The Peranakan Club is less a conventional restaurant than an exuberant celebration of Baba-Nyonya culture, where heritage is embraced with infectious enthusiasm and the food challenges long-held assumptions about what Peranakan cuisine should taste like.
Some restaurants merely borrow from heritage. They hang a few old photographs on the wall, commission a couple of faux-antique cabinets, sprinkle the menu with words like “authentic”, and call it a day.
The Peranakan Club does not believe in moderation.
Occupying an expansive 5,000-square-foot space in Orchard Towers, The Peranakan Club presents itself as Southeast Asia’s first “living museum” dedicated to Peranakan culture, bringing together multiple concepts under one roof — from Kebaya Bar and Kerosang Tea Room to casual dining, private tok panjang feasts, gallery spaces and a heritage retail boutique. Behind it all is founder Raymond Khoo, whose private collection of antiques fills almost every available corner, from antique folding screens and vintage furniture to kerosangs and heirloom artefacts that celebrate the richness of Straits Chinese culture.
It hurls itself headlong into Peranakan culture with the enthusiasm of a favourite Nonya aunt insisting you eat yet another helping. Every available surface seems to tell a story. Every cabinet contains another heirloom. Every corridor leads to another carefully-curated corner celebrating Baba-Nyonya life. It is part restaurant, part cultural centre, part retail boutique, part museum, and occasionally feels as though someone let an especially passionate collector loose inside one corner of Orchard Towers with unlimited decorating privileges.
The Peranakan Club is gloriously, unapologetically maximalist. It borders on theatrical. And somehow, that overwhelming sincerity becomes part of its considerable charm.
The same philosophy extends to the food, although this is where diners may need to recalibrate their expectations.
Those arriving in search of the familiar flavours of Singapore’s Peranakan canon may find themselves momentarily disoriented. The Peranakan Club does not attempt to present a definitive version of Peranakan cuisine because such a thing arguably does not exist. Instead, it embraces the diversity of Peranakan communities across the region, drawing upon different family traditions, personal recipes and interpretations that reflect the broader Straits heritage rather than Singapore’s more familiar flavour profiles.
That means certain dishes can taste subtly — or sometimes noticeably — different from what local diners have grown up eating.
Take the Itek Tim, for instance. The comforting salted vegetable duck soup receives an unexpected splash of XO brandy before serving, described as a long-standing Khoo family tradition. Purists may raise an eyebrow. Others may simply shrug and enjoy the richer, warming finish.
The well-stuffed Prawn Ngoh Hiang here is crunchily addictive and is an absolute must-order, as is the Kacang Botol Kerabu, the winged bean salad a riot of flavour and texture. The signature Ayam Buah Keluak arrives filled with an unusually lavish quantity of the prized “black gold” — unadulterated with minced shrimp or meat like in versions you may find elsewhere — producing an intensely earthy richness that’s almost heady to those not used to it.
And while you can order a fish here — served a deep-fried butterflied whole, or fillet for those more squeamish — done in piquant and spicy assam pedas, the more unusual sauce option is chuan chuan, with the delectable ginger and fermented soy bean sauce infusing into the accompanying rice vermicelli. The Beef Rendang here comes slightly different, its delicately nuanced gravy drenching the tender beef shin more savoury than the sweeter, richer Nusantara versions we’re more used to.
Indeed, not every dish conforms neatly to the Peranakan flavours many Singaporeans instinctively expect. Some are sweeter. Others lean differently on spice, herbs or aromatics. But perhaps that slight unfamiliarity is precisely the point.
Peranakan cuisine has never been a single monolithic tradition. It evolved differently in Malacca, Penang, Singapore, and even Phuket in Thailand, shaped by migration, geography and individual family kitchens. The Peranakan Club reminds diners that authenticity is rarely singular. It is plural.
And perhaps that realisation is what lingers longest after the meal. The Peranakan Club may not offer the version of Peranakan cuisine every diner expects. What it does is wear its heart proudly on its embroidered kebaya sleeve, offering a deeply personal, joyfully enthusiastic and thoroughly colourful interpretation of a living culture that refuses to be reduced to a single recipe book.
The Peranakan Club
Address 1 Claymore Dr, #02-01, Orchard Towers, Singapore 229594 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 11am to 10pm daily
Tel (65) 8988 0201
Web theperanakanclub.com
Facebook theperanakanclub
Instagram @theperanakanclub
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