I’ve been interested in this restaurant for years but the previous location at Dempsey Hill was out of reach for me. Moving to Tanjong Pagar made it easier for me to plan a visit here for lunch and it was quite easy to book a table with instant confirmation reservations made online.

The interior was obviously green themed with green chairs, green walls, green curtains and green kitchen tiles. The food was also mainly green and I suspect they love green as much as I love orange. It didn’t have a formal set up like Andre or Jaan but even if they were aiming for something casual, I felt that the tables were placed too close together, and with the non-high ceilings, my meal was kind of interrupted with non-stop loud chatter from a neighbouring table. Lack of space aside, the furnishing of the restaurant was tastefully done, adhering well to the intended theme. Other than the lack of space and probably the open concept kitchen that made me smell greasy when I left, every other experience here was nothing short of pleasant.

For lunch you can pick either 2 courses for $43.00++ or 3 courses for $58.00++. Snacks and petit fours are included as well.

First snack was Tippling Club’s version of Singapore’s curry rice. So there’s puffed rice with a curry flavoured (like Chinese curry chicken) mousse and fried curry leaf. I loved this molecular take on curry rice!

Second snack was Smoked and Charred Pepper with Soy Sauce Wasabi.

Honestly that black mass of chao tah pepper doesn’t look very aesthetically pleasing but the combination with soya sauce wasabi which was whipped to be light and airy actually worked. The forceps provided was a good idea to pick up the charred pepper without breaking it.

The third snack which also works as a palate cleanser was tomato, basil and olive oil “caviar” gazpacho presented to look like a lava lamp.

WATERCRESS SOUP

deep fried hens egg, truffle puree

This soup kind of reminds me of the kale broth from ODP.

TOMATO & PARMESAN TART

confit tomatoes, dried olive crumble

The filling was cheesy and I liked the mix of textures here.

ROAST NORWEGIAN SALMON

parsley root, sautéed spinach, garlic cream

Fried vegetables are always good. The salmon was of good doneness – not offensively overcooked and the fish did have flavours from somewhere. Probably marinated before roasting or something. Definitely not the usual salmon and way better than the one from ODP I had recently!

GREEN PEA RISOTTO

feta, broad bean beignets, crispy kale

This dish is entirely green. It really matches with the restaurant’s interior. In a way this reminds me of ODP’s avocado risotto because of the lovely green colour but of course the taste was different. This is unique and the combination was flavourful enough without being too green (like how vegetable juices can be disgusting). The fried kale and fried broad bean beignets gave it some texture too and made the dish less one dimensional and boring.

AFTER 8 MINT AERO

chocolate soil, wheelock garden mint

The Aero seems to be the restaurant’s creation based on this article here. The texture was unique and I’ve not had something like this before – it wasn’t really light and airy yet wasn’t very hard. It was slightly creamy when I dug in. Taste wise, everything on this plate was minty and chocolately like I had expected, nothing disappointing or surprising. Overall I feel this was a good dessert but scores more points on the novelty factor.

Petit fours

These were good.

From the food I’ve tried today, I see some similarity to ODP’s food (creative dishes, heavy usage with unusual greens) and this must be the personal style of Chef Ryan Clift who created both menus! I really like this culinary style and Tippling Club seems to be a higher end and more creative version of ODP. I love both restaurants. I personally would rank this place above Jaan but below Restaurant Andre if I had to, based on my lunch experiences. I love Ryan Clift’s style of using unusual ingredients with lots of greens and being creative with food basically. Traditional cooking bores me sometimes and modern cooking makes keeps excited.

*****

Ambiance: 7.5/10
Food: 9/10
Value 8/10
Overall: A good restaurant for modern cooking in Singapore.

*****

Tippling Club
38 Tanjong Pagar Road
Singapore 088461

Tel: 64752217

*****

Lunch: 12pm – 3pm (Mon – Fri)
Dinner: 6pm – late (Mon – Sat)