Our lunch at Tippling Club, a serial Asia’s Best 50 restaurant, was stellar. It was a creative, innovative and tasty journey that lasted 3 hours. Chef Ryan Clift has made sure every step of the way was filled with fun, playful and surprising elements.
The restaurant, as well as the bar, is beautifully designed, with green pops of color everywhere you turn. The open kitchen provides a great opportunity to have a peek behind to scenes. From the wallpaper to cutler, the attention to small details is phenomenal. The ambiance is relaxed and laid back, and the absence of of a tablecloth adds to the lack of formality.
Tippling Club offers very affordable options for lunch – 2 courses for 46 SGD / $33 / 118₪ and 3 courses for 60 SGD / $43 / 153₪. Still, I had my eyes set on the tasting menu, so we ordered the classic menu, which includes 8+ dishes for 170 SGD / $123 / 434₪. True, it’s not cheap – but it’s well worth it..
We started with a series of small bite snacks, which included 4 items:
Delicate Shrimp Cracker with mayo ; Charred Grilled Red Pepper in squid ink tempura, served with thick soy wasabi dip ; Liquid Manchango Puff ; a palate cleanser of acidic Tomato Gazpacho with olive oil and basil.
The first dish – Crab really looked like a piece of art. Pieces of snow crab are wrapped in thin shavings of pear, served with frozen grapes, shiso puree, yuzu and soy gel. Beautifully and tastefully done.
Scallops with parsley root, tarragon flower and purple garlic soup was brought to the table by the chef. As one of his favorite dishes, he told us, he was excited to present it. This creamy and rich soup with fresh and meaty scallops was heavenly.
Next arrived the Seared Kingfish with roasted cauliflower puree, fermented and fried cauliflower, masala veloute and raisin gel. Which is which on plate? foam=masala veloute, dark brown sauce = raisin gel, light brown sauce = cauliflower puree. This dish was my favorite!
Lamb A La Française was served with confit pearl onions, lamb bacon, mint and onion puree. The lamb was very soft and the candy-like bacon pieces were a great match. Another appealing dish.
As a pre-dessert treat we got a quirky “dish” – Strawberry Cheesecake Pills.
Another pre-dessert treat sounded crazy. Though at first I found it hard to believe I could like this, it was excellent! This ball is Mandarin and Mygrass Curry. First you feel the curry, then the mandarin, then a sweet and spicy sensation hits you and at the end a very fresh and chocolaty taste. Super strong flavor lingers in your mouth a long time.
And now for dessert – Textured Milk is exactly as it sounds! We got log-like plate topped with milk done is different ways and textures – there was marang, cracker, yogurt ice cream, milk balls. This is a perfect dessert in my opinion – one that is not too sweet, and combines different temperatures and textures so every bite is fun and surprising to eat.
Along with the Earl Grey Tea and Cappuccino arrived some petit fours – almond cake, coffee praline and green tea and yozu cake.
We had a very pleasant time at Tippling Club, and the only dissonant was finding out that the coffee and tea we were offered actually cost an extra 10 SGD / $7 / 25₪ each. Every other restaurant we’ve been to at this price range with a set lunch had complementary coffee and tea.
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