Daniel and I continued our boozy lunch sessions today at The Pump Room. Sadly Chris couldn’t make it, so we drank some extra beer on his behalf. This was the first visit to this pub/bar/bistro and I’m absolutely certain I’ll ba back again. Located in the ever more trendy Clarke Quay, The Pump Room is on Read Street beside Highlander (we assumed that both bars are part of the same group but I’m not sure about that) and so it’s easy to get to by taxi (alight at the taxi stand on River Valley Road that you would use when at the Ministry of Sound). It’s not quite as straightforward by public transport as Daniel found out.

Anyway, on to the beer and food. I’ll get the negatives out of the way first as they’re not too significant and wouldn’t stop me from going back. The first thing you spot is that the prices advertised are subject to the caveat that service charge and prevailing taxes apply (10% service charge, 1% CESS and 5% GST). So for the beer advertised on the board for S$3.50 (the price between 11am and 3pm) the actual cost is just over $4. Obviously the same applies for food. This practice irks me and isn’t unique to this bar but it would be nice to see new places break the habit. There’s also something a bit off about a service charge on a pint (but I’ll not go into that here and now). On the subject of pints – they aren’t. The beers are served (for the largest unit) as a 500ml serving which is fine when the glass is a 500ml glass (Daniel got his Bohemian Lager in a 500ml glass) but the Scottish Ale comes in a pint glass which means your fresh beer doesn’t fill the glass. Now, I know it’s a 500ml serving and this is purely a perception thing, but it’s a little bit of a spoiler for me. They may say that the first bite is with the eye and I would argue that one should also consider that the first sip is with the eye when you’re presenting a beer as a premium, hand-crafted thing of beauty. Which it is. My final gripe is that the website seemed to indicate all the beers were available, however Bohemian Lager and Scottish Ale were the beers being served. This wasn’t a problem as I was keen to try the Scottish Ale, described on their site and menu as Hardy, roasted malt characters with a slightly sweet finish. Although I did want to try the IPA (looking at the site now the IPA is listed as out of stock on the Beers page). That’s all the griping out of the way.

Undoubtedly, the quality of the beer here is top notch. I was going to say ‘high’ but putting ‘beer’ and ‘high’ in the same sentence can only come off negatively. The Scottish Ale had a great drinkable character to it that was perfect for a sunny day (‘Scottish’ and ‘sunny day’ in one sentence! ). By this I mean it had a great flavour (smelt wonderful as well) that didn’t hang around with the often tasted slightly bitter aftertaste that many beers have. A sip or slug left a clean taste in the mouth and thus for me lends the beer well to accompanying food. I stuck with the Scottish Ale while Daniel alternated between the two available beers, proclaiming the Bohemian Lager to be just as fine a beer and refreshingly lacking in the over-carbonation of many lagers. There’s not much else to say about the beer except talk prices. The day is broken up into different pricings (exclusive of service charge and taxes as I mentioned earlier) for their brews, I just remember the 11am to 3pm one which is S$3.50 for the 500ml serving and I think $$2 for a 300ml serving. The peak price is S$9 for a 500ml serving. So, very good value for excellent beer. They also have a selection of bottled (I think) beers that come in around S$13.50 and include beers like Guinness (Foreign Extra and Draught), Moosehead (Canada) and three beers from Monteiths (New Zealand). I was quite pleased to see Monteiths Radlers in there but it’s pricey. They also have a good selection of wines, mainly from Australia and New Zealand. Today was all about the beer so I don’t recall the prices of the wines. The website could do with being improved in this area – Daniel and I were wondering why a copy of the menu (which isn’t massive, although perfectly acceptable) wasn’t available on the website. They mention some of their key dishes but these are given without price. Comparisons to Brewekz are inevitable so I’ll get onto those now; it’s hard to do a fair comparison without all of their beers being available, so further investigation will need to be done. With a sense of duty and diligence, I assure you this will be undertaken. Personally, I found The Pump Room’s beer fresher and would prefer it over Brewerkz but I think tasting the IPA would be the only way to come to a fair verdict as the Scottish Ale doesn’t really have a competitor in the Brewerkz range that would allow for a direct comparison, unlike the IPA.

The food side of The Pump Room is a simple affair with plenty of dishes to suit beer drinking and also wine drinking. There’s a ‘lite bites’ menu that has, presumably, smaller versions of the mains and standard pub fair like chips or wedges. Certainly, enough finger food if you’re mainly there for the beer and need something to help fill the stomach. The mains include some vegetarian options, pasta and grilled meats. No major surprise that Daniel and I chose from the latter category. Daniel opted for the Steak Burger (S$18) which was served with a simple, mesculun – I think, salad and wedges (they were out of chips so wedges were the only option). A good verdict from him; the steak was tender and the salad, which seemed to include beetroot, served in the bun was tasty. I went for the barbecue ribs (S$28) which were similarly accompanied. These were damn tasty. The meat came off the bone easily and was very tender while still retaining a satisfying texture. Went with the beer extremely well. A simple touch that’s often missing was a small side plate for the bones. They have a small but decent looking desert selection which we didn’t try (flourless chocolate cake just isn’t going to go with beer!) as we were happy enough with the mains. I wouldn’t have minded a go at their cheese selections but wasn’t mad hungry to decided to leave them for next time.

The staff are friendly although not particulalry into striking up a conversation (some small talk about the weather and such things). They’re also quite attentive and discrete so conversation among groups isn’t interrupted. They do have an attention to detail which is nice. There wasn’t any load muzak getting in the way either. Seating, outside, is comfortable and quite well spaced though there’s no sun cover. There’s a separate smoking area. Definitely one I’ll be back to.

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