Went to check out Belimbing, the new sister restaurant of The Coconut Club at Beach Road. Touted as serving new-gen Singaporean food, I was a little curious to see how it will exactly turn out. I’ve tried Chef Marcus Leow’s cuisine at Magic Square previously so wanted to check out what he could bring to Belimbing. We went for the 2-course lunch priced at $58 but cos I wanted to try all the mains, we added on the last item as well

The place got quite crowded as the hour passed though I felt that service could be a little better generally. The table space wasn’t big and we had ordered quite a number of items. Yet they were struggling to make space on the table and kept asking us to move our things so they could fit the food. There were many things that could have been done prior and during so it doesn’t compromise our dining experience. So I was. very. annoyed

Kickstarting off with a Kueh Pie Tee as complimentary appetiser

Aged Kanpachi

Pink Guava | Mussel | Coconut Milk

It was a light appetiser where you can just taste the sweetness of the fish with a light coconut sauce and bits of guava for that refreshingness

Clam Custard

Scallop | Assam Pedas | White Pepper

I call this chawanmushi. And I liked it better than the kanpachi. I love the tone of sourness of the Assam in the egg custard with bits of clam and scallop that made this dish pretty flavourful

Fried Chicken

Yellow Curry | Tempra Sauce | Gooseberry

I was a little confused by this fried chicken. Not sure if it was supposed to remind me of Nasi Lemak or Hainanese curry rice for that yellow curry sauce

I thought the fried chicken was done well, but we felt it just needed a side of sambal to go along. It felt like it was missing something

Wok Fried Nasi Ulam

Seared Seasonal Fish | Tomato | Fish Floss

Fish was nicely done. And the rice was steamed together in a fish dashi stock before frying with sambal. It’s pretty fragrant as you unwrapped the banana leaf apart though it was probably my least favourite out of the 3 mains

Grilled Short Rib +$7

Rib Finger Satay | Black Garlic Percik | Green Curry

The short ribs were tender and delicious. Served with ribs finger satay brushed with buah keluak, I have to say I really don’t really know how to appreciate the ribs finger. But the black garlic sauce was savoury and had a nice touch of sweetness to it

Sour Plum, Burnt Mango

I thought the palate cleanser was interesting. It actually tasted quite delicious as you could savour both the sour plum and the slight charred taste of the mango

Corn Salat $14

Corn Tea | Brown Butter

Served with corn tea, you need to part savour the corn salat together with the tea for that whole completeness. To be honest I didn’t like the corn salat. I felt the corn custard didn’t quite go together with the savoury rice that was slightly too buttery for my liking. But the friend really loved this corn salat. I glad one of us liked it at the very least

Min Jiang Kueh $12

Cempedak | Peanut Brittle

I preferred the MJK to the corn salat. I actually thought the cempedek added a nice touch to the MJK but the friend thought it was strange. Though we did prefer a little more peanut brittle and sauce to the dish

I could see traits of Chef Marcus’s cooking in Belimbing from Magic Square. Though generally as a whole, I thought food was okay but not exactly impressive. To come up with a new-gen cuisine is challenging, for you need to recreate new dishes from what Singaporeans are already familiar and ensuring it’s worth the price. I thought they definitely had more improvements to go. If you are interested, you can still head down to give it a try

Belimbing

269A Beach Rd, Singapore 199546