Burp Kitchen & Bar – Invited Tasting

Bedok Resevoir is a place in the east which isn’t exactly inaccessible (since it’s not at extreme ends like Changi) but just wasn’t somewhere I would choose to check out since this location isn’t somewhere I would naturally pass by. In fact, I’ve never visited this area before except one time for a school event around 10 years ago! I never knew what this area had to offer and this invitation by Burp was a good chance for me to take a look at this place.

I was here for dinner on a Sunday, and before heading to the restaurant, I took the stroll around the park and it looked like a nice place. It was somewhat like East Coast Park but smaller and perhaps cleaner. The playground was filled with kids and the path was filled with joggers and some cyclists. Burp is located on the ground floor of a HDB block and it wasn’t difficult to spot at all. The unit was just facing the park and a very short walk from the main road too.

Anyway, Burp offers 5 categories of food for dinner – bar grub, quesadillas, tacos, pasta and burgers. The menu is very easy to understand. It seems like they serve mainly Mexican and American options, but with some local and regional twists to the flavours.

And I happen to be a fan of both Mexican food and burgers. While burgers are common everywhere in Singapore, Mexican food is not, so I was quite surprised to see it being offered here and of course happy to know there’s a place for tacos and quesadillas in this part of Singapore.

Bacon Quesadilla – $9.00
Tortilla wrap, chopped bacon, cheddar & mozzarella

These quesadillas are quite unlike how it’s usually served at strict Mexican places in terms of appearance and choice of filling. While there’s no rule as to what must go inside the quesadilla, I certainly have not seen bacon as a filling before. Nevertheless, bacon cannot go wrong and this one tasted as good as bacon and cheese can get.

The portion is definitely not enough to fill as 1 person’s main course though, so I suggest this as an appetiser to share among your friends while a burger or pasta serves as the main.

Baja Fish Taco – $12.00
Battered fish, apple slaw, salsa fresca, spicy mayo

Comparing to the quesadilla, this one tasted and looked a lot more like the real Mexican deal! It was very similar – in fact indistinguishable from the tacos of those Mexican places I frequent, complete with a wedge of lime and side of tortilla chips. The fish was crispy and the toppings were on point. This was probably my favourite item today.

However, this portion is definitely not sufficient as a main course – I probably need 3 tacos to be full. So I suggest getting something else before this like a side dish or a quesadilla too, if you want this as your main!

The side of tortilla chips however, was kind of dry and would be better with a dip. The tomato salsa from the quesadilla went well with these.

Burp’s Beef – $13.00

Brioche bun, beef patty, American cheese, pea sprouts, caremelized onions, spicy mayo

They had several choices of beef burger on the menu but I picked the simplest looking one so the main component (aka patty) doesn’t get overshadowed by the other ingredients. Firstly, I like the use of brioche. It’s greasier than the regular sesame seed buns and for burgers it’s the greasier the better. Judging from the menu, they use brioche for most burgers so that’s good.

The choice of greens was a unique one and I do think it’s better than using lettuce because this doesn’t come off in a whole chunk making eating it way neater!

The patty was served well done and I wished it was medium instead. I usually order my patties medium whenever I’m at a gourmet burger place (like Fat Boys, Omakase Burger or Burger Joint) and it slipped my mind when ordering and I didn’t ask and wasn’t asked so probably the default as well done. I think it would be more moist and juicy if it was medium instead and I could make a fairer judgement of the flavour.

Crabby Patty – $18.00

Charcoal bun, baby roamaine, battered soft shell crab, salted egg yolk sauce

Everyone likes to see a black bun, admit it, even though the unconventional colour may not necessarily contribute to the taste. Everyone loves something which contains salted egg yolk and I’ll admit – that’s what attracted me to order this. This burger combines all elements of a trendy hipster burger – trending salted egg yolk sauce, crowd pleasing fried soft shell crab and photogenic black bun.

It’s like a condensed version of the salted egg yolk crab conveniently packed in the form of a handy burger. You no longer need to go through the messy (and expensive) affair of eating a real salted egg yolk crab to enjoy the flavour, now that there’s this burger. While it wasn’t out of the world unique in taste or anything, it sure tastes like comfort food and I wouldn’t mind having another.

Salted Egg Wings – $14.00

I probably mentioned this before, but I’ll say it again – I do not fancy chicken usually but fried chicken is another story. Fried chicken is simply one of my favourite food and seeing this on the menu, I knew I had to order it. Basically the difference between this one and the other option – Burp Chicken Wings is just the sauce. This has salted egg yolk sauce poured over it.

The sauce was probably the same as the Crabby Patty burger. The taste was quite strong (good thing) and belonged to the savoury kind of salted egg yolk sauce like with flavours of curry leaves. It is definitely not the sweet kind of salted egg yolk sauce like from custard lava buns, in case some people are confused. I think the appearance would get more points if some whole curry leaves were visible.

The chicken itself was decent but not the best fried chicken around for sure. It was moderately crispy but the part which needs improvement was the flavour of the meat. I am no cooking expert but I would think maybe a longer marination time would help.But as this was doused with salted egg yolk sauce, if you get enough sauce in your bite it’ll cover the taste of the chicken. The salted egg yolk sauce is probably the real star anyway, not the chicken.

It comes with 4 pieces (drumlet + the wing) and is good for 4 pax (or 1 pax if you want to have 4 wings to yourself). This belonged to the bar snack category on the menu and is a good choice of finger food if you’re here for drinks.

Speaking of drinks, this place has “bar” in their name and lives up to it by offering quite a range of drinks. They even have Mexican Corona Beer if you are a Mexican purists and need a Mexican drink to go with your tacos. Most of the food items are also suited to go with beer and that’s all of my friends ordered. I chose the Citrus Iced Tea instead and it was a refreshing choice without sugar. It was iced earl grey tea with slices of orange, lemon and lime in it. The combination was very good.

With all food items under $20 (and majority $15 or less) and nett pricing (no GST and service charge additional!), this place is quite a nice choice for casual taco or burger meal. Definitely a place where east-siders can choose for hanging our with your friends over a drink or two and some comfort food!

Ambiance: 6.5/10
Food: 6.5/10
Value: 6.5/10
Overall: Nice find in this part of Eastern Singapore

Burp Kitchen & Bar
740 Bedok Reservoir Road
#01-3165
Singapore 470740

Tel: 97119030

Tues – Sunday: 12pm – 12am