The Tiong Bahru Club Singapura Review

The Tiong Bahru Club Singapura has a strange name for an Indian restaurant but we’re not complaining with food this tasty. We found this place by chance one Friday evening, as Rodney tends to get his hair cut at the barber nearby, and despite Tiong Bahru having a huge selection of brunch and lunch places, there doesn’t seem to be that many dinner options.

Apparently this place was designed as a tribute to old Singapore heritage, so the design of the place is quite quirky. The menu is also a little confusing at first, as you have to choose between either Singaporean / Chinese Tapas or Old Raj / Indian, but you can’t eat from both menus. Because of this reason we’ve only ever chosen the Old Raj / Indian food menu which is based on Northern Indian Cuisine.

It is quite an extensive Indian selection from Tandoori, Curries, Biryani and starters, but we’ve tended to order the same dishes each time we’ve been there. This will include:

• Murgh Makhanwala – spiced chicken in a buttery tomato gravy (aka Butter Chicken)
• Palak Lamb – lamb cubes cooked with pure Indian spinach
• Dal Palak  – a yellow lentil dish with spinach and mild spices
• Garlic and Plain Naan

We find that the Dal is a bit too watery for our liking so instead we ordered the new Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potato dish) which was just delicious.

The drinks menu is also quite extensive with a good range of alcoholic (beer, cider & wine), and non-alcoholic drinks (lassi,  chai lattes, single origin and organic tea, coffee and soft drinks) to choose from, and they even have a happy hour promotion until 7pm.

The Tiong Bahru Club Singapura
57 Eng Hoon Street #01-88
Singapore
6438 0168

Cracker Jack Restaurant Review Tanjong Pagar

Today we stumbled upon another new restaurant which has opened in Tanjong Pagar called Cracker Jack. Tucked in the corner of Tanjong Pagar Rd and Cross St, this was quite a little gem to find.

We were there for lunch on a Saturday, so the brunch menu was on offer. Although quite a small menu, there was definitely enough variety to choose from and satisfy our taste buds. We opted to share a few plates which we can highly recommend:

• House Bone Broth with egg stracciatella (think egg drop soup not egg ice cream), barley, kale and added chicken was tasty and warming on the inside
• Sweet Potato Hash – breakfast sausage, kale, sweet potatoes and baked egg was packed with flavour
• Horchata Pancakes with almond praline, cinnamon, whipped cream, agave nectar and crispy bacon was a nice savoury treat to end with

The drinks menu and honeycomb wall of alcoholic beverages behind the bar looks quite inviting, so we will be back one night, sans little one, to try out a few concoctions.

The interior design is also worth a mention. Apart from the gorgeous honeycomb shelves of alcohol behind the bar there are hilarious, albeit temporary, school tables and chairs, a  striking pop-art collage, eye catching light fixtures, open kitchen to watch the magic happen, a shuttle board table to play on and a general relaxed atmosphere.

Cracker Jack
Phone: 8121 1462
43 Tanjong Pagar Rd, Singapore 088464
http://www.crackerjack.sg
Monday to Saturday 8am to 12midnight
Sunday 10am to 4pm

Japan Rail Cafe Review

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It has been an exciting couple of months in Tanjong Pagar as new cafes and shops have been opening in the new Tanjong Pagar Centre near the MRT.

When we first saw Japan Rail, (located near the new lift and above the station, street level 1) we thought it was just a place to buy train tickets for Japan, which in itself seemed a bit weird for Singapore. After deeper investigation we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was also a Japanese cafe and retail outlet.

The menu, as you can see in the photos, is cleverly incorporated into a mini newspaper with interesting articles to read about Japan whilst your food is being prepared. There is an adequate amount of food to choose from the menu, although they have run out of a few ingredients on occasion which is hopefully just teething problems.

We’re a bit of a sucker for chicken karaage, so we went straight for the Watashino Curry Rice (red rice, rich mince curry sauce and side salad) with choice of 2 sides (crispy chicken and fried egg) and the Crisp Chicken Don (crispy chicken on a bed of red rice, two sauces and choice of soup), which were both delicious. We have been back since and unfortunately it seems other people are fans of chicken karaage too as they had run out, so the pork is another good options to choose with the curry rice.

It seems they are also known for their burgers, but we are yet to try them as we can’t get past their delicious chicken karaage and also don’t feel burgers are very Japanese, so it’s an odd choice to make.

Drinks wise they have a few interesting options to choose from including their healthy yogurt fruit drinks and iced tea (both of which change seasonally) and their drip coffee which are all good.

There’s quite a few tables available within a nice bright environment but I would recommend visiting on the weekend when it will surely be much quieter than during the week with the city crowd.

They also seem to have quite a good selection of Japanese beer so could be a good place to hang out for drinks after work too.

Japan Rail Cafe
Tanjong Pagar Centre, 5 Wallich Street, #01-20 Singapore 078883
http://www.japanrailcafe.com.sg