COCONUTS HOT SPOT — What makes a good gourmet burger? It’s all about the robust buns, super-moist meat patty, finger-licking homemade sauce and the most creative additions you can slot in between. Does The Butchers Club Burger get ticks in all the right places? You bet your ass.
Already garnering thousands of fans in Hong Kong (where it’s been included in the Michelin Guide’s newly introduced ‘street food’ category), the burger joint is the latest among Singapore’s new gourmet burger eateries (Jack Ripper, MEATLiquor, Wildfire, Wolf, etc).
Like District 10 Bar and Grill, The Butchers Club Burger also employs the usage of high quality dry-aged beef.
The brand was launched two years ago in Aberdeen, Hong Kong as a butcher shop, helmed by passionate chefs and butchers, all avid exponents of beef aging. Then they ventured into private dining, followed by a burger joint. And what’s better than an eatery started by butchers themselves?
Their first foray into Singapore doesn’t disappoint. It’s only appropriate that it opened up at Clarke Quay, among the rest of the nightlife hotspots. Hearty burgers should more than satisfy post-clubbing adventures when the munchies kick in. We foresee properly packed tables in the wee hours of the morning when Zouk arrives in the Clarke Quay vicinity come late 2016.
The Butchers Club Burger first-timers should try out their signature entrée — simply dubbed The Burger ($20). It’s a good starter to the gourmet burger experience: 160 grams of juicy, dry-aged Black Angus grain-fed beef patty, sandwiched in between maple-syrup laden Canadian strip bacon, and toasty homemade Scottish baps. The meat is topped with oozing English white cheddar, as well as the house’s caramelised onion sauce spread, and customers can finish it all off with some Duck Fat Fries ($8), which tastes exactly like its moniker.
The rest of their menu is pretty much in the same style of The Burger, but with significantly multiplied opulence. Take, for example, the Double Happiness ($38) which doubles the patty, cheese, and all its miscellaneous fillings that should fill you up for the rest of the day or two (or week).
For something with a little more spicy kick, the Wu Tang Style ($25) should be your pick — a dainty sandwich with a patty fried in sriracha topped with potent kimchi, kewpie mayo and tempura sweet potato.
Yes, there are fish options too (no, they’re not dry-aged) with the inclusion of Captain Ahab ($24) which is actually pretty frickin’ tasty, considering that The Butchers Club is a beef-centric joint. The New Zealand ling fillet is thick and fleshy as it is, and the panko-bread coating provides that satisfying crunch, especially with the inclusion of spicy coleslaw.
The offer’s over now, but the highlight of that night was probably the Bird Slayer Grapow, Chef Bjorn Shen’s (of Artichoke cafe & bar) creation for The Butchers Club first Burger Takeover. Grilled to perfection, the minced chicken thigh patty was supreme in taste and texture, which was thoroughly enhanced by the inclusion of crispy fried chicken skins, a fried egg and spicy Thai basil relish.
If this was just a first taste of what guest chefs can deliver for The Butchers Club Burger, then we’re really looking forward to what the upcoming editions will hold for our tastebuds.
The Butchers Club Burger is at 3A River Valley Road, #01-01B. Open daily from 12pm to midnight (Sundays to Tuesdays), 12pm to 2am (Wednesdays and Thursdays), 12pm to 4am (Friday and Saturdays).
Photos: Ilyas Sholihyn / Coconuts Singaproe
