The Place Lunched just one month ago, Café Brio located at the lobby of Grand Copthorne Waterfront hotel is Singapore’s first ever High Tea Barbecue Buffet. Available only on Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm, we found the concept to be quite different as we usually imagine high tea sessions to be scones or dim sum in a nice display set. The dining area in Café Brio is very spacious, with views of the Singapore river and warm lighting. One of the main highlights was definitely the outdoor barbecue station, where the chef would prepare your choice of local delights such as satay, chicken wings, fried dough fritters, sweet corn and tau pok with bean sprouts.

The Food The style of Café Brio is mainly local delights as well as selected International cuisine such as Japanese sushi. We were more excited by the local delicacies such as braised pork belly with steamed Chinese bun, Nyonya laksa, popiah, kueh pie tee, rojak and bak kut teh.

First stop for us was the highlight of the high tea buffet: the Barbecue station.

We ordered the satay which included chicken, mutton and beef flavours, the chicken wings and Italian sausage.

The Nyonya laksa was prepared on the spot by the chef at the live station to ensure its freshness. We love the laksa, with its rich flavour and awesome chilli paste.

Add as much ingredients as you fancy at the Bak Kut Teh station.

Kueh Pie Tee is one of our favourite Nyonya dishes. We love the idea of making our own Kueh Pie Tee. The Crispy Sweet Pumpkin fritter and Baked Prawn with mango in filo pastry were equally addictive.

Clockwise from left: Kueh Pie Tee, Crispy Sweet Pumpkin fritter, Baked Prawn with mango in filo pastry

How about some Rojak as well? Customise your own rojak at the rojak station!


Cantonese peeps would agree that we could not be having high tea without trying the dim sum spread. Part of the dim sum selection include the Chicken Bao, Siew Mai and Fried Carrot Cake.


We also had some Japanese Temaki where we chose our own ingredients such as salmon and tamago, which the chef would prepare for us.


The dessert selection was a mix of local flavours as well as western pastries. We spotted Nyonya kuehs, tau suan, cupcakes, cheesecake, chocolate fondue station and ice-cream.

$38++ per person, the high tea buffet at Café Brio is quite competitively priced and value for money.


Rants Not everything on the menu deserves your calories. But that said, we ain’t paying high prices for the buffet at Brio’s. tRP suggest Brio’s take out their weaker selections and focus on serving more at its barbeque station, such as sambal stingray, buttered corns – just to name a few!

Will I return again? We may love the western-styled high tea concepts, but tRP hearts local delights too. Cafe Brio’s gives diners the opportunity to savour all the highlights of local food all at once!

TheRantingPanda says:
Taste bud: 3.5/5
Hole in the pocket: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5
Overall Experience: 3/5

Café Brio
Grand Copthorne Waterfront
Havelock Rd, Singapore 169663
Tel: +65 6233 1100

Opening Hours
Every Saturday: 2pm – 5pm