Tippling Club Review, owned and operated by Chef-Owner Ryan Clift, is situated at 38 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore 088461. Is one of THE top 50 restaurants in Singapore and truly onceuponatime sg dining in "Is Life A Recipe" Founder Brian Kennett's humble opinion.
It is also one of the best Tanjong Pagar Bars because when you visit and enjoy some Tippling Club Cocktails you will see exactly what I mean. Keep reading and you’ll see a couple of those beauties that we quaffed today.
Each ‘tasting menu’ is an experience. You can work with the Tippling Club crew so you truly have an incredible dining sensation. Get down here for this degustation menu Singapore, and get those wine and cocktail pairings a flowing from the Tippling Club Bar.
Let's hear from Chef Ryan Clift & The Tippling Club
Tippling Club spans three shophouse units and features a bar and dining room. Chef-Owner Ryan Clift's brand of modern gastronomy is fun, playful and fresh. It imbues the dining experience with a sense of excitement and a touch of theatre.
Recognised for its innovative, ultra-progressive cuisine and cocktails, Tippling Club was ranked 11th best bar in Asia by Asia's 50 Best Bars 2017 and 27th best restaurant in Asia's Best Restaurants 2017.
Several other bar and restaurant awards have been collected in over the past nine years. Tippling Club continues to pair its award-winning cuisine with world-class cocktails, pushing the extremes of ingredients and textures to create an ever-evolving dining experience. Tippling Club
Is Tippling Club recognised by Michelin yet?
For some reason I cannot fathom out why it has not yet received this accolade, but it seems they have not yet got that star. They are in the Michelin Guide though and Michelin quotes the following;
“Ryan Clift’s discreetly signed flagship restaurant is dominated by a long kitchen counter, which is where most diners choose to sit so that they can engage with the chefs and watch them in action – lunch is a simpler affair, so come for dinner to fully appreciate their ability and ambition. They embrace all the latest techniques to produce quite elaborate and exciting dishes with some challenging combinations of flavour and texture.”
What does the Tippling Club logo mean?
It’s a cracker and I’ll probably be shot-down-in-flames by Chef Ryan, but this is what I heard. He was coming up with the menu concept and the pairings of wines and Tippling cocktails with the food. He sketched the horizontal line, and the verticals are the courses and pairings…Hey presto the logo.
There is also a strong rumour that many Tippling Club stalwarts don the logo as a tattoo as demonstration of their devotion to the Tippling Club ethos, brand, food and crew.
Does Tippling Club do deliveries?
It’s only Tippling Club Cocktails that you can get your hands on at home, folks, and 'merch' which is their homemade hot sauce. They are using Oddle as the delivery partner. You can order from their Website here; https://tipplingclub.oddle.me/en_SG
On the set tasting lunch menu for Tippling Club 2022
Steamed Brioche, Manchego, Iberico Jamon – POP these goes when you throw them in your mouth. The brioche explodes releasing the molten Manchego cheese to hit your palate and then get a lovely savoury saltiness from the Jamon.
Potato, Tobikio, Black Truffle Creme Fraiche / Wagyu Beef Tartare Tartlet, Confit Yolk, Rakkyo Zuke – two tasting courses on the same plate. The potato is going to hit you with textures and little pops and crunches going off all over the place. Whereas the Wagyu tartlet is more savoury and sour on the flavour front than textural. What a zing yang.
Chilled Tomato Gelee – AKA ‘the palate cleanser’ before the mains.
This dish is almost like a sherbet sorbet, but it is a tomato gelee. It really does an incredible job of refreshing your taste buds whilst also giving them a good dousing in super-delish tomato & herb yumminesss.
Hokkaido Scallop, Purple Garlic Soup, Milk Braised Parsnip
WOW!!!
No photo sorry, so you need to watch the YouTube to see this dish and hear Chef Ryan himself explain the insane process for producing this stunner.
This includes 7, yes SEVEN, blanches of the Purple Garlic in White wine (fresh each time). 2 ingredients only in the soup delivered a unanimous WOW from our table.
Foie Gras Cheesecake, Amaou Strawberry, Iranian Pistachio – this is one unctuous bad-boy. The foie is smooth, so smooth you’d think it literally was a mousse. Not one over-powering liver overtone but you absolutely know it is foie gras. So clever.
Kingfish, Sour Cherry, Radish, Myoga, Dashi – Sad to say I had to draw the line here and did not touch it due to my continued dislike over piscatorial dishes. I just knew that Kingfish is not going to be one for me and ‘donated’ it to Frenchie who wolfed it down in the blink of an eye.
Koji Cured Sirloin, Morels, Spinach, Porcini Puree, Perigourdine Jus – What. a stunner of a dish, to look at and to consume. This is deep in flavour. Like really deep, earthy, intense, unctuous flavour. It is in one word – decadent, and I LOVED IT!!!
Seasonal Fruit From Japan – I remember asking one of the Chefs about this last time. Looks like a simple slice of melon right? You could not be further from the truth.
Bounty Paradiso, Coconut, Milk Chocolate, Kaffir Lime Cream – KAPOW!!! I am not really a dessert guy, but man this one got me. Like a deconstructed Bounty Bar on steroids. Savoury & citrus all in one. Almost like a solid cocktail you’d have on the beach.
Tippling Club Cocktails
The Tippling Club Bar churns out incredible cocktail offerings and a wide wide variety of wines, many of which are sourced to pair with the the food on the menu.
Occasionally they do special drink events and create a menu around like that, as they have done recently with English Gin and most recently with Rum.
Today we paired a couple of bottles of delicious white wines which were perfect bedfellows to the food, as recommended by the Sommelier who is always on point, beers and a couple of wicked cocktails.
Pinky Gonzalez
My mate Frenchie got me into these. WOOF!!!. t is such a nice cocktail, so very refreshing but comes with a punch, right about when you stand up.
I believe it contains something along the lines of; 1 oz. Reposado Tequila, 1 oz. Blanco Tequila, ¾ oz. Fresh Lime Juice, ½ oz. Orange Liqueur, ½ oz. Orgeat Syrup
What a cracking menu. This is umami all over the place and a monster degustation as Chef Ryan is taking you on a journey of;
- Eating with your eyes as those stunning plates arrive, and you can’t help but savour every mouth-watering morsel as it is presented to you
- Then the nose takes a barrage from those unctuous wafting aromas, and as a result you are assaulted by a torrent of delectable scents and everyone brings the plates up to maximise the experience
- And finally, the bite and flavour bursts as well as the textures hit you in a delightful way.
WOOF!!!
At $110++ for this menu it is truly exceptional value, in my humble opinion. To be served the exquisite plates above, so many plates in fact, for this money is brilliant.
The crew are artisans of their craft and I view this as a bargain to dip a tasting toe into their world in such uber-cool surroundings on the pricey neighbourhood of Tanjong Pagar..
Our conclusions about Tippling Club 2022
Exceptional, in a word.
I always pinch myself for leaving it so long in between having a dining experience with Chef Ryan and the Tippling Club crew. I looked back and we have done Tippling Club Review for 2019 & Tippling Club Menu for 2021, and partook of that incredible cooking Masterclass with Chef Ryan in the same year.
I have also just realised I have never actually had the infamous Tippling Club Gummy Bear, or given a Tippling Club Dinner Review or had Tippling Club Delivery. It has always been the Tippling Club Lunch for me with Tippling Club Cocktails thrown in there.
AKA – boozy lunch!!!
Tippling Club continues strongly into 2022 its heritage of matching award-winning cuisine with world-class cocktails by exploring the extremes of ingredients and textures to create an ever-changing dining experience. Chef Clift’s contemporary cuisine is fun, and delectable all at the same time, now there’s a skill.
A bar, a dining room, and even seats overlooking the kitchen are all part of the Tippling Club Tanjong Pagar Road. It’s a great place to observe the chefs at work.
In my humble opinion, you’ll struggle to find a better set lunch Singapore, it IS what to eat at Tanjong Pagar, and it is the BEST food on Tanjong Pagar.
So come and see Chef Ryan and the Tippling Club Crew and sample that 2022 menu. It is seriously so very good. I will call out my suggested MUST-HAVES;
- Hokkaido Scallop, Purple Garlic Soup, Milk Braised Parsnip
- Koji Cured Sirloin, Morels, Spinach, Porcini Puree, Perigourdine Jus
As Chef Ryan states; “You’re only as good as the last meal you cook!!!”
Well, he keeps knocking it out of the park, so he is bloody good in my reckoning!!! What a cracking lunch, as always.
