Smoke and Pepper @ Alley on 25 – $25 Set Lunches

The Beach Road / Bugis area has a new shiny Andaz Singapore Hotel by the Hyatt Hotel group.  The entire 25th floor of this building is taken up by restaurants. This dining zone is known as Alley on 25. Small and medium-sized restaurants with different themes and cuisines have been set up here to provide variety and interest to the hotel guests and casual diners. They all looked interesting and attractive. On our first visit to the Andaz Hotel Singapore, we ended up in Smoke and Pepper @ Alley on 25. The interesting description  “... it showcases Asian-inspired barbecued specialties prepared over an open-fire barbecue grill” made us want to give it a try.

Smoke and Pepper is apparently the largest of the restaurants at Alley on 25. It has a modern, smart casual kind of decor. It looks pleasant and functional, but the design did not leave much of an impression. The friendly service however is something we remember.

From the 25th floor vantage point, we could look at the Parkview Square (which some refer to as the Gotham building) and the surrounding Kampong Glam area.

Smoke and Pepper Menu

At lunch time, Smoke and Pepper offers a $25 lunch set menu. This seems to be a smart move as the place was busy during the weekday lunch. We think that $25++ is a sensible price point for office folks and a good deal for an eatery in a 5 star hotel (assuming the food passes muster). Here are pictures of the Smoke and Pepper set lunch menu and a few portions of the regular Smoke and Pepper menu.

Appetizers

There being four of us, we were able to try four types of the main courses listed in the set lunch menu. There were only two types of appetisers – shredded green papaya salad and Asian slaw.  The latter was the more interesting choice – both in terms of looks and taste. The green papaya was slightly sour which was fine, but it did not have the variety of texture and taste as the Asian slaw.

Main Courses 

Here is a bird’s eye view of the four main courses of our set lunch at Smoke & Pepper. We will show them in detail to you, starting from the best to the least liked.

The plain looking local seabass filet was the best performing dish. It had been seasoned with some spices and herbs (a coriander and tumeric rub, according to the menu). The fish was well prepared and it has a complex Asian flavour, especially when eaten with the dip. It was served with steamed rice.

The next best item was the half spring chicken. This was a normal roasted chicken, except that it had a hint of tamarind and a soy sauce based dip. The chicken was mostly moist except for the breast part which was slightly dry. Served with rice.

The Black Angus beef skewers was the most attractive dish. The two skewers were kept warm on the grill of a Japanese charcoal fired mini stove. The portion was small but tasty.

The Black Angus beef burger was a nice burger but it was neither distinctive nor Asian in character.

The meal ended with a scoop of chocolate ice cream. We were not asked for choice of flavours and so I assume this was the only one available, which is fine as we would have asked for chocolate anyway.

Overall, the Andaz is a beautiful hotel and Smoke and Peppers is a handsome place to have lunch.  The $25 set lunch offers good value for money.  We will show you the rest of the restaurants on the 25th level in a subsequent post.

Ratings:
Food: 4
Service: 5
Value: 4
Atmosphere: 4
Overall Rating: 4 TOPs 

Smoke & Pepper
5 Fraser Street
Level 25 Andaz Singapore
Singapore 189354

Opening Hours
(Tues – Sat) Lunch: 12:00 pm (Noon) – 2:30 pm
(Tues – Sat) Dinner: 6:00 pm – 10:00 pm
*closed on Sunday and Monday

Nearby MRT Station: Bugis

The Ordinary Patrons | Real Dining Experience of Ordinary People
an independent Singapore food blog