The owners of The Butchers Club have broken away from the Hong Kong franchise, and revamped the joint with their own original concept: Philly Shack at Clarke Quay. On its FB, it claims to be the first restaurant to serve authentic Philadelphia cheesesteak or Philly cheesesteak in Singapore. Actually, there was a place at Kallang Mall which served Philly cheesesteak years ago, but it had closed down.

The menu is lean with cheesesteaks, burgers, wings, and sides. There are only two choices of cheesesteak: Philly ($15) with sliced ribeye, caramelized onions, and cheese or Fully Loaded ($18) which is a Philly with green peppers, mushrooms, and jalapenos.

We ordered the Fully Loaded, but the kitchen misread our order, and they made the Philly. The server (or boss?) offered to make a Fully Loaded for us to takeaway while we were munching on the Philly. That’s amazing service recovery. (By the way, the service, besides this incident, is very good. He checked in on us now and then.)

In any case, the Philly is excellent. There is a choice of cheese: American cheese, Cheez Whiz, and Provolene, and we went for the Cheez Whiz which is the recommended one. The sliced ribeye is tender, and the homemade roll is beautifully fluffy, crisp at the surface, and is very slightly sweet to balance the savoriness of the cheese.

There are only two choices for burgers, Philly Shack burger ($17.50) or the chicken burger ($14). We got the Philly Shack burger, which consists of 170g of beef, American cheese, bacon, homemade BBQ sauce, among other ingredients.

The burger is different from burgers from its previous incarnation, The Butchers Club (TBC). TBC’s burgers were massive, masculine, and wild, but this one plays by the rules, and as a result, it’s boring. Although the patty is dry, I like how they don’t mince the beef too finely so there are still chucks for texture. Not bad, but it is not something I’d return to eat.

There are wings (6pc $8.50, 12 pc $14) and a damn spicy mary ($15) but we opted for the fully loaded chocolate milkshake ($10), which is chocolate milkshake topped with whipped cream, oreos, chocolates, gummy bears, M&Ms. It is ok, but perhaps the spiked peanut butter jelly milkshake ($13) would make a more interesting choice.

To be honest, food-wise, I prefer TBC to Philly Shack because TBC’s burgers had more character. But they have worked on the pricing, and Philly Shack is more affordable. We spent $50 for two persons.

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Philly Shack
3A River Valley Road, Clarke Quay #01-01B, Singapore 179020
Tel: +65 6837 0675
Sun-Tue 12pm-11pm, W-Sat 12pm-2am
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Food: 6.5/10
Price/value: 6.5/10
Ambience/decor: 6/10
Service: 8/10
Overall: 3.375/5

You may be interested in…
–Meatliquor, Duxton: London-Based Burger and Cocktail Joint
–Burger Joint, Amoy Street: New York Hipster Burger Joint in Singapore
–Employees Only, Amoy Street: 7th Best Bar in the World from New York
–Otto’s Deli Fresh, Holland Village

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.