Review: Side Door feels more like a home than a bar and it’s a gem

If you ask me, the whole ultra-glam cocktail bar thing is a little played out. I love my swanky dimly-lit establishments decked out in the sleekest fittings from time to time, but it’s usually the unassuming, less pretentious and casual spots that keep me coming back.

Case in point: the brand new Side Door which, as it turns out, was spun off from a home-dining venture by a powerhouse culinary couple. One’s a top chef and the other’s an award-winning mixologist, so you already know you’re in for a good time.

The backstory

The duo behind Side Door are South Korean native Bannie Kang — who made her bartending bones at places like Nutmeg & Clove and later Anti:dote, with several Bartender of the Year awards to her name — and her Singaporean husband Tryson Quek, who has also taken home a slew of nominations and awards. 

Some of these include a Michelin Plate distinction for fine-dining resto-bar Mu in Taipei, where the pair moved to just before the pandemic hit.

They returned to Singapore at the end of 2021 and what does a couple with all these accolades tackle next? The answer is a private-dining concept, Side Door, in their three-room HDB flat. 

While they’ve now moved on from their flat to a full-fledged space at Neil Road, which opened in November, the essence is the same. 

The verdict

At first glance, you wouldn’t think that this is the kind of place that does serious cocktails. 

Instead, Side Door oozes modern cafe vibes — concrete flooring and walls, wooden stumps for seats and a tiled counter table reminiscent of the ones you see at the void decks of older HDB blocks — possibly a reference to the original home dining concept.

On my visit, Bannie and Tryson were manning their stations at the open-plan kitchen, along with a young pastry chef who created Side Door’s impressive sweets menu. 

It was 5pm and the mood was chill with Hozier and Miley Cyrus crooning in the background (though the music later switched to electro swing and higher-octane beats into the evening).

The owners and staff are friendly and warm. It’s the kind of place you can go to alone and still feel comfortable without any judgement. All in all, a solid cosy neighbourhood hangout that feels like a friend’s home, complete with delish, progressive technique-driven bites and thoughtful libations.

It’s worth noting that Side Door has also recently launched a private eight-course dinner experience with four cocktail pairings in the Living Room, a six-seater space in a very tiny, gorgeously designed room behind the restaurant. 

It’s priced at S$198 per head and can be reserved on Thursday to Saturday evening, with a minimum of six diners to start. It’s more or less a spinoff of its original home-dining concept.

What it’s good for

The cocktails at Side Door look simple, but the flavours are creative, playful and very well thought out. 

From the low ABV (alcohol by volume) section, my East Meets West (S$20) combines St-Germain elderflower liqueur with osmanthus sencha — two fairly subtle flavours that form a delicate grassy and floral profile. It’s spritzed up with the fresh zing of passion fruit and then umami from a healthy garnish of seaweed powder on the side. It’s something you can drink on a patio all afternoon.

If the powerful herbaceousness (along with notes of anise and mint) of green Chartreuse doesn’t disagree with you, the Green is the New Black (S$26) is an interesting one to try. Possibly a riff off the popular Final Ward cocktail, it exchanges the maraschino liqueur for cachaca (a sugarcane spirit), and keeps the Chartreuse, whisky and lime with the added infusion of cucumber and dill. What you get is a deeply complex bitter and herbaceous drink that’s a little smoky from the peaty Caol Ila whisky, with a touch of citrusy tang and freshness.

As a young university student, one of the first cocktails I tried was a soju bomb — if you can even call that a cocktail. 

If that is the infantile version, then Side Door’s Non-Fruit beer (S$26) has reached the pinnacle — only Bannie’s creation has neither soju or beer. With the help of a beverage carbonator, she magically combines whisky, dry vermouth, lychee, fernet branca, and Korean barley, into a lightly-carbonated, crisp, malty and fruity concoction without the astringent bitterness of hops. 

It’s basically an improved way to drink beer… without beer.

There’s a whopping 10 housemade sweets here, including mixed seeds chamomile cookies, seasonal fruit tartlets and sour plum guava bonbons, but it’s the chrysanthemum pound cake (S$8) that most catches my eye with its overflowing icing and pretty silver flakes. 

The thin lemony glaze is tangy but not sweet and the cake is fairly dense but not dry. Instead, each bite is moist and full of flavour, accentuated by soft floral notes with gentle honey undertones.

Beef tartare (S$22) and yuzu sorbet? It’s common to use acidity, usually lemon juice, to balance out the beef’s umami flavours, but Tryson uses yuzu to add a more multifaceted fragrance to his dish. 

The sorbet is clever: It both keeps the beef cold and lets you taste the creamy angus beef (chef dresses it with sherry vinegar, wasabi, and mustard) before you mix the sorbet in. Should you choose to do so, the flavours meld together beautifully. The paprika rice puffs on top add an enjoyable texture and there is also very good grilled sourdough on the side.

You’re probably thinking, “Fries, really?”. But the double-fried fries (S$15) here are far from ordinary. For one, these skin-on babies are extraordinarily crispy and airy with an outer layer akin to battered fish and chips. Everything is amped up with chopped crispy and garlic aioli, giving this dish plenty of umami, aroma and oomph. 

The foul after-effects on your breath are worth it. It’s good for sharing, but I can and will enjoy this on my own. 

What it could improve on

Coming in the afternoon? You’re stuck with just bakes and sweets for food until the kitchen opens for dinner at 6pm. 

Since savouries are only available in the evening, I expected a more fleshed-out culinary programme, but as it stands, nearly all of the dishes available are snacks and starters — from fries and beef tartare to things like escargot, chilli chicken wings, shishito peppers, and dumplings — with a stingray steak being the only thing to qualify as a main. 

Granted, they’ve just launched their Living Room private dining concept, so I expect that operational and teething issues are still being sorted out. 

I have no doubt Side Door is poised for momentous growth, and if it were up to me, I’d try to gate-keep this place, but with the reputations of Bannie and Tryson, it’s not going to stay quiet for long.

Our quick takes

Is it conducive to conversation? Like your own home… almost.

Is a reservation necessary? You can make a reservation via Instagram DM, but you can also opt to walk-in — seats are relatively available, for now.

How to get there? Side Door is a three-minute walk away from Maxwell MRT station Exit 2.

HungryGoWhere paid for its meal at this establishment for this review.

Hungry for more? Read our latest compilation on where to get those viral, loaded croissants and all about McDonald’s new Sweet ‘n Sour burger.

Do explore the new GrabFood Dine-in service for awesome deals.

You can also book a ride to Side Door at Neil Road for some cocktails and bites.