[Staycation] Experiencing Deluxe Room at The Clan Hotel Plus Nearby Makan Places

The Clan Hotel

Address: 10 Cross St, Singapore 048417

Website: https://www.theclanhotel.com.sg/

Actually, it is rare for me to be back at the same hotel, twice in the same year. But then, there were a lot of firsts for everyone too, so never say never!

First experience was superb, because of the room tier. Reminisce about the Apr staycation here. So yes, was a tad apprehensive of going back to the same place so soon. The Clan Hotel has 3 room types; Deluxe (24 sqm), Premier (31 sqm) and Grand Premier (36 sqm). Room highlights between the Grand Premier and the Premier seemed similar, with the difference in bigger room size and the availability of a bathtub and The Clan Daily Special for the Grand Premier.

So, out of curiosity, I went back for a 3 days 2 nights staycation in July and this time round, for a no-frills experience of the regular Deluxe room. Went to check-in at about 12.30pm because was stuck at home doing some work for the office. Was also unsure if I could do an early check-in, so that was that.

Similarly, I was greeted by the concierge downstairs and I knew my way round, so went up to Level 2 lobby and made myself at home. Saw Alex at the tea counter, but he was super busy preparing tea. Saw Sam who happened to walk past and greeted him by name. He was pleasantly surprised but he too, was busy attending to someone else. So, waited for another few more minutes before Jovena came by.

She's friendly and cheerful, and because this was a revisit, so the process was explained fairly quickly and necessary signatures obtained before the key card was presented. This time round, I was assigned to Level 16. Previously, I had enjoyed the view from Level 21.

Deluxe Room 24 sqm - King Bed

First impression of the room? Hmm, yes it was noticeably smaller than the Premier Room. Having said that, it was still the same King sized bed. Keke, so not much difference for a solo traveller.

view from Level 16

quite nice to lounge on the day bed by the window

The bathroom has all the necessary amenities and the standing shower was still pretty spacious for me.

spacious shower stall

shower strength was good

Super liked the fast dry tiles in the shower stall. Hehe, my favourite thing to do in the hotel.. is taking nice showers. But that'll be icky if the floor or the towel never dries off in time...

channeling memories of Japan travel via the warm seats

all replenished on a daily basis

Was there any in-room snacks for the Deluxe Room? Happy to say that yes, there was!

Complimentary In-Room Snacks - Triple Choc Chunk Biscuits and Ruffles Potato Chips

complimentary drinks in the mini fridge

tea

favourite Nanyang Ritual tea

loved the Nespresso too

Liked that they gave  4 different flavours of Nespresso, and replenished daily. Nice.

Of bak kut teh cookies and Nanyang tea

For this booking, am only having breakfast at the hotel for one-day. Which was fine since I had tried almost all their items in the breakfast menu except the ever changing daily special.

Overall, it was a comfortable stay, although I did miss the Orient Brew and the nice tea set in Premier Room.

Qin Restaurant & Bar

Read more about the experience at Qin Restaurant this time round.

Guccio Restaurant

Website: https://www.guccioristorante.com/

Because I was there during Restaurant Week or rather, Chef's Signature event by DiningCity, also tried Guccio which is just a few minutes away from The Clan.

Sarnies

Website: https://sarnies.com/Singapore

For the morning without hotel breakfast, I went over to nearby Sarnies to get one of their breakfast sandwich. The people there are super friendly! Being my maiden experience with Sarnies, was totally amazed by the size of the sandwich. Like, huge man!

bacon and egg sarny @$9.50

such a huge sandwich!

loaded with crisp bacon and two fried eggs

Yes, I enjoyed the bread with hot Nespresso. So satisfying.

Guccio Ristorante by Chef Marco @ 20 Gemmill Lane

Am a supporter of Restaurant Week organised by DiningCity for a while now and recently made reservations for their Chef's Signature event at Guccio. It is actually within 2 minutes walking distance from The Clan Hotel, which I was staying for that weekend. Events such as this, would be a nice opportunity to try new places without having to think too much about what to choose as the set menu is usually pretty limited choice and is meant to showcase the specialty cuisine of the selected restaurant.

I arrived on time for the 1.30pm slot, which I think would be pretty late for lunch? A quick look revealed that most diners were nearing the end of their meal.

Was given a choice of sparkling or still, but I am with Bernice and the choice is clear, because why pay for still when you could get sparkling? Hahaa!

sparkling @$10++

Chef's Signature Lunch Menu

Wendy arrived shortly after I had quenched my thirst, with refreshing taste of sparkling with a slice of lemon.

Bread was served after we placed our orders. Requested for balsamic as it was not offered by default. The bread was cold when served.

Was happy when our appetizer was appeared. The Calamari, came looking colourful and succulent. The olive coloured blobs were actually eggplant puree. The poached baby calamari was tasty and soft but not mushy. Each component on the dish played a part but the star of the dish was still the unassuming yet flavourful calamari.

Calamari

  

Next, was the Gamberi - New Zealand prawns 'tartare'. I think this would be my first time having any prawns 'tartare'. The sprouts on it was rather cute. The green pea puree was fragrant (because I do like green peas~). Not sure why but there was a light hint of citrus on this dish and it was a refreshing taste with mild sweetness.

Didn't enjoy the trout roe as much because it was of an awkward size. Was bothersome (for me, not sure if anyone else shared the same sentiment) because it was not big enough to 'pop' nor was it small enough to ignore and swallow.

Gamberi (supplement $10++)

Next, was our main course. Pork and fish.

Salmone

The pan-fried Norwegian salmon was Wendy's choice. The blobs of red that I thought was tomato, was actually beetroot cream. The seasonal greens on the plate was tasty. Fish was good although we would have preferred it to be slightly more pink.

Salmone - side view

I had the Maialino, slow-cooked Spanish suckling pig belly. Lovely plating. There's red apple compote and berry sauce.

Maialino (supplement $10++)

lovely layers

The skin was not of the crispy crackling kind, but the meat inside was lovely. The downside, was that the meat had stronger flavours of pork, hence a glass of wine would help. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the flavourful meat with lovely textured layers of lean and fats.

And then, we were at dessert. The choice was obvious. Of course, we got to try Chef Marco's mom's signature Tiramisu.

Tiramisu

Just be careful not to inhale while trying to get that spoonful in. I was careless and choked a bit on the cocoa powder. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the tiramisu.

The Chef's Signature event menu is a good way to try some of the signature dishes on their regular menu without doing too much damage to the wallet. Guccio's Set Lunch Menu @$38++ had similar mains offered as well.

The Chef's Signature lunch set was good value and portions were adequate. Compliments to Chef Marco and his team.

Spent about $68 per pax.

Guccio Ristorante 

Address: 20 Gemmill Ln, Singapore 069256

Website: https://www.guccioristorante.com/

Contact: 6224 1684

Business Hours:

Tues to Sun: 11:30am–2:30pm, 5:30–11pm

Closed on Mondays

Hanashizuku Japanese Cuisine 花しずく @ Cuppage Plaza

Wanted to try at least once a Japanese restaurant located at Cuppage Plaza and Google search led to Hanashizuku. Menu seemed alright with izakaya food like hot/cold appetisers, fried food, sashimi, grilled food and carbs. 

A quick check with a friend and she's available for the date and hence, reservation was secured a week ahead. Booking was relatively easy via Chope. But note that there are two seatings for the dinner with the earlier one at 530pm and the next one is 8pm. Decided to have early dinner and to complete the reservation, will need to input the credit card details with $50 deducted to secure the reservation. This 'deposit' is refundable a few days after you have completed the reservation. 

There will be a confirmation SMS once they have received it and once again a reminder on the day of the reservation itself (about 2 hours before). 

We were there at 530pm but the signage was not turned on yet. There was a group of Japanese guests waiting outside as well.

shopfront

After checking our reservation, the staff ushered us in and brought us to the counter seats.

counter seat view

ready to eat

menu

For drinks, she's having green tea while I started with calpis sour.

hot green tea @$4++

Calpis Sour @$8++

Yes, we were served the mandatory otoshi. At least it was tasty.

otoshi @$4++ per pax

My friend loves oyster, so we ordered from the Today's Special menu, The Fresh Oysters with Ikura.

Fresh Oysters with Ikura  @$20++

spicy but nice

closer view

The oysters were plump and firm. A dash of spicy yuzu sauce gave the oysters a bit of a kick.

I thought that we ought to have some vegetables in our meal, hence ordered the kaisen sarada or otherwise known as seafood salad. We were both happy with this as there were adequate pieces of sashimi on it and the dressing was lovely too. There were maguro, sake and hamachi slices on the plate. Yums!

Kaisen Sarada @$18++

yakitori of momo (@$3.50++) and liver + hatsu @$3++ per skewer

The yakitori while I liked them, its price was rather steep so we stopped at 2. Hahaa! What's dining at an izakaya without fried food? Guess what I ordered?

Tori Karaage @$12++

My next drink was the Peach Sparkling Sake which came right out of the can. Hmm, that's the downside when seated at the counter. I can see how the drinks are prepared.

Peach Sparkling Sake @$12++

For the finale, we had Mentaiko Pasta to seal the deal (or in other words, to make sure we leave the restaurant feeling full!).

Mentaiko Pasta @$19++

To our surprise, it was a rather creamy (creamiest, even!) version of mentaiko pasta. As we ate, it tasted more and more like carbonara (Japanese version, of course) and thus, it remained a mystery as the mentaiko pasta that I've had at other places doesn't look nor taste like this. But the bill stated that it was mentaiko pasta.

Overall, it was a nice experience at Hanashizuku right from reservation to the actual dinner. Although we were seated at the counter, Chef didn't interact with us. However, he smiled when we told him that the seafood salad was nice. 

Hanashizuku Japanese Cuisine 花しずく

Address: 5 Koek Road #02-01 Cuppage Plaza Singapore 228796

Website: http://www.hanashizukurestaurant.com/

Contact: +65 6733 7498

Business Hours:

Mon-Fri: 11:45am–2:30pm, 5:30–10:30pm

Sat - Sun: 5:30–10:30pm

Ginett @ Hotel G Middle Road

This was our second visit to this restaurant. Read about our first visit here. Met for dinner and drinks and first noticeable thing, is that the service staff at pretty much occupied most of the time. It took quite a while for the staff to notice those who had queued at the entrance.

We made a reservation via Chope, so no issue in getting our table. The tables are set very near one another hence, intimate conversations are almost impossible.

Nevertheless, this place offers good selection of reasonably priced wine bottles, and tasty food.

tinkle tinkle wine glasses

To start, we had Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014). Grape of the Chenin Blanc variant. Good to note that the 2014 vintage was awarded 1 Star from the Guide Hachette des Vins. The Guide Hachette des Vins is France's oldest and best selling wine guide.

Domaine de la Seigneurie des Tourelles, Saumur Blanc (2014)

The wine itself is light golden in colour, citrussy with a tad of mineral taste. To accompany this, we had the cheeseboard. Am actually expecting like, just cheeses on the cheeseboard but to my pleasant surprise, it did arrive with slices of ham, chorizo, dried fruits and pickles. Yes, I know I am suaku! Hahaha.

cheeseboard @$28++

For the cheeses, we requested for one each of the hard, medium and soft. It was like a surprise board and the staff would choose for us so that it could safely pair with the wine.

Hence, the board has Livarot, Camembert and Brillat Savarin. Super loved the Brillat, so soft and creamy. Drizzle with a bit of honey and lay it ontop of that bread. Brilliant!

closer look at the parma and gherkins

Enjoyed the selection, the easy to drink wine and the light conversations. This was just at mid-week, so it was time for a breather. With a glass wine in hand, taking small sips and light bites with charcuterie, cheeses and bread, and just catching up on the latest on-goings with each other. Lovely.

just chillin'

But of course, we were actually pretty hungry. Ordered a couple of mains to share. Black truffle is in season, so ordered a dish with that to try. Our order were mostly meat-centric. Well, there aren't many vegetables for us in the menu. Oh, actually, there was Jerusalem Artichoke Veloute. Does it count as vegetable when it is in its soup form?

let's eat some truffle

For starters, we had escargot. The snails seemed to have shrunk. First time trying it here. It had been like a few years since I last ate an escargot but they do not seem to be this tiny now. Maybe a different breed?

escargot

For main course, there was beef cheek. Lovely piece of fork-tender meat. The sauce that had seeped right into its core. Came with a bowl of lovely creamy mash.

beef cheek in red wine reduction

mashed potato

For the beef cheek, we had red wine.From Saumur as well and priced at $45++ per bottle. It was much lighter than expected though. Lovely ruby coloured, light and fresh tasting, with flavours of berries.

Domaine des Hautes Troglodytes, Saumur Champigny (2016)

For food, the best dish that night was the Roasted Bresse Chicken (from the Truffle Showcase menu). The chicken was tender, easy to cut and lovely panfried skin. Yums.

Roasted Bresse Chicken @$42++

Thank you Elle, Ivan and Hoong An for the wine times. Let's suss out the next wine spot! See you soon.

Ginett

Address: 200 Middle Road, 188980
Website: https://www.hotelgsingapore.com/dining/ginett
Contact: +65 6809 7989