Bellwethers Bistro Bar @ Desker Road

Yes, you read it correctly.

Bellwethers Bistro Bar is located at Desker Road, the infamous red light district in Singapore for the budget-conscious.

The owners were inspired by their travel to Amsterdam and felt it will be interesting to locate their restaurant in a colourful neighbourhood. Geylang is the designated red light district in Singapore, but is also where all the good food are. Why not Desker Road too?

The restaurant’s location makes it an interesting place to hang out and do some people watching – the foreign workers diaspora in the Little India area, budget travelers staying in the many backpackers’ hostels in the area and of course, a little of the sleaze that sometime spill from the hidden back alleys.

Rest assured it is safe. We are still in Singapore whereby it is safe in the street, even past midnight. The restaurant is also located on the main street along Desker Road, near to many commercial shophouses where the pedestrian traffic is quite high.

I quite like the ambience. Who would have thought there is a nice little restaurant hidden in a corner of Desker Road?

All the meat at the restaurant are freshly prepared by the chef at an open grill:

Here are the items I tried at Bellwethers Bistro Bar:

The chicken is marinated in brine and herbs for six hours to tenderize the flesh, then grilled over fire. The dish is served with chicken port sauce and Romesco sauce (a blend of almonds, pine nuts, garlic, olive oil).

The Iberian pork collar is dipped into a marinate that consists of soya sauce, thyme, garlic, balsamic vinegar and hot oil. The oil mix creates an emulsion thus enhancing the flavours of the marinate, giving a crispier caramilisation.

The dish is served with homemade pork sauce made with roasted pork bones and chicken boiled with mirepoix (chopped vegetables) and red wine vinegar. The pineapple is first poached in a mixture of sugar syrup, rosemary, black peppercorn, Szechuan peppercorn, star anise and cinnamon to infuse the flavours. After infusion, the meat is roasted on the grill with olive oil.

The lamb rack is cooked as a whole and then rested to make sure the juices circulate. A layer of fats is kept on the lamb so that it is moist as it grills.

The lamb is served, dressed with a raspberry mint sauce, together with grilled vegetables seasoned consisting of carrots, onions, red and yellow peppers and kailan stem. Note that the vegetables may vary according to market seasonal offering. Sometimes there may be bamboo shoot, asparagus or beetroot.

Rangers Valley dry-aged 300 days grain-fed Wagyu beef is used for this dish. The beef is further dry-aged by the chef for at least 10 more days in the kitchen to enhance the flavours, then broiled over the open grill. The mashed potato side is cooked with homemade roasted garlic butter and rustically served for sharing.

Nice isn’t it?

The prices are pretty reasonable too, considering the premium meat cuts and the generous servings.

Bellwethers Bistro Bar is running a special promotion with Alvinology.com. Simply say” “I am from alvinology.com” if you visit Bellwethers Bistro Bar  and enjoy a FREE glass of lychee Martini per person, no strings attached, no minimum order! This offer is valid till 30 October 2013. Sweet? 🙂

Bellwethers Bistro Bar

Address: 120 Desker Road
Phone: 6297-9066
Hours: Mon – Sat: 17:00 – 01:00, Closed: Sun