Chill Bistro Dining at 7Adam

Perched on a hill along Adam Park, newly opened bistro 7Adam merges a bistro with a homely art gallery, where the art is an integral part of the dining environment. Opened by lawyer-turned-restaurateur Shirley Tan, 7Adam is part of the NUSS Guild House – yes, the one that used to be a Japanese restaurant – but which is also open to the public.

The draw of coming here is its location. Unlike restaurants housed in shopping malls where you have to struggle to get into the carpark then walk through crowds of shoppers to find your eaterie, 7Adam is refreshing. Its 5,000 square feet of dining space is set amid spacious greenery with lots of free parking within its lush, cosy grounds (left). What’s more, this is one rare opportunity to immerse yourself in the surrounds of a historical black and white! Being a fairly small restaurant, you can bet on having a fairly cosy do, not too crowded, pretty intimate, good for long, slow chats into the afternoon if time is on your side.

The main dining area in the front of the house is constantly flooded with natural light, surrounded by walls of windows stretching all sides. This opens into smaller annexes that make for cosy dining spaces, and all around, paintings in various media hang from walls, sculptures perch on tabletops and sideboards. Further in, you’ll find a snug bar area (top) decked out like a contemporary living room. Cocktails here include house specialities – original concoctions they created themselves – but they are expensive: be ready to pay about $18 – $22 a cocktail,  equivalent to that served in the swankiest hotels in town! 

Thank goodness the food is priced reasonably. The 30-plus item menu here is created by well known local chef Jimmy Chok – best known for his contemporary fusion fare – who consulted for 7Adam. The food is generally good, pleasant, but standard bistro stuff taken up a notch or two. You can tell the chef has been briefed to provide a menu to please as many as possible.

So what to eat here? For appetisers, the generously portioned crab cakes (below left) are a good bet with moist, sweet flakes of crabmeat inside. Pair this with a glass of wine and you’ll get a lovely light lunch. The tuna loin (below) – also generously portioned with around 8 slices of tuna – was a little stringy and fishy, but at least its avocado salsa, lifted by bits of fruity tangy mango, helped it along. 

For mains, the favourite was duck confit ($24) flavoured with Szechuan pepper salt and slowly cooked for 2 hours. The meat was sweet and flaked out nicely, though a little on the dry side. The pan fried seabass looked a little greasy but the taste was lovely, the meat was juicy and sweet and overall, was well paired with a zingy tomato kaffir lime salsa which cut through the relatively heavy meat. There are also a few pasta options like linguine with braised beef ($25), grilled steak and foie gras sandwich ($26), braised wagyu beef cheek with mashed potato ($30)  and chilli salt prawns, salad, mashed potato ($18.50)

The entire dessert menu contained nice, super-safe but unexciting options like strawberry and balsamic with vanilla ice cream, peanut chocolate mousse with caramelised banana ($12, above right) and pear poached in red wine with vanilla ice cream ($12). All pleasing and enjoyable, but nothing to write home about.

Given that, I’d rather splurge out on a dessert cocktail –  the flamboyantly named Creamilicious Kit Kat, a rich, calorific glass of bailey’s, Crème de Cacao and milk, with Kit Kat flavoured ice cream, and served with a chocolate bar balanced on the rim of the glass. For something lighter, the cocktail Lady’s Desire is a refreshing, edgy concoction with lychee liqueur and elderflower, Adam’s Lychee Martini and a naughty sounding Honey Lingers, which was declared delightful.

As for the artwork, they are mostly available for sale, and changed every 8 to 10 weeks. There’s even an in house Gallery Executive who will assist with information and sales if you are keen on something you see. Like the desserts, the spokesperson said that the policy here is “no scary or dark artwork” – mainly mainstream, easily enjoyable art which would go down well with your appetite.

The restaurant is planning to open up an alfresco space in the garden for guests, and plans are afoot to offer Sunday brunches.

What’s worth noting about this restaurant – as we stand on the cusp of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Singapore (WWII) – is also its historic significance. It was once the headquarters of the 1st Battalion Cambridge Regiment at the start the Japanese occupation of Singapore. The battalion had dug in positions around Adam Park and engaged the Japanese in heavy fighting even at close quarters in this area in the few days before the city fell to the Japanese in 1941.
 
7 Adam Park
Tel: 6467 0777
www.7adam.com