know I am in my favourite ice-cream parlour already. Possibly almost replacing Tom's Palette as my number one ice-cream place because of its selection! All its flavours are not boring, yet not too adventurous, sitting right smack in the middle of my "will buy, will eat" range. Think Earl Grey Lavender, Coconut, Thai Milk Tea, Matcha, Dark Chocolate, Black Sesame. Anyway, if you share a similar taste to me, grab a few scoops of ice-cream here and be on the go. You can even take hipster shots like this:

Apiary
84 Neil Road
Singapore 088844

Photo credit: x

Photo credits: x Photo credits: x

If ice-cream isn't enough for desserts, there are amazingly pretty and tantalizing cakes just round the corner at Japanese bakery Flor Patisserie and Mad About Sucre! They are representative bakeries in Singapore's pastry scene, so if you're even slightly fond of cakes, don't miss these out.

Flor Patisserie
2 Duxton Hill #01-01
Singapore 089588

Mad About Sucre
27 Teo Hong Road
Singapore 088334


The Library is a bespoke speakeasy bar that opens at 6pm. Entries are only allowed with passwords - these can be found on their Facebook page. Locals love it, and their popular signatures include the What's Abi, Redneggs Medicine and Thousand Eyes Cobbler ($24 for most cocktails). The Library will set you on your way for an intriguing evening in the +65.

The Library
47 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089151

If you love locality cheat sheets like these, check out Expedia's Things To Do in Singapore interactive map - highly useful for your travels and recommended as a complement to this article.