If you are a member of the Tanglin Club or have a chance to visit - are doing business with people in Singapore or belong to a Toastmasters club, or belong to any club worldwide, you may have a chance to visit the Tanglin Club. If not, read on anyway to learn about the new dish I tried.
I spend a day at the Tanglin Club with a long-term friend whose mother is a club member. I love the Tavern Club's decor. And the private booths.
We met for lunch and we went to the Tavern for privacy in one of the two booths.
Overall, both the food and service were good.
I started by ordering a pint sized watermelon juice. I can't get that in the UK. Pink, Refrehsing. Pure fruit juice.
We started with drinks and both of us selected watermelon juice, the larger size, one pint.
The Salad Bar
I chose the salad bar. Not as good as it used to be. The soup was prawns and I am allergic to shellfish.
So I took just the bread roll. Only white bread. I seem to remember a variety of breads including brown or black or seed. Still, never mind. I had plenty more to choose from. I moved on to the two main counters.
The far right has a mixture of desserts and main course or snack meats.
The meat was chicken, thinly sliced beef and pork/ham. The latter seemed to me, a clearly processed meat, minced up and mixed and pressed meat, which I ignored.
No smoked salmon. The far right counter's far left plate holder was empty. Time to move on and reconsider the main course options. So far so good.
The little white flower looked cute. I presumed you could eat it. I had asked once before at the Tanglin Club in the Churchill room restaurant. (But in a restaurant in London I was served food with a flower which was only decorative.)
I did not detect any flavour from the flower. You would have to eat it separately to be sure. I thought it was merely decoration. Slight disapointed. Never mind. Very cute.
Service
The service was very good. We were asked if we wanted warm or cold tap water. Usually the British like cold water, and iced water. Singaporeans and Indians like warm water. They think that cold water chills you, shocks the system. And warm water makes you perspire which cools you down.
Later the woman who was serving came to our table to tell me that the chef had put out another dish to replace the empty one. Beef with almonds. I smiled. But I was sitting on the inside of the table against the wall and would have to shift my guest, make her stand up to let me out, and again when I returned. Also we were in mid conversation.
The server could see from my expression that I was interested, as I glanced over at the food and smiled. But then looked around my table and frowned.
She offered to fetch me the food. Beef and almonds. Minced beef. With flakes of almonds. It has crunch. The beef rather drowns out the almond flavour. Full marks to the chef for introducing a new food to me.
At the end of the lunch time she warned me that the food was being cleared away, if I wanted any more. She offered to bring me another beef and almonds.
What about value?
You get soup, vegetables, chopped potato in what looks like mayonnaise or couscous, and for protein, nut at the back, or three types of meat. Also boiled egg. On the left. By the time we arrived at 12.30 pm the stocks were running low. I grabbed the last boiled egg.
Dessert?
If you were smart you would have selected the chopped fruit and nuts for dessert. Put them on one side of the plate. That saves going back. It prevents you from taking a second plate and filling it.
Besides, I had other plans for dessert. Crepes Suzette.
Unfortunately, the Tavern is not open all day. By the time I was ready to order dessert and coffee they had laid the tables for dinner, presented the bill for me to sign and suggested, "You can move on the tea lounge."
Later we did just that. You will be able to read about the lounge food and drink in my later post.
You can check out reciprocal clubs worldwide, opening hours of each restaurant, last order times, and dress code, on the Tanglin Club website pages.
After my day at the Tanglin, eating at three different outlets, My weight went up!
Useful Websites
https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg
https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/images/Content/Dining/Dining/The_Tavern_Fireplace/Tavern-Menu.pdf
https://www.tanglinclub.org.sg/dining/terrace-bistro-bar.html
