RESTAURANT: The Tippling Club

I was totally taken with my visit to Melbourne's Der Raum bar last year, so I was super hyped for this trip to The Tippling Club, a fine-diner with dishes matched to Der Raum-esque cocktails (Der Raum creator Matthew Bax is also behind this place).

Kick things off with a cocktail, obviously. Superb balance of flavours, every single one of them.

I opt for the longer "gourmand" menu, which begins with a parade of snacks. There's vichyssoise in a sort of tube/spoon you drink from, a pot plant filled with truffle mousse and truffle salt, a deconstructed curry puff, a couple more, we haven't even hit the first course yet. They're all delicious and packed with flavour.

The food is unapologetically modernist, with chef's background at Vue de Monde showing, as well as a strong influence from the likes of WD-50 and El Bulli. A lot of people saw this style of food as a bit of a passing fad and moved on to the next fad of local/natural ingredients, but that completely ignores the simple fact that this food is ridiculously fun. I can't remember the last time I grinned like an idiot when I was given a sheer plate with nothing but an edible leaf that the chef found down the road.

A piece of scampi is served with noodles made out of dashi and some sea grapes. Like a rich bowl of ramen. Nice. The matched cocktail of sake, plum wine, citrus and honey is insanely refreshing and smooth.

Everything is served in the bar/kaiseki style, with the chefs coming out to the counter present dishes, closely followed by the bartender with the drinks. The kitchen is open, so you sit at the counter and watch it all unfold.

Foie gras beer is the sort of dish I was hoping for. A cylinder of foie gras contains a beer syrup and gets served with a crumble and some meringue. A nod to their friends at Sydney's Bentley, who have a similar dish. The dish wins because of the cocktail pairing, which is to the "fake blonde", a drink that looks like a white beer, tastes a like a white beer beer, but also includes tequila, ginger and lime.

A few more dishes follow and it's getting impossible to ignore the size of the flavours in each dish. Carrot gnocchi comes with a carrot broth that is intensely carroty and vinegared. Wagyu from Kagoshima is matched with spicey, tart umeboshi. But it's the main course, pork with milk skin and truffle puree that is the big finale. The fat of the pork only helps to carry the flavour of the hugely truffley, salty flavour of the puree.

While the flavours may be huge, the dishes work. Every element on the plate comes through and plays a roll.

The first dessert, though, is a real tester of your tolerance level. Poorly pictures above, is pretty much a huge, deconstructed licorice allsort, with the flavours all turned way up. Truly mammoth anise bombards the palate, egged on by sharp citrus. The puree on the plate is no relief: more anise. A sip of the cocktail to dilute the flavour? Forget about it. The van gogh is big on flavour too, combining absinthe, honey and rosemary. Thankfully, it all tastes awesome so the upped flavours are welcomed.

Still, I was happy that the final dessert of textured milk was a more relaxing affair.

All up, a top meal full of great drinks, great food and great service. As big on the flavour as it was on the fun.


The Tippling Club
8D Dempsey Rd

Misc Singapore Eats

When the heat gets too much around here, cooling off quickly is a must. This cendol ice from Mei Heong Yuen in Chinatown was outstanding for both cooling off with and eating. It comes with a squirt bottle of palm sugar syrup so you can get the perfect level of sweetness with every bite.


Kaya, the thick, coconut egg jam, is a great way to start the day if you want to immediately feel sleepy again.

I headed to a nearby Ya Kun (a chain that specialises in kaya toast) to get my fix. Too add a bit of luxury/fat, I got it spread on french toast.


Speaking of things that are sweet and bready, this abomination is a fried hot dog bun, filled with matcha flavoured soft serve. Fantastic, basically. Should you too wish to embrace an early death, follow the sweet smell near Food Opera in the basement of the ION Orchard shopping centre.


Before coming to Singapore, you'll no doubt do a google search for "best hawker stalls" and/or "best chicken rice in Singapore". The results of said search will almost definitely include the hugely popular Tian Tian Chicken Rice in the Maxwell Food Centre. While the jury is still on out where the best chicken rice is in Singapore, the long lines (studded with tourists, since this place is popular with said lot) at this place every lunch time are a good indication of it's quality. Get there early and you won't need to wait long.

The skin is glossy and smooth, the meat tender, the soup and rice both deliciously fragrant. Mix it with the dark soy, chilli and ginger and you've got a damn fine meal. Just don't be a greedy fool like me and eat half a chicken all on your own as the entree to a lunchtime feast.


A few stalls down from Tian Tian is Maxwell Fuzhou Oyster Cake. This is a must buy. $2 gets you a sensationally crisp and flavoursome fritter, stuffed with oyster and prawn. The filling is soft and smooth, the skin is perfectly crisp and a couple of nuts on top add a nice crunch.

Tastes great with a lime drink from the drinks stall opposite.

Also nice at Maxwell was the char kway teow at Marina South, the sardine and chicken curry puffs from Tanglin Crispy Curry Puffs and the drinks from the iced tea stand at the entrance.


Not too far away from Maxwell Food Centre, surrounded by a bevy of shit tourist shops, is the Chinatown Complex food centre. It's far bigger than Maxwell, with around 250 stalls offering up a massive selection of tasty things. It's almost overwhelming how much stuff is here.

Slightly overwhelming too is the general dinge of the place. With a roof over the head, disparate smells slam into eachother, strange puddles lurk around every bend, bowls are cleaned in water that has been used countless times and many surfaces appear highly questionable.

But get past that by telling yourself that it can get much worse in other places and there are some awesome choices on offer in a mostly tourist free environment. The old rule still holds true: the longer the line the better the food. That said, some of the longest lines are for some stuff that marginally adventurous white boys like me don't really want to go near.

In the midst of all of this, it's a little surprising to find a stall selling really bloody decent craft beer. Wash down whatever you're having with something from Rochefort, Rogue or Stone.

Or do what I did and opt for a beer made with delicious, delicious honeydew:


Finally a honeydew I can get fucked up on.


They also have some offerings from Jungle Beer, Singapore's own craft brewer. This stout is huge on the malt and would go great with some of the nearby food.


I'm a sucker for a steamed bun, so this one filled with otah (a paste/cake made from minced horse mackerel) captured my eye. Pungent and oddly pleasing. I got this from a stall at the basement of the Takasinaya shopping centre.

RESTAURANT: Iggy's

After a day spent eating and returning to the hotel room to digest, the prospect of dinner didn't sound too inviting, even if the venue was going to be Iggy's, perhaps Singapore's best regarded restaurant.

But I'm a trooper, so I sucked it up, showered off the shame (mental note: bring steel wool next time) and headed up Orchard Road to the Hilton.

I'm beginning to enjoy the heat of Singapore. A humid day in Sydney sticks out and makes you feel uncomfortable as the city layout forces you to walk long distances. Here, the constant heat is like a cross between an embrace from nature and a never-ending class of bikram yoga. But if you get tired of it, just head indoors and enjoy some air conditioning somewhere.

(there's an egg under there, somewhere)

So, Iggy's, right.

My old pal sea urchin is up first, paired with a cauliflower puree and ponzu jelly. Refreshing, cooling, smooth and rich all at once.

A couple of other snacks follow. Sushi, wagyu tartare, vacherin cheese on bread with a slice of truffle, a deboned chicken wing (nuts; so good). All are delicious and come matched with a sparkling sake.

The main courses are pretty much modern French with some Asian influences. Smeared sauces rule supreme.

Tomato with a gazpacho jelly is ridiculously clean in flavour and cooling right down to the soul (even washing away the remaining shame).

The foie gras dish is probably the only dish that is just "good". A poached section sits on a cube of deep fried tofu with sauteed rocket, a sherry reduction and some yuzu zest. It kind of reminds me of lemon chicken.

The next course is the one pictured above. A poached egg with some poultry jus and mushrooms is buried hitchhiker-like in a shallow grave of black truffle from Alba.

The main course of pigeon with lentils and an orangey beetroot puree/smear is well executed too.

Desserts are excellent. First is a dish of flowers with raspberry, yoghurt, lychee sorbet and lime. Super floral and tropical, it's paired brilliantly to a tokaji.

Then to a combination of a chocolate tart, hazelnut biscuit, coconut ice cream and some sort of meringue that may have had a helping hand from liquid nitrogen (the dish is presented still smoking).

Overall, a very high quality meal. It never gets too "modern" and leans more to just getting good produce and cooking it well with very strong, clear flavours.

Service is as expected for this sort of level of dining.

Food and wine will set you back around SPD$450, which is pretty reasonable considering the quality of the produce and how big the wine pours are (pretty much full glasses with every course).


Iggy's
L3, The Hilton
581 Orchard Road

RESTAURANT: Waku Ghin

Bang. Probably the most expensive meal I've ever had. By the time you add in decent booze, service, tax, etc, etc, you're up for around SPD$1k. Per person.

I've been super curious about this place since it opened. There are probably two commonly and mutually inclusive opinions held regarding Tetsuya's in Sydney:
1. There's no denying it was one of the most influential restaurants in terms of Sydney/Australian fine dining.
2. It's probably slipped a bit in recent years as its peers have pushed on from strength to strength.

So I find myself in the bullshit exorbitant casino cum hotel cum tourist-dollar-draining destination that is the Marina Bay Sands "facility" for Tets' omakase cum tepanyaki joint.


We start with two perfect oysters with finger limes, then move on to the above, sea urchin with marinated shrimp and osetra caviar. The signature dish of sorts. It's exactly as incredible as you think.

The restaurant is split into quasi private rooms that seat 4-6 people and have a dedicated chef that presents the food, cooks it, explains it, etc.

Our personal chef is first involved with the Alaskan king crab, steamed on a bed of rice with a simple lemon and olive oil dressing. Incredibly good crab, cooked perfectly.

Chef also smashes the Canadian lobster dish out of the park before we're presented with some squab (pigeon) with foie gras and black truffle risotto. Ridiculous combination of flavours, let down slightly by the temperature of the squab, which is starting to cool a little.

Wagyu heralds the return of chef, who cooks up the ridiculously marbled beef very quickly over the grill with a little seasoning. There's no real surprise that it melts in the mouth and freakin' explodes with flavour.

We finish with a chicken consomme with rice and snapper (great) and a glass of gyokuro green tea, which is served luke warm to emphasise the texture and flavour of the tea (also great).

With savoury out of the way we move into the sitting room for desserts of a blueberry cheesecake and a chocolate mousse cake.

Service is very good throughout, finding the balance between chatty and formal, depending on what the guest wanted.

Prices, as I mentioned above, are insane. It's $450 (I think) just for food, excluding tax, service charge and beverages. Without a matching wine offering you also have the opportunity to overorder on the booze, with a decent sake list offering significant temptation (the wine list I found a bit dull and in need of some more obscure/interesting choices).

My only gripe was that the meal felt a bit quick. Despite being in the chef's room for most of the meal, the chef only prepared 4 of the 10 courses in front of us and once it got going, it stopped. I left feeling quite full, but I think that perhaps a bit more time in the chef's room with an additional two or three courses would have been perfect.

Overall though, this dining concept absolutely smashes Tetsuya's Sydney offering. The experience is more visceral and engaging, whereas the Sydney restaurant is just one of many offering a similar thing. I understand that there are barriers to delivering something similar in Sydney, but perhaps there is a middle ground that can be found.


Waku Ghin
L2, Marina Bay Sands
10 Bayfront Ave

RESTAURANT: Long Beach

No culinary visit to Singapore can be completed without a serve of crab.

Along with Jumbo and No Signpost, Long Beach is held up as one of the best known seafood restaurants in Singapore specialising in Singapore chilli crab. All have multiple branches across the city. I choose the Long Beach at Dempsey, purely because it's closest. It's certainly not for the decor.


I couldn't decide between getting a black pepper crab or a chilli crab, so I decided to get both being the hungry/greedy guy that I am.

But first an appetiser. The very phallic geoduck clam, flown in live from Canada, sliced and stirfried with XO sauce. Delicious.

The crabs arrive and the staff are on hand to help out with extracting the meat from the shell, given that seeing someone struggle so badly with a crab is a somewhat saddening experience for them.

There's a rumour around these parts that the crabs get so big and fat because they eat the bodies that are ceremoniously buried in the river in Sri Lanka, where they come from. The system must work, because these crabs rock. Forget cremation. The future is CRABmation.

The black pepper crab is the first to be extracted. The crab is stir fried in a Sri Lankan black pepper sauce. Peppery, spicey, salty, slightly sour. And the crab is covered in it. Said crab is packed with sweet meat and matches perfectly with the sauce. It's excellent.

Next up, the famous Singapore chilli crab. One of the 432 national dishes of Singapore. This time the crab is every sweeter and more succulent. It bathes in huge bowl of tomatoey, eggy, spicey sauce. It's almost so good you could eat it on it's own. But you'd probably die, given how rich it is. Still, smash the crab, drown the side of fried mantou (bread sticks) and eat as much sauce as you need to clog your arteries and see God.

Wash it down with beer. Thank God for such an epic meal. Don't walk towards the light.


Long Beach @ Dempsey
25 Dempsey Road

BAR: JiBiru

I didn't want to be one of those lame tourists that uses Singapore's humidity as an excuse to down a beer every excuse he gets.

But across the road from the hotel I found a bar that specialises in Japanese craft beer. Sold.

JiBiru offers up a few beers on tap, as well as around 20 bottles in the fridge. It ranges from a few Japanese names (they're big on Hitachino Nest) to some other selections from the rest of the world.


This is the Nagoya Red Miso Ale from the Kinshachi brewery. Quite tasty. And, yes, containing red miso as the name suggests.

I was also quite excited to see this in the fridge (not on the menu):


It's the 3 Day beer from Hitachino Nest. Limited to 8000 bottles. During last years earthquake in Japan, the brewery got hit and had to be closed for 3 days. There was a beer that had already started brewing in that time, which meant the mashing period extended to 3 days, with the beer sitting inside a tank that had tilted. It caused a lactic reaction inside, which gives the beer a unique, fruity, sour flavour.

They also do food at JiBiru (yakitori sort of stuff), but I didn't give it a try.

I still have a few more days in Singapore. No doubt I'll be returning a few times.


JiBiru Craft Beer Bar
313@Somerset
313 Orchard Road

RESTAURANT: Ippudo

Part of a franchise that has outlets around the world. Handily, located in the shopping mall out the front of my hotel.

Most people come here for the tonkatsu ramen.


It's not bad. Nice, porky broth, noodles with a good bite to them. Only one piece of pork that isn't quite fatty enough. Sydney's Gumshara slays it though.

They also have pork buns and shrimp buns that have a good wrap, so I gave them a go too.


Again, not bad. The buns are perfect, but both are a bit light on filling.


Ippudo
L4, Mandarin Gallery
333 Orchard Road

RESTAURANT: Shinji by Kanesaka

In some ways, Shinji by Kanesaka is the eponymous fine-dining restaurant in Singapore. Want stupidly good ingredients? Fly them in from Tokyo every day. Want a 2 starred chef to open a place? Fly him in. Just make sure it's all shiok because these locals are a picky lot.

While it may be located in the upmarket Raffles Hotel, you walk in an Shinji transports you to a small omakase den in Japan. You sit at the bench with a dozen or so other people in front of one of the sushi chefs and order one of the set menus. Of course, you have to go for the ultimate: the omakase shin menu. $450 just for food. Countless tastes and some fairly exotic stuff.

I was expecting a somewhat subdued and respectable feel to the place, but everyone is having fun, shouting across the room, drinking sake with the sushi chef.

The parade begins. Amazing, pristine sushi. One after the other. First sashimi, then nigiri.

Different cuts of the best tuna I've ever had in my life, including fatty tuna that just melts in the mouth. Two different types of sea urchin, arc shell clam, hairy crab, mackeral, lobster, codfish liver (insane. Similar to foie gras), abalone, prawns, insane blue prawn roe, sea eel, on and on and on.

One dish was just ridiculous. Earlier, chef served two types of sea urchin, from different coasts of Japan, and asked which I preferred. Here, he brings back my favourite, mixes it with rice, tops with tuna (I think) minced with daikon and tops that with salmon roe. Borderline tears.

It all concludes with a big wedge of the stupidly expensive Japanese musk melon. Similar to a honeydew, but impossibly ripe and juicy.

A tremendously memorable and enjoyable experience. Staggeringly good seafood. I'll be sure to return if I come back to Singapore.

Around $600 with sake.


Shinji by Kanesaka
L2, Raffles Hotel
1 Beach Road

RESTAURANT: Restaurant Andre

As the date of departure grew closer, I was spending increasing amounts of my time thinking of how to describe what everyone had assured me would be the punishing heat an humidity of Singapore.

To arrive and find it only marginally irritating caused much confusion. I wasn't sweating out of strange places, I wasn't melting from within and I wasn't asking street vendors for water by pointing with a shakey, dehydrated arm.

Instead of suffering, I mostly spent my first day walking around, trying to put my finger on the smell that permeates much of the surrounds and wondering how my appetite would be on this trip.

The first night was spent at one of Singapore's well-known fine dining restaurants: Restaurant Andre.


You initially want to hate Restaurant Andre when you sit down and get bombarded with "The Octophilosophy", which is used as the basis to dictate the entire evening. 8 vague buzz words like "salt" and "artisan" frame each dish but the jury is out as to whether explaining the philosophy of a dish adds anything to it.

Nevertheless, you're told that there is only one set menu and get hit with a selection of appetisers sitting in an edible soil (garlic and chocolate), matched to a biodynamic, natural wine. The latter sets the tone for the meal, with all matching wines coming from small, natural producers in France.

The appetisers are, as expected, a bit of a riff on common dishes like fish and chips (a small piece of fish wrapped in potato), butter chicken (chicken skin with marsala spices) and patatas bravas (a small roasted potato topped with 2 sauces).

Then the first proper dish arrives and we get tentacle deep in the octophilosophy.

The dish is presented, the philosophy is explained, and the waiter adds "I hope you enjoy [buzz word]" before leaving.

As with most Singaporean restaurants, ingredients are pretty much entirely imported. One dish ("terroir") all comes from France.

Smoked eggplant with duck's tongues, fried salsify and smoked eggplant finally reveals what the smell of Singapore is. It's also a cracking dish.

It's later slightly amended with the eggs in the foie gras pudding with truffle sauce (a bloody good dish).

Seafood features heavily on the menu and one dish is a glorious presentation of the sea, with cured fish, roasted bass (?) and peach sorbet providing a nice hot/cold, sweet/savoury contrast, next to another plate with a sea urchin rice that comes topped with more seafood.

The chef's French learnings are reflected best in a dish focusing on artichoke, with an artichoke sauce, young barramundi, confit tomato, onion and oyster flower. The Japanese influence is also strong, with the dish an interesting balance between the richness of French food and the more pure flavours of Japanese cuisine.

Pictured above as a dish of a risotto made with finely chopped squid, cauliflower puree and crisps made with rice and dehydrated, charred vegetables. Great flavours and texture.

Wine matches work well for the whole meal and service is excellent throughout.

I wouldn't rate the food amongst the best I've had in the world, but it's certainly a good meal. The majority of dishes are very good, but I wasn't astounded much during the meal.


Cost is around $500 a head with the matching wines.

Restaurant Andre
41 Bukit Pasoh Road

RESTAURANT: Quay

Today is my second day of leave, of around 4 weeks. It's my first proper break from work since my European sojourn around 18 months ago. What am I going to do with my free time? Eat. Why did you even bother asking.

After using yesterday as a day to do nothing and get into the leave mode, I wanted to kick things off with an awesome lunch in Sydney. Where better than Sydney's most beautiful restaurant?

I've only visited Quay once, around 2-3 years ago. It is a meal I still consider to be one of my favourite of all time, but one that I haven't repeated because of how freakin busy the restaurant has gotten in the past 2-3 years as it rose up the ranks of the world's best restaurants.


Once again there is a massive cruise ship docked, getting between myself and the Opera House. But, again, it didn't matter: the view across a sparkling harbour on a crystal clear day was beautiful, calming, quietly thrilling.

The first dish was pretty puzzling. Raw marron sitting on a bed of grapefruit and green mango with a bergamot marmalade. Beautiful ingredients, but heavy on bitter citrus flavours. The matching wine is sweet and juicy, but still doesn't quite overcome the bitterness. It's not inedible by any means, but it's not a standout for my tastes.

From then on, it was simply mind-blowing. Every dish and every wine just got better and better and better.

The mud crab congee with palm hearts? It's different to how it was last time I visited, but it's still a dish of staggering depth and wholesomeness.

Lobster with squid, tapioca and lobster velvet? Beautiful to look at, better to eat. So many soft, silky flavours. It's one texture, split into multiple sub-textures.

Smoked and confit pig cheek with shitake, shaved scallop and crispy jerusalem artichoke? The best dish I've eaten in AGES. The pork is cut with the spoon and gloriously sweet. The shitake and scallop complement the flavours perfectly and the crisp artichoke adds some texture. It's made even better with the salty, oxidised flavours of the matched Or'Norm Sauvignon.

The slow-cooked quail breast with semolina and grains is glorious, rich, and a huge improvement on what I remember being an awesome dish last time.

The main of wagyu, bitter chocolate black pudding and oxtail consomme is perfectly executed, simple, rich, clean and stupidly good.

The snow egg is here to please the fans, and it definitely doesn't disappoint. But it's the other dessert--ewe's milk ice cream with caramel, prune, chocolate and vanilla milk skin--that is the dessert highlight for me. It's like a deconstructed Street's Vienetta or something, different crisp textures and a rounded group of flavours.


The food has evolved since I was here last. There's less on the plate, which only helps emphasise what's left. Everything feels more comforting and nourishing somehow. More natural, perhaps.

Service is pretty much what you'd expect from a place like this, but are a little more casual to match the feel of the place. People are happy to sit back, relax, have a laugh and take their meal slowly.

Since that first meal at Quay I've put it in the upper, upper echelon of fine dining in Australia. One of the top 3-5. This meal has changed none of that, Quay is still an absolute treat; a joy.


RATING: Will return to [?]

RESTAURANT: La Rosa Bar and Pizza

This place has been on my wishlist for ever so long. Since it opened, really. Come on, proper pizza, house salumi, handmade pasta, solid wine list and all from the people that brought us the wonderful Pendolino.

Kicking things off with the salumi platter is a damn good idea. They have nduja, which immediately endears them to my heart. It's all very solid. Despite it coming with bread and grissini, the extra order of foccaccina is a good call.

Then onto pizzas. My yardstick is the margherita, and here is a very good version that surpasses the stick. The base is thin and the crust crunchy. While the middle is a bit soggy, it doesn't really annoy. The sauce is sweet and the cheese salty and oozing. A little basil and you're laughing.

The nduja pizza is quite nice, as is the zucchini and prawn. The best pizzas in the CBD, that I'm aware of (not that there's much competition).

While desserts look tempting, the earlier bread has hit the spot and we skip straight to digestivo. It's an impressive list, covering a strong range of amaro, herbals and all sorts of other liqueurs (keep an eye out for the lime green, made from over 100 herbs, 70% alcohol, Toro centerbe forte).

Prices are good for the CBD and service is extremely friendly.

While nothing blew me away, nothing disappointed me. In fact, everything was above average. No longer will my pizza cravings go unanswered if I'm in the CBD.


RATING: Will return to [?]