Toby's Estate

Toby's Estate
8 Rodyk Street #01-03

http://www.tobysestate.com.sg/


Great Coffee With Beautiful Ambience (And Free Wi-Fi)

(Ratings: On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 = Worst and 10 = Best)
Overall: 8
Ambience & Setting: 9
Food & Beverage: 8
Service: 9
Value for Money: 8
Spent about SGD $25 per person.

Toby's Estate is an Australian coffee chain, named for their founder Toby Smith who got his start in his mother's garage. His passion for coffee and roasting has passed down to all his outlets, including Toby's Estate Singapore. Check out the bags of beans at the side of the outlet, or the huge slow roaster which reaches to the ceiling!

Ambience is excellent at Toby's Estate. Situated alongside the picturesque Robertson Quay, the outdoor seating here is perfect for quiet dates or chilling sessions. Indoors, pictures of coffee growers adorn the walls, with the coffee roaster and coffee beans adorning a corner of the outlet. Long wooden communal tables encourage conversation while dining, and the counter has a nice wall stencil as a background.

Service is good at Toby's Estate, although the experienced staff are generally better at it. If you dine outside, staff will come around regularly to see if you need service. Toby's Estate provides free wi-fi, as well as various magazines and newspapers for browsing. Also, if it starts to rain, customers sitting outside will be immediately shifted inside. However, during peak periods, you'll have to stand while waiting for a place, and waiting times can take up to 30 minutes.

Food at Toby's Estate generally consist of breakfast / brunch items, pasta, sandwiches, salads and desserts. The range is somewhat limited, but what they do have, Toby's Estate does well. Portions are large and generous, and most of the food is prepared well. I have yet to have a 'bad' dish at Toby's Estate, with my only complaint being that food is generally oily here.

Their award-winning coffee is the star of Toby's Estate. Rich, full bodied and smooth, their coffee is among one of the best I've had in Singapore / Australia. Prices aren't cheap, but the proof of quality is in the superior taste of their coffee, which is sourced directly from coffee bean farmers. Their passion for coffee extends to teaching others as well, as Toby's Estate offers coffee brewing and tasting courses in Singapore, and a Barista school in Australia.

Toby's Estate Interior 01

Toby's Estate Interior 02

Toby's Estate Interior 03

Loved the generous portion of Toby's Breakfast! I liked the use of earthy Truffle oil on the sauteed mushrooms, which lent a wonderful fragrance to the dish. The cherry tomatoes were nicely grilled, and still somewhat firm instead of being completely mushy. I also liked the unique maple pork bacon, with its different dimension of taste. The eggs were nicely scrambled, and the toast was soft but nicely grilled and crisp. I did feel the overall dish was slightly oily though.

Toby's Breakfast 01

Toby's Breakfast 02

Rather heavy and filling as a breakfast dish, the Moroccan Baked Eggs is probably more suited to being a lunch dish. Don't let the small pan it's served in deceive you, as it's also quite deep, and the entire bottom half of the dish is packed with minced beef and kidney beans, a sort of dry version of chilli con carne. Covering that are 2 baked eggs, and while baked eggs obviously come with fully cooked yolks, I just can't get over the fact that it's presented as sunny side up eggs, which to me are supposed to have runny yolks. The spicy chorizo sausage provides a kick of taste, but I felt the addition of maple pork bacon was overkill, as it didn't add much to the already flavourful and filling dish. This time, the toast was hard and not as good.

Moroccan Baked Eggs 01

Moroccan Baked Eggs 02

Coffee is the specialty here, as they've actually won awards for it, and are generally considered to serve one of the best coffees in Singapore. Note the precise and beautiful latte art, and the full bodied taste of their coffee. The Chai Latte is particularly among the better versions I've had in Singapore!

Water Flask

Cafe Latte 01

Cafe Latte 02

Cafe Latte 03

Cafe Latte 04

Gibraltar Latte 01

Gibraltar Latte 02

Gibraltar Latte 03

Gibraltar Latte 04

Chai Latte

The best thing about the Pulled Pork Burger was the sweet, smoky, tangy, barbecue sauce. Otherwise, I was very disappointed with it. The coleslaw is limp, not crunchy, with very little taste. The pulled pork was worse, with the meat being tough, dry, and gamey, a sign of issues with freshness. The fries and burger buns were alright, but couldn't save this dish.

Pulled Pork Burger 01

Pulled Pork Burger 02