Club Street Laundry is where Chinatown’s past provides a backdrop for a casual and unpretentious Australian-inflected culinary experience, and where a speakeasy bar hidden below serves cocktails with soul.
Club Street Laundry is a curious one. More outdoor street corner than any proper restaurant, its name evokes the area’s past as where Singapore’s Chinese immigrants settled as they slaved tirelessly to build the thriving metropolis that we see today. Indeed this venue used to be Hup San Laundry, which catered to those Chinese coolies because they worked so hard many didn’t have the time to wash their own clothes.
Located in a corner heritage shophouse at the junction where Club Street meets Ann Siang Road — where Low Tide used to be — this open vantage point has witnessed the ebb and flow of Singapore’s Chinatown over the years since those early days.
These days though? These days colonial era charm is but a tourist attraction. Today Club Street is a dining and nightlife enclave, albeit one that has seen better days.
As aforementioned, Club Street Laundry is a purely alfresco space. It’s rustic and cosy the way some cafes in an Australian outback town are, and suffice to say it’s not going to be winning an interior design award any time soon.
But the food.
Here Chef Justin Hammond reimagines contemporary Australian dining with global verve and a touch of fun local hospitality. Chef Justin — whose background includes helming the kitchens of Neon Pigeon and most recently, the now-shuttered Underdog Inn — comes with the kind of culinary experience learned through char, fat, and flame rather than tweezers and edible flowers. His food? Roguish Australian cookery with culinary influences from all over.
Lunch is deliberately pragmatic with wraps and sandwiches, clearly designed for the weekday office hordes chasing sustenance before dashing back to spreadsheets and KPIs.
But come evening, Club Street Laundry finds its groove.
The Kingfish Ceviche is a zinger — complete with Peruvian-style leche de tigre — with slices so fresh you half expect them to flinch when the fork lands. The Roasted Beet & Goat Cheese Salad may sounds like a cliché for the health-conscious, but it delivers texture, balance and a tang that’ll make you sit right up. The Charcoal Grilled Sea Bream? Beautifully seared skin, and moist, indolent flesh to match.
And then, the Flame Grilled Beef Cheeks. This is a juicy, fall-apart hunk of beef, crowned with a verde sauce so delicious it must have its own fan club. It’s the kind of dish that demands a glass of wine and a moment of reverence.
Speaking of wine: the list here is neither encyclopaedic nor intimidating, just a selection of bottles that make sense with the food, including a few natty numbers for those who like their wine with a bit of attitude.
There are draught cocktails too — which always feel like a gamble — but here they mostly pay off.
The real secret weapon? Hup San Social Club, hidden downstairs. Here Club Street Laundry’s beverage director June Baek holds court in an intimate 12-seater speakeasy where the award-winning bartender shakes and stirs up 14 signature cocktails in her debut ‘Do What Brings You Joy’ cocktail menu, along with any number of classics.
It’s an eclectic mix with some truly unexpected flavours. You’ll need to try the eponymous Club Street Colada, a baijiu-infused twist on the classic Piña Colada; Achar, a spicy and tangy number that’ll make you want to dance; and for those who love their cocktails punchy, the Manhattan-inspired La Vie En Rose.
Club Street Laundry succeeds because it doesn’t try too hard to be ‘authentic’ — either to Australia, Asia, or the stories it draws inspiration from. Instead it’s a casual confident space with a playful laundry list of well-executed eats that feeds you well without the posturing and pontification.
And Hup San Social Club? That’s one cocktail bar to watch.
Club Street Laundry
Address 98 Club St, #01-01, Singapore 069467 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 11am to 11.30pm Tuesdays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays and Mondays
Web www.clubstreetlaundry.com
Instagram @clubstreetlaundry
Reservations book here
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