Craft beer bistro Autobar at Raffles Place serves value-for-money $35 heritage lunch set and S$10 happy hour

As much as we love the variety of options in the CBD, there’s no denying that lunches can get a bit pricey in the area.

That’s especially true when you’re hosting clients for business lunches and the occasion calls for a more refined venue.

If that’s what you’re looking for, Autobar at Republic Plaza might just be the palce to add to your bookmarks.

Relatively new to the scene, the bistro bar was opened in Sep 2024 by craft beer stalwarts The Autobus, a craft beer taproom at OUE Downtown.

Compared to the grungier industrial stylings of The Autobus, Autobar is sleeker and more sophisticated with vogueish, modern touches — it fits right in with the restaurants in its vicinity.

Here, the focus is less craft beer and more an all-around good time, as the bar also places great emphasis on its food, with a menu revolving around elevated local flavours.

Value-for-money $35 lunch set

Perhaps the most promising offering here is Autobar’s $35 heritage set lunch, which feeds you well with an assortment of familiar flavours.

Each set comes with a bowl of blue pea jasmine rice, house achar, nyonya chap chye and your choice of starter and mains.

The chap chye is tender and crunchy with plenty of umami, while the achar is satisfyingly acidic, as you’d expect from quality housemade achar.

Starters are between a trio of white rojak, mapo tofu and mushroom dumplings and they each bring something different to the table.

For the mushroom dumplings, it’s silky with a decent thickness on the skin, while the mushrooms are juicy and the ginger soy adds a good piquancy. 

Autobar’s mapo tofu rendition is quite interesting, as you get something akin to a chawanmushi, where housemade egg tofu is used as the base and is topped with a mound of douban (Chinese fermented bean chilli paste) and minced beef.

It’s rich, but mild on the spice — in case you’re wary of sizzling mala heat!

Related Articles:

Review: Straits Club brings its signature crispy berempah chicken nasi lemak to Alexandra

Madam Flod: New French creperie at Boat Quay with sweet & savoury crepes and galettes

We tried Atlas Bar’s lavish afternoon tea menu

Hearty and fills you up

As for mains, Autobar gives four choices: Catch of the day, chef’s special of the day, nangka gulai (young jackfruit curry) and beef cheek rendang (with S$15 top-up).

On our visit, the catch of the day was a fish with Indian curry and it was quite a popular item at the table, mostly due to the tangy and lightly sweet curry that’s got a good dose of spice fragrance.

However, meat lovers and big eaters should definitely get the beef cheek rendang. 

The rendang might require a top-up, but the portion is pretty sizable and the beef cheek is tender with a bit of fattiness to it and comes apart effortlessly.

It’s not just the beef though, as the moreish Peranakan style rendang goes wonderfully with the rice.

Honestly, two courses already left us stuffed up, but if you’re the kind with a magical dessert stomach, Autobar also lets you add on a dessert of the day (additional S$5) or yuzu cheng tng (S$8).

The yuzu cheng tng is a good traditional-dessert refresher after a heavy meal, but if there’s a dessert that stood out, it was the unique goreng pisang (S$14) that featured banana ice cream with crunchy fried milk!

Oh, and if you want, there’s also complimentary artisanal tea or coffee to help get you perked up and ready to fight the food coma.

More than 20 tipples on tap

Although the value of the extremely hearty S$35 heritage set lunch is a good reason to pop by Autobar, the craft beer bar also has plenty of reasons to warrant an after-hours visit.

Being a craft beer specialist, you can expect a great variety of tipples available — on our visit, there were 19 beers on tap and another three more cocktails on draft.

The prices for select craft beers go as low as S$10 for a pint during Autobar’s Happy Hour, which runs from 5pm to 8pm daily!

Of course, drinks depend on personal preference, but the strikingly blue-hued Myth Monkey Beer Blue Galaxy hard seltzer was a very intriguing one with its mix of tangy lychee and sea salt salinity.

There’s also the No. 18 Bewing & Co Go! Emblica cider that’s vibrantly yoghurty, tasting very similar to Yakult.

If you’re working in the area, maybe it’s time to drag some colleagues for some Happy Hour drinks or impress a client with the heartiest lunch of their lives!

This was an invited tasting.

For more ideas on what to eat, read our stories on the return of McDonald’s creamy mushroom burger and the Michelin Big Gourmand makan spots in KL to hit up for your vacations. 

Autobar’s sibling concept The Autobus is on the GrabFood delivery service and offers free delivery (up to S$3 off) with GrabUnlimited. 

Enjoy up to 50% off when you dine with GrabFood Dine Out.

You can also book a ride to Autobar at Republic Plaza for its affordable set lunch and happy hour deals!