The Coconut Club

The coconut milk is called White Sutera. Few restaurants name their steak.

The Coconut Club is the nasi lemak to book when you want to sit down, share and argue: a restored Beach Road shophouse where the hawker breakfast gets a room of its own and a Bib Gourmand. It suits a weekend lunch with friends who still debate the best nasi lemak, and the visitor who has done the hawker version and wants to see the specialist one. The compromise is that it costs a good deal more than the stall that got you hooked; the next step is booking Beach Road specifically, because the brand now has other branches.

The coconut milk has a name

Most places treat coconut milk as a carton in the storeroom. The Coconut Club calls its house blend "White Sutera", meant to make its dishes creamy without being greasy, which is lemak in the proper sense. The details have shifted over the years: early on the coconuts came from a single plantation in Sabak Bernam, Malaysia; later it was the Malaysian Mewe variety, then Kampong and Mawa coconuts, cold-pressed daily. Almost everything, coconut milk and sambal included, is made in-house. The varieties change; the fixation does not.

What to order

Start with the rice: coconut-milk rice with organic chicken marinated for 12 hours. Add the charcoal-grilled barramundi otah and the ayam goreng berempah, fried chicken with spices and coconut. Taste each component on its own before you mix them; the point of all that coconut fuss is in the rice, and you will miss it under the sambal. Cendol and traditional kueh have featured for something sweet, and the bar makes its own signature cocktails. The menu changes, so treat the dishes here as a guide, not a guarantee.

Order for the table. A spread of rice, a grilled thing and something with sambal makes a better meal than three people each guarding their own plate.

Which branch

Some older guides still give an Ann Siang Hill address. The restaurant now leads with Beach Road, in the Kampong Gelam heritage district, with a relaxed, communal room. Siglap and New Bahru are also on its list of venues, with the Lo & Behold Group credited on its website, and hours, prices and menus vary by branch. This page is about Beach Road. It closes on the first Monday of the month, except on public holidays, so check the date before you book through the restaurant's website.

Good to know Reservations are made through the restaurant's website (SevenRooms). Hours, prices and menus vary by branch, so confirm the Beach Road details directly before you go, and ask about spice and allergens.

Want more of the island's signature tastes? Here are our favourite Singapore flavours.

The Coconut Club | 269 Beach Road, Singapore 199546