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Atlas Bar, Parkview Square, Bugis: Gotham City Meets Great Gatsby–Champagne, Exquisite Cocktails, and Fine European Food

Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow
3–5 minutes

Nobody ever hates the black-and-gold art deco building, Parkview Square, which some say looks like a building straight out of Gotham City. Now they have a bar at its lobby that also serves fine-dining food.

The bar is helmed by Head Bartender Roman Foltán, formerly of London’s award-winning Artesian at the Langham, which won the World’s Best Bar four years in a row. Executive Chef Daniele Sperindio, who honed his craft in Michelin-starred kitchens in London, Chicago and Tokyo, presents European cuisine.

They have an extensive range of cocktails, but when I ordered the Cecil Beaton ($22, rare australian spiced dry gin, hibiscus water, earl grey tea, baking
spices, citrus, milk), it was not available. I wanted a sweet drink and the waiter recommended S.S. Normandie ($22), which has calvados and peach, and I did not want peach that day.

Eventually, the waiter recommended Bohemian Aristocrat ($25), a cognac and Venezuelan rum based cocktail, with beurre noisette. When I saw brown butter in the ingredient list, I wanted it immediately. I wonder how they could mix butter into a cocktail. It is extremely smooth, a milder form of whiskey, accented and sweetened by orange-pear liqueur. Excellent.

When I saw the food menu online before my visit, I thought that the black pepper chicken lollipop ($14) from the appetizers section sounds interesting but my friend, who was there a few days before me, advised me NOT to order any appetizers, especially not the chicken lollipop. Heng.

I did order the Irish oysters ($32 for 6) which are delightfully covered with champagne vinegar foam, giving a nice sweet and sour flavor to the molluscs. There are also fizzy grapes by the side which taste like pops of champagne.

We decided to eat from the LARGE plates mostly, but the portions are minuscule. I guess the menu is ironic?

The canvas of pasta ($30) is a sheet of pasta covering minced meat in bolognese sauce and it comes with 3 small pieces of  Japanese wagyu beef. The wagyu beef is extremely delicious; very salty but the salt brings out the fatness of the beef, giving umami. But I’m not quite sure what the focus of this dish is. Is it a pasta dish? Is it a beef dish? How does the wagyu fit the bolognese pasta?

The slow braised short rib ($32) must have been sous-vide because it is so smooth and tender. Smartly, they crust it with tarragon, to give it texture, and it tastes slightly like bak ku teh. But it is extremely costly for two bites, and I don’t quite understand how the side paraphernalia work with the beef.

Another sous vide dish, chicken breast ($30), is presented as if it’s a roulade. And it is beautifully pink inside. This is the first time I’ve eaten chicken paired with peach, which is a refreshing rendition.

The food is good but problematic on many levels:

-ALL the dishes arrived at once, which shouldn’t be the case. They should have staggered the timing of the dishes.

-I wish the servers had introduced the food to us. I’d like to know what I am eating. That said, the service is mostly excellent. They are warm and attentive.

-the portions do not commensurate with the price. We two were still hungry despite eaten 6 oysters, and 3 large plates.

-too many items are sous vide, and this makes me think that there is no range, it is a one trick pony.

-I don’t think the ingredients that accompany the main meat do anything to enhance the focus. I would rather they not add the peripheral ingredients and give more meat.

I want to emphasize that this is not to say the food isn’t good; The dishes are still tasty but the food is problematic and the problems could easily be solved. For that reason, based on what we ate today, we won’t return for the food but we will definitely be back for the stellar cocktails. I guess there is a reason why it’s called “Atlas Bar” and not “Atlas Bar & Restaurant.” Including a bottle of wine ($100), we paid $288 for two persons.

Menu

Atlas Bar Singapore
600 North Bridge Road, Parkview Square, Singapore 188778
Tel: +65 6396 4466
M-Th 8am-1am, F 8am-2am, Sat 3pm-2am
facebook

Food & Drinks: 7/10
Service: 7.5/10
Price/Value: 5.5/10
Decor: 10/10
Overall rating: 3.75/5

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6 responses to “Atlas Bar, Parkview Square, Bugis: Gotham City Meets Great Gatsby–Champagne, Exquisite Cocktails, and Fine European Food”

  1. Victoria Avatar
    Victoria

    Hi, just some comments for your future consideration:
    – the food do not commensurate with the price -> should read, the food IS NOT commensurate with the price
    – “smartly” is generally used to mean a tidy and neat appearance as in, he was dressed smartly. Suggest: “intelligently”
    – sous vide is a manner of food preparation, not a noun of food in itself. Instead of “too many items are sous vide”, suggest: “too many items are prepared sous vide”

    Thanks for making the effort to vary your vocabulary all the same! Cheers

    Reply
    1. Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow Avatar
      Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

      Thanks, you’re right with the first one. I didn’t proofread it. But “smartly” is an adverb of “smart” and can be used for “intelligently” or “sharply”, and I’m using “sous vide” as a verb. Sometimes I use “sous vide-ing” too. By the way, “food is prepared sous vide” is wrong. Going by your rigid definition, sous vide is a noun, not an adverb. So the correct sentence should be “food is prepared by sous vide.”

      The thing about blogs is that blogging is done out of personal interest without remuneration; it has done for the sole interest of the blogger as a form of food journal. So I think it’s silly to waste time on proofreading. I never proofread my entries so there must be millions of grammatical errors to be found. Many of my reviews are done on my mobile phone on my way home on public transport. This is not my job, I don’t have to do it perfectly and I don’t want to spend so much time on it.

      When people jog to exercise, they don’t have to have the perfect form or body shape or shoes. They don’t have to be the fastest. Jogging is just something they enjoy. You don’t judge people jogging along pavements, so I don’t understand why people judge bloggers.
      I’ve seen a Fb page criticizing some blogs, but that is just mean. These bloggers just enjoy talking about food, they don’t get paid doing it, and they pay money for the food to write reviews. There is no need to be careful with grammar. If someone is not happy with the blogger, just close the blog and never visit it again. It takes a very bitter person to start a fb page to shame them publicly.
      For blogs or ezines that profit from reviews, it’s a different matter.

      Reply
      1. Victoria Avatar
        Victoria

        Hi blogger, I agree with you that the particular Facebook page takes things to another – arguably unwarranted – level. That said, there’s nothin wrong with accepting feedback where justified.

        We all write to communicate effectively, and poor grammar detracts/distracts from that end. Deciding not to proof-read is your prerogative, as it is your readers’ prerogative to point out errors for your improvement, and for the improvement of the Singaporean social media scene at large. I hope you take my comments in the spirit which they were meant – constructiveness and help.

        Thank you for continuing your passion project of food blogging.

        Reply
        1. Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow Avatar
          Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

          Dear reader, of course you can point out the mistakes and give constructive feedback. If you tell me I wrote the ingredients wrongly or they didn’t sous vide the chicken, I accept it wholeheartedly and fully admit my mistakes. But you’re nitpicking in one instance (“smart/intelligent”) and wrong in another (“prepared sous vide”). It is difficult for me to accept unsolicited, wrong feedback made in the spirit of a stern Catholic nun when I don’t know you irl or when you can email me privately. It’s like you going into a stranger’s home for an open house and criticising the furniture loudly.
          I don’t know if Singapore social media needs improving or if you can improve it by going to every blog and pointing out their grammatical mistakes, but good luck with that! Let me know when you succeed. In the meantime, I can point you to some blog entries that really need editing. It would be a great help to me. 😜😜😜

          Reply
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