Jing Studio by Day, BAR KAP by Night: A Day in the House Of Tan Yeok Nee
Most buildings pick a mood and stick with it. The House of Tan Yeok Nee doesn’t. Step through its gates before noon and you’ll find Jing Studio, tucked into its own corner of the mansion, slow and steam-filled. Return after dark and the rest of the house has woken up as BAR KAP, lit low, drinks in hand, conversation carrying further than it should. Same roof, but two very different rooms keeping two very different hours.
That shift, from tea to cocktails, from daylight to candlelight, is really the whole story of a day inside this house. It isn’t two separate venues stitched together. It’s one mansion with two working hours, and each one gives the space a different reason to be there.
Morning Starts with Tea
By day, the house belongs to Jing Studio, a tea house on Orchard Road tucked into a quieter corner of the mansion. A Tea Master works from a small table here, moving through single-estate leaves and blended pours with the kind of attention that doesn’t rush for anyone.
A few pours worth knowing before lunch:
- Ember Road – black tea from Fengqing, honeyed and velvety with dried apricot
- Phoenix Spring – oolong from Chaozhou, fresh honeysuckle and crisp mineral notes
- Coco Pulut Pu-erh – dark tea from Menghai, served with coconut milk, rich and earthy
- Herbal Nectar – caffeine-free rooibos blended with longan, rose and jujube
- Pearl & Petal – white tea from Fuzhou, soft jasmine and sweet nectar
There’s no performance to any of it. Ceramics warm slowly, steam rises, and the pour takes exactly as long as it takes. Jing Studio is open daily from 10am to 7pm.
Evening Belongs to BAR KAP
Once the sun drops, the same house reopens as BAR KAP, and the mood changes completely. Four rooms, one house, each carrying a different chapter of the building’s history into the glass. The Main Hall fills first, gathering people around its long communal table, before guests drift into the Carriage Room for something quieter, or into The Chamber for a smaller, more private pour. The drinks menu itself moves through the house’s history in four chapters, Kapitan, Stationmaster, Order and Dynasty, each one lending its mood to a different set of pours.
A few pours worth knowing before you go:
- Manifest – lean, textured and quietly aromatic, linking sherry, nashi, purple rice and sesame
- Tank Road – smoky, shaken and high-energy, with citrus, bay and grapefruit cutting through Scotch
- Censer – smoky, bitter, tropical and sparkling, with pineapple cutting through the mezcal and Campari
- Black Lacquer – dark, glossy and generous: coconut rum, cold brew kopi, cherry wine and molasses
On the food side, Mee Kapitan and the BAR KAP Bao carry the mains, while the Ice Cream Sandwich closes things out. Several drinks also spend time resting in traditional purple clay vessels, part of a clay-ageing programme that’s the first of its kind in Singapore. BAR KAP is open daily from 5pm to midnight.
One House, Worth The Full Day
Together, tea by day and cocktails by night make this one of the few places in Singapore where a single building can genuinely hold your whole day, without ever feeling repetitive.
If that sounds like your kind of day out, book a table at BAR KAP and see which hour suits you best.