Fico, the Michelin Bib Gourmand Puglian trattoria from East Coast Park, now has a second home on the sand at Tanjong Beach Club. What to order, where to sit, and why you should time it for sunset.
NEW OPENING | DINING | SENTOSA
Fico has brought its focaccina, its charcoal and its unhurried southern Italian manners to Tanjong Beach Club. I went in the early evening, during race week, and stayed until the sky ran out of colour.
I arrived a little after five, when the heat had begun to loosen its grip and the sea had gone the colour of weak tea. A table on the terrace. A glass of something cold. Somewhere behind me, a charcoal dome was already smoking on the sand. By the time the first plate landed, the sky over Tanjong Beach had started its slow turn toward gold, and I had stopped checking my phone. That is rare.
The occasion was Circuit Soleil, Tanjong Beach Club's race week programme running 8 to 11 October. The news that matters, though, will outlast the race. Fico, the Puglian trattoria that turned East Coast Park into a dinner destination, has settled full-time on the sand at TBC. Same chef-partner.
A Masseria Open One More Location
For the uninitiated: the Michelin Guide describes the original Fico as a white house styled after a Puglian masseria in East Coast Park, with a sprawling lawn and ocean views. It earned a Bib Gourmand in 2024. Chef-partner Mirko Febbrile cooks in the tradition of cucina povera, the peasant kitchen of southern Italy, where humble ingredients are not a compromise but the point. Bread, tomatoes, good oil, fire, and the patience to let them be.
Both restaurants belong to The Lo & Behold Group, the people behind Odette and The Coconut Club. TBC already cooks over fire. Fico simply brings a southern accent to it. On paper, a sensible match.
Before the Sun Goes Down
Order the Focaccina ($26) before you have finished reading the menu. It is Fico's own invention, somewhere between focaccia and pizza, heaped with San Marzano tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella and torn basil. Daniel Food Diary points out the dough is semola-based with a notable crunch, and that crunch is the whole argument. The edge shatters. The middle stays soft and oil-soaked. The tomatoes taste of late afternoon. Eaten with the sun dropping behind you, it is very difficult to be in a bad mood.
The Normandie Oysters ($34) come cold and briny, best eaten quickly while the evening is still warm. The Fritto Misto ($28) of calamari, prawns and snapper is fried light and fast, just salt and a squeeze of lemon. It vanished from our table mid-conversation, which is the highest compliment a fried plate can receive.
The Golden Hour Pasta
Pasta is where Fico has always been serious, and the timing could not have been better. The light was at its best when it arrived.
The Paccheri ($42) is my must-order on this menu. Wide, chewy tubes, half a lobster, clams, squid and prawns, the sauce worked into every fold. It is a generous, unfussy bowl, the kind you quietly pull toward yourself and stop offering around. With half a lobster on top, it earns every dollar.
The Pappardelle ($32) is the slower pleasure. A three-meat ragù over broad ribbons, rich and deeply savoury, the sort of dish that has been made the same way for generations and sees no reason to change. Old-fashioned in the most flattering sense of the word.
Off the Fire, As the Sky Turned
By the time the grilled plates arrived, the sun had dipped into the sea and the sky had gone through peach, pink and lilac in about fifteen minutes flat. The charcoal dome on the sand glowed brighter as everything around it dimmed. It was, frankly, giving cinema.
That dome is where the two kitchens meet. TBC's own food programme is led by Head Chef Mong Zhen Yew, formerly of Osteria Mozza and Spago, around a Mibrasa grill fuelled by ironbark, binchōtan and applewood. Fire is the house language here. Fico speaks it fluently.
The Charcoal-Grilled Octopus ($38) is the proof. Tender all the way through, properly charred at the tips, brightened with an oregano gremolata that cuts through the smoke. Octopus is unforgiving and this one was handled with real confidence.
The Angus Tagliata ($58) arrives sliced and fanned across the board, made for passing. Order it with four or more at the table. Alongside, the Barbecued Cauliflower ($34) comes out sweet and blistered, and the Grilled Corn ($12) smoky and slick with butter. Cucina povera in two plates: the humblest things on the table, cooked as if they were the most important.
Dessert, in the Dark
The Tiramisu ($18) came after the last of the light had gone. Soft, boozy, not too sweet. A grown-up ending. If the evening is still sticky, the Artisanal Gelato ($12) is the cooler exit. I would not blame anyone for ordering both.
By then the lanterns were on, the music had found its second gear, and the people at the next table had migrated to a daybed with no intention of leaving. Neither did I. That is the trick of this place. It never asks you to go.
Timing It Right
Go for sunset. I cannot say it plainly enough. Arrive around five, take the terrace, and order the focaccina and oysters first so the pasta lands at golden hour. The grill plates belong to dusk, dessert to the dark.
Mind the hours, though. Fico on the sand currently runs from 12pm daily, with last seating at 6pm Monday to Thursday and 8pm Friday to Sunday. From 12 October, weekdays shift to 4pm to 10pm with last seating at 8pm, which makes the sunset table much easier to get. Weekends stay at 12pm to 10pm.
The Rest of Race Week
The Long Lunch runs on the Thursday and Friday from noon to close, which is how I slipped in for the evening sitting. On Saturday 10 October, from 12pm to 3pm, Fico hosts its first-ever Champagne Brunch by the Sea: free-flow champagne and frosé, oysters, Burrata di Puglia, the Paccheri again, a grass-fed bone-in ribeye and grilled seabass with salmoriglio, with a DJ, live drummers and dancers on the sand. Packages run $138++ (non-alcoholic), $188++ (free-flow rosé, beer and select cocktails) and $218++ (champagne).
Sunday 11 October closes things out with Sea, Salt & Recovery by Chill Movement: beach bootcamp, mobility and calisthenics, and an ice bath, in two waves from 7.30am and 8.30am, followed by breakfast and DJ sets. Penance or pre-game, depending on your Saturday. F1 ticket holders get 10 percent off food, drink and packages across the programme, plus priority for the brunch.
The Setting
Tanjong Beach Club has been at this since 2010, long before Singapore decided it was a beach city. Condé Nast named it the World's Top Beach Bar in 2014, and sixteen years on it still sets the tone for the rest of Sentosa.
The current look comes from Sydney studio Akin Atelier, built around the bones of the original mid-century beach house: the breeze block wall, the round apertures, the gentle rhythm of repeated shapes. The palette begins neutral and warms as you walk toward the water, through terracotta, orange and yellow umbrellas and daybeds. The infinity pool is laid in sage and white checkerboard tiles that seem to ripple with the water. At sunset, the whole place glows. Main character lighting, no filter needed.
Indoors, the dining room is calmer, with warm stone underfoot and bifold doors thrown open to the terrace. Local artist Aeropalmics painted Seed & Shore, a mural that runs from the dining room through the grill area to the bar, textured with real sand. The planting, by This Humid House, mixes cacti and native greens: a little Palm Springs, a little Miami, unmistakably Sentosa.
Fico seats 66 in the dining room, 44 on the terrace and 20 on the patio. Book the terrace. You did not cross a bridge to look at a wall.
NEED TO KNOW
Address Fico (2nd location) at Tanjong Beach Club, 120 Tanjong Beach Walk, Singapore 098942
Best time to go Arrive around 5pm for sunset; ask for the terrace
Hours (from 12 Oct) Mon to Fri 4pm to 10pm; Sat and Sun 12pm to 10pm; last seating 8pm
What we had Focaccina $26; Paccheri $42; Charcoal-Grilled Octopus $38; Tiramisu $18
Also on the menu Normandie Oysters $34; Fritto Misto $28; Pappardelle $32; Angus Tagliata $58
Circuit Soleil 8 to 11 October 2026; Champagne Brunch Sat 10 Oct from $138++
F1 ticket holders 10% off food, drink and packages
Reservations fico@tanjongbeachclub.com or SevenRooms; +65 9750 5323
Website tanjongbeachclub.com/ficomasseria
Instagram @tanjongbeachclub
