DoubleBay is one of these restaurants built outside the building in an area that used to be absolutely nothing. It's a snazzy Australian dining/bar that's got fantastic ambiance. The walls are entirely glass, so you can sit inside in peaceful air-conditioned comfort, while enjoying the bright sunlight, city buzz and fantastic view of Raffles Hotel opposite.
Another thing I really liked about the place was the drinks. Sure its not exactly what I would call cheap, but the mocktails and frozen blends come in really bright cheerful colours, taste good, and come in these really trendy cups. In fact what I liked was not just the drinks, but the huge range of really interesting cups the restaurant uses. Some may look normal, but they were using these double glass cups that weigh a ton but feel really good to hold. Sadly I only managed to take 2 pictures.
Oh the food! I was happy with my pot of mussels which came with a slice of hot toast smeared with what tasted a bit like crab paste. The stock was nice and rich, full of a seafood flavour that I soaked up with the bread and chips (from fish & chips).
*Shinta of course couldn't resist the crispy roast pork with apple sauce as a starter. The problem with roast pork is that in this humid weather, its really difficult to get it totally crispy. And if you fail, the resulting product is something that is hard, chewy and unpalatable. I would say that Double Bay managed to get it 70% there, which is not too bad a result, but not fantastic either.
And if you're the health conscious kind, just forget about ordering this!
For mains, we decided to share the fish & chips and a pie. You can select what fish you want to be used, and while it comes nicely beer battered with a generous yummy fillet of fish inside, *Shinta found it a little too oily overall.
Beware of the pie! There are quite a few selections of pie, but we went with the chicken and mushroom special of the day. We were expected a nice medium size pie that a single person could finish off, but what came was this humongous place which probably 2 people could very easily share and not order anything else.
The inside was hot and oozing, but because it was so huge and so creamy, we just couldn't even pretend that we could finish it. Strangely we saw someone else order the beef pie, and the radius of that pie was probably about half the size of this one?
Dessert was the chocolate fondant, which in one word.... "Fail!!!!!" The outside pastry was dry and tasteless while the inside chocolate was diluted, boring and a total waste of calories. Please please skip this. It was horrible.
I think I like chilling at Double Bay on a lazy Sunday afternoon, especially with the fun drinks and mussel pots. We were there at 3pm, but there were still other customers going in to get a drink or snack. It's got the cool ambiance of a Dempsey Road restaurant, but with the plus points of convenience in terms of location. You can always pop by to Raffles City after that to do your weekend shopping.
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Double Bay Restaurant
252 North Bridge Road, #01-22A Raffles City Shopping Center
Tel: +65 6334 6530
Hours: 11.30am to 11.30pm (Mon to Fri), to 1.00am (Sat to Sun)
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