Le Bon Funk

The owner's view is that bad funk is just bad wine-making. His bar was built on the good kind.

Le Bon Funk is for two people splitting a bottle and a whole chicken, or a date with something to talk about, and it makes a sensible first stop for anyone wary of natural wine. The list rewards a little nerve: say what you usually drink and what you want to spend, and let the floor team steer. Book the right branch, and order the chicken the moment you sit down.

The good funk

Say "natural wine" at some tables and you will get a wince: cloudy, sour, faintly farmyard. Keirin Buck, the Canadian chef-owner who opened Le Bon Funk on Club Street in 2018, has a short answer to that. The bad funk, he said around the opening, is "just bad wine-making". His bar was built on the other kind. The name is the joke, and the designers of the second branch put it neatly: an invitation not to take yourself too seriously.

What to order

Buck was a sous chef at Burnt Ends before this, and the cooking shows it: fine-casual sharing plates on a rotating, seasonal menu, with house charcuterie. The dishes to know are the cedar jelly and foie gras toast, a beef tongue and gribiche sandwich and the whole heritage chicken, which takes 45 minutes to an hour and serves two or three, hence ordering it first. Bottles come from small, independent natural producers and are chosen to sit alongside the food; Buck's view is that natural wine "pairs with everything". By-the-glass pours have not always appeared on the printed list, so ask.

Which branch

Club Street is the original: a shophouse ground floor in brass, terrazzo, corkwood and rattan, with high tables for a glass and banquettes for a proper dinner. Holland Village opened in March 2023 on the corner where Fosters Steakhouse used to be. Nice Projects designed it with a marble mosaic floor, a burgundy-tiled bar, an open kitchen and a raised terrace looking towards the park, and it has 68 seats. The menus overlap but differ (at opening, Holland Village's beef tartare came with nduja rather than Club Street's fermented mushrooms), so check the one you are booking. On days that open at noon, the kitchen takes a break between 3.30 and 5pm.

Book the right one

Bar Bon Funk is the group's cocktail sibling and a different evening altogether. Book Le Bon Funk through the Bon Funk site if you want wine and dinner; groups of eight or more go through the separate events enquiry. Share everything, ask questions and let the second bottle be the one the floor team picks.

Good to know Le Bon Funk is at 29 Club Street and 277 Holland Avenue; book through the Bon Funk site for the right branch. Groups of eight or more go through the separate events enquiry. Check current hours and menus before you go.

More rooms where you can hear yourself think: our bars for conversation.

Le Bon Funk | 29 Club Street, Singapore 069414 (also 277 Holland Avenue, Singapore 278994)