The private club opens only one section to feed non-members with hearty salads, grain bowls, and kueh salat
The standard joining fee is $4500 that includes a monthly subscription cost of $198 – cheaper if you’re under 30.
But if you’re not ready to shell out a considerable sum for a membership at Straits Clan, a High SES-anointed clubhouse outfitted with a swanky workspace, a private spa offering massages and manicures, a gym by the folks from Ritual, and a glittering lineup of entertainment rooms, there’s always the Clan Cafe to get one’s foot in the door.
Located at the ground floor lobby lounge of the four-storey building, Clan Cafe is one of the three dining concepts accessible to your fellow Xiao Mings who may differ from the ‘thought leaders and game-changers’ the clubhouse so eloquently described its members for.
With natural lighting spilling through its floor-to-ceiling windows, the brightly-lit cafe’s serves as something of a hideaway, softened by aesthetically-pleasing earthy elements of polished teak furniture, rustic tribal ornaments, and flora surprises at every corner.
To mirror its contemporary, minimalist-esque aesthetics, Clan Cafe offers up clean-eating with its line of healthful dishes, reinforced by a tea programme led by homegrown tea specialist A.muse Projects.
Miso Salmon ($17)
Begin with the Otah Sandwich ($16). While one may incur a fraction of the cost if DIY-ed, the Clan Cafe’s otah sandwich is distinctly a polished variant, where butter homemade brioche buns are used instead of supermarket’s Gardenia slices, along with the decadent inclusion of melted Comte cheese. Decent is the not-very-spicy otah slabs, filled with mackerel and prawns chunk-sized. The sandwich comes with a salad of spinach and romaine lettuce.
Sandwiches aside, you’d best make a beeline for the cafe’s Asian-influenced grain bowls, comprising a nourishing mix of red and brown rice, koshihikari and red quinoa. There is the Grilled Angus Ribeye($19), vibrant with an assortment of crunchy vegetables such as pickled orange, purple roots, lotus roots, edamame and tomatoes to go with the tender beef slices, and the Miso Salmon ($17) that touts a beautiful pan-seared miso-marinated salmon. Clan Cafe does allow a bit of indulging with the Kakiage ($15) where you’ll find a mountain of vegetables and root vegetables fried tempura style, sitting on a rice base cooked in dashi-shoyu stock. Genmaicha broth is served with the grain bowl that can be enjoyed on its own or poured over the rice.
Kakiage ($15)
Speaking of things that are like warm hugs, the Chicken & Leek Broth ($9) makes for a soul-soother with its heartwarming chicken-based blend, infused with leeks, garlic and ginger. You may notice a distinct creaminess in the broth, thanks to the added chicken feet for a collagen boost.
To round-off your lunch, dinner, tea or whatever the time of the day calls for, order the Kuah Salat ($6.90). The Peranakan cake slice definitely brings to mind the same offering at Chalk Farm, where you’ll find fragrant, creamy pandan custard that sits on a sticky, yet moist blue pea flower-tinted rice bed.
Address: 31 Bukit Pasoh Road
Operating Hours: 10am-10pm (Monday to Saturday)
Website: www.straitsclan.com
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