The Royal Mail Bar and Restaurant

Little bites with drinks are all the rage. We're not stranger to Spanish tapas and Sangria, Italian Cicchetti with wine, so how about some British inspired tapas with specialty cocktails? The Royal Mail Bar, the extended beverage arm of The Royal Mail Restaurant, has recently launched its new cocktail menu, along with some yummy morsels to tantalize us social drinkers.

The Royal Mail Bar's new bar grub menu was improved to complement their new drinks. My take on the pairing? Hmm... Well let's discuss them separately for now. First, the drinks.

Agent 006 ($18)- a flaming mojito with a burning stream of Bacardi 151. Kinda strong for me. I couldn't take more than a few sips.

Plum Job ($18), a Vodka and Sprite concoction with sour plum powder. Another really strong drink but also really sweet. It tasted very much like a sour plum juice.

Wrong Side of the Bed ($18) is what i'd call a dirty espresso, shaken up with Vodka, Kahlua and Baileys. This was kinda bland for me.

With Timeless English ($18), two classics are cohesively melded — earl grey tea and the classic martini drink. The drink is very light, and all the lot, i found this the most palatable.

We sampled all the bar bites from the menu just so that you wouldn't end up eating the wrong things. I wouldn't quite consider Garlic bread ($8, half loaf) to be a bar bite but this is served at The Royal Mail and it's really yummeh. I loved how crispy and savory it was.

The straight cut fries ($12) are exceptional here and they are served with a rich and tasty truffle mayonnaise that had us double dipping the whole night. What's awesome is that the fries remained crispy for a good part of the night.

For the meats, i found the Sauteed Chorizo Sausages ($16) to be decent even though they're really fatty. The tomato concasse with saffron and chili was lovely as well though some may find the mix to be rather salty.

The Cubed Beef (Prime Roast 140g, $28) was decently done though i found the steak to be kinda oily. This was served with a Spicy Crab Tomato sauce which is interesting on its own but strange with the steak (no i don't take ketchup with my meat). Skip the empty Béarnaise sauce.

The BBQ Sweet and Spicy Meatballs ($14) was sweet, no thanks to the raspberry jam. Again, i prefer my meat savory, not sweet.

The other bar bites were either too plain (tortilla chips, shrimp paste drumlets) or really bleargh (sweet potato chips and calamari rings) and should certainly be condemned.

If you need something more substantial, i'd say go for that Beer Battered Fish and Chips ($18). Even though our first plate was not thoroughly cooked, we gave it a second chance (they quickly replaced it) because it's generously packed with real fish instead of stodgy batter.

This is certainly one of the better fish and chips around. Oh and it came with a stack of fries too! Make sure you upgrade it to the truffle mayonnaise! I'd certainly come back here if i have a fish and chips craving!

Anyhoo, we heard that the TRM Classic Beef Burger ($22) is also very popular.

Back to whether the bar grub complements the drinks? Well the food isn't refined enough for cocktails but it would certainly work well with an ice cold beer.

Happy Hour at The Royal Mail Bar is from 5pm to 8pm, where all specialty cocktails go for $10 each, and 1-for-1 House Pour (Gentlemen’s Pour 45ml) go for $15.

The Royal Mail Restaurant and Bar
2 Finlayson Green, Ascott Raffles Place, Singapore 049247
Tel: +65 65093589
Bar: 3 - 11pm daily