Student-friendly home cafes: 5 spots near polytechnics and ITE reviewed

SINGAPORE – The home cafe scene in Singapore is exploding, with hundreds such businesses set up since the start of 2025. Home-based cafe directory Acuppa has 523 listed on its website, up from just five one year ago.

However, most home cafes are only open on weekends and often located in housing estates and flats. This makes it mostly inconvenient for students to patronise them.

If you are a student craving a coffee fix near your school and feel like trying something different from your run-of-the-mill coffee shops, TL;DR susses out five different home cafes open on weekdays which might just be located near your chosen institute of higher learning.

Location: 753 Woodlands Circle
Instagram:

@ziffykopirealtor

Tucked away on the first floor of an HDB block in Woodlands is Ziffy Kopi Estate, a home-based cafe located a mere 10-minute walk from Republic Polytechnic (RP). 

Customers need to use the cafe’s website to select their drink and a time slot to pick it up. Payment is made online by card or through payment app PayNow.

Ziffy’s menu only has 10 items, but features most staple drinks available at other specialty coffee shops such as lattes, mochas and even matcha. The cafe does not presently offer alternative milk options.

Beverages range from $3 to $6, which makes it cheaper than other specialty coffee places.

We tried the caffe latte with vanilla syrup ($6) and the matcha latte ($5). 

The cafe latte was not too bitter or acidic; the matcha latte had a strong umami flavour, and was very smooth. Overall, the drinks were of high quality, especially given the relatively accessible prices. 

Ziffy Kopi Estate is open every day, weekends included, from 9.30 am to 2 pm.

Location: 885A Tampines Street 83
Instagram:

@tdg.cafe

A leisurely 5-minute walk takes you from Temasek Polytechnic’s main gate to TDG Cafe, which specialises in artisanal coffee and matcha drinks.

Ordering and payment – only PayNow accepted – take place via the cafe’s website. After paying, customers send an auto-generated message with their order and collection time to TDG through WhatsApp. They are informed of the pick-up point for the drinks after payment.

Offering more than 20 beverages, TDG stands out for its unique flavours such as biscoff, lychee and peanut butter. It also offers seasonal flavours, such as pumpkin spice coffee and matcha in October and November.

Customers get to choose between dairy and oat milk, as well as mix and match different drink flavours with cold foam toppings.

We ordered a DIY matcha ($6.90 with an additional $1 top-up for oat milk) and a DIY coffee ($6.90). For our matcha, we chose a blueberry-flavoured drink with pumpkin spice cold foam.

For the coffee, we chose a Lavender cold foam, which was sweet, creamy and complimented the coffee well.

Opening hours are updated weekly and can be found on the website.

Location: 18 Brookvale Drive, Ki Residences
Instagram:

@sip.inn.matcha

One of the closest home cafes to Ngee Ann Polytechnic is Sip Inn, a home-based business that sells freshly bottled matcha beverages from a condominium next to Maju camp.

It took us 20 minutes to reach the cafe but thankfully, delivery is available for those who want to skip the stroll and get their drinks quickly.

Ordering and payment are made via the cafe’s website. After making your payment, you will receive the cafe owners’ contact details, and get in touch to plan when and where to collect your order.

Sip Inn caters to matcha lovers, offering 11 Japanese tea beverages, including more uncommon drink options such as yuzu matcha, kaya matcha and gula melaka matcha.

Also offered are tea beverages such as hojicha (roasted Japanese green tea) and wakoucha (Japanese black tea). Unfortunately for coffee lovers, there are no coffee options available.

There are various drink customisation options for each beverage – customers can adjust sweetness and creaminess levels for no extra charge. There are also non-dairy milk options available for some drinks for an additional charge.

We ordered the dark chocolate hojicha latte ($6) and the kaya matcha latte ($6). The dark chocolate complimented the smoky taste of the hojicha latte well, while the kaya matcha latte had a strong pandan flavour. It was also clear that the tea used to make both drinks was of high quality, with strong umami notes.

Sip Inn is open every weekday except Tuesday from 9 am to 8 pm, and on weekends from 9 am to 9 pm.

Location: Block 539 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, Cheng San View
Instagram:

@boopandbrew

Boop and Brew, a home-based food and beverage business located on the 24th floor of an HDB block in Ang Mo Kio, is a 10-minute walk from NYP and directly across ITE College Central.

Boop and Brew’s drink menu is fairly basic for a home cafe, offering only five drink options. But the place makes up for its relatively limited menu by offering a selection of financiers – French almond cakes – in different flavours, including pistachio, chocolate and Earl Grey. 

Drink prices range from $4.50 to $6.50 while baked offerings cost between $1.80 and $2.20. Oat milk for beverages is available for an additional $1.

The cafe allows customers to pre-order menu items via direct messaging on Instagram, but also accepts walk-in customers who order at the door.

We ordered a London fog matcha latte ($6.50), which was Earl-Grey flavoured, and a strawberry matcha latte ($6.50). The former had a strong, fragrant tea aroma; the latter had real strawberry pieces in the puree and was refreshing.

Boop and Brew is open on Fridays from 11.30 am to 1.30 pm and on Sunday from 1 pm to 3pm.

Location: 6 Holland Close, Singapore
Instagram:

@thatplace.sg

That Place.SG, a home cafe near Holland Village MRT, is a 20-minute walk from Singapore Polytechnic. If you take public transport, it is two stops away by MRT and five by bus.

The cafe’s menu currently features more than 15 beverages — beyond the usual coffee and matcha lattes, That Place.SG also serves non-dairy drinks, such as coffee drinks served with various juices and lemonades.

Ordering and payment are done via the cafe’s website, and there are several pick-up points that you can select to collect your drink based on whether you are walking or driving in.

We ordered Butter Cookies ($7.50), an espresso coffee drink with butter jam, and Garden Breeze ($7.00), which blended matcha with apple juice and yuzu jam. The first drink lived up to its name, and had a creamy, buttery aftertaste; and the crisp apple juice in the Garden Breeze paired surprisingly well with the umami kick of the matcha.

The cafe opens from 12 pm to 2 pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 10 am to 4 pm on weekends.

Customers should check the home cafes’ social media to confirm opening hours before heading over. TL;DR visited the businesses incognito and paid for the meals.