This was my first time at Club Street and I was amazed to find rows of shop houses lining both sides of a gentle slope. The area reminded me of Lan Kwai Fong in Hong Kong where people streamed out of bars and restaurants onto the street. It was a Monday night and some bars were closed so we picked what seemed like the most happening place and settled in for the night.
Gem Bar is located at the junction where two lanes merged at the top of the slope. Music was quite good and there was a healthy crowd inside so we decided it was a good place to spend the night. Drinks were at half-price ($14 for two house pours) every Monday and their food menu was quite extensive for a bar. You could take your pick between the usual bar bites or Asian food (like Fried Rice).
We ordered a couple of drinks, a plate of Popcorn Chicken, Seafood Baked Rice, and Laksa Spaghetti.
The Popcorn Chicken was all right. Tasted pretty much like KFC Popcorn Chicken.
The Seafood Baked Rice came with a very generous amount of seafood. However the dish was bland and tasteless. The rice did not absorb the sweetness of the seafood and the cheese was not very tasty either.
The Laksa Spaghetti was interesting. It came with an overload of pesto, tasted slightly spicy, but everything was masked by how salty the whole dish was. The spaghetti was done al dente but it was so salty, I ended up gulping down my drink with each mouthful of spaghetti. The prawns were fresh though.
Food was definitely a miss at Gem Bar. I have not tasted bar bites which were so completely off the mark before Gem Bar. However the drinks more than made up for it. The large glasses of house pours at $7 were extremely value for money. They did not dilute the drinks just because they were half-priced.
The owner was a pretty interesting guy as well but he was also the reason why we ended our night early. I might return for the drinks after dinner at another restaurant in the area.
10 Ann Siang Hill
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