Raw Kitchen Bar: Best new restaurant contender

November 22, 2009 | 30 Comments

It took me a year to finally visit Raw Kitchen Bar. Actually I dropped by when they just opened a year ago, but I did not have my dinner there back then. And despite staying just 10 minutes away from the place, it took me until now to pay them a visit. Yes, I’m a year late, but it’s better to be late than never isn’t it?

And boy oh boy, December is almost here. I like the year-end, for one it’s the month of celebrations with Christmas and New year, and I get to sum up my adventure for the whole year. Food-wise, this has been a fulfilling year, and I thought my winner for the best new restaurant is already decided, until I visit Raw.

Stepping inside, there’s just something different about this place. There’s the flimsy light bulb with different pieces of whimsical furniture to begin with. Then you have the quaint and charming backyard that looks like an awesome place to throw a tea party. The chef/owner Javier comes out and greet every table, all in all, you have the feeling of dining in the chef’s house.

The food is pretty good too. While we looked through the menu debating over spaghetti mentaiko, and commenting that the bun noodle sounds cute; we finally decided on the Capellini cream of ebiko and sauteed prawns ($19). Every slurp of the angel hair pasta seems to make its existence for your taste of the food. The portion might be a tad small, but it should be adequate for one person’s serving. We also like how the succulent prawns and flavorful ebiko enhanced the taste of the al dente pasta.

The Balsamic duck ($23) was a bit of let-down though, and not that it wasn’t good. The duck drumstick was firm and quite unlike that of a duck confit, but it had an uncanny similarity to the Chinese braised duck in terms of the smell and taste. We would probably enjoy it more if we did not have braised duck before; fusion dishes don’t work in this case, but maybe it’s just us. And for someone like me who usually don’t like mashed potato, the ones that came together with the petite drumstick here, was gorgeous in all sorts of ways.

The choice of the pizza was through an elimination method since there was only three to choose from. Spring vegetables pizza didn’t sound exactly appealing to us, and my friend did not want the mozzarella basil rosemary pizza, so we were left with the Prawns & chili pizza ($19). It was an irony that Raw Kitchen Bar was housed in the former premises of a firestation, wewe were about to call in the fire brigade for help – this pizza’s one kick-ass, fiery, spicy pizza.

This might not sounds convincing since I do not have high tolerance for chili to begin with; but even my friend who claimed that she grew up eating chili, agreed that this pizza was literally hot. And for the price, we weren’t expecting it to be so huge, which sort of compensate for the petite portions in the other two dishes.

Now I have a tough choice for the best new restaurant (among the places that I went to), and I know there’s probably a few more like Spruce & Hacienda (I have not been there yet) that will probably make the cut too. See you there!

Raw Kitchen Bar
276 Upper Bukit Timah road
Firestation
Tel: 6467 3987

Raw Kitchen Bar is listed as one of ladyironchef’s favorite restaurants in Singapore

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Category: # Restaurant Review, * West Singapore, Dining Guide Singapore, Favorite Restaurants, Food Photography, Singapore Food Blog
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Comments

30 Responses to “Raw Kitchen Bar: Best new restaurant contender”

  1. Shirin
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:18 am

    hello brad(again! :) ).

    you can tell the pizza is really good quality cos its super thin and kinda crispy.. the “bad” ones are ones where the dough is super thick and chewy (my driving instructor is Italian and knows his Italian food very, very well. :P )

    the restaurant looks so quaint and very pretty! :) have to put that in my list to-go-to-places.

    thanks for this post! :)

  2. Shirin
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:19 am

    i don’t know why my comments are so stuttered. haha. it could be that its 1am in the morning… -.-

  3. harris
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:38 am

    always wanted to come here too, especially since it’s only a seven minutes drive away…

    potential place for your Christmas party? heh.

  4. Miss Glitzy
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 9:38 am

    I went there in July.. I think there were hits and misses. For example, my squid ink rice with prawn and squid was so-so and the fried cheesecake with strawberry marmalade dessert was oily. I probably need to try the pasta next time!

    I love the decor of the restaurant and its location. But I think it’s not practical to sit alfresco at dinner time unless you are in for mosquito bites..

  5. J2Kfm
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 4:15 pm

    But judging from your review, only the pasta made the cut. the others seemed to be overshadowed.
    though I do not mind having my pizza with a little kick, compared to the usual tomato-based ones.

  6. Puff
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 5:13 pm

    Their mentaiko pasta is good comfort food. Go try it!

  7. amanda
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 6:23 pm

    Looks like Bukit Timah has a lot of good food places. I’m thinking of asking my father to bring me to Rider’s Cafe to try their pancakes! But it seems to me that there’s quite a lot of negative feedback about the service as it can get pretty crowded.

  8. m.RU
    November 22nd, 2009 @ 8:32 pm

    I like the restaurant next door better. :P got live music too, sometimes..

  9. Gavin
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 12:20 am

    Now we know that u live in Bikit Timah. Hope u were not affected by the flash floor last week.

    Anyway another nice place to check out. Izzit anywhere near Dairy Farm Park? I will be going there next week

  10. Jor
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 2:42 am

    man, the pasta looks really good!

  11. ladyironchef
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 8:12 am

    Shirin: No it has nothing to do with yr sleepiness. haha cos when you post the smiley face, it will do a line-break, can’t seem to solve that problem so it will have to stay. yea your to-go-list next time : )

    harris: how did you know it’s 7 minutes? you got time before eh? HAHA yeah it’s so near our place, have to go and check it out!

    Miss Glitzy: oh i see, but on that night that we went, there wasn’t any mosquito, lucky us then.

    J2kfm: The other two are good, not wow, but pretty good. For me, a good meal isn’t just about the food, it’s the complete experience of the food, the ambience and the company. So i guess the place does it for me : )

    puff: Okay! the next time mentaiko pasta it is!

    amanda: Oh no, you HAVE TO go rider’s, it’s one of my fav place. Superb ambience, good food, reasonable price. They have weekday brunch too, try to go on a weekday than weekend.

    m.RU: i haven try the food from firestation yet, but I took a peep at their menu, not exactly cheap eh? haha

    Gavin: nope, I stay in bukit batok, but my area is extremely close to the firestation. hehe yea it’s quite near to dairy farm, otherwise there’s railway mall which is nearer to dairy farm. you can go galbiati there for tiramisu!

    jor: thanks! bet you are hungry yeah? : )

  12. Matilda
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:42 am

    I’ve only been next door for drinks and live singing. But I heard Raw serves pretty decent food but pricey.

  13. reiz
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 10:10 am

    definitely one of my favourites in sg.

    yeah the spices used for the duck reminds me very much of the duck i had at “dian xiao er”.

    The lamb is pretty good! Try the starters next time! :D

  14. Life for Beginners
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 11:16 am

    I have to be honest, I was half-expecting this to be a restaurant in support of the Raw Food Mooooo-vement (hehe), but the food’s cooked! Yay!

    I mean I like healthy food as much as the next person but a lil heat never hurt anyone… :P

  15. Josephine
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 11:55 am

    The pasta looks really good. This is one place that I think is worth visiting, even for once at least because of the ulu location and rustic charm. One thing bugs me though – no desserts? ;P

  16. amy
    November 23rd, 2009 @ 9:16 pm

    cant believe you actually wrote that someone said that bun noodles are cute!:P the pizza’s still pretty good even though its hot. i like it hot! and oh. tiramisu @galbiati! the take-away one was so much better and the choc cake was yummmmms!:) and i won on what mentaiko means! hahaa.

  17. ladyironchef
    November 24th, 2009 @ 9:08 am

    matilda: on the contrary, I thought that firestation is more pricey, just by judging the price menu (without considering the portions or anything else). shall try firetation next!

    reiz: the balsamic duck makes me feel like eating braised duck, so we din really enjoy it. but still, it’s a very nice place to dine at

    LFB: i don’t enjoy raw food, at least i still can’t appreciate it yet. haha yeah it’s just a little heat : )

    Josephine: it definitely makes you feel that u are out of Singapore, not exactly ulu since I live 10 minutes away, but to most people it is i guess. eh yeah no desserts, we had tiramisu at galbiati deli nearby!

    amy: HAHA firestation next? : )

  18. Edwin
    November 25th, 2009 @ 10:23 pm

    Looks good!

  19. Judy
    November 26th, 2009 @ 7:45 am

    how lovely!! i want to go……….
    kudos on the review though, certainly know what to try and what not to, especially the duck

  20. ladyironchef
    November 26th, 2009 @ 8:37 am

    edwin: yeah when are u going to try? : )

    Judy: what are you waiting for? go go! haha just order whatever that catches your eyes, maybe u will like the duck!

  21. m.Ru
    November 28th, 2009 @ 8:25 pm

    ya, quite expensive but it’s not bad! :P since i didn’t pay for the last meal. hehehe

  22. ladyironchef
    November 29th, 2009 @ 9:31 pm

    m.Ru: HAHA no wonder, what did you try from firestation?

  23. e
    December 6th, 2009 @ 11:34 am

    hello???
    you didnt try the desserts??
    how could you??

  24. ladyironchef
    December 6th, 2009 @ 3:14 pm

    e: next time, next time : )

  25. firnando
    December 21st, 2009 @ 9:02 pm

    i think my gf wld love de decor..

    but most importantly, before i bring her here, how abt de price? will dis be a suitable place for NYE dinner?

  26. ladyironchef
    December 22nd, 2009 @ 3:13 pm

    firnando: yeah i think girls will like that. NYE might be hard if u have not reserved by now, u can try to call and see if they have tables left. Price is about 20-30ish for one main course, so it depends on how much food u order : )

  27. Mrs Ergül
    December 28th, 2009 @ 1:17 pm

    Love places that are so rustic. You certainly know all the good food places on this island!

  28. ladyironchef
    December 28th, 2009 @ 3:02 pm

    Mrs Ergul: thank you! Singapore is pretty small, so it’s not that hard if you want to find all the good food places : D

  29. wilfredo
    February 4th, 2010 @ 11:49 pm

    I’m so proud of Javier. He is the owner of Raw Kitchen, and also he is my friend for years. We both comes from a beautiful island, Puerto Rico, and I know he is working with passion, as we puerto ricans always do, with his restaurant and bringing some “boricua” flavor to our friends at Singapore. My greetings to him and Javier keep it doing good as always.
    (sorry for any mispelled word, my first language is Spanish)

  30. ladyironchef
    February 5th, 2010 @ 8:45 pm

    Hello Wilfredo, yeah Javier is a very good chef, and I really enjoy dining in Raw Kitchen Bar. Here’s a toast to the man! : )

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