Cafes in Serangoon Garden: Specialty Coffee, Sourdough and a New French Bistro

Serangoon Garden is the North-East’s original café neighbourhood: a low-rise estate of houses with a busy roundabout, the Circus, at its centre and a strip of cafés, bakeries and restaurants along Serangoon Garden Way and Maju Avenue. It is two MRT stops and a short bus ride from Hougang Central, where LinkTown Residences (Hougang Central Residences) is planned. This guide lists five places we confirmed operating in 2026, and flags the ones older lists still mention.

Serangoon Garden cafés at a glance

1. Apollo Coffee Bar

From the team behind Atlas Coffeehouse and Columbus Coffee Co., Apollo has been on Serangoon Garden Way since 2019 and still draws a steady crowd. It roasts single-origin coffee; a May 2026 café guide describes brunch dishes until mid-afternoon and sharing plates at dinner. Its website lists 9am to 7pm from Sunday to Wednesday, and until 10pm from Thursday to Saturday, so the later nights are the time for dinner.

2. Chu and Co

A small bakery-café on Lichfield Road, a few minutes’ walk from the Circus, with outdoor seating on a quiet residential street. Sourdough buns are the speciality, pastries are mostly under S$10, and grilled sandwiches such as a bacon melt make it a proper breakfast. A May 2026 guide lists it as open Wednesday to Sunday, 8.30am to 4pm, so it is a morning and lunch stop only. Its sister café, Shu Bakery, opened in May 2026 at Space@Kovan, 9 Yio Chu Kang Road, closer to Hougang.

3. Merci Marcel

The newest name here: the French café-bistro group opened its Serangoon Garden branch at 7 Maju Avenue in May 2026. It fills a two-storey building, with alfresco and air-conditioned seating downstairs and a terrace upstairs. The menu is modern French sharing plates with a strong wine focus, and a retail corner sells cheese, cold cuts and pastries. It suits a long weekend lunch or an evening out rather than a quick coffee.

4. Tiong Bahru Bakery

The bakery chain’s outlet at 8 Maju Avenue is the dependable option: croissants, pastries and coffee, with its website listing 8am to 8pm daily. It is right by the Circus, so it works as a meeting point before a walk around the estate.

5. Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery

Not a café in the modern sense, but a Serangoon Garden institution. This bakery inside the market has been baking since the 1970s, and a May 2026 review lists curry, sambal prawn and kaya buns from about S$1.10 to S$1.50, with opening from 6am to 2pm, Tuesday to Sunday. Pair a bag of buns with kopi from a drinks stall in the same food centre for the cheapest breakfast in the area.

The hawker side

You do not have to choose between cafés and hawker food here. Serangoon Garden Market at 49A Serangoon Garden Way has 46 cooked food stalls and a wet market for daytime meals, and Chomp Chomp Food Centre on Kensington Park Road, with 36 stalls, is the evening and supper spot. Chomp Chomp reopened on 27 January 2026 after repairs and redecoration. Both close briefly for cleaning each quarter: 5 to 6 October 2026 for the market and 14 to 16 December 2026 for Chomp Chomp, per NEA. Our Chomp Chomp and Serangoon Garden Market guide and cleaning schedule have the detail.

Getting there from Hougang Central

• MRT and bus: take the North East Line two stops from Hougang (NE14) to Serangoon (NE12), then a bus along Serangoon Garden Way. Allow roughly 20 to 30 minutes door to door (approximate); use a journey planner for the best service.
• Circle Line: Lorong Chuan (CC14) is the other nearby station, one stop from Serangoon on the Circle Line.
• Future rail: the Cross Island Line’s planned Tavistock station, part of Phase 1, will be closer to the estate. Hougang itself becomes a CRL interchange; see our Cross Island Line map.

What this means for Hougang Central residents

For residents of LinkTown Residences, Serangoon Garden is the nearest place for a proper café crawl, and Kovan is one stop closer still; see cafes in Hougang, and for waterfront brunch further north, cafes in Punggol. Our Serangoon Gardens guide covers the rest of the estate, and our Serangoon condo guide compares the condos nearby. For Hougang Central Residences itself, see the location page and the price guide, where current figures are analysts’ estimates (about S$2,500 to S$2,600 psf) until the developer releases prices.

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