Fivebar – a canteen-style izakaya without waitstaff

Remember Hans at Great Eastern Centre? It’s been taken over by a izakaya called Fivebar and a canteen called FIVE Square, which might have caught your eye when you walked past, with its fantastic light fixtures and warm woody interiors. But next time, don’t just pass by – make it a dining destination with friends and family.

With five stalls offering different cuisines, a bar ($5 specials all day, everyday) and live music, you can be sure that you’ll find something you’ll like.

FIVE Square, which houses Cin.qo Tapas (Spanish), Omnivore (salads and grilled meats), Gogibox (Korean), Teppei Syokudo (Japanese) and Grub Noodle (Chinese) uses a digital service solution to take orders. There are no waiters; one simply orders and pays for their food at the e-kiosks installed at each stall. When your food is ready, you’ll receive an SMS alert. Barhoppers at Fivebar can order food from FIVE Square as well, and eat it in the premises of the bar while listening to live music.

The e-kiosks were easy to use and some of them even allowed for customisation of orders. You can pay for your meal by NETS or credit card. This method of ordering and payment brought to mind the digital service solutions widely used in the city areas of Japan – it really saves a lot of manpower and streamlines the workflow tremendously.

And the food is tasty and reasonably priced, too! Here are some of the dishes we tasted that night:

Our food took about 10 to 15 minutes to be prepared and we happily occupied ourselves chit chatting and taking pictures whilst waiting.

Fivebar

Address: 1 Pickering Street, Great Eastern Centre