Coffee and camping chairs: Inside JB's roadside cafe scene and where to find them

Before the “healing chair” label caught, JB's late-night cafe scene was built out of car boots and spare chairs. Here’s a guide to the best spots and where it's heading.

The latest wave of Johor Bahru cafes – late-night, alfresco with camping chairs, downtempo pop like Lana del Rey on speakers – caught fire around 2024, away from downtown.

There are a few good reasons for it: These roadside cafes open late, downtown is anathema to the great outdoors, and the scene is, by and large, Malay and young.

The scene has its roots in the COVID-19 lockdowns, when Gen Z began posting shots of camping chairs overlooking calming vistas. JB's spread-out geography and forgiving municipal hand have helped the scene thrive.

While the internet tried popularising the trend under hashtags such as #healingchair, and local youth used terms like “port lepak”, the most accurate name for what this scene actually is remains “roadside cafe”.

And even as the scene scales up into hybrids, many have retained the DNA of the camping chair. Whether operating out of a van or a container on a gravel patch, these are businesses built on the freedom of the road (and roadside).

We checked out nine of these to see if they’re worth your time – roughly ordered by scale and ending with the closest thing this scene has to a spectacle.

1. KOPI KAMPUNG KAK CER

The scene’s spirit is best captured in our first stop. Upon spotting me, the first customer of the night, we were greeted by a broad smile and a “hey, ‘bang” by owner Mohd Rasif. The genuinely warm 45-year-old revealed he had closed his restaurant in December last year and only started the cafe in March, near his home, and has now garnered a healthy following.

My creme brulee iced latte topping was finished off with a torch. Alas, you’ll need insect repellent here – a reminder of the reality of down-to-earth cafes.

Rasif’s last venture, Mood Degil, went viral in view of Santai Camp’s lights across a canal before struggling to keep up with its own popularity and closing in December. That he’s already rebuilding, and still smiling, might be the truest spirit of this whole scene.

Coffee: 9/10 Vibe: 6/10 Service: 8/10 Friendliness: 10/10

Overall: 33/40

Jalan Cekor, Taman Sri Amar, 81100 Johor Bahru. Opens from 5pm to 2am daily except on Sundays.

2. BREWTIFUL COFFEE

This one is hard to miss from the Sultan Ismail highway. Indeed, about “25- to 30 per cent” of customers are Singaporeans en route to the Second Link, reckoned owner Farid Shahbudin.

The 38-year-old has been running a catering business since 2018 but he always dreamed of opening a cafe. He eventually set up in June 2025 at his current spot. With permit applications wending their way through the system, inspectors have visited Farid a couple of times.

“They’ve told me, ‘Maybe don’t put out 20 tables, okay?’ We’re more relaxed here, so we JB people can just try lah,” he quipped.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 7/10 Service: 8/10 Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 31/40

Jalan Rawa, Taman Perling, 81200 Johor Bahru. Opens from 7pm to 2am daily except on Saturdays.

3. J’BEANS COFFEE

Midway through our chat, Norazdi “Didi” Nordin had to excuse himself – a customer had pulled up to his cafe set up in a customised Vellfire MPV. The driver needed only two steps to get from her car to the counter.

“I have bikers, car clubs, coming to support me,” said Didi, 45, crediting his spot just off the Sultan Ismail highway.

Born in Cheras, Didi grew up in Johor where his father worked. After COVID-19 shuttered his two Klang Valley restaurants, he moved here to try a roadside cafe. Starting with a stand in July 2023, he moved operations into his Vellfire six months later, first with a China-made machine before upgrading to two Italian ones.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 6/10 Service: 9/10 Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 31/40

Medan Selera Layang, Jalan Layang 16, Taman Perling, 81200 Johor Bahru. Opens from 7pm daily except Mondays, closes 2am on all days except at 2.30am on Saturdays and 1.30am on Sundays.

4. BUZZ & BEAN COFFEE

Down a quiet Taman Molek street is a gem of a roadside cafe that feels nothing like one – which I almost left out of this list for fear of ruining it. There’s no noisy through-traffic. The cafe’s trailer is parked by the owner’s bungalow, with access via a side door.

Barista Nurul Izzati was all smiles behind the counter, and with Arctic Monkeys and The 1975 setting the mood, this middle-aged customer felt less out of place. A family with three adolescents enjoyed supper chill at the next table. There’s shepherd’s pie from the full kitchen in the bungalow, which once housed a restaurant that shuttered during the pandemic.

Buzz & Bean used to run until midnight but now closes at 2am. “We saw many customers still hanging out at midnight. It made sense to extend the hours,” explained the 22-year-old Izzati.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 10/10 Service: 9/10 Friendliness: 9/10

Overall: 36/40

Jalan Molek 3/19, Taman Molek, 81100 Johor Bahru. Opens from 8pm to 2am daily.

5. KOPI SEMALAM

Kopi Semalam’s toolshed-shaped stand, painted bright yellow, sits at the entrance to the humble neighbourhood of Taman Orkid, off Jalan Tampoi and near shophouses that close early.

An organic sprout run by young adults who live just down the street, its patrons are a mix of young and old Malay residents wandering over from homes nearby. During my visit in July, that included a local feline who joined me at my table. Charming.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 8/10 Service: 8/10 Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 32/40

Jalan Orkid Utama, Taman Orkid, 81200 Johor Bahru. Opens from 8pm to 2am daily except on Wednesdays.

6. RANTING KAFE

Ranting Kafe, in the quaint Kampung Melayu Majidee, is a good example of an established “port lepak” (hangout spot) that has absorbed the camping aesthetic – two-thirds of its chairs are still the plastic lounger sort. The vibe was pleasant but felt more professional than warm. The barista helpfully replied in English, but others seemed disinterested. One waiter answered a query with two words before returning his phone.

With a digital footprint going back to early 2025, Ranting has a great elevated spot with a view of the train tracks. The RM12 (S$3.75) tiramisu latte is also worth a visit.

Coffee: 9/10 Vibe: 8/10 Service: 8/10 Friendliness: 5/10

Overall: 30/40

4 Jalan Kenangan, Kampung Melayu Majidee, 81100 Johor Bahru. Opens from 5pm to 1.30am daily.

7. RENJANA BY KAFENATIK

Mohd “Wan” Redzuan lost his job as a chef in a Chinese-cuisine central kitchen when COVID hit. He tried Grab delivery, a bottled-coffee hustle, and finally a stand next to a friend's roadside burger stall.

“The camping concept is easy to install and easy to pack up,” Wan told me, noting it was a common roadside stall practice during the pandemic.

Renjana is a hybrid: indoor tables for families and older regulars, camping chairs on the gravel for smaller groups, built steadily over four years despite being hidden from the main road. “It took about a year for people to find us,” he said. “Word of mouth has helped much.”

My welcome was more measured than at most places – a barista's polite once-over, a house rule quietly but firmly enforced. Nothing unkind, just business, and Wan caught up with me at the gate for a handshake and a genuine thank you. I'd bring my parents here. Renjana’s gorgeous, and proper.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 10/10 Service: 9/10 Friendliness: 7/10

Overall: 34/40

6 Jalan Cendana, Kampung Dato Sulaiman Menteri, 81100 Johor Bahru. Opens from 6pm to midnight daily except on Wednesdays.

8. KOPI 3 PAGI

It’s past midnight on a Tuesday, and this hybrid is heaving with Gen Z souls. There are over 80 patrons at roughly 25 outdoor tables on the road and grass corridor before the highway, with more inside the shophouse. As its name makes clear, Kopi 3 Pagi stays open until 3am, 5am on Fridays and Saturdays.

Owner Abdullah “Mus” Musab, 26, said he and his friends built the cafe he couldn’t find elsewhere. "We wanted to lepak until 3am, but there was no cafe like this," Mus told me. He added that their earliest regulars were F&B workers finishing late shifts near Aeon Tebrau (16km away).

Mus picked this spot in Sierra Perdana, way out east past Senibong Cove, as it’s right on the JB East Coast Parkway, catching both JB regulars and Singapore-bound traffic.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 8/10 Service: 7/10 Friendliness: 8/10

Overall: 31/40

32 Jalan Sierra Perdana 4/1, Taman Sierra Perdana, 81750 Masai. Opens from 8pm to 3am daily, extending to 5am on Friday and Saturday nights.

9. SANTAI CAMP

The best time to visit Santai Camp is before dusk, when you can enjoy the setting of the sun when the crowds have yet to arrive. You’ll get a near-complete 360-degree view of magic hour.

Massive and well-maintained, Santai Camp’s roughly 50 tables are neatly rowed while big tents line the edges for VIP groups. It’s packed on weekends – a rough headcount in late-July had their patronage at 250.

Started in 2023, Santai Camp never had any gritty roadside roots. It’s what the scene looks like once fully scaled up, with an army of staffers and a kitchen stretching over three containers. It’s polished, impeccable and Instagrammable.

Coffee: 8/10 Vibe: 7/10 Service: 8/10 Friendliness: 5/10

Overall: 28/40

Padang C, Angsana Johor Bahru Mall, Bandar Baru Uda, 81200 Johor Bahru. Opens from 6pm to 2am daily.