JAG Wine promise you 3 things - Good Wines, Good Food and Great Service with personal attention that will add up to a whole new dining experience that you won't find in many places in Singapore. Daily Free Flow Premium Pour Red/White wines for $35+ from 6-8pm. Affordable food at affordable prices. Loved by East Coast Dwellers and definitely worth a trip across town. pictured: Rack of Lamb with Truffle Potato Croquet and daily vegetables. Does it get any better than this?
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Tucked along a row of shophouses on east coast road, Jag Wine Bar & Restaurant is a gem that serves up hearty European food and some specially considered wines.
Chef Karti helms the small kitchen at Jag. A Penang native who has worked around Asia at top hospitality hotel groups such as The Four Seasons, you can be assured that the menu is well thought out and executed brilliantly. Expect classics, Chef Karti’s award winning dishes and seasonal creations, all served in a casual, unfussy bistro style.
Sommelier Azzam is front of house, greeting guests and recommending wines with knowledge and aplomb. The specially curated wine menu also features an in house Sicilian wine specially bottled for Jag that has lightly spiced notes of cherries and plums with hints of oak.
Sommelier Azzam is not short of good wine recommendations, and is well known in the east coast amongst regular wine drinkers. The chef’s menu that we experienced, featured a stunning spread of 8 dishes.
Jag Starters
It started with delightfully crisp, light, delicately seasoned apple and celery slaw (pictured above). Followed by the smoothest, creamiest, most comforting carrot and ginger soup (pictured above). Subtly sweet carrot goodness with restrained hints of ginger notes, this is the soup to order if you’re considering something nourishing and tasty.
Jag’s Choice Seafood Dishes
Crab cakes (pictured above) came next, deep fried fresh crab meat is lightly coated in breading and served with garlic aioli, a perfect snack for sharing. Another delicious communal style sharing dish is pan-seared Hokkaido scallop (pictured above) on truffle cauliflower mash, it was so good, we wolfed it down in less than 60 seconds.
Chef Karti showcased one of his award winning dishes - freshly baked double decker crusted snapper loin (pictured above) with corn fricassee topped with crispy potato crust and white wine sauce. This dish is hearty, full of textures, with classic white wine and cream flavours, a pescatarian’s go to dish.
Another standout was the Prawn Stew (pictured above) with Chanterelle mushroom, with chicken jus and white wine and a touch of cream, served with homemade baguette.
Meat Jag
For the classic dishes such as rack of lamb (pictured above) and slow-braised wagyu beef cheek (pictured above), you can just tell Chef Karti has made this so many times in his career that he’s got it down pat. Familiar, traditional flavours meet quality meat, you just can’t go wrong with that. It comes in generous portions too.
All desserts (pictured above) are made in house. We tried their pistachio creme brûlée and panna cotta with mix berry compote. Both were delicate and definitely not for sharing!
Jag Restaurant, with its excellent menu of classics and seasonal dishes done so competently, a well advised wine list, cosy mid-century modern interior design and neighbour hood friendly vibes; it’s a no-brainer, especially if you’re living in the east.
a. 384 East Coast Road Singapore, Singapore 428988
JAG Wine on East Coast Road overtook all expectations. A total neighbourhood restaurant cum bar, I felt I was walking into Cheers the sitcom. Warm and friendly, service staff included, this venue attracts regulars.
Spilling out onto the sidewalk, some prefer to schmooze over a beer, sipping wine while watching people stroll by. I’d recommend JAG Wine as a fabulous dinner venue if you live in the East and have never been.
Meals served were simply delicious. Well presented to 5 star elegance it wreaked the expertise of a chef behind the scenes. On asking a few questions we found out that Chef Karti worked with Four Seasons amongst others, for many years.
What I truly loved about JAG Wine was the ease of this restaurant. Like a club, diners knew service staff well and sommelier cum manager Azam, was on hand to pair wines for the food we chose.
Our group were famished by the time we made it to JAG Wine. From a hard day’s work all of us felt the need to unwind, big time! Azam was on hand with a glass of Prosecco that oozed stone fruit flavours. Perfect pairing with the refreshing and most amazing apple and celery salad, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate, feta and a thin parmesan crisp to top it all.
This is a must have! So light and refreshing it was the best hit to my palette to start me off for what was to come. You have to pace yourself here as the extensive menu will whet your appetite and make you want to order more than you first planned.
Soup, salad, sharing platters, tapas, mains, Chef’s recommendations, pasta, pizza and desserts. See what I mean? And priced so reasonably! The delicious carrot ginger soup which followed with homemade focaccia was a mere $6.
Wine dinners are organised intermittently at $98 for 8 courses (with wine pairing options) and not surprisingly, are booked out fast. Get yourself on the JAG Wine list to get in to the next one when it comes up.
I was delighted to see fresh blue crab cakes on the menu. My favourite when I am in the U.S. as blue swimmer crabs, abound in the Pacific Ocean are on every menu, literally. It is usually my pick of starter rather than a soup. Less of a filler!
The quality of crab meat was excellent. Served with garlic aioli this breaded dish took me back to my days in the U.S. Gosh sounds like a much-needed trip as soon as borders open!
For a mere $14 this is on the Tapas menu which represents promotional items, all based on market fresh produce available at the time. Fingers crossed that it’s available when you do go to JAG Wine but hey if it isn’t, there are loads of other amazing dishes to try.
You will be spoilt for choice on the wine front as well. JAG Wine carry more than 80 labels from fine vineyards (Old and New World) and a small selection of beer and whiskey. Azam is always on hand to lend a helping hand!
Passionate about his work and loving every bit of connection with people, wine and food, Azam is another reason I would go back to JAG Wine. I felt I’d known him for years by the end of the night.
With so much information up his sleeve, every wine was served with passion. Why he picked it and how it was the perfect blend to the food served. So you can be assured of accessing help on that front if you are a lazy sod like me.
I love a good drink and would rather have someone else do the hard work of deciding what to pair it with. JAG Wine also hit me as very apt for a private event.
Seating 80 pax it would be a super venue for a product launch, special birthday party or anything really. Hopefully as life returns to normal we will be able to see days of social mingling again.
Only on my fourth course the Hokkaido scallop was served with truffle cauliflower mash. I was elated as non-carbohydrate diners would be too! Here’s a dish for you. Healthy and so tasty, cauli replacing the usual potato stodge!
Continuing my dinner experience, Azam turned up to switch us from Botter Prosecco to an Italian Nero D’avola red wine. This Sicilian red is JAG Wine’s own label with 90% Nero Diavola grape.
Priced at $88 it exuded rich oak and tobacco flavours. We were about to shift gears to richer food. It was like a clash of egos – heavy food with bold, full bodied wine.
A divine concoction of prawn stew with Chanterelle mushroom from Finland, was served with baguette on the side. A little touch of cream, this was certainly what makes JAG Wine an excellent gastro bar.
This is a dish under Chef’s Recommendations on the menu. Easily had as a main meal for $24. Mushrooms were so beautifully stewed in this rich sauce that burst with full flavours on my palette.
Chef Karti made an appearance. Originally from Penang and having travelled internationally, he shared how he learnt so much from the years before which he is now putting to good use, curating delicious food at JAG Wine.
We were in awe of the crusted snapper - sat on a bed of corn fricassee and topped with a potato crust. I told Chef Karti that this would be my pick of the night. Seafood lovers this one is for you.
The crunch of little potato crust toppings were so complementary to the firm meat of snapper. And the light sweetness of corn in white wine sauce was something new to me. I liked the flavour combo that this dish brought together. Very well done!
Meat lovers we have not forgotten you. Top quality rack of lamb with just the right amount of pink which is a must, in lamb! Grilled from its best cuts served with daily potato and seasonal vegetables.
For $38 this is a must try if you like me, look for good tasty piece of lamb. Something premium today I feel, as it’s so hard to find. This would be my pick of the day on the meat front. Tender, succulent and oh so tasty, this I rated a 5 star dish.
You can imagine by this time even though we were sharing dishes, we had consumed a lot of food. Chef Karti warned us just one more on the list. To be honest with no pasta and pizza fillers, we were doing well.
Enough space to try the braised Wagyu beef cheek, slow cooked for 16 hours in red wine sauce. Another stunner that went so well with the red wine we were having.
Hands up! Surrender! We were done. It was such an excellent cast picked for the movie we had just watched. When desserts arrived we were glad to cleanse our palette to a lighter mode.
The pistachio brulee for $7 – seriously??? Excellent for sharing or having to yourself too. The vanilla panna cotta is also worth a try as it’s topped with fruit stewed in alcohol which made for the perfect end to a glorious night of fun, food and connection.
Closed on Mondays and only open for dinner on other days. At JAG Wine they believe there are no strangers, only friends you have not met! We got that!
