The Bank Bar + Bistro

A beacon of light, an oasis of life in the CBD at the weekend (especially last Sunday in the rain), The Bank Bar + Bistro is all that and more.

So what’s going on at The Bank at weekends?

We spotted an advert for $25 Sunday roast and kids eat free, sounded too good to be true but it wasn’t.  Yup that’s the honest deal at the bank and they also throw in desert!  For every paying adult one kid can eat for free, so if you have more than two you’re going to have to bring some friends.

We chose the spaghetti Bolognese and my eldest daughters favourite fish and chips.  The spaghetti disappeared but the fish and chips took some more persuading to eat.  Not do to quality but because she was too distracted and you will see why later.

The weekend deal (this is available Saturday and Sunday) also applies to a range of deserts.  Our friend had the omelette but I can see why this place is a god send to folks living in the sails to pop down for pancakes or a full cooked breakfast like quite a few couples did.

For roasts there is the option of either beef or chicken, both my wife and I went for the beef so I can’t tell you what the chicken tasted like, but our friend did devour all of his.  The beef was well cooked and it’s great to get nice Yorkshire pudding, having sweet corn with a roast is unconventional but worked well.  My only criticism would be that I’d have liked more gravy, I probably could have asked but was being too British.

So what’s the family angle?

For younger kids they have a really good playroom that is stocked by The Toy Rental Shop.  The toys include a blow-up swimming pool filled with balls, a couple of ride on cars, multi-level car park with cars that my eldest daughter loved, plus other toys and a TV showing kids shows.  As you can see in the pictures below it’s also comfy for the supervising adult with nice leather armchairs to kick back in.  You’re not supposed to take drink into the playroom but I snuck a wine in.  The only thing that would have made it better was a table right by the playroom but without rebuilding the entire bar that’s not possible.  We think that next time we’ll get a table outside and with the glass wall have a great view straight in to keep an eye on the kids.

Didn’t you forget desert?

Hold your horses, the kids got ice-cream but there was some confusion.  The waitress made it sound like there was a choice of flavours but when it came out they were all vanilla.  They did go back and find some strawberry but that clearly wasn’t part of the original deal.

Those that order roasts got the desert of the week which was chocolate cake but changed to black forest gateaux, as they ran out of the original, but both went down well.

Sounds like a good place

Over all it’s a good relaxing way to spend a Saturday or Sunday.  The only thing is don’t get stressed about the service, for example the waitress left half way through taking our order to deal with another table that waved.  Drinks are reasonably priced (as it’s happy hour until late), good food and there’s space for the kids to run around and play.  Finally the price, overall it was about $95 per family.

The Bank Bar + Bistro
One Shenton #01-01,
1 Shenton Way,
Singapore
068803
Tel – 6636 2188
Web – http://www.thebankbar.com/homepage.html