Hvala at Odeon Towers: Singapore's Matcha Cafe Near Me With Four Grades

Hvala ranks its matcha the way a wine bar ranks pours. The flagship at #01-11 Odeon Towers, 333 North Bridge Road, sells four grades, from the approachable Hoshi at $6.80 a bowl to the dense Sei at $11.50, all whisked straight with no milk. Doors open at 11am Sunday to Friday and at noon on Saturday. For anyone in the City Hall and Bras Basah area searching matcha cafe near me, this is the shop that lets you taste the difference between ceremonial and advanced ceremonial grade side by side.

Odeon Towers is a landmark office block on North Bridge Road, and the cafe occupies a ground-floor unit, #01-11, so there are no lifts or basement corridors to navigate. From City Hall MRT, on the North-South and East-West lines, the walk takes about six minutes. The address to type into a map is 333 North Bridge Road, Singapore 188721. If an afternoon storm rolls in, Raffles City's underground links from City Hall station cut part of the walk.

Most Singapore cafes sell one matcha and change the milk. Hvala publishes tasting notes for each grade on its menu. Hoshi is described as smooth and medium-bodied with a malty creaminess; Haru, at $7.80 straight, is sharper with a crisp aftertaste; Mori, $11.50, is fresh and rounded; and Sei, also $11.50, is whisked with less water so the umami is more pronounced. Ordering Hoshi and Sei together is the cheapest way to understand what the extra five dollars buys.

As lattes the same grades cost more and taste softer. A Hoshi latte is $7.50, Haru $8.50, and Mori or Sei $13.50, made with fresh milk foam; soy adds 20 cents, oat milk adds a dollar, and ice adds another dollar. Among the flavoured lattes, the Strawberry Matcha and the Matcha Goma with sesame are both $7.80, while the Banana Pudding Tea Latte, made with a vegan pudding, is $9. The blended Matcha Ice Blend is $8 without milk.

The October special is the Crème Brûlée Cheese Cold Brew at $8.80, a cold-brewed 1925 oolong topped with house-made cream cheese and parmesan foam that the menu says should be sipped through the topping. It is a fun detour, but if you came for matcha, skip it and put the money toward a Sei instead. Tea drinkers who want something greener can order a hot gyokuro at $14.90, brewed with less water for a short, intense cup.

The kitchen is more than a pastry case. The Matcha Kaya Toast, $10.90, is brioche with two slabs of butter, eggs and Hvala's own matcha kaya, a local breakfast reworked with tea; hojicha and genmaicha versions cost the same. A Matcha Kaya Croissant is $8.90. For something savoury, the karaage at $12 comes dusted with tencha, the fries are topped with tencha and seaweed for $10, and the soba bowls run from $17.90 for tofu and mushroom to $22.90.

On weekdays the shop opens at 11am and dine-in orders close at 8:10pm, with hot food stopping five minutes later. Saturdays shift an hour later, noon to 9:30pm, with dine-in orders until 9:10pm. Late morning on a weekday is the easiest time to get a table before the office lunch crowd arrives from the surrounding towers. If the dining room is full, takeaway orders are accepted until 8:20pm on weekdays, and the front counter moves quickly.

If you need tea before 11am, Hvala's branch at Raffles Specialist Centre, 585 North Bridge Road, opens at 9am daily and runs until 7pm, about a twelve-minute walk up the same road toward Bugis. It serves soup and shio pan as well as tea, which makes it the better choice for an early start. For an Orchard Road day, the Takashimaya outlet at #B2-28 Ngee Ann City opens at 10:30am from Sunday to Thursday.

The flagship works for two very different kinds of visit. One is the working lunch: soba, karaage and an iced latte, ordered fast and eaten within the hour. The other is the slow tasting, two bowls of straight matcha with the menu's tasting notes open beside them. Staff field grade questions all day, so asking which matcha suits a first visit is normal here, and the four-tier list is printed with flavour notes precisely so you can compare before you pay.

Hvala, pronounced fa-lah, takes its name from the Croatian word for thank you, according to the brand's own site. Ladyironchef reported in 2019 that the business began in 2015 selling egglet waffles before turning into an all-matcha cafe, and waffles still appear at its other outlets. Today Hvala runs four Singapore branches plus a shop in Jakarta, sells matcha wholesale and runs matcha workshops, with Odeon Towers as the flagship where the full tea list is poured.

CHIJMES, the former convent at 30 Victoria Street, is about five minutes away and its white Gothic chapel and courtyard are free to wander. Continue to the Bras Basah area for the National Library on Victoria Street, or cross to the Esplanade Park side via the Padang. If you prefer shopping, Raffles City and the Capitol are both within a few minutes of the cafe.

Menu prices at Hvala are before service charge and GST, so expect the bill to come out higher than the menu numbers. The brand does not publish a phone number for the flagship; questions go through its website, which also lists pre-order and pick-up options. Nutri-grade labels on the menu are calculated on the less-sweet version of each drink. Both oat and soy milk are available for those avoiding dairy, and the Banana Pudding latte's pudding is vegan.

Hvala suits curious drinkers who want to learn what matcha grades mean without a formal ceremony, and groups who need real food alongside their tea. It is less suited to anyone who wants a silent tea room; lunchtime is busy and casual. Open the Karpo APP to compare Hvala's four Singapore branches by opening hour and line up a walk to CHIJMES afterward.