Coal Coffee & Drinkery, Bangsar

Coal is a coffee bar in Bangsar, and the daytime counterpart to Coley — the cocktail parlour that has been working through whisky since 2016. Same people, same room sensibility, steam wands instead of shakers. It opens at 9am.

The point of it is that a bar built for midnight turns out to work rather well before noon.

What to Order at Coal

The kitchen bakes in house, and the savoury end is more considered than most coffee bars attempt: bagels stuffed with chicken, fennel-apple slaw and red pepper in an aquafaba emulsion, and a fried chicken sandwich with ulam raja slaw under a pickled mango butter glaze. For something sweet, the charcoal choux hides a vanilla cremeux inside its dark shell.

Drinks go beyond the espresso menu. Seed pours coffee with almond milk, infused with jackfruit and chestnut, and there is a house-fermented soursop kombucha for anyone starting the day off caffeine.

For a cafe in Bangsar or brunch from the team behind Coley, Coal is the morning half of the same idea.