I've recently visited this place as recommended by a few friends and colleagues. However without having any expectations laid on it, it has avoidably resulted to my greatest disappointment ever out of all the night spots that I've been to. It all started with a great evening and ended a terrible one. It’s a long story as we started the evening early. Hence, I’ll cut it short with pointers below “enjoy”.

- My friends’ 1st round order of drinks took almost an hour to reach us (which is yes, I finally reached there).

- I ordered for quite a few items off the menu. The most amazing things I realized was, whichever we ordered based on our knowledge of the item’s name, they could actually serve us something different without highlighting to us when we were placing the order (Trust me. This ain’t the best-to-come, yet).

- When the food finally came, we were overwhelmed with extra drinks without alert. And yes, we were billed for those drinks. It was as if we were pushed to buy them without a choice.

- When a couple of my friends got high from clearing the extra drinks (I mean, its cold beer. You can’t expect anyone to drink it when it’s warm right?), we landed dancing a little near the stage. Guess what? My gf was dragged on the stage by the band that evening to dance for everyone. She did, for the sake of being spontaneous about the idea. Sad to say, I had to keep my gf accompany by being on stage too with her. You couldn’t expect what we were asked to do. There wasn’t a choice given to refuse either. A guy from the crowd and us were required to do some pole dances with the mike stand individually. Next, was for the girls to dance around the guy with the same category of dance. This is ridiculous to me. I was turned OFF and stood there after a few seconds of trying very hard to be spontaneous for the idea by the band.

- The band continued to attempt making a clown out of a friend of mine (who’s also a producer) who was kinda drunk at that moment. I mean, how ‘fun’ could it be to make fun of a guest of where you’re working in? It kinda sucks to the max from what I see. Based on the above and the current incident, I have to conclude they are unprofessional and should not be recognized as a band for hire.

- In-between the hours I was there, I made some ice water orders for everyone as there was too much oily food to be consumed with alcohols. However, I’ve only managed to start having some H2O after the 7th order when I was standing at the bar asking for it. Apparently, TIMBRE DOES NOT CATER H2O and only sells EVIAN. But, I was never informed of this. And when I ordered EVIAN based on what my friend was told very much later. Again, my order took a camel to deliver (long waiting when our table’s not as far as it could contain a camel with that distance).

- Now here’s the best part of the evening. The bill came. There were orders we made but undelivered charged. No clear notice of the happy hours orders and standard hour promotions indicated. Pretty much they just charge on the non-happy hour aka standard rates. We had ordered for drinks that were out of the menu and they served with a rate out of their menu too. How miracle was that?

- When my payment had to be void (due to the latter) the bill had to be regenerated for my signature, Timbre wasted almost half an hour of my time till closing where I see them packing the place up to get me sign it off. Strong believes I have that it doesn’t take more than 30mins to open their visa machine and re-generate me another bill (I was a cashier before. They can’t fool me with an excuse where the cashier had done her closing and it takes time to get it started. When there were still people sitting around having their last drinks etc!).


To date, it’s been almost a week from the visit. And I’ve just got an update from my bank the voided amount has not totally credited back to me because “the merchant hasn’t submitted their claim” to them. How interesting huh?
I sworn this will be 1st and last visit to Timbre ever, as there’s way too many places I’ve been to with better services.

NOTES:
There was more than enough servers and etc crew for that evening to run a smooth business for every table they have in that tiny space. So, such low quality services are inexcusable since I couldn't get to any of them for the last 2hours. Even if I got to them, my orders were to turn deaf. I ended up doing a DIY to my own request as much as possible. So why aren't I paid for serving my own?


P.S. I am grateful for the server who tried his best to serve us some H2O/lime juice for our drunk friend but sorry. My contacts and I will not visit ever again.

IT WAS A SATURADAY!!

A friend recommended this place to me. The setting is a very relaxed outdoor atmosphere where one can speak freely and be yourself among friends. Located on the other side of boat quay, it is far away from the touting hawkers and hence provides a more serene environnment by the river

I had two pints of heineken which went well with my mini-burgers. The burgers are served in three different sauces and make good bar-snacks to accompany the drinks. The calamari rings were alright although the batter falls off easily.

Final parting note: There is also a friendly live band which interacts with the crowd and if you are (un)fortunate enough, you may even be asked to do a live item on stage. Record label management companies not included.

The evening was totally surreal!

It pays to plan your evening in advance and make reservations. It’s just a wonderful feeling to walk-in, while everyone else is in queue.

It was my night out with the girls. Service was excellent. Before my seat was warmed I had someone already coming up to me to ask me what I wanted to drink. And throughout the night we had someone on standby to make sure our table was promptly cleared and food/drinks arrived. Maybe we’re just too “charming” to behold. Haha…

Timbre @ Arts House, to me was an excellent choice for a girl’s night out because I knew they were winners both with food and drinks. We also had “Good Fellas” playing for the night which was pretty awesome and were not too loud or head banging.

Our menu for the night:

1. Stuffed Mushrooms
- Quite a small serving. But still very good.

2. Timbre Chicken Wings
- Consistently seasoned and not too oily.

3. Mediterranean Thin Crust Pizza
- An ultimate winner! Very light on the palate.

4. Parma Ham & Rosemary Thin Crust Pizza
- Very savory and must be eaten when hot.

Drinks:
- Too many to recount
- But I have to say they make a mean “Blow Job” (You seriously got to try it!)

In closing, Thank you Timbre for making my night out with the girls such a memorable one! I had a great time!

I was at Timbre Arts House last weekend and had almost 10 other friends with me. The band on stage Timmy, probably the best local band I've ever heard. Though sometimes they let random people on stage but Timmy was playing and singing most of the time. Not sure why they don't have drums there but the acoustic versions of the songs were just as pleasant. It was a super chill evening and the hour long queue looked well worth the wait until...

We got seats at the outside area where there are little round tables. Since it's the outside area so we thought we could put the tables together. We asked the waiters repeatedly, and all they could say was it'll block the way. But it's the outside area, you could walk from any way. Didn't make sense so we asked for the manager. So the manager came and said the same thing. God... I think the thing in his ear (some ear piece) was preventing him from thinking. Finally, after much insistence, he relented. Maybe he finally figured that there's a lot of room to walk since it's an outdoor open space.

While arranging the tables, the drinks on one of the tables dropped and spilled. After the tables were all set, one of us asked the waiter if the drinks will be replaced. Exact words: "My Manager said it's not his fault cause one of your friends was pulling the table. but I'll check with him again." Shortly after, the manager came and his first words "What now!"... and you can imagine the rest of the conversation.

Completely destroyed our nite out. Probably never organise a hangout nite there ever. Such a pity cos the music and ambience was so good.

Headed down to Timbre @ The Arts House for after work drinks/ snacks.

Service at Timbre was BAD. My party turned up at 6:30 without having made reservations, and were told we had to sit either indoors (aircon spoilt) or outdoors (tables without shade). Naturally, we chose outdoors. Halfway through out drinks, it started drizzling and we saw many parties heading into the sheltered seating area. The server, however, told my group not to move has he wanted to check if there were seats. So we stood outside in the drizzle waiting for them to "find seats", which took a long time! We also had to ask the staff repeatedly for iced water and empty plates.

For the food, most of us had already eaten and hence we just ordered 2 pizzas and buffalo wings to share. The pizzas were gooood (we had seafood an tandoori). The crust was thin, and though it wasn't crispy, was light and yummy. They were also reasonably generous with the toppings whch was nice. The buffalo wings, on the other hand, were a disappointment.

The drinks were nothing spectacular. Less watered down than substation's, but nonetheless very very diluted. I think the Sakura (Lychee Liquor, Lychee, Ribena) was really yummy and refreshing, but it tasted abit like a kids drink- sweeeeet with almost no alcohol.