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| Rendang Crab @ George Town |
George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer (“GT”) is a new restaurant in Boat Quay, that offers quality Penang style Tze Char. It is helmed by award-winning Executive Chef, George Tan; Hailed from Ayer Hitam in George Town, Penang. Chef Tan has more than 20 years cooking experience under his belt and won many accolades, including Asia Top Heritage Chef and his signature Rendang Crab won an award at Asia Top Heritage Food Award 2019 by IBF.
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| George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer |
Located at Boat Quay, just beside the Elgin Bridge, this 50-seater al-fresco dining area showcases the charming view Singapore River. The settings of the restaurant is casual, where it feels you can just chill out and enjoy the dining experience there.
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| Parliament House View |
We started the media tasting with Crispy Pumpkin Prawns ($20). The prawns are fresh, fried to till crispy and evenly coated with creamy pumpkin sauce. The pumpkin flavour is a bit subtle, however, you can taste the natural sweetness in the sauce.
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| Crispy Pumpkin Prawns |
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| Crispy Pumpkin Prawns |
Rendang Beef Cubes ($18). Super Yummy!! The beef cubes are tender, succulent, yet with a perfect chewiness making it enjoyable to bite. The rendang spices are aromatic, solid and absorb into the beef. What a “rice thief” dish.
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| Rendang Beef Cubes |
Penang Thai Style Squid ($15). The squid is coated with batter and deep-fried. It has a crispy exterior, followed with springy squid flesh. The Thai sweet chilli sauce gave this dish a contrasting taste and uplifting flavour.
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| Penang Thai Style Squid |
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| Penang Thai Style Squid |
Signature Thai Curry Fish Head ($28). Charles, the boss of GT is very particular with his seafood supplies. For this Ang Go Li (white snapper) fishhead, he only gets this from 1 particular supplier. Although his supplier price is more expensive, the quality is guaranteed.
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| Signature Thai Curry Fish Head |
The fishhead is super fresh with smooth and firm flesh. The Penang style of curry fishhead has the unique tangy taste, just like their laksa. You can expect a hot and sour fish curry, like a mix between curry and tom yum.
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| Menu 1 |
Kungfu Pork Ribs ($18). Deep-fried pork ribs coated with sweet chilli sauce. It is crispy externally, followed with succulent flesh. It is best eaten together with their homemade pickle, as it balances the sweetness and fattiness in this dish.
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| Kungfu Pork Ribs |
XO Signature Hor Fun ($12). GT version of San Lou Hor Fun infused with GT signature XO Sauce. The hor fun is smooth, silky with a slight chewiness but slightly lacking in the Wok Hei department. The gravy not only packs of punch, but it also contains lots of “atas” ingredients such as dried scallops and dried prawns.
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| XO Signature Hor Fun |
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| XO Signature Hor Fun |
While Chef Tan in charge of the kitchen, Charles, the owner responsible for curating the drink menu. Craft Beers are source from a local brewery, Brewlander, consist of LOVE (Wild IPA), RESPECT (Dark Ale), HOPE (Summer Ale) & PEACE (Hazy Ale).
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| Tasting Flight |
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| The Craft Beer Menu |
GT carries 4 types of white wines and 4 types of red wines in their wine list. However, don’t underestimate GT selections, as all wines rank highly on the wine point scale and serve in top restaurants in Singapore. GT also collaborate with locally distilled Gin, Compendium to create Chendol Gin and Rojak Gin.
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| Wine and Gin Menu |
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| Chardonay |
Since we were around the Boat Quay area the week after the media tasting, LD and I together with 2 other makan kakis decided to drop by and try out their crab’s promotion of $15 per crab.
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| Menu 2 |
Rendang Crab ($15 on Promo, 500gram). The first time we ever tried rendang style crab. The crab is fresh and solid. However, using the same spices as the beef rendang, we find the spices slightly salty and overpowering the natural sweetness of the crab meat. Each crab is cut to 4 pieces, enough to 4 persons to have a share of nice for 1 pax to eat on its own.
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| Rendang Crab |
After we finish the crab, we found there was a lot of gravy leftover. I suggest you get a bowl of rice, dump it in the balance of rendang gravy and give it a good mix. The result will be awesome, just like those Korean Fried Rice, but with Rendang Version.
Black Pepper Crab. We love this version of the crab. Thick black pepper sauce coated the crab evenly, packs with punch. The mixture of sweet essence from the crab together with heat from the black pepper is just finger-licking good. Yum Yum.
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| Black Pepper Crab |
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| Black Pepper Crab |
Barbeque Stingray ($18) with sambal sauce. A solid sambal paste slathered on the stingray. The flesh is smooth, juicy and easily peeled from the bones. One thing I don’t like about bbq stingray is the foul taste of the fish, however, there was none of those smell here. A very fresh fish indeed. The sambal paste is a bit heavy on the seasoning, but it is good to pair with beer.
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| Barbeque Stingray |
Overall, GT is a good place to enjoy Penang style Tze Char. The seafood selections are fresh and each dish are nicely executed. The beef rendang is a must-order dish. For those wine and beer connoisseur, this is a good place to indulge and do a wine and beer pairing. Cheers!
Special Promotion (Choose 1) with any purchase of food:
- $15 per crab (U.P. $40). The crab is around 1/2kg each, with 6 flavours to choose from. 1 crab for every 2 diners; or
- $1 Live Canadian Oyster (U.P. $3 each). Limited to 6 per pax.
Thank you very much Jennifer Yeo Consultancy and George Town Tze Char & Craft Beef for hosting us.
Food & Drinks: 8.25/10
Value: 8.5/10
Service: N/A (Media Tasting)
Ambiance: 8.5/10
Budget per Person: $26 - $50; $51 - $80
George Town Tze Char & Craft Beer
81 Boat Quay
Singapore 049869
T: +65 6535 6277 / 9682 3826
IG: @Georgetowntzechar
OH: Daily 12.00 – 23.00
