Beer Market at Clarke Quay – Buy Low Drink High!

Beer MarketĀ 

Address: 3B River Valley Road #01-17/02-02 (Just beside Liang Court that’s facing the main road)

Operating Hours: Sun – Thu 6:00pm to 1:ooam Fri, Sat and PH 6:00pm to 3:00am

Introduction

First of all, a very great thank you to TheSmartLocal for the invitation to the makan session and a great thanks to Beer Market (Chef Steven and Operation Manager Charlie) for hosting us. It was a crazy rush during lunch hour but it is a great session. It’s nice meeting up with Bryan from TheSmartLocal, Tony from JohorKaki, Melicacy and Bon Koh fromĀ sethlui.com.

Beer MarketĀ  had been around for a couple of years at Clarke Quay for and I remembered them most for their fluctuating beer price accordance to theirĀ  BMX (Beer Market Index). The price of their beer changes according to demand. If a certain brew is not ordered in the last 30 minutes, the price of this beer will drop, and on the other hand, if it’s really popular, the price will go up.

Keep observing their TV screen for the best-priced beer and general guide is – Buy Low, Drink High. And this is possibly the only place in Singapore where one prays for a market crash.

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good enough for 4-6.

Apart from their atypical manly beer, Beer Market also offers fruit beer like North Taiwan Lychee Beer, Fruli Strawberry Bee and Matso Mango Beer.Ā They just launched a new menu in March 2014, which they have some interesting items that incorporate a local twist such as salted egg seafood pizza and chicken rice pizza and seafood in shooter glass dunked in beer.

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

Food Menu: Click to enlarge

BM No-Nonsense Steak ($22.90+)

Among the cuts for steaks, ribeye is the highly sought after cut. It is more marbled comparing to other cuts and the fat breaks down in the process of grilling which gives the steak a delightful texture and taste.a

The description of their no-nonsense steak ($22.90+) reads “Marinated. Grilled. Marbled Beef. We know what you want” . I wasn’t expecting much from a steak that did not mention the type and cut of the steak despite of how they described their steak on the menu.

But in fact, there are indeed traces of marbled texture in their No-Nonsense Steak and that comes as a delight for me. The exterior of the steak is grilled to moderately crisp and slightlyĀ charred for a delectable appearance while the steak remains moist and tender inside. The chef specifically mentioned that the steak is to go with their butter. Hopefully steak of similar quality can be served to every patrons in Beer Market and not a one-off thing.

ChickenĀ Truffle ($15.90+)

I thought that the main lead of this dish is not the chicken chop but for it’s sauce and truffle oil sprinkled mash potatoes. Beer market is considerably generous with the amount of truffle oil used on this dish. The chop taste very proper, tender, nice, like how a chicken chop should be. The portion of mash potato is drenched in a good volume of mushroom gravy and ensures you have enough sauce to last you to the last mouthful of mash potatoe. The price is pretty reasonable at 15.90+.

I have no complain for their chicken chop, except the presentation can be better. I can’t even spot the chicken chop easily when it’s served. It’s all covered by sauce, mushroom, onions and it’s like all mashed up.

Seafood Shooter ($22.50+)

It cost $22.50 for a bottle of Tiger Radler with six glasses of Shooters (2 prawn, 2 salmon and 2 Crab meat). Tiger Radler (with only 2% alcohol) is then added into the glass to be consumed together. Tiger Radler taste more sweet with a tinge of lemon and I suppose that is why Beer Market decided to pair it with food instead of regular beer, which is evidently much more bitter.

The Seafood Shooter – Shredded Crab Meat

Generally the Tiger Radler adds a refreshing bitter lemon taste into the three kinds of seafood shooters.Ā  It works very well with salmon sashimi, OK with the prawn with cucumber and not as good for the shredded crab meat and tomato.

Seafood Shooter – Fresh Tiger Prawn in Tiger Radler

The taste of beer and lemon overpowered the thinly shredded crab meat and I can’t taste too much of the crab. The cold tiger prawn is good. It’s really fresh and juicy.

The quality of Salmon is not bad. It’s rather fatty with aĀ distinct fragrance of the salmon fat. Ā The salmon sashimi is lightly marinated in orange juice and whiskey and itĀ goes well with the slightly sour lemon beer.

Seafood Shooter – My favourite, Salmon Sashimi (slightly spicy)

Other Dishes

BM Rojak Platter ($ 39.90+). Good size, can serve 4-6 people. Comes with fries, luncheon meat, Japanese sausage, fried fish skin, spring roll, stir-fry mushroom and thai fish stick with three kinds of dipping sauce – Honey Mustard, Tartar Sauce and BM Shiok Sauce. Love the Shiok Sauce. The platter is good to go with beer.

Grandma Fish and Chip $13.90+

Bacon Wrapped in Cherry Tomato and Baby Potato ($7.90+). 6 pcs of Wrapped Tomato and 6 pcs of Wrapped Potato. In the background are BM’s Four Heavenly King Dipping Sauce Ā (Tartar, Honey Mustard, Shiok. BTH) + Cheesy Salsa and Truffle Sauce

Conclusion

I had to rush off after their main course and didn’t get to savour their chicken rice pizza (i thought that will be pretty interesting though).

The first thing I noticed about Beer Market’s menu is for it’s price. It looks pretty reasonable comparing to food price of some other bars. The food quality is decent and I like their steak the best among all.

I also like how well-spaced the tables are and won’t really feel all cramped up. It’s a rather good place for colleagues to chill (i had my colleague’s farewell dinner there previously) and to de-stress after a hard day at work. And dailyĀ live band? Yeap, that should works for me too.

The Deck @ Arun Residence (Bangkok – Phra Nakhon)

The Deck @ Arun Residence

Address:Ā The Deck By The River, Maha Rat, Phra Nakhon

Opening hours: Mon-Thu 8.00am to 10.00pm, Fri-Sun 8.00am to 11.00pm

Introduction

As a lover for landscape photography, I will always try to make some time to visit attractions for some shots while I’m overseas. The Deck is situated just directly opposite Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) across the river, which is within walking distance from The Grand Palace and Wat Pho (Temple of the Reclining Buddha) or Wat Phra Chetuphon. ItĀ is the perfect place to take a good shot of Bangkok’s Wat Arun.

While I am expecting a classy and posh restaurant that is within a up-class hotel, i am pleasantly surprised that The Deck is not such a place andĀ i thought this cosy and homely residence/restaurant may just be it’s charm.

Click to see my list of consolidated Bangkok Food Itinerary

The restaurant

The deck is divided into three levels, while level one and two are reserved for seated dining, level three is their bar area. ThereĀ is a spiral staircase that leads up to level two, and need to climb up a flight of metal steps to reach level three.

The dining area at level one is at the sun deck of the house with only a couple of tables that are well-spaced from each other. Seems pretty romantic at night? However, from the photo, you can see that a boat almost blocked the whole view of Wat Arun.

The dining area in level two is able to accommodate large dining crowd.

I thought the level three area offers a much better view and since my main objective is to shoot instead of eat, i opted for the level three bar.

Within the bar, there are only five or six tables that offers a direct view of Wat Arun and i am glad that I made my way there early at 5.45pm and i manage to secure the last unoccupied table that offers a great view of Wat Arun. The bar offers finger food and drinks. Those who don’t feel like having alcohol may order their coffee/tea or juice instead. Yeap, a bar that offers coffee and tea.

Food & Drinks

As I plan to visit the “Bangkok best phad thai” for dinner, i am giving the main course at The Deck a miss. I ordered the safest food – cheese nachos and sausage. The taste of the nachos actually exceeded my expectation. I was munching on the nachos and i cleared the plate in no time. Love the thin chips coated with warm melted cheese.

And how wrong can sausages go? There are three different kinds of sausage in the platter that tasted like – Chicken cheese, chicken, pork and comes with a side of mashed potato and a portion of mustard.Ā Great for sharing.

By the way, I don’t exactly enjoy their cappuccino as much as I thought I tasted some spices in it and it taste rather weird.

Bangkok’s sun sets at about 6.15pm to 6.30pm and it was a pity that the sun set was blocked by some thick cloud thus unable to catch the yellow egg yolk. Such a waste!

But nevertheless I thought I still managed to capture a rather decent night shot of Wat Arun, i think. LOL. What do you think?

Conclusion

I am someone who can enjoy doing nothing and just find a cosy corner and chill out with friends while enjoying a view and enjoying the river breeze. This place sets a world apart from the up-class rooftop sky bar where visitors need to be in their long pants and flip-flops are a strict no-no, The Deck offers a very homely and casual kind of setting for friends to gather or romantic-seeking lovers to visit to have a good drink and chat.

The only problem with this place is for it’s location as Singaporeans (or any other visitors) very muck like to stay around Pratunam/Asoke/Siam area for it’s shopping convenience. I had to take a cab ride that took me around 20 minutes to reach The Deck @ Arun Residence.

If you are already visiting the Grand Palace, Wat Pho or Wat Arun, why not have a rest at The Deck for a drink before heading back to Hotel.

The sky is already dark and i set off to the nearby “Bangkok Best Phad Thai” for dinner, which will be covered in my upcoming post!

Here’s a shot of the interesting spiral stairs connecting level one to level two:

Directions and Map

As The Deck is not near to any particular MRT or BTS station, i took a cab directly to this place. Note that this place is not along the main road and the cab driver got to turn into a smaller lane to be able to see this place.