Sunday, November 2, 2014

Guide to Johor Bahru Cafes

Johor Bahru is such a great place to eat, pump petrol and have a fun filled day of cheap thrills. Best of all, it is only a 30-minute drive away from Singapore! Recently, we decided to head in to explore the hype. With the help of Google and of course some information from friends, we managed to explore 4 cafes of which many have been asking me about so here's a post dedicated to those who are curious on how to get there and some interesting places for food and drinks within 10 mins walking distance from City Square Mall JB! 

How to get there:



I found this sketch online and I think it's a pretty good guide on how to walk to the "hipster lane" where all the cafes are located. If the sketch is not good enough, I included a 5-minute video on how to walk there! Do take note - exit from the City Square office building side : )

Here are a few cafes that I explored and in my opinion, they are all worth the hype! 

IT Roo Café








IT Roo Café is a little vintage cafe that has a slogan "The Best Chicken Chop in Town!". They serve western food, chinese food, noodles, sandwiches but there wasn't much of a need to take a look at the whole menu.. It was pretty obvious we were only ordering the chicken chop haha! The chicken chops comes in two styles - fried or grilled / and top it off with either black pepper sauce or mushroom gravy. We decided to try it in both styles! I really couldn't decide which was better.. The fried one was so crispy and seasoned to perfection. The grilled one had a generous amount of gravy and mushrooms. I love the potato wedges! It was super fresh and tasty! We topped the meal off with their popular root beer float!

Total spent: RM 38 / SGD 15.20
17 Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Bev C












Bev C is one of my favourite cafes on this list. It is a apparel boutique & cafe and the ambience is amazing! I ordered the deconstructed espresso ice cubes with caramel + milk, peach tea and white truffle chocolate cake. The cake was so good, better than Windowsill Pies and cheaper too :>

Total spent: RM 36 / SGD 14.40
54 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Chaiwalla & Co. Container Cafe





Chaiwalla & Co. is an unconventional container cafe serving coffee and tea. They literally operate out of an actual container inside a open space car park, how cool is that?! The weather was too humid for a cup of hot coffee so I ordered their monthly special - Turkish Lemonade, a mixture of sweet and sour just the way I liked it, perfect.

Total spent: RM 9.80 / SGD 3.92
Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, 8000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory



Hiap Joo Bakery isn't exactly a cafe but I decided to add it into the list anyway because the banana cake we bought was out of this world. Even after two days, the cake was still very fragrant and moist. Their speciality is baking their cakes with wood fire.. the whole process seems like a work and wholeheartedness!

Total spent: RM 9 for 10 pieces / SGD 3.60
13 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, 8000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Faculty of Caffeine









Faculty of Caffeine is one of the newest cafes in this list. In fact, it is actually the nearest cafe to City Square mall but took us the longest to find because we got lost! Do note that FOC is not exactly in the same stretch of cafes as the ones mentioned above. To get here, you can just cross the overhead bridge of City Square mall and turn left.. keep a lookout for the unit number 106 on Jln Trus. If you can't find it, just locate the red mall called Galleria (Kotaraya) - It is directly opposite it.

I love the classic black exterior of this cafe! The interior of this place is cosy and industrial-like with all the wooden timeless furnishing. We ordered a cup of mocha, mint and lime drink, their generous breakfast and nutella cereal combo. Coffee was average, I loved the mint and lime tho! The generous breakfast is worth every penny in my opinion, the sourdough was soft, eggs were fluffy, bacon is crispy, mushrooms were to my liking and the tomato wasn't too sour! I liked the whole combination of this whole dish! The nutella cereal combo tasted uniquely good but I figured I can make it at home myself, heh...

Total spent: RM 49 / SGD 19.60
 106 Jalan Trus, Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

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I'll probably do a part 2 of this guide because there are still many places to explore! Take caution that these places are generally safe but just be "kia su" by keeping your personal belongings close to you, bring two wallets (try separating your cash if you have a lot of it).. If you were to get rob <touch wood>, hand over the second wallet. Go with a big group, preferably with guys, it's safer! I hope this guide has been useful, happy eating and exploring!

UPDATE: PART II IS UP. VIEW IT HERE: http://vevong.blogspot.sg/2016/06/guide-to-johor-bahru-cafes-part-ii.html 

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