Singapore Formula One 2014 – Dining in the fast lane

The F1 races are in Singapore this weekend. The real Singapore Formula One 2014 race is on Sunday. Qualifying races are on Saturday. Since nothing significant takes place on the racing front on Friday, we focused our attention on the food they serve at the Paddock Club on Friday.

The F&B aspects of the Paddock Club looked promising. Endless flow of Mumm champagne and other drinks.   A  cluster of gourmet restaurants where you can eat to your heart’s content. We were naturally excited. We were able to sample the food served at the Crudo & Caviar Bar, the Pizzeria, Tapas by Jean-Georges.  The restaurants were quite nicely set up and the food was generally good. The only problem was that they operated on a self-service concept. Food is served from the bar. You queue at the bar for each batch of food that comes out of the kitchen.  You don’t know what is coming out and the portions are tiny so you may have to make a few trips to get all the items on the menu.   As it was  quite confusing and because the non-stop serving of champagne could have adversely affected our concentration, we will not try to identify each dish featured in the photos but leave them for your viewing pleasure.

The offerings at the seafood outlet was however less than what  we expected as you can see from the pictures below.  The most popular place, The Steakhouse by Jean Georges,  ran out of food very early.  But overall it was a fun carnival-like atmosphere with entertainment events amidst the roar of the F1 and other types of racing cars.  We really hope they will reconsider the self service concept as it detracts from the enjoyment of the food as well as the supposed prestige of the Paddock club. It must be said that the noise level from the cars was down considerably from previous years as a result of the change of engines.  Less exciting but a good thing.  Two other things need to be singled out for praise before we end this short note. The overall excellent hospitality of the staff (and not just in the restaurants) and the beautiful disposable crockery used in the Jean Georges restaurants.