[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.

Food Delivered from Yishun Park Hawker Center

Ordered food via Makanguru with "HH56" promo code. Minimum order is $40 otherwise, there will be a small order fee surcharge. Delivery fee is $8, and with the promo code, there will be an offset of $5.60. This is a not a sponsored post, but rather sharing of experience. To tell you the truth, I have not been to Yishun Park Hawker Center. None at all, since its inception. Hence, it makes sense to have food delivered from there if I wanted to try any. A thing to note about Makanguru deliveries, is that if you specified a timing between 6 pm to 7pm, the food will likely reach by 6.15pm. So far, that's my experience with them.

Wong Heng 旺兴小炒

Stall No.: #01-22

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 11.30am – 9pm

Closed on Thurs.

Lor Mee @ $ 7.50

The menu seemed to be just the typical zichar fried noodles. Chose one that is more interesting, which is lor mee. I have not tried any zichar lor mee and this was the first. There was only 1 size and priced at $7.50 per serving. No photos on the delivery menu, so I was anticipating if it'd be looking somewhat like the Malaysian style of zichar lor mee. Alas, it was not.

The thick yellow noodles used seemed to be similar to the one in hokkien mee. There wasn't any wok-hei in this dish but that's ok. The ingredients seemed aplenty and liked that the portion is generous enough to feed 1.5 pax. There's a couple of prawns, fish cake slices, pork slices and yam. Initially, I thought got sio bak, but that turned out to be yam. Keke. With yam and noodles, enough to fill-up one's tummy.

two servings for me

Roasters Delight　烧味世家

Stall No.: 01-16

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 11am – 8pm

Closed on Wed.

roast pork @$7.50

closer view of roast pork

Danggui Duck @$15 (half)

The roast pork was of the wet market kind, and its skin wasn't crispy by the time it got delivered. The porky smell was a slightly stronger too. Nevertheless, the meat itself was moist and made a good accompaniment to the noodles. I had these with a Syrah.

The duck smelled nice but not too strong with the herbal stuffs. Keeping these for instant noodles in a day or two.

花花 Cooking & Eating 

Stall No.: 01-41

Business Hours: 

Monday – Sunday | 8am – 9.30pm

Closed on Thurs.

beansprouts with cockles @$6

tiny tiny

Hmm, gotta have my vegetables and hence, ordered this stir-fried beansprouts with cockles. Ok lah, actually wanted to eat cockles. Liked that there's lardo but these were not exactly crisp by the time it got to my place. The beansprouts were still crunchy and that's lovely. But the cockles were almost non-existent due to its scarcity and its tiny size.

I was that close of ordering white carrot cake but luckily, I chose oyster omelette in the end. The version here is plentyful of eggy goodness and the surprise factor? There's sweet cai poh inside as well! Yay! I chuckled at the presentation, where there's a lone oyster ontop of the fried egg. Don't tell me there's nothing inside..*gasps*

Oyster omelette @$6

plump oyster

Was somewhat relieved to find that there's plenty of plump oysters hidden insde the omelette. I took one third portion of it, and in there was about 3 good sized oysters. I liked the eggs. So yummy.

egg~

Super full after eating the noodles, beansprouts and the oyster omelette. $10 per pax for today's meal.

Happy 56th Birthday Singapore! Happy National Day peeps!

QIN (亲) Restaurant & Bar @ The Clan Hotel

For guests staying at The Clan Hotel, the breakfast is provided for via QIN Restaurant located at Level 4 and 5 of the Hotel.

Was there again for breakfast and dinner during the recent staycay. Made reservations for dinner prior to the staycay via Chope as am not sure how busy is the restaurant during weekends. I do know the restaurants at that area tend to get very very busy on Fridays and Saturdays.

Breakfast

For breakfast this time round, I was seated at the bar area. My breakfast slot was 730am but I only made it downstairs around 8am.

Level 5

The daily special was nasi lemak, so decided to try that since we had tried all the possible combination of breakfast during our previous stay.

interesting ceiling

default breakfast items; bread with kaya butter, fruits bowl, juice

Hmmm, spotted a new item for breakfast. There was an additional piece of kueh on the plate.

The nasi lemak's portion was a tad too much for breakfast. Unfortunately, the entire dish was cold except the rice. The best tasting items were the sambal onion chili and the chicken rendang. The sambal chili was strongly flavoured, so might want to go easy with it. Liked that the chicken rendang served, was thigh meat. The otah was unexpectedly chewy/dense and the egg block was too compact for liking. Fluffier version would be better.

Daily Special - Nasi Lemak

To conclude for breakfast, I think I'd just stick to QIN breakfast with omelette the next time.

Dinner

This was my first time, the restaurant replied to confirm my reservation with pdf menu attached. I was having some minor issue updating the room number (couldn't edit it via Chope) so whatsapp'ed the restaurant and the staff kindly updated on behalf. Pretty efficient service, I must say. There are some discounts offered for hotel guests when they dine at the restaurant.

menu

My dining companions were late, so I got myself a drink to sip while waiting. According to the friendly staff, the #1 cocktail in terms of its popularity with female diners is 'The Five Kings' and #2 would be 'The Roar'. Hmm, Pineapple Pisco (The Five Kings) sounded pretty sweet so opted for the #2. Turned out to be a good choice because the drink is in my favourite hue. Coincidental and not on purpose.

The Roar - Brass Lion Butterfly Pea Gin @$25++

I liked The Roar. Sweet but not overly and the curry leaves bits in there gave it an Asian twist. Lovely.

MT ordered the Kurobuta as one of our mains and Wendy ordered the Sang Mein. I got ourselves an appetiser; The Chili Crab Crostini. And then, we gonna do dessert after that.

Chili Crab Crostini @$25++

Oooh, one thing I didn't realise, was that the chili crab was in jellied form. Pretty interesting.

Chilled Chili Crab

Crispy Crostini

let's take a peek

fully loaded crostini

On closer view, there were pomelo bits, avocado bits mixed in with the flavoured crab meat and it should be eaten together with the jellied top for that's where the chili crab full flavours are. Quite enjoyable!

Sang Mein @$38++

The Sang Mein smelled awesome but was a tad disappointed with the amount of prawn in the dish.

red leg prawn, crustacean oil and truffle scent

Nevertheless, we enjoyed the flavours of the noodles.

For the same price as Sang Mein, the Kurobuta Pork Rack with its massive 400g looked ready to satisfy any meatatarian cravings!

Kurobuta @$38++

The Asian salsa with its bright orange colour. looked like chicken rice chili sauce but it was not. Tasted of fish sauce, non-spicy and a tad tangy. Wouldn't mind if the sauce had a spicy kick to it.

The outer parts of the meat was slightly dryer than those nearing the bone. Overall, we were happy with this. Loved the grilled vegetables too.

We were surprised when staff sent over complimentary love letters for us to try. Wow, that's a super nice gesture. Thank you!

Rose Love Letter (complimentary)

The kuih kapit (love letter) was crispy yet does not crumble that easily and managed to hold the cream pretty well. Lovely flavours and enjoyable.

We also ordered their popular dessert of Hot & Cold Orh Nee and the Childhood Memories.

Hot & Cold 'Orh Nee' @$12++

so pretty

Am inclined to think that the "Orh Nee" while it looked very instagramable and of a visual treat, the taste was rather mild. I made a mistake and probably subsconciously had the expectation that it'll taste like what was familiar but it doesn't. But still pretty lah.

Childhood Memories @$15++

The staff who served our last dessert, "Childhood Memories" said "There's a surprise in this." Then, she left. So mysterious ah? What's the surprise? Is it the popping candies or the milo dinosaurs? We never knew, 'coz she never say. Hahaaa!

But indeed, there was some popping candies in the concoction and am inclined to think, is popping candy the childhood food for friends in SG? In my hometown or my era, popping candy 'aint my childhood stuff. My favourite item in there was the wafer-like thingy that melts in your mouth. Was it made of Horlick's? I hope it was! This dessert was cute.

All in all, dinner service was good and we were there for almost 3.5 hours. Wow. 

QIN Restaurant & Bar

Address: 10 Cross St, Level 5, Singapore 048417

Website: https://www.qin.com.sg/

Contact: 6980 3535

Business Hours: Daily 

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