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The Tavern at Tanglin Club – Tavern of Yummies [Members only]

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Most of you faithful blog readers already know what my favorite dessert is. It’s either chocolate mousse or the dessert that I most frequently blog about — chocolate lava cake. After I had slammed délifrance for having some very questionable lava cake on their menu, a friend offered to take me someplace nice that serves a much better rendition of this dessert.

And boy, did he over-deliver! The “nice” place he had in mind? The prestigious members-only tanglin club!

Of the three restaurants at the club, we visited the tavern, a restaurant designed to resemble a traditional English tavern (hence the name). I love the signboard hanging outside the place. For some reason, it reminds me very much of the prancing pony inn (where Frodo first met aragorn) in the Lord of the Rings.

The Tavern at Tanglin Club Photo by Tanglin Club

Obviously, the restaurant isn’t really an old tavern with a shabby look and a dingy setup. On the contrary, it feels charming and cosy with its vintage English decor, much like the rest of the clubhouse. After all, this is a British club that was founded more than a century ago, back in 1865!

My friend who’s a regular club visitor has already tried every item on the menu. He claims that everything there is good, and recommended the lobster thermidor.

Lobster Thermidor baked in the shell

Lobster Thermidor baked in the shell
SGD37.50

Wow! When it comes to shellfish, most of the time you don’t really get to eat that much of its flesh. But in this case, there was really a whole lot of lobster flesh on my plate! I had never had so much lobster to myself before. It made me so happy :)

I could taste the naturally sweet seafood flavor of the lobster that was, fortunately, not masked by the rich pommery mustard sauce and cream sauce. The gruyere cheese melted atop the lobster gave it an extra nice finishing! If that’s not enough to fill the stomach, the lobster was also served with potato, gratin tomato and a stack of greens.

By the way, would someone please recommend a delicious and similar lobster dish elsewhere? I’m hungering for some lobster already!

Beef lasagna

Beef lasagna
SGD16.80

For something more filling, diners can always opt for the beef lasagna, which is good too. Every item on the menu is good, remember?

Apple pie a la Mode

Apple pie a la Mode
SGD5.90

Dessert time! That’s what we came for! The apple pie is an excellent choice, especially for those of you who love having some fruit in your dessert. The apple pie here is served a la mode, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. Nice!

Sticky fondant chocolate lava

Sticky fondant chocolate lava
SGD8.50

For me personally, I prefer desserts that aren’t fruity, and all the better if it’s chocolate! The chocolate lava cake here is served with cute peach balls and a scoop of ice cream. It’s my first time having this dessert with cookies and cream ice cream; most of the time, it would be vanilla. In any case, cookies and cream ice cream pairs perfectly with the chocolate fondant!

Another unusual thing about this particular lava cake is that instead of having hot molten chocolate oozing out of the cake, it is drizzled all over the cake. It works too. Everything I found on the plate was good, from the round hard biscuit to the white chocolate stick to the very moist and very chocolatey cake! Yum!

Over here, there is no service charge despite the topnotch service. In fact, the prices on the menu are extremely reasonable, perhaps a tad low even, considering the quality of food delivered. It seems that the club’s priority is to allow its members to enjoy the food and facilities rather than being out to make every penny possible. What a wonderful outlook!

The Tavern
Tanglin Club
5 Stevens Road
Singapore 257814
(65) 6739 4129 /4139 /4140
Service:

www.tanglinclub.org.sg

Members only

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About the Author

Veron Ang is the founder and chief editor of Sparklette. She lives in Singapore and has dined and traveled across the world. She also runs Sparklette Studio, a web design and WordPress development firm. If you'd like to connect with her, head on over to the contact page or follow her personal updates on Twitter: @VeronSG.

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14 responses

Leave your comment

Miccheng
October 7, 2007

The lobster looks so tasty! Yum yum…

Mic
Reply
Veron
October 7, 2007

Oh, don’t start. I’m like, totally craving for it now!
Reply
NTT
October 7, 2007

Gah! This is almost like torture. You describe how wonderful the food was, put up really delicious looking pictures, and you say it’s members only. Damn, now I have to find a member so I can go in as a guest… :p
Reply
Veron
October 7, 2007

You see right through me! I’m evil that way.

Hey when you find someone who’s a member, can I tag along? :P
Reply
Joyz
October 7, 2007

Haha, I think you are on a nationwide search for the best warm molten choc cake! Anyway, I went to the 2AM dessert bar @ Holland V for their version of the warm choc cake. It was very thin and had crusty sides which was kinda odd. And about less than 3/4 of your palm size. Cost: S$14 ++. The sheer size of it meant that there wasn’t any ‘volcanic eruption’ of the warm choc. It was more of a trickle! In my opinion, I’m better off with Bakerinz version. But I have to give it credit for its innovative use of orange sorbet instead of the usual vanilla ice cream. The tangy zest helped balanced the sweetness of the choc; a pretty good and creative combi, I must say.
Reply
Veron
October 9, 2007

The 2am Dessert Bar sounds interesting! But $14 for a chocolate lava cake is rather pricey. Wouldn’t mind the price that much if it’s good though, but looks like I have to give this one a pass!

The name of this place does pique my interest though.
Reply
tri
October 9, 2007

Hi, have you tried north border bar and grill at one rochester? their southwest lava chocolate torte is good and is at $10.90 if I’m not wrong. http://www.northborder.com.sg/
Reply
Joyz
October 9, 2007

Well, you can give it a try especially when you need a dessert fix in the middle of the night. Yes, they are open til 2 am in the morning!
Reply
Veron
October 9, 2007

tri: Oh! I was at North Border the other day for a short while but didn’t get to dine. We went to graze and One Rochester instead :) The chocolate lava cake at graze was good! Will try the one at North Border the next time!

Joyz: At that sort of timing we would usually end up at NYDC if we wanted desserts. Great to have another option!
Reply
ivy
October 11, 2007

gawd! your site is heaven-sent to *newbies in sing* like me :) now, i got places to go *hee*

been here in sing for just about 2 weeks so need lots of exploring to do, hehe:)

thanks n’ keep posting more of d’ good stuff ;)
Reply
hucks
October 12, 2007

i see we are both dessert lovers :D the apple pie looks amazing. like an apple pie exploded and left all the bits on the plate hahaha!

re molten chocolate cake: have you tried the one at wild rocket?? corduroy and finch does a pretty good version too.
Reply
Veron
October 12, 2007

ivy: No problem! Hope you enjoy your stay in our country.

hucks: Haha I love your description of the apple pie. Wild Rocket? Already been there, done that :P Check out my review.
Reply
hucks
October 12, 2007

wah both got five drumsticks eh? but since i don’t have anyone to take me to the tanglin club, guess i’ll have to stick to wild rocket :P
Reply
Ivan Chan
July 3, 2009

Nice write-up and nice pics!
Reply