Rebel Rebel Wine Bar - New Trendy Place Inspired by David Bowie

Rebel Rebel Wine Bar has a name that is inspired by the 70s hit song Rebel Rebel by David Bowie. The song starts with these lyrics: “You’ve got your mother in a whirl. She’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl … ” we were unsure what we would find at the new place at Bukit Pasoh.

Rebel Rebel Wine Bar Singapore Keong Saik

“A wine bar with a rebellious streak; a mutiny in every glass” is how Rebel Rebel wine bar describes itself on the website. One would not have guessed from the calm and classy look of the shophouse it occupies, which still bears the name “Keow Siong Club”. My quick Google searches did not reveal any information about this club. The only thing I found was a December 2017 ST article about Casa Poncho, a new Latin destination restaurant opening at the former Keow Siong Club.

We had been curious about Rebel Rebel Wine Bar since it opened around July 2020. But it was not easy to get an online reservation slot for Friday or Saturday. We had to reserve two weeks in advance. We could see why when we finally got there. The dining space is rather small with a few outdoor tables. The outdoor space is really nice at dusk – around 6.30pm is possibly the best time to visit when the air is cool and the sky is starts turning deep blue.

Rebel Rebel Wine Bar Menu

Being a wine bar, the wines are the primary focus at Rebel. With many of the wines in the $100 (+/-30) range, it is easy to find one that is suitable for the budget. In addition, Rebel tells us that “..our wines promise to be thought-provoking but fun; energetic and sensual”. Here are some sample pages from the Rebel Rebel wine list.

Rebel Rebel Wine Bar Wine Menu — Rebel Rebel wine list (sample page)

Our choice of wine that day was a bottle of German riesling – 2018 Schloss Lieser Riesling Trocken ($76). It was a light and refreshing white wine that we thought would be suitable to go with the food that we had ordered.

By comparison with the wine selection, the food menu was rather limited, taking up just one page on the menu.

What we ate at Rebel Rebel

We started off with a charcuterie platter of Jamon de Bellota and Jesus du Pays Basque ($24). The Bellota Ham was very good. Unfortunately it formed less than half of the platter. The other part was taken up by Jesus du Pays Basque, a type of soft pork sausage from the Basque region. It had a slight porky flavour which we are not fond of.

The octopus dish ($28) was the best dish of the day. Slices of octopus tentacles were mixed up in a salad of olives, sundried tomato, coriander and green chilli. A delightful dish.

Three types of cheese were served on the cheese platter ($24) together with flaxseed sourdough crackers, a bit of honeycomb, walnuts and strawberry apples. I can’t remember exactly the types of cheese which were explained to us, but they were all good, with a variety of texture and tastes.

We had some churros ($8) for dessert. The bottle of Schloss Lieser Riesling Trocken was versatile enough to go with the varied dishes we had that day at Rebel Rebel wine bar. It is a small place with hip and trendy vibes. It turned out to be less wild than we expected.

There are probably more interesting places for serious eating at the Keong Saik area, but Rebel Rebel could be the perfect place to meet up for pre-dinner drinks. Before strolling to the nearby restaurant afterwards.