Not all Coffee Club outlets serve breakfast, so this was considered a lucky find as I happened to be on course in the area and was looking for a place to have a quiet breakfast before starting the day. This outlet is situated in a glass house-type enclosure overlooking the busy stretch in front of Tiong Bahru Plaza, and thus makes an excellent vantage point for people-watching. Little else comes close to having a leisurely breakfast while watching fellow working-class minions dash off to work, and taking comfort in the knowledge that unlike them, I don't have to rush! (of course, I had to get up earlier for this, but hey, cmon everyone's gotta have breakfast!)

The American Breakfast here comes with eggs (scrambled or sunny-side up), two slices of french baguette bread, two sausages, greasy bacon, a grilled tomato, a mound of sauteed mushrooms and coffee/tea. While mushrooms and sausages/bacon were pretty non-descript, the bread deserves special mention. It came warm, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. What more can one ask from something as simple and humble as bread? The scrambled eggs were much better than most other versions I've tried, flavoursome and not over-done. Best part? All these for less than $10, which certainly makes it rather easy on the wallet.

Service was prompt and attentive, and parking definitely ain't a problem if you're gonna come in at 8am!

Always on the lookout for a good Western/American style breakfast fry-up, I decided to try the Big Breakfast at this beach-front pub-restaurant on a Sunday morning. Note though that Scruffy Murphy's only serves all-day breakfast on weekends and PHs. At $10.50, it came with canadian back bacon, baked beans, button mushrooms, eggs, toast, and what I think are English sausages. An invaluable breakfast tip: if the menu doesn't say you can choose between sunny-side up or scrambled eggs, stick with the default and don't be a smart aleck and request for specials! The eggs here(which I requested to be scrambled) were insipid and uninspiring, and the rest of the meal turned out to be rather salty and greasy.

A big-minus for this place: coffee, which you've to order separately, came at $4.50 a cup! For this price, you'd think they'll at least give you free-flow coffee, but no. Well the saving grace for this place would be no GST and service charge, and the rather relaxing ambience (this IS East Coast after all). Scruffy's excellent location next to the walkway beside Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf also makes for a good people-watching experience. Service-wise, cheerful and informal. Will I come back? Probably not for breakfast, although this place looks good for a pint or two in the evenings after work.

To be fair, perhaps the many rave reviews this place had garnered did much to set my expectations unfairly high. The food was decent, but not fantastic and definitely did not warrant $17 for a tartine, drink and dessert. Plus side is that there's no GST or service charge. I had the salmon and avocado tartine (came with a rather generous serving of lettuce iceburg salad which covered half the plate), creme brulee and iced coffee. Good for a little intro to French food, but nothing more. The food does appear to make for a rather healthy meal.

This place obviously specializes in crab. Step into the kopitiam and you're greeted by a macabre display (if you're a crab, that is) of empty crab shells adorning the walls. We picked an alfresco seat just outside the shop and found ourselves shooting the pleasant Changi Road breeze (quite literally).

Since there were only two of us, we decided on the much-vaunted Crab Meat Fried Rice, and ordered a sambal kangkong and a pot of Chinese tea to wash it down with. A $10 portion was just nice, and came topped with chunks of crab meat, char siu and chinese sausage. It was a tad dry, but that also meant it wasn't as oily and unhealthy. The real scene stealer was the sambal kangkong, which my dining companion duly declared the best he ever had. I'll let you decide for yourself.

Service was prompt and cheery, and all these for only $10 a head. Word of caution about the other cze char dishes though: I tried the roast chicken and butter/black pepper crab on a return visit, and was not terribly awed. The Lor Marzuki area isn't particularly car-friendly, so try to avoid peak hour meal-times and you should be fine.

As far as I know, this is the only Breeks outlet to serve breakfast. A must try is the Breeks Big Breakfast set, which comes with chicken chipolata sausages, turkey bacon, 2 mini pancakes with lemon butter and maple syrup, baked beans, hash brown, 2 sunny side up eggs, a tart green apple salad and free flow coffee. All these for just $10! Very economical, if you ask me. The pancakes were done just right, hash browns were hot and crispy, and the free flow coffee is a bonus to go with your morning papers. Pity the turkey bacon was abit dry, and don't request for scrambled eggs cuz I did, and they didn't turn out as creamy as I would have liked. This outlet also doesn't have much of a view, but rest assured you'll get a seat; I've never had any problems getting one.

This restaurant recently underwent a refurbishment and is totally air-conditioned now. They also have 2 small private rooms, for which you can make reservations.

In the past, you could easily get a table without having to wait, and you probably still can now, but on my recent few visits there I realise the food took a lot longer to arrive (they seem rather filled at meal-times).

The highlights here are without a doubt, the coffee pork ribs and the home-style beancurd. The former consists of tender, juicy pieces of ribs with little or no bone, marinated in a thick coffee sauce and baked in aluminium foil. The second is a huge slab of egg tofu which they deep fry and then served with a delicious taucheo meat sauce on top, and flanked by broccoli florets. I would also recommend the fish slices with chives. Be sure to order the medium though, as I thought the small portion could be too little to satisfy more than 2 people.

My main grouse with this place is that over the years as they got more popular, their serving portions seem to have diminished. Food is still good though, and I do not detect any deterioration in quality.

Reservations highly recommended.