IF you are in Singapore and will be eating other restaurants in the style of Modern / Fusion whatever you call it, don’t even THINK about coming to Tippling Club first…. Why???? Everyone else will pale in comparison. It will ruin all the other great restaurants that you will dine. No Really. We had 3 other meals at fantastically acclaimed places and they were really delicious meals but i must say Tippling Club came out a 20 over 10.
The party of 3 consisted of a Headstrong Chinese Daddy “Who tolerates Guai Lo Food” but doesn’t appreciate it much, a very picky French Cuisine Loving Mommy and me. Although the front of the restaurant excludes cool with it’s decor, but I think people would appreciate a sign which would be more visible than their logo on the glass door. The staff was warm, friendly and sincere, kudos to that!! They even remembered our reservation and asked if our flight over was pleasant which it wasn’t but lunch seemed to get off on a good start.
As we perused the menu, there were quite a good choice since we were a party of there and there was 4 choices so we just ordered everything off the lunch menu except for the vegetarian ones. To me this was an affordable pricey for a restaurant of this standard, although at first my parents said it seemed pretty pricey for lunch!
Our first snack was the Chef’s interpretation of the curry which was this foamy thingy with puffed rice on shop in a little glass jar. My dad gave out the “What is this crap expression”, and my mom said wow this reminds me of Chef Gaggan (Also another ultimate restaurant not to be experienced first in Bangkok or everything else will just kinda pale in comparison)
It melts in your mouth but with a texture like light heavy cream, not just air air. Some of those foams i’ve eaten has nothing but air and very little taste, this carries with it a delicately balanced yellow coconut curry – kind like Massaman Curry just a right amount of curry, sweet salty and good balance of spices not too over powering. I was just about to tell my dad i can eat it for him (Thai Chinese people not from Singapore & Malaysia have a hard time eating indian / arabic influenced curries) he waws already scraping the last of the curry foam into his mouth. He said this is not bad. My Mom loved it and i loved it. A great start to the meal. 10 / 10 definitely.
Why is this burnt? My dad says when they placed the next starter in front of us. It’s a burnt chili pepper with a soy wasabi emulsion. First off, it looks so cool with the burnt peppers on slate and the giant steel scientific lab tweezers tool. I took a test bite. It was like a black tempura casing the sweet peppers, it wasn’t spicy at all and did not taste burnt. Now we are all wondering about that, although the sauce was a bit salty cause there was a fair amount so we dipped quite alot but it was awesome. You really expected a nasty burnt taste but there’s none! A crunchy battter covering a sweetness of the pepper. I didn’t even want to sauce although it complemented each other nicely!
See how cute it is? It’s called the Lava Lamp cleanser. Its a tomato water with basil and olive oil and when they pour it the oils separate into bubbles and float around just like the old 80’s lava lamp. Smart and very very very cute. Taste is a light tomatoey with a burst of basil oil and olive oil, i would prefer a stronger more peppery olive oil but with the presentation and the taste i have no complaints. 9 / 10
There was a choice of 3 non veg starter and 1 veg starter and we all each had the non veg starter each. Daddy had the “Smoked Yabbies with Gazpacho and Pan cristal” Dunno what the Pan cristal means but the Yabbies seem to be a small craw fish in a green bell pepper gazpacho (I think). The yabbies were fresh with a tight sweet meat, and the gazpacho was chilled and didn’t taste green / veggie / grassish. Sometimes with fresh veggies hence gazpacho there’s that green green taste to green veggies but this one was light, very fresh, and went very well with the craw fish. Again super 10 points, my Dad’s a hardcore chinese and he mopped up COLD SOUP! Too all the Asian Kids out there, really get your parents and grandparents to taste cold soup. Really it was that good.
Now, i dont consider myself a gourmet or gourmand just someone who loves good food. I had steak tartare in NYC, LA, PARIS, etc it’s actually me and my moms fav dish, and boy is she picky. Really, she almost made a chef cry when she asked to re season his tartare. I let the picture speak for the presentation itself but the tartare was superb. No really…. perfectly balanced, the beef, mustardy, salty, peppery, savoury. If the yolk is not of good quality you can smell eggy rawness which no amount of tabasco will cover it up. 20 / 10
This dish is beautiful! Really Really… However you need to eat it together, the frozen veal slices, the hot round fried balls that burst in your mouth. The only drawback is that the veal should have been sliced thinner. I understand the thick slices for texture, but when it’s too thick it’s too cold and you lose the taste of the veal, maybe a bit thinner slices and more of it. Still an interesting and yummy dish 8 / 10
Then we have the Salt Water Banrramundi, it’s grilled fish with a green curry and tom kha sauce. It sounded so bad, I mean considering green curry is sweet with a kick, while tom kha is white, creamy and sour. The fish came nicely cooked, with a foamy topping but i think the sauces were mild enough that they didn’t clash with each other. It was a delicate dish and the fish was nicely grilled. So great work with the contrasting flavors! 8/10
The second winning dish of the day i thought was to be my roast lamb, but it was the chicken. It came looking super impressive, a long piece of chicken breast in an extremely savory almost yeasty bitter sauce. IT was very very delicious, the breast is usually hard but this was soft and juicy. I think the deep flavour came from the livers and foie gras. This is a really elegant dish. Two thumbs up!
The lamb was rather nice, medium rare, rump is probably the butt area anyway the best way to describe is this is the area where the leg and the loin meet. Sounds alot better right? Its actually very flavorful, thought in my opinion if not cooked medium rare it would definitely be a bit chewy. It’s a quite lean meat for my taste but still a good dish, just not as outstanding as the other dishes. Although it looks really hearty and filling. Which at this point everyone is already stuffed!
Everyone is now leaning back and wishing there was nothing left… Nope… It’s starting to feel like torture until the first dessert arrived, which looked like an abstract painting more than an olive oil orange cheesecake… I liked their freeze dried techniques i think for the cheesecake, it felt crumbly and interesting with the cold yogurt and the creamy bits and pieces countered with the sour mandarin orange. I didn’t get to try to try the flat white stuff, my mom and dad gobbled it up, all in all delicious, soft, crunchy, creamy and sour dessert. Looks beautiful on the black plate.
Next up is the pistachio and chocolate souffle with vanilla mini magnum. I think the mini magnum must be bought but the souffle arrived tall and proud and piping hot! To everyone’s surprise my dad just lifted the mini magnum and used it as a spoon to scoop out a bite of the souffle to which he explained, the hot and hot in one mouthful should feel nice. Interesting! The souffle was delicate and chocolately it didn’t taste floury like many souffles did. It really was like eating a hot chocolate cloud.
The only low note of the meal was actually my dessert, which i didn’t like. It felt like a breakfast, i loved the set up it was really cute with the satiric mini k cereal box as the mini t cereal box. I felt like i was eating a strawberry granola with milk. I didn’t like it at all… (There’s a free petit fours after your meal served with coffee) However on the last note, it was a lovely meal, that i felt justified the price,(which was about 250 SG dollars), the service was sincere and homey. Some places offer high service with a snobbery to it which can make you feel uncomfortable, but definitely not over here. Must come back, must come to eat here if you are in SG!
Tippling Club
38 Tg Pagar Rd, Singapore 088461
+65 6475 2217
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