Modern European fine dining restaurant that opened in 2012, The Clan isn’t particularly unconventional, but its new location on the second level of Selegie Road’s PoMo is a tad unusual and a little unfamiliar to five-star meal hunters.

However, the food here is stellar and their multi-course meals offered for lunch and dinner are surprisingly friendly on the credit card. Dinner is a six-course affair with sophisticated creations.

The restaurant serves East/West fusion cuisine with infusion of its own interpretation of recipes. It started as Dozo Restaurant at River Valley, serving French-Japanese fine-dining food at an affordable prix fixe menu. After enjoying a few years of success, the culinary team left Dozo and started The Clan at Bukit Pasoh. A talented 27 year-old Head Chef John Ng has designed and executed a 6-course menu for $78++. The 2-course set lunch goes for $28++, 3-course for $38++.

Amuse Bouche

Chef’s Palate of the Day

A trio of appetisers – (from R) chawanmushi, grilled Hokkaido scallop, shrimp tart. This one of the most generous amuse bouche I have had at any fine dining restaurant.  The grilled scallop was OK, the shrimp tart seemed to be just a supermarket shrimp ball in a kueh pie tee cup, but the cold chawanmushi was the surprising favourite. It is custardy and yet full of flavour.

Entrée (Cold Appetiser)

Clan’s Pasta | crab meat | trio caviar | truffle oil

The truffle angel hair pasta, with crab meat and caviar, is luxurious, but may be a tad sour.

Entrée (Hot Appetiser)

Sardine | padron peppers

It is very rare to get fresh sardine in Singapore, and getting two grilled sardines on the plate with some grilled Padrón peppers was a surprise. Drawing inspiration from a Spanish tapa, the grilled sardine was appropriately salted and pan fried. Padrón peppers are like Japanese shishito, it’s a lucky draw and you may get one spicy bast*@d once in a while.

Soup

Lobster Bisque

The lobster bisque is ok, would love to see a bit more lobster.

Strawberry sorbet

Main

Wagyu Beef Loin | himalayan pink salt | au jus

Served on a hot stone, the Australian wagyu loin came almost pink even though I asked for medium rare. You have to finish the doneness on the table. Not something you would expect in a fine dining restaurant. The cut was OK given the price you paid for.

Dessert

Deconstructed Keylime Pie | kaffir lime espuma | citrus curd | dehydrated candied lime

I could not understand this dessert, it does not remind me of key lime pie. If there’s a weakness, Chef Ng needs to work on the dessert.

The setup of the restaurant is nicely done and relatively plush. Don’t be too perturbed  by the number of cutlery on the table as your servers will remove them accordingly based on your orders. On the whole, the meal is delightful, and priced at a good value for such full portions. It’s good, solid fine-dining food that is careful and doesn’t rock the boat.  Chef Ng is a talented young chef, and given a few more years of experience, he may become a rock star.

 

The Clan Restaurant
#02-01/08 POMO, 1 Selegie Road, Singapore 188306
Tel : +65 62222084

Date Visited : Oct 2010