Tower Club’s Straits Bar re-opened its doors on 27 January 2018, the Club’s 21st birthday, following renovations to revamp its interior and attract additional members. Located on the penthouse level, it has a breath-taking view of the South China Sea and emanates an atmosphere perfect for both social and business entertainment.
The revamped, multi-functional space with projector screens can also host large gatherings of over 100 people, and is an ideal venue for cocktail events, media conferences, F1 viewings and even sports match viewings.
The Tower Club was established on 27 January 1997, and has since been the club of choice for business executives to mingle.
Peter Schori, General Manager of Tower Club, shared that the club is now trying to appeal to a younger crowd. “The concept of this club when it was set up 20 years ago, was for C-suites, business people and foreigners. Now the whole paradigm has changed, a lot of foreigners have left and have been replaced by young, capable, local executives who have children, and we (Tower Club) have not really been children friendly, so we’re trying to change that.”
The Club also has term memberships for 1 – 3 years, allowing members greater flexibility to tailor their membership to their needs.
“You cannot stick to the old system. What do the people want now? You cannot make it too complicated, too expensive; it has to be easy and attractive with no obstacles, and we are building all these things,” said Mr Schori.
Tower Club is also home to three food spaces: Atlantic, which is known for its contemporary continental menu with a prized wine cellar, Ba Xian, favoured for its fine Chinese cuisine, and Straits Bar. Together, they serve an array of fine cuisine, and all are perfect for social and business entertainment. Here are some of the dining specialties on their menus:
The Mentaiko Steamed Crab with Deep Fried Octopus and Salted Egg Yolk Sauce is a sight to behold – yellow chrysanthemum petals scattered over octopus, which has a coating of deep fried Hokkaido bread crumbs, and a chunky Alaskan crab leg perched on a bed of salt with slightly charred mentaiko. On the side is creamy salted egg yolk sauce. According to Chef Mark, the dish was conceived so that Straits Bar had something drier to pair with alcohol.
The deep-fried Spanish octopus is tender, and the bread crumb crust is delightfully crispy. When dipped into the rich salted egg yolk sauce, it is a perfect marriage of textures and flavours.
However, the star of the dish is the Alaskan king crab. The meat is amazingly soft and juicy, and is generously topped with mentaiko. Chef Mark steams the crab leg to make it softer, and adds Saikyo miso to the mentaiko instead of the usual mayonnaise. The king crab has a deliciously briny flavour that brings the ocean to mind.
The Claypot Soon Hock Fish is elegantly arranged in a small bowl with a scoop of rice by the side, and is soaked in a superior soya sauce broth with fried garlic pieces. This dish was created by Chef Wan Chung Hang of Ba Xian, after trying another hotel’s claypot fish as recommended by a member of Tower Club. After the experience, he modified the dish and thus Ba Xian’s very own Claypot Soon Hock Fish was born.
The flesh of the marble goby fish is surprisingly unique – it is translucent and springy, but tastes like scallop. The meat has a bounce to it, and is incredibly fresh. Christopher Yang, Tower Club’s Food & Beverage Director, shared that the fresher and bigger the marble goby fish, the more it tastes like scallop.
Interestingly, the fish is baked in the claypot itself instead of being steamed, and Chef Wan watches over it like a hawk to check the doneness of the fish. It is just nearly cooked when it is taken out of the kitchen, and slowly cooks in the residual heat of the claypot until it reaches the diner’s table.
The fish is infused with the supreme soya sauce broth, and is savoury without being too salty. The slight umami taste of the broth is heightened by the fried garlic bits, which are perfectly crispy. The rice proves a perfect pairing with the sauce to maintain the balance of flavours.
Hailing from Atlantic, the Smoked Lobster Linguini is another delicious dish. The live lobster tail is smoked with applewood chips and then cooked with the pasta in white wine and fresh tomatoes. It sounds deceptively simple, but the dish has very complex flavours.
The smokiness is infused throughout the entire dish, from the lobster to the tomato sauce, which is an interesting change from the usual arrabiata sauces. The lobster tail itself is robust and springy, and has a wonderful bite to it.
Chef Frank Killian only uses fresh ingredients, including juicy, ripe tomatoes. The result is a refreshing, sweet and tangy sauce, with the smoky flavour permeating through it.
One of Atlantic’s best-selling desserts, the Warm Tiramisu, is a piece of performance art by itself. The small glass bowl has coffee meringue, coffee granité, and coffee jelly mixed with marsala wine and kahlua, before warm mascarpone foam is ejected from a canister. It is a lovely dessert, as the elements come together to form a creamy, decadent and rich dessert that warms diners’ hearts and stomachs, without being too heavy-handed on the alcohol.
Another unique dessert is their house special, the Salsify Ice Cream. The ice cream is topped with lemon meringue, compressed melon, yogurt granite and dehydrated salsify. The attention to detail in this dessert is impressive.
The ice cream itself has a unique and light flavour, tasting like the salsify root. The dehydrated salsify chip is crispy when eaten dry, and retains its crunch when soaked in the ice cream. The compacted rock melon balls are juicier, sweeter and denser than regular melon balls. The sweet lemon meringue and yogurt granite provide a light and airy dimension to the dish.
