About Us
A cooperative cafe where the history of the past and the connections of the present meet and interact through food.
What We Believe
All Hands is more than an ordinary cafe serving hyped-up food and beverages. "All Hands On The Deck" represents the unpretentious attitude we embrace at this iconic blue shophouse in the heart of Singapore's CBD. Be it an icebreaker handshake, a celebratory high-five, or simply eating a sandwich for lunch, it's all about our daily interactions using our hands.
The name “All Hands” pays tribute to the collective effort behind every culinary experience: our hands that bake and brew and our guests who gather, share, and celebrate. It's all about hands!
Our Food
Every menu item is designed to be both delicious and beautiful plated, because we believe dining should be a feast for all senses.
For example, take the beloved kaya toast and Kopi O Kosong. We extract these flavours and execute them in a modern way using hands whilst ensuring the spirit remains the same. Our home-baked shokupan replaces the traditional toast, a lighter kaya custard and shaved butter gives a modern approach, and sous vide eggs with furikake and kombu infused soy replaces the traditional soft boiled eggs. All menu items are inspired by tradition and are executed with modern techniques.
And for our old friends from Boeuf, we have kept the menu for our previous best sellers. Same food, better execution!
The Experience
All Hands acknowledges crafts of the past, trends that are present and we are prepared to be the forefront of trendsetting the future. By focusing on adaptively reusing heritage spaces, we intentionally give ourselves the challenge to be a transformer of space. This is how we pay tribute to history the All Hands way.
Our first location at Telok Ayer is a shophouse built in 1890s by a Fujian owner and progressively restored in 2020. The stunning blue facade has seen the hands of many previous concepts. We were therefore inspired to create a cafe that embodies the spirit of Telok Ayer: rooted in tradition yet constantly evolving. On the interior, we discovered the existence of concrete mouldings dating back to Qing Dynasty Era and we decided to build a Victorian Bar counter at the entrance of our cafe, a hommage to what would have been the most in-thing back in the days.
The decor and mood of All Hands intentionally juxtaposes with the memories of the the space by rolling the time stamp back to its beginnings. With an All Hands takeover, we put forward the present adaptation of old spaces our way and it will constantly evolve as we build our memories in the space through future from now.