Cover Private experience room at Revolver, which offers an exclusive sharing menu (Photo: Revolver)
Private experience room at Revolver, which offers an exclusive sharing menu (Photo: Revolver)
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The modern Indian restaurant’s new private dining room offers diners new ways to share in its woodfired delicacies
Few private dining rooms are as stylish as the one that modern Indian restaurant Revolver now boasts, and that’s probably because it wasn’t meant to be one at all. Discerning imbibers will remember walking up the stairs of Revolver’s Tras Street shophouse into Barood, a seductive and intimate Japanese-Indian izakaya serving up creative cocktails and eclectic bar bites. Barood has since closed, and Revolver’s “private experience room” has emerged in its place, with a new pièce de resistance located at the far end of the space: a grand dining table seating up to 14 persons.
Just like its downstairs counterpart, the private experience room is atmospherically lit with strategically placed spotlights and candles. Almost everything from Barood remains intact today, including the plush red velvet seats and the eclectic vintage photographs (the booths on the left wall have been removed), preserving its tongue-in-cheek character that played so well with its otherwise plush interiors. It also means that the space can shape-shift according to your needs. Hang out at the bar or one of the small tables along the length of the room for a pre-dinner aperitif before taking a seat at the dining table for a grand multi-course menu. Or transform it into an events space, replete with a DJ console and a space for live music performances.
Don’t miss: Revolver’s chef-owner Saurabh Udinia on how he honours his Indian roots with wood-fire cooking
Above Wide shot of Revolver’s new private experience room, which includes a lounge area and the large dining table
Wide shot of Revolver’s new private experience room, which includes a lounge area and the large dining table
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Though you can order any one of Revolver’s menus in the private experience room, the main draw is its exclusive sharing-style menu called “The Spread”, one that’s better fit for close gatherings of family and friends. This is the menu we tried, which made for a long night that felt much shorter.
The night kicked off with a trio of snacks, including a prawn balchao monaka, a scene-stealer that featured prawns cooked in balsamic vinegar and balchao sauce over a thin monaka shell. It was agile on the palate with spice and acidity, the perfect primer for the rest of the meal. The small plates were simple but impressive, like the fresh hamachi wrapped in pickled radish in a pool of spiced coriander jus, which was really a delicious rendition of pani puri water. Revolver’s rendition of a palak paneer was also cleanly and respectfully rendered, with a charred cube of fresh paneer and pickled shishito pepper atop a thick bed of winter spinach sauce.
Above Prawn balchao monaka at Revolver
Above Paneer at Revolver
Prawn balchao monaka at Revolver
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Then come the large format dishes, which are simply jaw-dropping. There is the Japanese king crab, expertly grilled for a hint of smoke, and doused in a curry and pepper sauce spiced with gunpowder seasoning. You are advised to eat with your hands, which you’ll end up embracing unabashedly, tearing the crab meat and licking the sauce off your fingers. Butter makes everything better, and Revolver has heeded this advice with the whole-grilled turbot. It comes butterflied with a crispy skin, almost resembling a rocky terrain in the mountains. This may leave the impression of dryness, but the flesh has such a firm yet tender bite. It is doused in a brown butter sauce with toasted whole coriander seeds, adding a bright and lifting spice that elevates its nutty fragrance.
Above Japanese king crab leg
Japanese king crab leg
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There is always time for a large-format steak, and here, it’s a Mayura Station tomahawk from southern Australia, with a marble score of 8/9. It is carved and served tableside, along with a trio of sauces: an Awadhi nihari sauce made of beef bones simmered for eight hours, a béarnaise with green chilli pickle, and chimichurri aged for 9 days. The beef truly did not need any sauce, given how perfectly seasoned and tender it was; if we had to choose, however, the nihari sauce was rich and deep, adding a welcome body to the beef. Of course, no trip to Revolver is complete without the kulchette, stuffed with Comté cheese and showered with Périgord truffle gratings. It is pure indulgence and dangerously addictive.
Above Mayura Station tomahawk
Mayura Station tomahawk
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Dessert even manages to steal the spotlight. Japanese musk melon topped with shaven sour plum and mikan oranges are the freshest possible fruits that make for refreshing palate cleansers. But the star of the show is the saffron cheesecake, done in the style of a Basque burnt cheesecake. It is perfectly creamy and soft with a buttery crust, perfumed subtly by the saffron. It’s so moist and gentle that it renders the mixed berry compote it’s served with completely unnecessary. In all, dining in the private experience room shows the best of Revolver’s technique, grounded in a communal, unpretentious style of dining that’s best enjoyed with your closest companions.
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Ethan Kan was Tatler Singapore’s dining writer.
