The Coconut Club, which opened its third outlet at River Valley this June, claims it wants to celebrate all things Singaporean. To this effect, the restaurant at New Bahru got an Indonesian firm to design custom rattan benches with perfectly sized gaps for your bag to fall into. It collaborated with local fashion designer Priscilla Shunmugam on S$249 palm-print shirts that make you look like a server at Club Med. It even listened – a restaurant listens! – to diners griping about paying over 20 dollars for its famed chicken nasi lemak and reduced it to a low, low price of S$18.
Perhaps it is the New Bahru effect, where The Coconut Club River Valley resides. It is a former school embellished into a “lifestyle destination” with neighbours hawking artisanal granola, upcycled clothes, and cold plunges. Naturally, the restaurant caters to the demographics: a man wearing sunglasses indoors throughout his meal. A woman downing wine as sportily as her “Mountain Vibes” t-shirt. This was nasi lemak for the Canggu crowd.
Some dishes are exclusive to The Coconut Club River Valley, which also has locations on Beach Road and in Siglap. The quail goreng berempah (S$21++) is the signature nasi lemak done with quail instead of the usual chicken, deep-fried and meant to be eaten whole. It was morbidly thrilling to be crunching on the bones of a little bird and offered a fine contrast to the fluffy coconut rice and creamy fried egg, all laced with the sweet, pungent sambal. Wagyu beef roti John (S$21++) is a fancy version of the Malay pan-fried egg sandwich with minced meat, but it was the culinary equivalent of buying a Bugatti and turning it into a kid’s bed. The premium beef was cooked to death, rendering it into flavourless, gristly bits in between cabbage and carrot slaw.
For S$26++, you would expect The Coconut Club River Valley to at least devein the prawns in the otherwise average Singaporean seafood laksa. They were not. The accompanying side of otah, however, was brilliant: smooth and lightly smoky with sweet barramundi chunks. Likewise, bite-sized corn fritters called bakwan jagung (S$12++) were overshadowed by a zesty tomato sambal. Kambing percik (S$38++) was Australian lamb short ribs marinated in tamarind and The Coconut Club’s White Sutera coconut milk blend, cooked to temperature then deep-fried. The menu calls it “crispy,” accurate if your idea of crispy is soggy French fries, but the meat was generously spiced and luscious.
At three times the size and five times the price of Bengawan Solo’s kueh salat, the restaurant’s rendition (S$9++) is just as decent, as long as you do not apply the gula melaka ice cream that came with it, which made the whole thing taste only of caramel. The coconut shake (from S$10++), however, was dreamy: silky, refreshing, and utterly crushable. Maybe this was Bali, after all.
The Coconut Club River Valley at New Bahru
Taste: 7/10
Ambience: 5/10
Value for money: 5/10
Rating: 5.5/10
Average cost for two: S$80++
What we liked: quail goreng berempah, homemade otah, kambing percik
What we didn’t like: Wagyu beef roti John
Tuesday – Thursday, & Sunday, 11.30am – 10.30pm
Friday & Saturday, 11.30am to 11.30pm
* Reservations open in July 2024
46 Kim Yam Rd, #01-14 New Bahru, Singapore 239351
How to get there: 12-minute walk from Fort Canning MRT Station; 16-minute walk from Great World MRT Station
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(Hero and featured images credit: The Coconut Club)
This article first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Singapore
