Prelude: A Cosy Rooftop Bar For All

By Koh Dong Kai & Sherylene Chan

Offering an amazing 360º view of the Marina Bay district, the cosy and stylish bar-cum-restaurant atop of the 3-storey Fullerton Waterboat House is a hidden fave among some cosmopolitan white-collar professionals in the Central Business District. They’ve been drawn to its casual but sophisticated set up since its soft opening last January.

But UrbanWire was there to sample their new “Indulgent Pizzas”, fish and chips, garlic fries, as well as their unique imported ales and cocktails.

Food here is rather steep for everyday dining on a young person’s budget, from $12 for a half dozen buffalo wings to a heart aching $58 for a mere 8” Boathouse Lobster & Foie Gras pizza from their ‘Indulgent Pizzas’ selection. The high prices notwithstanding, gourmands will find them good value, as quality and pricey ingredients like saffron and truffles are liberally used.

From the “Indulgent Pizzas” selection:

Foresterie 9” $35

This vegetarian pizza has a crispy golden crust filled with delicious grilled Portobello and tastes so good even a meat-loving young man just can’t seem to stop eating it. The mozzarella cheese blends well with the mushrooms and when I first sank my teeth into topping, it became clear how vegetarians can abstain from meat. With pizza this good, you can eat nothing but this forever. Okay, just kidding, but worth your $35.

Truffle 9” $48

A pizza with French truffle shavings, burrata cheese, pesto, egg and rocket leaves. Okay, a big problem with this is that the poached eggs aren’t evenly distributed, so if you’ve a bunch of egg yolk devourers, it’s kind of a problem. Other than that, it tastes fine and the rocket leaves goes well with it, but $48 for 9 inches of pizza doesn’t strike me as value for money.

Gourmet Fish & Chips $25

The set includes beer-battered selections of seabass, dory, cod and, of course, the fries all in one plate (fries can be ordered separately). The cod and seabass are firm in texture and taste great, however, the dory pieces are little dry. They’re generous with the fries, more than the portion of a large McDonald’s fries, however the garlic seasonings and salt aren’t evenly distributed and thus, the fries at the edges and bottom taste really bland. Still, the well-cooked cod and seabass really made up for it. I guess overall, this would be equivalent to a Fish and Co. set, but it’s probably more expensive due to the cod.

To balance off the damage to your pocket, draught beers usually go for $10 for a 330ml glass of Stella Artois, $13 for a 330ml bottle, $26 for a 633ml bottle of ale and classic cocktails with a Prelude twist for a flat rate of $15. These are a few dollars cheaper than those at neighbouring Clarke Quay pubs such as 1 Altitude, a bar with a similar rooftop concept located at 282 metres on the 63^rd story of One Raffles Place. So it is worth it to unwind over drinks with friends here.

This pub houses the usual suspects of cocktails and draught beer. However it’s their imported bottled ales that sing.

Baird Angry Boy Brown Ale

As the label suggests, this ale brewed in Japan has indeed an angry edge. Compared to the typical English brown ale like the Newcastle Brown Ale, this boy tastes really hoppy. It pours a cloudy amber colour with a small beige creamy head. It smells of spices of nutmeg and pepper and is sweet, full-bodied, and dry, leaving a warm bitter aftertaste. This is your brew if you’re feeling angsty and wanna take a swing at your boss.

Baird The Carpenter Mikan Ale (only the 633ml bottle available)

“Mikan” is the Japanese name for mandarin orange and as expected, this ale has a crisp citrusy taste to match the hazy orange pour with a small whitish head. The Baird brewers from Japan shaved off the outer skin of the peel of the harvested mikans and hand-processed it to get the juice. Both peel shavings and juice are added to the brew at different stages of production to add depth and complexity, according to its label description. It taste pleasant and unexpectedly light for an ABV 6.7% beer. So if you’re planning for a drink that will relax you, be sure to have this spritzy carbonation.

And of course we have the usual Belgium draught beers of Stella Artois ($10 for 330ml) and Hoegarden ($9 for 250ml), which are more familiar to the masses. Note that this bar doesn’t serve the common Tiger or Heineken brews of APB.

Prelude has its own range of specialty cocktails too, including:

Merlion Punch $15

Merlion Punch is Prelude’s new cocktail, built on the juices of passion fruit, white peach, pineapple and vodka. This cocktail reminds you of a regular fruit punch, so well masked is the vodka taste, you wonder if they really added any booze. But for the record, they did. It has a strong passion fruit taste, is a little too easy to down, but delicious all the same.

The Orchard $15

The cocktail consists of apricot, apple and cinnamon syrup, lemon and vodka. It stands out for its strong spicy cinnamon notes and a sour aftertaste. Not bad, but definitely not something I’d ever order again.

Moj-tini $15

Guava, grapefruit, lime, mint and rum are the ingredients of this mojito with a supposed twist. In fact, this cocktail tastes like a regular mojito with guava syrup. Again, nothing to write home about, but pleasant enough.

For entertainment, the cool May 1st night featured DJ Sean and Chateau Muddy, a group of rooftop-hopping DJs and guest star veteran percussionist, Maniam from Soul Ethnicity, a Singapore-based band that aims to fuse traditional ethnic and modern sounds.

Guests were told to come in their “best flip flop chic”, and enjoyed the DJs’ sounds of funky tech and minimal tech house that complemented Prelude’s chill out ambience.

In an hour or so, Maniam had taken over on the tabla, treating the crowd to a foot- tapping, head bopping performance of eclectic fusion beats with influences from Singapore’s traditional and contemporary music scenes. The crowd had also doubled to about 50 people that night, although according to one of the supervisors, the usual number on a weekend night is about 180 pax.

We also heard the current bar is only temporary. The bartender for the night slips UrbanWire information that a new outdoor one is coming up soon.

All in all, highly recommended for a visit when you have a bit of extra dough in your wallet! Bring a couple of your closest friends and you’ll definitely have a great time.

Information on future parties in the Rooftop Sunset parties will be posted on their Facebook page, so watch that space for exciting updates!

Address: Rooftop, The Waterboat House, 3 Fullerton Road Tel: +65 6538 9038

Email: enquiries@boathouse.com.sg

Website: www.boathouse.com.sg/prelude.html

Open: Monday – Saturday, 6pm to late (2am on Fri/Sat)

Capacity: 120 seated guests

Credit Cards: Amex, Visa, Mastercard

Rating: ♥♥♥♥♡

Photo courtesy of Sherylene Chan